"I just don't know, Rainbow Dash. It does sound awfully risky. And are you absolutely sure she wouldn't be too resentful?" asked Fluttershy.
"Of course I'm sure, what reason would she have to get angry? All we'd be doing is... well, maybe she would get a little angry, but it's not like were hurting her or anything. It's just a harmless prank, it'll be funny!"
Pinkie Pie decided to chime in. "And besides Fluttershy, she gets free chocolate afterward! Everypony loves chocolate, especially Applejack! I'm pretty sure the only things she loves more than chocolate are apple things. Oh, and her family, but they're sorta apple things, too, and--"
"--That's enough Pinkie, your intimidating the poor filly. Besides, I think I can take it from here," Rainbow Dash interrupted. Pinkie Pie stopped talking.
"Anyway, Flutters, all you'd need to do is distract Applejack when we get to Appleoosa long enough for Pinkie and I to set up the prank. Do whatever you need to keep her on this train when it stops. When we're done, I'll come in and ask what's taking so long, and your job is over. Then just as long as you don't spill the beans, she'll never know you had anything to do with it."
"It'll be secret, but fun!" Pinkie exclaimed. Heads turned.
"The point of a secret is that you don't announce it to the world, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash quipped.
"Oh right, sorry." Pinkie smiled, embarrassed.
"Anyway Fluttershy, what do you think?" Rainbow Dash stared at her pleadingly.
Applejack walked through the door to the next car just in time to save Fluttershy from the awkward situation. "I'm sorry girls, but I have to go, I've been waiting to get through that door for hours," she replied timidly as she excused herself and strode quickly toward the door, thanking Celestia that she'd gotten out of Rainbow Dash's trap. Fluttershy really wished Rainbow Dash would stop asking for her help with pranks: she either had to say no and feel horrible about doing so, or help her with the ensuing shenanigans and feel even worse.
"So how's our precious cargo doing, Applejack?" Pinkie inquired.
"Oh, he's doin' just fine, sugarcube. Darn tree's surprisingly tolerant to going most of two days without having his roots plugged into the ground. Must be something in the bark..." she trailed off thoughtfully.
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When Fluttershy got to the open door, she gazed out the window at the afternoon sky. The luminous rays of the sun were just beginning to retreat and Fluttershy knew she didn't have much time before nightfall. She had to be quick: if she lingered too long she would find herself in complete darkness and would be too paralyzed from fear to find her way back to bed.
She walked though the doorway and across the balcony, careful not to fall off on to the dusty ground below. She succeeded in not dying and proceeded to open the door into his private chambers. She sneaked in, closed the door behind her, and immediately felt terrible for intruding on his privacy without even knocking. I could just leave and act like I was never here in the first place. She looked at the enormous tree laying before her. No. I have to do this. It wouldn't be suitable to just not talk to him. She nervously walked across the train car to where the tree was sleeping, yearning to just run away no less than seven times. She took a moment to gather her thoughts and brace herself against the wave of tears trying desperately to take hold of her before beginning.
"Bloomberg?" Fluttershy could tell that her voice had woken him. "I just, umm...." Tears were beginning to stream down the yellow pony's face. Bloomberg said nothing.
"Your right. There's no use tearing up when I can't change anything. I, umm... I just wanted to tell you that I'll miss you. A lot. And I really appreciate everything you've done for me throughout the years." The tree continued to stare blankly at Fluttershy.
"Do you remember when I first moved to Ponyville? Rainbow Dash hadn't moved down from Cloudsdale yet, and Applejack was my only friend in town." Bloomberg's silence told Fluttershy that he did in fact remember.
"She'd never had a pegasus as a friend before, so she asked me to do some flying tricks for her. I wanted to tell her I wasn't a strong flyer, that I wasn't good at tricks, but I didn't want to be rude." Fluttershy paused for a moment and looked out the private car's window. The sun was completely out of view now, but its last rays could still be seen in the horizon, like a warm-colored rainbow resisting the urge to conform to the rest of the night sky.
"I flew around for almost five minutes, trying to do something that could pass as an easy stunt, but she wanted more. She told me to do a barrel roll, do you remember? I didn't even know what that was back then! I told her I couldn't, but she said I was just being modest." A look of dismay and regret graced her face. "So I tried it. It was shortsighted of me, but I guess I was more afraid of losing my only friend than I was of losing my life." The tree continued to stare back at her with a completely blank expression.
"Oh, I know that now, but I was barely old enough to not be a foal back then, and I hadn't known Applejack very long. I would never think that of her nowadays." She knew that Bloomberg was well aware of what happened next, but for story's sake she continued.
