The Mare and the Wolf

Gossip

It had only been about twenty minutes after the two mares left for Sweet Apple Acres, and the wolf had already filled his stomach with the colorful mix of fresh fruits Fluttershy left him.

Winter licked his lips and let out a small burp of satisfaction. He tried to get up again, not wanting to just lay in a couch the whole day, but his request was almost immediately refused by his body, which gave him another bolt of acute pain in his leg and torso injuries.

"Damn!" The wolf said to himself "Looks like it's going to be a long boring while until Fluttershy comes back." He let out a small chuckle "When did you start caring so much for company of ponies?"

Winter laid his head on one of the scarlet pillows that rested on the couch, looking at the many mouse holes and bird houses, hoping that some small creature would gather some courage to wander into the living room and break the monotony.

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"There you go. You're all better now. It was just a little tummy ache." The yellow mare cheerfully said to the brown dog, which was now getting her belly scratched.

"Thanks, Fluttershy, and sorry for tha bother. Ah should a' known she'd been eatin' more than she could handle!" said Applejack, throwing a reproving glance to her dog, to which Winona gave an apologizing whine.

"It's all right Applejack, it's no problem at all."

"Though, ah still can't believe ya took a wolf in yer house." the farmer remarked, giving her friend a sad, yet reproving look.

"Please, Applejack, don't be mad, I couldn't just leave the poor fellow there, he was in such a bad shape."

"Yeah, yeah...Ah know ya can't resist a lost puppy. But Ah just can’t stand him, or any of those cursin' wolves."

"Oh…I'm he isn't like that, he seems like a really nice guy, maybe you would like him if you got to know each other."

"No." Applejack said, struggling to not yell.

Fluttershy sighted, not wanting to start an argument with her friend "All right, I understand… but… could you please not tell anypony about Winter?"

Applejack held her breath for a second, she hated keeping secrets from her friends "Ah don't know Sugarcube, ya know how I am with secrets."

"Oh please, Applejack. If they find out, they’ll think he’s trying to hurt me." the pegasus's glistening, begging eyes finally got the best of the cowmare.

The orange farmpony looked down at her hooves, pensive. Ah don’t think Ah can handle another secret she thought. For a while, the blond pony considered the option of warning her friends and chase the accursed beast out of town and took a few seconds to think of a nice enough way to tell Fluttershy the wolf just couldn’t stay; the chain of thought cut cut short, however, when Applejack looked back up, facing a pair of cyan eyes wide as plates that immediately shattered her will to confront the shy animal carer.

"Aaah chucks! All right, ah won't tell nopony." She finally answered, defeated by her friend's unmatched cuteness.

"Thank you. I should be going back home, Winter must getting bored for me going away. Goodbye, Applejack."

"See ya, Fluttershy." Applejack replied as her friend took flight for her cottage, holding a snort of frustration in, and turned around to attend to her duties in the farm; the orange earthpony soon regretted that action, as a mass of pink fluffy hair and two enormous blue eyes suddenly met her gaze, inches away from her muzzle.

"Boo!!!!" the childish yell sent a full alarm inside Applejack’s mind.

The orange mare gave a jump of fright, defying gravity for a good fifteen feet before coming back down to the ground; her coat was nearly white while she laid on her back, with all of her fur almost shooting out of her skin. The farmer then realized what it was that had scared her half-dead, none other than the pink Element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie, who was now rolling on her own back laughing her hind off.

"GOTCHA!" She said, between her laughing and desperately trying to breathe in some air "Bet you didn't expect that, you jumped even higher than me!!!".

Having recovered from the heart-stopping attack, Applejack waited patiently for the party pony to finish laughing, while shaking her head disapprovingly; the chuckles and giggles seemed to be endless, as each time Pinkie would calm down, the mental image of her orange friend’s reaction would give birth to a new burst. The farmer then saw her other friend Rarity cantering down a dirt path towards her,  followed by the town celebrity trio known as Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Hi Applejack! The fillies greeted in a chorus fighting to stop giggling from the mare's scare.

