Chapter 1 - Date Under a Tree (AJxFS)
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Stranger in the Forest: Side Stories

Chapter 1 - Date Under a Tree (AJxFS)

“Umm, w-w-would you...uh, t-that is, if y-you don’t mind, um, go, ah, g-go on a p-picnic...um, with me?” Fluttershy stammered, pawing the ground nervously with one hoof, her beautiful pink mane flowing in the breeze.

It was a late morning in the orchards of the apple family. The sun was mercilessly beating down on the poor ponies working in the fields, but luckily, the refreshing breezes passing through the myriad of trees kept things bearable. Applejack and her brother had been at work the moment the sun rose, for they needed to get as much work done as possible before the sun reached its pinnacle and it would be too hot to work.

Her work had been interrupted, however, by an adorably fretting pegasus. Fluttershy was smiling nervously from behind her mane, while her wings fidgeted so much that Applejack thought she’d fly away if they twitched any faster.

Applejack snapped out of her thoughts when the question her friend had posed to her finally sank in. A very important question that needed a properly thought out answer.

“Uhh...huh?”

Smooth, she immediately chided herself

“I-I-I mean, I, um, I u-understand i-if you are too busy, and, um, c-c-can’t, o-o-or if you don’t...don’t w-want to go with me…” Fluttershy sadly said, her ears tilting downward.

“No! I mean, uh, y-you just caught me off guard…” Applejack quickly corrected.

A hopeful smile crossed the pegasus mare’s lips.

“...Um, uh, a picnic?” Applejack questioned.

“Mmhm… I-I was thinking, maybe a few days from now...I know you are, um, v-very busy, so I wanted to, to ask in advance. I-it would be nice...just to spend some time, um, just the two of us,” she timidly explained, drawing small circles in the dirt with the tip of her hoof. There was noticeable red tinge to her cheeks, one that made Applejack’s heart skip a beat.

“Uhh…” Applejack mumbled, out of words. She started to absentmindedly pick up apples and place them in a basket as she tried to think this over.

A picnic...just for the two of us? She’s asking me for a date!? a panicky voice yelled in Applejack’s head. She had been caught wholly unprepared for this and had no idea how to answer the hopeful mare.

Dating was not exactly at the forefront of Applejack’s mind, not that she had anything against Fluttershy. On the contrary, she adored the shy pegasus to bits, and they had always been great friends. Fluttershy was incredibly easy to get along with once you finally got her to open up, and that had been a straightforward process for Applejack. With her ability to communicate with animals, Fluttershy had helped many a times when Sweet Apple Acres had a critter problem. The fruit bats, the beavers… The farm wouldn’t be doing as well as it was now if she had not helped.

Naturally, Applejack repaid her in kind by fixing up chicken coops, making birdhouses, and whatever other little odd jobs she needed help with. This gave them plenty of chances to talk to each other and otherwise see each other regularly, and it had led to a strong friendship between them even before the whole Elements of Harmony business.

While Applejack hadn’t exactly been looking for a date with the timid animal caretaker, there was no denying the fact that there was something in the pegasus that made her heart flutter. Applejack had always thought that Fluttershy was a very, very beautiful mare, and the way she shyly smiled to you was something special. There had even been a few idle thoughts that maybe there would be a chance for them to be closer, but Applejack had never gone far with those. She simply had too much work on her hooves to find time to date anypony properly, and if she was going to court somepony, there was no way she was going to do it half heartedly. Likewise, she was at the prime of her life, there was no hurry to find a very special somepony and settle down right now.

Yet, here she was, standing with Fluttershy, who was giving her that shy smile of hers, waiting for an answer to a simple question.

Would you like to go on a date with me?

“Umm… Fluttershy, sugarcube… I, honestly, don’t know what to say. I-I know it was me who, uh, ki-kissed you and all, but I...you know…” Applejack lamely explained. “...I didn’t have any big plans for it to lead to something,” she quietly added.

There was a sad smile on the pegasus’s face, and it was clear that the words had stung.

