The sun had risen and the trees were calling her, but something was just off about today. Today had been wrong in every sense of the word so far. She had slept in a full hour later than she wanted to, entirely forgot breakfast because of her rush, and nearly forgotten to bring the baskets with her when she left. To top all of that off it was going to be another season where she had to try and harvest all of the trees on her own. There was always her friends if she really needed some help, but Applejack was instead focused on the five miles of bad road currently walking the road next to her field.
Okay, five miles might be a little harsh, but there was something about that pony that sent shakes down the legs of the normally unshakable pony. Faith was, well, there’s an old saying about keeping quiet when you don’t have anything nice to say and she definitely felt like keeping quiet around Faith. Maybe it was the stern look that never seemed to leave her face. Maybe it was the way she seemed to go out of her way to avoid any kind of conversation with them. Or, on the other hand, it could just be the fact that Faith had freely and easily admitted to being a killer. Yup, that thought alone was enough to unnerve her completely.
The thought crossed her mind, more than once, to just ignore the figure marching past her and Applejack almost did just that. It was, at the last second, the image of the white bandage on her far wing that brought the earth pony back to reality. At once the events of that night, and the subsequent promise, were clear as day. She had promised Twi, they all had, that they were going to do their best to keep Faith put until her injuries healed. That, in reality, seemed to mean that Applejack had to confront the most dangerous pony she could imagine and take time away from apple bucking.
“Ahn where might you be off to this early?” Applejack’s voice rung with hidden desperation and she couldn’t even bring herself to move to the fence and, instead, pressed herself in close to one of the trees the next row over.
“Anywhere but here,” The brown pegasus never even looked at Applejack as she replied, or even acknowledged her as she passed by.
The tension stuck to the earth pony’s throat until it threatened to choke her down on its own. What did you tell a pony that seemed bound and determined to be as ornery as possible? There was only one solution Applejack could think of and she didn’t like it one bit, but she gulped down her pride as best as she could.
In a flash the stalwart mare cleared the row of trees and jumped the fence to land just in front of her startled counterpart, “Do yall really think you should be leaving,” She was putting on her bravest smile with a glower staring back at her that made Discord seem easy. Still, she nervously raised a hoof at the injured wing and chuckled, “Ya know, with your wing like that and all?”
Faith’s head turned for a split second, cascading her dark blue mane around and jerked right back again. The end result was a bit of frazzle and a noticeably softer grimace on her face, if not reflected in her voice, “Why should you care?”
“Because, it just wouldn’t sit right with me,” Before Applejack even knew what she was doing the change in Faith’s expression had calmed her nerves enough to rattle off her usual helping demeanor, “Letting an injured pony travel by herself. It’s down right horrible, Ah think.”
Faith’s mouth just gaped open for moments on end, like she was unable to even comprehend what the earth pony had just said. For Applejack, there was something almost fitting about this look. That normally terrifying pegasus just seemed so honest like that, so easy. A few more seconds of that face and Applejack probably would have burst into laughter, but such was not to be the case as Faith finally regained her composure, “Yeah, well, I couldn’t take it anymore. All those ponies staring at me like I’m some terrifying presence. Let’s face it, they want me gone too.”
The stunned silence continued for a few moments, this time preset by Applejack’s inability to comprehend what she had just heard. To think that a trained killer like Faith...No, she couldn’t let herself think like that again. Right here, right now, that pony seemed as much like a killer as Fluttershy, as she looked to the ground even seeming a little bit down. Yes, right now, Faith was just any other pony who really needed to be understood. Frankly, Applejack wished Pinkie was standing in her hooves right now. That pony really...
“Poink...Poink...POINK!”
Embarrassment crept across the orange mare’s face in the form of a deep red blush as she realized that she had been gaping at Faith for long enough that the pegasus had finally started tapping on her nose in an attempt to rouse her from the state. Even that action, though, seemed uncharacteristically nice for a self proclaimed killer.
