Conflicting Love

Applejack woke up slowly and noticed that Applebloom wasn’t in the room anymore. Her curiosity was answered by the smell of food and assumed that Applebloom was trying to make some breakfast. Shrugging she headed downstairs expecting to see burnt food but once she reached the kitchen she was amazed to see an amazing breakfast set up with Granny Smith and Big Mac already eating. On the table were a few stacks of fluffy pancakes with a tray of some blueberry muffins and biscuits. Applejack’s mouth was beginning to drool seeing the delicious looking food in front of her. “Who made this?” She asked amazed.

“Applebloom” Big Mac simply said but still left Applejack awed. Applebloom had made an amazing looking breakfast without burning anything?!

“Well don’t just stand there ya little whipper snapper, dig in” Granny said taking another bite of her pancake.

“Well don’t mind if ah do” With that Applejack headed to her seat and saw that a plate was already made for her. Without a second thought she began eating the food to realize that it tasted 20% better than it looked (I had to). “Where is Applebloom?”

“She’s in the kitchen right now cleaning up”

Almost as if on cue Applebloom walked out of the kitchen with an apron that read “Really Applebloom? Kiss the Cook?” Applejack said chuckling.

Applebloom immediately started to blush from embarrassment. “It was the only clean one”

“Ya know ah’m just teasing ya. Thanks a bunch for the breakfast Applebloom. It’s amazing”

“Eeyup” Big Mac agreed.

“Are ya going to be going to school Applebloom?”

“Well…” Applebloom was silent and kept her head down a bit.

“Applebloom ya can’t just skip school every day because of Diamond Tiara. Don’t let her get to ya, ya can’t let bullies like her get the best of ya or you’ll never live it down. If she tries to treat ya bad just tell me and she’ll end up living with a few timber wolves”

“Okay ah guess ah can go” Applebloom said reluctantly.

“How about when school’s over ah’ll pick ya up?” Applejack offered.

“NO”

Everypony was surprised by her sudden outburst even Applebloom. “Ah mean uh ya don’t have to do that, ya have a lot of work ya got to do right?”

“Nope, we got all of the apples yesterday so we all get to have the rest of the day off”

“Okay sounds cool” Applebloom said with as much enthusiasm as she could.

“Alright now it’s almost time for school so ya better hurry on outta here. Ah’ll pick ya up after school”

“Okay, ah’ll see ya later” Applebloom said as she galloped off to school. I hope that everypony is sick or something today.

Well that's a little mean of you don't you think?

What do you want?

Hey I thought that you enjoyed my company. In fact wasn't I the one who suggested talking to Pinkie Pie for advice?

Yeah but during that whole time I was there you didn’t even say anything. Why is that?

N-no reason, but I have a good feeling that Diamond Tiara won’t be at school today.

Why is that?

Just call it a gut feeling.

Sure enough once Applebloom reached the school and entered the classroom she noticed that everypony was here except for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Had they got suspended or sick? Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell were the first to notice Applebloom and waved over to her. She slowly waved back nervously walking to her seat trying to avoid looking at any of her classmates. She got into her seat and looked over to her two friends “Where are Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?”

She heard chuckling behind her and saw several of her classmates trying not to laugh. “Oh let’s just say that they’re in a… sticky situation” Twist said laughing with Featherweight, Snails, and Snips.

“Yeah, that was pretty mean what she did to ya” Featherweight said. "So we found her after school yesterday and poured her with a bunch of ink"

“So yawl don’t think ah’m a freak or anything?”

“No way, we won’t think you’re a freak because of something that you didn’t choose to have happen” Twist said giving a reassuring smile to Applebloom.

Applebloom let out a sigh of relief. How could I have doubted by best friends?

Easy you just say I doubt you and boom there you go.

Ha ha you're so funny.

Why thank you.

I was using sarcasm.

Ooo what does that taste like?

... I'm going to just ignore you now.

The rest of school was perfect so far with nothing going wrong; no Diamond Tiara, no Silver Spoon, and all of her friends her still being nice to her and weren’t calling her a freak. Today seems like my special day. Everything has gone perfect so far and it feels like nothing could go wrong.

*facepalm*

What?

What did I tell you about saying that?

... That if I said that things are going to get worse.

Exactly, but honestly even I’m wondering how this day could possibly get any worse. Everything has been going perfectly; you’re even going to be walking home with Applejack after school. It does seem like a good day but a wise pony once said, all good things come to an end.

Okay I’m getting sick of you. Who are you? I know that you aren’t just a voice in my head so spill.

Well looks like somepony’s a little upset. Fine I’ll tell you who I am but under one condition.

Fine what is it?

Well it has two parts to it. The first part involves telling Applejack about your feelings.

What?!

Hey after you fell asleep last night I actually noticed her look at you with a blush on her face.

She did?!

Quite so, now if you tell her how you feel and she does return your feelings then I will never bother you again but if she doesn’t return your feelings then you have to find a way to release me.

What do you mean release you?

Well thanks to the Elements of Harmony I was turned to stone when I didn’t even really do anything wrong. I mean seriously I made cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate, I made apples grow ten times their size, I gave rabbits horse legs, I made dirt roads into soap that you can slide on, does any of that sound evil or dangerous?

Not that much no but… what a minute chocolate rain? You’re that Discord guy that my sister fought aren’t you? And how are you even in my head if you’re a stone statue?

Ding, ding, ding we have a winner. Do you really think that I could be stopped that easily? Right before I was turned to stone I used my powers to make it so I could go into the minds of other ponies so that I could have some fun like when I found you.

Forget it, there is no way I’m going to release you.

Tell me then, what have I done that is so bad that I deserved to get turned to stone?

Well... um...

