It had been every bit as horrible as she'd expected.

"C'mon, now, honeycomb."

No, wait. That wasn't exactly true. Because the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it had been even worse than she'd expected.

"Keep on a-walking. There you go."

Because Burr had been right. Every word he'd said had been exactly and completely right.

"Up the steps here now. Careful! That's my gal."

She'd been mean and selfish and evil and stupid and—

"Jackie? What...what's wrong? Is Fluttershy all right?"

"Not as such, Aunt Orange. Cloves? Can you help me get her into the parlor?"

She had been just like Dad. In every single way.

"Bend your knees, honeycomb, and set on down; yeah, just like that."

"But what happened?"

"Honestly, Aunt Orange? I'm so spitting mad right now, I don't think I can talk about it."

Without even a backward glance, she'd packed up her things and left Burr and Mom all alone.

"Oh, Jackie, forgive me! What can I do to help?"

"Maybe a glass of orange juice: get some sugar and vitamin C into her or something."

"Of course. Two glasses, please, Cloves, and you sit down as well, Jackie. You look like you're about to collapse!"

"Yeah, I... Fluttershy? I'm squeezing in next to you, OK?"

Warmth pressed solidly against her, Applejack's wonderfully familiar touch shocking Fluttershy, making her blink and gasp and burst out with, "But that's not true! I did go back! After I got my cutie mark! I went back and showed them and thought it might make a difference! But it didn't! They still didn't care, still didn't want me there! So what else was I supposed to do?? What else was I—??"

Hoofs grabbed the sides of her head, and Fluttershy found herself looking at Applejack, her complexion a much darker orange than usual. "Honeycomb!" Relief flooded those lovely green eyes. "Are you OK?? Can you hear me??"

Fluttershy blinked and realized she'd been lost in her thoughts—"zoning out," Rainbow Dash had always called it—something that hadn't really happened to her since, well, probably since the last time she'd talked to Burr... Blushing, she tried to look away, but Applejack was still holding onto her—

And Applejack wasn't wearing her hat. Alarm shot through Fluttershy...until she noticed the weight on top of her own head, the familiar crisp brown brim just visible at the top of her field of vision. With a sigh, she dropped her gaze. "I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean to be a bother."

Her alarm mixed with joy as Applejack threw her front legs around her, wrapping her in a fierce embrace. "Thank Celestia! You was so totally out of it, I couldn't think what to do! Other'n get you back here, then go and buck that brother of yours clear out into the middle of the harbor!"

"Oh. Ummm..." Fluttershy leaned against Applejack, inhaled the earthy scent of her mane, and tried not to think about how much she might enjoy watching Silver Burr get kicked into the path of an oncoming steamboat. "He...he was so much nicer before Dad left."

"Ah." The sad little sound reminded Fluttershy that she'd heard Applejack's aunt speaking earlier, but she didn't want to pull back from the sweet strength of Applejack's hug. "You're a child of divorce as well, Fluttershy?"

Applejack's grip quivered, and she pushed away just a bit, Fluttershy's heart tightening. "That reminds me, Aunt Orange." And for all the sadness in her voice, her delicious Manehattan accent still sent a thrill up Fluttershy's spine. "I believe I'll be paying Mother a visit while I'm in town."

The silence across the room folded Fluttershy's ears, and when she looked over, she saw much more than simple surprise on the older mare's face. "I...I'm not certain I'd recommend that, Jackie."

That made Applejack's chin come up and her eyes narrow; Fluttershy started stroking a hoof along Applejack's neck in the hope that it might keep her calm. Whether it was working or not, Fluttershy couldn't tell, but Applejack didn't shout at least when she asked, "And why is that?"

"Marmie, she—" Mrs. Orange shook her head. "Your mother, I mean. She—"

Movement at the room's doorway interrupted her, and Cloves came in, two glasses of orange juice floating in the cinnamon-sparkle glow of his horn. "Miss Applejack? Miss Fluttershy? Is there anything else you need?"

