Apples in the Air
It was a warm night and a scent of apples filled the air outside of the castle's west door where a formal dressed pony was sitting. Applejack was really upset, so far her best night ever had been a waste of time and a really sad experience, but she would not give up on her dream, and that’s what she was doing there, outside the castle, waiting for her brother to arrive.
After realizing all those fancy ponies didn’t like her ‘common food’ she had desperately looked for a way to write back to her brother so he could bring her some fancy meal. She wrote a letter and asked spike to send it to him. Looking for the young dragon wasn’t so hard, she remembered the places he wanted t show them in Canterlot, so there she went find him; convincing Spike was a little harder, but after he saw how upset she was, there was no denial.
Half an hour had passed since, and she grew more impatient by the minute. She had told him to use the most expensive, fast and magical transport in Ponyville to get there fast. It wasn’t a master plan but here she was, waiting.
“Hey ya’ Sis” her brother had just showed up putting a small cart with something carefully packed inside “how’s it going?”
“yeah, yeah this n’ that, now gimme the cart” she was really impatient now, and Mac knew better not mess with her when she was like this. She took the cart and opened the package “yeah, now this is gonna do the hickey, the other cart is over there, see yah latter”
“Good luck sis”
“Luck? I need no luck, I’m Applejack remember?” and with that she went inside.
Mac began to walk back to Canterlot with the cart that was surprisingly heavy. Sure enough it was almost full, and AJ had only earned a couple gold coins.
“Sight, I wasn’t countin’ with that” Mac hadn’t brought extra money, counting in the high rate of AJ sales. “Ah’ guess I’ll just have to walk home… at least I’ve got some food”
And so, he walked away from the castle towards Canterlot.
Up in a small west room of the castle a dark figure was admiring the night, her delicate figure glowing with the moon while her mane danced with the skies. She looked sad yet calm, lost in her thoughts. A knock on her door brought her back from her trance.
“em… princess Luna?...” Tinder, one of the palace guards had entered her room. She looked at him and raised an eyebrow “um… Princess Celestia asked if you were going down… that’s a no then?”
“Yes I… feel tired. Tell her that Tinder, please” She said softly.
“Of course princess…” and he left.
And there she was again, alone, in her room, looking outside the balcony; sadness getting the best of her once again. She tried to fight it, concentrating on that empty feeling in her stomach. She was hungry ‘well’ she thought ‘at least it’s something to do tonight’
She was going to walk away, but a scent caught her by surprise. A sweet… fresh… tasty and somewhat juicy smell caught her, nose and stomach synched at once.
“Apples” she said out loud “there is apples in the air”
Spreading her wings, she swiftly departed into the night, following that smell, at first faint, but stronger as she flew down towards the west gates of the castle.
“Apples” it was stronger. She closed her eyes and let her nose guide her wings trough that sweet apple scent. That is until she crashed into something, or more likely, somepony.
“Oh, excuse me, please… I am so sorry!” she said opening slowly her eyes as she got up.
“thaa’s quite all right ma’am. I wasn’t paying attention… either…” the red stallion cut himself shut and bowed drastically to the princess “I’m so sorry your majesty, I didn’t saw you at all!”
“No please, do not… it was my fault. I wasn’t looking at my path” she said putting her hoof on his shoulder.
“Oh your majesty don’t feel bad about it, it could’ve happened to anypoy” he answered from his ‘saluting’ position.
“Yes I was flying with my nose…” she said more to herself than the stallion in front of her, catching the strong scent of apples gain “and the majesty is my sister”
“Of course princess”
“Now would you please stand up?” he did, but stood straight and tense in front of her, like most of the ponies she had met so far. “At ease, please there is no need for that”
“sorry” he said a bit more relaxed “not used to royalty… umm, pardon me princess, you said… flying with your nose?”
“oh… that, yes… umm” she said a bit uncomfortable, to which he was about to apologize for “apples… I was smelling apples… and I…”
Her stomach interrupted her.
