Pinkie 'Heartbreaker' Pie

Chapters

Chapter The First.1
Chapter The Next, Now With 50% Less Italics!
Hey, That's The Name of The Story!
The Chapter Titles Are The Only Thing I'm Letting Myself Have Fun With.
PHP: The Rebeginninging
I Swear I'm Not Dead.

Chapter The First.1

"So ya gonna do it or not, Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash enjoyed many things. If anypony walked up and asked her what she enjoyed, she had a lot of responses ready to go. Flying, first and foremost, but that was obvious. She was, after all, the fastest flyer in Equestria, destined for greatness the likes of which the world had not yet seen. But there was more to her than that. She enjoyed games, particularly those which offered her a chance to show off her many skills. Even more than games, she enjoyed winning those games. She enjoyed the sights and sounds of the crowd cheering for her, the 'ooh's and 'aah's they would inevitably chorus after each time she dazzled them with some new feat of daring and bravery. She enjoyed the many painstaking hours that went into perfecting those amazing feats, as well. But more than all those things, if someone who new her really well was asked what she enjoyed most in life, they would all have the same, perhaps half-joking, answer.

Rainbow Dash really, really liked napping.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Rainbow Dash really, really hated being woken from her naps.

So it was understandable that she was only half paying attention when Applejack woke her from her nap to assault her ears with a series of requests for... What was Applejack talking about again? She'd only been awake for a minute at most, it was utterly unreasonable for Applejack to expect her to be paying attention yet.

Sighing, Rainbow got up onto all fours, pressing a hoof to her head where she'd landed after falling out of her tree. She glanced longingly upward at her blanket and pillow still sitting on the bow, somehow. Applejack's precision was mighty respectable, she had to admit, even if she wished she wasn't so often on the receiving end of it. "Ugh... What are we talking about again?"

She felt a sharp jab in her ribs and leapt into the air. "Ow! There's no need to hit me!" Rainbow huffed indignantly as she crossed her forelegs and hovered a few feet away, looking away from the apple farmer and scowling.

"I'm comin' to you fer help, Rainbow, and yer not even listenin' to me!" Applejack stamped the ground in front of her, sounding more beleaguered than angry, which Rainbow found odd. Usually Applejack got pretty mad at her when she felt she was being ignored or brushed off.

"I'm sorry, but you need to give me a minute to wake up, okay?" Rainbow touched back down on the ground and stretched her legs, and then her neck. She felt a satisfying pop in her vertebrae and let out a soft yawn before shaking her head and looking back at Applejack. "Now... What's going on?"

"THAT's goin' on!" Applejack said, pointing to a lone cloud in the sky, sitting at the very border of the East Orchard and casting a sliver of a shadow on the apple tree furthest from them.

"You woke me up because there's a cloud?" Rainbow rubbed her eyes and sighed.

"Because it's supposed to be clear skies all day, and THAT is not clear skies!." Applejack frowned. Rainbow was, for good reason, skeptical.

"It's one cloud casting a shadow on like, one leaf. Who cares?"

"I care. If Burton-"

Rainbow grimaced. "Burton's the tree, isn't it?"

"If Burton doesn't get his proper sunshine, he won't bear as many apples this season, and that could throw off the profit projections for the entire year!"

Rainbow rubbed her eyes again and yawned. "Fine." Bolting off the ground, Rainbow sped over to the cloud and kicked it, dispersing its vapor into the air and landing back on the ground in front of Applejack in less than five seconds. "Can I get back to my nap now?"

Applejack looked surprised, which Rainbow assumed was due to her impressive display of speed and agility, until she realized Applejack was still staring at her ten seconds later. "Umm... AJ? You alright?"

"Er... Yeah."

"Was there something else? Because, again, I was having a really good nap, which I'd kinda like to get back to..." Rainbow trailed off as she motioned toward the branch.

"Actually, uh, there was something else I wanted to talk about."

"Which is...?"

Applejack fidgeted for a moment, moving from hoof to hoof and scrunching up her nose before planting her feet once more and taking a deep breath. "Which is... How're them Wonderbolts doin'?"

This, more than anything else that had been said so far this afternoon, told Rainbow immediately something was up. Applejack didn't care about the Wonderbolts. Not because she disliked them or anything, but Rainbow talked about them constantly. If Applejack was really curious, she could just think back to the previous night's ramblings Rainbow gave at every opportunity.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "You want to talk... about the Wonderbolts?"

Applejack tapped her forehoof against her chin for a moment as if she was considering something before smiling too widely and nodding. "Yes."

"You don't want to talk about the Wonderbolts." Rainbow deadpanned, giving Applejack a knowing glare.

Applejack gasped, suddenly taken aback. "Are you callin' me a liar? Why, of all the nerve!"

"No, I'm calling you a terrible liar."

Applejack held onto the offended posture for a few more seconds before falling back onto her haunches and grumbling. "Fine, I don't wanna talk about the Wonderbolts."

"Right. You want to talk about..." Rainbow dreaded prompting Applejack further, because she was pretty sure she already knew what the answer was, and it was not a conversation she was super excited to be having again.

That's when Applejack mumbled the three syllables Rainbow had been dreading. "... Pinkie Pie."

Rainbow Dash groaned. She knew where this was going. "This Again? Seriously, Applesnack, just go talk to her." She rolled her eyes as she came to the conclusion that she would not be getting to go back to her nap any time soon. The number of naps that had suffered such an untimely demise due to this had started to become entirely unacceptable. It was starting to become a trend. Or was it a pattern? Rainbow thought for a moment that she should ask Twilight what was the right way to describe it when next she saw her, until she realized that would probably lead to a multi-hour lecture full of references and chalkboards and... Ugh... Documented sources... Rainbow Dash hated documented sources. She hated that she even knew what 'documented sources' meant. That was the price she paid for being friends with a librarian, she mused.

"But I can't!" Applejack's distressed voice brought Rainbow out of her reverie. "What if she don't like me like I like her?"

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "Oh come on, Applejack, this is Pinkie Pie we're talking about. I guarantee the first thing she does when you tell her is shout 'Hooray!' and summon streamers from Tartarus knows where... Then she'll throw a party and you can make all the mushy smoochy faces at her you want." Rainbow stuck out her tongue and made a face to emphasize her point.

Applejack seemed to consider this for a moment before visually deflating with a sigh, letting her head hang just inches from the ground. "I know, I know, but... It's jes' intimidatin', is all."

Rainbow Dash sighed too. Applejack was scared... And could Rainbow really blame her? While she herself avoided these kinds of situations like the Pony Pox, she knew other ponies put a lot of weight into decisions like these. Resolving herself to the tyranny of consciousness for at least another ten minutes, she sidled up next to Applejack and draped a wing across her back.

"Hey. Come on, Applejack, it's okay. You're, like, the bravest pony I know. Except for me, obviously." Rainbow paused and eyed Applejack for a moment, seeing her chuckle a little and crack the first real, honest smile she'd seen since she'd been woken up. "But seriously, after fighting manticores, dragons, entire changeling armies, and more than one ponification of pure evil, you're scared of Pinkie Pie?"

Applejack smiled a little wider and chuckled a bit more. "It is kinda silly, ain't it?"

"Super silly. There's no way Pinkie Pie wouldn't want to be your marefriend. I mean, just look at you! You're, like, totally beautiful, and stuff."

Applejack finally raised her head up. "That's some pep talk, Rainbow." She laughed before taking a few steps forward, away from Rainbow. "I reckon yer right, though. I can do this. I can just go up to her an' ask her, 'cos that's what a brave pony would do, and I am a brave pony!"

Rainbow Dash felt the corners of her mouth curl up slightly. Maybe she'd only have to be awake for five minutes... But it would be better to shoot for three, right? Three seemed like a good number at this point, and Rainbow knew it was better to set difficult goals so that she'd have to push herself to acheive them. Plus, this was totally attainable, because she knew Applejack. She quickly took stock of the sun's position and then turned back to Applejack.

"So... Go do it!"

"What!?" The conviction behind Applejack's eyes shattered instantly as her pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

"You're a brave pony, so go ask her!" She knew Applejack so well.

"Right, I mean, I will, but... Right now?"

"Yeah, you just said that's what a brave pony would do."

"I know I did, but..."

"Unless... you're not a brave pony?" Rainbow exaggeratedly raised one eyebrow as she regarded her friend.

"I AM a brave pony! I'm the bravest pony yer ever gonna meet!" Applejack huffed indignantly.

"If you say so." Rainbow shrugged as she fluttered back up to her branch and sat on it.

Applejack's eyes narrowed. "Fine, I'll show you! I'm gonna go ask Pinkie Pie right now!" Applejack turned on the spot and dashed off, away from Sweet Apple Acres and towards the path into Ponyville proper.

Rainbow grinned as she watched her friend go. She looked up at the sky, judging the position of the sun compared to when she'd set her goal.

"Two minutes? I really am good." She chuckled to herself as she laid back down on the branch and snuggled up to her pillow.

Sometimes it was almost a burden being so awesome.

Almost.

Applejack got about a hundred yards from Sweet Apple Acres before she stopped, having had a sudden realization.

Of all the stupid times she decided she had something to prove to Rainbow Dash, this was definitely the stupidest.

With the fire in her step dead, she began to catch her breath as she thought. She'd let Rainbow work her up and rushed off to go make a fool of herself for no good reason. This didn't have to be done now, did it? Or was that just another excuse to keep hiding her feelings?

Applejack hated hiding her feelings. It felt unnatural and gross, like wearing eye liner or waking up after the sun had already risen. She legitimately wanted to tell Pinkie how she felt; She wanted to tell her how every time she saw her, her heart fluttered a little bit, and her knees shook slightly. She wanted to tell her how her smile was the most radiant thing she'd ever seen, and every time she saw it she could feel her heart smile right along. She wanted to tell her how much she loved to hear her sing. She wanted to tell her how she had more fun with her than with anyone else in the whole world. She wanted to tell her how her constant positive outlook simultaneously infuriated and infatuated her. She wanted to tell her how inspiring her unbreakable, if sometimes misguided, determination was, and how much she admired her unending crusade to make the world just a little bit brighter. She wanted to tell her how there was no pony in all of Equestria even a little bit like her, and what an amazing privilege it was just to know her.

Most of all, she wanted to tell her she was in love with her, and had been for a long time.

She really wanted to tell her all that, but perhaps that should wait until a better time. It was Wednesday, wasn't it? Wednesday was supposed to be Apple Bucking day, so maybe it would be better to wait until tomorrow. Granted, Thursday was also Apple Bucking day, along with Friday, and most Saturdays and Sundays. It was better to miss some Apple Bucking on a Thursday than it was on a Wednesday, though, because reasons that Applejack didn't have to explain to herself, and how dare she question her own judgment. Resolved to finally go take care of this once and for all tomorrow and definitely not today, Applejack turned back towards Sweet Apple Acres and took a step.

And then she froze. "Listen to yerself, Applejack, yer makin' excuses again!" She groaned as she fell onto her stomach and pawed at the ground with a hoof. "How is this so dang hard? I've just gotta do it. No more lyin', no more hidin'."

Applejack slowly got to her hooves and looked back at Ponyville, giving one good snort through her nose before taking off at a gallop once more.

Sugarcube Corner was a bustling hub of activity this Wednesday, like any other Wednesday in recent memory. It was just after noon, and wave after wave of hungry ponies flooded into the store like the relentless tides of the ocean, smashing in and slowly receding as their orders were filled and their hungers sated.