Briefly glancing away from her aunt, Applejack shook her head, but Fluttershy gave the unicorn butler a smile as she took the glass in her hoofs. "Thank you, Mr. Cloves. This should be just fine."

He set Applejack's glass on the table, nodded, and left. Fluttershy took a sip from the straw even though the tension in the room left her stomach feeling about the size of a walnut and gently lay one wing across Applejack's back, Applejack gazing fixedly at her aunt once more. "You were saying something about my mother?"

Mrs. Orange sighed and climbed up to settle onto one of the other sofas. "I go to see Marmalade at least once a week, and she...she's fine, Jackie. In her own way, that is."

Applejack's muscles felt as hard as cord wood. "And what way is that?"

"She..." Mrs. Orange crossed her front hoofs daintily. "She thinks it's still twenty-five years ago. As near as the doctors can tell, she's mentally stuck there and doesn't recall meeting your father, doesn't recall her life in Ponyville, doesn't recall...doesn't recall you or your brother or your sister. Often, she...she mistakes me for our mother when I come to visit, and when mother herself stops in, Marmie thinks she's talking to our late grandmother Pekoe..."

Fluttershy kept letting her feathers drift along Applejack's back and felt more than a little relieved when the muscles there shivered and relaxed a bit. "Ah. Yes. Well." Applejack puffed through her nostrils. "Macintosh mentioned something about that." She shuddered again, but the horrible atmosphere in the room, Fluttershy was happy to notice, seemed to be draining away as Applejack unwound under Fluttershy's pinions. "Still, Aunt Orange, I have to see her. I...I have to."

Mrs. Orange was nodding. "Very well. I'll call Bellview tomorrow and make arrangements for us to—"

"No." The sharpness in Applejack's tone almost made Fluttershy stop her ministrations. "Thank you, aunt, but this is something I have to do on my own."

And there was no possible way Fluttershy could keep quiet at that. "On your own?" she asked.

Applejack's ears dipped, and she turned her head, a sheepish smile pulling at her snout. "On our own, I mean, of course, honeycomb."

Fluttershy gave a nod and couldn't help smiling at Mrs. Orange's little chuckle across the room. "Well, let me know when you're ready, and I'll give the hospital a call. They have regular visiting hours, of course, but I've always felt it polite to let them know when we're coming." She brushed her hoofs together and gave a smile. "On a happier note, however, we've had nothing but acceptances to the party this evening! It's already being spoken of as the social event of the season!"

Which was all it took for ice to flood through every part of Fluttershy's body.

"You look—" Applejack stopped, tried to find the right word to describe Fluttershy shivering in front of their room's mirror, one of the several green sweaters she'd brought with her stretching deliciously around her. "Mouth-watering," she finally went with.

Fluttershy blushed and looked away, but Applejack caught the smile that pulled at her lips. "That's not very helpful."

"Sorry, honeycomb." She tugged at the vest she'd thrown into her own pack for the inevitable party Aunt and Uncle would want to throw, then she stuck her nose in the air and said in her thickest Manehattan accent, "When it comes to telling you how beautiful you are, I can no longer be counted on to be in any way objective."

That got an actual giggle out of Fluttershy, and Applejack nearly suggested they send their regrets downstairs and spend the rest of the evening up here cuddling. That whole awful walk back to the Oranges' after meeting Silver Burr, Fluttershy barely moving—barely breathing, for that matter—the whole way, it had scared AJ worse'n anything ever had in her whole entire life. Calming Fluttershy down from her quiet little panic attack about Aunt's party had been pretty much standard operating procedure compared with trying to figure out how to get her outta that building and up the road the ten blocks to Aunt and Uncle's place.

And now? AJ couldn't stop grinning to see Fluttershy arranging and rearranging a few strands of her mane, her wings twitching just a bit through the slits in the back of her sweater. "Your aunt and uncle are very nice ponies," Fluttershy was saying, "so I'm sure all your cousins will be very nice, too."

"They'd better be." Applejack put on her serious face and stepped over to nudge her shoulder. "But you just stick right with me as much as you need to, honeycomb. You don't even hafta talk to nopony if'n you don't want to."