Exactly, if you were turned into stone for over a thousand years then wouldn’t you want to have some fun? And I’m the spirit of chaos; it’s what I’m supposed to do. So do we have a deal?

Applebloom thought for a bit. Should she trust the spirit of disharmony and chaos? Why should I?

Because once I’m free I will do my best to restrain myself from causing too much chaos. If you think that I’m going to far then I’ll stop. I’ll be like your own personal bodyguard. If anypony tries to tear you down I could give them a taste of my infamous Poison Joke. So?

...Fine. You're on.

Alright but here's a riddle until we meet face to face:

What do colts love more than life

Fear more than death or mortal strife

What the poor have, the rich require,

and what contented colts desire,

What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves

And all colts carry to their graves?

Good luck.

And with that her head went silent as she tried to understand the riddle. What could that riddle mean? Colts love it more than life but fear it more than death? Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the school bell. I guess I'll try to figure it out later, right now I got to go meet Applejack. She walked out to the front of the school and saw her sister waving over to her. “Hey Applebloom ready to go?”

“Sure thing sis”

As the two started walking home Applebloom continued to think of how or when she should confess to her sister. Could he be right about Applejack liking me too? Or did he just trick me into agreeing with him? She looked over at Applejack and couldn’t bear to look away. She was beautiful in her eyes; she was strong, kind, and caring and couldn’t help but stare at her.

“Um, Applebloom why are ya staring at me like that?”

Applebloom immediately was taken out of her trance and smiled sheepishly with a blush. “Oh uh ah just was thinking about… Wheeljack is all”

“Ya really can’t stop think about this colt can ya?”

“Nope”

“So how was school today?”

“It was amazing; Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were both absent and all of my friends were supportive of me”

“See, ah told ya, ya wouldn’t have anything to worry about. And ah was wondering why did ya make breakfast this morning?” Applejack asked curious.

“Well, ah just wanted to thank ya for last night and… ah wanted to practice for making something nice for Wheeljack”

The two walked into the market area when Applebloom noticed Applejack pull out a paper from the saddlebag she was wearing. “Alright do ya think ya could help me get some groceries?”

“No problem sis” And with that Applejack carefully tore the paper into two even halves for the two to use. “Think ya can handle this on your own?”

“Definitely”

The two then headed off for the different groceries giving Applebloom a bit of time to think. . Alright after we’re done with getting the groceries ah’ll tell her the truth about how ah feel. Ah can do this and nothing’s going to stop me.

We'll see about that.

It was then that she noticed Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walking over to where her sister had gone. Curious, she slowly followed them as quietly as she could so that they wouldn’t notice her.

“Excuse me Applejack”

Applejack turned around and gave the filly in front of her a glare. “What do you two want?”

“I just wanted to say that I feel really bad for making Applebloom tell the class about her crush and I wanted to make it up to her by helping her with an essay,” Diamond Tiara said with a seemingly shameful face.

“What’s the essay about?”

“It’s a family biography. Each student has to pick a relative and do an interview on them. And I want to try to make it up to Applebloom by doing her assignment for her with your help”

Applejack wasn’t fully buying what they were saying but decided to go with it. “Fine what do ya need to interview me about?”

“Mostly basic stuff like favorite food, favorite color, and stuff like that. There are a few things like what do you think of this or this also.”

“Alright ask away then ah guess”

Applebloom continued to follow the two until she noticed that they were now gone. She let out a frustrated sigh and looked around trying to find some sign of them until she saw Silver Spoon walking over to her. “What do ya want?” Applebloom said angrily.

“Look I’m really sorry about what we did; I actually tried to talk Diamond Tiara out of it but she didn’t listen.”

“Sure ya are, so where’s Diamond Tiara then?”

“She’s talking to Applejack right now and is doing an ‘interview’ with her. She said that she was going to make sure you paid for what you did and was going to tell Applejack the truth,” Silver Spoon said.

“Pay for what?”

“I promised her that I would never tell anypony about it and I really don’t want to break that promise. And I’m really sorry for everything that I did to you. Truce?” Silver Spoon offered a hoof out.

Applebloom wanted to just ignore her and leave but looking into Silver Spoon’s eyes she saw nothing but truth. “Truce” She brought out her own hoof and brohoofed Silver Spoon. “So where did Diamond Tiara go?”

“I think I saw her head over to the vegetable stands”

“Alright thanks” Applebloom immediately galloped to find her sister hoping that she wasn’t too late. She was just about to walk around a stand when she heard Diamond Tiara’s voice ask, “What is your view of mare and mare or colt and colt relationships?” Applebloom froze with fear.

“Cherilee is actually having you kids research something unnatural like that?”

Applebloom’s heart began to tear in half. U-unnatural?

“I thought the same thing when I heard about it but that was part of it. And what is your view and the fact that relatives have sometimes fall in love with each other? And what would you think if one of your relatives was in love with you?”

Applebloom felt her heart start to burst as tears slowly began to form in her eyes. P-please no.

“Relatives falling in love with each other? That’s completely wrong in more ways than anypony could count. If one of mah relatives fell in love with me, ah would try to be as nice as ah could but there is no way that ah would ever like one of mah own relatives like that. It’s disgusting and unnatural. Mares are supposed to like colts and colts are supposed to like mares. Only a freak could possibly like somepony of the same gender and especially a relative.”

And with that Applebloom could no longer keep the tears in her eyes as she galloped as fast as she could back to the barn. I should have known, I should have known she would think I'm a freak.

AN: … Dear Celestia, today I made a poor little filly cry. Your messed up student Nitronus Prime. I promised a longer chapter and I have given it to you. Hope you liked it… or at least didn’t dislike it.  And you’re all probably thinking that Applejack was being a bit too harsh but she is an old fashioned pony plus it’s my story not yours.