"Hey girls! I'm so glad you could make it!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed while greeting two of our friends at the door. She had invited all of us over for a New Years Eve party. Rarity and Twilight were already here, and so was Fluttershy. Naturally, you could only guess the other two were Sunset and Applejack.

"Thanks for invitin' us, Pinkie," you could hear Applejack say.

"Well of course I invited you! You're guys are only like my bestest friends ever!" Pinkie Pie giggled her usual, snorty giggle. If you got passed its annoying-ness, it was kind of cute.

We were all downstairs, in the kitchen of Pinkie Pie's house, waiting for the rest of our friends to show up. I sat at the kitchen table with Fluttershy and Rarity, while Twilight stood at the island in the middle of the kitchen. None of us were talking, we were all sorta, waiting on Pinkie and the others, I guess.

The three walked into the kitchen, er, scratch that. Two of them walked into the kitchen and Pinkie skipped ahead of them. Applejack wore her usual get up, with that cowboy hat. And she still had her adorable freckles. Yeah, I said adorable. Cool or awesome just wouldn't really fit. Sunset wore her regular leather jacket, and her teal blouse, like always.

"How's about we get this party started?" Pinkie Pie exclaimed while throwing her fist up in the air. In excitement, however less than Pinkie's, we all cheered too.

Upstairs, we sat randomly through out Pinkie's room. Rarity and Fluttershy giggled on the bed with Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Sunset sat in the floor talking about magic and other nerd crap, and Applejack and I sat in the floor playing video games, like always. Well, not always, we just like to compete and stuff. I just like aggravating her by beating her at everything and being awesome.

We were playing one of the newer games that had just been released called Mane-iac Mayhem. I bought it a few days ago, and challenged AJ to beat me at it. So far it's been pretty close. Uncomfortably close. Like, if she gets me one more time I'm going to be dead close. No problem, I looked up a list of cheats prior, so I kicked in one of the invincibility cheats and a one hit K.O. cheat.

"Hey! I was about to beat you," AJ yelled after I totally kicked her butt.

I gave a victorious laugh, " I know. Then I came around with my awesome combos."

"Ya used cheat codes."

"What? No! I beat you fair as a square."

"Then why did it say 'cheat activated' followed by a short jingle?"

"I don't know what you mean. I didn't see anything. Have you ever considered glasses?"

"Now Rainbow Dash, my eyesight is better than a hawk's. Just fess up and admit that you cheated."

"Whatever makes you feel better AJ," I patted her arm and gave her a sympathetic smile. Her cheeks tinted pink out of frustration, almost hiding those freckles. I wouldn't be the first to admit it, but it was pretty cute.

"If you wanna try and take me on at something else then let's go for it," I said.

"How's about a game of UNO?" Aj smirked at me. I'll admit, it made me kind of nervous. UNO is one of those games that make you hate your friends. I couldn't let her know that I was a little nervous about it though. I threw a smirk back at her.

"All right, if you really want to humiliate yourself more."

"Hey, girls, ya'll wanna play UNO with us?" AJ asked our friends. Fluttershy was already full of anxiety.

"Oh, um, maybe another time," she squeaked.

Pinkie Pie gasped, though, drawing all of the attention away from poor Fluttershy. Almost making it as if she didn't say anything at all.

"UNO!?" she yelled in excitement, "that sounds like an incredible, super duper, amazing idea!"

"Why not? I'm up for a game or two," Sunset said as she moved over to us. Twilight followed her.

"What's UNO?" Twilight asked.

"It's a card game, darling. You try to get rid of all of your cards before the other players."

"Just match the colors, or the numbers with the last card that was laid down. It's pretty easy," Sunset informed her. Twilight just gave a "got it" nod.

AJ got the UNO box out of her bag and pulled the cards up. She gave me some cards to shuffle, and she shuffled the others. Before long, everyone had 7 cards, and we were ready to play.

I glanced around. It was pretty intense. We had talked Fluttershy into playing with us. She wasn't faring very well. She was pretty stressed out over her few cards. But I think she was mainly scared of the evil smirk Pinkie Pie had on her face. With the way the rotation went, pinkie's cards effected Fluttershy. Rarity was calm though, it was hard to read through her face. Sunset was just giggling about Twilight's inability to hold her cards.