The smile that Fluttershy turned toward her was nothing short of beatific. "You always know exactly how to make me feel comfortable, Applejack. I don't think I would've made it today seeing Burr without..." She swallowed, her smile fading.

Applejack touched her paling face. "You're done with him. And I was one hunderd percent serious about kicking him into the bay if'n you want."

That got some warmth back into her cheek, but she still didn't smile. "Oh, no, you...you mustn't. Please tell me that you won't."

Taking Fluttershy's hoof, Applejack brought it to her lips. "In this, as in all things," she said in as flowery a manner as she could, "I am your humble servant."

Again, Fluttershy's smile shone like the noontime sun coming out after a dank, overcast morning, and Applejack gestured to the door. "Now, let's go see who all's showed up for Aunt and Uncle's shin-dig."

It sounded to be a fairly respectable crowd, AJ thought, leading Fluttershy down the stairs, the mumble of friendly chatter reaching her ears from the various parlors and sitting rooms; Fluttershy must've thought so, too, the way she squeezed closer to Applejack. The only ponies in sight, though, were Uncle Orange and Cousin Tangelo, talking quietly just past the bottom step. Uncle seemed to keeping an eye peeled for them, 'cause he gave a nod and a smile soon as they made the turn at the landing. "Evening, fillies."

Descending with Fluttershy to join the two gentlecolts on the hall carpet, Applejack nodded back. "Guarding the pass, are you?"

Tangelo put a hoof to his chest, his natural-born Manehattan accent thicker'n anything Applejack knew she could muster on her best day. "Mother threatened us with the most ghastly of tortures should we carelessly allow anypony to disturb your preparations." He waggled his eyebrows at AJ. "In your case, cousin, I don't see how any number of hours could make much difference, but you, Miss Fluttershy,—" He swept into an elegant bow. "You're an absolute vision of loveliness."

"Thank you," Fluttershy murmured almost too quietly for AJ to hear even standing right next to her, but then she shrank back into her hair, her eyes going wide. "Oh, dear! I...I hope we haven't kept you all waiting!"

"Tut, tut, my dear." Uncle Orange patted her hoof. "It's just a little family get-together."

"Is it now?" Applejack couldn't help giving Tangelo some of her own eyebrow action. "Somepony other than Aunt Orange took charge, then?"

Uncle Orange rolled his eyes, but Tangelo laughed. "When Mother and Father say 'a little family get-together,' I often think they mean it the same way your friend Princess Celestia might. Fewer griffon ambassadors, perhaps, but otherwise—"

"Griffons??" Fluttershy's squeak struck Applejack as sharp as a needle.

AJ turned and managed to whack Tangelo in the shoulder before resting the same hoof gently on Fluttershy's. "It's OK, honeycomb. Cousin Tangelo here's always had delusions of being some kinda comedian."

That Tangelo blushed made Applejack remember why he was her favorite Orange cousin. "Forgive me, Miss Fluttershy." He gave a more regular sorta bow. "If you would find it more seemly, I shall endeavor to restrain my natural exuberance."

"Oh, no!" Fluttershy touched the sleeve of his dinner jacket. "Applejack and I have a dear friend named Pinkie Pie who's very much the same way, and I wouldn't ever want her to feel bad about it! So you mustn't, either!"

"Well!" Tangelo turned to AJ with as smug a look as she'd seen on anypony's face in a month of Sundays. "To have my sense of humor compared to the Element of Laughter herself, I have to say, completely vindicates me for all the times in our youth that I short-sheeted your bed, cousin."

"And the frogs I'd put into yours?"

He sniffed. "No. That was just cruel."

Uncle Orange gave a discreet little cough. "If I might suggest we join the others, Tangelo? Before your mother comes searching for us with that tight-lipped look on her face?"

Tangelo's expression of phony horror was so over the top, Applejack had to laugh, and she almost did a little dance when she heard Fluttershy giggling, too. The four of them moved as a group into the next room, and even the two dozen or so unfamiliar ponies sipping drinks and munching hors d'oeuvres didn't seem to do more than make Fluttershy move closer to Applejack, something AJ didn't mind in the slightest.

