My Time with the Farmer

My Time With The Farmer:Road To Recovery

I came to with applejack standing over me with a needle and threat in her mouth.

"Pony Feathers!" She exclaimed as she noticed i was awake. "It is probably best that your not awake for this sugar cube. But since you are,"  she stopped and shoved a towel into my mouth. I knew that this was going to hurt, bad. She leaned down and i braced for the pain. She threaded the needle through the throbbing tissue where I had been shot. My eyes bugged out in pain and i gripped the sides of the tub.

It took thirty stitches. Thirty agonizing stitches but AJ Closed the wound.

"How old are you?" I asked her. Her small size and young appearance made me wonder where she learned how to practice medicine in the way that she did.

"14 years i been alive. Lost mah par-.," She stopped herself mid sentence and i saw a tear form in her eye. She turned away but she couldn't hide the tears that were rolling down her cheeks now. I leaned forward and embraced her, ignoring the burning pain in my shoulder. She quickly dasher her hoof across her eyes and weakly embraced me. We sat like that for a long time. She broke the hug and looked me in the eyes and said to me. "I lost mah parents when i was 8. Timber wolves got em both." I could tell that this was hard for her. I opened my mouth to comfort her but she put a hoof to my lips to silence me. "Me and my brother looked after the farm best we could. But we  eventually had to sell. The snooty bastard we sold let us live on the farm with him. Me, mah brother and mah sister busted our flanks to keep things the way they were. but the bastard was a pervert. He-he touched me, me and my sister. I told my brother what was going on and my brother beat him to near death, and made him a promise. That if he ever came near us again, he would kill him. I-- I've never told anypony else this before. I always thought that they would judge me, treat me differently, pity me. I never wanted that." After the last sentence she was crying freely. she buried her head in my chest and sobbed and sobbed. I just sat there stroking her mane.

After a while, Applejack's sobs lessened to sniffles and stopped altogether. She fell  asleep there, in my arms. i picked her up and took her sat her down on the beanbag and draped a blanket over her body. I went to climb into bed. Being especially careful of my shoulder. as i closed my eyes i felt something crawl into bed with me and rest its head on my chest. I leaned forward and kissed it on the forehead. i felt one last warm tear fall on my chest and then i was enveloped in darkness.

My dreams were plagued with the image of Applejack's brother standing over a broken and bloody horse. Applejack sobbed in the background while her sister rubbed her back.  Applejack's brother grabbed him by his mane and whispered something in his ear in his ear and then delivered one last right hook to the jaw with a sickening crunch and dropped him to the ground with a thud. Applejack walked over and put her hoof on his neck. She turned around and shook her head to her sister. The next thing that happened disturbed me. applejack slung him over her back and brought him into the barn and threw the body in a trap door and slammed it shut.  She turned around to her sister and said to her.

"No one can ever know."

I woke up at that very moment and hugged applejack a little tighter and went back to a dreamless sleep.

When i woke up for real applejack wasn't there anymore but there was a sweet scent coming from the kitchen. I walked out in my boxers and my jaw hit the floor. Applejack had an apron on and was slicing up apples and putting them in pancake batter and pie crusts and even mashing them up and making applesauce. I picked up a whisk and started mixing some batter together. Applejack looked over at me and gave me a sweet smile. She leaned over and kissed me right on the lips. It surprised me, being kissed by a pony. But none of that was in my head at the moment. I melted into the kiss and lost myself in the sweet smell of apples. I had never kissed anyone before, and it felt good. It felt perfect.