“Ah know she saw us Caramel.”
“There’s no way, she acted completely normal.”
“That’s because she’s too young to know what we did! It don’t mean she didn’t see us!”
Applejack paced back and forth as she panicked, her hat on the floor and her hair a mess from the actions of a couple of lovers. Caramel sat on the bed, his own face showing a bit of his own concern, even though he tried to hide it.
Both of the lovers were enjoying the perks of a physical relationship, foolishly with the door unlocked as they thought Apple Bloom would still be at school and Big Mac was out bucking apples. Granny Smith was sleeping downstairs and near deaf, so the duo weren’t overly concerned about having her overhear them. She had trouble hearing Applejack when they were in the same room, and Applejack was speaking at an elevated volume.
Once they finished getting down and dirty, both of them heard something just outside their bedroom door. Something like little hooves scurrying away followed by a small giggle.
Both ponies were confused at this, so Caramel went to investigate. Once he opened the door and peered into the hallway, he saw the door to Apple Bloom’s room close. Fearing the worst, Caramel went over to her room and knocked on the door. Once Apple Bloom told him to enter, he walked in to see her sitting on the floor with a smile on her face, unpacking the saddle-bag she used to carry books to and from school. Apparently Apple Bloom only had a half-day of school and just returned home. She wasn’t acting like she saw anything odd, but that didn’t diminish the concerns that Caramel and Applejack’s had. After all, they weren’t exactly like “church mice” when it came to fornicating.
They liked to be rough and loud, so it was completely legitimate concern for them that Apple Bloom at least overheard moaning and screaming from the bedroom.
Applejack was obviously the more nervous as the two as she walked up and down the length of the room. Caramel’s eyes were wide and his breathing was rapid and heavy. But he had to keep himself relatively composed for Applejack’s sake. It would be irresponsible to freely express his worries when his marefriend was uncharacteristically, but justifiably, scared. He loved her, and knew that he had to be strong for her when she was frightened.
But the thin emotional veil Caramel wore didn’t prevent him from feeling anxious about Apple Bloom either. Not only was the idea of somepony catching him and his marefriend “doing it” unbelievably embarrassing, but having the witness be a school-aged filly, whose idea of romance was nothing more than a quick peck on the cheek, made it even downright terrifying. He knew that seeing something as graphic as sex at such a young age could warp the young filly’s mind.
“This is not good. This is not good at all.” Applejack muttered before turning to her coltfriend and pointing an accusing hoof at him, “Caramel, this is all your fault!”
Caramel was initially taken aback by the sudden accusation, but eventually got defensive as well.
“Me!?! I’m sorry, how is this my fault exactly?”
“If ya locked the door Apple Bloom wouldn’t have been able to see us fornicatin’ and we wouldn’t even be havin’ this conversation.” Applejack hissed with a relatively low volume. She didn’t want anypony to hear her say such a word.
“She was supposed to be at school! Plus you have four legs, why couldn’t you lock it?” Caramel hissed.
“Ah…ah…” Applejack said, getting her face right up into Caramel’s before she suddenly weakened and her face changed from angry to upset. “Ah don’t know. Ah reckon we both screwed ourselves over.”
“Literally.” Caramel said with a small chuckle only to get an angry glare from Applejack. He immediately ceased his laughter and shrunk back in fright.
He may have been the stallion in the relationship, but Applejack wore the “saddle”. She was usually the more assertive of the two, not to mention the more powerful. But in this situation, Caramel knew he had to take control of the situation. Apple Bloom was Applejack’s sister, so it only made sense that she’d lose her typical composure and be more panicked than Caramel. Big sisters were supposed to look out for their little sister’s safety and be good role-models. How could she be a good role-model if her little sister saw Caramel and her doing it?
Applejack sighed and turned away from Caramel, her face still showed concern.
“What are we gonna do Caramel?”
“Maybe she didn’t see anything.”
“And what if she did?” Applejack looked back up at Caramel with pleading eyes.
“I don’t know. Guess we’ll have to just wait and find out.” Caramel said with a smile. Applejack just stared down at the ground. Caramel trotted over to Applejack and put his foreleg around her. The orange earth pony initially shivered when she felt the warm fur of her coltfriend, but immediately calmed down and rested her head onto Caramel’s side.
“Ah don’t know, ah mean…how can we tell?”