It was at the end of one such wave that Applejack found herself standing outside, looking in through a window at the small group of ponies still inside. She saw a few ponies she knew; Noteworthy was there with Derpy Hooves, apparently engaged in a muffin eating contest which Applejack knew he had no hope of winning; Bon Bon and Lyra sat in a corner sharing a milkshake; And behind the counter, she saw the telltale poofy pink cotton candy tail she was looking for.

Applejack felt her heart skip a beat. Taking a moment to adjust her hat in the reflection of the glass, she took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

"Howdy Pinkie!" She said as she took a step inside, putting on what she hoped was a more confident smile than she felt.

"Hi Applejack!"

Applejack felt something slam into her, hard, bowling her over and landing on top of her just outside the doorway. When the world stopped spinning, she saw the unmistakable smile she loved so much looming above her.

"I was hoping you'd come by the shop today! I made a gift for you!" Pinkie radiated exuberance with every syllable, her eyes twinkling and cheeks stretched to the absolute maximum threshold.

Applejack laughed. "Aw shucks, Pinkie, ya'll didn't have to do that."

"I know, but I wanted to, so Nyeh." Pinkie stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry before chuckling and hopping back inside the store. "Come have a seat! I'll go get it for you!"

Applejack got back up and followed her inside, somehow feeling more calm and more frantic at the same time. See, she made me a gift! Of course she likes me! Not that she doesn't give gifts to everypony, all the time, for no reason whatsoever, but...

"Er, Actually Pinkie, I was wonderin' if I couldn't talk to you fer a few minutes." Applejack shifted uncomfortably from hoof to hoof, trying and failing to look calm and collected.

"Well go ahead silly, I'm right here!" Pinkie said from behind the counter, an all too big smile still on her face as she rummaged through a few drawers.

"Heh heh... What I meant to say is, I was wonderin' if I couldn't talk to you fer a few minutes, alone." Applejack glanced at Noteworthy, Derpy, Bon Bon, and Lyra anxiously, even though none of them seemed to even notice her presence. They were still there, and Applejack feared she'd never be able to get out the words she needed to if she had to do it in front of anyone other than Pinkie Pie herself, which was enough of a challenge already.

"Oh! Oh! Is it a secret?" If it was possible for Pinkie to suddenly appear even more excited, she'd apparently found a way, as her face lit up like a lamp. "Don't you worry, Applejack, I'm the best secret keeper in all of Ponyville!" She rushed over to the kitchen door and stuck her head in momentarily. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake, is it okay if I take my break now? Thanks, I'll be back in ten minutes!" She flew over to Applejack and grabbed her by the fetlocks, hauling her upstairs with her and into Pinkie's room.

Applejack's eyes spun for a moment after being transplanted at what could only be described as 'Pinkie-Speed', but she knew that was the price she paid for spending time with the crazy mare. "Thanks, Pinkie," She said as she regained her balance and glanced about the room. Pinkie's room looked pretty much exactly as it always did; Bright yellows and pinks, stuffed animals all over, balloons and streamers lining the walls, and what appeared to be a chess board with four layers set up on her small coffee table, which Applejack decided not to question.

"No problem, Applejack! What's up? Did you find a secret cave under the apple orchards? Did Winona learn a new trick? Oh! Oh! Did you invent a new recipe for apple pie? Me, I like the classic approach, but nothing bad ever comes from experimenting, except for that one time we poisoned half of Ponyville, but hey, that's the price of exploration, I say!" Pinkie struck a dignified pose as she buffed a hoof on her coat.

"No, no, and no. It's nothin' like that." Applejack swallowed hard. She could feel her stomach doing flips, so much that she almost felt like she would vomit.

"Then what is it, huh huh huh?" Pinkie leaned forward, staring deep into Applejack's eyes, as if she could find the answer somewhere inside. Applejack stared back, feeling unable to look away from the beautiful sapphire orbs.

"Er... Well... Y'see..." Applejack finally diverted her gaze and gave a deep sigh. "The truth is, Pinkie..." She looked back into Pinkie's eyes and swallowed one more time. Now or never...

"I fancy ya."

"Awww, that's so sweet! I think you're a pretty fancy lady yourself!" Pinkie giggled and flicked the edge of Applejack's hat, still beaming.

"No, I mean, I like you." Applejack felt her hoof hit her forehead. Of course Pinkie would make her say it more than once.

"I know. That's why we're friends, silly!"

"No," Applejack began, beginning to feel a bizarre mix of regret and exasperation for the whole situation, "I mean I love you."

"Well duh, I love you too!"

"You do?" Applejack felt a sudden wave of relief, but felt an ominous feeling of doom looming above her.

"Of course, I love all my friends, and we're like best friends!"

"NO!" Applejack tried not to shout, but in the face Pinkie's cheer and joyfulness and complete inability to deduce her meaning on her own, she found that a battle she could not win. "I mean I LOVE you, Pinkie! I can't stop thinkin' about you, day and night. I close my eyes and I see you smilin', and it makes me wanna smile too. I hum your silly songs to myself in the orchard when I'm buckin' trees, and I wonder what you're up to every time I realize I've got a free minute. I just wanna be near you, to laugh and smile and be happy with you. I even made out with my pillow once pretending it was you!" In hindsight, Applejack would eventually admit that last revelation may have been better left unsaid, but she said it so she was going to own it. "I am totally, head over hoof in love with you, Pinkie!"

Applejack panted furiously, catching her breath from her outburst. Pinkie Pie was still grinning from ear to ear, but Applejack saw something happen in Pinkie Pie's face. It was like a lightbulb went on in her brain at the same time one went out in her eyes. Applejack knew better than to think for a moment that she knew what to expect from Pinkie Pie at any given time, but she really didn't expect the look she saw right now.

"Umm... Oh." Pinkie stopped smiling for a moment and looked away. Applejack felt her stomach spin 360 degrees and felt for a moment that she really was going to vomit before Pinkie looked back up to her. "Oh! Look! Your gift!" She said, leaping over to her closet and returning with a small box wrapped in red and white striped tissue paper. "It's a bow for your hat! But not just any bow, because I made it out of ICING!"

Applejack was stunned. What was Pinkie talking about? Had she missed the streamers and confetti and joyous celebration of their love? She was pretty sure she'd remained concious through the last minute, which a quick glance at Pinkie's wall clock confirmed. All she'd said was 'Umm... Oh.' "Pinkie...?"

"... See, I know you don't like getting all dressed up, but then I thought about how much you love your hat, so I thought maybe some time you'd wanna just dress up your hat, and I thought I could make you a really nice bow for it, but I figured you probably already had a ribbon bow, so that seemed boring..."

But that didn't make any sense. This was Pinkie Pie; She'd take any excuse to bust out her party cannon and shower the room in confetti and streamers. She wouldn't just brush off a declaration of love. "Pinkie?"

"... But then I thought I have a ton of icing, and icing is yummy, and I realized that if you had a bow made of icing, you could look fancy AND have an emergency snack in case you were feeling hungrier and than you were feeling fancy! So all the bases are covered!"

"Pinkie!" Applejack shouted as the world spun before her. She suddenly had a headache and was now almost certain she was going to vomit.

"Yes, Applejack?" Pinkie fluttered her eyelashes and looked back at her expectantly.

"Did you hear what I said?" Applejack could feel her voice trembling in the worst possible way, and she was getting extremely dizzy.

"Umm... Yes." There it was again; Applejack couldn't even remember the last time she'd heard Pinkie say 'Umm.'

"And all you have to say is 'Umm... oh?'"

Suddenly, Pinkie shifted her gaze to the floor, and the walls, and the balloons and the streamers and every inch of the room but Applejack. This seemed like another first; Applejack never knew Pinkie to avoid eye contact.

"I... It's been like nine minutes, I gotta get back to work before the Cakes start wondering where I am. Could we... talk about this later?"

It was unnatural. Applejack felt like she'd stepped into an alternate dimension with a completely different Pinkie Pie. She didn't know what was going on anymore. Black was white. Up was down. Apples were oranges. Public speaking was afraid of Fluttershy.

Without any clue as to what else to say, Applejack pushed through the lump in her throat and spoke. "Yeah... Okay. I'll come back later?"

"Actually, how about I come by the farm later?" Pinkie Pie had a pleading look in her eyes that Applejack couldn't figure out in the slightest, but she didn't have the energy or the sense of balance she would've needed to fight it. Sniffling a little, she nodded. Clearly, she thought, she'd done something wrong. Or thought something wrong. This was not how it was supposed to go at all.

Without another word, Applejack turned around and walked out of Pinkie Pie's room, down the stairs, and out of Sugarcube Corner.

Pinkie sniffled and wiped a tear from her muzzle as she watched her go, then slowly walked back downstairs and into the kitchen.

Chapter The Next, Now With 50% Less Italics!

Rainbow Dash decided it was definitely a pattern as she rubbed her aching forehead. Blinking slowly, the myriad blurs in front of her coalesced into trees, clouds, apples, baskets, dirt, and an orange pony with a brown hat.

"Seriously AJ, maybe you could warn me before you do that? I swear I'll get up if you just gently shake the tree..." Rainbow groaned and shook her head. She thought she heard Applejack grumble something, but it wasn't particularly audible. Getting onto all four hooves, she saw Applejack walking away from her to another tree.

That was different. Even when Applejack wasn't making unreasonable demands to have an inconsequential cloud problem fixed or soliciting stupid, mushy advice, she never passed up on the opportunity to get in a good playful jab about how Rainbow should try out for the 'Wondernappers' or something. Rainbow might not have been the most observant pony in Equestria, but even she noticed the striking absence of banter from her friend..

"Uh... AJ?" Rainbow began stretching her wings as she watched the earth pony plod up to the next tree and give it a kick that was, by her best estimation, about 20% sulkier than the norm. When not all the apples fell out of the tree, she growled and kicked it again much harder, and Rainbow heard the sound of wood creaking from the force. The rest of the apples fell obediently.

Rainbow rubbed her eyes. Was AJ... frowning? That was weird. Apple bucking was one of AJ's favorite things, normally. Rainbow couldn't even recall the last time she saw her unhappy while doing farm work, which was weird considering it was farm work and therefore obviously not fun at all, but still. This was Applejack's bread and butter. Seeing her in a bad mood while doing it was almost unsettling.

"AJ? You okay?" Rainbow asked hesitantly.

"I'm fine," came Applejack's grunted reply as she kicked the next tree even harder than the last one, sending the apples cascading down while the tree lurched back upright in the aftermath.

'She is definitely not fine.' Rainbow thought as she approached her. "You sure? Because you look kinda angry." Rainbow winced as Applejack bucked the next tree harder still. "Er, really angry."

"I said I'm fine, Rainbow." Applejack spat on the ground. "Now I'm mighty busy today; I got time to buck apples and that's it. So unless you wanna start bearin' fruit and wait your turn, ya'll best skedaddle on out of my hair."

"You know we're friends, AJ. If you're upset about something, you can talk to me about it," Rainbow offered, but Applejack didn't even respond. A sense of dread and uneasiness gripped her stomach as her brain finished waking up and a conclusion dawned on her. Oh no...

"Uh... Did you talk to Pinkie yesterday?"

Applejack stopped in the middle of lining up her hooves and glared at Rainbow. "That's funny, if I squint a bit you kinda look like you could be a zap apple tree..." If Rainbow didn't know better, she would've sworn she'd heard wood splintering under Applejack's hoof as she delivered the interrupted kick.

