Applejack wondered just how long it had been.
The wooden planks that stretched before her, smooth and well-set from a few years of use, stretched out several yards into a glistening pond that reflected the moonlight so perfectly, she felt like some ancient god presiding over the sky beneath her. Every now and then a telltale ripple brought on by nocturnal marine life would bring her back to herself, reminding her of her own mortality.
She stepped out onto the sturdy pier with some hesitation, pausing to roll her eyes at her own foible. Of course it would be solid. There were simply too many memories of the repeated destruction of the Camp Everfree’s dock for her to think upon the silent construct as invulnerable, even under her modest weight. She knelt, drawing her fingertips along the boards, until their journey was broken by the presence of a small knot in the wood. She traced the knot, poking at it with her index finger until her knitted brow unraveled into a wan smile.
“I remember you,” She spoke to it, her voice mingling with the sound of late-season crickets. “Only knot on the whole dock. Kinda gave the whole thing some character. Like...what do they call it...” She glanced upwards, scratching her chin in thought. “...that flaw they sew into rugs on purpose...”
“The Persian flaw,” A melodious voice sang from the shore.
Applejack rose to her feet and unnecessarily smoothed her denim skirt before turning to meet the expected interruption. “Persian flaw, that’s right,” She agreed. “Heard about that in school once. Barely remember it now.”
Fluttershy smiled merrily from the spot where wood gave way to the Earth. “They wanted us to learn a lot of things they said we would use in school, but I still have no idea how to do algebra.”
The pair shared a retrospective giggle. Taking the planks three at a time, Applejack strode over and shamelessly wrapped her arms around her friend, pressing the slightly shorter girl into a hearty embrace. Fluttershy returned the gesture, and the two held it for several seconds until Applejack pulled away, taking both of her companion’s hands in hers.
“Geez,” Applejack’s grin broadened, “It ain’t even been that long, and here it feels like I ain’t even seen you in a coon’s age. How ya been, Fluttershy? College treatin’ ya good?”
Fluttershy returned Applejack’s contagious smile. “The two years since we were wearing caps and gowns really does feel like forever,” she agreed. “It’s so good to see you again. School is...well...” She trailed off, but found her voice as soon as she noticed concern on her friend’s face. “O-oh, it’s not bad or anything! I’m loving the experience, just...well I haven’t decided on a major yet.”
Applejack raised a brow. “Still? I ain’t no expert on bein’ an undergrad, but...shouldn’t you have picked one by now?”
Fluttershy furrowed her brow, pulling her hands away to run her fingers through a head of loose-flowing pink locks that she had styled after her high-school days just for the occasion. The feel of hair brushing her shoulders was no longer familiar, and she wondered just how long it had been since she started tying it back in a tight tail.
“W-well it’s just...when I started college I was certain I wanted to be a marine biologist. Dolphins are so cute, but...the following semester I thought, ‘who will care for the beautiful roses’? So I got into botany. And the semester after that, I thought about all the poor bunnies and kitties that need someone to watch over them, so I thought about being a veterinarian...a-and then there are the bats--” Fluttershy held out her arm – as if on cue, a large black bat few in from nowhere, hung in perch under her yellow bicep, chittered, and swooped off. Applejack flinched, and Fluttershy called her out on the gesture.
“There, you see?” Fluttershy continued. “Mister Bat was just saying hello, but his kind are so misunderstood. They need help too, and I just can’t decide what I should do with my future! It would be one thing if I were just like everybody else, but I can talk to the animals...actually understand them!”
“That’s a fine and unique gift,” Applejack nodded, watching the summoned bat flitter away.
“Y-yes but,” Fluttershy’s dismay deepened, “If I’m the only human being that can do it, what if I end up squandering my gift? What if some poor creature out there needs help, but nobody can help them because nobody understands what they need, and only I can, but I’m not there, and, and--”
Applejack laid a calming hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Come on now, you know that’s no way to live. If you let worryin’ about ‘what-ifs’ control you, you’ll never do anything at all, and then nobody wins.” She offered a reassuring smile, “Besides, it ain’t your job to care for the entire world. Nobody can do that all alone, and I’m pretty sure there are a whole lot of other folks out there that can help out just fine without exactly speakin’ the same language all the animals do.”
“I know, I know...” Fluttershy moaned, bowing her head. “I just wish I could help every creature, everywhere. And I get caught up thinking about it.”
Applejack sought to spare her friend the clearly vexing subject. She stepped away, looking back out over the water and allowing some silence to pass before she finally spoke again.
“Remember all the memories we made here?”
Fluttershy stepped up to the dock and rapped on it firmly with her boot. Her voice came on the wind, as serene as the cooing of a dove by contrast. “Of course. And it’s nice to know our camp gift finally survived.”
“Sure is,” Applejack replied on the heels of a small laugh. “Not a few minutes ago, I walked out there thinkin’ the whole thing was gonna split apart again, just because of how many times it got crashed into, magicked all up, or blown away by Pinkie Pie, eh heh.”
Fluttershy tested the boards a few more times, keeping her attention on them. “Have you heard from her?”
“Pinkie Pie?” Applejack lifted her hat long enough to scratch her blonde locks. “Well sure. She writes letters now an’ then. You know how she is about keepin’ in touch. First two weeks she was gone I thought I was gonna drown in cupcake-scented paper, heh.”
“And I thought my phone was gonna explode with all the caps-lock text messages she sent every couple of minutes,” Fluttershy commented.
Both girls shared another chuckle until Applejack continued. “Last I heard, that culinary school she got accepted into forgave her for the first fire because she’s like the most promising confectioner they ever had, or somethin’. They wrote off the second one, too.” Applejack scratched her chin, “...dunno about the third, though...”
“Rarity went to fashion school,” Fluttershy cut in, counting off facts they both already knew on her fingers, “Rainbow Dash got that scholarship for...soccer I think--”
“I thought it was hockey,” Applejack quipped.
“--I-I don’t even know,” Fluttershy admitted, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she got one for every single sport there is.” She digressed, “Twilight and Sunset Shimmer got into the Sorbonne, so they’re still in France I think. I can’t even understand whatever degree they’re going for. I think you have to have a whole separate major just to pronounce it…”
Fluttershy trailed off and rested her hand on one of the dock posts. She turned to the water, choosing to glance down at the night sky’s reflection rather than up at the real thing. Autumn was turning and the night was still warm, but a brisk breeze chose that moment to bleach the air with a little chill and a few telltale falling leaves, sending a shiver through her bare shoulders.
Applejack folded her arms and spoke, “Penny for your thoughts?”
“What?” Fluttershy blinked, “O-oh. Oh no, I’m alright. It’s just that this place brings back a lot of memories, and...”
“And?”
Fluttershy said nothing. Applejack closed the distance to her in two great steps, again resting her hand comfortingly on her companion’s shoulder. She cut straight to the point.
“Are you lonely at school?”
“No...” Fluttershy replied, her eyes again distant. “Well...I mean I do have friends there. Some. A-and they’re very nice to me! But...well...it’s just not the same.” She looked up, and Applejack saw despondence in Fluttershy’s lovely sea green eyes. “They’re all so far away, and…I just go to a local community college.”
“So?” Applejack replied smartly. “Don’t buy into all that ‘ivy league’ hoo-ha. College is college when ya come right down to it. You’re still doing somethin’ with your life.”
“It’s not that,” Fluttershy sighed. “It just feels like...they all moved on without us. We’re still here. In this same town.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing,” Applejack grinned wryly, “Yanno, if you and I weren’t so close, I might take offense to that idea. I’m right where I always wanted to be.”
Fluttershy drooped apologetically. “Did you not ever want to go to college?”
Applejack shrugged through the pure white shoulders of her blouse. “It crossed my mind a couple times back in high school. Hard for it not to, with the way they were always pushin’ it at everybody. But I never took it serious-like.”
“Really?”
Applejack shook her head, punctuating her conviction, and explained-
“Fluttershy, there ain’t no shame in following your dream. The problem most people have with that is they’ll say it, but then they all apply it to the same dream - goin’ out into the world and getting rich, or famous, or bein’ involved in some great dinosaur dig or building a rocket to the moon. And there ain’t nothing wrong with all that. But you gotta stay true to what you want, even if the music in your ears ain’t what other people hear. If there’s one thing I’ve ever wanted, it’s to work the land my gramma worked, and her gramma before her. That’s where I’m gonna be, ‘till I’m some old gramma myself, rockin’ on my chair on the porch, looking at the same apple trees that were there when I was too young to even walk up and sit under one.”
