Flutters of Fancy III: Apple Butter

The ceiling was blue. A light cyan; the color of an afternoon sky. Of that Fluttershy knew there could be no doubt.

With the morning sun slicing into the room between the slats of a window blind the light was very low indeed, but Fluttershy had seen this room many times. Thus she was quite familiar with the color, such that she could fill in the blanks with her own memories down to the faded patches of white in the ceiling that reminded her of fluffy clouds. These mingled with the fathomless blue sky, and bereft of a light fixture or ceiling fan to break it all up presented an expanse so vast, she thought she might fall straight up into it and be swallowed, provided she didn’t beat her wings and follow her pegasus desire to go willingly first, of course.

Beyond the blinds was a world of sunny change. Summer, a distinguished but venerable lady, was in the process of pulling her cloak tight around her hearty frame and stepping daintily away to another part of the world, leaving the stage to the young and vigorous child called Autumn. Lady Summer’s temperatures were giving their encore performance, but they too would soon bow to the roaring crowd of birds and bees and take their leave; encouraging their audience to file towards the exits as well. In their wake a new dance would begin, as evidenced by the rapid thickening of the colorful, crunchy carpeting that had been rolled out under every tree.

It was a beautiful view. Fluttershy would liked to have seen it, but the blinds were simply too far away, and she had one very good reason not to want to leave the room’s spartan bed.

Beside her, stark naked save for a thin sheet that only covered her to the waist, was the muscular form of the room’s owner and Fluttershy’s educator-turned-lover, Professor Applejack. Lying on her side and facing away from the lithe pegasus, Applejack’s midsection was rising and falling with the measured rhythm of sleep. Her blonde tresses, free from their usual tight queue, were pooled about her; draped about her collarbone, neck, and freckled shoulders as a reminder of her femininity. She smelled like mare and stallion at the same time, with a slight hint of musky earth and freshly-picked apples. Fluttershy had searched Applejack’s bathroom several times, but could find no evidence that her professor made use of apple-scented shampoo or bath soaps. How she maintained that scent was anybody’s guess, but the odor was an intoxicating elixir that never failed to coil about Fluttershy’s senses and draw her in, like her migratory ancestors as they flew south into an orange sunset for the winter.

Fluttershy ran her hand along the contours of her professor’s side, tracing her down to the soft cotton that covered her hip. She pressed close, mooshing her own naked daffodil bosom into the hard plain of her professor’s back.

“Miss Applejack…” Fluttershy cooed. “...it’s morning…”

Applejack snorted. Her muzzle was too close to her pillow, and the act forced cotton into her nostrils until she choked herself awake.

“...hrnk..!”

The professor coughed and rolled immediately onto her back, ignorant of the sharp yelp from the little pegasus she nearly crushed in the process. “Dernit, I knew that!” Applejack insisted, her emerald eyes snapping open. “I was up half an hour ago! I’m always up with the sun!”

Fluttershy, thrown back into her own spot on the bed, propped herself up with one arm and giggled. “You weren’t today.”

Applejack blinked several times, her eyes working to bring the world into focus. When the two copies of her student that were looking down on her finally congealed into one, she raised her lip in wry response. “Sure I was. You can take the cowfilly off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the cowfilly.” She tapped her temple. “This here’s the best dern alarm clock there ever was, and that’s a fact.”

“But you’re still lying here,” Fluttershy observed.

Applejack glanced around herself, as if confirming her student’s words. “I was...comfy. I didn’t wanna get up just yet is all.”

Fluttershy tilted her head purposefully, well aware of how much her professor enjoyed the waterfall of pink locks when it fell over her shoulder. “You must have a really good pillow then.”

Applejack grinned. Her student was as naked as she, and Fluttershy’s nubile young curves were given a silver lining by the window light behind her. Her sheet had slipped down to mid-thigh, allowing her teacher a captivating view of her nuzzled together thighs, tiny navel, and the jiggle of her chest that came with every small movement the pegasus made. Without question or warning, Applejack reached out and took one of Fluttershy’s breasts in her hand, kneading it just to enjoy the firmness.

“I got the best pillows in the house,” the professor commented. “Awful hard to get up and leave ‘em.”

Fluttershy made no move to stop her teacher, nor did she blush. She was quite used to random groping from her elder, and pushed out her chest a bit to encourage the exploration. “Oh, they like you, too~”

“I can see that, an’ they’re mine” Applejack observed as she reached out with her other hand and covered the other breast, “-this one ‘n this one.”