Aunt Orange's smile struck AJ as more relieved than tight-lipped. "I'm so glad you were feeling up to our little soiree, Fluttershy." She slipped between Fluttershy and Tangelo. "Let me introduce you to the Orange side of Applejack's lineage."

And they pretty much all were family, Applejack was a mite surprised to discover: Uncle Orange's family, sure—his older sisters Valencia and Bergamot and their kids, mostly Applejack's age or older with wives, husbands or significant others in tow—but AJ knew them from the time she'd spent here in Manehattan. Back then, she'd called 'em aunts and cousins even though they weren't blood kin, and now she found herself grinning from ear to ear hearing about what they'd all been up to since the last time she'd been in these parts.

They were all real nice to Fluttershy, too, and after the way Silver Burr had acted, Applejack wanted to just kiss each and ev'ry last pony there. Fluttershy's smile lost pretty near all its strain after less'n ten minutes, and she even got involved in the conversation when folks started asking about the princesses and Discord and the Crystal Empire and all that. By the time Cloves was announcing dinner, Applejack was feeling better'n she had since the last Apple family reunion, and most of the younger fillies in the group were gathered around Fluttershy like cats basking in a sunbeam.

"This is so awesome!" the only unicorn in the room was saying, her eyes practically spinning as ev'rypony moved to take their places: Cousin Minneola had introduced her as Silk Screen, her roommate at the Manehattan Institute of the Arts. "Say you've come to town to get back into modeling! Please tell me that's happening!"

"Oh. Ummm, no, actually." Enough discomfort came into Fluttershy's face that Applejack got ready to step in. But instead of folding up, Fluttershy took a breath, looked around the table, and very nearly raised her voice. "You folks might be able to help, in fact, with why Applejack and I are here. If...if you wouldn't mind, I mean."

"Help?" Tangelo put a hoof to his perfect shirt front. "In any way that we can, of course!"

A smile flickered across Fluttershy's face, then evaporated as she looked down. "I...I'm trying to reconnect with my own family: we...we were never very, well, very close, I suppose you would say. I saw my brother earlier today for the first time in...in a very long time, and he said our mother Carnation is doing alterations now for—"

"Carnation?" Cousin Satsuma said from the other side of the table. "She's your mother?"

Applejack blinked. "You know her?"

Satsuma turned to her husband. "Shears works with her at Lace Brocade's."

Parties were always kind of blurry for Fluttershy, and while the Orange's dinner was really very nice, it all got a little unfocused after Applejack's cousin had said she knew Mom. Fluttershy tried her best to be sociable, was pretty sure she answered whenever anypony asked her a question, and the food was very good, the portions small and cute and about all she felt she could handle in her stomach at the thought that the pony across the table had seen Mom recently...

After dinner, there was more chatting, the room warm with the scents of coffee and tea, and Fluttershy whispered to Applejack, "May we please go talk to your cousin?"

She didn't want to be rude and point to which cousin she meant, but Applejack of course already knew and quickly ushered her over to the small brownish earth pony with the white flowering tree on her flank, her husband not much larger, light red, and showing a pair of pinking shears for his cutie mark. "Satsuma? Shears? A moment?" Applejack asked them.

"Of course!" Satsuma had kind, clear eyes that made Fluttershy think of sunlight on a flowing stream. "We were just saying—"

"It's so odd." Shears was shaking his head. "Carnation's been at the shop for more than a year now, and I've never heard her mention that she has a daughter, much less that she's, well, that she's related to you, Fluttershy."

"Ah." Fluttershy tried to keep her breath from racing. "Well, she...she wouldn't bring it up, I'm sure..."

Applejack moved close, and Fluttershy pressed herself even closer. "It's, uhhh..." Applejack's voice sounded rough. "It's kind of a bad situation." A little silence, then she went on: "Is Carnation gonna be working tomorrow?"