“N-n-not that I ain’t happy about, uh, to go on a date with you...but um...give, give me time to think?”

********************

A few days later, Applejack found herself at the doorstep to Fluttershy’s cottage, hesitating. The friendly door to the cottage was looming in front of her, giving Applejack a bad case of butterflies in the stomach rather than the cozy warmth it usually conveyed. She had tried to knock on the door several times already, failing with each attempt.

“Come on Applejack… It’s just a date with Fluttershy. Be a mare and stop fussing already…” Applejack muttered to herself. She took a deep breath, adjusted her hat for the twelfth time and finally knocked on the door.

“Just a minute!” came Fluttershy’s singsong voice from the other side, giving the apple farmer a moment to compose herself.

Applejack had been fretting over the matter the moment Fluttershy had asked her for this date. She had not been able to come to a decision on what she should do, and had asked Rarity for advice yesterday before the Princesses visit. While she had hoped that Rarity would be able to tell her what she should do, deep down she already knew that in the end, it was a matter of her own heart and that she’d have to make the decision herself.

Rarity had advised her, however, to talk to Fluttershy about her worries. So once the Princesses had arrived and formalities were over with, Applejack and Fluttershy sat down to talk. It was a short talk with a great amount of blushing, especially once they noticed Pinkie Pie giving them the widest, most happiest grin they had ever seen, but they managed to talk things over.

“Sorry for the wait,” Fluttershy said with a smile, bringing Applejack out of her thoughts.

“Uh, it’s fine.”

“Do...do you want to come inside, um, f-for a moment, or should we, should we go?” Fluttershy fidgeted in place, clearly feeling nervous too, but it was easy to spot her excitement as well.

“Well, um, reckon we go for the picnic, yeah sugarcube? Heh, it was the plan after all,” Applejack said, finding her voice to be uncharacteristically meek, but managing a small smile. Fluttershy nodded and trotted inside to retrieve a small basket she had prepared.

“Then, u-um, there’s a spot I know, not very far away. I go there with my animal friends often.” With that, the two of them left for their date, Fluttershy quicky saying goodbye to the many animals inside and outside the cottage.

The weather was perfect for an early evening picnic. Plenty of sunshine with a few errant clouds in the sky, but also plenty of wind. Listening to the sounds of leaves rustling and blades of grass swaying in the breeze was very relaxing, and Applejack often liked to take a nap outside when it was windy.

Their walk to the Fluttershy’s picnic spot was done in comfortable silence, mostly because neither of the mares could figure out something to talk about to break the silence. What are you supposed to talk about during dates anyway? Applejack pondered. Despite the silence, Applejack noticed how close Fluttershy was walking to her. They were so close that they almost brushed against each other. Whether it was on purpose or not, she didn’t know, for as soon as Fluttershy noticed Applejack looking her way, the pegasus blushed and hid behind her mane.

“H-here we are,“ Fluttershy said. The walk had barely been a fifteen minutes long before they reached an open field bordering the Everfree. They stood on a small mound overlooking the expansive meadow, a single large tree growing on top of it.

“It sure is pretty,“ Applejack said, admiring the view. Gusts of wind sailed through the prairie, making the long grasses ripple like water.

Fluttershy occupied herself with putting everything she had brought on display, placing each of the food items on a small table cloth. She had made some sandwiches, a flower salad, and sugared strawberries and also brought a hooffull of muffins from Sugar Cube Corner that she received only after agreeing to allow Pinkie Pie decorate them with little hearts.

“I see Pinkie’s been keeping herself busy,“ Applejack remarked as she spotted the pastries.

“I guess she’s...excited, about our, um, date,“ Fluttershy awkwardly chuckled.

“I reckon she’s more excited than the both of us together,” Applejack shook her head and smiled.

The mares sat down close to each other around the small swathe of cloth, each taking a good portion of the treats available. Both had skipped their lunches to save their appetites for the picnic. Silence prevailed again as they enjoyed the food, broken only a few times by requests to pass some dish over. Eventually, it was making Applejack so uncomfortable that she had to say something, anything at all to alleviate the oppressive feeling.

