Sunset held onto the car door for her life. Outside was a raging whirlwind of snow and hail. You couldn't see one inch in front of the car. Snow piled up on the hood despite the windshield wipers effort.
That day she and Applejack had driven to a hardware store on the other side of town. Granny's truck had to be worked on so Applejack had asked her for a ride. The store trip had taken longer than they had expected due to the number of people clogging the halls, the lack of the particular drill Applejack was looking for, and the terrible customer service. Eventually they had started home.
The storm had hit out of nowhere, there hadn't been one on the forecast if there had they wouldn't have gone so far out that day. Sunset had barely gotten her license so they had pulled over and switched places. That was why Sunset was grasping the door so tightly, she trusted in Applejack's ability to drive but the storm was fierce.
Sunset had to admit she was a bit scared. Equestria didn't have natural storms like this, at most they'd get a short snow flurry. Here the weather was uncontrolled, unleashed, violent. She tried to tell herself she didn't need to be scared but it rang hollow as she could tell this was not a normal storm.
She imagined this must be how the three tribes felt when the wendigos attacked. Cold, scared, and lonely, unable to tell when it would stop, worried it wouldn't stop, That they'd be trapped in that cave forever. Sunset shuddered at the thought. She could feel Applejack's concerned eyes on her and shook her head. Applejack needed to concentrate on driving.
"I'm fine Applejack." She said firmly.
"Don't worry sugarcube we're almost there."
She heaved a sigh of relief when they pulled into her driveway. Her house was very small, about three rooms, but it would give them shelter. Sunset pulled on the door handle but found she could not open it. The wind was strong and she didn't have equal strength to move it. Luckily Applejack had no problem with this.
"I gotcha sugarcube let's get in before we blow away!"
Gripping each others hand tightly the two began to work their way towards Sunset's modest home. Sunset couldn't see a thing. The wind blew furiously making each step a tremendous effort. Snow stuck to her coat covering so much it appeared white. Sunset could feel the snow hitting her face.
She wasn't used to snow this wild, it made her wonder how far from her home they were. As if in answer Sunset hit her her head against the door. She tried to open it but found she couldn't find the handle, thankfully, Applejack managed to get the door open. The wind seemed to howl in anger its prize out of its possession., cold, wet,and tired they entered the house.
Sunset was relieved to see her living quarters, a black couch took up the 'living room' ,really it was only half the room, she had a fridge, microwave, stove,and a singular cupboard making up her kitchen. The other two rooms were her bathroom and bedroom, which was where she kept her computer and tv.
Applejack seated herself on the couch as Sunset headed to the cupboard. She was holding her arms around herself shivers ran down her body. Sunset was cold too so she looked around the cupboard and beamed as she saw the hot cocoa. She pulled out two plain orange mugs and set to putting some hot water in them. She heated it further in the microwave and stirred in the powder.
Sunset walked to the couch and handed one of the mugs to Applejack, who accepted it with shaking hands. Sunsat sat down and sipped her hot cocoa, letting the warmth fill her body. She heard Applejack doing the same. She stared into the deep brown relishing in its smell, and the warmth it gave her hands.
It was nice just sitting here in silence, the kind of silence that can only be shared by close friends. The silence that feels neither uncomfortable nor empty. The kind that could be broken at any time but didn't need to be.
"You seem colder than me." Sunset said concerned.
"I had ta clean off the car before we could get going." Applejack said "Why'd ya freak out anyway? Yer normally pretty calm."
"Pegasus control the weather in Equestria. We don't get storms this bad." Sunset replied.
"Y'all can control the weather? Well don't that beat all."
"I'm not actually sure how it works but it does." Sunset examined Applejack, she was staring into her cup a look of thought on her face. She had seemed distracted for much of the trip. Sunset had figured Applejack would tell her about it if it concerned her, but she was curious.
"You okay? Seems like something's on your mind." That was good, inviting but not demanding. If Applejack didn't want to tell her about it that was fine.
Applejack stared into her cup for a long moment. Were he seemed to be trying to figure out how to say something. Sunset let her think, she would talk when she was ready.
"Sunset I have ta tell ya somethin' I just barely realized myself." Applejack was staring at her intensely. "See I didn' just ask you ta drive me cause Granny's truck needs work. I coulda asked any one of our friends fer that. I needed ta talk with ya alone."
Sunset was curious, Applejack was a very open person. What could she possibly want to talk about? "I'm listening."
"So lately I've been distracted. I'll be doin' chores and suddenly it'll be five minutes later. It concerned me 'cause I'm usually the one on task while others get distracted. I couldn't put my finger on why though. The strangest things would get me off track, like sunflowers or light glintin' off the water. It had me thinkin' I was sick."
Sunset wasn't sure where this was going but it sounded serious.
"It got worse, soon I was getting hot fer no reason, and sweatin' during school. My stomach felt queasy and at this point I had figured out the cause of all this. You."
Sunset didn't know what to say . How had she made Applejack sick?
"I thought maybe I was allergic to somethin' you were wearing. Remember when I asked what shampoo and body wash ya used?"
"Yeah." She had just thought Applejack liked the scent and wanted to buy some for herself.
"I tried everythin' I could think of but none of it made me have the symptoms I was experiencing. So finally I decided ta ask Rarity if a combination of your skin and the body wash could do somethin' like this and she laughed her head off. Turns out I wasn't sick at all at least not the way I thought."
Applejack grasped her hands. Then looked into her eyes with an expression Sunset couldn't place. "She told me I liked ya as more than a friend. So I needed ta tell ya about it, get it off my chest and I have ta say I feel better, even if ya don't like me back."
Sunset was stunned. Applejack liked her? Sunset didn't know how to feel about it. On the one hand she wasn't against the idea, on the other she'd never viewed her in that light before. Sunset pondered a moment, then she had an idea.
"I want to try something." She said drawing Applejack close. "I don't know if I like you that way, but I know how we can find out.
She moved towards her slowly, giving her every chance to say no but she just stared at Sunset her warm eyes fully trusting. Wrapping her arms around her Sunset kissed Applejack. The kiss was warm, her lips tasted of apples, they were firm but soft. The kiss filled her with a sensation not unlike that of butterfly wings. The two did not part until they needed air. Gasping, Sunset smiled at her.
"Well you're certainly warm now." She smirked.
Author's Note
Just popped into my head and I figured what the hay it's valentine's day.