"Alright..." Rainbow sighed, not sure what to say. "But if you change your mind, come find me, I guess." Rainbow grabbed her pillow and blanket out of her tree and flew off for Ponyville, glancing back to watch the increasingly smaller orange dot kick the other increasingly smaller green and brown dots. Maybe Applejack wasn't in the mood to talk, but Rainbow wasn't about to let her friend continue being that upset without at least trying to help. First things first, though, she needed to find out what was going on.

She needed to talk to Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow arrived at Sugarcube Corner within a few minutes of leaving Sweet Apple Acres. Pushing the door open and stepping inside, she saw it was pretty dead inside today. There wasn’t even anypony at the counter, so she stepped up and rang the bell.

“Coming!” She heard Pinkie’s sing-song voice come from the kitchen, followed immediately by the mare herself.

“Hey Pinks!” Rainbow said as she tried to decide on the best way to bring up her questions.

“Hi Dashie! What can I get you?” Pinkie smiled her usual smile as she put her forehooves up on the counter.

“Oh, I don’t--” Rainbow was about to wave off the offer of food until she heard her stomach rumble as if on cue. She had been doing some pretty hardcore napping just a few minutes ago. She was already here, why not get something to eat while she tended to her other goal? “Actually, yeah, I could eat. Gimme the usual.”

“Coming right up!” Pinkie called as she dashed back into the kitchen and returned with a tray that held a cranberry walnut muffin and a milkshake. She shifted it off her back to the counter and smiled. “That’s four bits.”

“Thanks Pinkie.” Rainbow said as she placed the bits on the counter and took the tray. Rainbow took a sip of the milkshake and smiled. There really was nothing better to wake up with in all of Equestria.

However, Rainbow couldn’t afford to bask in the glory of the milkshake for too long, as she still had a mission. At first she thought about just asking Pinkie if Applejack had confessed to her, but then she realized that if she hadn’t, she’d be blowing up her friend’s spot, and even as sick of Applejack’s dilly dallying as she was, she wouldn’t betray her friend like that. The better option, she decided, was to play it cool and see if she could trick Pinkie into telling her what happened.

“So, Pinks, have you seen Applejack lately?” She asked, adopting a relaxed posture against the counter.

“Yep! She came by yesterday! That reminds me, actually, she forgot her gift!” Pinkie chattered excitedly before reaching behind the counter and pulling out the red and white striped box and setting it in front of Dash. “It’s a hat bow made of icing! I think I’m really onto something here, but Rarity said it would never catch on. If you’re going by Sweet Apple Acres later, do you think you could take it to her? I’d go myself, but the Cakes are going out tonight so they asked me to watch Pound and Pumpkin tonight, since I’m Pinkie ‘Responsibility’ Pie!”

Rainbow Dash was more than a little confused. Pinkie’d given her a gift? That was a good sign, wasn’t it? That didn’t explain Applejack’s mood at all. “Oh, uh, sure.” Rainbow frowned. Maybe she was irritated because she’d forgotten to take her gift with her? That didn’t make much sense, though, why wouldn’t she just go back and get it? Still thoroughly puzzled, she decided to press on. “Did you guys talk about anything…?”

“Hi’s and bye’s and some stuff in between, but I only had a short break, so we didn’t get to talk for too long.” Pinkie paused as if she’d been considering saying something else before disregarding it. Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, I’ve got several cakes in the oven, and I think I hear the egg timer going off. I’ll see you later Rainbow!” She smiled once more and bounced through the swinging door to the kitchen.

“Bye Pinkie…” Rainbow muttered as she looked at the box on the counter, sipping again at her milkshake.

Well that answered… Nothing.

Rainbow gulped down her muffin and the rest of her milkshake as she grabbed the box and was about to turn to leave the store when Pinkie burst back out of the kitchen and tackled her from behind, forcing her into a face plant. “Oh my gosh Rainbow I just realized today is thursday and tomorrow is friday and if friday is tomorrow we should totally have a party! We can have cake and balloons and dancing and streamers and fun! Are you free?”

Rainbow pulled her face off the floor and sighed. Nurse Redheart had warned her about getting too many concussions after her last flying accident, and lately it seemed like her two best friends were solely intent on making her promise to be more careful a lie. “Yeah, I don’t have any plans,” she grumbled as she shook off her annoyance. “What time?”

“If I start getting everything ready right after work, I can have it set up by six! Hey, if you’re gonna take the bow to Applejack, can you invite her to the party for me too? Again, I’d do it myself, but I won’t really have time to go out there tonight.”

“Yeah, fine. See you tomorrow, Pinks.” Rainbow said as she spread her wings and flew out the front door. As she flew back towards Sweet Apple Acres, she couldn’t shake the feeling that everything which had just happened seemed a little off.

Applejack was fine. She had her farm, and her apple trees, and plenty of work to do before the rest of the apples ripened and Applebuck Season got into full swing. She had her family. She had Winona. She had a group of wonderful friends. Realistically, she had everything she could possibly need. Wanting anything more wasn’t just greedy, it was downright selfish.

Unfortunately, all the self assurances in the world couldn’t make Applejack feel anything but distinctly south of fine. So what if she said she’d come by the farm and then didn’t, she tried to tell herself. She probably got held up with some important… Something. Applejack couldn’t honestly come up with a reasonable explanation. Pinkie’d said she’d come by; She’d specifically requested that Applejack let her be the one to come see her. Why would she not follow up on it, then? Applejack groaned. She didn’t want to be angry, but being angry was easier than admitting to herself that she was hurting. A lot easier, in fact.

It wasn’t fair to take that anger out on Rainbow, though. An entire afternoon of kicking trees had been fairly therapeutic, giving her ample opportunity to work out her frustrations, even if she’d overdone it on a few. She knew she owed Rainbow an apology, and fully intended to make good on that debt when next she saw her.

The blue sky over Sweet Apple Acres was beginning to turn gold as the sun reached the tops of the trees over the West Orchard when Applejack decided to take her apple cart in for the day. Just as she finished putting the apples into barrels for storage and turned to look back at the sunset, she saw Rainbow’s unmistakable contrail quickly approaching. Quickly descending.

Too quickly.

“Look out below!” Applejack barely had time to dive out of the way as Rainbow zoomed past her, through the open barn door, and directly into the neatly stacked apple barrels, slamming into them like a bowling ball and spilling their contents across the barn floor. Applejack stared wide eyed for a moment and then shook her head.

“Consarn it, RD, I just finished puttin’ all those away!” Applejack scowled, watching Rainbow’s eyes roll in their sockets as she slumped, upside down, against an overturned barrel.

When Rainbow’s eyes finally refocused, she giggled slightly. “Oops. Sorry.” Rainbow righted herself and shook her head. “I’ll help you clean it up.”

Applejack watched Rainbow start to pick up the apples and sighed, remembering her earlier intent to apologize. “Thanks Rainbow. I’m sorry I was so cross with you earlier, by the way. ‘T’ain’t right to take out my problems on you.”

“No worries, AJ.” Rainbow brushed it off. “I was serious when I said you could talk to me about it though. I know I’m not a therapizer or something, but…”

Applejack grimaced. “Ya mean therapist?”

“Yeah, I’m not one of those, but I am your friend.”

Applejack looked down at her hoof as she rolled it against the ground. “I know. I do appreciate that Rainbow, but I’m just not sure I wanna talk about it.” To be fair, that much was true. Applejack could just see Rainbow’s reaction if she told her how Pinkie’s deflecting was getting to her. She’d laugh and call her silly for getting upset about something so, as she would put it, ‘mushy’. Even if she didn’t laugh at her, Rainbow was such a hothead that she might run off and take matters into her own hooves, and there was no way that could lead to anything good. No, she definitely couldn’t tell Rainbow what happened.

It was then Rainbow came across the red and white striped box and picked it up with a wing. “Oh yeah, Pinkie gave me this for you. Said you forgot it yesterday.” She offered the box to Applejack, who took it and stared at it.

“Oh… Plum forgot about this. Thanks, RD.” Applejack wasn’t sure what to do with it but stare silently as she mulled over her thoughts on the last 24 hours.

“Yeah, and she said she’s gonna have a party tomorrow night at 6, asked me to pass along the invitation.”

That was weird. Pinkie never delegated her invitations. Usually she made a spectacle out of them nearly as big as the parties themselves. Applejack felt something drop in her stomach. Was Pinkie really avoiding her? But if she was avoiding her, why invite her, albeit by proxy, to a party? Applejack would have pondered the pink mare’s motivations further, but found it too jarring to make any sense out of them. “Yeah… Sure. I’ll be there.” Applejack said, her voice sounding far away even to herself.

After about a minute of silence, Rainbow spoke up. “So… Did you chicken out?”

“What?” Applejack finally looked up to see Rainbow had already collected all the apples and righted the barrels.

“I mean, is that why you were so upset this morning?” Rainbow was looking right into her eyes. Applejack knew there was no way she could get away with lying to her face, but she distinctly didn’t want to admit the truth. Since it was apparent that Rainbow didn’t know what happened, there wasn’t any harm in letting her think she was right.

Applejack turned around, sat down and chuckled as her nose scrunched up. “Yeah, something like that.” Please don’t question it, please don’t question it, please don’t question it…

A few moments later she felt a wing drape across her back and turned her head to see Rainbow next to her, smiling. “It’s alright AJ, you can always try again tomorrow at the party, right?”

Applejack nodded, unable to tell if her muzzle had unscrunched in time. Rainbow didn’t seem to notice, though, so she let out a sigh of relief. “Right. The party. Okay.”

“Anyway, I kinda gotta jet, there’s supposed to be a few light showers overnight, so I’m on the graveyard shift tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow at the party.” Rainbow put out a forehoof, which Applejack quickly bumped with her own.

“See you tomorrow, Rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash flew out of the barn and into the sky.

The nausea Applejack had been suppressing all afternoon immediately returned as she slowly made her way to the farm house. Maybe I’ll feel better after dinner… She thought as she pushed the front door open and headed for the kitchen.

Hey, That's The Name of The Story!

Applejack stood at the front door of Sugarcube corner with no idea what to expect from the evening ahead of her. She’d gotten as much work done on the farm as possible before eating an early dinner and bathing to get ready for the party. However, now that she was standing on the threshold of the event, she had to stop auto piloting through the day and focus enough to have some fun with her friends, or failing that, at least avoid dragging the mood down too far. Plus, this was an opportunity to get some answers out of Pinkie Pie.

Applejack wasn’t angry anymore… Irked seemed a better word for how she was feeling. She wanted to give Pinkie the benefit of the doubt, but first she had to figure out what doubt she was even giving her the benefit of. Part of her wondered if she shouldn’t have just bit the bullet and made the journey into town yesterday and confronted Pinkie about it all, but that didn’t feel right.

Applejack didn’t want to confront Pinkie. That wasn’t how these things were supposed to go. She was supposed to tell Pinkie she loved her, and Pinkie’s giant blue eyes were supposed to twinkle with excitement as she said she felt the same way, and they were supposed to snuggle and watch the sunset and… Well, and a lot of things that didn’t seem to follow a confrontation.

She sighed to herself. In the worst case scenarios she’d imagined, where Pinkie told her she didn’t feel the same way but that she valued Applejack’s friendship more than anything and nothing would ever change that (Because, as Applejack was beginning to feel she’d been pointing out to herself entirely too often lately, ‘this was still Pinkie Pie’), she knew she could handle it. Applejack was nothing if not resolved. She’d gotten over worse in her past, and while rejection stung, the pain would fade and she would move on with her life.

This, though? This was worse. There was no stinging to get over, just an emptiness. A void waiting to be filled with crushing despair, but staved off by a stupid glimmer of unrealistic hope that maybe things would still turn out her way. Applejack couldn’t stand it. She knew it was foolish to think it might still work out; Even if Pinkie hadn’t said the words, that look in her eyes when she’d confessed told her all she needed to know.

