Brrrrrinngg!!! The loud ringing of the alarm assaulted Bright's exhausted ears. Reluctantly, he turned it off and got up. He quickly got on his training outfit, but also an MP4 player, a pair of earbuds, and some light winter gear.

Once he'd made it outside, Bright deeply inhaled and smiled contentedly.

Ahh, this is why I love fall and winter, he thought. The air smells so fresh and refreshing.

It had been only three months since the school year had began, but Bright was already making a name for himself. It took Sunset, Twilight, and their friends almost the entirety of the first month to get him out of his shell. However, once he did he started interacting with the girls a lot more openly. The stallion was very careful to avoid anymore "Fluttershy incidents," as he'd come to call it. There were some close calls, but other than that, life was pretty normal for Bright.

Bright pressed 'Play' and got to work. The music started out softly, so his first few motions were slow and fluid. Gradually, the music picked up and he followed suite.

Meanwhile...

Applejack stirred in her bed, then groggily opened her eyes. She sat up in her bed, rubbing away the sleep from her eyes. She glanced at her digital clock and was mildly surprised at how early in the morning it was.

"Wow, ah woke up early." she said. "Guess it wouldn't hurt to get ready early, too."

She slid out of bed and plodded over to the door, but movement from outside caught her attention.

Applejack looked out of the window and turned her gaze down to the ground.

To her shock, there was Bright Scales. He had on a set of weird-looking training clothes and earbuds in his...well, ears. In his hands was a long length of red rope. All of that sweat he'd procured brought out his muscles in sharp relief. The farm pony watched as Bright launched himself into the air and jabbed the weighted length of rope in a bunch of different directions, all while performing a corkscrew.

AJ found herself blushing red at the sight. Bright was certainly dedicated to whatever he was doing, and he looked damn sexy doing it.

Oh wow, Bright's sure full'a surprises, ain't he?

Suddenly Bright stopped. He switched off his music and stood in place with his hands clasped on top of his head, catching his breath.

Just then, something happened to catch his eye. It was a streaking mirage that flitted by just out of sight. Quickly, he craned his neck to get a better view. Instead Bright found himself staring at Applejack, leaning from the window of her bedroom and looking right at him.

It took him a second to register who it was. When he did though, the poor stallion's face paled and he sprinted back to the entrance of the school. Once he got there, he collapsed into a cross-legged position and sat there as he pondered what in the hell he should do. He could either face Applejack or the entire school. The solution was simple.

It took Bright little time to find his way back to his dorm, and ta-da, there was Applejack waiting for him. He swallowed his fear and approached the smirking Earth pony.

"Umm...morning?"

"So, what were you doin'?" she asked slyly. Bright gulped audibly.

"Uh, well...th-that was just...errr--" he stuttered. An orange finger on his lips silenced him.

"That was a rhetorical question, sugahcube."

"Riiiight, s-sorry. Listen, please don't tell anypony about that ok?" Bright pleaded.

Applejack cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? And why not?"

"Because I don't want anymore attention!"

She thought about it, then looked at Bright with a wide grin.

"Sure, ah can do that. But first you have to do something for me..."

"And what would that b--mph!"

Bright was taken completely off-guard when Applejack suddenly leaned in and kissed him deeply. His eyes widened and he tried to pull away, but the farm pony wrapped an arm around his back and kept him rooted in place.

Slowly, his expression softened and he adopted a dazed face, though his shock and confusion didn't abate whatsoever. Applejack released him a few seconds later. Bright didn't move, though; The poor stallion was now frozen, still reeling.

"...And now you've got yourself a deal, pardner."

And so she trotted back to her dorm with a little more energy than before. Bright just stood there. He absentmindedly lifted a hand to his tingling lips and touched them.

Holy crap, I've already been kissed by two mares this school year... he thought elatedly. If this keeps up, soon everypony will want a piece of me!

