You stop and pause for a minute, wiping the sweat off of your brow and taking a short breather. It wasn’t that cutting the grass was exactly difficult but it had been a week since you had last done it.
“Serves me right for taking the week off” You thought to yourself in scorn.
With the hot midday sun beating down upon you, you only wish that you could take a quick dip into the small river that flowed near you, though somehow you knew that the animals which dwelled near and within the river would be less than satisfied at your intrusion. With a resolute sigh you begin to work again, slow and sure you go, taking care not to miss a single patch of grass.
“Grassmane!” You hear a voice call out, that voice that sweet melodious voice was like a drink of ice cold water re-invigorating you in the hot sun. You look over your shoulder, your dark green mane (as you name implies) getting in your eyes, quickly brushing it out of your eyes you focus onto the source of the voice.
You saw Fluttershy approaching you, walking meekly over the freshly cut grass, smiling ever so slightly to yourself at the sight of her you perk and meet her gaze.
“I brought you some lemonade, I thought you might appreciate it on a day like today” she said to you while handing you an ice cold glass of drink.
You only have time to nod in approval before you eagerly swig the almost clear nectar back, cooling you off slightly.
“Heh, thanks for that” You grin sheepishly somewhat wishing you had savoured the drink a little more.
“Oh, it’s no problem. It’s the least I can do for you” Fluttershy said smiling “Especially since you always work so hard to get my garden looking beautiful”
You smile at the compliment but brush of the compliment as was in your modest nature.
“It’s nothing, really. It was you who got it looking like this in the first place. I just maintain it”
You continued smiling at her for a few seconds before realising how creepy you must look , realising this you look around for something else to talk about to break the awkward silence. Unfortunately, nothing comes to mind; there is something about Fluttershy that just leaves your mind blank, even after 6 months of working for her you still find conversation hard. You begin to blush a little at the awkwardness of the moment. Sensing your embarrassment Fluttershy moves the conversation on for you.
“Well, I just came to give you your drink and make sure you’re ok since it’s so warm today” She said and began to turn to head back to her cottage “If you need anything else, you know where to find me” she smiled.
“Thanks Fluttershy, I’m almost finished out here” you replied.
As she walked away you couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed with yourself for such a lacklustre conversation.
“It’s been 6 months I’ve been helping Fluttershy with her garden, I should know how to carry a conversation on my now at least” you muttered, returning to work.
While you worked your mind wondered back to when you first arrived at Ponyville and began working in Ponies gardens. It had been 8 months prior that you’d arrived in the idyllic little town, searching for work, and of course because gardens were in abundance (unlike in Hoofington, where you came from) there was no shortage of jobs. It was ‘Miss Rarity’ (that you had had to refer to her by) that you came to work for Fluttershy. Rarity’s garden wasn’t exactly large or hard to deal with but she maintained that ‘A lady never gets her hoofs dirty’ but you were still grateful for the job none-the-less.
Your mind re-arrived at Fluttershy who had completely hidden herself from your sight when you had first met, but after a while of being around her she had eventually warmed up to you and got used to your presence.
Wheeling the little push mower back up to her cottage you highly looked forward to another glass of her lemonade and being in the little shy mares company, which you found to be more pleasant than any ice cold drink. With 3 light taps on the door she opens it up a crack before fully swinging it open and inviting you back inside. Lazily collapsing on the sofa, Fluttershy gave a little giggle at your mannerism, giving you a funny bursting feeling behind your ribs. Catching a scent of yourself you quickly jump back up. As if she read your mind Fluttershy spoke
“Oh my, you must be hot and sweaty after all of that hard work” she told you “Would you like to use my bath you get yourself cleaned up?”
Grinning once again you take her up on her offer. She walks past you and directs you down the hallway to the bathroom. She makes a side stop and a little airing cupboard and produces a light grey towel from it.
“You can use this to dry yourself when you’re done” she told you “If you need a hand, just tell me”
She quickly realised what she had just said and began blushing profusely, trying to cover up for her mistake.
“I- mean, I didn’t- Oh my” She stuttered.
You raise a hoof to silence her quickly before she can get even more worked up.
“It’s ok” You reassured her “I know what you meant”
She still looks mortified at what she said but seemed to calm down a little. Walking into the bathroom you give her one more smile before shutting the door behind you and turning on the taps to begin filling the bath, it didn’t take long at all.