"You know?" Shears cocked his front leg and glanced at the watch around his pastern. "I think she might be at the shop right now. She's working on an order for Soubrette, the opera singer, so she's been coming in each afternoon this week and is sometimes still there when I arrive the next morning." He looked over at her. "We could head over right now if—"

Satsuma elbowed him in the ribs. "I'm sure Fluttershy has already had quite the strenuous day, dear. Why don't we plan on getting together tomorrow and—?"

"Tonight, please," Fluttershy heard somepony say, and she was a little surprised at how much it sounded like her. After all, she knew that Satsuma was right. On the train for most of the day, then getting unpacked here, and finally that dreadful talk with Silver Burr: she must be much too exhausted to try seeing Mom now. And yet, there she was saying, "I would very much like to see if she's there tonight."

"Honeycomb?" Applejack asked, and her love and concern so filled that one word, Fluttershy just wanted to close her eyes and revel in the sound.

But she couldn't. "Please." She touched a hoof to Applejack's front leg. "The longer I put this off, the longer I'll want to keep putting it off. If we could go now, that would be—" She turned back to Shears. "I'm sorry, but could we, please? If it wouldn't be too much trouble?"

Shears looked like he wanted to be anywhere other than where he was, a feeling Fluttershy knew all too well, and Satsuma blew out a breath. "If you think it'll help," she said.

So Applejack asked Cloves to call a cab, and as soon as she let Mr. and Mrs. Orange know that they were leaving, it seemed as if the whole party knew, several of Applejack's wonderful aunts and uncles and cousins volunteering to come with them. Fluttershy didn't want to tell them no, didn't want to tell them that she knew she was going to fall completely to pieces seeing her mother and that she'd prefer not having such nice, friendly ponies watch the terrible things that were about to happen, but she couldn't find the words, couldn't even manage to shake her head.

Fortunately,— "Thank you all," Applejack said beside her. "This meeting's gonna be a mite sensitive, and as much as we'd appreciate having the whole mob of you at our backs, I reckon we'll hafta make do with your moral support alone. Besides, ain't no way all of us'd fit into a taxicab."

That got a chuckle from everypony, then Cloves was entering the parlor to say that the cab had arrived. Fluttershy stood by the front door while Shears and Satsuma said their good nights and Applejack sprinted upstairs to grab her hat and her pack. Mrs. Orange promised they wouldn't lock up till Applejack and Fluttershy returned, and Fluttershy sort of watched herself follow Applejack and her cousin and her cousin's husband down the front steps. Across the sidewalk, up into the cab, and Shears told the address to the big pony in the harness; he nodded and began trotting them along the darkened streets, Fluttershy feeling both too hot and too cold with her sweater wrapped around her.

It was a quiet ride—or at least Fluttershy didn't notice if Applejack or the others said anything. In the same way that she had before meeting with Silver Burr, she was frantically running over things she could possibly say, trying to find some magical word or phrase that would make her mother see, would make her mother understand, would make her mother smile at her after so many years.

Of course, a part of her knew those words didn't exist. She hadn't been able to find them for Silver Burr, after all, and neither could Applejack who was so much better with words than Fluttershy was. But she had to hope. She had to believe. She had to wish that somehow, in some way—

The cab rattled to a stop, and Fluttershy started at the unmistakable touch of Applejack's hoof to her shoulder. "We're here, honeycomb."

She blinked, focused on Applejack, then looked past her at the big dark building the cab had pulled up beside. "So soon?" she managed to squeak out.

Applejack nodded. "You want me to do the talking again?"

As much as she wanted to say, It won't do any good, she instead said, "I'm sorry, but yes, please." She turned to Satsuma and Shears, both of them looking as uncomfortable as she felt. "And thank you both so much. You've made this so much easier for me."

Satsuma sighed. "Than why do I feel like I've made a terrible mistake?"

And as much as she wanted to say, Oh, it'll be terrible, all right. But it won't be a mistake, she instead just gave them as much of a smile as she could and stepped down from the cab.

