Thud. A rain of apples and a screaming pegasus crashed to the ground from the branches of the second-to-last apple tree in the second-to-last row of the East Orchard.
Applejack didn't even blink. This was a daily occurrence. "Nappin' in mah trees again, huh?" she asked, attempting to look ferocious but failing to hold back her grin.
Rainbow Dash wistfully eyed the mound of fuzzy blankets and pillows that was still perched in the tree. "Well, I was tired," she grumbled, trying to look pitiful and simultaneously distract Applejack from the lame excuse she'd just given by foalishly rubbing her eyes.
Applejack huffed a laugh and bent down to give her marefriend a quick kiss on the cheek, her choppy blonde bangs tickling Rainbow's muzzle. "Aww, sugarcube, if yore tired y'all can jus' go on up t' mah bedroom an' take a nap. Ah won't mind. What's so great 'bout sleepin' in a tree, anywho?"
Rainbow flushed. "It's great because you're the one who comes to wake me up," she muttered sullenly, embarrassed to be getting all mushy. "I never get to see you during the day otherwise. You're too busy working."
Her forehead creased in a worried frown, Applejack sank to the ground and placed a tentative hoof on Rainbow's withers. "Is that really how ya feel? That ya never see me?"
She sighed. "Yeah. I know you have to run the whole farm, but... I don't even remember how long ago it was that we got to spend more than an hour together."
Applejack swept off her hat and clasped it to her chest, looking apologetic. "Dash, Ah'm awful sorry. Ah didn't realize it had been that long. Ah guess Ah did get a bit carried away with mah work." Her eyes lit up. "But Ah know jus' how t' make it up t' ya." With a loving smile, she reached out and turned Dash's chin towards her. "Ah got two hours with yore name on 'em."
The prismatic pegasus perked up at once. "Really? Two whole hours? You don't have any work to do?"
"Of course Ah have work to do. But... Ah think yore more important," Applejack whispered, capturing her marefriend's lips in a tender kiss. "So c'mon. Whatcha wanna do with me?"
"Oh, I think you know exactly what I wanna do with you," Rainbow purred seductively, tracing her wingtip along Applejack's flank as the cowpony blushed profusely. "But, um... we'll try to keep it PG in case Apple Bloom turns up. We can reschedule this for tonight instead."
Applejack gave up on regaining any of her dignity and instead responded to the pegasus' advances with a gentle nip on Rainbow's most sensitive feathers. "Sounds good t' me, darlin'. So, uh, what do ya wanna do right now, then?"
A devilish glint twinkled in Rainbow Dash's eyes. "I want to get back to my nap. But this time, I want you to be there."
Applejack thought for a while as her marefriend watched her anxiously, her tail flicking back and forth over Rainbow's rump. It would feel strange to nap during a workday, and her family would tease her to no end if they found out, but... "Ya know what?" she finally decided. "Ah'm in. Ah reckon Ah already promised ya mah time an' Ah can't go back on it."
"Yes!" Rainbow whooped gleefully, pumping her hoof in the air, thrilled that Applejack would finally get to experience one of her favorite pastimes. She swooped forwards and gave the grinning farmpony a sloppy kiss. "You're the best, AJ!" Still crowing with joy, the pegasus flared her wings and shot into the sky, performing a few casual loop-de-loops before settling back into her nest of blankets. "Come on come on come on! Naptime awaits!"
"Hold yore horseshoes, sugarcube," Applejack chuckled patiently. "Ah'm a-comin'." She stood up and clambered easily up the tree, her powerful hooves making quick work of the climb. With a grunt of exertion, she scaled the final branch and slid into the blankets next to Rainbow, peering down at the ground below. "Whew. Feels weird bein' so high."
"To an Earth pony, maybe. To a pegasus, this ain't nothin'," Rainbow bragged, preening her feathers. Clearly, some of Applejack's language was rubbing off on her. "Now goodnight." She dropped her head onto AJ's shoulder, wrapped all four of her hooves around her supple body, and started snoring loudly, inadvertently producing some adorable whistling sounds that she would never admit to making if somepony asked her.
Always astounded by her marefriend's ability to fall asleep whenever and wherever she pleased, Applejack shook her head fondly and gently brushed her muzzle along the pegasus's polychromatic mane. "Nighty night, sugarcube," she murmured warmly, tipping her hat over her eyes to block the daylight. Lulled by the gentle whisper of the wind in her ears and Rainbow's warm body pressed against her own without an inch of space left between them, Applejack was asleep and snoring softly within minutes.
***
Big Mac frowned as he beheld the second-to-last apple tree in the second-to-last row of the East Orchard, which Applejack had left half unbucked. His sister was usually more thorough than that.
Speaking of Applejack, where was the gal? Mac hadn't seen her in a couple of hours. She was probably off gallivanting with that lazy pegasus she had for a marefriend again.
Mac shrugged resignedly, his muscles rippling. She'd come back eventually. In the meantime, he'd just have to buck the other half of the tree himself. He turned around and shot out his enormous hind legs, bucking the tree with a resounding crack.
"Gaaaaaaaah!" An orange Earth pony and a blue pegasus fell out of the tree, flailing madly, and impacted with the grass, a horde of apples bouncing on their heads and rolling away.
So Mac's theory had been right.
The big stallion shook his head and raised an eyebrow, sighing heavily. "Do Ah really wanna know what y'all were doin' up there?"
"Uh..." From her comprising position on the ground underneath a deeply shamefaced Rainbow, Applejack gulped and awkwardly ran a hoof through her mussed, leaf and twig-covered mane and tail, doing her best to hide a suspicious-looking bite mark on her neck that Rainbow later swore up and down she'd done in her sleep. Which nopony, including Rainbow herself, believed. "Nope?"
Author's Note
I really just wrote this because I'm trying to see how adorable I can make a story using as few words as possible. This one is just over 1,000, I believe. Anyway. Hope you enjoyed!