Without a second thought you slipped into the bath allowing yourself to be enveloped by the relaxing warm, soapy water. It was pure bliss, washing away not only the dirt and sweat but also the worries and tensions you find to be building up whenever you’re in close proximity to Fluttershy. You took time to marvel at how relaxed Fluttershy had been around you in the recent weeks, it was almost as if the change happened over night.You had never understood these feeling and why she made you feel like this, part of you equated it just to wanting to please her and do a good job since she was paying you for it, another part of you insisted there was another, more deep seated reason behind the tension and the anxiety. Mulling over these thoughts in the warm water your mind drew to one conclusion, you pushed the thought to the back of your head.
Pulling yourself out of the warm water you begin towling yourself off and drying, stepping out of the bathroom you stick the towel into the washing basket and make your way back into the lounge. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen so you just made yourself comfortable; you figured it would be OK with her since she usually invited you to stay a while when you had finished your work, curling yourself up on the sofa and waiting for her to return you close your eyes and give yourself over to the plush softness, you were about to drift off into a sleep when a soft voice jolts you back into consciousness.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were asleep, please don’t be mad at me” Fluttershy squeaked apologetically.
Collecting your thoughts you quickly reassure her.
“No no, it’s OK honestly, I was just resting”
Fluttershy seems to accept your assurances and relaxes a little. Since the other sofa in the room was taken up by a trio of sleeping squirrels you budge up a little bit and let Fluttershy sit next to you, a comfortable silence falls over the both as you as you began to take in the sights and sounds of the small cottage, deciding it would be a good time to bite the bullet you pick up a conversation with her, catching sight of a small picture framed on her mantle piece you make conversation with her.
“Fluttershy, what’s that photo on your mantle piece of? I’ve never seen in before” you asked
Looking at you in slight surprise she gets up and walks over to the photo while speaking.
“It’s new actually, I had Twilight take it a few days ago, she said it was such a lovely moment that would make a nice picture” She said, you could practically hear the smile in her voice.
Taking it in her mouth he walks back over to you and places it gently in front of you, taking in the picture you can feel your muzzle hang open slightly. It was a photo of Fluttershy laying down on the grass with a number of small furry creatures scampering around and over her; one seemed to be using her tail as a duvet of sorts.
Looking back up at her you had only one thing on your mind.
“You look beautiful” you told her.
At this she blushed profusely.
“Oh, that’s...” she tries to do her best not to look at you in the eye “um- nice of you to say”
Despite her embarrassment you could see a small smile on her face.
You fall back into silence, completely at a loss on what to say. Do you carry on and build on what you said or try to move on and forget about the moment? It was a very tense few seconds before one of you decided to act. Fluttershy finally sat back down next to you, albeit slightly further away from you. You noticed this.
“Celestia dammit” You thought angrily “I’ve completely blown it”
You look back over at Fluttershy and see her gazing at you, this time when you met her eyes she didn’t look away. You begin to open your mouth when she interrupts you.
“You’re always so kind to me” she says in a small voice.
“It’s kind of my job” You reply matching her gaze and tone of voice “What kind of stallion would I be if I were nasty to you?”
“No- I mean more than the other stallions, you take time to make sure I’m OK and that I’m happy” She practically whispers to you.
Gazing into her beautiful teal eyes you can feel the breath being robbed from your chest, mouth slightly agape you begin moving closer to her, closing the distance between your muzzles.
She whispers “Thank you for everything” before moving her head closer.
Your lips brush, only for a brief second before locking lips, sending a jolt of electricity down your spine, and up into your brain.
You quickly pull away breaking the embrace, heart pounding and sweat forming on your forehead. Fluttershy looks at you worriedly.
“Did-I do something wrong” She whimpered “Didn’t you like it?
“No- No, it’s not that” You replied while getting up off of the sofa “I-I have to go, I’m sorry”
Backing up and opening the door you see tears forming in Fluttershys eyes
“Please don’t- I’m so sorry” she said
You couldn’t form a word as you back out of the door in to the sunlight and began running down the path, your mind swimming.
“ I can’t do this” You thought.
So, that's that. I wasn;t so sure about this story and where it went, I felt that it was moving a little too quickly for the first chapter and I almost have up, I slept on it and eventually decided where it can go from here.
If you liked it just leave me a comment and I'll continue, If you didn't, well I'll just get back to writing the story of mine that people do actually like. I'm also not so sure on the title, I feel like it doesn't do the story justice, if you have any better suggestion just let me know.