Fact was, however, she needed to hear the words. No, she deserved to hear the words. If Pinkie was really her friend, she owed it to her, Applejack thought. She didn’t even feel like that was asking too much; Pinkie wouldn’t be the one walking out of Sugarcube Corner with a broken heart, after all.

So much for not dragging down the mood… Applejack tried to smile to herself, but found it too difficult to manage. Still, she’d been sitting outside for almost 15 minutes now. She had to go inside eventually, but she still didn’t want her friends to think something was wrong. Perhaps she could think of something else to smile about, for appearance’s sake?

First she tried thinking of the farm, but that just led to her thinking about how morose she’d been while working the last two days, which made her think about Pinkie. That was right out.

Next she tried thinking of dinner, the wonderful apple pie Granny Smith had made for the family, and how delicious it was. Apple pie was delicious, plenty delicious to get her to smile at its memory. Just as she was about to put a hoof on the door to open it and go inside, she rewound her thoughts.

Apple… Pie.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

Nope, that was right out too. Applejack groaned in frustration. Fed up with her stupid brain constantly ruining all her moods, she decided resolutely that she’d had apple fritters, not pie, for dinner, and they were Celestia-darned delicious, so delicious in fact that she was going to go enjoy this party come wild bulls or high water, and no stupid emotions were going to stop her.

She didn’t even realize she was wearing a determined glare instead of a smile as she pushed the door open and stomped inside.

“Hey AJ!” Applejack heard the scratchy voice of Rainbow Dash call her as soon as she entered into Pinkie’s room. Looking to her right, she saw her standing with Twilight by the punch bowl, already filling up a cup with the beverage and approaching Applejack with it. Off to her left Pinkie Pie was dancing along with Fluttershy and Rarity, and it didn’t appear any of them had noticed her come in yet. “You’ve gotta try this punch, Pinkie came up with a new recipe and it’s at least 20% awesomer than normal.”

“You mean 20% more awesome than normal.” Twilight immediately corrected, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, whatever. Seriously, try it.” Rainbow grinned as she proffered the drink to Applejack.

Apple fritters. “Thanks, RD,” Applejack said as she accepted the cup and was led over to the punch bowl by Rainbow.

“Hi Applejack, how’ve you been? I haven’t seen you around town lately,” Twilight asked, sipping from her own cup.

“I reckon I’ve been a mite busy, Twi, what with Applebuck season comin’ up and all.” Applejack said as she eyed the purple concoction in her cup. It looked murky, she thought, as she raised the cup and took a sip. It really was good.

“Well,” said Twilight with a friendly smile, “you know that if you need any help again this year, we’re all ready and willing to do what we can.”

“And I appreciate that. What about yourself? How’s the… er… Princessin’ goin’?”

Twilight subconsciously resettled her wings as she blushed a bit. “Honestly, not much has changed, other than the visits to Canterlot every few days, but that should let up a bit soon… I’ve finally gotten most of the town to stop bowing every time they see me, which is good.”

Applejack chuckled at that. She knew Twilight was much too humble to let her head get caught up in all the fanfare that had surrounded her coronation, but it was still nice to have that knowledge confirmed by reality.

Twilight was about to say something else when the three ponies by the punch bowl heard a loud gasp from across the room. Turning her head, Applejack saw Pinkie Pie bouncing across the room toward them.

“Hi Applejack! I’m sooooo glad you could make it! I was a little worried maybe you wouldn’t since I didn’t get to invite you myself, but I trusted Rainbow to do it, but then you weren’t here on time and even though Rainbow assured me she remembered to invite you and Rarity told me you were probably just arriving fashionably late, I got a little bit worried that maybe you forgot and then a little bit more worried that maybe something happened back at the farm and you wouldn’t be able to make it and then a LOT more worried that maybe something happened to you on your way here, but now you are here so I guess all those worries were unfounded!” Pinkie smiled brightly as she pulled her friend into a hug for a moment before letting her go and focusing her eyes somewhere above Applejack’s.

“Aww, you didn’t wear the bow.” Pinkie let her smile slip into an odd look for the briefest of moments before retaking her usual countenance. She’d almost looked... disappointed?

Applejack didn’t know how to respond to that. She glanced around at the other ponies and saw none of them had particularly dressed up for the occasion, though, so she just smiled sheepishly--Apple fritters--and said “Sorry, I didn’t think it was supposed to be a fancy party, so I didn’t dress up my hat. Is that alright?”

“Of course it is. I’m just glad you made it! Now we can really get this party started!” Pinkie leaped away as a shower of streamers shot into the air from… somewhere. Applejack certainly had no idea as to their origin, but as usual, didn’t question it.

The rest of the party went by without a hitch as the six ponies laughed, danced, drank, ate, and were generally merry in all the best possible ways. Rarity regaled them all with the tale of a mysterious new benefactor, who could not be named for reasons the other five would just have to understand, that wanted to feature her work in a showcase in Los Pegasus. Fluttershy told them all about the new clutch of baby bunnies that were born under one of her bushes and a few amusing anecdotes about Angel’s jealousy. Rainbow brought out an elaborate blueprint for a new trick that she wanted feedback on, which Twilight had to tell her would violate at least 9 separate laws of physics if she was to perform it as described. Rainbow reacted to this by instigating a bet with the librarian, though Applejack didn’t actually remember the details of the bet. She’d been too busy thinking about apple fritters to pay much attention, anyway.

So it was that the hour grew late and ponies began filtering out of the party. Rarity excused herself first, stating that she had to get to work early in the morning if she wanted to have the dresses ready for the showcase, followed by Rainbow who had to get up in time to go to Cloudsdale and pick up a new batch of clouds for the weather team. Twilight left next, saying she’d love to stay but had to go to Canterlot tomorrow morning to speak with Princess Celestia about some problem or another, and finally Fluttershy left to go feed her nocturnal animals.

Ultimately, only Applejack and Pinkie Pie remained. Applejack had wondered if Pinkie wouldn’t pull her aside for a quick chat during the party, or maybe even just take the opportunity now that they were alone to explain what had happened two days ago, but as she watched the pink mare mosey about the room cleaning up confetti and streamers and finishing off leftover cake in massive slurps, it quickly became apparent that she had no such intentions.

There was a day when Applejack would have relished a moment like this. She could make small talk, hear a few jokes, and generally enjoy the company of the ridiculous pink pony that she loved. Today, she regretted, after all that had happened (Or rather, not happened), was not that day. Being alone with her now, she realized she had a choice to make. She could either accept Pinkie’s non-response, or she could swallow her pride and bring it up herself.

As difficult as it was to do, Applejack knew that living with that gnawing emptiness would be worse in the long run. She had to get an answer out of Pinkie Pie, even if that answer felt like it had the potential to kill her.

Applejack took a deep breath as she resigned herself to the task at hoof. She just needed to keep control of the conversation, and not get angry or worked up. As long as she stayed calm and collected, nothing bad would happen. “So, you need any help cleaning up?” Applejack asked with as large a smile as the rapidly waning power of apple fritters could muster.

“No, I’m good. Cleaning up is the hostess’ responsibility, after all, and I am Pinkie ‘Responsibility’ Pie’, right?” Pinkie smiled at Applejack as she collected the punch cups and stacked them neatly by the door. “I can set up the guest room for you if you don’t want to walk home, since it’s kinda late and all.”

Applejack shook her head, still trying to smile. “I don’t mind, sugarcube, really. I insist.”

Pinkie looked up as if to object, but appeared to decide against it. “Okay, since you offered. Can you box up what’s left of the snacks for me?”

“Sure thing.” Applejack replied as she made her way over to the snacks table and began sliding the remaining treats back into their pastry boxes, condensing them down where she could. It took about a minute of silently doing this before she managed to get out what she needed to say next.

“Pinkie… Why didn’t you come by the farm Wednesday like you said you would?”

Applejack looked up just in time to see Pinkie freeze in the middle of gathering up a pile of streamers. She pulled her hoof back from the pile for a second before continuing on with her task, though her usual smile had completely disappeared. “I’m sorry, Applejack. I… got sidetracked.”

Applejack paused. Pinkie got sidetracked? What did that even mean? “Well, I guess I don’t rightly know what to say to that, Pinkie. This was… no, this is important to me. You sayin’ you just plum forgot about it don’t make me feel good at all.”

If Pinkie Pie was capable of looking down in the dumps, Applejack thought she looked it now. “I know… I’m super sorry. I would have come by yesterday, but I had to babysit for the Cakes.”

Applejack sighed. “It’s okay, sugarcube, but ya know we’ve gotta talk about it eventually.” Applejack grimaced. She felt like she was giving a guilt trip, which was neither her intention nor to her liking. Doing her best to steady her voice, she continued. “I gotta admit, it made me a mite angry, like you’d just brushed me off. If you don’t feel the same about me, I reckon I at least deserve to hear the words.” Pushing that sentence out of her lungs took all the courage Applejack had, but she felt some relief at having said it. At least Pinkie would have to answer her now.

“It’s not that… I just…” Pinkie cast her glance off to the side, and Applejack could have sworn she heard her sniffle a bit. Applejack tried to wait for her to continue, but when she didn’t, she felt the need to prompt her.

“You just what?”

Pinkie Pie ran a foreleg across her muzzle before she turned back to look at Applejack again, her eyes wavering slightly. “Do you think we could finish cleaning up first?”

“Pinkie…”

“Please? We’re almost done here. I just need you to take the dishes downstairs for me, and I’ll have the rest cleaned up by the time you get back up here. Then we can talk.”

Applejack sighed. She didn’t want to walk away right now, but if she wanted to get Pinkie Pie to finally tell her what was on her mind, maybe it was best if she appeased the request. Still, she needed some assurance Pinkie wasn’t going to run out on her. “Fine, just promise me you’re not gonna go crawlin’ out a window or somethin’, okay? I mean it when I say we need to talk about this.”

“I promise.”

“Pinkie promise.”

Pinkie seemed surprised for a moment, but quickly nodded. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she said resolutely as she acted out the appropriate gestures.

Applejack wasn’t entirely sure if she felt secure with that, but if there was any pony who took a Pinkie promise seriously, it was Pinkie Pie herself. She remembered the diabolic level of rage Pinkie tapped into when she felt that Applejack had broken her own Pinkie promise back at Dodge Junction, and decided it would have to do. “Okay. Good. I’ll be right back then, and then we talk.” Applejack picked up the cups and plates and exited Pinkie’s room.

Sugarcube Corner was dark, as was expected given that it was nearly 11 at night. Applejack squinted as her eyes adjusted to the low light, and then slowly made her way downstairs. It helped that she’d been here so often for parties and to help Pinkie bake things, as she was able to navigate her way into the dark kitchen and over to the dishwasher without any trouble. She opened the dishwasher and placed the dishes inside carefully, trying not to make too many audible clinks, considering the sleeping infants upstairs.

Finished with her task, Applejack walked out of the kitchen and over to the bottom of the stairs. She took one last moment to get control of her breath and brace herself for what she was about to hear before marching up the stairs and over to Pinkie’s door.

She was about to open the door when she heard a soft noise from the other side. It took only a moment for her to realize it was a sob. Was Pinkie crying? Applejack’s eyes widened as she grabbed the door knob and twisted.

It was locked.