"Hi girls, hi Rarity. How was the Cutie Mark Crusaders sleepover? Did ya'll have fun?" she said with a hint of grumpiness in her voice.

Rarity gave a delicate, but annoyed huff "Well, there certainly was a lot of fun on their side, or so I would presume from all mess they made of my boutique. I could hardly get any work done, and I don't even want to talk about my lack of beauty sleep."

The two mares turned to the fillies, ready to find a sight of three regretful faces, instead the girls threw their best "Little Angels" faces. Pinkie was just now getting up, still trying to catch her breath, and suffering from a serious case of the hiccups.

Rarity decided to change the subject to push the uncouth memories of the night before away "So, I saw you talking to Fluttershy a moment ago, what were you talking about?"

The fashionista’s inquiry made Applejack wince of terror. Darn it, Rarity. Already? she thought as she shuffled through her mind, trying to find a good excuse; unfortunately for her, the inner ordeal caused some very noticeable signs on the outside. the mare subconsciously frowned, looking down at no specific point of the ground, pensive.

“Well?” the unicorn asked impatiently, snapping the farmer out of her trance. Eyes shifting, the latter reluctantly answered.

“Huh...Well...Ya know, jis stuff...”

Having both a knack and a bit of an obsession for finding out certain things about other ponies’ lives, Rarity knew that the orange pony’s expression meant that she had struck gold.

"What sort of stuff?" the snow colored pony insisted, driven by her curiosity.

"Well ah…things of huh…animals! Yup! She was huh… talkin' about animals and…she had ta go take care of 'em…Yup, that's it." The lying earthpony concluded with an effort to smile, which succeeded only partially, since another subconscious frown appeared on her face as she remembered the real topic of her conversation with Fluttershy.

Even Pinkie could tell something was off, and Rarity's gossip alert was ringing non-stop in her head "Now darling, you wouldn't be hiding anything from us, now would you?"

"Wha…Nooo…course not."

"Well good, because I can't stand the thought of our good friend Applejack hiding something from her best friends." Rarity teased before pulling her secret WMD of gossip hunting.

"Not to mention her own little sister." she finished, as she pulled Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who were also dying of curiosity, in front of the nervous pony. Little could be done against the filly wide, sparkly eyes, and their killer pouts.

Applejack couldn't take it anymore "Alright! I’ll tell ya." she said, defeated. Ah’m sorry Fluttershy the blond mare apologized with her thoughts “Fluttershy has a wolf in her house.” she confessed.

Like a chorus, Rarity, Pinkie and the three fillies gave a gasp that threatened to exceed their lung's air capacity.

"My Celestia, and you just let her go to a house with such a savage creature?"

"Ah didn’t want him ta stay there either. Ah tried to convince Fluttershy ta send him away but you know how she is with hurt animals."

“Hurt?” the fashionista asked, a hint of relief appearing in her heart; If the beast was hurt, then maybe it wouldn’t be able to hurt their shy friend.

“Yeah, he had a lot of bloody bandages on him.”

"Applejack, how can you stand for this? Have you forgotten what happened what happened two years ago?"

"Course Ah haven't, Ah ain't defendin' him, and Ah don't trust him either. But Fluttershy made me promise Ah wouldn’t tell anypony. Please don't tell her that I told ya about this."

Rarity sighted, there really was nothing that could be done to convince the animal carer to leave the wolf to his fate "All right then."

"Okey Doki Lokey! I'm great with secrets, any secrets, like that one time Rarity told not to t…" Pinkie was interrupted by the white hoof that covered her mouth.

"Oh my! Look at the time, we'll just be going now. Tataa! Come on Sweetiebell." Rarity said in an attempt to cover her friends slip, and pulled the party pony with her as she left, followed by the little unicorn filly.

Scootaloo said her goodbyes and raced on her scooter back home, leaving Applebloom and Applejack alone. The filly turned to her sister, curious.

“AJ, what was Rarity talkin’ about from two years ago? Ya know, besides...” she asked but was interrupted by her older sister’s sudden response to the unfinished question.

“Nothing.” the farmer said with haste, not wanting to get into the subject, and started to walk towards the wooden house in the middle of the farm “Let’s go home.”