“Mmhm,” Fluttershy agreed as she watched the hands knead her. She sighed deliciously and arched her neck, smiling at the ceiling. “You fell asleep on top of me again, by the way.”

Applejack wrinkled her muzzle. Removing her hands from their squishy home, she too propped herself up with one hand and scratched the back of her neck sheepishly with the other. “Oh, uh...heh. Sorry about that. Did I squish ya?”

Fluttershy daintily shook her head, the merriment in her grin apparent. “Yes, but you know I like it when you do that. I like the...weight. You know. Pinning me.”

Applejack glanced down at the sheets. “Wait, the last thing I remember was us havin’...uh...did I fall asleep with my…in your…?”

“Mmhmm~” Fluttershy sang.

Instinctively Applejack grabbed blindly for her hat, knocked it off the nightstand behind her to the floor, and with no other recourse, attempted to hide her face in one open palm. “Eh heh, uh...sorry Butterfly, I guess I was tired an’ all…”

Fluttershy touched two fingers to her lips and enjoyed a giggle at her teacher’s expense. “You had a very busy day. I just laid there until you rolled over and slipped out on your own.”

“Well I’m sorry if I--”

Fluttershy cut off the third apology by touching those same to fingers to Applejack’s lips this time. “You know I don’t mind. I like watching you sleep, and, well…” she giggled again, “...you’re kind of adorable when you’re nuzzling my boobs and murmuring about the oversized teddy bear you used to sleep with.”

Applejack went cross-eyed staring at Fluttershy’s fingers and pulled her head back to speak. “H-how’d you know about that? I ain’t slept with Daisy since I was your age!” She swallowed, “I mean...not at your age, I...well I was younger, sure I was, and…”

Fluttershy’s chest bounced with her singsong laughter. She sat up properly with her back against the headboard, allowing the sheet to slip down to her fetlocks as she wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them to her chest. “I know how you feel about honesty Miss Applejack, but you’re a really bad liar. You talk about old things in your sleep, but don’t worry-” she made a zipping motion over her mouth, “-my lips are sealed.”

Applejack, thoroughly defeated, rolled her eyes and flopped back down on her back, tucking her arms behind her head. “Yeah, yeah, well they better be. Never hear the end of that from the students if it got out, I bet.” Her head lolled in her student’s direction. “Gotta say though Butterfly, you sure got bold lately. The first time I took your flower away in this bed I could feel you shivershakin’, and here you’re talking about how much you love just bein’ under me while I’m plumb tuckered out, feelin’ my stallion parts still inside you.”

It was Fluttershy’s turn to blush, and she let it show to the room without shame. She rested her chin on her knees, allowing her professor a nice side-view of her curled up body and the pink mane draped over it. “We’ve been doing this since springtime, and it’s something I always wanted,” she explained. “So...well I guess I just don’t feel as nervous around you as I usually feel around most people. I’m not all that shy at home either, when it’s just my parents and my brother around. I’m just too used to them being there.”

Applejack quirked a brow. “Speakin’ of that, what’d you tell them this time?”

“Just that I was going on a fall harvesting retreat with the gardening club overnight,” Fluttershy replied smartly.

“The gardening club doesn’t have retreats,” Applejack pointed out. “And you ain’t even in the gardening club in the first place.”

Fluttershy rolled her cheek onto her knees and feasted her eyes on her teacher’s nudity. “Yes, but they don’t know any of that.”

Applejack frowned. “Fluttershy, you know I don’t like lyin’.”

“I-I know but-” the pegasus hesitated, “I can’t just…”

“Lyin’s a slippery slope,” Applejack chastised. “You tell one, then you tell another one to cover for the first one, and before you know it, you done buried yourself.”

Fluttershy averted her eyes. “...you want me to just come right out and tell my parents that we’re in love, and that we’ve been, umm...you know?”

Applejack sighed and returned to staring at the ceiling. “Can’t lie to ‘em forever. It ain’t right, and they’re gonna find out eventually anyway.”

“My parents are very understanding people who just want me to be happy, and I think they would eventually understand, especially if it’s with somebody like you. But I don’t want to...hurt your career. It’s not going to look very good if everybody finds out you’re having sex with one of your students, even if I am a legal adult.”

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that,” Applejack replied. “That’s my problem to deal with. I made my bed an’ sooner or later, I’m gonna have to lie in it.”