Cheers!
“Grassmane, Can I speak with you for a second?”
You turned to face the source of the voice and came face-to-face with a mare with a deep red mane and a pristine pearly white coat. Your voice caught in your throat as you tried to answer the newcomer. Nodding silently you turn to trot with her. Cantering just behind her you almost collide with her flank as she stops sharply. Not that it particularly bothered you that is. Looking back around at you, you try to gauge her intentions, not gaining much you decide to wait awkwardly for her to continue. She seems to steel herself before talking again.
“I’ve... I... I can’t help but notice that you’ve been... Looking at me a lot lately” The pearly mare said without the slightest trace of embarrassment, her tone wasn’t accusatory but it had a certain underlying harsh tone to it. Subtlety was never Pearl Jam’s strongpoint.
Blushing and trying to look away from her you wait for her to press on, with any luck she would make it quick and painless.
“Are you interested in me?” She asked pointlessly.
You decided to give her the straight answer and get it over with,
“Y-yes” You reply, looking abashed.
You look up at her to see if she had shrank back or advanced forward, she had done neither. Several tense seconds passed before she finally acted. She simply smiled at you...
***
You ran as fast as your legs could carry you, hardly daring to look back lest the sight of Fluttershy in tears forces you to return and comfort her, you couldn’t face her, be it now or next week, you just felt that facing her would cause more pain than you have already done unto her. Forcing yourself to exhaustion and beyond you continue to carry yourself down the dirt path that leads back to the main part of Ponyville. Kicking dirt up behind you, you almost stumble several times, you didn’t let that break your gait. Several images flashed through your mind.
“But I tho-“
“NO GRASSMANE, Whatever you thought was wrong so you can just forget about it”
You struggle to push these memories from your already beleaguered head, the more you fought to purge these thoughts, the more they came back to you.
“Please I lo-“
“DON’T YOU DARE!”
Tears now forming in your own eyes you run harder as if trying to outrun the past and the pain that you had suffered.
Finally, you begin to slow down, at first into a trot then walking, your legs threatening to give out seeing as you had just galloped half way through Ponyville. Taking the screams of protest that seemed to be emanating in your legs into account you search around for a bench to sit on, failing that, a soft patch of grass... or ground. You throw yourself down onto the grass ignoring the pain that lanced through your side as you did so. The sorrow was now fading and being replaced by anger directed at no pony in particular, you began to silently rage, rage at the ones who had hurt you in the past, those who had wronged you and those that had made you hurt. Not wanting to make a spectacle of yourself in the middle of a park you just resign to just laying there and grinding your hooves into the dirt.
Several minutes pass with little happening, save for your constant grumbling, you continue to lay in the soft grass as the warm afternoon sun beats down upon you whilst a gentle breeze caresses your coat and prevents the day from being too overwhelmingly warm, you think you fell asleep, too overwhelmed with the raw emotion of the past hour to maintain consciousness, or you were at least drifting off to sleep when your name gets called by a fairly familiar voice to your right.
“Grassmane, is that you sugarcube?”
You are immediately forced back to focus by the intrusion and turn your attention at whoever was approaching. Fighting to see through the sun rays assaulting your eyes you raise your hoof to cover your eyes, allowing respite from the suns blinding light. It was Applejack coming your way, dragging a cart behind her as she went; you guessed she was off to (or coming back from) the market as was the way on a midweek afternoon.
“Hey Applejack.” you called back, your voice hoarse from the tears. You hope she doesn’t notice you had been crying.
“How’s business?”
Applejack came up to you with a worried expression etched on her face.
“Ah wouldn’ know, Ah ain’t been yet.” She reply, studying your face. “Yah ok?” she went on in a gentler voice. She’d obviously seen the tear tracts on your face.
“Yeah, I’m fine thanks.” you lied. Trying to quickly shift the focus of the topic on to her you asked “How are you?”
“Ahm fine thanks, but ah can tell yah ain’t.” she said in that soft, almost motherly voice.
You wondered just how much you could afford to tell the country mare, you hadn’t really had much interaction with her since you had been in Ponyville, just enough to be on first name terms with her and her family. You could lie to her, but given the fact that she was the element of honesty you thought that this wouldn’t exactly be a wise thing to do. You equally feared that if you told her what you had just done you Fluttershy and the state that you had left her in she’d buck you into next week. Tense seconds passed her emerald eyes seemed to bore into your stormy grey ones. You finally reply to her question.