“Equestria to...Err...What was your name again?”
“It’s, it’s Applejack,” She tried desperately to hide her embarrassment and, more over, the blush stained cheeks that were a little harder to explain away. Pulling down her most prized possession over her eyes and staring at the ground she couldn’t help but notice one thing. The uncomfortable closeness of the two of them. It wouldn’t take much, maybe a single hoof length, and they would be damn near touching.
“Right, Applejack. Well, are you all right then, Applejack?”
“Why should you care,” Applejack was trying her best to mimic the exact tone Faith had used earlier, but, to the best of her ability, she simply couldn’t sound nearly as strong or upset. Still, the meaning in her words hit the brown pegasus almost perfectly.
“I suppose, it just wouldn’t sit right with me,” Applejack’s face darted upward from the unexpected reaction that followed next. Faith was laughing, it was perhaps the strangest sound Applejack could have imagined out of her. Not that it was a bad laugh, not at all. In fact, she reckoned, it almost sounded melodic in the simple tone of her laughter. Still, to see that pegasus smiling like that? Well, it immediately washed away any embarrassment, remnants of fear, and uncertainty in Applejack’s mind.
“Well, that settles it then, don’t it,” Applejack piped up cheerfully as the laughter finally subsided and Faith was left with a slight grin that, Applejack pondered, could have brightened a rainy day right up, “Can’t very well be having either of us not sitting right.”
“I’m not going back there,” The sullen tone was back again, but this time Applejack wasn’t going to be afraid of it. She wasn’t going to back down, “They don’t want me there, and I don’t really want to be there either.”
“Then,” Applejack smiled as she hoped back over the fence to the Orchard. This time Faith’s whole body turned to watch instead of ignoring, “How’s about we find you something to do here?”
Applejack gently kicked the tree next to her with one hoof letting a single apple fall into her outstretched forehoof, “Ya see, it’s apple bucking season and Ah got to get all the trees done on my own this year. It’s an awful lot of work, and Ah wouldn’t say no to a partner. What do yall say?”
Describing the grin on Faith’s face at that point would have been nearly impossible, especially considering how fast she went from depressed to wild grin. She quickly hopped over the fence and made her way to the tree next to Applejack. She reared up behind it and flashed her rear legs into the tree at a speed that seemed more show than strength.
For a good long moment nothing happened. It seemed as though the lean body of Faith really didn’t have enough muscle on it to budge even a single apple. Still, Faith kept on smiling and, for the first time, Applejack noticed the tight bundles of defined muscles running down the pegasus’ entire body. It was the first time she had ever looked at Faith that closely, and Applejack had to admit it wasn’t the sight of the lean weak pony she had taken Faith for. It looked good...
After a few more excruciating seconds where Applejack feared not a single apple would fall; not one, but every single apple on the tree dropped in unison to a delighted squeal from her pegasus companion, “I think I can handle that much.”
Oh, I definitely think you can...
Applejack’s thoughts trailed to the muscled legs again before her mind forced her back. The joyous sounds coming out of her partner was more than enough to give her a beaming sense of pride, but something was still off...
**************************************************************
A few hours later the rhythm between the two partners had reached a comfortable pace. Apples fell from tree after tree in frightening succession and their timing had synced to near perfection. It wasn’t like they were only doubling productivity. The two ponies spurred each other on, pushing each other faster, taunting the slower one, and laughing at the slightest misstep. Never before had Applejack seen so much done in the span between morning and lunch. But, as Applejack took a step back from her last tree she gazed at nearly half a field already bucked clean.
“Ah think that’ll have to do for now,” The orange mare sighed as she removed her hat and wiped the sweat off her brow and took out her daisy sandwich she had grabbed on the way out this morning, “Besides, it’s lunch time.”