“But I don’t want you to have to lie in it!” Fluttershy puffed up. “Miss Applejack, I...I...I love you. I really do. I want to come and live with you after I graduate, and I don’t want your life to get screwed up because of me.”

Applejack’s brow tightened. She met her student’s eyes with the sternness of an educator. “Butterfly, you’re not gonna be the cause of--”

“--but what if I am--!”

Applejack sat up like a shot and buried the pegasus in her emerald stare. “Hush. I ain’t that much older than you, Fluttershy. Not to where it’s gonna matter ten years from now. But you listen here when I say that I don’t plan to hide all this forever. You took my loneliness away, and I got feelings for you now. If I had it to do over again I’d still bring you back here on that rainy night in spring, and I’d make you mine-” she patted the mattress, “-right here on this bed. Just the same as before. An’ I don’t wanna hide that from the world forever.”

Fluttershy shrank, her brows peaking in the middle of her forehead and her ears flattening. “Just...please wait until I graduate? I promise I’ll tell them then. I’ll tell anybody you want me to tell.”

Applejack felt her resolve cracking in the lovely, pleading turquoise eyes of her student. “...I won’t lie right to their faces.”

“Y-you won’t have to!” Fluttershy insisted. “Nobody suspects anything, and I’m a senior - I’ll graduate soon! J-just don’t say anything until then...please…?”

Applejack plopped back against the headboard, rocking her student slightly with the impact. “I already agreed to that. It’s against my better judgement, but...I’ll do it for you, Butterfly.”

Fluttershy threw her arms around Applejack and nuzzled into her modest bosom, grinning happily. “Thank you Miss Applejack, I promise I will.”

Applejack idly stroked her student’s hair. “Gonna have to stop callin’ me that soon, you know.”

Fluttershy signed and closed her eyes. “No I don’t. It can be a pet name. You have one for me. It’s only fair.”

With one ear, the pegasus caught the sound of her professor reaching for a glass of water on the nightstand and helping herself to it. The other ear focused on Applejack’s heartbeat. Fluttershy quickly lost herself in it, and it wasn’t long before her consciousness began to slip again.

Applejack looked down. “Don’t get too comfy. It might be a late day today, but you still got class, and so do I.”

Fluttershy’s fingers slipped along her own body until she was tracing one of her nipples. “I know, but...it’s so hard to leave sometimes. I just love listening to your heartbeat.”

“An’ watchin’ me sleep apparently, heh.”

“I can’t help it. I...notice little things so much more now.”

“That potion from the chem lab mess was the better part of a year ago, Fluttershy,” Applejack replied. “It’s gotta be out of your system by now.”

“It is,” Fluttershy confirmed. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I feel like it’s still there anyway though. I learned so much about myself when that stuff was floating around inside me, it’s like my mind opened up to so many new possibilities. But now that I have you...I feel like I can keep them all alive.”

Applejack’s hand came down on Fluttershy’s head, where she idly played with her student’s sleep-mussed mane. “I’m glad to hear that Butterfly. I wanna know that all we did ain’t just because some chemicals got your dander up.”

Fluttershy pulled away and looked up at her teacher. “Miss Applejack...is that what you think?”

Backed into a verbal corner, Applejack backpeddled. “What? No, no, of course not. Not now, anyway.”

The bemused student tilted her head as she scrutinized her professor, and in a curious reversal of roles, Applejack seemed to turn in on herself, unable to match her eyes to her young charge.

“We’ve been together for months now…” Fluttershy mused aloud. “Maybe I’m still too young to know everything I want out of life, but I know I want this.”

Applejack still didn’t look her student’s way. “...so it ain’t just the sex?”

Fluttershy’s smile vanished, and though it shielded nothing, she held one fist protectively between her breasts. “M-Miss Applejack! H-how can you say--”

“I know, I know,” Applejack cut in, waving one hand as though attempting to bat out her own words like a fire. “...I know you don’t feel like that. An’ here I’m askin’ anyway. Geez.” She let out a deep sigh and glanced towards the window. Nothing further was said, until the empathetic student could remain silent no longer.

“Is everything okay, Miss Applejack?”

Applejack continued to stare past the pegasus, her eye focused on a few vermillion leaves that were visible between the window blinds. “It ain’t nothin’ to do with you, Butterfly. It’s just...well how do I make this plain…”

Her hooves went to work, and eventually Applejack had kicked the sheet entirely off herself. She nodded towards her waist. “See that there?”