“It’s nothing really, nothing that won’t go away on its own” you lied. You prayed to Celestia that she would accept your story and think nothing more and move along. She stared at you again before smiling.
“Well, if you’re sure sugarcube, if ya need anythin’ jus’ lemme ok?” she said.
Breathing an inward sight of relief you force a smile onto you muzzle.
“Will do Applejack, thanks anyway.”
Applejack began to walk away from you, cart and all. You considered just going home and locking your house down until this had all blown over, you knew that was a foalish thing to wish for but it was really all you were capable of planning right now.
Just before you were clear of Applejack, a moment of madness (or desperation for help) gripped you and you shouted after her.
“I HURT FLUTTERSHY!” you yelled.
She stopped stone dead, so fast in fact that the doors on the cart flew open and scattered apples on the ground. She turned to face you, her face as unreadable as her body language.
‘Oh Celestia no’ You thought in fear.
The orange coated mare walked back up to you at a steady pace, this just worried you even more, believing she was just saving her energy to knock you over the horizon.
“Ya did what?” She asked slowly and carefully.
“Not physically I swear!” you sputtered before she could act. “I messed up with her and now she’s crying and it’s my fault!”
Applejack regarded you for a moment, possibly considering which body part would cause more pain if she bucked it.
‘Don’t think about it!’ You thought desperately.
“What happened?” She said slowly and evenly, perhaps she had decided to hear your story then hurt you?
You rushed to get the words out of your mouth.
“IwasatFluttershy’scottagedoinghergardenthenIcameinsidethenIwasshewasbeautifulandthenwekissedthenIranandit’sallmyfault” you rambled.
“Whoa, slow down will ya?” Applejack scolded. “Start from the beginning and I want the whole story!”
You took a deep breath and started from the beginning, choosing to leave out the flashbacks you had on your way down here. When you’d finished your story there was just silence, from both you and her.
At last Applejack decided to respond.
“Well damn, I’d better go and see if the poor little filly is alright after what sate you had left her in”
She shot you a nasty look as she said the last part.
“I’ll just get Big Macintosh to go to the market in my stead” she went on. “Big Machintosh!” she hollered.
You turned to face where she was looking at, from just beyond the hill of the dirt path the orange farm pony had travelled down Big Macintosh seem to materialize out of nowhere.
“Whoa” you muttered to yourself “Where the hay did he just come from”
Trembling slightly at the idea that Big Mac had been taking lessons in breaking physics from Pinkie Pie you turned back to AJ you was still glaring daggers at you.
“Me and you are going to be having a serious talk later on” she snapped.
You gulped, shuddering at when this ‘serious talk’ could involve, and wondering if she would use her hooves as punctuation.
“Ya’d better come by Sweet Apple later on so we can try and get this worked out” she said in a calmer tone. Her anger seemed to be abating by this point much to your relief.
You only stayed you watch AJ and her brother trade places in the harness of the wagon before making your way back to your house, very much hoping that you would not run into any more of Fluttershys’ friends.
***
Returning back to your home you lazily open the door and flop down on the sofa, unwilling to face the day ahead, it was already 3 o’clock but you could tell that the worst was yet to come. Applejack didn't give you a specific time to return to her but you’d decided to give her at least 3 hours, to both give her time to talk to Fluttershy and allow her to calm down a little more.
You heart almost wrenched in two every time you remembered the look you left on the beautiful mares face as you turned to run. You hope that Applejack would at least smooth this over a little, but you knew deep down that only you could return yours and Fluttershys relationship back to normalcy. It was something that you dreaded but welcomed at the same time, as odd as it sounded you wanted to explain what happened back there, but doing so would mean you had to acknowledge your past and re open old wounds again, but, for Fluttershys’ sake you were prepared to do so.
Kind of...
A/N: Well well well! It’s been a good few months hasn't it dear readers? I apologise prefusley for not submitting in a while but a lot has been going on lately for me, I won’t bore you with the details but it involved work, family and college.
I know AJ was a little OOC in this chapter but I’d always imagined Applejack to be like a big sister to Flutters therefore protective of her. But I guess that’s just a little bit of fanon I posses. Until next time folks, Bye bye! (Next time doesn’t mean another 4 months, it means sooner!)