Applejack had a smug smile on her face from time to time, and it didn't help that she only had two cards left. I still had 5.

"UNO!" AJ shouted as she laid down a green draw 2 card. I groaned, a drew my two cards. 7 cards again.

Twilight laid down a green card, and pinkie laid down one skip card, thus skipping Fluttershy. Rarity laid down a reverse card with a smirk to Fluttershy. Fluttershy lit up and laid her draw 4 card.

Pinkie snapped her fingers, "shoot."

Sunset and Twilight didn't seem to have any game changer cards. Neither did I. AJ was one card away from winning. My heart was racing, and I was sweating. It was obvious that I was losing. I did something risky. I changed the color in hopes it was a color AJ didn't have. I changed it to yellow. As soon as it left my fingers, I knew it was a mistake. AJ still had her smug smile, then she cocked an eyebrow. My nervousness soon turned to fear and panic. I was about to lose to her again. And with that same, smug smile, her eyes lingered with mine, then she drew a card. She drew a card! Phew!

We played a couple of more rounds of UNO, and eventually we turned it into rapid fire UNO. Fluttershy played and destroyed us all. In fact, she was more intense than any of us. Rarity cried. Pinkie Pie loved it, too. Even after the rest of us had stopped, they kept going.

"Pinkie Pie, dear," Rarity said.

"Yeah?" Pinkie asked as she slammed down one of her cards, "UNO!" Fluttershy let out a frustrated groan.

"Perhaps we should order a pizza," Rarity suggested. A suggestion I can get on board with.

"Well, duuuhhhh," Pinkie let her head fall to the side, "I already did."

We exchanged looks.

"When didja do that?"

The doorbell rang and Pinkie Pie slammed down her last card with a "AHA!" to which Fluttershy squealed in anger and dropped her cards. She stood up, "that must be the pizza now."

Rarity and AJ and I exchanged looks again, but I just offered a shrug and shook my head.

Pinkie eventually came back with three boxes of pizza, napkins, and some drinks. She sat the pizzas on her desk, and the drinks on the end table beside her bed.

"It's almost midnight guys!" Pinkie stated.

"Pinkie, it won't be midnight for another 2 and a half hours," Sunset said.

"Yeah, but two hours flies by when you're having fun!"

She was right, time does go by faster when you have fun. We weren't really doing anything though. Just eating and talking. It kind of sucks when we have 'parties' at Pinkie's. She can't really throw a wild one like she usually would on the account of her parents being really boring and strict.

"What are the sleeping arrangements," the egghead from Equestria asked.

"Well, I figured I'd let someone have my bed, and then make some beds in the floor. If you guys squish super, duper tight, maybe three can fit in my bed," Pinkie said as she took a bite of her pizza.

"I'm gonna sleep in the floor. Rares, do you want the bed?" AJ asked. I decided that I would sleep in the floor too, not just because AJ was, but because I slept in the bed last time.

"Pinkie Pie, are you sure you don't want to sleep in the bed?" Sunset asked.

"Yeahhh," she said as if it was the most obvious answer, "I sleep in my bed every night. I don't mind letting someone else."

"I'm gonna call the floor tonight," I said as I bit into my pizza slice.

"All right, another person can fit on the bed, who is it gonna be?"

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie shouted, "Fluttershy totally should!"

"Oh, I don't know," she said softly, "if someone else wants to they can."

"You're fiiine," I said, "I think everyone is okay with it."

"All right, if no one else wants to."

I finished my last slice of pizza and dusted my hands over my napkin. I took a swig of my soda and looked over at AJ. It looked like she was looking at me too, but looked away once we made eye contact. A small rush went through my stomach, and I felt a little nervous.

"Sooooo, Pinkie Pie," I said trying to ignore the way I felt, "got any good movies? Scary ones?"

"You know it!" Pinkie Pie stuck an arm into her hair and pulled out two movies, "these ones are supposed to really getcha!" Fluttershy squeaked and hid behind her hair.

Rarity picked one of the movies up and examined the back of it curiously. Her eyes squinted some and she furrowed her eyebrows, "this seems kind of..." She trailed off trying to find a word that fit.