Applejack took root under the tree she had just finished with while Faith seemed perfectly happy to plop herself down in front of one several away. Awkward silence followed as Applejack started to concentrate solely on her sandwich. It dawned on her, for the first time, that the two didn’t really have anything to talk about. It felt strange to sit in silence with somepony you had just recently been absent mindedly joking with. No, that wasn’t it at all. Applejack genuinely wanted to have something, anything, to talk to Faith about.
A few more minutes passed by silently and, before she even understood what she was doing, Applejack was right behind Faith dropping the uneaten half of her sandwich squarely on her head and that long blue mane. She even chuckled as the pegasus grasped at the sandwich and looked at it in confusion.
“Wha?”
“Ah just figured you must be hungry too after all that work,” Applejack was still chuckling to herself, but quickly started to question why she even did it in the first place, “Wouldn’t be very neighborly to not offer the pony whose helping me some food.”
“Thank you,” Faith handed the slightly disheveled sandwich back to Applejack, “But I’m not hungry.”
It wasn’t even a second after the sandwich left her hooves that Faith’s stomach betrayed her intentions. Though, the low guttural sound it made was more akin to a roar than it was a growl. How long had it been since that pegasus had eaten? No, that didn’t really matter. What did matter right now was how Applejack was ever going to trick her into taking the sandwich.
“Alright, if you promise tah eat the sandwich,” Then again, Applejack thought, maybe tricks were pointless. Maybe what the two mares really needed was some honesty between them, “Then Ah’ll promise not ta ask questions about when the last time you ate was.”
It was a few seconds before Faith took the sandwich from Applejack’s outstretched hoof and a few more seconds before she looked up from it to Applejack, “Why are you doing this,” The question hit home perhaps a little too strongly. Perhaps it was because she had been asking herself that ever since she first worked up the courage to confront Faith. Even now, this was far above and beyond a simple favour for a friend.
The poor mare had been fervently avoiding this question all morning. And, even in the cool down lunch had allowed her, she still didn’t understand it for salt. That wasn’t going to stop her from trying to explain it, though, “Ya see, Ah reckon you’re not nearly as prickly as you want everypony to think you are. Maybe ya’ll just need some time to see it for yourself?”
“Prickly? Prickly is for porcupines. I’m fierce and dangerous,” Applejack almost burst into laughter immediately as her companion tried her best to puff out her chest in a show of her stature. Even worse was how she tried to look menacing while getting to her feet. It was definitely an interesting display, but hardly fearsome at all.
Applejack had kindly allowed Faith to stand in position for a full on minute as she tried to look as intimidating as possible while devouring a sandwich. But, this was by far all she could handle as the orange mare walked up beside Faith and gave her a gentle nudge with one hoof. That was all it took; Faith was sprawled out on the ground and Applejack was laughing her Stetson off, “Ah’m sorry sugar cube, but once you get passed the prickly exterior you’re about as fierce and dangerous as Winona.”
Applejack took a brief pause from laughing to place her trademark hat on Faith’s head and rub it down a little, “Ya’ll might be a world class Apple Bucker, but yer a far cry from scary or dangerous. Sides...”
Applejack got interrupted mid thought as Faith bound from her laying position and tackled her. The force was amazing and, despite the hardened body from years of work, Applejack was immediately knocked on her back and pinned down by the surprising strength of her adversary. The entire time her unfinished thought kept rattling around inside her shaken head...
Sides, you just look too cute in that hat to ever be threatening...
Applejack was looking up at the amazing visage of that long blue mane cascading out from underneath her hat and desperately trying to avoid a blush from the thought she was convinced was further indication of a concussion from the impact, “You want to rephrase that?”
The pegasus’ head was now bowing down, mere inches from her own and Applejack was having a harder and harder time maintaining a clear mind. Through the taunting, and her own useless struggles to throw off the surprisingly strong pony, there was only one course of action.
Applejack lifted her head up as high as she could and grabbed the Stetson in her mouth, quickly replacing it on her own head, “Nope. Ah stick by what Ah said. Sugar cube, ya’ll are just about as scary as a bunny once a pony gets to know you.”