Luna blushed and felt ashamed, how much more would she embarrass herself? For some reason she felt stupid, and angered against herself. Like if all her problems, all her fears struck her at once, she felt that nothing she ever did went all right, another failure for Princess Luna, who now couldn’t even talk to another pony without looking stupid.
“I’m sorry” she said as she turned around and spread her wings to leave.
“Wait Princess” the red stallion said to her “seems to me like you could use some of these…”
He hit with one of his legs the cart he had been pulling. With amazement she observed as the cart opened.
“Apples, apple fritters, apple sweets, apple pies” said the red stallion “it’s the apple family appletastic food cart”
She remained stunned, not knowing what to say. Her nose feasted with all the scents of the food served in front of her. The stallion grabbed an apple fritter and chewed on it.
“Everything is fresh and tasty, please have anything you want” he said “we can’t let it go to waste”
Suddenly putting aside all of her royal teachings, Luna dove into the cart, eating anything in reach, tasting every bit. After a few minutes of her barbaric meal, she took notice of her action and pulled herself away from an apple pie, only to see that her host was doing the same barbaric chewing on some apple chips; she smiled at the scene and went back to her pie, now eating like a lady.
“So…” she started
“McIntosh, ma’am. Big Mac for shorts”
“So, Big Mac, thanks for the ‘meal’” she smiled, looking at the cart, which looked to her like an out match of an epic battle “how much do I owe you?”
“Nothing”
“Nothing?” she asked a little stunned, feeling uncomfortable again, thinking that her title of Princess was putting another barrier between them “What can you possibly mean? I feasted with your food just now, and you don’t want a refund?”
“If you recall ma’am” he said with a shy but firm smile “I invited you to do so”
“Yes… but… I… don’t you sell this food? I mean is it not your business? Should I pay you for it then?”
“well, Ah’ do sell food from time to time, but I harvest apples” he said and looking back at the castle he added “it was my sisters idea to sell food at the gala though. Guess it didn’t end up well, since she made me come pick it up”
“oh” ‘apples… sister at the gala… one of Twilight Sparkle’s friend perhaps?’ “Are you, by any chance, a relative of Applejack? One of the elements of harmony if I recall correctly”
“Eeyup, thaa’s ma’ sister all right”
“Then, I must pay for all of this” she said taking off, she felt this more than just good manners, it was a debt she had, and she owed this family already… well perhaps not the whole family, but she did owe Applejack “I owe her my salvation, and I won’t take no for an answer, I’ll go get something to pay you with, wait here please”
“No ma’am, I enjoyed this meal too, and the ‘debt’ you have is with ma’ sister, not me” he packed the cart and started going down the road back to Canterlot.
“Oh, how stubborn can you be?” she said slightly annoyed. She started flying by his side “let me pay you”
“Eenope”
“Please I insist”
“won’t do ma’am”
“Pretty please?”
“Nope”
And so it began a long discussion that lasted all the way from the castle to the gates of Canterlot.
Meanwhile, the castle was a complete mayhem, freaked out fancy dressed ponies could be seen running through the castle fields and halls, six figures were running full speed down the castle’s main road onto Canterlot, soon afterwards the Princess herself did the same. All that commotion called the attention of everypony in Canterlot, allowing the odd couple continue their arguing trough the streets and onto the gates of the city.
“But you just said you have no money for transport! Let me pay for it!”
“No, it’s too expensive I said I’m walking princess.”
“Exactly! I’m the Princess, aren’t I? I can pay for that service”
“Well sorry your highness, but I’m ah walking”
“Oh, is that so? Well then, I shalt go with thou!” trying to sound regal on her statement, like if she were putting herself at his service.
“Say what?”
“Oh thou heard me all right”
“No, you are the princess, you can’t go by yourself, and it’s dangerous!”
“It would be as dangerous for me as it would for you” she said standing her ground, smiling playfully at him, she had the higher ground on this argument “If we go together, it will be safer. You do not want me to pay? That is fine then, yet you cannot stop me from going to Ponyville, can you? No. besides, it is the least thing I can do”
“Fine” said Mac as he begun the long walk back home.