“Should be somewhat easy, I mean if you saw two ponies engaged in lovemaking wouldn’t you be curious or ask about it? If she doesn’t bring it up, and if she isn’t acting like she saw a ghost we should be clear.”
Applejack let out a long, drawn out sigh, “Okay fine.”
Caramel smiled and leaned in to kiss Applejack on the cheek, causing her mouth to curl up into a small smile. Caramel rubbed Applejack’s cheek with his hoof.
“That’s my girl.”
“Supper’s ready everypony!” Granny Smith shouted upstairs after making dinner. Caramel and Applejack, both clean and tidied up after their little romp, trotted towards the staircase when Apple Bloom darted past them like a little yellow blur.
“Oh boy, ah know the smell of Apple Fritters! Let me at ‘em!”
The little filly quickly made her way down the steps and disappeared into the kitchen.
Caramel turned to Applejack and smiled, “See? She’s acting fine.”
“Don’t mean she didn’t see us doin’ it, just means she smelled fritters. She loves fritters.”
“So much that she’d push us out of the way?”
“She once told me she wanted us ta have a day where we ate nothin’ but fritter. Wanted ta call it the Apple Family Fritter Feast.”
“Still, it’s a good indication that everything is fine.” Caramel chuckled as he gestured for Applejack to walk on, “Ladies first.”
Applejack laughed and took a step back before gesturing to Caramel, “Then by all means.”
Caramel rolled his eyes and started walking off as Applejack followed him, snickering the entire walk down the stairs. They made their way into the dining area to see Apple Bloom staring wide-eyed at the plate of apple fritters that was out on the table top. Her mouth was open and her tongue hung out as she drooled at the sight and smell of the delicious apple delicacy. Big Macintosh took his seat at the end of the table, gently placing a napkin on his lap and politely waiting to be served.
Applejack and Caramel both let out sighs of relief. So far, everything seemed to be all right in the Apple family household. Nopony was acting out of the ordinary...yet.
They both walked over to their chairs. Caramel pulled out Applejack’ chair so she could sit down only to have Applejack pull out his chair for him so he could sit down. Annoyed by his marefriend constantly mocking his manliness, Caramel begrudgingly took his seat. Applejack snickered at how much she was annoying Caramel before she finally took her's.
There was nothing she liked to do more than take Caramel’s polite attitude towards mares and use it against him. For instance, whenever they were walking towards a store she’d hold the door open for him and do everything in her power to keep him from doing the same gesture for her. This often required her to run ahead of him so she could get to the entrance before he could.
Actions like these seriously limited the ways Caramel could be a chivalrous gentlecolt for his marefriend.
The dinner of apple fritters, apple pie and apple juice went rather uneventfully. Granny Smith kept falling asleep every couple of minutes only to be woken up by either a gentle nudge from Applejack or an excitable full-body shake Apple Bloom. Big Mac, not surprisingly, ate his dinner in almost total silence, only taking part in the conversation if he was directly addressed by somepony else at the table. Even then, he responded with a simple “eeyup” and “nope” rather than a full-fledged sentence.
Caramel was leading most of the conversation while Applejack chimed in every now and then when she felt brave enough. She was still nervous about the whole Apple Bloom situation, but her little sister seemed to be acting fine. In fact, she seemed giddy. In fact, throughout the dinner she and Caramel did most of the talking.
She loved Caramel like a brother, and Caramel loved Apple Bloom like a little sister. Whenever he stopped by for dinner she would talk to him non-stop about his career as a competitive horse-shoe thrower. Not the best paying job, but he still enjoyed it. Plus he got decent notoriety in Appleoosa, where he was born and where he is known as the “horse-shoe king”.
That’s actually how he and Applejack first fell for each other. She attended one of Ponyville’s local horse-shoe competitions that he won. Later they ran into each other and talked a bit. They knew each other before as acquaintances, but after that post-victory meeting they started to hang out with each other more. At first they were friends, but it didn’t take long for them to become a couple.
Caramel was busy telling Apple Bloom about the latest competition he was in against another arrogant colt from Ponyville, and how he destroyed him.
“So he cried after y’all beat him?” Apple Bloom asked; her eyes wide with interest.
“Yep, he was so cock-sure he had it in the bag too that when I did beat him he ran off with tears in his eyes.” Caramel grabbed his glass of apple juice, “and he called me a wimp. Ha! I sure showed him who was wimpier.”