It was, more or less, an intense few seconds as Faith’s face ran the gamut of emotions from anger to hysteria and finally settled on laughter. It was almost as if something had just broken inside her. She was laughing and teasing and completely free of that hard shell she liked to hold onto. More than that, she was enjoying herself freely as the rest of their brief lunch break was eaten up by more wrestling and general fooling.
****************************************************************
A couple more days passed by in this form. The two would meet up in the morning, and work and joke until the ending hours of the day. They would finish up by dragging the buckets full of apples back to the barn. Every day Applejack would feel like she wanted to say something else to her companion, and every day Faith would say her goodbyes and leave before she could work up the nerve.
Conversation was easier now; It flowed naturally and lightly, but there were still two topics the earth pony couldn’t broach. The first was the question of where Faith went every night after they finished working. She was absolutely sure that Faith never went back to the hospital, or to Ponyville for that matter, but had no idea other than that. She worried, naturally, about how Faith dealt with the nights, but dared not bring it up for fear of scaring her off. Instead, Applejack had started bringing larger lunches for the two to share. Yesterday she had even brought an after work snack which Faith had grudgingly taken part of.
The second topic was far more personal. It was one that the honest mare dared not even bring up with herself. The slight slips of her mind, the wandering eyes, and even the finding any excuse possible to wrestle with the pony. There were too many questions not to wonder, and too many answers not to be afraid of the answer.
So, as the last buckets were dragged into the barn the orange mare steeled her nerves for the third day in a row. She desperately fought against the sickening trepidations of her heart and forced down her fears. Today was the day where she couldn’t afford to just let her companion leave.
“Well, I suppose I should be,” NO! Applejack’s mind screamed against her calm visage. It was another day, another day where Faith was just going to up and take off. She would leave more questions and confusion in her wake and be none the wiser for that.
“Listen, Ahh,” Applejack rubbed a delicate hoof across the back of her head. There was no turning back now. She had interrupted the pegasus mid sentence and left her standing there dumbfounded, “Well, Ah know it might be a bit of a sore subject...”
The pause left an impatient tap on the pegasus’ hoof. She was getting noticeably more impatient and irritated as Applejack kept dancing around the point, “But, Ah figured you might be wanting an actual bed for the night.”
“And, who said I don’t have a bed,” There it was, her wall was up and she was bound and determined to keep Applejack from gaining any ground again. A similar event had happened with the after work snack idea, but Applejack somehow doubted the brown mare would give in so easily this time.
“Come on sugar cube. Ah know you haven’t been going back to the hospital when we’re done. Ah’m just saying a bed has to be a mite better than wherever ya’ll are sleepin.”
“Trees are just fine for sleeping in. I don’t need your charity.”
“Sugar cube, Ah,” That was about all Applejack could get out as the pegasus walked away in a huff. There was more to say, of course, but that charity line really struck home. Faith didn’t want charity and Applejack wouldn’t have either. But, what she really wanted to offer wasn’t charity.
“Good job,” The pegasus was long out of earshot as Applejack gave herself a much deserved tongue lashing, “Would it really have been so bad to say what Ah really meant? Why couldn’t Ah have just said it?”
Her precious stetson slowly descended on her head obscuring her vision as she imagined going back and redoing that entire fiasco, “Stay with me tonight?”
A short light laughter run out in the distance. The easy going chuckle was hard to mistake. Somewhere, at some time, Twi had entered within earshot of her little play, “Now, was that really so hard?”
Slowly adjusting her stetson, Applejack saw the slow gate of her friend approaching her. She didn’t necessarily want it, but she was going to get an earful of advice long before the mare left, “No, but it’s a mite bit easier to say something like that when ya think no pony is around.”