Big and square and shadowy with high, arched windows and a crudely stenciled sign on the front, the House of Brocade squatted in the middle of the block more like a factory than any sort of dressmaker's studio. Applejack stood on the sidewalk beside Fluttershy and Shears and just plain couldn't imagine Rarity looking around with anything other than a turned-up nose. "You sure this is the right place?" she asked Shears.

Shears rolled his eyes. "If you knew anything about Lace Brocade's designs, you'd know that she often incorporates metallic elements of her own forging into her—"

Applejack frantically waved a front hoof. "I withdraw the question." She took a breath to steady her nerves and found it didn't work. "Thanks, though, for you and Satsuma holding the cab for us. We...we shouldn't be too long."

His keys in his mouth, Shears unlocked the door and pushed it open. "You sure you don't want me to come in?"

"No," Fluttershy barely whispered, but Applejack couldn't miss the anguish behind her words. "Thank you again. We'll try not to be more of a bother than we've already been." And she stepped through into the semi-darkness inside.

Patting Shears on the shoulder, Applejack followed, a wavery light bouncing around the big, open space on the other side of the door. Foundry equipment lay silent and cold to their left, sewing machines and looms to their right, racks holding clothes in various stages of completion lined up ahead of them, and Applejack revised her opinion: Rarity would give her eye teeth to have the run of a place like this.

"There," Fluttershy said quietly, and Applejack followed her pointing hoof through the racks of clothing to the room's only lantern suspended along the far wall. And under it, a lemon-lime pegasus pony hunched in front of a ponikin figure with quite a fancy dress on it, the pegasus working with hoofs and teeth to attach what looked like tiny beads along the hem.

After seeing and hearing Silver Burr, Applejack couldn't imagine what this was all gonna be like, so she nuzzled Fluttershy's neck and whispered, "You wanna wear the hat?"

Fluttershy's eyes went wide, but the smile that shivered around her snout was the closest to something other than stark terror that Applejack had seen on that dear, dear face in more'n an hour. "I love you," Fluttershy whispered back. "But for this, I...I don't think it'll help." She pushed away then, a spasm of motion that propelled her through the clothing racks and into the light on the other side.

Sucking in a breath, Applejack followed, reached her side just as the older pegasus mare's ears flicked through the thinning strands at the front of her peach-colored mane. She craned her head around, and eyes as beautiful a blue-green as her beloved's were gazing coldly back at her, Applejack completely unsure what to do next.

"Hi, Mom," Fluttershy said, the sound as fragile as a soap bubble.

Silence filled the whole vast room, then Fluttershy's mother turned and went back to work on the dress.

And while Fluttershy didn't pop, she came all over entirely forlorn, not just her expression but her whole body, everything about her shrinking into her sweater and her mane.

Anger burst through Applejack, but she swallowed it down. "Ms. Carnation?" She stepped forward, a little surprised at how steady she managed to sound. "My name's Applejack, and your daughter and I have come to—"

"No, you haven't," said a voice like a winter-bare branch tapping a midnight windowpane. "She's here because she wants something, and you, whoever you are, you're here because she's tricked you into getting it for her." The needle flew between her hoofs and her teeth, her wings quivering as well to waft it around way too fast for Applejack to follow. "We might as well all be honest with each other right from the start, don't you think?"

"Honest?" Applejack gave a little hiccuppy laugh and felt a ton and a half better for it, her anger loosening around her middle. "Now you're speaking my language, ma'am!"

Ms. Carnation's ears flicked again, but she didn't look away from her needle slinging. So Applejack took another step toward her and went on: "Truth is, we are looking for something from you, something we can't get from nopony else, and something that'll only cost you thirty seconds with your mouth open. But the truth also is that she didn't hafta trick me into coming. 'Cause I'm crazy in love with her and she's crazy in love with me."

"Ah." Ms. Carnation turned then, a smile scuttling slow as a spider across her face. "That's her best trick, actually." She wafted into the air, her front hoofs touching just at her breastbone. "She's so exquisitely lovely, after all, so perfectly formed and finely wrought in every apparent detail." Those eyes darted over to meet Applejack's, and again, she felt the electric lick of The Stare stroking over her. "Is she not?"

