The air surrounding Sweet Apple Acres was almost completely quiet, save for a few gusts of wind and the resulting rustle of trees. It seemed as though the world had decided to calm down, leaving all the hustle and noise behind itself, to allow for a day of pure peace. There wasn’t any more than a hoof-full of clouds ornamenting the sky, and the sun shone ever so brightly and warmly across all of Equestria.
All in all, it was a beautiful day.
However, if a pony decided to, by chance, stroll down into the more secluded orchards, they’d notice that it wasn’t quite as quiet. They’d catch just the faintest wisps of sound, floating across the lazy breeze like a wayward balloon. It wasn’t unusual, though-nature was never absolutely silent, after all.
If that pony decided to venture towards the sound, though, it’d become quickly apparent that it wasn’t quite a sound of nature, but the gentle pickings of none other than a guitar. And the question would eventually arise- ‘who would be playing a guitar when nature sounded even more beautiful?’.
If they decided to go further still, they’d finally find it. A single tree that sat in the middle of a clearing, where the orchard formed a natural circle around a grandfather tree, of sorts, which had branched its roots out over its long life to claim itself plenty of space. And then, perhaps, they might notice the two ponies taking solace in its shade.
One was a light cyan color, with a mane about as colorful as the weather factory itself. She was smiling absently, her hind legs reclined carefully against the trunk, her forelegs behind her head for support, wings spread out to soak in all of the sun possible, and an overall demeanor of ‘relaxed’ painted against her visage. Overall, she seemed quite at peace with the current mood.
Right next to her was an orange earth pony, reclining against the very same side and tree, but instead sitting upright, leaning her back against the sturdy trunk. One hind leg fell crossed over the other, and held off to the side slightly was none other than a guitar, finally stilling itself as she made one last pluck, seeming to savor in the ring that it produced, before stopping the sound by simply holding her hoof gently against the strings.
“Now, didn’t I tell ya’?” The orange mare said, turning to address the colorful pegasus with a smile. “I told ya’. You’d love it if ah did this one time.”
The other mare seemed to take a while to notice that the music had stopped, and she slowly drifted back down to reality, before allowing a smirk to beseech her own features. “Yeah, alright, I admit it.” she relented, shifting slightly and retracting her wings, satisfied with the amount of warmth her feathers had gotten. “You’re good with a guitar. Don’t really mind, though. Helps me relax.”
The blonde-maned pony chuckled, turning back to the trees that still encircled the duo and beginning to pick absentmindedly at the strings, forming chords once again. “Well, I’d say. You looked more relaxed ‘n’ a pony struck by 20 doses of tranquilizer.”
“Yeah, it does have that effect on me...”
After the response, it became relatively silent again, the only sounds once again being the gentle vibrations of the nylon strings. Peace fell once more over the small clearing, the crisp leaves floating down seemingly trying to remain as quiet as possible.
The silence was broken as the pegasus, having allowed herself to almost be lulled into sleep, cracked an eye open. “Were you...singing?”
The earth pony stopped nearly instantly, trying her best to suppress the quick turn that she wanted to make. “N-no...you must be hearin’ things.”
The cyan pony only chuckled, letting her eye slowly flop shut once more. “‘s alright. Whatever helps you, really. You don’t sound that bad...”
The orange mare blinked, turning back to the same tree her vision inevitably returned to, as if she could bore a hole in it with laser eyes. Instead of vocally responding, she responded once more, musically, half-singing, half-muttering a song to herself. It seemed almost inaudible from any further than 2 feet away. Luckily for the blue pegasus, however, she was within that range, mere inches from the farm-pony’s side.
“Yeah, just like that...” mumbled the rainbow-maned pony, absently pushing herself closer to the orange mare, stopping when she made contact, before smiling and snuggling back against her. The other pony simply smiled, tilting her brown stetson back upon her head as a small red tinge appeared on her face. The nature of it, however, was not apparent, whether from embarrassment, humility, or simply the level of affection being displayed.
However, the orange mare couldn’t resist to but to stop her slight humming for a few seconds. “Y’know...this is kinda’ like ‘deja vu’.”
The cyan mare reluctantly opened an eye again, before frowning. “How?”
The earth pony sighed. “Ah don’t know, it’s just...this tree seems really familiar, y’know.” She groaned, rolling her head around momentarily as she thought. “I mean, ah know it was near a tree, when...’it’ first happened, all that time ago, but...”
She trailed off as she felt a sudden thump against her leg, turning to the cyan pegasus. “What?”
“It doesn’t matter exactly where or when, so...” she smiled, draping her right forehoof out to the right, ‘by chance’ coming to rest across the orange hind leg directly next to her. “...calm down. All that matters is that it happened.”
The earth pony just smiled, turning back away to resume her light humming. She found it was true, and...well, both the ponies there were perfectly content with the fact. The fact that it had been a day much like the one right at that moment, how it had taken but a few seconds to realize things that had been there all along. How it had only taken a second to actually express those feelings, in three simple words, and about a few more to follow those words up.
Three words, it turned out, could change everything forever.
The silence continued to reign, the orange mare even going so far as to start her soft singing again. The pony besides her simply responded by closing her eyes once more, lowering her head back onto the grass, which seemed to serve reasonably well as a pillow.
Every single tiny pluck left thoughts behind in both of the mares’ heads. One second, they would be revelling in the past, and the next, memories of what had been the past month. The next string would bring feelings of uncertainty, and the next would bring about calm and assured feelings. One would bring up heartbreak and confusion, but the next would immediately chime in with love and reassurance.
“Sugarcube...” The tranquil silence was suddenly broken as, for yet another time, the farm pony spoke up, though without looking over as usual.
There was no response.
“Sugarcube?” Lowering her eyes slightly in concern, the orange mare ceased her strumming, looking back at the reclining figure snuggled up to her.
Only to smile, and have the biggest wave of warmth that she’d ever experienced wash over her.
The cyan pegasus still lay besides her, her wings now spread once more to catch the sunlight that the tips protruded out into. A distant frown rested on her face, but not for the reason that the blonde-maned pony might have thought at first. Her breathing was slow, steady, relaxed, and even slightly whistling, and her prismatic mane was given free reign to drape itself in front of her eyes.
It only took a second to realize that she had lulled her all the way into a deep sleep.
Driven only by herself, the orange pony leaned down towards the blue mare, gently placing her lips to the slumbering pegasus’ forehead, before uttering three words in a hushed whisper, the very same three words that had changed everything.
“Love ya’, sugarcube.”
There was no response-or, rather, no intelligent response. Instead, the only reply was a garbled reply from the cyan mare, who, through some unlikely force, even managed to blush in her sleep: “Nngh~...uuf, oo thu~...”
The stetsoned pony smiled even wider, reclining back against the tree. “Ah’ll be takin’ that as an, ‘Ah love you too’, then.”
The gentle hum of strings started back up once again, filling the air with the peaceful aura it had carried, and not once lost, during the entire exchange.
If that, perchance, same pony had managed to stumble upon the fairly secluded clearing the second the orange mare started back up, nothing would really be different than from the moment she had sat down with her...special friend. But if given a closer look, and some insight, it could easily be seen.
The number of emotions on high had definitely increased, among them being happiness, admiration, remembrance, and contentment, with pure relaxation thrown in.
The most prevalent, and the one that both mares, asleep or not, could feel, however...
Was love.