Applejack felt a part of her brain short circuit. Pinkie locked her out of the room. Why did Pinkie lock her out of the room? She tried the knob again, pulling on it hard, hoping maybe it had just been her imagination on her first attempt, or that her hoof had slipped, but it remained firmly in place. Feeling panic begin to settle in, she frantically tugged on the door knob. “Pinkie, what the hay is this! You promised we’d talk!”

“K-Keep your v-voice d-down… P-Pound and Pumpkin are s-sleeping.” Applejack heard Pinkie reply softly between sobs. Panic was slowly turning back into anger as Applejack continued to tug on the door to no avail.

“Open the door Pinkie, we need to talk! You’re breaking your Pinkie promise!” Applejack tried to contain herself to a whisper, but her frayed mental state and rising anger made that very difficult.

“N-No I’m n-not!” Pinkie’s voice came back through the door. “I p-promised I wouldn’t crawl out the w-window, I never said I wouldn’t l-lock the door!”

Applejack let go of the door knob. She most certainly was not starting to cry. She must’ve been hearing the reverberations from Pinkie’s crying coming from her own throat… And the increased moisture in the air from Pinkie’s tears was clogging up her nose. Through the closed door. That was all.

"Pinkie, please, just open the door. Please, I just want to talk. No matter what you have to say, I won't be mad, I swear!" Applejack could hear the desperation in her voice overtaking the anger as the two competed for control of her vocal chords.

"No... G-Go away!"

“Pinkie, open this door now! You owe me a talk!” She said as anger retook the lead, throwing her front hooves against the door and pounding as her chest heaved involuntarily.

“P-Please, just go away! I c-can’t do this!” Pinkie’s sobs were getting louder, but Applejack could barely hear them over the roaring of her growing anger.

“Pinkie, open this door or I swear, I’m gonna buck it down!” It must have started to rain at some point, and Sugarcube Corner was clearly in need of intensive roof repairs, because Applejack could barely see through the water in her eyes.

“I c-can’t! I just c-can’t! I d-don’t w-wanna be P-Pinkie ‘Heartbreaker’ Pie, and It’s not f-fair of you to m-make me!”

As Applejack tried to process Pinkie's words her anger consumed her. Pinkie Pie was saying this wasn’t fair? What right did Pinkie Pie have to say something wasn’t fair? Pinkie Pie wasn’t the one who’d been deceived, even betrayed, by one of her best friends. Pinkie Pie wasn’t the one facing rejection with no reason given. Pinkie Pie wasn’t the one feeling her heart fracture into a million more tiny pieces with every time she had to knock on the door.

Applejack's desperation and anger teamed up and decided she’d had quite enough of this. She didn't even try to keep her voice down as she turned and reared up her back legs. “That’s it, I’m coming in!” she shouted as she sent her hooves into the wood, splintering it easily. A thunderous crack echoed down the hallway as Applejack felt her back hooves hit the ground.

Immediately she heard the wailing cries of two infants woken from their sleep and barely managed to make out a light coming under one of the bedroom doors down the hall. “Pinkie? Is everything alright out there?” she heard the tired voice of Mr. Cake calling. Applejack froze. Anger was turning back into panic. She looked behind her and saw the shattered fragments of the door scattered across the floor, one large piece still hanging off the door frame by the lower hinge and swinging slowly.

Worse than that, she saw Pinkie Pie laying on her back, a large piece of wood laying on top of her. She was barely lifting her head and looking back at Applejack, the unmistakable look of fear and pain in her watery eyes.

Pinkie was afraid. Of her.

Applejack couldn’t keep it together any longer. Shutting her eyes tight, she bolted down the hallway, past the sound of the opening door, down the stairs and out of Sugarcube Corner.

Applejack didn’t remember Rainbow saying anything about an overnight rainstorm, which was weird, because it definitely rained on her the whole way home. She supposed Sugarcube Corner wasn’t alone in needing roof repairs, because the farmhouse’s ceiling seemed to be just as ineffectual at keeping the rain out of Applejack’s eyes. The fact that her coat and mane were still perfectly dry didn’t mean anything. It was like that thing Twilight once said about putting a group of monkeys in a cage with a typewriter. Eventually, they’d manage to randomly type William Neighkespeare’s Hooflet just by chance. By the same principal, she’d simply managed to dodge all the raindrops except for the ones that hit her in the eyes. It was bound to happen eventually.

Applejack collapsed onto her bed and took several deep breaths, trying and failing to calm herself down. She rubbed the rain from her eyes and looked around the dark room. The very first thing she saw was the red and white striped box on her night stand, still unopened.

Applejack gritted her teeth as she looked at it. She poured all of her anger and rage into that tiny box. She whispered curses at it, told it how stupid and cowardly it was, and how Rarity wouldn’t be caught dead wearing red and white stripes this year, what was the box possibly thinking?

Applejack loomed over it before taking it in her hooves and ripping off the wrapping paper. She tore off the lid and looked inside, intent on taking the bow and smashing it into as many pieces as physically possible.

The bow had melted. All that remained was a gooey soup of frosting stuck to the bottom of the box.

...Perfect. Applejack thought, throwing the box against the wall of her room as hard as she could and collapsing backwards onto her bed.

She definitely didn’t cry, but that insufferable, roof piercing rain didn’t let up until she fell asleep.

The Chapter Titles Are The Only Thing I'm Letting Myself Have Fun With.

Rarity had her hooves full. She had to make 15 of each of 5 different dresses, each one perfectly the same as the others of its kind… That made… Sixty dresses? No… Seventy five!? Rarity could feel sweat trickling down her forehead. Perhaps she shouldn’t have taken the time to go to Pinkie’s ‘Hooray for Friday!’ party after all? Well, she had, and there was no changing that. Still, she’d done more work under stricter deadlines. At least she had until next Friday to finish them. That meant two full weeks, plenty of time for a seamstress of her calibre.

Then a harrowing thought struck her. The order had been placed Thursday. In that case, ‘Next Friday’ didn’t mean the 23rd, it meant…

The 16th. And today was the 10th. Rarity did some more quick math. She obviously couldn’t include the 16th as a work day since she’d have to have them delivered that day, which meant she had 5 days, starting today. Her eyes widened when she realized what that meant… 15 dresses a day for 5 days.

Panic gripped her. She hadn’t thought this through at all, the excitement of the opportunity had blinded her judgment. This was a disaster! The Worst. Possible. Thing. Shrieking in anguish, Rarity pulled her chaise lounge into the room with her magic and was about to flop onto it when she heard the door chime ring, signaling someone had entered the boutique.

And I was about to have such a good pout, too… Rarity sighed as she quickly trotted downstairs and put on her business face. “Hello and welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is Chiq, Unique, and Magni-Pinkie?”

Truth be told, Rarity was not in the mood to deal with customers today, now that she realized how much work she had ahead of her. Therefore, seeing it was her friend instead should have come as a relief. Rarity expected the tightness in her chest to dissipate, replaced with some degree of relief and joy.

But it didn’t, and it took Rarity a moment to figure out why.

Pinkie Pie looked sad, maybe even distressed. It wasn’t the fact that her friend was sad, though, as Rarity had been no stranger to comforting her friends when they were upset over the last few years, it was the specific way in which she looked sad. Her mane was unkempt (not that it was usually particularly kempt, but now it was decidedly un-so), and she had large circles under her eyes that seemed to indicate a lack of sleep. Rarity had decided a long time ago that the best way she could describe Pinkie was ‘animated’. She was an ‘animated mare’; Whatever Pinkie happened to be doing at any given moment, she would be doing it animatedly, be it baking or running or even just sleeping, somehow. This did not change when Pinkie was upset about something, as she would be animatedly upset. Now, however, she just looked… muted. There were no sad trombones, no giant rivers of tears flowing from her eyes, no cartoonish straightening of her hair… Like a normal pony looking sad, except it was Pinkie. It looked wrong. Rarity felt a shiver travel down her spine..

“Hi Rarity.” Pinkie looked up, but her head was angled down like a dog being scolded by its master. “I…” Pinkie paused, an obvious struggle going on in her conscience. “I did something bad.”

It took Rarity a moment to decide how to respond, but she quickly tossed aside the confusion and approached her friend. “Oh darling, whatever do you mean? Are you alright? Please, come in and let me put us on some tea.”

Pinkie hesitated. “I… I don’t want to be a bother. I know you said you’d be busy today…”

It was true. Rarity had momentarily forgotten in the shock of seeing her friend so out of sorts, but the mention of it made her lose her breath. When she’d said that last night, she hadn’t even realized the half of it. Still, she shook her head. “Really, Pinkie, it’s no trouble at all. I have… Well, I have plenty of time. My friends come first.”

“... Okay.” Pinkie said softly and allowed herself to be led over to a chair at the kitchen table, sitting without any fanfare whatsoever. Rarity grimaced. Whatever was wrong, it must have been bad.

“Give me a moment to start a kettle boiling and I’ll be right back.” Rarity excused herself from the room to start the tea before returning and sitting next to Pinkie. She sat in silence for a moment, wondering if Pinkie would start talking on her own, but it appeared Pinkie had taken a keen interest in the intricate pattern of Rarity’s tablecloth, following its looping spirals from one end to the other with her eyes.

Rarity cleared her throat in as ladylike a way as possible. “What is the problem, dear? You seemed quite alright last night.”

“It’s kind of a long story.” Pinkie said, resting her head in her hooves. Rarity grimaced as she wanted to ask her to take her elbows off the table--Manners, after all--but she could tell this was not the time for correcting anypony’s social graces.

“Then start at the beginning and we will figure it out together.” Rarity offered.

Pinkie seemed to consider exactly where to begin before she closed her eyes and straightened up in her seat. “Okay… I guess it began Wednesday… I was working at Sugarcube Corner when Applejack came in, and asked if we could talk about something, private. We went up to my room and I was all excited because I thought she wanted to share a secret, but...” Pinkie trailed off, her lips quivering and tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

Rarity listened intently, but it was clear Pinkie was still wrestling with her thoughts. “It’s okay darling, take all the time you need,” Rarity cooed in what she hoped was a soothing way as she floated a box of tissues over to the table.

Pinkie took one with a muffled “Thanks,” and blew her nose. Whatever it was Applejack had wanted to talk about, Rarity could tell it had had quite an effect on Pinkie.

Rarity sat with her in silence, trying not to let her mind speculate too much as she waited for Pinkie to resume. She didn’t even let a hint of the aneurysm she was having show through each time Pinkie let a soiled tissue fall to the floor next to her, instead just adding ’Burn rug, disinfect floor, and buy new rug’ to her mental to do list. Finally Pinkie appeared ready to continue.

“She told me,” Pinkie paused, and for a moment Rarity thought she was going to lapse back into silence before she sucked in a big breath and spoke. “...She told me she’s in love with me.”

Rarity’s eyes widened as she silently thanked Celestia they didn’t have their tea yet, because she almost definitely would have done a spit take, and ladies quite simply did not do spit takes. However little she may have expected that, though, she didn’t understand why Pinkie seemed to be in so much pain over it. She reached a hoof over to Pinkie’s shoulder and gave it a gentle rub.

“I had no idea,” was all she could think to say at first, but Pinkie made no effort to continue, instead resuming her examination of the table cloth as she sniffled and reached for another tissue. Rarity squirmed. “I… I must admit, Pinkie, I don’t think I understand. Is that why you’re so upset?”

“Yes! I mean, well, no, not because she loves me, but because of what that means!” Pinkie stood up on her hind legs, slamming her front hooves onto the table and looking directly in Rarity’s eyes.

Raritty craned her neck backwards so that she could maintain eye contact, or possibly just to put a little more distance between herself and Pinkie. The suddenness of her change in demeanor was somewhat startling, after all.

