Lean on Me

by Tranquil Serenity

Rating: everyone
Tags: Romance, Fancypants, Applejack, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1677

Applejack needed to run. She needed to get away from him.

Applejack needed to run. She needed to get away from him. So she just kept right on running.

Published 2018-11-12 23:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-11-12 23:10:01 UTC

Running

She ran. Her tears flying into the wind. Hooves moving speedily, steps uneven, feverish. She stumbled, recovered, and ran some more. She couldn't stop. She wouldn't stop. She had to get away. Far away.

How? she wondered. How could it all have turned out so badly?

But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Colors and forms were all a blur, rapidly disappearing in her peripheral vision.

"Applejack!"

A voice called out to her from behind. It was gentle, familiar, urgent... She ignored it. If anything, she tried to run even faster.

Her heart beat as wildly as her rapid hoofsteps did against the dusty earth. Particles of the path beneath her rising in her wake. She angled her body as fast as she could to make the next turn. She had to get away.

Her hooves slid as she careened around the bend, what appeared to be rows upon rows of trees lining the path ahead. The sunlight gleamed in her eyes as she sped along the distance, blinding her more than the tears already had. Her foot caught on something and she tumbled down, her body slamming harshly against the hard ground, the piercing physical pain it caused merely a single drop in an ocean of misery.

She tried to stand, but her wobbling legs refused. Her escape had been too exhausting. For a while she simply lay there, shaking, sobbing, gasping for air, pitiful... so unlike herself. How had she come to this? Suddenly, to her horror she heard hoofsteps on the path she had trod. She tried to look behind her, but her eyes were too filled to see anything but blurs. She prayed desperately that those hoofsteps did not belong to that gentle voice, and she hid her face in her hooves, trying to stifle her cries.

The hoofsteps grew louder as they grew closer, then abruptly the sound ceased. After a brief moment of silence, she heard the gravel shift beside her.

"Applejack?"

It was that voice. Applejack's breathing ceased. She couldn't run. She couldn't escape. She wished with everything in her that she could just fade away.

She felt his gentle touch on her back and she flinched at the unexpected contact. Then she felt it on her face too. He had placed his foreleg around her shoulders and was nuzzling her.

"Applejack." His voice was shaky, concerned... He pressed his forehead to hers and she could feel his warmth through her fur.

Her breathing calmed slightly and her heartbeat slowed a little. Her mind stopped racing for the moment and the agonizing thoughts in her head fell silent. She had felt so much pain so acutely in such a short time. Just for now, she wouldn't think anymore... she would rest.

Two ponies lay quietly on the otherwise vacant path, the sound of a calm breeze rustling through the leaves in the trees. Birds sung prettily in the distance, and the pleasant scent of summer flowers wafted though the air. Vibrant hues of green surrounded them beneath a light blue sky, whisps of cloud scattered picturesquely on the horizon, and dappled sunlight slipped through the canopy of branches above.

Applejack felt his forehead pull away from hers. "I'm sorry," he breathed.

She already knew that talking wouldn't fix anything, but the words came out anyway. "Y-Ya are not!" She sniffled.

"Applejack... I didn't intend to offend you. If you'd only remain in one place long enough to tell me what I did wrong I—"

"I already know you're leavin'!" she shouted.

Silence. Of course he was silent. He'd promised her everything, all the while intending to leave her with nothing.

"Who... Who told you I was leaving?"

She swallowed hard and turned to look at him, daggers for eyes. "Nopony! I found out for mahself!"

He didn't wince at her tone or pull away. He was calm, still, his gaze ever-fixed on her. "I'm not leaving, Applejack."

She snorted and turned away from him. Liar!

"I'm really not leaving. I promised you I'd stay."

"Oh, that's right!" she said sarcastically. "Ponies always send their luggage on trips to Manehatten! It don't mean you're leavin'! When ya stay in one place long enough, the suitcases just get antsy!"

"Applejack..."

"Save it!" She managed to stand up and limp a few feet away from him. Curse her injured legs! Was it impossible for her to pick up and leave without an ounce of dignity left to her name!?!

"Applejack, you're hurt! Here, let me hel—"

"Ah'm fine. Jist leave me be!"

She decided she'd wait until he left first. She didn't need his pity following her with his eyes.

"Applejack, I would never leave you. I love you."

He dared to say it even after she had confronted him with her findings. How low could a pony stoop?