Fluttershy, inspected Applejack’s flaccid girth without comprehension. “I...think so? You mean your penis?”

“Yeah. You remember a couple months ago, that first night we were together, when I was tellin’ you how it feels to have one of those and be in a locker room full of naked mares who are takin’ showers and not minding you being there?”

“Uh-huh,” Fluttershy nodded. “Come to think of it though...that didn’t get you any, well...looks?”

Applejack reached down and ran a finger across her soft length. “Nope, on account of the fact that I never let on. I never once was totally naked at school. Learned how to keep myself smellin’ reasonable any way I could without takin’ a shower or coverin’ myself in all that strawberry-lavender-vanilla garbage. But that ain’t what I’m getting at.”

In testament to the comfort she had built with her teacher in the past few months, Fluttershy reached out and casually stroked Applejack’s girth on her own. “You...like it being touched, even when you’re not using it, right?”

“Mmhm,” Applejack replied. “And that’s kinda where I’m goin’ with this. See, I know I ain’t normal--” she held up her hand instantly, “--and before you go tryin’ to make me feel better, that ain’t my point either. But because I ain’t normal, I’ve been to doctors before who’ve had theories.”

Fluttershy was getting lost. “...and?”

“And,” Applejack continued, “turns out I’m a girl. All my chromosomes say so. I ain’t no hybrid or hermaphrodite, except that I got this here thing anyway. They told me that because of that fact - that I got a mare’s brain but stallion parts - I should expect some trouble.”

Fluttershy continued her casual petting, her eyes not even on the prize anymore. “I’m listening.”

“Turns out I ain’t the only one out there like this, but because my brain wasn’t designed to have that toy down there, the way it sends signals to me, is, well...strange. Not the same as the way your pussy sends them to your brain, or the way an actual stallion’s parts send them to his. It would be the same for a stallion born with what you got down there. It all works just the way nature intended it to, but...you get urges, and they’re...well...kinda more intense than they are for people who are wired in the head for what they got on their body.”

“Is that...bad?”

“It can be,” Applejack admitted, averting her eyes again. “Especially when you spend all day around cute young things you can’t have, after you’ve been told that you’re gonna have as much trouble controlling your erections as a fourteen-year-old colt does for the rest of your life.”

Fluttershy pondered. Her eye wandered back to the orange girth lightly held in her grasp. It was twitching gently, even under such slight manipulation. “Like...like me,” she finally concluded. “When I was under the influence of the love potion, I felt like I was just learning about my body all over again. Arousal kept taking me by surprise, and I’d get really wet and bothered just from a little daydreaming in class. I was doing things like giggling too much around other students, because my brain kept thinking there could be sex...even when they were strangers and there was no way that was ever going to happen. Part of me was trying to attract them anyway...even the other mares.”

Applejack folded her arms. “It’s like bein’ drugged, yeah. So I guess maybe I have a tiny complex about wondering if it’s you who’s doing the talkin’, or whatever might be bubbling in your brain.” The words were harsh, and she sought instantly to soften them. “I mean...you in particular because I love you.”

“I never thought about it like that,” Fluttershy admitted. The penis in her grasp was starting to rise up, and she slipped her hand around it the rest of the way, favoring it with gentle pumps. “I really enjoyed it. The potion I mean. It made me feel more...in touch with myself. More confident, bold, artistic...if it hadn’t been for you coming into my life Miss Applejack, I probably would have looked around on the Internet by now to find out how to make more on my own.” She smiled reassuringly. “But you do that for me now. I don’t need anything else.”

A warm smile burnt the edges of Applejack’s harvest-orange lips. She reached out to touch her student, casually cupping her cheek and running her fingers down to trace Fluttershy’s collarbone, breasts, and on to the yielding softness of her stomach. The pegasus giggled and bent her head slightly towards Applejack’s groin, pausing only to hook her hair around one ear; but the professor stopped her.

“Now now,” Applejack chided. “Much as I love your lips sweetie, we still got school today. An’ you gotta go home tonight. You’re gonna run out of excuses.”

Fluttershy’s pouty eyes were fixated on the spire in her grasp. “...just a taste?”

Applejack wriggled her hips, fighting the urge to lift them and pump at the air. “...d-dernit Butterfly, all I just told you, and here you’re makin’ me wanna...mmh…” forgetting the moment, she bit her lip and stared off into space, her voice going distant. “...back you up against that wall over there an’ just...like you ain’t never felt it…”

Fluttershy crept along the bed on all-fours until she was between her professor’s legs. She dipped closer, enough to allow her hair to brush against the orange foreskin below. “...let’s take a sick day.”