Luna smiled triumphantly as she joined Mac in his journey back to Ponyville. She was joyful to be outside doing something she wanted to do; she took off for a loop in the air and softly came down to fly along the red stallion. They were silent after their discussion ended, and the situation was getting a little bit awkward; she hadn’t done any social interaction in such a long time, she really wanted to say something, to talk with somepony outside of her sister or the castle’s personnel. She had come so far, she was going to Ponyville with this stallion she just met and everything had been great, heck, she even thought about the word ‘friend’, a word lost for her a thousand years ago, but still, she was silent right now.
She felt anger against herself ‘stupid useless Luna…’
“So, ma’am princess…”
“Huh?” his voice brought her back from her thoughts.
“What where you doing flying around the castle all by yerself?”
“Well, I was in my balcony, when I caught the scent of your apples and flew off to check the source of such lovely smell”
“I see” he said, going silent again. Luna felt even more awkward, until he spoke again “weren’t you at the gala then?”
“Oh, uh…” what would she say? Would she lie to him as she had been lying to herself “it’s just that… it’s not my kind of party”
‘Liar’ said a voice inside her head
“Heh, I read you there ma’am” he said laughing slyly “to much fancy stuck up ponies for me, all judging you just ‘cause your different, or ‘cause yeh like to get dirty harvesting apples, or ‘cause you’re a ‘farm boy’… I had ma’ fill with them ponies”
Luna smiled. The tension that had built up in her body when he asked about the gala was gone. She said nothing though, just bowed her head.
“I’m sorry princess, I don’t want to fill you up with ma’ thoughts” he said somewhat ashamed.
“Oh no, I do share your feelings towards them; all the ‘royals’” she took a deep breath.
“An’ there I tough I had offended you princess”
“Not at all” she said smiling “I have always tried to be different, thus, making me the person for their entertainment”
“They judge your actions, hoping that you mess up” his face told her that he knew what it was all about; what it was like, to be her “my father, with effort, sent me to a fancy school; it was awful. All them judging me for whom I was. I swear the worst year of my life”
“You did have your fill with them ponies then”
“Eeyup. Got out of it though, convinced my father to get me out of there; yah see, he wanted me to be something different than what he had been, tending the farm all his life… now, he did love that life, yet he wanted to give me the chance, but it turns out that that is what I wanted too” he looked at her sympathetically “you on the other hoof princess, how do you keep up?”
‘I hide in my room…’ she simply answered “this and that”
“I understand” ‘does he?’ she thought
So far Luna felt indentified with his words, yet how could he truly understand what was going on with her? The gala had just been the last event in the long list of her problems, all related to her failures, how could he understand all that? No pony could, that’s why she kept these things to herself.
“Princess, Are you all right?” granted, he knew he had taken a long shot with that question, but still… here he was, walking home in the company of a princess. It had been a weird night, but he knew back there at the castle walls as he did now, that it was a one chance to talk with a pony as interesting as her, and his father had always told him to take this kind of chances, the ones that could enrich one’s mind and spirit. So he was just going to dive in this time, not ever being the one afraid of crossing the river.
“Yes of course” she lied badly. He noticed, she knew that, a small sight from him told her that he had seen through her lie. And she felt glad about that.
“Yah know princess, ma’ sisters hardly ever speak their minds, they’re like hard stones when it comes to their personal thought’s. Now I know that AJ never lies and all that, but every time you ask her if something’s wrong with her, she manages to avoid the question gracefully” Luna did not know where he was going with this, but hoping for the better, she listened on “I feared Applebloom, ma’ eager young little sister would turn out the same, which would have been a problem, so when she was little I made a deal with her. She would always tell me what was going on with her, no matter what, meanwhile I do the same”
“Give something to receive something, seems fair.”
“Eeyup. That’s the idea… know I know it ain’t ma’ place but…” Luna smiled knowing where he was going “you should try it. I know you’re keeping things to yourself, or not saying what you want to…”
She knew he was right, again. How did he do that?
“How did you…?”
