An Unexpected Relationship
“C'mon Applebloom! You can throw better than that!" Applejack said. They were currently playing with a Frisbee. And to tell you the truth- Applebloom sure wasn't gonna get a Frisbee cutie mark. Every time she threw it… well let's just say that her longest throw was about four times her size. Of course, she felt bad about it, she was only a filly after all, but her older sister didn’t give up on her. They didn't know what to do since they weren't busy and decided to play something Applejack once loved (and still loved), which was playing with a Frisbee. At first she showed some certainly awesome moves, which made Applebloom –of course- want to do the same. But when she started trying to do the same, well, all she could do was think of what other game they could play. But, as said before, Applejack had other plans.
"Not again!" Applebloom exclaimed, once again not succeeding in throwing the Frisbee any further than her other attempts.
"Ah know ya can do it!" Applejack insisted, throwing the Frisbee towards her little sister. Who promptly failed. Again.
"Okay, ya just gotta keep goin’!" Applejack continued to encourage her.
Applebloom developed a determined expression; willing the frisbee to soar into the air and throwing it with all her might... Only to have it come down barely half way to Applejack.
"Okay this time Ah'm sure!"
Once again all that met her encouragement was dismal failure.
"C'mon Applebloom! You gotta have it in ya!"
"Oh forget it already!" Applebloom said angrily, moodily throwing the Frisbee so far-and rapidly- that Applejack's hat got blown off of her head by it, letting the precious hat get lost between the apple trees. Trees that were more than a fair distance away. Needless to say, it was an unexpectedly good throw.
"Wow! Gud job Applebloom! Now let me just go get mah hat ‘fore it starts ta rain!" Applejack said while running towards the direction where she saw her hat drifting away. It was true it was getting rainy; the clouds were deeply shaded in gray, almost reminding the ponies of the the cloying smoke produced by the dragon that had taken residence on a nearby mountain a few months prior.
Applebloom was still stunned by what she did, her jaw was still hanging slack in shock ."Woah… Ah did that! Ah can't believe it! Maybe Ah got a Frisbee-" she looked at her flank, she was disappointed to see it devoid of any markings."-cutie mark…" she sat down heavily, a frown working its way onto her now sullen face.
"C’mon... Where is that gosh darned hat?" Applejack said whilst she searched among the apple trees for her lost hat
.
She searched high and low for quite a long time. From the highest branches of the trees,which she shook with her lasso (careful not to damage them), to every inch of ground below her. Everything was surveyed. But even after that her search proved fruitless.
"Okay, nothin’ ta worry ‘bout. The hat seemed like it fell on the lower parts…so…" she said to herself, thinking out loud.
She lowered herself as much as she could and started… well… walking through the bushes. She walked and walked until she saw a hint of the same light brown as her hat behind a small cluster of bushes.
"Yes! Ah found ya!"Applejack happily exclaimed, standing up.
"Found what, Applejack?" A nearby voice asked her, the familiar Trottingham accent informing her of exactly who had questioned her. Applejack gasped when she looked at her front. There stood the oh-so arrogant Element of Generosity; Rarity. She looked rather disinterested with her current situation.
"Uh, mah hat." Applejack said, looking at the marshmallow coloured pony's hooves : her hat clearly positioned underneath them.
"Uhh…" Rarity said slowly, making a show of being ignorant.
"Uh, Rarity, mah hat's under yer hooves!"
"Oh, well, I didn't happen to notice…" Applejack lowered her eyelids to glare at the prissy pony.
"Rare, ain't ya gonna move so I can git mah hat?" Applejack asked her flatly, her eyes still firmly locked on rarity in a half-glare .
"And without a favour?" Rarity mischievously said, smirking, letting her head fall towards Applejack's, causing Applejack to take a cautious step back.
Applejack let out a defeated sigh before responding. "Uh… ah guess….Wha’ d’ya have in mind?" Applejack tried, and failed, to keep an edge out of her voice.
Rarity fluttered her eyelashes after replying. "Well, here is not the proper place and time to do anything…..Why don't we settle this when the rain stops, at my house perhaps?"
"But Ah-" Applejack was promptly interrupted by her friend; a friend who was thoroughly getting on her nerves at the time.
"Do you want your precious hat back or not?" Rarity reminded her with a glint in her eye: she knew that she had won. Applejack sighed, she was right, she had no choice.
Besides, ah always do favors for mah friends: what’s the worst she could want?