“Y-you ain’t sick,” Applejack shuddered. “Ain’t gonna lie.”

“Mental health day, then,” Fluttershy cooed. She pumped again, and the penis in her grasp jumped.

“...ram you up against that wall and just…” Applejack rambled as she snorted out a breath. “...mmh...you got no idea, the things I conjure up in my head…”

Fluttershy glanced at the wall. “You did that to me once. It’s okay to do it again.”

“No.”

Fluttershy tilted her head and smiled playfully. “Aww, come on. We can do it quickly-”

“No, Butterfly.”

“It’ll only take a minute,” Fluttershy whispered sensually, caressing her own breast just to show it off. “...it would be just what we need to start our--”

“I said no!”

The force of the word alone was enough to make Fluttershy flinch. She emptied her hands and came up immediately on her knees, her back rigid and her eyes wide. “...wh-what’s the matter?”

“I told you we gotta get to class,” Applejack rumbled. “Go run through the shower if you’re gonna, so I can.”

Fluttershy folded her arms and didn’t move. “We usually take showers together.”

“Not today. Go on.”

“...n...no,” Fluttershy muttered decisively. “Not until you tell me what’s wrong.”

“Dernit Butterfly, I swear.” Applejack scooted to the edge of the bed nearest the door and threw her legs over it, her back to her student. “You may be all shy in public, but once you get to knowin’ somebody you can be as stubborn as, well...me.”

“I’m not getting dressed until you talk to me.”

“Yer gonna have a hard time bein’ all naked at school today.”

Fluttershy blushed, cringing at the very thought, but held her ground. “I-if that’s what it takes, then...then fine. Something’s upsetting you and I want to know what it is. Being...uh...n-naked in front of the whole school would be a...er...s-small price to pay.”

Applejack knew her student wasn’t serious, but the declaration alone was enough. The professor sighed, her deepest yet of the morning, and slumped her broad shoulders.

“I get...ideas, Fluttershy. I told you before what I’m dealin’ with in my head. If I’d have pushed you up against that wall right now, it wouldn’t have been like the last time. This time I would’a hurt you.”

“You never hurt me,” Fluttershy said softly. “Not any more than I want you to, that is. I...like it when you hurt me.”

“Not like that,” Applejack corrected. She sat in silence for several seconds, and without looking behind her at her partner, finally spoke again.

“Fluttershy, when I was your age, back in school, I...well it’s still hard to control, but back then it was downright impossible. Stallions running around discoverin’ themselves and wanting to get into panties, mares marchin’ around me all the time in their skivvies, or gym shorts, or some other cute little number...I know everybody goes through hormones and all that growin’ up, but this was different. One time, I...well I…”

“You...what?”

“Y’all know Miss Cheerilee, dont’cha?”

Fluttershy blinked. “Miss Cheerilee? Sure, I have her for fourth period history this year. She was my homeroom and study hall teacher last year but they moved her up a grade. What about her?”

“Didja know she used to go to our school too?”

“Uh...no?”

“She did,” Applejack confirmed. “Same year as me. We were friends even. She had her mind on bein’ an educator long before I did, but when that desire rose in me too, she helped me nurture it. We even said we were gonna teach at the same school someday. And we did.”

Fluttershy considered the wine-colored junior professor in her mind. She knew very little about Cheerilee, not even realizing that she was as wet behind the ears as Applejack until now. “Oh, well...isn’t that good?”

“I did somethin’ to her, Butterfly,” Applejack admitted with a bow of her head. She retrieved her Stetson from the floor and took to wringing the brim in her hands. “There was this party. I wish I could blame it on the alcohol, but I didn’t have any, and the reason I didn’t have any was her. I knew she was gonna drink, and I wanted to make sure she got home safe. See, she doesn’t show it around school of course, but she likes her drinks, and she gets, well...a little carried away. I kept some hands off’a her, distracted people with conversations; even walked her home. But...but then…” she hesitated, “...I was just gonna leave her there in her bed, but she smelled so gosh darn mare-fantastic, all young and bloomin’ like me. See, I’m pretty strong, so...well...I climbed on top of her and told myself that it was okay because she was grinnin’ and bein’ all silly but…”

“She...didn’t want it?”