Fluttershy seemed awed. “Gee, I’m…sorry. I guess I never really realized how deep your love for farming really goes. I’m...kind of envious really.”
Applejack grinned and lightly slapped Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry. It don’t matter if you wanna save the world or keep a house. You’re gonna find right where you most wanna be - where you need to be. And wherever that takes you, I’ll back you up as sure as the apples on my boots.”
Fluttershy grinned and nodded at Applejack’s midsection. “And your belt!”
“Sure as shootin’!” Applejack laughed.
Fluttershy’s roughly-hewn features softened like the eroded face of an ancient waterfall. She glanced down at herself and went about futzing with her outfit - tugging at the white tank top and lime skirt she so often wore as a Canterlot Wondercolt.
“You know, I almost didn’t remember what I did with this outfit,” She admitted as she lifted her leg and glanced back to tug at her boot. “I feel like I used to wear it every single day.” She felt around in her hair for the butterfly-shaped clip that lived there, “And my hair hasn’t felt so...free for a while now. I started tying it back because I took a chemistry elective and I was worried it would get in the way. And then I just...kept doing it.”
“I hear ya,” Applejack frowned, worming a finger into the waist of her skirt. “I ain’t gettin’ pudgy or nothing, but we were still growing up then. Not everything’s gonna fit forever.” She touched the brim of her hat and ran her fingers across the length of it. “There’ll be a blizzard at harvest time before I ever give my hat up, though.”
Fluttershy had stepped behind her companion and was appreciatively stroking Applejack’s long ponytail. “Do you still wear your hair like this? I always thought it suited you so well.”
“Well, eh heh...” Applejack scratched sheepishly at the back of her neck, “Sure do, yeah. Keeps it outta the way when I’m workin’ outside. I thought about cuttin’ it, but--”
“What?” Fluttershy looked mortified, “Don’t do that! It would be an awful loss! It’s so pretty!”
Applejack took her hat off and ran her fingers through her own locks, waving the hat dismissively with her other hand. “Aw don’t worry. I ain’t gonna do that. I mean, real short hair would probably be a good idea for me, but...I just...”
Fluttershy smiled a demure smile and tilted her head, hovering somewhere near Applejack’s shoulder. “But you want to still feel pretty.”
Grunting, Applejack gritted her teeth and looked sharply away the moment she felt warmth come to her cheeks. “…yep. And I know, there’s plenty of girls out there with short hair that are real pretty and stylish, but...well I spend every day of my life around a lot of boys workin’ on fields. And I guess I like...feelin’ a little different.”
“And that’s also why you wear a skirt,” Fluttershy continued eagerly, “Even when jeans would be more functional.”
“I wear jeans plenty!” Applejack insisted, “But...yeah, what you said. Don’t go tellin’ nobody that, will ya?”
“…aaaand it’s also why you keep smoothing your skirt all the time even when it’s not riding up on you,” Fluttershy continued obliviously.
“What?” Applejack looked down. There were her orange palms, flat on the denim she didn’t even realize she was touching. “...that’s just a habit, I guess. Like I said I work around a lot of boys.” She huffed, “Sure wish I could just take my shirt off like they do whenever it gets too hot out. But ain’t nobody’s gettin’ a free show!”
“That’s...” Fluttershy’s voice dipped so low, the rustle of nearby leaves nearly drowned her out. “...that’s why we’re here, isn’t it? N-not for a ‘free show’,” she quickly amended, “But…just some, um…‘communing’, right?”
The two shared a blush and looked away. Fluttershy began to play with her hair until Applejack, her eyes on the water, finally spoke.
“I wasn’t inclined to admit this way back when but...you and Rarity make bein’ girly look so easy. I might...maybe have been a little jealous, sorta…now an’ then.”
Fluttershy, who was studying the cabins on the shore as though they were suddenly captivating works of art, replied, “I always thought it was so amazing how you and Rainbow Dash were so strong and sure of yourselves about everything. I was jealous of that.”
“Tch, sure of myself?” Applejack turned and made a face, “I’m sure about growin’ crops and sloppin’ pigs, that’s all! But bein’ girly...” She hugged herself lightly and glanced down at her blouse. “...y’all are a lot braver than me.”
Fluttershy smiled a sweet smile. “You are the person you are. If Twilight...I mean pony princess Twilight from that other dimension, ever taught us all anything, it’s to celebrate who we are. Whether or not you want to get a manicure in work boots or plow fields in a pretty dress doesn’t matter.”
Applejack felt her lips turn up in a smile as she was fed back a different flavor of her own words from moments ago. “Yeah...I know that. But it helps to have at least one of my best friends around to say it anyway.” She nodded at her companion, “That top you used to wear all the time, that’s part of what I mean. Awful bold.”
Fluttershy blushed and glanced down at her chest. “My top...? What about it?”
Applejack smirked. “Sorta a little bit skimpy, ain’t it? And all white like that.”
“Y-you can’t see through it!” Fluttershy sputtered, looking herself over just to make certain she was telling the truth. “I...I never even thought about something like that. I just thought it was a cute top and it looked nice on me!” She picked at herself, adjusting the straps of her shoulders and twisting to pull the white tank down a bit. “It’s just a little bit small on me now.”
Applejack folded her arms and laughed dryly. “Why do you suppose we wore these getups out here tonight? I feel like I’m sixteen again, wearin’ this.”
Fluttershy touched her elbow and glanced down at the green knee-boots she hadn’t worn since high school. “Because we wanted to remember how things used to be…when we were all together.”
For a time, there was nothing between the girls but the chirping of the crickets and the hooting of a distant owl. The pair stepped further out onto the dock, standing beside each other, their attention taken by the shimmering crispness of the dark water all around.
“You don’t think they mind us bein’ here, do ya?” Applejack finally said. Fluttershy shook her head slightly.
“Gloriosa and Timber? They never do. Not with all we did those years ago to help keep this camp alive. They closed two weeks early for the season this year for some renovations, but they said the seven of us could...come and go as we please.” She paused, and then added, “But I guess that only really applies to us two anymore.”
Applejack took in a deep breath, as if preparing for a speech-
“One night, when we were all havin’ fun together in senior year, I got home real late. Big Mac was still up. He asked me what I’d been doing. I told him the truth - we were all just hanging out together, having fun. Then he said somethin’ to me that I straight up didn’t believe at the time.”
“Oh...?”
“He said that I should enjoy those days as much as possible, because no matter how close I was to my friends, graduation...always changes things. Not that you won’t like each other no more, but when you’re all ready to go your separate ways and focus on buildin’ your own lives...even if you keep in touch, you’ll still drift apart.” She flexed her bicep a few times, glancing idly at it. “He told me that’s just an inevitability of life. It don’t mean your friends are gone forever, but you have to expect it, and know how to adapt to it. So you don’t end up thinking your friendships are over.”
Fluttershy looked down. “...are our friendships over?”
Applejack shook her head staunchly. “Not ever, and don’t you start believin’ that. It might take another form, but I think you know as well as I do that we’ll always be friends forever. All of us.”
“Y-yeah...” Fluttershy whimpered, “But that doesn’t make it…any easier.”
Unable to contain herself, Fluttershy pressed herself into Applejack again, obliging the latter to wrap her in another warm hug. Applejack rested her chin in the pink forest of Fluttershy’s hair, simply holding her, until a thought demanded to be voiced.
“H-hey, uh...about why we’re here...”
“O-oh!” Fluttershy pulled abruptly away. “Right, yes. Um...” she glanced at the scenery again, scratching her head in a useless gesture. “Well, we’re here, so...”
Applejack raised a brow. “Y’mean right here? Just like that?”
“I, uh...I guess so?”
Applejack glanced around. The moon shone high, its natural light bathing the pier and the water around it in a soft…exposed glow. She felt her head slink slightly into her shoulders.
“...nah. Someplace not so...out in the open.” She amended, “N-not that that’s a bad thing being out in the open, mind. I mean that’s kinda the point I guess, just...I ain’t never tried this before, so...” She rolled her eyes at herself, “Listen to me, I sound like a herd of cattle with nothin’ but left hooves runnin’ in circles…”
Fluttershy touched her chin, looking thoughtful. “I did once.”
Applejack, who was already walking towards the shore, paused. “Wait...you did? You told me you ain’t never done this before neither.”
Fluttershy was digging the toe of her boot into a groove between two wooden planks. “It was...a long time ago. I couldn’t sleep one night and nobody was around, so...I just went outside and tried it. It was only for like five minutes. I...guess I’ve always been curious since then.”