At that moment lighting, also accompanied by heavy rain, made the two ponies ran back to their homes with a few squeals; from Rarity, anyway. Rarity seized Applejack's hat in her magic, running as fast as she could back to her house. After all, she was going to be soaking wet by the time she reached it….
"So she just took yer hat and asked ya ta do somethin’ for 'er?" Big Mac calmly asked his sister.
Applejack was at her cozy house now, still soaking wet; the apple trees weren't close enough to her house for her to avoid the brunt of the rain. The magic powering many of the items around the house was experiencing interference because of the storm, but they could manage without it. Her family members had asked her why she’d gone back to the house so late. Of course, she told them it was a long story at first, but due to her family's insistence she eventually explained, bit by bit, her recent interaction.
"Huh… that's kinda mean…." Applebloom stated thoughtfully.
"What's so suprising? It's Rarity the Fashionista Unicorn after all!" Applejack said sourly. She always got a bit angry with ponies who thought mostly about what they wanted and always did what they thought was right. Rarity was one of them. She didn't dislike or hate her, heck, she was one of her best friends. No. She would give anypony who even thought that a stern talking to, but it annoyed her how Rarity could be greedy and sometimes even showed fake emotions. Also her confidence got the best of her sometimes…
"Ah ain't surprised; unicorns tend to look down on us simple folk …" AJ's brother said in his usual manner.
"What could she even want?" AJ asked to nopony in particular, her brow furrowed in puzzlement.
"Maybe a lesson on how to be a better sister?" Applejack chuckled at Applebloom's light jab at her.
"O-or maybe she wants a lesson on how ta prettify ‘erself without usin' three buckets o' make up?" Applejack snidely said. The sound of laughter momentarily filled the house.
"Or maybe she'd wan' a lesson on how ta buck the looser apple trees?*laugh*" Grandma Smith suggested. They all looked at her with confusion.
"Uhh, Granny Rarity doesn't buck apple trees…..or any kinda trees…” Applejack lowered her gaze a bit “and never will.” Was her near-silent addition to her statement; none of the other ponies present could hear what she had said.
"Oh….Well that ain't right!" Grandma Smith concluded. Applebloom and Applejack laughed.
"Hey, looks like the rain’s stopped." Big Macintosh exclaimed after glancing out of a nearby window. The mares turned followed his gaze to confirm his observation. It had, indeed, stopped raining.
"Well, guess Ah gotta go…" Applejack said, grudgingly trotting to the front door.
"Gud luck!" Applebloom shouted just before Applejack set off.
The rain had stopped.
Rarity was waiting for Applejack to come any moment. Her mane was straight and messy as it would be after walking in the rain. Why didn't she fix it up? Well, it would take much too long to perfect her curls in the state her mane was currently in. The only thing she could've done was wash it, which had already done. She wasn't sure if the plan to tell Applejack what she wanted to say for so long was good enough, she was constantly revising her planned speech in her head; trying to perfect it. She was lucky that Applejack had conveniently lost her hat in time for her to find it, otherwise she wouldn’t have known how to get her over to the boutique. The magically powered items were still behaving erratically, so she was simply sitting beside a fire in her living room. Sweetie was already deeply asleep in her bedroom.
Rarity was jolted out of her nervous thoughts by the piercing wail of the doorbell.
Applejack. was all that was going through Rarity’s mind when she looked at the door and stood up to go to it. She went to it ,but paused before her hoof made contact with the door; preoccupied by her turbulent thoughts. She was abruptly snapped out of her reverie when the doorbell rang once more.
She had to open it this time. And when she did Applejack gave a small gasp.
"What?" Rarity inquired, taking notice of her quiet gasp.
"… For land’s sakes filly, what happened to your mane?" Applejack asked.
"Yes, well, it would have taken a long time to fix it, so I simply washed it." Rarity explained.
"Uh, Okay! You look better with that one anyhow-" Applejack said, coming in.
"Wait!" Rarity stopped her and distastefully pointed a hoof towards Applejack's own. Applejack looked at them- they were caked in mud.
"Wait, now yer gonna make me go and wa-" Applejack said, remembering what Rarity said the first time she came to somepony's house with mud-covered hooves. What interrupted Applejack you say? Well, she saw Rarity coming with a nice white towel in her mouth. And of course, Rarity wiped the cowpony's hoofs with it.
"There, that's much better." Rarity said, looking appraisingly at Applejack's (relatively) clean hooves.
"Come along." She stated brusquely, going back to the fire in her living room.
"Sit here darling." Rarity patted a spot right next to the place where she had originally sat, and of course Applejack did as she was told. Rarity sat beside her, a bit too closely perhaps.