“And, er, what exactly does that mean?” She asked, hoping to gain some insight into what Pinkie meant.

“All I want is for my friends to be happy,” Pinkie mumbled as she sat back down, letting the side of her head rest on the table as new tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m not stupid. I know sometimes I take it a little too far and I can get on ponies’ nerves when I get excited, which, let’s face it, is like all the time, but I only do that because I really, really want everyone to be happy.” Without raising her head, Pinkie gave Rarity a look that seemed to indicate she’d given ample explanation, but Rarity was still confused.

“I’m sorry, but I still don’t--” Rarity started, but Pinkie cut her off.

“How do you not see it?” Pinkie grabbed the sides of her head in apparent frustration. “My entire life has been devoted to making ponies happy, which is fine as long as we’re friends, because I’d never do anything to hurt my friends! But if Applejack loves me, it means… It means I have to break her heart. No matter what I say, it’s going to lead to same thing, and that’s the last thing I want for any of my friends! I can say no and break her heart now, or I can say yes and break her heart later. Either way I’m the bad guy. Either way I’m the pony who made Applejack sad,” Pinkie mumbled the last sentence.

The tea kettle began whistling right as Rarity opened her mouth to respond, which she was somewhat glad for given that she didn’t have the faintest idea what to say to that. “Excuse me a moment.” She said as she got up from the table and walked to the kitchen.

Rarity quickly poured the water into two cups and levitated over a pair of tea bags, with which she returned to the table. “I do hope Pomegranate is alright with you, as it’s all I have left.”

“Pomegranate… That’s a funny word,” Pinkie mumbled, her head still in her hooves. Rarity placed one of the tea cups in front of Pinkie and sat back down with her own, enjoying the aroma as much as she could while she waited for it to steep and cool.

“So what did you say?” Rarity asked.

“I… Well… Remember how I said I did a bad thing?” Pinkie gave a sheepish grin.

Rarity raised one eyebrow for several long seconds before realization struck her. “Pinkie, please don’t tell me that means what I think it means.”

“That depends. Do you think it means I forgot to add sugar to the sixteen batches of cupcakes I made yesterday? Because then, the answer is no, that is not what it means.” Pinkie shrunk back in her seat. As exasperating as this was, it was at least nice to see Pinkie making a joke, some sense of normalcy seeping back into the conversation. It was clear that getting this all off her chest was helping her on some level, which Rarity was glad for.

Rarity brought a hoof to her temple as she squeezed her eyes shut. “So you told her nothing, then.”

Pinkie cast her gaze downward, tapping her hooves together. “I just thought, maybe if I didn’t answer one way or the other, then maybe I wouldn’t have to. We could just,” Pinkie paused to sniffle again. “We could just move on and keep being happy.”

“I can only guess how that worked out for you,” Rarity said, immediately regretting the frustration in her voice as Pinkie recoiled slightly.

“After the party she asked if we could talk, and I panicked.” Whatever degree of calm Pinkie had recovered was once again escaping her, as Rarity saw her tearing up again and reaching for the tissues.

“What happened?”

“I just didn’t want to hurt her, so I,” Pinkie blew her nose again. “I tricked her. I told her to go downstairs and then I locked my door. She was crying, Rarity. Applejack was crying, and it was all my fault. I’m a horrible pony.”

To say Rarity was shocked that her friend would do something so underhanded wouldn’t have been out of line, but on some level, she understood. “You know that isn’t true, Pinkie. She was upset, I’m sure, but you’re not a horrible pony, you just made a mistake. Applejack may be upset with you, but she will forgive you in time.”

Pinkie was rubbing her muzzle with a foreleg. “She probably never wants to talk to me again,” Pinkie lamented.

Rarity sat back in her chair, thinking. Something about this whole situation seemed off, and it took her time to figure out what it was. “I can help you, Pinkie, but I need you to understand that of all the choices available, you chose the worst. Possible. One.”

“I know.”

“Good. Then I have a few questions before we make a plan of action,” Rarity said, putting on an air of leadership. “You’ve said a lot about how Applejack feels about you, and how you responded, but you haven’t said how you feel about her.”

“Guilty, mostly.”

“No, I mean, how does she make you feel? Not at this exact moment, but in general?” Rarity sipped her tea.

Pinkie blinked once, apparently unsure what to say. Pinkie seemed to be searching her face for a tell before shrugging and saying, “Good?”

Rarity facehoofed. “There’s no wrong answer here, darling, just talk about her. Whatever comes to mind.”

Pinkie tapped her chin with a hoof for a moment and gave a soft hmmm “Okay. Well, she’s one of my best friends, but of course you know that. She’s orange, which is a great, happy color. She’s super hard working, which is respectable even if I think she could stand to take more time to relax. She’s one of the best bakers ever, sometimes I think she’s even better than I am! And she has a really fun accent even though she doesn’t think she has an accent, and...”

Rarity watched as Pinkie animatedly--It was so good to see Pinkie looking animated again--talked about Applejack, a smile slowly returning to her face as she listed off things about their friend.

“... She’s got a really cool hat that she wears everywhere, and I mean everywhere, she even had it at Princess Cadence’s wedding, and I think she might even sleep in it, which is kinda silly,” Pinkie giggled before resuming, “She’s one of the most patient ponies I know, like when Fluttershy is having trouble facing a fear or when Twilight is trying to explain something with big words and the rest of us have already tuned her out hours ago, or when I get over excited and I’m being annoying but not quite pickle barrel kumquat chimicherrychanga annoying. And of course, she’s super dependable, and honest, and she’s always doing her best to help everypony out, even when it’s not convenient for her. She’s got great teeth, which is important, because she has a great smile. I love seeing her smile.” Pinkie paused for a moment, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Why?”

Rarity took another sip of her tea. “Just some reconnaissance, dear. I have another question for you.”

“What’s that?” Pinkie tilted her head to the side like a confused dog.

“You said you didn’t want to answer because you didn’t want to hurt her, which I understand, but I happen to know that you’ve dated ponies before. Why is this time so different?” Rarity asked, placing her empty tea cup on the table before her.

Pinkie shook her head with a sigh. “I don’t know.”

Rarity felt the corners of her mouth turn up slightly. “You don’t have to draw any conclusions right now, dear, but I want you to think about it. I know you don’t want to hurt Applejack, but if you’ll indulge me, think about what is really holding you back.”

Pinkie may have been suspicious before, but now Rarity had no doubt wheels were turning inside her pink little head as she raised an eyebrow. “What are you saying?”

“I’m not saying anything,” Rarity scoffed as she raised a defensive hoof, “I’m simply asking you to think it over.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Okie dokie lokie. So what now?”

“I think you know what you have to do now.” Rarity tried not to sound condescending, but she suspected she failed.

“I need… to… go talk to Applejack?”

Rarity nodded in a satisfied way. “Yes.”

“But,” Pinkie slumped dejectedly, “What if she doesn’t want to see me right now? I’m not even sure I want to see me right now.”

Rarity touched a hoof to Pinkie’s emphatically. “Applejack may be mad at you right now, and frankly, I couldn’t blame her if she was.” Rarity paused and took a breath. “But we both know that she will forgive you with time. For the moment, you need to go put your cards on the table, so to speak. If you don’t attempt to make it right, then it won’t get better. And I know Applejack means more to you than that. She does to all of us.”

Rarity silently wished she’d had the opportunity to refill her tea cup at some point as she watched Pinkie take a deep breath. “Yeah… you’re right. Thanks, Rarity.”

“It’s no problem, Pinkie.” Rarity smiled as she moved in to hug her.

“I’ll get out of your mane now so you can finish your dresses for your big fancy showcase!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing out the door looking infinitely more like herself than she had when she'd arrived. “I’ll let you know how it goes!” Rarity heard her voice echo in from outside.

Rarity gasped. In all the drama and intrigue of Pinkie’s story, she’d completely forgotten that she was supposed to be working. She looked up at the clock on the wall and saw it reading 1 in the afternoon. Apparently her conversation with Pinkie had lasted much longer than she’d intended.

“... Oh, buck me,” was all she could say, and she was glad no one was around to hear a lady swear.

PHP: The Rebeginninging

Applejack did not take days off. It was a simple fact, as simple and clear as the three red apples that adorned her flank; An undeniable truth, a part of her very being. Some days there were fewer tasks that needed doing than others, sure. Maybe her obsessive work ethic occasionally drove her to get far enough ahead of schedule that proceeding to the next step of a given process was actually impossible. There was always more to do, though; Some roof that needed reparing, some fence that needed mending, some extra pies that needed baking. Besides, she didn’t need too much free time in her life. She had become quite adept at finding time to put in a full day’s work and still see her friends, or go for a run, or whatever else it was she wanted to do. Yep, Applejack didn’t take days off. She didn’t need them.

It frustrated her to no end, then, that Granny Smith would have insisted just the opposite. She’d tried to argue. Tried to explain away her red, puffy eyes, or her quivering step, or her unusually shallow appetite. She’d done everything in her power to show that she was one hundred percent a-okay to get back to the daily grind.

And yet Granny Smith would have none of it. She’d said she was ‘worried’ about Applejack’s ‘well-being’. Something about ‘being under a lot of stress lately’ and ‘going through a hard time’ and ‘not wanting to see her burn herself out’--Ha! If I was gonna burn myself out, wouldn’ I be the first ta know it? Applejack frowned.

Also something about not wanting to see any more trees bent at 30 degree angles, which Applejack did have to admit was fair.

This, though, this was unfair, that’s what it was. Granny Smith even had the gall to suggest that Applejack--Applejack, the most dependable of ponies--seemed under the weather.

Well… Maybe that wasn’t so far fetched. She hadn’t slept well last night, and she was feeling a bit queasy and maybe a tad feverish. But what was Applejack supposed to do about that if she wasn’t allowed to help Big Mac out in the fields today? It was like Granny Smith didn’t understand her own granddaughter. She didn’t understand how she worked or operated; She didn’t understand that if she didn’t cut out all of this ‘relaxing’ and ‘rejuvenating’ nonsense, she wouldn’t having anything to distract her.

Not that she needed distraction. There was definitely no reason she needed to be anywhere other than alone with her thoughts today. If she was just allowed to go out to the field and drive her hooves into the bark of some trees, she’d be right as rain in no time.

Applejack banged her forehead onto her desk and left it there. Unfortunately, the Apple matriarch had left no two ways about it, and Applejack, even frustrated as she was, wasn’t about to backtalk her granny. She’d protested as much as she could, of course, but when it became clear that Granny Smith would hear none of it, she’d accepted her fate and solemnly slouched off to her room to ‘recuperate’.

Recuperate. Relax. Rejuvenate. Why did all these words have a ‘re’ in the front of them? That was stupid and inefficient. Applejack could lax, juvenate, and cuperate all at once out in the fields, she was pretty sure.

The fact that Big Mac had locked the cider cellar and taken the key with him out into the fields certainly didn’t improve her mood, either. Maybe she could climb out her window, buck the doors open and get back to her room with a keg before anypony noticed, but how was she then to explain the broken doors? Or the empty keg in her room? Maybe she could hide it in her closet… But then again, how was she supposed to get the keg through her second story window in the first place?

Even if it wasn’t meant to be, at least that short burst of brainstorming occupied her thoughts for a few minutes. It’d done a better job at that than trying to read that stupid book Rarity had given her, ’Bleat, Graze, Love’.

Well, Bleat and Graze weren’t that bad, actually, but Love was hogwash. She didn’t need to read that right now.