Applejack’s bewildered eyebrows peaked. “Huh. I guess you got one up on me then.” She quieted, “...it ain’t weird we wanna do this, is it?”
“Do you think it’s weird?” Fluttershy asked, her directness nearly startling her companion.
“Me? Well...no I don’t. Or else I wouldn’t be here. I suppose I just...” She daintily touched the closest dock post to the shore, feeling the smooth wood under her fingertips. “...the earth, the land. It all means a lot to me. I wanna be, uh...more in touch with it. Ain’t never had the nerve to try ‘till now.”
Fluttershy followed her friend onto the soft grass of the shore. “I feel the same way. The land and all its creatures mean a lot to me. Honestly I think it means more to us than any of our friends. So I think I understand just how you’re feeling.”
Applejack looked sheepish. “You still wanna, right?”
“Mmhm,” Fluttershy nodded. “I think together, we both have the support we need.” With that, she stepped over to a violet tote bag resting patiently in the grass. Applejack, having not actually noticed Fluttershy’s arrival or seen what she had brought along, tilted her head curiously.
“What’cha got there?”
“Just some stuff we might need.”
From the bag, Fluttershy extracted a picnic blanket and a pair of nicely-folded, fluffy beach towels. She sat the towels aside and fanned out the traditionally red-and-white checkered blanket, laying it out in a flat rectangle a few yards from the shore. Finally she stood in the center of it, turned to her friend, and simply stood there, hands clasped together at her chest, a look of promise on her face.
Applejack blanched. “Y-you go first.”
Fluttershy’s cheeks flushed deeply. She was about to counter-request the same thing, but it would do no good to waste the evening. Shyness had been a constant hurdle in her life, and in recent years she had resolved not to let it completely control her.
“...alright.”
Framed by the moonlight, her flowing locks styled in familiar waves of yesterday, Fluttershy took a deep breath and let it out. She latched her hands across one another at the hem of her top and simply pulled it up and off her head, shaking her bangs loose and discarding the garment. Riding her momentum, she kicked off her boots, hooked her thumbs into her skirt, and slipped it down her thighs, letting it fall into a useless heap around her pastel-striped stockings. She paused then, glancing to her audience.
“Pink lace is...awful cute, but--” Applejack stammered, “Bein’ in our underwear ain’t really the point. Not much different than a swimsuit when you think on it.”
“I know,” Fluttershy replied. “Just...just give me a moment.”
Fluttershy took another deep breath, allowing the night air to fill her lungs. She closed her eyes and considered how good it already felt just to be out of the slightly tight outfit. On the heels of those thoughts, she brought a hand behind her back to undo the clasp of the coral pink bra that carried and supported her through her day. Knowing it had fallen away just from the sensation of air flowing over her bare chest, she carefully bent one leg, and then the other - bringing them up in a high step as she slipped her last bit of protection from them, rolling both stockings off just after balling up the delicate panties she had a certain fondness for. She opened her eyes and reached up to quickly undo the butterfly clip in her hair, tossing it into the basket with a light clatter. Her hair, set free, wisped about her head in the slight breeze.
“I thought...” She explained without being asked, nodding at the path the hair clip had taken, “...we should be totally natural. H-head to toe.”
Applejack nearly went cross-eyed glancing up at the brim of her hat. She considered this, and finally removed the beloved lid, flipping it like a Frisbee into the grass beside the basket. She stepped out of her heavy boots and, barefoot, strode over to the blanket.
“...my turn ain’t it.”
“Mmhm,” Fluttershy smiled, “Don’t worry. I’m right here.” She widened her stance and brushed the grass daintily with one bare foot. “Feels kinda nice on your toes, doesn’t it?”
“I been barefoot outdoors plenty of times,” Applejack hesitated, otherwise ignoring the question, “It’s just…I ain’t never ‘naked’ naked unless I’m gettin’ changed or takin’ a shower.”
“You’re used to having clothes on.”
“Uh-huh.”
“All the time.”
“...uh-huh.”
“And you feel uncomfortable without them,” Fluttershy led, “So much so that you wouldn’t even take showers around the other girls in the locker room after gym class. Like me.”
Without her hat brim to pull down, Applejack somehow felt even more naked than her companion. “...that’s right.”
Fluttershy, naked and exposed to the great outdoors, touched Applejack’s shoulder and sought successfully to claim her gaze. “We both wanted to do this. To not be afraid of our bodies anymore. And we wanted to do it outdoors so we could be in touch with the land we love, with nothing artificial between us and it.” The blazing sunshine of her smile was enough to bring comfort to the dead of an arctic winter, “Don’t be afraid. I’m right here for you.”
Applejack became momentarily lost in the soft sea green of the windows to her dear friend’s soul. The honesty contained there was enough to shame the girl who was supposed to embody that trait, and before Applejack knew it, she was working the final button on the bottom of her blouse. Allowing the open top to slip from her shoulders, she unclasped her belt, and with a firm yank, tore it free from every loop in her skirt, letting it fall away somewhere in a metallic clatter.
Fluttershy smiled merrily. “Oh, I guess I’m not the only one who likes pink lace.”
“I like it fine!” Applejack sputtered, her exceptionally feminine undergarment swaying a bit with the flailing of her arms. “There now, I said it. Ain’t nobody can ever see it so it don’t even matter.”
“I can,” Fluttershy commented gently. “And I’m glad you shared it with me.”
Applejack touched her cheek and found herself grinning. She finished the job, sliding her skirt and underwear off until the air found its way to her body as well, passing between the two of them with a gentle caress. When she finally opened her eyes, she found an eagerly grinning Fluttershy staring at her.
“...what? Do I have somethin’ on my face?”
“No,” Fluttershy replied, pointing around Applejack’s side. “But we said totally natural, remember?”
Applejack turned her head sharply, her eyes scanning the treeline in confusion until the swish of her ponytail jogged her memory.
“Ohhh, yeah, right, heh...”
Fluttershy slipped behind her friend; in an instant she was cradling Applejack’s long blonde tresses.
“You know,” Fluttershy appraised, “I always thought your hair was so beautiful. So full and healthy looking.”
“Me?” Applejack, unable to see her friend now, merely stared at the tops of the oaks as they loomed over distant cabins. “Your hair is what’s beautiful. Mine’s full of dust and dirt half the time, heh.”
Fluttershy stroked her friend’s hair, “Even so, it never loses its bounce. Not that I’ve seen anyway. What product to you use?”
“Product?” Applejack tasted the word in confusion.
Fluttershy stroked Applejack’s head once as though she were washing her friend’s hair. “Product. You know, on your hair. Every girl I know uses at least some product.”
“Oh!” Applejack scrunched her nose. “A’course I use product. Shampoo’s a product!”
Fluttershy couldn’t help but emit a giggle that would have been worthy of birdsong. “I knew you’d say that.” She stepped slightly closer to her friend, just to let her know she was there, and placed her hand on the red tie that kept all of Applejack’s hair under her control.
“Can I take this off?” Fluttershy asked patiently.
Applejack sniffed derisively at herself. “Lookit me. I’m standing here naked out in the open, and I’m all hesitant about something as dumb as a hair tie.”
“It’s not dumb,” Fluttershy insisted. “I’ve never, ever seen you without your hair tied back before. Even swimming. I bet you don’t even take this off to sleep, do you.”
“Just...just in the bath.”
“Just like your clothes,” Fluttershy continued. “It’s a security thing for you. That’s why I’m asking you if it’s okay. I want you to be comfortable.”
Applejack had to chuckle. “You keep hittin’ all the nails on the head tonight and I might ask you to help me raise a barn, Fluttershy.” The levity was a defense mechanism, and it faded when she glanced down at her hands, which were now instinctively smoothing nothing but the curve of her tummy around her navel.
“...it’s alright. Go ahead.”
“Are you sure?”
Applejack nodded. “Ain’t much point if we don’t go all the way, right? You took yours out. ‘Sides, I don’t…need security right now. I got you here with me.”
Fluttershy felt the glow of the simple warmth in her friend’s words. She took the hair tie in her grasp and liberated all the strands of spun gold it contained, smoothing and fluffing out Applejack’s luscious mane as it came to life. She then reached around and presented Applejack with the tie. Applejack took the strip of cloth, examined it as though she had never seen it before, and then finally tossed it into the basket.
“There,” Fluttershy’s syrupy voice floated in from behind. “We did it. We’re outside, in nature. As naturally as we were born from head to toe.”