It took some effort, but Applejack nodded.

"But that's her curse, you see." The older pegasus drifted in a wide circle around the frozen and withdrawn Fluttershy, her shoulders hunched and her mane covering her face. "She lures you in with her sweetness, ensnares you with her love and her kindness and her devotion, makes you think she's one of Celestia feathers shed from on high, come to life, and bestowed upon you. And then?" Ms. Carnation had come all the way around by that time and settled to the floor beside Applejack, ev'ry one of AJ's instincts yelling at her to run. "Then she destroys you and everything you hold dear."

Applejack cleared her throat. "I've known your daughter for more'n a couple years now, ma'am, and I...I ain't found that to be the case."

"Give her time." Ms. Carnation was looking at Fluttershy, and sitting this close to her, Applejack could see the small twitches racing up and down her neck. "Fifteen, sixteen years, then bam!" She stomped a hoof, and Applejack coulda sworn ev'rything loose in the entire building rattled and shook. "Overnight, she'll tear it all away, stomp you into the ground, and flutter away to her next conquest. It's what she does." Her voice dropped to a growl. "It's what that thing is..."

And with those five little words, ev'ry ounce of AJ's anger roared back into place. Gritting her teeth, she forced out, "Gonna disagree with you mightily on that, ma'am."

Ms. Carnation's head swiveled toward her so slowly, Applejack was sure she heard a sound like a rusty hinge. "Then you're as much of a fool as I once was, and I have nothing more to say to you." She rose to all fours and moved past Applejack toward the dress she'd been working on.

Slinging off her pack, Applejack grabbed Twilight's little case and pulled out one of the collection sticks. "How 'bout this, ma'am?" she asked, making an effort to clench the stick loosely so she wouldn't activate it. "You lemme swirl this thing around inside your mouth for three seconds, and I promise you I will do ev'rything in my power to make sure you never lay eyes on your daughter again for the resta your natural-born life." She raised the cottony end of the stick higher into the light. "That sound like a deal?"

Another moment of suspended silence, Carnation standing unmoving with her back to them, and Applejack started planning her next move: leaping over, slugging Carnation as hard as she could across the face, and jabbing the stick into her mouth when she screamed. No way Fluttershy'd approve, but it'd get their sample, and the tension winching AJ's shoulders tight as rocks would maybe stop screaming at her to—

"You know?" Carnation turned. "That's actually worth three seconds." She opened her mouth, and AJ leaped with her carefullest aim, swabbed around, pulled the stick out just as Carnation snapped her teeth shut. Applejack used her own teeth to set the purple fire of Twilight's spell glowing, then tucked the stick away into the case. "Now get that thing out of here," Carnation said, her voice still as smooth as ice, and AJ looked up to see she was back at her dress again.

Not trusting herself to speak, Applejack made sure Twilight's case was safely settled in her pack, then made her way back to Fluttershy, still sitting where she'd been the whole time, her sides barely moving. "Time to get up, honeycomb," she whispered, kissing her gently on the nose, but just like earlier with her brother, that didn't seem to make a bit of difference. She might as well have been some kinda statue.

Without sighing—she wouldn't give Carnation the satisfaction of hearing it—AJ flipped her hat onto Fluttershy's head, then butted her own head against her marefriend's flanks, coaxing and chivvying her till she was standing. "We're heading out now, OK?" More nudging against her shoulder got Fluttershy shuffling in a circle, and as soon as she was facing the door, Applejack gave her a push from behind. "Start walking, and we'll be outta here lickety-split."

It took a little longer than that, Applejack wanting the whole way to rant and rave and fume and bring this whole consarn building down on the head of that...that...that—

"Applejack?" A stallion's voice, Shears peering in from the front door. "We were getting a little—" His eyes went wide. "Fluttershy? Is she...OK?"

"She will be." Her throat felt so tight, Applejack wasn't sure how she got the words out. "Can we head back to Aunt and Uncle's, please?"

