Chapter 4: Orange Temptation

Celestia let out a loud sigh as the doors to the throne room closed for the last time for the day. Today was a long day for her with the large number of ponies coming to talk about the quality of items they had begun to find in local shops that were supposedly from the Crystal Empire. Only one out of fifteen shops was actually selling counterfeits, the rest were just damaged in the travel by train, or had a small scuff mark from the maker. As she resigned to her chambers a scroll appeared in front of her, from Twilight Sparkle no less.

"Ah, a friendship report, I wonder what she has learned..." Celestia said happily, an opportunity to read about Twilight and her friend's adventures being a welcome sight. As she opened the scroll she realized that this was definitely not a friendship report, and was not written for the purpose of telling Celestia about their amazing adventures. Her eyes quickly darted down the letter, it's contents making her extremely worried.

"Good evening sister" Luna said as she landed on the balcony outside Celestia's room, stopping when she noticed her worried look, "Is everything alright?"

"There's an issue with Twilight and her friends..." Celestia said somberly, "Apparently one of Twilight's spells changed Applejack completely"

"How so?" Luna asked as she moved up next to Celestia to comfort her.

"You know of the apples to oranges spell, correct?" Celestia asked, waiting for Luna to nod before continuing, "Twilight misfired the spell and hit her friend Applejack, and it changed her, but they don't know why"

"How are we going to rectify this?" Luna asked. She looked around and saw an apple on Celestia's nightstand. Using the spell on it to turn it into an orange. Once it turned she attempted to turn it back, to no avail as she instead caused it to explode and spread orange pulp around the room. Celestia gave Luna an annoyed look and instead decided to write a reply to Twilight's letter, her face grim as she remembered everything she knew about the apple to orange spell.

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Tangerine slowly trotted through the house by herself, the sounds of the fillies playing on the second floor ringing throughout the house. She was bored now that Big Mac had left, leaving her with the fillies. How could any self respecting stallion turn her down and then leave her to foalsit for him? The only reason she hadn't left to go find him was because the fillies were interrogating her on her appearance, believing her to be the "Applejack" mare like everypony else.

"Girls, I'm going to head out for a while" Tangerine shouted upstairs to the playing fillies.

"Okay!" two of them shouted back, sounding like Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, but the third filly stayed quiet, giving Tangerine an odd feeling. If she wasn't okay with her leaving then she might follow, given her connection to Big Mac, whatever it was. Of course, Tangerine didn't really care either way. She had her sights set on Big McIntosh, and when she has her sights set on a stallion, she got the stallion. Once she was outside Tangerine looked around for any signs of the red stallion, her sight filled with apple trees ready for bucking.

"Now where would he be..." Tangerine thought out loud as she looked between the trees, catching a glimpse of Big Mac's short orange tail flip in the orchard to the west of the house. She immediately ran off towards where she had seen it, not noticing the rainbow maned pegasus flying just above the treeline, nor the small filly that had slipped out of the house behind her.

"...I just wanna know where my sister went" Tangerine heard Big Mac say loudly, as if he was talking to someone far away. When Tangerine made her way around the tree she heard some leaves rustle just a little bit away.

"Hey Big Mac..." Tangerine said slowly as she gave him sultry eyes, making his ears perk up.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, honestly surprised that she had gone all the way out into the orchard just to go see him.

"Oh nothing, just came to see my favorite stallion" Tangerine said as she wrapped her tail around Big Mac's yoke, pulling him closer to her. His face flushed a deeper shade of red as the sweet smell of tangerines filled his nostrils. The leaves rustled again, but Tangerine ignored it completely and continued to work her magic on Big Mac. Now that all he could see and smell was her she knew she had him.

"Hey Mac" Tangerine said seductively, getting Mac's attention.

"Hmmm?" Mac hummed quietly, his eyes half open as his senses continued to be flooded by Tangerine.

"Kiss me" Tangerine ordered. There was a moment of hesitation before Big Mac leaned forwards, his lips touching Tangerine's softly at first. Once they were completely lip locked Tangerine moved her tongue forwards, finding resistance at Mac's teeth, but he quickly opened up, his tongue coming out to dance around hers. They continued to kiss for a few minutes, an occasional moan slipping out between them, before they broke apart, looking at each other lustfully. That kiss was the best one either had ever had, and they were about to go back at it when two ponies jumped out of the bushes.

"YOU JERK!" Rainbow shouted as she ran at Mac, slapping him before flying away with tears flowing out of her eyes.

"BIG MAC?!" Applebloom shouted as her eyes jumped back and forth between Tangerine and Big Mac, attempting to stare each of them down before running away out of anger. Big Mac ran after her leaving Tangerine alone in the orchard with the strangest feeling of guilt. She felt as if she had just done something horrible that she'd never, ever, live down, and three other ponies knew about it...