Applejack stifled a laugh, causing her friend’s brow to crease in confusion.
“What’s so funny...?”
“Nothin’,” Applejack smirked, turning finally, her freely flowing tresses twirling around her waist and hips as she moved. “Just I’m pretty sure this ain’t how we both looked when we were born.”
The two paused. Each pair of eyes dipped simultaneously down to chest level of the other, then continued straight down to the grass each bare foot was nestled in.
Just as quickly the girls were looking each other in the eye again.
Fluttershy broke the silence, nodding at the blanket. “Let’s...go sit down.”
They sat, side by side - Applejack had her arms propped behind her, legs outstretched to the edge of the blanket. Fluttershy’s legs were bent, her arms wrapped loosely around her knees. The two stared blankly at the water for nearly five minutes, until Fluttershy finally took a swing at the silent glass ceiling looming above them.
“...do you think the lake is cold?”
Applejack shook her head. “Nah. I tested it soon as I got here. Plus, check that out-” She pointed at a spot closer to Fluttershy, obliging her to reach across the other girl. “See that little bit of steam on the surface over there? The air is just barely startin’ to cool off more than the water. I bet it’s still pretty cozy in there.”
Fluttershy nodded, listening. When Applejack fell silent, Fluttershy glanced back to find her companion with a look so stiff, it was as though the blanket had suddenly become a sheet of ice. Applejack’s orange arm was lying across Fluttershy’s knees, but before she could yank herself away, Fluttershy grabbed the arm and placed Applejack’s open palm on her sun-kissed yellow kneecap.
“Uh...why’d you do that?” Applejack asked, her eyes hesitantly watching the connection. “I didn’t mean nothin’...sorry...”
“That right there,” Fluttershy snapped, emboldened by her unwillingness to allow the emotion that bore her name to control the evening. “You don’t need to apologize for touching me. We’ve hugged before, haven’t we? And played games involving touching people?”
“Well sure, but...” Applejack nearly moved her hand, but thought the better of it, thrown off by her friend’s sudden resoluteness. “But we weren’t sittin’ by a pretty pond all...naked together.”
Fluttershy shook her head again, the gesture sharper this time. “Applejack, I don’t want there to be any shyness tonight. I’ve been held back in my life enough by that. Look at me.”
Applejack turned and simply glanced at her companion’s face. “Uh, okay?”
“No, no,” She let her knees drop, her legs straightening out on the blanket and her arms falling to her sides. “I mean look at my body. You’re not used to seeing people naked right?”
Applejack felt her face heating up again. “Geez, I got a sister you know...and a brother too. It ain’t like I never seen nothin’ before. What you got ain’t different from what I got, anyway!”
Fluttershy did not relent. “Looking in the mirror isn’t the same thing, but I bet you don’t really do that either unless you have to, do you.”
The statement was not in the form of a question. Applejack shrunk.
“But seeing your brother or sister was probably only for a second or two by accident, right? Or maybe it happened when you were so young that you were all just--” She made a gesture, touching the tip of her thumb and forefinger to their reverse companions, “--just rectangles. I’m talking about being naked like this...like we are now. I’ve certainly never just…sat around talking in the nude before.”
“I’m sure our friends ain’t done that much either...” Applejack mumbled.
“They aren’t here,” Fluttershy replied smartly, “And this is something special we wanted to do, just for us. Because of how much we care for the Earth, and how much we know we’re both a part of it.” She smiled that sweet, saccharine smile and sat back, propping herself into Applejack’s previous sitting position with her hands on the blanket behind her. “Please look at me, okay?”
Applejack felt hair draping over her shoulders. She brushed at it, the sensation as foreign as the cool breeze on her nudity. Finally she began to examine the softness of Fluttershy’s form, her emerald eyes running the length of the warm, naked body before her.
Fluttershy was giggling.
“Wh-what!?” Applejack was up on her knees, but Fluttershy reached out a hand, waving it to calm her.
“Just...I didn’t know you had more freckles on your shoulders!”
Applejack hugged herself, covering her shoulders with her hands. Immediately Fluttershy was up on her knees as well.
“Oh, no no...I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant...” She rummaged in her head for words, “I just meant, it’s really cute! I’m sorry, I was just trying to compliment you...”
For a moment, Applejack looked as though she would turn away, but to her friend’s surprise, she managed a small chuckle of her own, and let her arms drop. “Dern. We’re more nervous than a heffer gettin’ milked for the first time. Didn’t we both say how silly it is that folks get all riled up just for what we all got under our shirts?”
Fluttershy brightened, dismissing the somewhat curiously-chosen countryism, “We did, yes...”
“Then what are we bein’ all silly for?” Applejack pushed out her chest. “Go on. Lookit me. I got freckles on my boobs too, and...well heck, I always thought it was kinda cute myself, so you just chuckle all you want!”
Fluttershy’s eyes dipped down. Her smile flickered over her lips like a campfire. “You’re really okay?”
Applejack nodded sharply. “Sure as a summer day is long! I...well...” she brushed her hair aside yet again, “...I wanted you to see me like this. I wanna have some friend I can just...be like this with.”
“Me too,” Fluttershy cooed. She stared, curiosity taking the hesitation out of her comments, “Oh. They’re bigger than I thought they would be.”
“Huh?”
“Your breasts,” Fluttershy pointed blatantly at Applejack’s chest. “I thought they would be...well, smaller and perkier. But they’re actually kinda bouncy looking.”
Confusion kept Applejack’s mind away from embarrassment. “Uh...why?”
“W-well it’s just,” Fluttershy continued, “I remember a health class I took, where they said that girls who are more physically active produce more testosterone, and it tends to make their breasts not...develop as much.”
Applejack was looking at her own chest now, her eyes going back and forth between hers and Fluttershy’s. “It ain’t like I run marathons or play every sport there is like Rainbow Dash does. I dunno,” She reached down to lightly run her fingertips across the valley of her own breasts, “...it’s just how they turned out. I mean we both got boobs, right?”
Fluttershy sat up, presenting her own chest for cross-examination. “Yes, but yours are bigger. Mine are, umm...uh...pert, I guess.”
“Yours are plenty pretty,” Applejack insisted as she examined the modest swell that made up Fluttershy’s chest.
Fluttershy seemed to shrink into the comfort of her own mind again. Applejack took action. She grabbed Fluttershy’s arm, flexed her palm, and unceremoniously placed the other girl’s hand right over the nipple of her left breast.
Fluttershy stared.
“You said it yourself,” Applejack offered by way of explanation. “We should get comfortable with seein’, touchin’ and all that. Now you’ve touched me right on a place the sun don’t ever even get to touch. So that’s that.”
Fluttershy let the giggle flow out of her this time. She caressed the softness of Applejack’s left breast, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You’re just...um...voluptuous, I guess?” Before Applejack knew it, Fluttershy had brought her other hand to bear on the right breast, and was fluffing the both of them like pillows. “They’re just so soft!”
“Woah now,” Applejack chuckled, “I ain’t no bouncy castle!”
“Oh but this is really fun!” Fluttershy teased, “Mine don’t do this at all!”
“Oh yeah?” Applejack’s smile turned wry, “I think I’ll go and be the judge of that myself, if’n you don’t mind!”
Bowled over by a sudden tackle, Fluttershy found herself spread out on the blanket on her back. She barely had time to yelp before her armpits were mercilessly assaulted by invading orange fingers.
“Apples!” Applejack cried, “Go on an’ say it!”
“Ap..ap...app--!” Fluttershy sputtered under the assault, flailing and squirming as laughter bubbled through her words and took over her throat. Realizing she couldn’t even utter the demanded surrender phrase for her convulsive cackling, she fought back, counter-assaulting the sensitive and unprotected underarms of her attacker.
“B-B-B...bunnyrabbit!” She managed, snorting in a less than feminine way. “S-ssay bunnyr-r-rabbit!”
Coated in a jungle of rose and blonde locks, the two nude moonbathers tickled each other without fail, until jerky convulsions sent them into an uncontrolled roll right down the slight taper of land towards the bank. Yelping, they both rent the calmness of the lake asunder as they plunged in, a great splash enveloping the shore.
For a moment there was silence. Then, two slow streams of bubbles quickened until the surface of the water erupted into the supple shoulders of the two unexpected skinny-dippers, their hair matted to shape around their sides and down their backs.