Applejack groaned. Maybe Granny Smith was right. Maybe she wasn’t doing herself any favors by pretending she was fine when apparently everypony in Equestria could tell she wasn’t. What would her friends do right now, if they were in her shoes?

Rainbow Dash would probably go flying, maybe break some things by “accidentally” crashing into them, but since Applejack had no wings, that didn’t seem like useful information, so she moved on.

Fluttershy would recommend some pet therapy, Applejack imagined, and by all rights that didn’t sound too bad. Playing with Winona probably would make her feel a bit better; Unconditional love had a way of doing that. Unfortunately, Winona was out in the fields with Big Mac, and Applejack wasn’t entirely sure she felt like going out there to find her. Besides, Granny Smith would probably tan her hide if she saw her trying to move in the cardinal direction of any apple trees whatsoever, so maybe she could save that for later when Big Mac came in for the evening. At least then she had something to look forward to. Moving on, then…

Twilight would tell her to make a list of pros and cons, or maybe write a letter to the Princess. While a pros and cons list seemed perhaps not the most applicable thing to this situation, and the Princess almost certainly didn’t need to hear about the jam she’d found herself in, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to go ahead and write down how she was feeling. At least that way she didn’t have to tell anypony else, and they wouldn’t have to worry about her not being fit to work, because if one thing was sure, it was that there was no way she was going to get stuck on ‘recuperating’ duty two days in a row. Thankfully it was already almost 6'o'clock now, so she didn’t have that much longer to go.

Deciding to see what fruits this idea might bear, Applejack grabbed a pencil and a sheet of paper from her desk drawer and placed them in front of her, smoothing out some wrinkles from the paper and looking at it. She grabbed the pencil between her teeth and tapped her chin. Where should she begin, then?

She was just about to press the graphite down when she heard a knock on the door. “Applejack, ye got a visitor!” Granny Smith’s voice came through the door and startled her into dropping the pencil.

“Consarnit,” Applejack muttered as she hopped off her chair and bent down to grab her fallen writing implement. “Who is it?” she asked, not paying much attention.

“The bouncy pink one yer always goin’ on about.”

Applejack’s first reaction was to blush and shout “Granny!” in an embarrassed fashion, so she did. Her second reaction, though, was to feel a wave of anger and pain wash over her mind as the pencil fell out of her mouth again.

Wait… Pinkie’s here? Applejack felt her stomach turn and her mouth was suddenly dry. What was Pinkie doing here? When it became clear the pencil had no intention of answering her question, she decided maybe she should ask something with vocal chords instead. “What’s she doin’ here?”

“Says she wants t’ talk to you ‘bout somethin’. Maybe she heard ya’ll weren’t feelin’ so well?” Granny’s voice came from the other side of the door, far too happily for Applejack’s liking.

Oh, NOW she wants to talk? Applejack frowned hard, picking up the pencil and placing it on her desk. “Tell her I’m sleepin’. I ain’t in the mood for no visitors.”

“Come now Applejack, where’s yer sense of hospitality?” the elder mare’s voice scolded. Applejack was about to make a retort of some kind when she heard her door creak open and turned to look. “Besides, it’s too late fer that, I already let her in!”

Applejack willed her eyes not to widen, but they did anyway. There in the doorway stood Granny Smith, and behind her, Pinkie Pie, who took a step forward and smiled a small, apologetic looking smile.

Suddenly, climbing out the window didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all. “You kids have fun now,” Granny Smith grinned as she backed out of the doorway and slowly began walking down the hall.

The two ponies stared at each other in silence for what felt like several long minutes as they listened to Granny Smith’s hooves slowly descend the stairs, Pinkie wearing her small, hesitant smile and Applejack trading in her wide eyed shock for a furrowed brow and determined frown.

Finally Pinkie cleared her throat. “So… You talk about me a lot, huh?” She said in a teasing sort of way that Applejack would have none of.

Now, if there was one thing that Applejack was good at… Well, to be honest, it was Apple Bucking. But if there were two things she was good at, the second was definitely looking in the opposite direction from that of a pony whom she was upset with.

Thank Celestia then that she was good at two things, as she wasted no more time in turning her back on the pink mare and planting her hindquarters on the floor. “Why’re you here? What d’you want?”

As she waited for a response, Applejack noticed just how still the air felt. She wished her window was open, as a breeze would certainly be nice right about now. As it was the air hung still like… Like… Like some apples on a tree waiting to be bucked? Whatever, Applejack wasn’t feeling terribly creative at the moment.

Even without looking at Pinkie’s face, Applejack could hear the hurt in her voice. “I thought maybe we could talk now.”

Applejack snorted. “Ha. Hah hah hah! Oh, that’s rich, ain’t it?” Maybe Applejack was only good at one thing after all, as she immediately rounded on Pinkie, laughing as hard as she could manage. “You want to talk now. Wait, wait, don’t tell me. Where’s Rainbow? She gonna pop in my bedroom any moment and you two’s gonna have a nice laugh about it? Well, sorry to disappoint, sugarcube,” she laced the word with venom, “but I reckon I ain’t got much t’say t’you no more, so y’all can just be on your way then.” Applejack finished with a very satisfied ‘Harumph!’ and turned around once more.

Much to her chagrin, though, there was no sound of hoofsteps retreating. Applejack hoped that maybe Pinkie had finally consumed enough sugar that she’d developed the inexplicable ability to hover, but the familiar high voice confirmed that she was still standing in her doorway. “I’m sorry, Applejack,” she said, sounding like she really meant it.

No, apologies weren’t allowed. Apologies would mean Applejack would have to accept them, and then stop being angry, but being angry felt so good. “Oh, you’re sorry now, are ya? Great, I am too. Say, wouldn’tcha know it, I was just cleanin’ up my room here,” Applejack paused to grab her pencil off the desk and toss it over to land at Pinkie’s hooves, “wanna help? You can take that pencil downstairs for me, and when you get back we can talk.” She punctuated this with the angriest glare she could contort her face into.

Pinkie Pie shrunk back as her eyes looked for something to find purchase on. Clearly Applejack’s reference hit home. Good. Wasn’t that good? It was what she wanted when she’d said it, after all. For some reason, though, it just made her feel guilty.

“I’m really, super sorry. I just didn’t want to hurt you, but I messed up bad, and I guess I hurt you anyway…” Pinkie trailed off, her eyes having finally settled on her hooves, with which she had picked up the pencil to idly roll between them. “I wasn’t thinking-”

“There’s a surprise.” Applejack cut her off, but Pinkie pressed on, undeterred by the insult.

“-about how you were feeling, or how selfish I was being…” Pinkie paused, a pained, muffled sound escaping her lips.

Silence retook the room. Applejack stared down at her own hooves, and she began to think about her imaginary Twilight’s advice again. Maybe pros and cons were more applicable to her present situation than she’d thought. Here Pinkie was trying to apologize, and Applejack was just throwing it back in her face. Even if she was getting the pro of having her anger satisfied, the con of hurting her friend in the process was much larger.

“But if you really want me to go, I will.” Pinkie muttered, putting the pencil back down. “I didn’t really think you’d want to see me right now, anyway,” she said, turning away from the door and beginning to move down the hallway.

Applejack grimaced, cursing her own good nature for ruining what should have been a great moment of angry sulking for her. She quickly followed Pinkie out to the hallway and called to her before she got to the stairs. “Wait.”

Pinkie stopped, but didn’t turn around. Applejack pressed on. “I’m sorry too. Really. That wasn't right of me, those things I just said,” she sighed, “I’ve just been so confused these last couple’a days. Y’all can understand that, can’tcha? You didn’t give me nothin’ to hold on to.”

“I know,” Pinkie said softly from her position at the stairs, sitting down.

Applejack closed the rest of the distance, sitting down next to her friend. The two sat for a moment, each trying to think of what to say next until Applejack spoke up. “And I’m sorry I broke your door, too. But I don’t really wanna go on bein’ mad in the long run, so… Let’s just put this whole mess behind us. Whaddaya say,” Applejack turned to look into Pinkie’s eyes, extended a hoof and put on the best smile her jumbled mood could manage “... Friends?”

To her surprise, though, no sapphire eyes met her, instead averting their gaze to the bottom of the stairs. Applejack weathered the silence, her mind running amok with possible reasons for Pinkie’s ambivalence. Had Applejack been so mean just then that she didn’t want to be friends any more? Did that door have some sentimental value Applejack didn't know about? She pinned her ears back and put her hoof down. “What’s wrong, sugarcube?” She managed to eke out, but not by much.

Pinkie took a deep breath, still staring down to the bottom of the stairs. “I just don’t understand,” she said softly.

Applejack shut her eyes tight before attempting the friendliest posture she could muster. “You don’t understand what, sugarcube?”

Again there was silence, though it was shorter this time. “I don’t understand why you love me.”

Applejack felt her eyebrows raise in surprise at that. “What?” She asked, her voice undermining her with a crack.

Pinkie shook her head. “It doesn’t really make any sense. I mean, you’re Applejack; You’re always so tough, and serious. I don’t mean you can’t have fun, but… we’re so different. And I know I annoy you. I don’t try to, but sometimes I just can’t help myself; I get excited about some little thing, and the next thing I know you’re grinding your teeth, or you’re begging the others to get you away from me, like in Dodge Junction...”

“I’m sorry Pinks, it was kind of a bad day…” Applejack winced at how lame she sounded, though to be fair to herself, it was true.

“... And I don’t know the first thing about apple farming. It’s way harder than rock farming, and I ran away from that.”

Applejack chewed on her tongue as she thought about what Pinkie said. She knew why she loved Pinkie. Of course she did. She’d simply never put it into words before. “... I love you because…” The problem was that the words weren’t readily available to her. As she thought about it, Pinkie gave her a sad smile and shook her head.

“That’s why I… Why I did what I did,” Pinkie said softly. “It’s not that I don’t love you, or that I don’t think we’d have a super fun time, but eventually you’d get sick of me, and we’d break up and we might not even be friends anymore, and… And I don’t want that to happen.”

Applejack felt her entire chest seize up as she listened to her friend’s explanation. “That’s crazy talk, Pinks. I mean, even if it didn’t work out, we’d–”

“It’s easy to say that now,” Pinkie interrupted, “but what if we wouldn’t? It happens all the time, Applejack. Ponies fall in love, and then they… They stop loving each other, completely. And I don’t want that to be us.”

“But it doesn’t happen every time,” Applejack countered with as level a voice as she could manage. “I mean, what about Mr. and Mrs. Cake? They haven’t stopped loving each other, right?”

Pinkie was silent for a moment and Applejack could hear every thud of her heartbeat in her head.

“I’m scared, Applejack,” Pinkie finally said.

“What?” Applejack asked before she could stop herself. The idea of Pinkie being afraid of anything was so bizarre that she couldn’t believe she’d heard her right.

“I’m scared,” Pinkie repeated, and Applejack saw a tear rolling down her cheek. “If I say yes, and we fall in love, and things don’t turn out like you want them to… I’m scared you’ll hate me.”

“But…” Applejack worked her jaw as she tried to coax any sort of counter argument out of her mouth. “... But Pinks, I’d never hate you. I–”

“I’m sorry Applejack, but I can’t take that chance,” Pinkie said shakily.

Applejack could barely even breathe. “What are you sayin’?”

“I’m…” Pinkie made eye contact for the briefest of moments before standing and looking back down the stairs. “I’m saying no,” she said, and took a step.

Applejack watched Pinkie descend in silence. Of all the things she could have expected to hear for an explanation, this had never even entered her mind as a possibility.