Applejack’s ears flattened. “I...don’t know, honestly. She seemed like she was enjoyin’ it so I indulged myself as much as I wanted. I mean she never out-and-out said no or told me to stop...an’ I was rough. I was so pent up. I wanted her, and I wanted it to be hard.”

Fluttershy was acutely aware that she was being told about one of her teachers potentially violating another. She coughed lightly and chose her words. “What did she have to say about it afterwards?”

“I...well I don’t rightly know that either,” Applejack replied somberly. “That was just before graduation. She and I wanted to be the same thing, but we were on tracks for different schools on account of the fact that I didn’t wanna live too far away from my kin back then. Everybody was under crunch-time stress so...I just let it slip under the rug.”

“You didn’t even talk to her again after that?”

“Not until we met again at the same school, as professors this time.”

“Did you ask her about it then?”

Applejack shrugged. “Naw. It was too long ago, and it was too awkward. She was cordial, but she didn’t say anything about it, and we hadn’t spoken at all since high school. I figured college just helped her to move on from that bad experience.”

“Then...you don’t actually know that it was a bad experience for her, do you.”

Applejack gave Fluttershy’s reflection in a mirror a rueful look in lieu of looking right at her. “I appreciate you tryin’ to go all guidance counselor on me Butterfly, but it had to have been. She never spoke to me again after that, at least not any more than she had to.”

“But you never spoke to her again either,” Fluttershy pointed out. “Maybe she did enjoy it, just the way I enjoy it when you...do things to me. If...if you had stopped talking to me after that first night we were together and just waited for me to say something, I would have worried that I upset you somehow. And I might not have spoken to you either.”

“What I did though...it ain’t the same thing that I do with you.” Applejack rose to her hooves and glanced at the clock. “Now come on. I told you what you wanted to hear, so it’s time to get going.”

“Why isn’t it the same thing?”

“Butterfly, I--”

“Why?”

Applejack spun on her heels and stared at her student on the bed. “Dernit Fluttershy, let it go already! Where do you get off talkin’ to a teacher like that anyway? It ain’t like you’re my--”

Fluttershy was kneeling in the center of the bed. Stark naked, her back was straight, her eyes were droll, and her arms were crossed just under her chest. Her expression was that of stone. “It’s not like I’m your lover, is what you’re going to say, Miss Applejack. But I am your lover...aren’t I?”

Applejack hesitated. “...course you are.”

“Then why can’t you do to me what you did to her?”

Applejack began talking with her hands - a nervous habit Fluttershy was familiar with. “It’s because, because...well you’re...you’re such a sweet thing, Fluttershy. You’re...delicate. I don’t wanna hurt you. And I don’t want it to end up like it did with Cheerilee.”

Fluttershy’s brow was tightened in a way Applejack was not used to seeing. The pegasus felt an indignant streak rising in her, but she crawled over to her lover and took one orange hand in both of hers, offering instead a gentle smile. “It won’t end up that way. I love you, Miss Applejack.”

“Even if you say that,” Applejack replied, “I still don’t wanna hurt you. You dunno what I had in my head that night, Fluttershy.”

“It’s the same thing you had in your head this morning, isn’t it?”

“...yeah.”

“So you still think about it, whatever it is. Doing it I mean.”

“...yep.”

Fluttershy opened Applejack’s palm and draped her hand over her face, nuzzling at it. “I...don’t like that. I know how busy and lonely and stressed you always are, Miss Applejack. I also know it’s gotten better since we got together, but it’s obviously not enough. I want you to let out all your stress, like I do when I’m with you. I want you to feel like you can do anything your heart desires with me.”

Applejack tugged at her hand. She could have easily broken her student’s hold, but her heart wasn’t in it. “I’m fine, Fluttershy. I love you too, and I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time with you in my life. That’s enough for me.”

Fluttershy let the hand drop. She wilted, her eyes falling to the floor. “...you don’t trust me.”

“What?”

Fluttershy’s head dipped forward; her hair spilled about her shoulders, covering most of her body. “You don’t trust me. Or you think I’m just a child who doesn’t know what I want. And maybe I am...maybe I don’t know everything that I want out of life yet, but I wanted you long before that chemistry lab accident. I believe that you love me, but it can only go so far as long as you won’t trust me to know what I want.”

Applejack felt her teeth gritting. Finished with the game, she wrapped her hand around Fluttershy’s chin and easily forced her student to look up. Emerald gaze met turquoise with the steely resolve of a proper educator, and Fluttershy winced.