Applejack gasped, her lungs swelling with the oxygen she had surrendered to an untimely gasp just before she hit the water. She shook her head like a dog, trying in vain to dismiss the dampness that soaked her to the bone, and immediately took to brushing clingy strands out of her mouth.
“Pffft! Geez, what in--!?”
She was interrupted by a blast of spray to the face. Rubbing her eyes, Applejack noticed Fluttershy, flailing and kicking in the surf her bare arms and legs created.
“Wah! Ah! H-help!!”
Applejack felt the muddy, yet firm earth of the lake floor between her toes. She glanced down at the water level, which was rippling violently…around her thighs.
“Fluttershy...”
“H-hellllllp!!” Fluttershy cried, her shout piercing the air such that Applejack glanced around, half expecting to suddenly be set upon in her nakedness by searchlights.
“Oh for--” Exasperated, Applejack grabbed Fluttershy by the wrist in both hands and simply yanked on her. “Tarnation girl! Put your feet down!”
Fluttershy continued her litany of desperation until she too felt the soft mashing of mud under the soles of her feet. She blinked. Looked around. Looked down.
…and found herself standing in thigh-high water, with Applejack and her dour expression clinging tightly to her wrist.
“...oh.” Fluttershy wilted. “Sorry.”
Applejack let go and took to checking herself over, raising her legs from the water and glancing back at her feet to make certain she hadn’t stepped on anything. “What was that all about? I’ve seen you swim just fine in gym class before.”
“Oh, well, that is...” Fluttershy’s embarrassment was no longer for her lack of clothing, “I can swim, but...I’m not very good at it, and I haven’t done it at all since high school so...I...guess I sort’ve...forgot how?”
“Forgot how?” Applejack’s exasperation was once again evident, “Lansakes, how can you forget how to swim? It’s like ridin’ a bicycle!”
“I’m...not sure I remember how to do that either really--” Fluttershy mumbled.
“How in the name of hay bales and pitchforks were you plannin’ to be a marine biologist if you ‘forgot’ how to swim??”
“I thought...maybe I could just stay on the boat...”
Fluttershy’s voice was below a whisper. Applejack, not bothering the strain to hear it, took her friend by the wrist again and began marching out into the lake, kicking up crashing, miniature waves as she went. Fluttershy stumbled to keep up.
“W-wait, where are we going!?” She asked with alarm, stabbing her finger in the opposite direction repeatedly. “The grass is over there!”
“I’m gonna remind you how to swim,” Applejack insisted, marching on. “The very idea. Why, if my brother or my old granny had heard me say I forgot how to swim back when I was just a runt? They’d have tossed me in the deep end of the waterin’ hole and stood there to watch! Tough love, that’s what they’d have called it!” She scratched her chin, “Come to think of it they’d prolly do the same thing now. And that there’s my point!”
Fluttershy felt the ball of her foot graze something spiny. She fought to keep her balance as the water level gradually slid up her skin. “B-but I...but I don’t want my love to be tough!” She stammered helplessly, “I want it to be, uh...tender like, uh...rainbows and unicorns, and...”
“The first Twilight I ever met was a unicorn,” Applejack replied, “An’ if she can walk, er...trot or whatever it is through a portal in a statue to another dimension, from a place full of talkin’ horses and crazy mumbo-jumbo hocus-pocus to save us all from other horsepeople with crazy mumbo-jumbo hocus-pocus that came here too, you sure can re-learn how to swim!”
“B-but, but wait, I don’t--OW!”
The next jagged rock that came in contact with Fluttershy’s unprotected foot wasn’t as forgiving for being trod upon. Wrenching away from Applejack’s grasp, Fluttershy pulled her leg out of the water and wrapped her bent knee against her chest, sparing her smarting foot the dirt floor as she balanced on the other. Applejack turned, and in the face of the scene before her, she instantly regretted her outburst.
“I...aw geez,” Applejack sighed. “I’m so sorry Fluttershy, I just...guess I plum got carried away there...”
Fluttershy, wincing a bit, waved the apology off. “N-no, no, it’s alright. I’m not hurt. Just a little shock is all.” She managed a grin, “That’s part of being natural, right? E-everything can get through your guard, eh heh...”
Applejack forgave her friend for the virtue of her ever-present kindness. “I appreciate what you’re tryin’ to do Fluttershy, but it’s my fault you got hurt. Here-” She offered her friend a supportive shoulder, “Lemme help you. We’ll get back to shore so’s you can rest.”
Fluttershy let her leg go, bent it behind her, and checked the bottom of her foot for any sign of injury. True to her words, there was none, and the pain was already fading away. She nearly took the offered shoulder, but with a sudden look of determination, she returned her leg to the sea with its mate and stood firm.
“No,” She said resolutely. “I think you’re right. It is pretty silly to just forget how to swim. I think I’m just...I’m letting being timid get to me again.” She brightened. “Will you help me try again?”
Applejack raised a brow. “...you sure?”
“Mmhm,” Fluttershy nodded. “Just for a little while. I think it would also be something nice we can do together...” she indicated her nudity, which was now obscured to the waist by the dark water, “...while we’re like this.”
Applejack’s smile was wry. “Well...alright. If’n you say so.”
Time passed, and at length Fluttershy found herself on her stomach, stark naked, in the middle of both the night and the shimmering lake at Camp Everfree. She was cognizant of the position of Applejack’s hands – one on her stomach for support, and the other hovering down somewhere near her legs like a life guard.
“You’re gettin’ it!” Applejack coached. “Keep kickin’! Just like that!”
Fluttershy kicked her legs for all she was worth, ultimately going nowhere because of the anchoring hand under her. Her arms were so tightly pinned to her sides that Applejack got the mental image of Irish folk dancing, but she went on.
“Okay, I’m gonna let go, alright?”
“B-but...but...!”
“You c’n do it!” Applejack assured, “Stroke with those arms!”
Fluttershy closed her eyes and fought against her inner timidness. Her arms began to pantomime a clumsy breaststroke. “I...I don’t think this is a good idea after all, I...”
“I’ll let you go on the count of three!” Applejack insisted, raising her voice over the splashing, “You count it!”
Fluttershy swallowed and shut her eyes tightly. “...o-one....two...”
“Stop countin’!” A distant voice called.
Fluttershy’s eyes popped open. With water up to her shoulders and nothing under her feet, she scissor-kicked her legs and floated, treading water until she noticed Applejack, who was standing with water up to just under her chest from several yards away.
“W-why did you go over there?” Fluttershy complained in her own inoffensive way, “I-I can’t touch the bottom here!”
“I know,” Applejack grinned. “I let you go before I even told you to start countin’. I didn’t go away from you. You went away from me!”
Fluttershy glanced around, swiping her arms through the water as she floated. “That’s...kind of a dirty trick.”
Applejack couldn’t help but beam with pride. “Yup! It’s the same one granny used on me when I was barely a bean sprout. Looks to me like you didn’t forget nearly as much as you think. You’re not even drownin’!”
Fluttershy seemed to only at that moment notice that she was, in fact, treading water like a pro. She beamed right back at her friend. “H-hey, you’re right! I’m not drowning!”
“And now,” Applejack folded her arms under her chest and grinned. “You don’t have to be the only marine biologist that’s stuck on the boat!”
“...thank you,” Fluttershy smiled softly. “I really needed that. But...um...” She glanced at the shore, which was both a few hundred yards and several thousand miles away. “...can you help me get back?”
“Heh heh...sure.”
Fluttershy found herself briefly underwater three times on the short trip back to the pier. The third time she dared to open her eyes, and she was well rewarded for the effort. Soft moonlight diffusing through the waves rippled against the dark earth below, giving rise to a marine wonderland of fish, crustaceans, and smooth river rock formations that looked to have been arranged by the most skilled artisans.
To her surprise, there was another view under the sea that felt more like art to her than even her beloved marine friends.
Applejack, silhouetted by the rippling kaleidoscope of pale white and yellow light, seemed to shimmer like an otherworldly being, borne aloft in the water as though she were descending from the sky. Her scattered locks were fields of golden grain. Her trim waist, athletic hips and thighs, and even her toned biceps slipped through the patient dark like smooth music from a muted trumpet as she stroked through the water. The sway of her unexpectedly ample chest as it bounced in weightlessness was nearly hypnotic. Fluttershy had never even thought of her farmgirl friend this way before, much less considered the true depth of her beauty.
…a moment later, Fluttershy was rubbing her head after an untimely, jarring impact with the dock supports.
Applejack winced at the unexpected sound. Standing once again in thigh-high water, she offered a helping pair of hands. “You okay?”