Bright snapped out of his elation, thinking seriously this time. Then again, that might create some serious consequences. It might even cause this experiment to fail.

I'd better be more cautious from now on. I can't stop them from falling for me, but I can stop anypony from catching me, like Applejack.

He walked back to his bedroom, brainstorming and writing down some ways to keep future incidents that could jeopardize the experiments from happening again. He made sure to hide it in a safe place so nopony could figure out how to circumvent them.

That was too close for comfort. I need to be more careful in the future, otherwise this whole thing could fall apart.

When school finally began that day, Bright tried going about his classes as if nothing had occurred, but he just couldn't entirely get his...encounter with Applejack out of his head. Things didn't improve after school.

When the last period of the day was finished, Bright met up with the girls and together they headed to his locker. Upon opening it however, a huge number of envelopes tumbled out.

The stallion stared at the pile in confusion. "What the hell?"

"Well, looks like a lot of ponies have something to say to you." Sunset redundantly commented. Bright just shook his head and sighed.

"I'm more worried about the fact that they picked the lock on this thing." he said dryly as he bent down and picked one up. He read the letter inside and his eyes bulged open & his jaw dropped.

"What is it Bright? Something wrong?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie snatched another letter from the pile and opened it. Her eyes widened too.

"It says: 'If you're up to it, why don't you hang out with me? We could get to know each other a little more. Love, Aria."

"Seriously, a love letter??" exclaimed Bright. He dropped the one he was holding, then everypony picked a random letter.

"You and I should get together sometime. I bet we could make an amazing instrument duet. Love, Ocatavia." said Rarity.

"Dear Bright, the two of us are a little lonely. Why don't you keep us company sometime? Love, Flitter & Cloudchaser." read Applejack.

Bright shook his head. He dropped his bag and opened it up, then started stuffing the letters inside. The girls looked at him.

"Are you seriously gonna read all of these?" Sunset asked. Bright nodded silently then glance up back at her.

"I admit that I'm a little curious at what everypony here wrote to me, but other than that these things are just taking up space." he replied emotionless. As he picked up the last bunch of letters though, voices stopped him.

"BRIGHT!!" a mob of mares shrieked at the corner. The others were surprised by the mob's sudden appearance, but Bright calmly called back to them.

"Look, if you're gonna flirt with me, at least do it in front of me. These letters aren't going to woo me." The mares were caught off-guard by what he said, as their faces went from excited to bewildered and confused as they shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh, and one more thing..." Bright added, a strange twinkle appearing in his eyes. Without warning, he sprinted past his friends...straight for the mob. Both parties stumbled backwards in shock.

As he approached the larger group, Bright smiled mischievously and his horn started glowing, preparing to cast a spell. The mares started to panic when he crossed half the distance between them and wasn't slowing down at all. They tried to scramble out of his way, but it was futile. Bright was going to plow right into them.

But when he was a mere two feet away from the closest mare, golden light enveloped him from sight. When it cleared a second later, he was gone. Another gold flash, this time behind them, spat him out. He skidded to a halt and yelled, "Catch me if you can!"

The mob jumped at his voice, then they turned around and rushed off to try and catch him, leaving the Mane 7 standing where they were, utterly bewildered.

"That was really...odd of Bright, wouldn't you agree?" Rarity commented. The others nodded in agreement.

"Shouldn't we follow them? Just to make sure that Bright's ok?" Twilight asked. Rainbow waved her hoof dismissively. "Nah, I'll think he'll be fine. Considering how fast he is, I doubt they'll even be able to keep up with him for very long, much less catch him."

"So, anypony wanna head back to the dorm?"

"Sure."

Author's Note

Holy s***! This chapter took WAY too long to make. I'm so, so sorry for the long wait. I was grinding on one idea for so long before I finally decided to scrap and start again from scratch. Even now that I've posted it, the chapter seems rushed but I can't figure out how to fix it. Anybody have any ideas, that would be very helpful. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this crap chapter.