"I tried to do the barrel roll, but I got nervous and lost my balance, so I fell. I was so far up, I thought I was going to get seriously injured. But then..." She smiled at the immobile tree. "You reached out with one of your big strong branches and caught me right before I hit the ground."
Bloomberg remained silent. "Anyway, the main reason I came is because there's something I need to tell you. Something I probably should have told you a long time ago, but I've always been too shy, even when it was just us two." Fluttershy took a deep breath and summoned up her courage before continuing.
"I... I love you. Like, really love you. Beyond just good friends." She produced a barely audible squeal as her cheeks turned the same shade of red as the desert sunset. Bloomberg's silent, immobile stare demanded an explanation.
"Well, starting with when you saved me, I just... I'm sorry, I shouldn't be tearing up at the moment, but I'm never going to see you again, and I'll miss you so much, and I should have told you everything earlier, and--" The wave of sobs she was trying to hold back finally overtook her. She looked into Bloomberg's bark, and he stared back at her with nothing. Fluttershy smiled, tears still streaming down her face.
"Everything you've ever done for me, all the times I was depressed, or too timid to do something, I could always come to you, and you would comfort me." Fluttershy remembered when had a crush on Big Mac, about four years ago.
She had just told him told him about her feelings. He told her that he didn't like mares, but not to tell Applejack or Granny Smith. Fluttershy couldn't tell if he was being honest or simply trying to spare her feelings, but she was crushed nonetheless. She scrambled away with tears of shame and embarrassment in her eyes. The gate that led out of Sweet Apple Acres was in her sights when out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Bloomberg sitting there, silent and strong. For the second time in her life, the tree provided a source of refuge and comfort for her. Fluttershy laid under his branches for the rest of the day; any lingering thoughts about Big Mac that still cluttered her mind dissipated. Best not to dwell on things I can't change, she decided. It was then, she knew, that she first realized her feelings for him.
"And from then on, I've always wanted to tell you, but I could never find the courage to." she finished and started staring regretfully at the tree, seemingly waiting for an answer. He did not respond.
"You really mean that?" she sniffled, "You don't know how much that...sniffle... how much it means to me!" The yellow pony's eyes brightened and lightened considerably. "Thank you, thank you Bloomberg!" The tears returned, but now they were tears of joy tinged with excitement instead of pure depression. Bloomberg continued to stare blankly at her.
"But it's too late. We can't be together anymore. Even if you weren't leaving, or if I had told you earlier, what kind of relationship would that even be. You're a tree and I'm..." Her sobs began to intensify to a point that would bring Celestia herself to her knees. She let out a noise that could best be described as a cross between a soft scream and a dying butterfly. "I'm just a stupid, foalish pony!" She collapsed to the ground, bawling her eyes out as if one of her precious animals had up and left. Bloomberg still didn't respond, but he had visibly darkened and had a melancholy appearance about him.
"I wish...sniffle..." She attempted to regain her composure "I wish that I could be like you. Be... a tree, I guess. That way, even while your all the way in Appleoosa, we'll still be connected. Somehow." Fluttershy flashed a melancholy smile as she looked out the window once again. There was no trace of the sun's rays left, they had been all but completely overcome by the peaceful darkness that was the night.
"I guess wishing for something like that is somewhat selfish. You know the old mares saying: One foal's wish takes another foal's dinner dish. But I would like to be a tree." She peered regretfully at the large apple tree from beneath her pink hair.
"I'm sorry I never told you before. We could have been happy, at least for a while, but because of my incessant timidity... I guess I didn't deserve to be with you if I couldn't work up the nerve to tell you. It's my fault we couldn't be together for at least a little while, I'm just sorry that you have to live with the consequences, too." She had long since spent out every teardrop in her body, yet somehow another one escaped her eyes. Bloomberg, though immobile, was definitely responding to the creamy yellow pony's sorrow by this point. His bark was considerably darker, his leaves were wilting, and he seemed to be leaning toward her, as if trying to console the weeping filly.
"I guess...sniffle... I guess because it really is sort of my fault, I can learn to live with the loneliness of being so far from you." She stared into two knotholes on the tree's bark, listening to his silent voice talking without speaking.
"No, you don't have to--"
"Oh, no, it really isn't--"
"But it's my fault, I should have to live with--" Fluttershy paused as the silent, unmoving tree continued his speech.
"I guess I was being a teensy bit hard on myself, but you still don't have to do that for me--" The tree continued to stare into her deep blue eyes.