“Oh?” Fluttershy was too busy rubbing her forehead to notice she was sitting in the water, with ripples pooling at the roll of flesh that only appeared beneath her breasts when she bent far enough. “Oh, right, sure, I’m okay!” She stood up abruptly. “I just wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, eh heh heh...you know, it’s dark and all.”
“Uh huh,” Applejack shrugged. “Let’s get you back up on the towel so you can rest a spell. We stay in here much longer and who knows what you’re gonna bump into next!”
With little effort, Applejack hoisted herself from the water clear up onto the dock, planting her feet and pushing on the supports for leverage. She offered her friend a helping boost, and soon they were both back where they’d started the evening. Fluttershy’s cursory glance at the bank quickly became an abject stare.
“O-oh dear...”
“Huh? What?”
Fluttershy didn’t respond, instead, she sprinted off the dock to the shore to confirm her suspicions. Sure enough, the blanket, the basket and the towels were all completely soaked. She unfolded a towel, testing the heavy water weight of it while she made a vain attempt to wring it out. Applejack approached at a walk.
“Oh, uh...gee,” Applejack mused, “Sorry about that. I guess it’s kinda my fault, huh. On account of my gettin’ all silly about tickles and such.”
“We both did it,” Fluttershy insisted. She draped the towel over her shoulders, but its inability to absorb any more moisture ended up making her more wet than dry. Giving up, she tossed it in a heap. Applejack was kneeling over the basket.
“Did anything stay dry?” Fluttershy offered hopefully.
“...nope.”
“Oh my,” Fluttershy hugged herself and glanced at the sky to check the position of the moon, one foot perching on her toes. “What are we gonna do now? We can’t wear soaked clothes home.”
Applejack checked the moon as well, “We got hours before dawn and the camp is closed anyway, so I think we’ll be fine.” She tried on her hat and instantly regretted a dousing of water that had pooled around its brim. “We planned coming here tonight, so I made sure I got nothin’ to do tomorrow till the afternoon. Slept before I got here, too. How ‘bout you?”
Fluttershy shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I only have one class tomorrow and I’m not tired either.”
“Welp,” Applejack brushed the damp picnic blanket out of the way and plopped down in the grass. “I guess we ain’t got much choice! Let’s just hang out and make the most of it.”
Fluttershy did not respond. She was standing there thoughtfully, two fingers over her lips while the rest of her hand cradled her chin.
Applejack interceded, “You know, I keep givin’ you pennies for your thoughts tonight and you’re gonna be the next Filthy Rich.”
“W-well, it’s just...” Fluttershy consulted the cluttered filing cabinets in her brain and finally chose the folder containing ‘blunt honesty’.
“...you’re a really beautiful woman.”
Applejack pursed her lips, her left eyebrow still cocked askew. “Well thanks? So are you.”
“N-no I mean, like really,” Fluttershy stammered, clumsily bumbling across her point. “I mean, you know, I’m shy but I’m not completely oblivious. I know that most people think I’m cute and all. But you’re just...really beautiful. I’ve never seen you like this before so I guess I never realized it. I mean I always thought you were cute before, like I think all of our friends are cute, but...” Fluttershy glanced at her modest chest, and then at her friend’s, just long enough to make the gesture noticeable.
Applejack tilted her head slightly. “Thanks, but, Fluttershy, there’s more to bein’ pretty than how big your boobs are.” She looked down, and poked one of the fleshy orbs on her chest with her index finger. “These things ain’t all they’re cracked up to be. For one, they play hell with running around doin’ farm work. Since there ain’t no point in hidin’ it from you by now, I’ll admit I like pretty lacy bras--” She looked up suddenly, “--and don’t you go tellin’ nobody that, but most of the time I gotta wear a sports bra or somethin’ with so much support that it ain’t hardly comfortable.” She blew out an annoyed breath. “Darn boys got it easy if’n you ask me. If it’d been up to me I’d never have let ‘em grow this much.”
Fluttershy treated herself to a small giggle, “I think I might have done the opposite if it were up to me, but I don’t think we can swap.” She lowered herself to her haunches and brushed the grass with her open palm. “I dunno though. I think boys have problems too. They’re just...different from ours, is all.” She pinched a blade of grass between her fingers and tugged on it, just to give her hand something to do, “Imagine if every boy you met told you that ‘it’s a boy thing’, and ‘you wouldn’t understand’.”
Applejack rubbed her cheek. “Huh. I never did like that phrase, no matter who says it.” She smiled, “Yanno, that’s right insightful. I bet you make a fine big sister.”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes at the indirect mention of her little brother and changed the subject, “Zephyr wants to be a bassist.”
“...seriously?”
Fluttershy began to count on her fingers. “Last month it was a nurse, and the month before that a hair stylist, and the month before that a barista, and the month before that a haberdasher. I’m pretty sure he has no idea what a haberdasher is.”
This time the giggle was shared. Fluttershy sat beside her friend, instantly flopping down on her back with her arms and legs spread. Her smile was bright, and she wiggled against the tickling blades below.
“Oh, this feels good.”
“Yeah?” Applejack grinned. “You’re gonna get ‘em all stuck to ya doing that, though.”
“I’m sure you already have a bunch of grass stuck to your butt!” Fluttershy laughed easily, letting out a sigh that held within it weeks of college-level stress. “Ahhhh. This is just...lovely.” She lolled her head to the side to glance up at her friend. “Can you feel it?”
Applejack, whose wrists were resting crossed over her knees, closed her eyes and repeated the sighing gesture. “Yup. It was kinda awkward at first, but...somethin’ about the breeze bein’ all over my body. And how soft the grass feels. I don’t think I ever noticed that, wearin’ clothes all the time.”
“It’s damp, but it’s somehow warm too,” Fluttershy continued the thought, wiggling her backside into the earth again. “It’s cozy. It’s almost like I can feel mother nature’s body heat. Like I’m lying in her arms or something.”
“I feel kinda...I dunno...” Applejack turned her head to the sky, eyes still closed, and drank in a breath of air as though it were fresh spring water. “...honest, I guess?” She chuckled, “Like I got this silly notion that maybe if we all went around like this, folks would be more honest with each other. Nothin’ to hide and all that.”
Fluttershy laced her fingers over her stomach, “And maybe people wouldn’t have as much of a concept of belitting others for how they look.”
Applejack’s grin broadened, “If we were meant to wear clothes I guess we would’a been born with ‘em, huh?”
“Something like that,” Fluttershy giggled.
For a time, the two friends sat on the bank, laughing and sharing stories both old and new. Applejack found herself lying on her side, her cheek propped up with an elbow while she idly ran her fingers through a few strands of Fluttershy’s partially air-dried hair. Fluttershy remained on her back, her hands never moving, basking in the moonlight as though she expected to get a tan.
“--and I said,” Applejack laughed, “You should’a tried a hoe-down! You might have won!”
Fluttershy’s laughter was music, and it escaped her in time with the convulsions of her stomach. “F-fizzy apple cider, o-oh...a-hah...oh I feel bad for laughing at that, poor Sunset Shimmer...”
“Nah,” Applejack replied. “She laughed about it too. Even she’s glad she didn’t win Twilight’s crown that first time we all got back together.”
Fluttershy pondered, “You know, now that I think about it, wouldn’t that sledgehammer she was going to destroy the portal with just have passed right through it?”
Applejack’s smile turned thoughtful. “I think she prolly knew that, even at the time. I...don’t really think Sunset Shimmer ever meant to hurt anybody. She just didn’t understand friendship, and she got so used to chasin’ after power that she didn’t know what else there was.”
“Yeah.”
Amidst the sounds of peaceful cricket-song, Fluttershy suddenly sprang to her feet and began to race towards the treeline.
“H-hey! Where’re you goin’!?” Applejack called after.
“You’re it!” Fluttershy laughed aloud. Running freely in the grass, she pumped her legs and reveled in the passing breeze as it kissed every part of her all at once. With the unknown banished, her trepidation had melted away into a pure love for the moment, and she ran with it, vanishing into a small copse of trees after declaring the start of a child’s game. A second tufting beat of running footsteps came up on her fast.
“Dernit, what did I say about runnin’ without a bra!” Applejack had one arm clamped over her chest, “You ain’t playin’ fair, but I’ll get you yet!”