"It's supposed to be a good movie, Rarity," Applejack said.

"Well of course you think so. You're just as coarse as it is."

"And what's that s'posed to mean?"

"That's enough," the mom of our group, Sunset Shimmer, said, "let's just watch it. If it's no good, then we can watch a different one."

And that settled that. Pinkie Pie put the movie on, and everyone crowded on the bed or floor to watch it. I sat in front of the bed with Applejack. Twilight sat with us with a note pad and pen. She said something about never seeing a movie and wanted to take notes on it. I guess that's just regular egg head stuff.

Sometime into the movie, Applejack was scared out of her panties, er, maybe PJs is a better word. Anyways, it was hard to tell at first, but it seemed like she moved closer to me. Our arms were touching by the middle of the movie. I wasn't really complaining. It was kind of nice. She was probably closer to me because she knows I'm awesome and would be able to comfort her.

Even if in reality I was clutching my knees and focused on trying to not seem scared. Maybe I was the one that scooted closer.

Everyone jumped backwards, even a few people let out shrieks of terror. All except Twilight who was more shocked than anything. I happened to be one of them. I found myself clung to Applejack's arm. We shared a brief glance before I pulled away quickly. I glanced upwards at the ceiling uncomfortably and ran a hand through my hair. I wasn't sure really what to be more embarrassed of. The fact that I clung to Applejack because I got scared, or the fact that I clung to Applejack.

The movie ended closer to midnight so Pinkie Pie switched it to one of those New Year's celebration shows. It had a big counter that was counting down to the New Year. It was currently around 6 minutes. Pinkie Pie was the most excited because New Year's is always the time for the best parties. She gave us all little party poppers and noise makers. Apparently, her folks said that it was New Years, so she could make more noise than usual.

Applejack poured everyone a glass of sparkling cider. Twilight happily took the cider, however she was still more focused on her notes. Fluttershy sat with her, trying to explain horror movies, and why we like watching them. Rarity, Sunset, and Pinkie sat on the bed looking at things on Pinkie's computer.

"Any new year's resolutions, AJ?"

"Yeah, my new year's resolution is to stop lettin' ya win."

"What? You do not let me win."

Applejack laughed, "whatever helps you sleep at night, sugarcube."

"Guys!" Pinkie yelled to get our attention, "30 seconds until the new year!"

Everyone made their way over to the bed and got their party poppers ready. By the time the counter got to 12, we were all counting down along with it. Once it reached zero, we popped our noise makers and shouted happy New Year! while fireworks went off outside and on the screen. Pinkie grabbed the person closest to her and gave them the biggest hug she could. That person happening to be Twilight. She gasped for air in Pinkie's grasp. Then the door opened.

"Happy New Year, Pinkie Pie," Maud said with her creepy, emotionless tone.

"Happy New Year, Maud!" Pinkie let go of Twilight and jumped to give her older sister a hug, "I hope you have an amzingly terrific year!" Maud hugged back and then wished the rest of us a happy New Year before leaving again.

Everything calmed down around 2 in the morning, and most of us had gone to sleep already. Applejack was up still, we both were. We had been laying beside each other in the floor; turned to face each other. We whispered and tried to be as quiet as possible before Rarity fussed at us in hushed yelling and made us leave.

"Either go to sleep, or go somewhere else. Some of us are trying to get our beauty sleep!" she had said.

"You're going to need more than a night's worth of it," I replied. AJ and I snickered. It took all we had to keep from laughing right out. Rarity threw one of the pillows at us and hit AJ in the head. Still trying to control our giggling, we got up and went downstairs to the kitchen.

We still had to be quiet downstairs too. It wasn't as bad. For some reason, things are 20 times funnier when you need to be quiet. We didn't have any lights on. Lighting from the moon outside was enough to keep everything lit well enough to see. We stood at the island, talking about sports and school. We talked about people that really get under our skin. And we talked about Equestria. We tried to imagine what it was like there, and how weird it would be to be a horse, or a pony, or whatever.