“I hope you can forgive me,” Pinkie said from the landing without turning her head, and then walked out the door, leaving a trail of tears across the living room.

Applejack sat in her spot at the top of the stairs and pulled her hat down to cover her eyes. She didn’t need to see anything right now, and the dark was comforting.

“Howdy, Applejack. Yer little friend gone?” Granny’s voice asked from somewhere below her.

“Yeah,” Applejack responded plainly as she got up and turned down the hallway. “I’ll be in my room,” she said, and disappeared from Granny’s view.

I Swear I'm Not Dead.

Rainbow Dash’s neckhairs stood on end as she heard the inevitable thumps of orange hooves on wood.

She’s coming, Rainbow thought.

She suppressed a yawn as she rolled forward and balanced her forehooves against the trunk of the tree; There was no time for yawning when battle approached. This was always how it went… Rainbow would be enjoying a nice quiet nap in an apple tree when Applejack would come along, bucking trees until she found Rainbow napping in her tree, at which point she’d knock her out of it for no apparent reason.

Rainbow was wise to her game, though. It took her awesome vision less than 1.3 seconds to locate her approaching assailant; Moving swiftly from tree to tree, Applejack…

Well… Actually, she wasn’t moving all that fast. Rainbow narrowed her gaze and pulled her pillow to her chest. Normally Applejack darted from tree to tree, turning and kicking and flinging buckets in a blur of apple-harvesting… Umm… Apple harvesting. But now she was just… Not. She was barely even harvesting anything, actually. She just kinda… walked slowly up to a tree and gently struck it with one hoof.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head. One hoof? Rainbow wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Applejack give less than two hooves to a buck. And she didn’t even put any power into it!

Rainbow gasped as she realized what was going on; Applejack was trying to lull her into a false sense of security! By moving slowly and using little energy in her kicks, she planned to sneak up all quiet-like and Wham! Knock her out of the tree.

Rainbow snickered to herself. She was wise to her game. Any moment now AJ would dart over and kick her tree, and she’d be ready with a 360 Double-Hoof Branch Grab, or maybe a Tail Twist transitioning into a Trunk Wrapper 6000; She couldn’t plan these things ahead, flexibility was important.

As Applejack plodded toward the adjacent tree, Rainbow took a deep breath. The moment of truth; Would AJ go for the fake out, almost kicking that tree only to break off at the last second to sprint over and kick this one instead? Or perhaps she’d just dash straight for the killing blow in a display of brute force and speed?

Applejack reached the other tree and lifted one hind leg. Rainbow tensed her muscles in preparation.

A tiny thump stagnated in the air as Applejack’s hoof tapped against the tree’s bark, one apple lazily deciding to give up and fall into the basket below. Applejack turned to look at it, sighed, and picked the apple up in her mouth before plodding slowly over to the apple cart.

Rainbow scratched her chin. She didn’t opt for the fake out after all… Unless, this was just a more elaborate fake out. That must have been it; She knew Dash would be ready for her, so she walked back to the cart as an excuse to get a couple extra footfalls in her sprint to pick up enough speed to–

“Hey RD,” Applejack mumbled as she plodded past Rainbow’s tree to the next one in line.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Uh… Hey?”

Applejack just… kept plodding. When she reached the next tree, she turned, gave it one limp kick, collected the fallen apple and went on her way.

Rainbow untensed her body and rubbed her neck. This was weird. Applejack never passed up an opportunity to kick her out of a tree. It was one of her all time favorite things to do, right up there with… Well… with Applebucking.

“Aren’t you gonna try to get me out of your tree?” Rainbow called out.

Applejack sighed, eyes cast to the ground as she tapped the next tree with a hoof. “Nah... You’re havin’ yerself a nap, I reckon you deserve it…”

Rainbow felt a pit open up in her stomach. She had to be sure. “Yeah, I do,” Rainbow said slowly. “Anyway, I bet you couldn’t even knock me out of the tree if you tried.”

Applejack shook her head. “Probably not… Reckon I’m not much good fer nothin’ right now…”

Rainbow’s eyes went wide as she heard Applejack’s words. She didn’t even get a little angry at her taunt. Clearly something terrible must have happened. Hopping out of the tree, Rainbow glided over and landed next to her friend, grabbing her by the shoulders and looking deep into her eyes. “AJ, are you okay?”

Applejack grunted an unintelligible response and headed for the next tree. Rainbow chewed on her cheek.

“Did you pull a muscle or something?”

Applejack shook her head as she tapped the next tree. “I’m fine, Dash. Just go back to nappin’.”

“No,” Rainbow said with a glare, floating in front of her friend at hoof’s reach. “Something’s up with you, and I wanna know what it is.”

Applejack started narrowing her eyes, but abandoned the action halfway through and hung her head. “You’re not gonna go away until I tell you, are ya?”

“Nope.”

Applejack sighed. “Fine. Pinkie said no. Now go away.”

Rainbow watched as Applejack walked off toward the next tree. “Uh… what?”

Applejack grunted back at her, stomping her hooves. “I told ye what’s wrong, now skedaddle!”

Rainbow creased her brow. “What do you mean, Pinkie said no? Like, you asked her out?”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “How much cloud you got stuck in yer ears? Yes, I asked her out, and she said no!”

“But… That doesn’t make any sense,” Rainbow said, as much to herself as to Applejack. “I really thought she liked you…”

Applejack took a deep breath in through her nose and sat down on the ground. “You’re gonna make me talk about it, ain’cha?”

“Well,” Rainbow started, pausing to chew on her lip. She didn’t really want to talk about, like, feelings or whatever. She’d made it all these years without them, breaking that streak now kind of seemed like admitting defeat in some way. She’d much rather just play horseshoes or steal AJ’s hat or something.

But on the other hoof, Applejack looked decidedly less awesome than normal. If she was upset enough that it showed through her usual thick skin, she must’ve really been hurting. She couldn’t just let that go without at least trying to help.

“... Do you think it would help?” she asked softly.

Applejack pawed at the ground in silence for a few moments before drawing a shuddering breath. “Maybe,” she croaked. “S’not like I’m gettin’ much work done anyway… Granny has me on ‘light duty.’”

“Okay,” Rainbow said, walking over to Applejack’s side and sitting next to her. “So uh… I’m not super good at this, right? So why don’t you just, uh, tell me what happened?” She watched as Applejack mulled her thoughts over, her heavy green eyes flickering across the dirt.

“... I thought knowing would make it better,” Applejack finally said.

… That didn’t make any sense. “What do you mean?”

Applejack took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’m a tough pony, right? And I thought, for some stupid reason, that if I just knew if she liked me or not, that I’d be fine either way. That it’d be better’n wonderin’. S’not like I never got rejected before, yanno?”

Rainbow sucked air in through her teeth. All this confusing mushy stuff was exactly why she chose not to have feelings in the first place. “So… She doesn’t like you, and knowing didn’t make it better?”

“That’s the problem, though!” Applejack shouted with surprising gusto. “She said she does like me!”

Rainbow cocked her head. Apparently these ‘feelings’ things were even more complicated than she’d realized. “And that’s… bad?”

“I don’t even know…”

Rainbow shifted her hooves, unfolded her wings, folded them again, and shifted her hooves back into place. “I don’t get it.”

“Sorry, I’m not explainin’ myself all that well… She said she likes me, but she doesn’t wanna date me anyway.”

“... Why not?”

“I dunno, she doesn’t wanna mess it up, I guess… She thinks I’ll get sick of ‘er, and we’ll break up and hate each other.”

“That’s, uh…” Rainbow paused as she tried to gauge what sort of reaction Applejack wanted from her, but her moping was difficult to read. “... crazy?”

“I know that, and you know that, but how do I get Pinkie t’see that?”

“I have no idea.”

“So that’s it, then,” Applejack said with a sigh. “I get to go to my grave knowin’ I was this close, but–”

“Stoppit!” Rainbow shouted, surprised by her own sudden burst of volume, and the horrible sensation in her stomach that accompanied it. “AJ, you’re… You’re being stupid!”

“Pardon?” Applejack jerked backwards, eyes open wide.

“So you’re upset, fine, but you can’t just give up! That’s not the Applejack I know. You’re supposed to be, like, the most stubborn pony ever!”

Applejack creased her brow. “Is this s’posed t’be a pep talk?”

“Sure! Whatever’ll get you to stop with the pity party,” Rainbow seethed. “If you’re not happy, don’t just putz around the farm feeling sorry for yourself… Get out there and change Pinkie’s mind!”

Applejack raised up onto her hooves and snarled. “Yanno, Rainbow, I don’t rightly remember askin’ for yer advice…”

“Too bad!” Rainbow shouted, swooping over her and swiping her hat away.

“Hey! Rainbow, give that back! I ain’t in the mood for any a’ yer games right now!”

Rainbow landed in the boughs of a tree and stuck out her tongue. “Yeah, well, I gotta do something to get you acting like yourself!” Applejack stamped her hooves and blew a burst of air out her nose. Rainbow grinned. That looked like the Applejack she knew. “Come on, Applesnack, just try to knock me out of the–”

The next thing she knew, Rainbow was on her back looking up at the sky as Applejack passed through the corner of her vision, her hat restored to its rightful place atop her head.

“Yanno what, Rainbow? You were right. I do feel more like m’self,” she chuckled.

“–tree,” Rainbow wheezed.

“I can’t just give up ‘cause things’re lookin’ bleak… I gotta try harder! That’s the Apple way!”

“Ow…”

Applejack walked over and held a hoof out to her fallen friend. “Sorry. Need a lil’ help?”

Rainbow let Applejack help her up to her hooves and stretched her wings. “Don’t worry about it, that barely even counts as a crash.”

“... Thanks, Rainbow, fer talkin’ some sense into me,” Applejack said, smiling gently.

Rainbow grinned and brushed the dirt out of her mane. “Any time. So, what are you gonna do?”

Applejack’s smile faltered. “... Oh. Yeah, guess I need a plan, huh?”

“Can’t be that hard to come up with something. We’ve just gotta find a way to show Pinkie you’re totally awesome, right?”

Applejack nodded, tapping a hoof to her chin. “Not just awesome, but that I won’t get sick of ‘er and wanna break up and wind up hatin’ her for the rest a’ my life.”

“I still think that’s ridiculous,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “I mean, you’re Applejack! You’re, like, the loyalest pony ever!”

“Uh… Don’t ya mean ‘most loyal?’”

“No,” Rainbow said with a snicker, “I’m pretty sure it’s loyalest. I’m the Element of Loyalty, I should know.”

“If you say so,” Applejack said, rolling her eyes.

“Maybe she just needs a little reminder. I could talk to her,” Rainbow offered.

“That might be a little transparent, don’cha think?”

“Right. So I’ve just gotta be cool about it.” Rainbow smirked, donning her sunglasses.

Applejack scratched her neck. “Yeah… So, I think I got a better idea. Why don’t you invite her to a game of horseshoes?”

“Horseshoes?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “How’s that gonna help?”

“Just… Trust me, okay? Invite her to play horseshoes with us, and you can subtly mention to her that I’m the most loy–”

“Loyalest.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “–Loyalest pony you know.”

“Got it. Horseshoes, subtle, loyal. Wait here, I’ll be right back!” Rainbow launched herself into the air, taking a direct path to Sugarcube Corner, ignoring Applejack’s shouts of what were almost certainly gratitude echoing behind her.

“I didn’t mean right now!” Applejack called to the rapidly shrinking blue dot flying away from her. Sighing, she turned back to the apple trees.

“... Maybe I shoulda gotten Rarity to invite her to the spa…”