Fluttershy wasn’t hard to track. Consumed by giggles, she passed between the trees with little thought for the crunches and rustles her passing left in its wake. She nearly tripped over a gnarled root, but caught herself against a tree, spinning and slamming her back into it just as Applejack bore down on her. Applejack planted her arms to either side of Fluttershy on the tree, effectively trapping her quarry. Panting together, Applejack spoke first.
“Th-there now, hahh...” she pumped her lungs, “...now you’re gonna be...hahh...it in a sec, and you’re never gonna...hahh...catch me...”
Fluttershy scanned Applejack’s eyes for an eternal second.
Then she kissed her.
The two stared at one another.
“...what...?” Applejack sputtered.
“...I-I dunno, I...” Fluttershy shrank against the tree, “...I just, I...”
Applejack pressed Fluttershy’s smaller form into the tree, took her one-handed under the chin, and returned the chaste, closed-mouth kiss - a simple firm touching of the lips, with heads slightly tilted. When it finally ended, the two parted only a few inches, each of them washing hot breaths over the other.
“...wh-what are we doing...?” Fluttershy meeped.
“...I ain’t got...” Applejack stared, “...no earthly idea...”
Fluttershy’s stroking hands found Applejack’s shoulder blades, but they didn’t visit long. When the two kissed again, a torrent of repressed passion caused the pale yellow daffodil to wrap her arms eagerly around Applejack’s shoulders. She locked her hands behind the back of Applejack’s neck and held on for dear life, as though letting go would send her hurtling off a precipice to the end of her days.
Applejack parted her lips without thinking. Mumbling into the kiss, she wrapped Fluttershy in her muscular embrace and pulled her into a tight hug. The two remained there until they both felt weak in the knees. Cradling Fluttershy’s head, Applejack laid her body prone beneath the trees, straddling over her as the kiss continued. Two full minutes passed before either girl came up for air.
“...what...hahh...what...hahhh...” Fluttershy begged the sky for oxygen, “...why...hahh...”
“I don’t...hahh...d-dunno, I just...” Applejack gasped. The girl before her, with pink hair pooled haphazardly behind her head, was a vision of beauty she knew well, and was also seeing for the first time. “...I can stop if you...hahh...don’t like--”
“N-no...!”
Declaring her intentions, Fluttershy tightened her grip around Applejack’s neck, closing off her escape. Two pairs of lips met for a third time, and in the gesture, both of them found a communication that went beyond words. Applejack’s hand hesitated over Fluttershy’s chest, but the latter merely pushed herself forward, pressing herself into a firm grope that went beyond the limits of friendship.
Beneath her fingers, Applejack felt a nub that hadn’t been so tight before. She took up a great, spongy wad of yellow flesh in her hand and let instinct turn her into an explorer. When she felt Fluttershy’s grip slacken around her neck and a delicate hand trace over her heart, Applejack stuck her chest out as well to allow her partner the same courtesy.
A series of kisses and lashing together of tongues culminated in two pairs of eyes desperately searching one another. Applejack paused, pulling back when she heard a sharp sniffle and saw tears wetting her friend’s cheek.
“I uh, I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean--!” Apologizing blindly for the whole interaction Applejack made to flee, but Fluttershy’s quivering hands captured both her cheeks, anchoring her head in place.
“I-I’m so lonely...” Fluttershy whimpered. “...I lied, I...I don’t have any friends at school, I...I feel so lost every day now that we’re all apart...”
Applejack sniffed sharply. “...I...I ain’t been truthful neither...i-it ain’t been as easy as I’m lettin’ on...I miss y’all so much...”
“I know they didn’t l-leave on p-purpose, but...but...” Fluttershy sputtered, her tears spilling over, “W-why did they have to go!? I don’t know what to do with myself...!”
“Sh-shh...” Applejack conjured up the calming sound, took Fluttershy in her arms, and rolled on her side, hugging her tightly and tucking her chin into a strong orange shoulder. “...i-it’s alright, sugarcube...I’m right here...I ain’t gonna leave you, never...”
Fluttershy held on tightly, fearing her friend might vanish otherwise. Her floodgates opened, and she wetted the valley between Applejack’s breasts with her tears as she wormed her nose into it, hiccupping and whimpering miserably.
Applejack stroked the back of Fluttershy’s head. “Shhh, shhh...I’m right here...everything’s just fine...I completely understand just how you feel...”
Fluttershy cried through the moment. When it subsided, she looked up at Applejack, tear tracks running down her cheeks.
“I-I’m okay now,” She managed, “I’m sorry you had to see that...”
Applejack smiled reassuringly. “Now don’t you be silly. You know you can cry on my shoulder anytime you wanna.” Her eyes shifted around, “I-I’m the one that ought to be sorry. I got carried away, I didn’t mean to...get like that with you...” She bit her lip, “T-too many days bein’ a ranch hand and not enough bein’ a person with needs, I guess...”
“No, no no-” Fluttershy took Applejack’s cheeks in her hands again, “Please don’t be sorry for that. I kissed you first after all. I really am having a wonderful time tonight, I swear. Just...I’ve been needing to get that off my chest for a long time now. And...I couldn’t do it alone.” She bent Applejack’s head and touched foreheads with her. “...I needed somebody that understands. And that somebody is you. Thank you so much.”
Applejack blushed. She considered her words, but the shame over lying about her feelings was enough to force her to come clean about what was on her mind. “...would you get upset if I said it felt nice, kissin’ you before? I-I don’t wanna get weird on you or nothin’...”
Fluttershy shook her head. “It’s not weird. I...liked it too.”
“...ya did?”
“Mmhm,” Fluttershy hummed. “I wasn’t expecting it even when I did it, but...it felt good. I love you all so much, so being able to share that with one of my best friends...”
“...same thing I was thinking,” Applejack admitted. “There...ain’t no harm. I love y’all too, and truth be told...” She swallowed, “...that ain’t the first time I went and thought about doin’ something like that. But I didn’t know what y’all would think.”
“Me either!” Fluttershy brightened, shifting in her partner’s embrace, “W-we were both thinking the same thing...!”
Applejack smiled wryly. This time, she went about it more properly.
“...can I kiss you again, Fluttershy?”
Flutterly was a warm spring day in form and expression. “...mmhm...!”
Their lips met again, but this time with more control over the gentle smacking noises that emitted from their connection. Applejack petted Fluttershy from waist to thigh, while the latter rested her hand over Applejack’s chest, enjoying the thrumming, present beat of her heart. They ground into one another, Applejack’s hand slipping over the small of Fluttershy’s back as their mutual femininity mingled from collarbone to knee. A golden harvest morning in the dead of Camp Everfree’s night.
Applejack’s hand continued its downward trek until she felt a new softness under her palm. Her eyes popped open just as she tested the surface of Fluttershy’s rump with a gentle squeeze.
“I, uh...I didn’t mean for my hand to slide down there, sorry...”
Fluttershy rested her cheek against Applejack’s motherly, ample chest and sighed softly. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
Applejack rested her head against a rock and quietly went about her exploration. She ran her hand over Fluttershy’s rump, tracing down her thighs and back up again, only to repeat the process. The unprecedented softness demanded she grab at it once or twice, but to her credit, Fluttershy never let out so much as a yelp. She merely sighed again and pushed her body further into her friend, like a gopher looking for a warm burrow.
“...how’d we end up like this,” Applejack whispered, her other hand on the back of Fluttershy’s head, pressing her cheek gently into the downy-soft chest Fluttershy had chosen for a hiding place.
“I dunno,” Fluttershy mumbled, her voice somewhat muffled. “What...what should we do now?”
“I uh...” Applejack sniffed derisively. “I’m about as embarrassed as I can be sayin’ this, but...I dunnno.”
“In that case,” Fluttershy cooed, favoring the tightened nipple that pressed against her cheek with a nuzzle. “Can we stay like this for a while? Will you...uh...” She swallowed, “...just hold me? I...really like how soft and warm you are...it’s not the same thing as hugging somebody with clothes on...”
“You can say that again,” Applejack replied. The hand on the back of Fluttershy’s head began to pet her, scratching at her ears like a puppy. “Sure I can, Sugar--er...”
“What?”
Applejack laughed at herself, “Habit I guess, though I ain’t never called nobody but my little sister and her friends ‘sugarcube’.”
“You called me that a little while ago,” Fluttershy offered warmly.
“Do you, uh...do ya mind?”
Fluttershy shook her head, a wiggling gesture between Applejack’s breasts. “No. I like it. I think it’s pretty.”
Applejack thought about it. Finally she spoke, her single world cryptic.
“...butterfly.”
Fluttershy picked up on the pet-name word game and offered a response, “Buttershy?”