“Oh,” The quizzical look on Twilight’s upturned face was pure curiosity. For a mare who only knew about these kinds of things from books this must have made no sense to her. The fear and trepidation weren’t the kind of things put in romance novels, “And why do you think it’s harder for you to tell her than it is to be sitting here beating yourself up about it?”
“She’s a mare, Twi,” Applejack was practically screaming in frustration. How could her friend not get how wrong and confusing this whole situation was, “She’s a mare, Ah’m a mare. Those kind of things just don’t work.”
Once again, stifled laughter from her good friend, “Most ponies would mention the assassin part. Most ponies would mention the grim disposition, or the fact that she deals in death. But, you’re only caring about her being a mare. Why is that Applejack?”
“Because,” Applejack thought about the question for a moment. Not four days previous she had been terrified of this pony, but now she couldn’t even imagine her a killer, “Because, once you get past the prickly bits...Oh god, Twi, because Ah like her okay? Because, for whatever crazy reason, Ah can’t even think of her like that anymore. Because...”
“You love her,” Twilight finished Applejack’s sentence for her and moved over to hug her emotional friend. The normally sturdy earth pony was on the verge of crying from a mixture of sadness and confusion over her own feelings, “I know you think I don’t get it, but I do. It’s scary to think what you’re feeling is wrong,” Twilight looked up at the sky for a moment before continuing on.
“But, love is love. It isn’t wrong, and it doesn’t judge,” Twilight let go of Applejack as she started to pull herself together, “She isn’t a bad pony. Confused, and strange, but not bad. And you aren’t a bad pony for feeling the way you do, either. How long do you have left?”
It was a vague question, but Applejack got the meaning almost immediately, “Tomorrow’ll be the last day, if she even shows up at all. We’re almost done.”
“Then,” Twilight said as she started to dust off herself, “You’ve got one more day. She’ll show up, I know it. Just, don’t give up on yourself. Last thing you want is to regret not saying anything. Trust me.”
Twilight smiled as she walked away, but there was something else in her walk as well. Applejack wanted to ask, but couldn’t bring herself to. It was like looking at an old friend and knowing there was another side of Twilight looking right back at you that you never knew was there. She didn’t even have the presence of mind to ask her dear friend the original reason for her visit.
********************************************************
It had been a tense morning. Applejack had been almost entirely unable to sleep the night before and had even woken up early. She had waited, fully expecting her partner to not show up at all, for far longer than she was comfortable with. But, in the end, that familiar brown speck appeared on the horizon.
She looked about the same as Applejack felt; Her mane slightly disheveled, a leaf sticking out of it, and heavy bags under her eyes. It seemed as though neither had gotten much sleep that night, but neither brought it up either. Instead, Applejack offered only a slight apology with no explanation. It was enough, though, as they quickly seemed to forget the events of the past evening and settle into their familiar pattern.
Hours past, and neither brought up any conversation. Applejack was desperately going over Twilight’s advice in her head the entire time, but every time she even so much as thought about acting on it the fear began to act up. She couldn’t bring herself to say it, not with what it could mean.
Finally, less than halfway into the day, the last apple fell from the last tree. Two ponies had bucked every tree clean in less than a full week. By every account it was a staggering pace, but Applejack could not be pleased at that. She desperately pleaded with her mind to find a way to squeeze even one more day out of this, but also knew it was pointless. At this rate she was going to let her go without saying a word.
“Well, I guess that’s everything,” There it was. Applejack knew this had been coming. She didn’t have any excuse to stick around any more, and Faith didn’t much seem like the type to loiter around without a purpose, “So, I guess I should get going then. It’s been...”
Her hooves had been trembling and her mouth sticky the entire time. But, for the first time, it wasn’t because she was terrified of what to say. Twilight had been right the whole time, leaving it unsaid terrified her even more. So, she had bared down, planted her stetson as far over her head as it would let itself go and let it out, “Stay with me tonight?”