“So, Uh… I-it was nice for the Princesses to visit,“ Applejack started with an nervous cough.

“Oh, yes, um, nice,“ Fluttershy replied, equally meek.

“It was ‘bout time Scruffy finally got to meet them.”

“Mhm. P-princess Luna looked really happy.”

“Yeah. If they way she had prettied up was anything to go by, I reckon she’d been lookin’ forward to yesterday.”

“I heard Celestia mention that, um, Princess Luna was really worried how her meeting with Scruffy would go. … Maybe she just wanted to make sure she left a good first impression?”

“Scruffy certainly left an impression all right,” Applejack huffed in amusement. “He just up and kissed her hoof out of nowhere! I’m sure he was trying to be a proper gentlecolt and all but sheesh.” Applejack’s chuckle elicited a smile from Fluttershy.

“Mhm, it was certainly a surprise, but it seemed to make Princess Luna very happy nonetheless.”

Both of them let out a small giggle, before lapsing into silence again. A gust blew past them, making Fluttershy’s mane billow in the wind. Applejack watched it dance in the currents, mesmerized.

She felt a pang of shame in her chest. What am I doing…? she thought to herself. Fluttershy so looked forward to this picnic, and now I’m being the most boring date ever. Applejack almost groaned out loud, but masked it as a cough. I wonder if I shouldn’t have agreed afterall…

When the two of them had their talk yesterday, Applejack laid out her worries about dating Fluttershy, or anypony for that matter, to the pegasus. Fluttershy remained undeterred, stating that she wasn’t going to expect Applejack to simply shirk her duties if they were going to date. She understood how important Sweet Apple Acres was for her, and that it would take a significant amount of Applejack’s time. But even with all the hustle and bustle of farm life, there would still be many opportunities for them to spend time together. She expressed , in her bashful way, her hope that Applejack would not say no just because they could not go on a date every week or month.

But if this is the best I can do when I do have the time, how long’ll Shy be interested in this whole thing?

Fluttershy turned to look at her with a small smile as she brushed her mane to the side. Applejack gulped and looked away.

“Shy...I’m sorry,” Applejack apologized, head and ears downcast.

“Sorry? For what?” Fluttershy’s expression morphed to worry.

“For being a drag…”

“What?”

“You know! I’m being...boring… I-I-I’ve got no clue what we should talk about on a...on a date, a-and we are just sitting in silence and...and I’m sorry for ruining this whole thing…”

“Oh Applejack,” Fluttershy said. She moved next to her friend, giving Applejack a hug and an encouraging smile. “You aren’t being a, um, drag.”

“Bu-but I’m-”

“I promise that you aren’t. It’s nice to be together like this.” Fluttershy snuggled up closer and, as often was the case when she let her kindness show, her shyness disappeared as she wrapped a wing across Applejack’s back. The rather intimate move caused Applejack to involuntarily snap her tail and her heart to pound like whenever DaisyJo and the others went on a stampede. She didn’t say anything though, as the feathery hug felt very pleasant.

“But...but why? We are just sitting here and- and doing nothing!” Applejack spouted.

“We often just sit together and enjoy the weather. We don’t always talk much.”

“But uh...but, I mean, we are on a date... Shouldn’t it be more, special?” Applejack questioned.

“Applejack, it is special,” Fluttershy said gently. “It’s special because you are here,” Fluttershy said, smiling that shy smile of hers and making Applejack blush furiously. Fluttershy let out another giggle at Applejack’s reaction, before she slowly leaned her head against Applejack’s. “It doesn’t matter what we are doing, as long as I’m doing it with you.”

Applejack’s face felt like it was burning as the blush spread, and she was worried her coat would permanently change color to match Big McIntosh’s. That, or her stetson would catch fire, both equally terrifying options.

“You...y-you think so?” she quietly asked. Despite the worry of being permanently turned red if Fluttershy kept this up, Applejack felt a wave of calm and relief.

“Mmhm,” Fluttershy hummed.

“You...don’t think it’s boring?”