“Flutter...butter?” Applejack tasted the words.
“Oh!” Fluttershy giggled, “Bunnybutter!”
“I think we’re gettin’ off track now,” Applejack chuckled. “Can I call you, uh...” She began inventing compound words in her head, dismissing them just as quickly as they came to life. “How about just...’bunny’? Simple.” She amended, “I-in private of course.”
Fluttershy closed her eyes and turned her ear to Applejack’s chest. “It’s pretty. Then I’m going to call you, umm...Apples.”
Applejack couldn’t argue with the equal simplicity of her new pet name. “...I like it.”
“Well, Apples,” Fluttershy said, “Your heartbeat is a wonderful thing to listen to. So deep and rhythmic. It’s like I’m in a womb or something.”
“Hey now Bunny,” Applejack joked, “Don’t be writin’ your name on the wall in there!”
The two shared a laugh. The silent night droned on, and Fluttershy’s mind began to wander.
“...have you ever thought about having a baby, Apples?”
Applejack’s nose crinkled, “Huh? That’s kinda outta the blue, ain’t it?”
“I know, just...have you ever thought about it?” Fluttershy offered her own impressions, “I think about it sometimes. I mean I don’t even have a boyfriend or anything, but I still think...what that might be like. You know. A little one inside you and all that.”
“Well,” Applejack admitted, “Sure, I guess I thought about that a couple times. I can’t speak for every girl out there, but I imagine we all do once we get to a certain age.” She paused, “I’m not sure how I feel about it. Don’t much matter though. I don’t have a boyfriend neither.”
Fluttershy placed a hand over Applejack’s hand, which was already resting on her sun-yellow tummy. “I think about it more now, I guess. Some people think it’s some duty of being a woman. Other people seem to think that just considering it is some sort of affront.”
“Do you want to have a baby someday?” Applejack inquired.
“...I don’t know, but...maybe, yes,” Fluttershy replied. “But I can’t talk to boys. Not on my own.”
“Well shoot,” Applejack sought to comfort her friend, “Havin’ a boy-girl relationship ain’t really a rule for havin’ kids no more, is it?”
“I guess not, no,” Fluttershy squirmed. “But we’re not teenagers anymore, so...I think about it anyway.”
Applejack’s hand slipped under Fluttershy’s chin. She lifted her friend’s face up to meet her eyes, and then reached in to softly kiss away the drying tear-track that marred one of Fluttershy’s cheeks.
“Don’t worry none about the future. Y’all will find your happiness. And, well...” Applejack blushed deeply, “...so long as you’re here, I hope you’ll come and tell me about it as much as you have time for...Bunny.”
Fluttershy drew two elegant fingertips through Applejack’s hair, tracing her temple to her chin. “I will. As long as we can do it together...” her voice softened to a whisper, “...Apples.”
Adrift in one another’s embrace, their lips met again. This time Fluttershy guided one of Applejack’s hand to her breast, and the other to her rump, where the latter enjoyed the soft sensation that was long absent in her life on the farm.
Nearly two hours after they had frolicked into the trees, the two nude moonbathers emerged. Applejack’s gait was even and steady, but Fluttershy was skipping around, her arms akimbo, staring up at the sky with her eyes closed.
“You’re sure in a good mood,” Applejack joked.
“Can you feel it?” Fluttershy sighed, her now mostly dry locks dancing around her sunny shoulders and back. “The damp grass tickling your toes, and the warm breeze swirling all around? It feels like I’m being hugged over every inch of my body all at once.”
Applejack paused and closed her eyes. She concentrated, as she had done many times on the farm growing up, and put all her attention into her sense of touch. The wet dew under her feet was a natural connection to the land, and she felt no concern from whatever bits of earth might still be clinging to her. The tingling breeze wasn’t so uncommon on her arms and legs, but as it licked at her stomach, back, chest, and thighs, it congealed and turned into one cozy, warm mass of comfort and joy. She opened her eyes, sighed deeply, and walked on.
“I feel it too,” Applejack finally replied. “Yanno, I think I might actually pity folks that don’t do stuff like this ever. It ain’t something you can describe just by tellin’ folks about it.”
Fluttershy’s merry skipping was interrupted by the presence of the basket and clothes. She knelt beside them, testing the fabric.
“Any better?” Applejack asked hopefully. Fluttershy was testing Applejack’s blouse, rubbing it between her thumb and index finger.
“We...probably should have hung them up somewhere. They’re not soaked anymore, but they’re still damp.”
Applejack shrugged. “Can’t be helped I guess.” She glanced at the retreating position of the moon. “Better to go home a little damp than clingy and soaked. Unless you...wanna stay a spell longer, that is.”
Fluttershy, on her haunches now, her hair masking most of her form, slumped. “I do, but I have to get some sleep. I have a quiz tomorrow,” She looked up, “Well, today.”
Applejack fanned her hat in the breeze. “I ain’t got nothin’ to do till the afternoon, but I guess I shouldn’t be settin’ myself up to fall asleep just when folks need me.”
“How are you getting home?” Fluttershy asked. Applejack nodded towards the parking lot, invisible behind a collection of buildings.
“Same way I got here. Farm’s got a couple old jalopies. Granny don’t care what we do with ‘em so long as they come home in one piece.”
“My bike’s in the other lot,” Fluttershy observed. “Probably why I didn’t see your truck.”
“Bike?” Applejack piqued. “You ride a bike? Like a motorcycle?”
Fluttershy smiled sheepishly. “It’s just a scooter. But it gets me places and it’s not as...loud and scary than a motorcycle.”
Applejack laughed, “Spoken like you, Bunny.”
Fluttershy rose to her feet, the little white tank-top that was getting too small for her in her grasp. She wrung it in her hands, noting it was at least dry enough not to offer any spray to the thirsty grass.
“I’m still puttin’ pennies in your thought-bank,” Applejack smiled softly.
“I just...” Fluttershy pursed her lips, staring intently at the garment. “I feel so free and alive tonight. I know it’s probably silly but I sort of don’t want to put this back on. N-not because it’s too tight, just because...” Her voice softened, “...because it means we have to go back and be ourselves again.”
Applejack laid a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder. Unlike the first time she had done so that night, she now stroked her neck, petting her hair like the mane of a horse. “The person you show to everybody else ain’t who you are. Who you are right now is who you are. Besides,” Applejack smiled, “Ain’t nothin’ stopping us from doing this again.”
“Would you really?” Fluttershy brightened, “B-but the weather is going to get too cold soon...”
Applejack glanced at her boots as they waited patiently for her next to her bare feet. “The farm’s a big place. And it ain’t like we’re kids that have to report where we are and what we been doin’ anymore. Would you...like to come and visit?”
“Would I!” Fluttershy tossed the top aside and hopped into Applejack, throwing her arms around her. “Of course I would! I’d feel so much better if I could just see you more often than we have been!”
Applejack’s arms closed slowly around her friend. “It ain’t no bother. We live in the same city after all, and it ain’t like my family doesn’t know you. They’d be happy to see you. But I’d be happier than them, I bet.”
Fluttershy stepped back, slipping her hands into Applejack’s and swinging her arms out once as if she intended to dance with her. “It’s a date!”
Applejack indulged in one more appraising look at her friend’s body. She wasn’t sure just why she lingered over all the familiar parts that she was no stranger to seeing in mirrors, but something about Fluttershy’s sunny skin, flowing mane, and spindly yet graceful limbs made Applejack feel as though she was appreciating a statue in a fine art museum. She stared until she noticed Fluttershy staring right back at her, a bright smile on her face.
“You’re not afraid to look at me anymore.”
“...nope. Reckon I ain’t,” Applejack smiled. With that, she retrieved her clothing and began the somewhat somber process of covering herself from the world, to sink once again into the veil of human secrets. When next she saw her friend, Fluttershy was as much the spitting image of the teenager she used to be every day back in school, right down to the pretty butterfly in her hair.
“You forgot your boots,” Applejack indicated Fluttershy’s bare feet.
“So did you,” Fluttershy smiled, nodding at the high western boots slung over Applejack’s shoulder, hanging from her fingers.
“I wanted to feel it a little longer, that’s all.”
“...me too.”
Framed by the dipping moon and the slight wave of waking purples and pinks in the heavens, the pair walked side by side, well within one another’s personal space, back to their vehicles. Fluttershy rubbed up against her friend insistently until Applejack wrapped an arm around her.
One by one, the crickets vanished to sleep away the coming of morning.