"Well, I guess I could use something to remember you by while your gone." she conceded, smiling sorrowfully but with momentary happiness
The tree began to shake ever so slightly and softly as Fluttershy noticed a small, shimmering orb finding its way down from the very top of the tree, hidden until now in some unknown compartment in Bloomberg's bark. As it reached her, Fluttershy recognized the object as none other than an undersized silver apple covered partly by a gold leaf attached to its top end.
"What is this?" she questioned, in awe of the wondrous sight before her. "You made this yourself? How?" she asked in confusion.
He explained without the use of words that his roots had reached down farther than anypony thought, and in his many years in the orchard, he found a small pocket deep under the topsoil filled with silver and gold. Over the course of a few months, he was able to manipulate the minuscule amounts of the precious metals up to the surface, where he stored them in his bark. He heated them as much as he could with his meager body temperature, and with immense pressure over several years, he was finally able to create the beautiful medallion which now lay before Fluttershy.
"It's breathtaking! I've never seen anything so flawlessly constructed. Even the jewels Rarity finds, as amazing as they are, simply pale in comparison! Oh, now I feel so guilty for insulting her jewels, but this, it's just so magnificent!" she finished, finally satisfied with her description of the object.
She looked outside for the fourth time. Any evidence that the sun's rays had ever breached the desert was far gone, and the wasteland was smothered in the blanket of darkness that was the night.
"Thank you," she said through joyful tears she was surprised that she still had, "I love it, but I have to go back to my friends. I'll visit you again tomorrow before we leave for good. In your new home." she smiled. "I love you Bloomberg, with all my heart, and I'll miss you more than you know." She kissed the tree quickly before reddening in the cheek area and becoming suddenly quiet again.
"Goodbye, for now. I'll see you tomorrow." She blushed and left quickly, leaving the tree in complete, peaceful darkness.
_________________________________________________________
Fluttershy stepped back into the car that contained her friends and their beds. She took extra special care to be quiet as not to wake them. Especially Rarity: the last pony who had woken her up in the middle of her beauty sleep took an unintended beauty sleep of his own that lasted a week. Rarity was the most sophisticated pony Fluttershy knew, but she had a ferocious side to her that anypony could count themselves lucky to never see.
She avoided the beds of her friends in order to get to her own without running the chance of disturbing them, but when she finally found her way to her bed in the darkness, she heard a quiet noise coming from Pinkie's bed. Oh no, I must have woken her... I have to go apologize, or at least try to make it right.
She approached the pink party pony's bed nervously. If Pinkie Pie was grumpy, she might be loud, and that would wake up even more of her friends. It would be a disaster. Squinting her eyes, she could make out the form of Rainbow Dash sitting next to her whispering about something and Twilight quickly approaching to join the two. Relieved that she hadn't woken anypony up after all, she turned to go back to her bed, eager to sleep.
Fluttershy was not a pony who often eavesdropped on others, but when she heard her name in the conversation, she stopped and turned back around. It can't be all that bad to eavesdrop this time, considering they are talking about me, she rationalized in her head. She took a few steps forward, careful to stay out of sight, and began to listen.
"What's going on here?" Twilight asked.
"Rainbow Dash thinks Fluttershy's a tree!"
If Fluttershy had something in her mouth at that moment, she would have spit it out on the spot. She tried her hardest to keep from bursting out laughing, (If somepony could call the all-but-silent, timid squeals that she made when she found something funny laughter) but the amazing humor and irony of the situation was too much to contain and a few giggles escaped her mouth. She continued to listen.
"I do not!" They were arguing.
"Did you say she's a tree?" As a friend who knew the whole truth of the whole situation, Fluttershy felt it was her duty to solve this argument by enlightening her friends. She took a few steps forward and waited for a good time to reveal her presence and chime in.
"No! Well... yes, but not exactly-"
"You know she's not a tree, right?"
"She's not a tree, Dashie!"
"I'd like to be a tree..." Fluttershy chimed in with the most cheerful voice she could muster at the moment.
"This is insane!" yelled Spike, "Can't anypony get some sleep around here? I'm rooming with Bloomberg," he declared as he stomped away toward the other car.
"Well, that was huffy," Twilight said after a beat, slightly confused as to why he was so irritated.
"Huffy the magic dragon," Fluttershy responded. Everypony awake burst out laughing at her amazingly timed joke and at the built-up hilarity of the situation as a whole.
Later, as she was laying in her bed drifting off to sleep, Fluttershy considered the crazy events of the night and decided that, with friends like her's who knew her as well as they did, even if they didn't know it, she was pretty sure she could handle the loneliness of being separated from her love for at least until their next trip to Appleoosa.
Especially because he had given her such an amazing gift to remember him by.