The moonlight gave everything a dim, bluish, tint. I couldn't really see her freckles all that well, but I could still see her green eyes. I'm not going to be cheesy and say that the moonlight made them sparkle, or anything. I will admit that the lighting really flattered her, though. You know how, sometimes, someone will look at you from a certain angle or with certain lighting, and you just lose your breath to how beautiful they look? That's how she looked.

She was in the middle of telling a funny story, I was listening, but I was mainly focused on something else. I focused on how cute her accent was, and how it sounded when she said my name. I was focused on how I felt with Applejack. How I felt when I thought about her. It was a warm kind of feeling. In short, I guess you could say I had a crush on her. I wouldn't say I didn't. I was wanting to tell her. I just wanted to let her know, maybe see if she liked me back. What harm could it do? I tell her, she doesn't like me back, then we're still friends. What could it hurt?

"Hey, AJ?" I interrupted her story.

"Yeah?"

"Can I tell you something kind of weird?"

"Well, of course, sugar cube."

"You're supposedly the element of, honesty right?"

"Right," she squinted some. It was clear she had no idea where I was going with this.

"Then, you can't get upset if I'm honest about something."

"What is it, girl?"

"Well, I kind of, sorta.." I trailed off. Turns out, trying to confess your feelings to someone is really hard. We stood there. I tried to do it again, but I couldn't get it out.

"Ya like me, don't ya?"

"How'd you know?"

"It don't take a scientist, to put two and two together." She lost me there. I am pretty sure I never gave off the vibe that I liked her.

"But it's all right," she said, "I like you, too."

I can't really explain how I felt right then. There was a rush that went through my stomach, and that warm feeling was back. This time it was really intense. I was in disbelief.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yup," she said in a way that reminded me of her brother.

"How long?" She stepped toward me and wrapped her arms around me and held me. I moved my arms up and returned the hug. We were the same height almost, she was a bit taller, so I just rested my head on her shoulder. Her head rested against mine.

"I first noticed 'em back when Twilight first came here. Then they skyrocketed sometime after the fall formal."

I hummed thoughtfully and nuzzled into her neck. Neither of us said anything. We stood, holding each other and enjoying the embrace. My eyes opened when I heard AJ chuckle. I leaned my head back so that I could see her, "what are you laughing at?

"You sure were scared during that movie, weren'tcha?"

I scoffed, "What? I wasn't scared, you were the one that was scared."

She rolled her eyes, "so why didja cling to me?"

I didn't have a come back or an excuse. I rested my head on her shoulder again and just accepted my humiliation and defeat.

I felt her fingers stroke through my hair and stopped at the bottom to twirl and play with it.

"Your hair has gotten longer," she pointed out. I didn't respond, I was lost in my own bliss. I leaned back once more to look at her. She was looking down at me, with her green eyes. Surely someone would do a cliche and compare them to emeralds. Really, I couldn't find anything to compare them to. If anything, I would be looking for something to compare to their beauty.

She moved forward and touched her lips to mine. It wasn't anything that I expected it to be. Sure, I loved every second of it, but there was something else. A pit was forming in my stomach this time. Knots too. Not just that little rush.

The kiss ended, and I looked back at her, "I.. I'm with Soarin." Her eyes fell, but came back to me.

"You are."

We were still in each other's arms.

"If ya want, it can be a secret," she held me tighter, "whatever makes ya happy, sugarcube. I dont want to come between ya."

I nuzzled into her again, this time I took note of her scent. She didn't smell like Apples, or any kind of fruit for that matter. It was just a really sweet smell with a bit of a tang to it.

She broke from the hug and stepped back from me, "I won't mention it if you don't." She extended her pinkie in front of me. I connected my pinkie with her's and we pinkie promised.

"I won't." Applejack leaned forward and kissed her hand, I did the same.

"Why don't we go on up and get to bed?" she said.

"Yeah," I tried to stifle a yawn, "I'm pretty beat."

AJ nodded and made her way to the steps. I followed her.

The knots in my stomach still hadn't gone away.

Author's Note

I don't know if anyone will think this, but just in case, this story does not connect with my others in anyway. I know that I like referencing my two stories in each other, but this one is on its own. I'm not sure if I'll add any chapters after this.

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment and tell me what you think! Good, bad, complete trash, I wanna know.