“Now you listen here. I love you. And yeah, I do think you don’t know everything you want outta life yet, because you’re still in high school. But I don’t think you’re ‘just a child’. I said it before that you ain’t all that much younger’n me to begin with. You better believe I wanted to take you on that first day we were together, but as much as it was pickin’ at me to do it, I wouldn’t have if I didn’t trust you. If you still don’t believe that, then I dunno what I’m supposed to do to get it through your head.”

“...take me,” Fluttershy whispered by way of response, “...that’s what you can do. Take me the way you want to do it. Not the way you think will be easiest on me, or the way you think I want it done.”

“You realize what you’re sayin’?” Applejack looked stern. “If you sign yourself over to me Fluttershy, I ain’t gonna hold back. And I ain’t gonna take the blame for it later. It’s because I do respect you as an adult that I won’t let you forget whatever happens is because you insisted.”

Fluttershy swallowed. Somewhere inside her social hangups began to bubble up, but she wouldn’t allow herself to stop. Not when she knew the lover she had so long pined for wasn’t completely satisfied. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again with a new conviction.

“I want you to do exactly what you want to do to me. And I know that it’s me asking you to do it.”

For a time, the lovers stared silently into one another’s eyes. It was not a look of blind affection; rather, each was attempting to probe the other’s resolve through the proverbial windows to their soul. Applejack took her hand away. She stepped over to the closet and began to fish around, until curious shuffling noises of metal on metal rose from her toil. In a moment she returned, and tossed upon the bed a leather-padded steel contraption that somewhat resembled iron panties with a vent at the front. Fluttershy’s eyes widened, but not from lack of recognition.

“You have...a chastity belt?”

“No,” Applejack replied. “You have one. This is how it’s gonna go down, Butterfly. We’re gonna go to class today. Tonight you’re goin’ home to be with your family, and while you’re there, you’re gonna think about all this. You’re gonna go home the day after too, so we can be apart for a bit and I can make sure your head’s clear. The day after that is Friday. If you ain’t one-hundred percent sure about this, just do the same thing you always do and I’ll understand. But if this is what you really want, I expect you to be wearin’ this on friday, under your skirt. I don’t wanna see no panties, and I don’t wanna see no bra straps under that uniform top of yours. And it’s gonna be entirely up to you to show me that you got this on, which you’re gonna do in class.”

“I-in class…?” Fluttershy swallowed. “B-but I have phys ed on friday, too…”

“Not my problem,” Applejack said sharply. “I’m still gonna love you as much as ever if you don’t do this, and don’t you forget that. But if you do, just remember one word - applebutter.”

Fluttershy tasted the phrase on her lips, pushing it together so it could be a single word. “...why that word?”

“Because that’s gonna be the safe word. Once you show me, in class, that you got this on, you just go on about your day and wait. But don’t you forget that word, because unless you say it, I ain’t gonna listen to any other complaints you got. You understand me?”

Fluttershy placed a hand on her collarbone and stared down at the belt that would lock her release away. “...yes.”

“No touchin’ yourself before you put this on in the morning, and I ain’t givin’ you the key, so once you have it on, that’s that. Keep your top buttons undone all day, too. The ones under your scarf.”

Fluttershy blushed. “...th-the stallions will look at me…”

“Trust me sweetie, they’re already doin’ that. It didn’t bother you when you were all mumbo-jumboed up by that potion, anyhow. They can’t touch what’s mine, but you’re gonna let ‘em look a bit.”

Fluttershy felt something tingling pleasantly deep inside her. “...y-yes Miss Applejack.”

“Smile, sweetie.”

Fluttershy did so, and gratefully nuzzled her professor’s hand with her cheek when it was offered.

“Good girl. That’s how I wanna see you smiling on Friday. Especially if you catch a stallion lookin’ at you. Get up.”

Fluttershy rose from the bed, and instantly Applejack slipped behind her, roughly cupped one breast, and gave the pegasus a stinging whap on the backside that caused a high-pitched yelp.

“Go get your shower and get dressed. No more talkin’.”

Fluttershy nodded and scampered out of the room, her arms bent up at the elbow in an stereotypical schoolgirl manner. Applejack headed towards the kitchen, a refreshing glass of apple juice carted in from her family’s farm on her mind.

In the shower, Fluttershy found it difficult to still her beating heart. To her, there was no decision to make.