Caramel took a few swigs as Apple Bloom stared at him, beaming in joy. “Wow! Great story Caramel!”
Caramel took the glass away from his lips and gave the little filly a smile and wink.
Applejack giggled, “Ya know he still wasn’t exactly wrong when he called ya a wimp.”
Caramel looked at Applejack and shrugged, “Well I won, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Yer still a wimp.”
“Come on AJ.”
Applejack laughed a little more, always enjoying getting on Caramel’s nerves.
“Bet yer mah wimp Caramel.”
She gave Caramel a little peck on the cheek that made him blush.
Meanwhile Apple Bloom was shaking Granny Smith to wake up after yet another moment of age-induced narcolepsy.
“Granny Smith!”
“Zzzz…huh? What’s that?” Granny Smith asked confused before she noticed her grand-daughter looking up at her with a big smile on her face, “Oh, sorry there dearie ah was asleep. Now, what is it that ya were tryin’ ta say?”
“Y’all just missed a great story about Caramel’s last horse-shoe throwing competition.” Apple Bloom turned to Caramel and grinned, “Caramel, can y’all teach me how ta throw horse-shoes?”
Caramel chuckled and gave her a small nod. “Of course Apple Bloom, I’d be more than happy to.”
“Awesome!” Apple Bloom pumped her hoof in success. Just then, her eyes lit up with sudden realization.
“Hey! Maybe that’ll be mah special talent! What do you think Applejack? Do ya think horse-shoe tossin’ will be what ah’m good at?”
Applejack gave Apple Bloom an encouraging smile. “Ah think that sounds like a mighty fine thing ta try out.”
“Oh! All of this talkin’ about cutie marks reminds me of something I want ta show y’all. Wait here, ah’ll be right back!”
With that, Apple Bloom hopped off of her chair and sprinted up the stairs to her room. Both Caramel and Applejack were relieved that Apple Bloom seemed to be acting normal. She wasn’t skittish, she wasn’t withdrawn, and she wasn’t asking any questions that could be referring to the couple’s fling. She was just being her typical, cheery, excited, happy-go-lucky self.
After about a minute, which is all the time it took for Granny Smith too fall asleep again, Apple Bloom re-appeared with a stack of papers that had bright colors on them.
“Ah did some drawings today, hopin’ ta maybe get mah cutie mark as an artist.”
“Really, can we see some of them?” Caramel asked. Apple Bloom nodded and handed the colt the stack of crayon-drawn pictures. One was a very beautiful drawing of a nearby lake, everything from the ducks that floated on the water’s blue surface to the green lily-pads were drawn with such attention to detail it amazed Caramel.
“Wow, Apple Bloom this drawing's amazing. You did this?”
"Yep, sure as sugar." Apple Bloom beamed.
“Zzzz…huh? What’s amazin’? What's sure as sugar?” Granny Smith asked as she suddenly woke up.
“Mah pictures! Caramel, can ah show Granny Smith what ah drew real quick?”
Caramel gave Apple Bloom a kind nod and passed the stack of drawings over to her. She took them and eagerly started to show them to her grandmother. Granny Smith squinted behind her glasses to get a better view of the art Apple Bloom was showing her.
Apple Bloom pointed her hoof at the pond drawing, the one Caramel was impressed by, which was on top of the stack of drawings.
“This here’s the pond out near our Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse”
Granny Smith nodded with a smile on her face, showing her approval of the beautifully drawn picture. She then flipped to the next picture and Apple Bloom pointed at it.
“This one’s Sugarcube corner; and that right there is Pinkie Pie standin’ out front. See her wavin’ at us?”
Granny Smith flipped to the next picture and, once again, Apple Bloom pointed her hoof at it.
“This one here’s our Apple Orchard.”
“These pictures are mighty fine.” Granny Smith said as she patted Apple Bloom on the back. Big Mac held out his hoof to take the pictures that Granny Smith already looked at, namely the one of Sugarcube Corner and the pond. Apple Bloom gave them to the red stallion, who looked them over. Impressed with his little sister's work, Big Mac smiled and looked up into her excited eyes.
“Wow, Apple Bloom these are amazin'. Why didn’t y’all tell us that ya had a knack for drawin'?” he said.
There was a chuckle all around the table while Apple Bloom was blushing from the compliments everypony was giving her.