A little cajoling got Fluttershy into the cab, and the ride back was even quieter'n the ride out. By the time they pulled up at Aunt and Uncle's place, AJ had cooled down enough to give Satsuma and Shears a tired smile. "Thanks, and I mean really. Fluttershy needed to do this. But, uhhh..." She almost let her anger take over again, but she breathed it back down. "Next time you see Carnation, I'd appreciate it if'n you wouldn't mention anything about all this. She made it all kindsa clear she don't wanna see Fluttershy again, and that feeling's more'n mutual."

The two nodded, and Applejack steered Fluttershy out onto the sidewalk and back up the stairs, Cloves waiting silently at the open door. "Is there anything I can get for either of you, Miss Applejack?"

She shook her head, nudged Fluttershy toward the darkened stairs. "I reckon sleep'll help the most, Cloves, but thanks."

"Good night, then, Miss."

"Good night." Using head and hoofs, she guided Fluttershy up and into their room, the urge to slam the door shut like she was bucking a fifty foot apple tree nigh onto irresistible.

She didn't, though, just closed it quiet and gentle, not wanting to disturb the silence of the house. Except—

A soft shuffling sound made her perk her ears, a steady rhythm to it and something else, something like...

Like the strumming of a guitar. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Fluttershy, the hat drooping to shadow most of her face, her mouth opening, her sweet voice drained colorless and singing: "The walls collapse and fall. I'm pinned and cannot rise. My blood slows to a crawl, frozen by their eyes."

Her head came up, her eyes fixing on Applejack so sad and deep, AJ couldn't breathe, and Fluttershy sang even more plaintively: "Hold me close; let me rest tonight against you tenderly. Please whisper it'll be all right. Please whisper that to me. Please whisper that to me."

Applejack practically flew across the room and swept Fluttershy into the biggest hug she could manage, her marefriend as cold and unresponsive as a mass of wet bed sheets on laundry day, her whole face clenched as she gave a second verse: "My eyes don't want to see. My ears don't want to hear. They tear my heart from me ev'ry time they're near." Those eyes rolled open and stopped Applejack's breath again. "Hold me close; let me rest tonight against you tenderly. Please whisper it'll be all right. Please whisper that to me. Please whisper that to me."

Her vision clouding up, Applejack raised Fluttershy and set her onto the bed, wrapped her close, tried to will some of her own warmth into her friend's shivering body. "Hang on," she whispered, the music continuing its quiet shuffle behind her. "We'll get through this. I promise you, honeycomb: we will."

A twitch and a touch, Fluttershy finally moving, her breath cold against Applejack's chest and carrying another verse: "Their lightning shakes the sky. Their thunder cracks the ground. I'll say my last good-bye to them without a sound." Looking down, Applejack met Fluttershy's eyes, those beautiful lips singing: "Hold me close; let me rest tonight against you tenderly. Please whisper it'll be all right. Please whisper that to me. Please—" Her voice broke, and the music shuffled along a few more beats before cutting off, Fluttershy finishing on her own: "Whisper that to me."

Applejack pressed herself to those lips, her heart jabbing her as jagged as a pine cone. "It'll be all right," she said over and over till she felt Fluttershy relax into sleep against her. "It'll be all right."

Author's Notes:

When I first:

Started putting together notes for Igneous, the whole Fluttershy part of this story, I knew that the end of chapter 5 needed to have her sing something like "So I Can Take My Rest," one of the standout songs Robert Earl Keen wrote for his 1993 album, A Bigger Piece of Sky. But I knew that I couldn't actually use "So I Can Take My Rest" 'cause I'd hafta rewrite more than half the song to make it into something a pony might sing.

But that's OK, I told myself. I'm sure I'll find another song

Well, turns out I couldn't. So if you take the link above and listen to the song, you'll see that only the first verse is left untouched from the original. I changed one word of the chorus--"arms" becomes "hoofs" here--then I rewrote the 2nd and 3rd verses to fit the situation while trying to keep as much of Keen's imagery as I could.

Then, after this friendly reminder from the moderators, I went back and rewrote the rest of it, too. So it's now a whole new song!