“What,” Faith’s surprised face spoke of countless questions, but she never got the chance to say any of them. Instead Applejack’s lips stole away any further words on the subject. She had pressed intently into the brown pegasus without any pause or reservation and stayed there for a few seconds beyond cute. If she was going to do this, she was going to do this the best she could.
“Stay with me tonight,” The question repeated as she raised the stetson above her eyes and let a blush fill her cheeks. Her only consolation was the dumbfounded flushed look staring back at her. Faith seemed completely unsure of what exactly had happened and the gaping face somehow only renewed Applejack’s vigor.
“I, I don’t get it.”
“Ah don’t either really, but Ah do know this much,” The gape was long gone from her partner’s face, but the blush remained and only deepened for both as she went on, “Yer always trying to act tough and scary, but yer not. When Ah look at you I feel, well...consarn it, Ah don’t know what exactly Ah feel. But, Ah do know that it’s hard to stop thinking about you. That Ah want to try this out instead of just letting ya disappear.”
Shaking her head, the brown pegasus desperately tried to get the blush out of her cheeks, but it seemed bound and determined to stay, “No, I really don’t get it. I mean, what you just did. Why you did it, I don’t get any of it.”
“Ya mean the kiss sugar cube?”
“I mean all of it. I don’t understand any of it. I don’t get why you did it, and I don’t get why it’s me,” Faith’s face never lost that blush of the hesitant nature of her words. Most others might have been scared away, might have figured she didn’t like it. But, Applejack understood a few things about the mare standing in front of her. The most obvious being that if Faith really didn’t like it then she would have already been gone.
Another kiss, this one held just a bit longer. Applejack was testing the waters as best she could, trying to see how long she could hold it for. The tender feeling of her partner’s trembling lips feeling better than any hard days work ever could. Finally, she broke the kiss, this time to a sheepish smile the likes of which she had no idea Faith could make, “It’s okay if you don’t get it yet sugar cube. Tha kiss is somethin ya do when ya like another pony. Ah like you, sugar cube.”
It was trembly, quick, and full of indecision, but it was still Faith’s lips. Her lips as she kissed Applejack for a brief second before pulling back, “Stay with me tonight? Granny’s gone, Applebloom is at a sleepover, and Big Mac won’t be back till the morning. We can take it slow, Ah promise.”
***********************************************
The morning, and more importantly the picture she was staring at now was more sobering than Applejack had ever though. It was a family portrait, the last one with the entire family in it, including her parents. There was just something about it, hanging over a mantle to make her realize the truth about what she had done last night.
At the time it had felt so right, and waking up to that mare lying peacefully on her was something truly amazing. But, it was all just a little game. Mares didn’t belong with mares, not now not ever. She just couldn’t face her family like that.
In the worst timing possible, right as her head was filled with these horrible self destructive thoughts, the stairs creaked under the hooves of the still half asleep mare descending them. Even with bedhead, Applejack reckoned there was something different about her this morning. As she finished her descent and settled slowly beside Applejack it became more obvious. The quiet small smile on her face that seemed to permeate her entire being. And, Applejack was about to tear that away from her.
“Listen, sugar cube,” The sullen tone, the downtrodden eyes, they should have been perfect warning signs of what was to come, “Last night was. It was great, but it was a mistake. Ah’m sorry, it never should have happened.”
The realization hit her far too late. The wording was completely off, and it wasn’t going to go over well on a pony who had just given in to feelings. She quickly tried to right her words, but it was to late, “No, not a mistake...I meant”
THE END (?)
Notes from the Writer
This was an absolute blast to write, I hope you enjoy it...
While there could be more to this story I will leave the decision up to my readers. Would you like to hear more of this story? If so, please tell me so. Also, Faith is a special OC of mine you might be seeing more from in times to come. Finally, the current image for this story is just a Pony Creator version of Faith. If any pony out there would feel like making/finding a better cover or even just some fan art of Faith I would love you forever.