“Thanks, but those aren’t even mah best drawings. Wait until y’all see the last one, it came out especially good!”
Granny Smith smiled and flipped back the drawing of the orchard to the last picture. Apple Bloom passed the orchard picture to Big Mac while Granny Smith squinted and focused on the picture she held in her hooves. The other three she seemed to immediately love, but this one was different. She seemed confused as to what she was looking at.
“Um, what exactly is this here a picture of dearie?”
“It’s Caramel and Applejack!” Apple Bloom said excitedly.
Both Caramel and Applejack looked at each other and smiled.
“Well gosh Apple Bloom, that’s awful sweet of ya ta include us in yer drawings.” Applejack said with a smile.
“Oh ah see it now, yep Caramel and mah little Applejack together.” Granny Smith said with more certainty before her expression fell, “But…but what in the hay are they doin’?”
“They’s wrestling on the bed, like they were doin’ this afternoon!”
Caramel, who was drinking apple juice when Apple Bloom spoke, turned to his right and spat the liquid out, drenching Big Macintosh’s face and mane. The red stallion stared at Caramel, confused about his seemingly bizarre reaction.
Applejack’s jaw hung open, her eyes went wide and her heart began to race as she watched Granny Smith’s expression fall from confusion to complete astonishment, for she knew the horrible, disgusting, sensual truth behind the picture.
“Oh…mah…” she muttered.
But Apple Bloom was oblivious, she took the drawing out of Granny Smith’s hooves and gave it to Big Mac, who took it and looked it over. His otherwise serious and stoic expression changed. His own eyes seemed to bulge as he looked up at Applejack and Caramel. Caramel’s face was shamefully buried in his hooves while Applejack just looked down at her plate, her face red as the apples she bucked.
“Uh AJ…Caramel…is this…what ah think it is?” Big Mac asked, holding up the picture so the couple could see the “charming” image the little filly drew of them “wrestling”. Applejack and Caramel looked at the paper to see an extremely detailed and graphic drawing of them in bed with each other, making sweet, sweet love to each other.
With the exception of innocent little Apple Bloom, it was painfully obvious to everypony at the table what the duo were doing in the filly’s work of art. And if there was any doubt among the adults as to what was happening in the drawing, it was destroyed by a single speech bubble coming from the drawn image of Applejack with the words, “Oh Caramel! Buck me like an apple tree!” written in vibrant pink crayon with a young pony’s legibility, which only served to make the situation more awkward by further emphasizing the fact that the explicit image that belonged in a clopping store was drawn by a little blank-flank, country filly.
“Oh, heavens ta Betsey.” Applejack muttered to herself, pulling her hat down in shame.
“Well, what do you think?” Apple Bloom asked, once again showing her lack of knowledge about what she drew, and her apparent obliviousness to the awkward silence that hung over the table.
Caramel just stared as he tried to think of something to say, his dry throat and mortification making the process of speaking difficult. Eventually, he was able to speak.
“Well…erm…Apple Bloom, this drawing…is very…detailed...and…good.” Caramel said. And even in his shaky voice, it was clear that he was being sincere.
“Yeah,” Applejack muttered, “it’s…it’s almost like lookin’ at a photo.”
And it was true. For being drawn by a filly that was clueless of the circumstances, the image was surprisingly accurate. Even in their state of complete embarrassment, both Caramel and Applejack had to admit the drawing was very good.
“Thanks! And ah did it all from memory too! In fact; ah did all these pictures from memory. Ah have a very detailed mind.’”
Now it was Applejack’s turn to bury her face in her hooves out of shame for being responsible for corrupting her sister.
Caramel just let out a sigh, “This could not get any more awkward.”
Just then there was a small “pop” and flash at Apple Bloom’s flank. The filly looked down and her smile grew. She let out a gasp before screaming in joy, “OH MAH GOSH AH JUST GOT MAH CUTIE MARK!”
Caramel, Applejack, Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh all looked at Apple Bloom to see the image of a paintbrush and easel on her flank. She had just gotten her cutie mark as an artist, and it took her being a witness to Applejack and Caramel having sex, and then drawing out the scene perfectly to find her special talent. What that meant, nopony was sure, but it would definitely be quite the story to tell.
While Apple Bloom celebrated her achievement, Applejack shot a glare at a beet-red Caramel.
“Ah think it just got more awkward sugarcube.”