“Well, your eyes give you away” their eyes met again, but for Luna felt like the very first time. He had been observing her eyes all night. “Anyways, perhaps you could talk to Princess Celestia…”
“No, I do not want to bother Tia” she said, making him smile at the nick name “and even if I did, I would not know how to begin”
“Oh come on Princess, it ain’t that hard” he said smiling “you start simple, let’s see… your favorite color is?”
“Cyan”
“Fancy, mine’s green” he pointed to his cutie mark, being green as it was “favorite season of the year?”
“Spring, lots of flowers, and the skies look prettier at night. And yours?”
“Autumn, ah’ love the sight of them trees, dressed in orange n’ brown” he smiled to her again, she smiled back “favorite animal?”
“Bunnies”
“Hate ‘em” he said immediately.
“What? They are the cutest little creatures!” hardly believing what she was hearing, Luna unwillingly began letting her royal ways behind, acting more like the young mare she still was.
“Cute? Ma’ hooves be cute, not them furry little pests” they both started laughing, Mac feeling relaxed as well “now dogs on the other hand…”
“Of course, dogs are nice. Just not as nice as bunnies, I tell you!”
The favorite animal discussion led to other questions and them to new discussion, new laughs and more questions, eventually arriving to more serious subjects. And the princess stopped feeling awkward, for the first time in a thousand years and more, she felt right. She knew this pony was listening to her, truly listening, not judging her every move, not fearing her past; he also treated her like an equal, not a royal not a princess, but a fellow pony. She felt she could trust him, really trust him, something she thought wouldn’t be possible after so long. Sure he still addressed her as ‘Princess Luna of Equestria’, but that was just a formality; yet, there was this little part of her wanting for him to call her ‘Luna’, a friend.
The moon was on her way down, and with every word said they came closer to Ponyville, they had been walking and talking for hours, yet for them it seemed like nothing. They laughed and shared memories, intimate thoughts, fears and dreams; they opened up to each other so easily and without any hold ups. He even complimented her more than once, making her blush like a little filly, always keeping a bit of a mystery in his words.
She didn’t realize it that night, but she changed. Her mind was finally at ease, if not aching for her to talk and share with this pony all of her thoughts. Her problems seemed bearable, even if she didn’t told him about them, she felt great and safe knowing she could share them with him. Later she would recall that that night saw the end of nightmare moon, or what was left of her, the end of the shadow.
This had been one of the best nights ever; it felt like dreaming and she didn’t wanted it to end.
But it had to.
As they walked through Ponyville reaching almost sweet apple acres, Luna took a moment to give the moon a final push with her magic so the day could start. Dawn was coming as they reached the home of the apple family, the time to depart had come and the realization came as a bucket of cold water to the princess.
“It was a beautiful night Princess” he said, looking at the sunrise. He was standing in the gates of his farm.
“Yes, it was a fun night” she said smiling, hiding her sadness once again. What would happen now?
“oh, yes it was fun, but ah’ meant the skies” he said looking up “it was truly beautiful”
Luna blushed once again, she did not know how many times he had made her do so; she just knew every time he did, he was speaking from heart.
There were so many wonders with her, her mane, her eyes, her ways of speak, her grace. Mac truly felt curious about her, captivated by her manners, he wanted to know her, to call her his friend. But he was just him. The princess had been nice enough to join him in the trip back, for fun, and now she had to go, against his hopes. But what interest would she have in his friendship?
Luna had felt awkward early that night, but only because she did not know what was going to happen; now she knew what was coming and it felt even worse.
It was simple, a ‘good bye princess’ from him, giving her thanks for the company, and a simple ‘not at all, and good bye’ form her, not satisfactory at all, painful even.
She felt sadness taking over again.
‘Do not let it happen!’ what could she do, he had already turned around back home and she was in mid air all ready ‘turn around Luna!’
“Wait!” she said, and he turned around immediately, like if he had been waiting for her to do so, they both smiled. And Luna knew that whatever she said now, whatever she proposed, he would accept gladly; for he was her friend now, and that’s what friends do, listen to you. “Apples, there is apples in the air. I like apples, would it be okay if I come back someday?”