"The suitcases aren't mine. I was sending them to Manehattan for a friend."

Applejack rolled her eyes. "And just who do they belong to then? Flim and Flam!?"

"Those ponies and I are not on speaking terms after our last business deal, and one could hardly say that we were ever affiliated in any sort of personal manner!" He was finally starting to sound just a little bit angry. Good.

"Well that's a real shame!" She turned to yell at him. "'Cause I reckon ya'll are kindred spirits!"

Fancypants sighed, taking a moment to recompose himself. Applejack turned away again.

"Fine," he said quietly. "Have it your way. I'm an unsavory philanderer who toyed with your affections for the sake of my own twisted pleasure. I also planned on making off with all bits in Apple Bloom's piggy bank, and a few of Madam Smith's largest fruit-bearing trees. I placed all the aforementioned in the suitcases I promptly shipped off to Manehattan ahead of me so I could travel light after setting fire to your family home tomorrow. My plan was ingenious and foolproof, but I'm afraid you found me out."

"Jist go away." Her head drooped and she felt her eyes beginning to fill with tears again, she did her best to blink them away.

"I have never lied to you, Applejack." He trotted up to stand beside her. "I told you I was going to stay, and stay I shall. You may think whatever you wish of me for the moment, but I refuse let you attempt to make it back to your family's farmhouse in such a compromised state."

Applejack began to cry. "Why, Fancy?!" she asked between her sobs. "Why did ya h-have ta go and do i-it?! I saw ya talkin' with that there buisness p-pony. He—He said ya were goin' to Manehattan to oversee s-some new fangled p-proposal! Said ya'd be relocatin' a-and that it would take y-years! Ya agreed! I h-heard it with ma o-own ears!"

Fancypants' expression softened. "Dearest Applejack. I'm afraid you misunderstood. One of my buisnesses is indeed being relocated, but my partner Deal Clincher was making a joke. I'm afraid things got a little tense between another business associate and I in Manehattan, so the new proposal he was speaking of is one that I'm having him negotiate on my behalf. Were I to attempt to finalize things on my own, I expect it would take me years to conclude the deal. And as for the luggage I sent, it belongs to Deal Clincher. He grabbed the wrong suitcase and had to send it back to the hotel, and I was just seeing to it that he received the correct one."

Applejack sniffed and looked him in the eye. "So... ya aren't leavin'?"

He smiled and shook his head.

Applejack blinked. She had been mistaken this whole time.

"I told you. I'm staying." He nuzzled her briefly.

Applejack smirked, a happy blush starting to color her cheeks. "Even though I done run away cryin' like a foal and started accusin' ya of all sorts of nonsense?"

Fancypants laughed heartily. "Applejack, I assure you that despite our unfortunate misunderstanding, you are the least overreactive mare I have ever courted."

She joined him in his mirth. What a glorious feeling to laugh after the grief that had so wholly engulfed her entire being just minutes ago.

Applejack looked down at her legs to inspect the damage she'd done to herself, previously too occupied with other matters to even care. They were all sort of scratched up, but it was her front right that she'd actually sprained, and it was pretty swollen by now.

"I reckon I could use your help gettin' back after all," she told him with a smile.

"Here, dearest. Lean on me."

Fancypants came down a bit so she could put some of her weight on him, and the two started out on their long walk back. They were only a short ways along when she noticed an apple-sized rock near the middle of the path, likely the one she tripped over. Without her saying anything about it, Fancypants dislodged it with his magic and threw it into the bushes alongside.

"I certainly can't have any other mares falling for me," he joked with a grin.

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Jist focus on helpin' me walk, will ya?"

"Of course."

They continued on in silence for a while, then suddenly...

"...Fancypants?"

"Yes, Applejack?"

"I reckon I love you too."

Author's Note

I wouldn't call myself a die-hard shipper of these two. I just started writing and this sorta happened. So please don't go saying you agree or disagree with me in the comments over it as if this couple were my absolute preference. I could've just as easily paired either of these ponies with another character if I'd felt like it.

December 2nd, 2018: Henceforth, please direct your grammar and spelling corrections to PM. Thank you. :twilightsmile:

Note: In hindsight I believe Applejack is not very in-character in this fic. But I do write her much better in my other stories, so hopefully if you enjoyed the writing otherwise you wont write me off as a fimfic author. :twilightsheepish: