My Time With the Farmer: Three Years Later

He heart monitors beeped as she slipped back into consciousness. She opened her eyes to the blinding light of the hospital room. Her chest throbbed. She tried to sit up but her body failed her. She flopped back down with a whimper. She felt someone brush her mane out of her eyes. She looked up to see who it was. I looked kind of like Joe. But that was ridiculous, Joe couldn't have been in equestria. Still it looked like, smelled like him. He smiled as a tear ran down his cheek. She smiled back as she lost consciousness again.

Her dreams were filled with images of Joe. Him and her talking, shooting, laughing. Her weeping next to him after he had gotten shot, praying that he would wake up. Him holding her after the wolf attack. Joe teaching her to play the piano. Them sitting there with her friends after Christmas. And finally him waving to her there in the snow. It was hard to believe it had been three years. It felt like yesterday.

It had been a very weird day for Joe. He went to a funeral, had to explain what a funeral was, traveled through time and space and found out that one of the best "people" he had ever met had a mysterious kind of heart cancer. But none of that except the cancer part mattered.

After the funeral he had ended up in equestria with Celestia. She had told him during the inter-dimensional travel that applejack had gotten sick and she needed help. I didn't know why she had gotten me other than the fact that if she died she wanted me to see her one last time. He ran into the hospital and blew past the nurses with Celestia right behind him. She had told him what room she was in and he was off. He blew into the room startling the nurse pony and making her drop her clipboard.

"How is she." I asked out of breath.

"Sir visit-" she was cut off.

"HOW IS SHE!" I yelled. The nurse just shook her head. "You don't mean," I said choking up.

"She's not dead." Celestia said putting a hoof on my shoulder. "But she's not well and the only way to help her is a heart transplant.

"Well then why haven't you done the transplant yet?" I asked still crying but lighter.

"That's the problem, we haven't found a compatible or willing donor." She said. I held my wrist out to the nurse.

"Check my blood type, see if I'm compatible." I said. The nurse looked over to Celestia who shook her head in approval. The nurse took me down the hallway and into another room with a padded chair that was far to small for me so I kneeled and rested my arm on the counter. The nurse came back in with a needle, tubing, a bag and a cookie which she proceeded to stuff in her mouth. Weird. She washed her hooves and went to work feeling my arm up and down for a vein. When she found one she took out a wipe and rubbed the spot clean with it and threw it away. She then picked up the needle in her mouth and hovered over my arm for a moment. I looked over at her, " is there a problem?" I asked her.

"I, I don't like seeing blood. It makes me sick to my stomach." She said. I shood her back a bit and told her to step out of the room which she did. I took the needle and gingerly felt up my arm for the pulse again. I found it and stuck the needle in. My blood immediately started flowing down the tube and filled up the bag in less than a minute. I pulled the needle out and sealed the bag. I yanked out the tube and put it in the bio hazard box and wrapped the bag up in a few papertowels. I stepped out and saw the nurse standing aside the door. I handed her the bag.

"Thank you." She said leaning up and kissing me on the cheek.

"It was nothing." I said blushing. "When will the results be back."

"Give me a minute." She said stepping into the room next to her. I stood there tapping my foot on the ground running my arm when rainbowdash and fluttershy came trotting by.

"Hi Joe." They both said somberly stopping to talk. "What are you doing and why is your arm bandaged?" Rainbowdash asked.

"They're checking my blood type to see if I'm a compatible donor for AJ." They both gasped.

"Joe, you do know what that means." Fluttershy said.

"Yes, I know exactly what it means, and I'm willing to do it. If I die so applejack can continue living then so be it." I said. They both nodded as the nurse stepped out of the room.

"You are compatible." She said. "I can go register you for the transplant and we can begin the prep in an hour if you want." I nodded. "I just need you to come sign some papers, follow me." She said as she started walking down the hall.

"So you're a nurse and you can't stand the sight of blood?" I asked her.

"I know, very strange huh. When I went to medical school I expected to just get over it but it never was like that." She said.

"Have you ever considered trying to do something else. You appear to be very young, I'm sure you cold find something else to do." I said.

"I know I could, but I've always wanted to be a nurse that took care of the babies so I endure it all down here in hopes of, one day, being promoted. Your the first pony, sorry, person that ever cared. What's your name?" She asked looking up at me.

"It's Joe." I said smiling down at her. We walked the rest of the way in silence. We reached a room with a small table in the middle. She went off behind a counter along the side of the room and got some papers. She walked out with a doctors bag and a stethoscope around her neck.

"Sit down on the table and take off your shirt." She said. " I need to check you out first before I register you." I hopped up on the table and removed my shirt. She came over and sat the doctors bag on the ground and put the stethoscope to her ears and reached for my chest. She seemed to be a bit to short to reach. I noticed and picked her up and sat her on my lap. She rested the cold instrument against the center of my chest and listened. She then went a bit to the left. Finally she asked me to lean forward and rested it in between my shoulder blades. She leaned against my shoulder and he mane got in my face. It smelled slightly of strawberries. She pulled back and smiled at me. She wrapped her. Hooves around my neck.

"Thank you Joe." She said her voice cracking.

"For what." I said, slightly surprised.

"Applejack and I were best friends as fillies. We did everything together." She said into my ear. She pulled back, a tear in her eye and kissed me. This surprised me. I just sat there like a moron for a second but quickly melted into the kiss. I felt her hooves leave my neck and start to go down my shyest and stomach and soon reach my belt. I put a hand on her chest and pushed her away.

"Whoa whoa whoa," I said surprised by the nurses sudden change. She looked back at me. A tear formed in her eye, I had obviously hurt her she jumped off the tables and walked to the their side of the room with her back to me and began to cry. Now I felt bad. I slid off the table and walked over to her and crouched down. I put a hand around her shoulders and she looked up at me, still crying.

"You think I'm ugly don't you." She said the hurt obviously in her voice.

"No, I think your beautiful, I'm just not that kind of man." I said to her. My praise obviously making her a little bit happier.

"I'm sorry, I just got a bit carried away." She said. I leaned down and hugged her.

"Now about those papers." I said pulling away.