“No,” she giggled. “I’m sure we both could guess, that um, that it would be a bit a-awkward.” Her giggling turned more embarrassed once she realised where her wing was, and she hastily pulled it back to her side. “B-but I’m really happy. That you were willing to...t-t-to agree to today…” Fluttershy twiddled her hooves as she became more self conscious about how she was acting.

“I um...y-y-you’re someone I trust, uh, a-and I like you...a lot.” Why do I have such a darn hard time with words today? “I j-just...never focused on dating, you know? So I never really, uh, thought about it…” Applejack mumbled, relaxing enough to lean back to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy let out a short hum in reply, and silence fell over them once again. This, however, was a more gentle, companionable silence, as the two of them enjoyed the closeness of each other, and tried to let some of their nervousness bleed off.

“It’s strange...” Applejack started after a while, pausing to collect her thoughts. “I’ve always thought that dating somepony would be different from how you usually spend time with your friends...and more busy.”

“How so?”

“Like...getting flowers, and buying presents, and, a-a-and doing something special every day. But I guess...I guess we can just do this.” A strong gust blew past them and threatened to take Applejack’s hat away. She had to quickly hold it down with her hoof.

“I, I don’t think dating has to be about the big things...it can be the little things as well,” Fluttershy said, pondering if it would be okay to put her wing over her date’s back again, but eventually being too shy to do it.

“Hah! Now that sounds familiar… Rarity said the same thing when I asked her for advice. Reckon I should have listened to it,” the apple farmer chuckled.

“It’s okay Applejack. It’s not like, um, like I’ve had m-much experience with d-dating before,” Fluttershy quietly confessed. Applejack could feel her blush coming back. Fluttershy was acting just so darn cute that she couldn’t help it.

“Well what do we have here? Two love birds by the sight of it!” the two mares both jumped up in surprise at the sudden arrival of a rather familiar raspy voice from above.

“R-R-Rainbow!” Applejack stuttered her annoyance to the pegasus who was busy peering down at them with a smug grin on her face.

“O-oh my…” Fluttershy mumbled, clearly wishing she could hide under the picnic blanket.

“Hehhehheh! D-don’t mind me! If-” Rainbow paused to snicker as both Applejack’s and Fluttershy’s faces were steadily turning redder than the Acre’s fresh, ripe apples. “If I had known it was you two down here, I would have stayed up. Whoops! I mean I wouldn’t have interrupted you two,” Rainbow continued, struggling to hold back her laughter as Applejack stared at her as angrily as she could through her impressive blush. She did not last long and burst in to raucous laughter.

“Hrrmmh,” Applejack let out a resigned groan and hung her head low. She was going to be hearing about this for the rest of the week.

“U-u-umm...Rainbow…” Fluttershy tried, but her quiet voice didn’t carry far.

“Oh gosh, you two are so adorable! Hehehe, I guess I was right after all!” Rainbow gasped, having to concentrate for a moment so that she wouldn’t plummet down.

“We’re not adorable!” Applejack complained, before glancing at Fluttershy. “I-I mean...I-I-I meant that Fluttershy is, a-a-and I’m not, or, no, uh…” Applejack’s stumbling words only renewed Rainbow’s laughter.

“R-Rainbow…” Fluttershy tried again, this time a bit louder.

“Mmhmhmhmhmm!” Rainbow chuckled past her hoof, trying to calm down.

“W-was t-there something you needed?” Fluttershy asked. A tinge of annoyance had crept in to her voice, but if Rainbow noticed it, she didn’t react.

“Yes, um...hehehee! Sorry...ahem. I just wanted to warn you that I spotted some dark clouds coming from the Everfree,” Rainbow explained and pointed a hoof towards the horizon. Sure enough, Applejack and Fluttershy noticed the creeping line of dark clouds above the trees.

“Oh no.”