They stayed silent for a few minutes. Rarity looked like she was in deep thought while looking at the fire. Applejack just looked confused while looking at Rarity.
"Uhh, Rare, is this the favour you a-"Applejack was interrupted by the mare next to her.
"Applejack." Rarity said sourly.
“...Yeah?"
"Have you ever had the thought that most of ponies around you don’t really understand you?" Rarity asked while glancing at Applejack from the corner of her eye.
"Well… yeah, actually." Applejack said, remembering the time she had spent in Manehattan.
"And did they look down on you, expect you to be something you weren’t?" Rarity continued, still not turning away from the fire.
"…Somethin' like that." Applejack replied, casting her eyes towards the floor; absently making circles on it with her left forehoof.
"…But there is still some sort of light beyond all that darkness?" Rarity asked again.
"…yes, but it just seems really-" The cowpony was interrupted.
"Far away?" Rarity continued her thoughts.
"…Yeah. Rare, what does this all have to do with-" Applejack was, once again, interrupted by Rarity. How? Rarity jumped on her, causing Applejack to lay on her back, her forelegs in the air, while Rarity was on top.
"…But you know that someday you must go and find a way to catch that light?" Rarity said; realisation dawned upon the humble farmer.
"… Rarity... Ah never knew you felt that way 'bout mares…" Applejack said, looking at Rarity sadly.
They stayed quiet for a few minutes. Applejack started playing with Rarity's mane tips. Rarity's face was hidden behind a veil of purple hairs; she was desperately trying to reproduce Fluttershy’s ability to practically disappear behind her mane.
Applejack felt some liquid on her coat, on the forehoof she was using to play with Rarity's mane. Applejack saw a small droplet of water resting on her outstretched hoof.
Another one came down. And then another. They started to trickle down her orange coat. Was Rarity… crying?
"You're right Applejack…" Rarity said, finally showing her face. Applejack almost gasped at what she saw. Rarity’s eyes were overflowing with tears and her lip was quivering. She couldn’t even bring her eyes to meet Applejack’s, whenever she tried she immediately diverted her attention.
"… All ponies just think the only thing I see in the world is beauty; that I just disregard everything else. But the truth is beauty is something far from my thoughts about the world, so that is why I try to make some things seem beautiful. Everypony thinks I’m too prideful for my own good. Some see me as greedy simply because I am the only pony whose interests I know best; if somepony asked for something of mine I’d give it to them. They don’t think that I’d do such a thing, though, so they never ask and the cycle goes on...”
Rarity got lost in her speech, flinging her head go in different directions. Like Sweetie Bell…Applejack thought, understanding the pony's feelings. Her eyes were starting to water too. The cowpony had always wondered some things about Rarity, she couldn’t for the life of her figure her out.
"… Pride is because I just feel wonderful to be the Element of Generosity, to be able to help so many ponies. Doesn’t everypony feel proud of themselves sometimes? They think that I would do anything to be part of the upper crust of society, even replace all of my friends with noble ponies… That, for one, is not true,I could never abandon my friends. Rainbow Dash isn’t the only loyal pony around" Rarity prepared to continue, but was interrupted by Applejack.
"Rare!" Applejack jumped on her, pinning her to the wall, hugging her, crying beside her head.
Some moments passed, in which the two ponies were hugging, and Applejack was crying.
"…Ponies don't understand me…well, all except one…" Applejack looked at her, confusion clearly written on her features
"…You always understand everypony. It's almost like you realise what they're thinking just by looking at them…You always seem to understand me" Applejack felt blindsided by the admission.
“You give advice on how to deal with most ponies; you always seem to notice what‘s bothering other ponies; you also notice my many faults. You're like the rising sun…well…that must explain your coat colour…" The two ponies gave short-lived chuckles at Rarity's conclusion.
"…Ya know Rare? Ah like ya too….." Applejack said, stopping her crying.
"Is that so?"Rarity was surprised.
"Yea…."
"Never noticed…"
"Neither did ah until now… you're just smart and generous and artistic… and…" Rarity raised an eyebrow.
"… real pretty…" Applejack sheepishly continued. She felt bad because of all that she thought about Rarity, but yet she always knew there was something in Rarity that attracted her more than the other ponies…
Rarity chuckled at her statement."Alright…..Now that I know I guess you wouldn't have a problem with me doing this. " was all Rarity said before she-yet again- pinned Applejack to the floor and started licking the cowpony's stomach.
"Rarity, what the hay are you-" Rarity licked Applejack's cheeks, then went to her kissing her roughly.
