Apples by twilight.

Dammit, not another one... Applejack was tired; she'd been stacking hay bales at the darn rodeo for almost a four days now and she was sick of it. The hay made her eyes water and her sinuses act up, the relentless sun beating down on her back. Sitting down heavily on one of them she stared up at the clear blue sky, letting her hair flow around her in a scraggly mess, almost blending in with her makeshift seat. She sighed, looking around grumpily. There was not a lot going on, most of the events had been for the day and the ones that hadn't were situated out of the stadium. The stadium couldn't actually be called that, it was only a bunch of hay bales piled up in a rickety fashion. Heck, it almost looked as if they were going to fall over and crush someone any moment. Not that there were many people around, only Larry and Golden Pie picking up litter, their rubbish sacks bulging with the stink of old silage and trampled hay fries.

She sighed a tired sigh and kicking up in a somewhat athletic manoeuvre, decided that she'd done enough work for today. Picking up her things, only a handkerchief, her day's pay (a meager few bits) and a knife, she slowly plodded off to her quarters, an unused hay loft that nopony had bothered to check for any free-loading overnighters. But that was the appealing thing about free-loading, it was free. “To be perfectly honest” AJ mused to herself, “if they'd cared what stayed in that barn they'd have put doors on it.” She of course, was right. The barn itself belonged to a retired peach family member, too old, or for that matter motivated, to keep his farm up to the standard that it was used to. The loft was comfortable enough but the barn was strewn with old machinery, making the sleepily plods for AJ each morning potentially life threatening. But against all odds (and a couple of rusty nails) she clambered up the ladder and into her temporary home. Alright, first things first, AJ. Usually a pony of casualness and 'she'll be fiiiine, sugar cube..' motto AJ was on a surprisingly strict schedule when it came to the safety of her personal belongings. First came the money, carefully counting it into her sack she used for a pillow, and then.... Suddenly hearing a noise she looked up, her heart rate rising in surprise. It... It was Twilight... “Hi Applejack, I thought I'd stop by and visit!” Her purple friend's face was stretched in a massive smile, obviously ecstatic to see her. “Uh, yeah... Ahm, tell me exactly, how in the hay did you find me here?” The smile grew wider. “What, aren't I allowed to keep tabs on my friends?” AJ's freckles stretched slightly as she began to get irritated. “Twilight, you'd best tell me how you found me! I wanted security, not 'barge in and have a rye-grass salad together'-ity.” The intruder held her hoof in the air, showing a glowing tracker beacon, her eyes teasing and playful. “Come and get me...”

“Uh... Wow... That was...” It was 2 hours later, the obscenities that had occurred still fresh and confusing in AJ's mind. Twilight quickly kissed her companion on her lips lovingly, stopping her from talking further and began to lick slowly around the tip of her ear. “Perfect? Exciting?” The pegasus stopped licking, staring into AJ's eyes hypnotic. “So perfectly right?” AJ nodded weakly, pressing as close as she could to her... Her... Her marefriend. Yeah, that sounded about right.. Snuggling her snout lovingly into Twilight's fur she finally felt... Whole again.. She'd never even thought of how much she'd missed her friends or needed some relief; she must've just pushed it to the back of her mind, where all of the other stress went. But now, with the warmth of the evening summer sun and the tender touch of her new-found lover, the orange pony soon was overtaken by sleep in a contented blanket of loving and her eyes slowly closed, Celestia's student gently beginning to stroke through her mane.

Yeah... This... This was what she needed..