“Nothing too major. Probably just a little bit of rain,” the weather mare shrugged. “Still, might not want to be out here when it hits,” she said and ascended a bit with a flap of her wings. “Anyways, I’ve got to warn the rest of the town, so I’m gonna leave you to your…” Rainbow drawed out the last part, gesturing with a hoof as a massive grin found its way to her face again. “...cuddling,” she finished, and speedily flew away with a giggle.

“Come back here you varmint!” Applejack angrily barked after the pegasus, even going as far as throwing a rock at the retreating form, knowing full well it had no chance of hitting. She glanced at Fluttershy, and their eyes met for a moment before she looked away with a blush. “Well...darn. Ain’t much we can do about them clouds... Guess that means we should pack and leave?” Despite the picnic having been anything but relaxing, Applejack felt saddened that they were going to have to call it quits early.

Fluttershy gazed at the slowly approaching bank of clouds, then shifted to assess the tree they were under.

“Umm… I...don’t think we have to,” she eventually said.

“Huh?”

“I-if it’s like Rainbow said, just a little rain… I think we will be safe under this tree.”

“Hmm...are you sure?” Applejack asked but sat down next to Fluttershy nonetheless.

“Mmhm. I sometimes like to just listen to the rain with my animal friends… Not, when it’s thundery, so much,” Fluttershy sheepishly admitted, remembering the many times a peaceful moment was ruined by the crackle of thunder and the wild scurrying of animals.

And her.

“Hmh, to me rain is mostly not being able to to do my job, although it’s nice to get a breather some days. But, if’n you want to stay here, I got no problem with that.”

It did not take much waiting for the blanket of clouds to roll in from the Everfree forest. The sky was full of gray with occasional tears in the clouds where sun could barely peak through, shining down on the two mares below. And soon, the rain started.

“Seems like Dash was right,” Applejack blurted. “This amount of rain would hardly get our coats wet if we walked to your cottage.” She scrunched her nose as an errant drop of water hit her square on the tip of her muzzle. The calm drizzle washed across the fields, but like Fluttershy said, the tree protected them from most of it. “You reckon it’ll last long?” Applejack inquired.

“Um, I don’t think so, but you never know with Everfree clouds.”

“Right,” Applejack said, stifling a yawn. “Sorry. I’m a bit tuckered out from working the orchard.”

“That’s okay.” Applejack noticed from the corner of her eye that Fluttershy was staring at the ground, playing with the grass. She looked like she wanted to say something but needed a few more moments to gather her courage. “U-um...i-if you want to, you could take a nap while the rain calms down.”

“Huh? Are you sure?”

“Mhm. I accidentally packed a book in the picnic basket. I usually read something for my animal friends when we are out like this, so, um, I can read that while you rest.”

“I...well...if you are sure you don’t mind,” Applejack hesitated, until she let out a massive yawn. Fluttershy giggled.

“I don’t mind.” She walked to the basket next to the tree and laid down. “Here,” she patted the ground next to her, a gesture to which Applejack obliged. Applejack propped her head against Fluttershy’s soft side, much to Fluttershy’s delight, and gazed across the landscape.

“Fluttershy…?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks...for today.”

Fluttershy looked to her friend, almost asking her ‘what for’, before a smile made its way across her lips, and she instead draped her wing across Applejack’s barrel.

An hour and a half later, the rain finally stopped, and the clouds that had flown from the Everfree started to break up. Fluttershy saw a rainbow contrail streak across the sky, telling her exactly who was up clearing the clouds.

“Applejack.” Fluttershy gently called to the sleeping applemare with no success. “Applejack?” she repeated, again without success.

With no response coming from the sleeper, Fluttershy lifted her head and looked around. She scanned her surroundings, making sure nopony else was there. Next, she carefully lifted the hat that was covering Applejack’s face and placed it aside. Fluttershy took a moment to admire Applejack’s sleeping face, feeling a blush coming. Then, when Applejack did not stir, she peeked around her once more, before leaning in and placing a small, delicate kiss on Applejack’s nose.

Author's Note

Here's some soothing rain sounds for you. :twilightsmile:
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteRainNoiseGenerator.php

Also have this absolutely adorable pic.

Hope you all had a good week. :pinkiesmile: