History: A Romance Continued

Chapters

Prologue: Amber
1 - Metamorphic: Marble
2 - Metamorphic: Quartzite
4 - Igneous: Pumice
5 - Igneous: Obsidian
6 - Igneous: Granite
7 - Sedimentary: Flint
8 - Sedimentary: Shale
9 - Sedimentary: Sandstone
Epilogue: Pearl
3 - Metamorphic: Slate

Prologue: Amber

Halfway down the stairs, Fluttershy began fretting. "But...what can we say, Applejack? What can we do? And what'll everypony say about...about—?"

From the bottom step, Applejack looked back. On the landing, Fluttershy stood quivering and blushing so brightly, the glow shone clear through the pink mane covering three-quarters of her face. Still, AJ was quietly proud: she'd expected Fluttershy to fall apart like this afore they'd even got outta her bedroom.

"How?!" Fluttershy was asking now, her one partially visible eye rimmed with white, her luscious scent salty with panic. "How do we even start?! Do we say we're marefriends even though I'm not really a mare?! And do we...do we have to tell everypony about my...my...my—?!"

Bounding up to the landing, Applejack pressed her lips to Fluttershy's, stroked one hoof through the silken dream of her hair while running the other lightly along her neck, tense as Big Mac's after half a day of apple bucking. Fluttershy kept trying to talk for a second or two, but as AJ put more and more of the love and desire she felt for the beautiful pegasus into the kiss, the words lost their shape and turned to sweet little moans.

AJ pulled away just enough to say, "You're a mare if'n you say you're a mare, honeycomb, and whatever else goes on, you're still you. Now, settle down. Ev'rything's gonna be OK."

Fluttershy's chest rose and fell, her half-closed eyes the sexiest things Applejack had ever even imagined. "Please," she whispered, her wings brushing the wall behind her. "Tell me again why I'm your honeycomb."

Leaning closer, Applejack nuzzled the skin under Fluttershy's chin. "'Cause you're a thousand times sweeter'n sugar." She felt her own breath getting faster and harder. "And you got that perfect li'l stinger tucked away, don'tcha?"

A gasp, and Applejack heard the soft, wet crinkle of Fluttershy's lacinia folding open, the air suddenly thick with a musk that made AJ's nerves dance and sing like wind chimes in a summer storm. Pushing back a bit further, she let her gaze travel down Fluttershy's gorgeous curves from chest to waist to hips, and there, oh, there, jutting up between those shapely thighs now that her flaps had pulled themselves outta the way, yellow and pink and red and hard and glorious—

"No." The strangled note in Fluttershy's voice froze Applejack's lust faster'n spit in a blizzard. "Don't...don't look at it..."

"Honeycomb?" Applejack forced herself away from the beauty of Fluttershy's penis and found her friend had slumped cringing against the wall, her eyes clenched shut, tears leaking from the corners. "What...whaddid I do?"

Fluttershy shook her head so violently, AJ thought she might be having a fit. "Not you," she whimpered. "Me! You're being so nice to me and holding me and kissing me and saying such wonderful words to me! And I'm making you put my...my thing inside you, then making you look at it, too! Oh, I'm a terrible pony! A horrible freak and a monster!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Applejack caught the sides of Fluttershy's face and gently applied enough force to hold her still. "Whaddaya mean you're making me do all this? And stop saying them things about yourself, y'hear me?!"

Those blue-green eyes cracked open, more tears dropping out. "But—"

"No buts!" She touched her nose to Fluttershy's. "You wanna call yourself something, you call yourself a key. 'Cause that's what'cha are."

"A...a key?"

Applejack had to squeeze her own eyelids closed, the words like barbed wire in her throat. "I been locked up tight as a rusty gate my entire life is the thing. I mean, when we was in school, Rarity'd be mooning over some different colt ev'ry single week, but me, I just couldn't ever see it. Sure, some of 'em was good-looking, but I didn't..." Without looking, she found one of Fluttershy's hoofs and pressed it to her chest, the thud-thud-thud there picking up speed. "I didn't ever feel it here, didn't ever feel nothing here, not for no stallion and not for no mare, neither."

As AJ drew a ragged breath, Fluttershy's quiet voice asked, "Nothing?"

The simple sweetness of the sound made Applejack gasp, her lacinia sliding open, her vulva warm and wet and wanting. "My whole life, I been so closed up, I didn't have one single idea why ev'rypony got so hot and bothered about kissing and touching and...and loving and all. It didn't none of it make any sense, 'specially after...after what my poppa said just afore him and Mama got divorced."

"Divorced? I...I always thought— That is, aren't your parents... Dead?" The last word came out as quiet as the moon from behind a cloud on a late winter evening.

"They might as well be." The need in Applejack's middle became an ache, and eyes still shut, she inched forward till the tip of Fluttershy's penis touched her belly. Fluttershy gasped, and gritting her teeth, AJ flexed her hind legs, raised herself up so that the sweet, hard heat of the thing slid down to the edge of her open lacinia. "They weren't never friends, didn't have nothing keeping 'em together but raw, stupid lust. So when that ran out, they didn't have nothing at all!" Which was exactly when Fluttershy's penis slipped into the embrace of AJ's vulva, and Applejack plunged forward, impaled herself, moaned with joy at the glorious pressure filling her so completely.

Fluttershy gave a high-pitched and wordless cry that made Applejack's eyes shoot open, Fluttershy's right there in front of her and looking maybe four times their normal size. "Not like us!" Applejack hissed fiercely. "Not one damn thing like us!" Wrapping her front legs tighter around Fluttershy, she pressed her lips against her lover's and began pumping herself up and down over Fluttershy's perfect hardness.

"Yes!" Fluttershy whispered whenever Applejack had to pull back to gasp a breath, new waves of pleasure bursting through Applejack as Fluttershy's front hoofs dug into the muscles of her back. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Purest ecstasy built stronger and higher, Applejack's mind flooded with images of a little Appleteeny racing around inside her, flinging open the doors and windows of her heart and soul to let Fluttershy's light and warmth burst into rooms that had never had so much as a breath of fresh air stir through their mountains of dust. But the whirlwind swirling faster and deeper through her now as she lengthened her strokes, ramming herself down so hard, she coulda sworn she felt that penis slamming up between her tonsils, it made AJ open her mouth wider and wider against Fluttershy's muzzle, made her want to pull ev'ry square inch of that beautiful pegasus up into her insides.

Fluttershy was matching her strokes with thrusts of her own now, and AJ couldn't think, didn't want to think, just wanted to feel like this for the rest of her life. Except with each passing instant, the feeling grew better and better and better, every second brimming with bliss more incredible than the second before until one last massive push downward collided with Fluttershy pushing upward and—

Another fluting cry from Fluttershy, hot liquid explosions rocking Applejack's middle. Her whole body reacted the same way, and she buried her face in the crook of Fluttershy's neck, her brain whirling and sparking, her lips panting one word over and over into the sweet yellow velvet of her friend's skin.

***

"Love, love, love, love, love," Fluttershy heard as soon as the tremors of the most perfect orgasm of her life had trickled away enough for her to hear again.

Applejack lay sprawled against her, the tough farm pony soft as butter, her mane a cascade of golden corn silk from beneath her hat, her voice even huskier and more gorgeous than usual. "Love, love, love," she kept saying, the feeling of her lips moving against Fluttershy's neck so arousing, Fluttershy wondered if her penis might start puffing up again.

But no. Three times in the past hour or so, she'd made love to the pony of her dreams. Each time had been better than the time before, and now, utterly spent, Fluttershy sagged in joyful and complete relaxation against the stairwell wall, her little wiggler shrinking down and out of Applejack till her flap closed over it with a quiet rustle. "Oh, Applejack," she couldn't keep from muttering. "Could we just stay here like this for the rest of forever? Could...could we maybe do that, please?"

The hot gust of Applejack's sigh was followed by her lovely low chuckle. "Wouldn't mind a couple more minutes. Unless—" She began shifting over Fluttershy's chest. "I ain't hurting you, am I? Squishing you up along the wall like this?"

"Oh, no, not at all!" Fluttershy slid a hoof under Applejack's hat to stroke her mane and had to giggle when AJ settled herself back into the crook of Fluttershy's neck. "It's wonderful..."

And it was. So much more wonderful than anything that had ever happened to her. Even the nagging little voice in the corner of her mind, the one that told her—sometimes as quietly as her mother and sometimes as loudly as her father—just exactly how much of a monster she was, that little voice whispering right now that she should be ashamed of herself, Fluttershy found that she could ignore it so much more easily with Applejack lying solid and content between her legs. "If you're happy," she whispered into the crown of Applejack's hat, "then maybe I can believe I'm not...not...not that much of a monster after all..."

She could feel the muscles of Applejack's back tighten, and her friend rose to face her, those exquisite green eyes absolutely serious. "Then lemme tell you this, honeycomb." Applejack leaned forward and touched a kiss to Fluttershy's lips as soft and sweet as a butterfly brushing past. "In all my born days, I ain't never been happier'n I am right now."

Shivering, Fluttershy couldn't stop a squeak from escaping her throat, and for the first time that she could remember, that horrible little voice inside her went completely silent. Applejack gave her another quick kiss, then pushed away and jumped the last four steps to the living room carpet. "Now! We got plentya things we need to be doing, so best we get right to 'em, I reckon!"

"What?!" Sitting up, Fluttershy shivered again, this time from the sudden absence of Applejack's warmth. "But...what about sitting here forever?"

Applejack gave a grin over her shoulder. "Might be we'd get a little hungry. And I don't know about you, honeycomb, but I don't think neither your animals nor my apple trees'd much appreciate us never stirring outta here again."

It did seem a little silly now that she thought about it, but Applejack's grin made her want to keep being silly. "They could always come and visit us." Fluttershy pushed away from the wall and drifted down to the floor as well. "And whenever the trees stopped by, we could eat some of the apples off them." She nodded crisply. "Problems solved!"

"Well, now!" Applejack's eyes danced. "That's some powerful fine thinking there. In fact,—" She tossed her head so that her hat flew off, then she caught its brim in her teeth and flipped it right onto Fluttershy's head. "That there earns you the thinking cap. Corn-gratulations!"

Everything froze around Fluttershy, her eyes locking on Applejack. It wasn't just seeing her friend without her hat—she was sure she must've seen Applejack hatless somewhere sometime before this, though the only times she could remember right now were their two earlier sessions upstairs in Fluttershy's bed. But wearing the hat, the feel of it against her ears, the weight of it, the thought that Applejack would trust her with something as precious as...as—

A shadow of a frown touched Applejack's lips. "Something wrong, honeycomb?"

Her heart overflowing, all Fluttershy could say was, "I'm wearing your hat."

And the expression that came over Applejack—not just the warmth in her eyes or her strangely serious little smile, but the stance she took, her hoofs wide-set, her head held high and her chest puffed out so that she looked even more noble and beautiful than she usually did—Fluttershy couldn't look away, never wanted to look away. "That you are, darling," Applejack said, her voice soft and kind of rough. "That you are." She cleared her throat then and turned for the door. "Now, we got places to be and things to do, so if'n you're ready—"

"What?!" Fluttershy's knees went cold and quivery, but she swallowed and started again in what she hoped would be less panicked tones. "I mean, what do we...do we have to do?" A thought made her gasp. "I've kept you from your work, haven't I?! Oh, Applejack, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be so selfish, but everything's been so wonderful that I wasn't even thinking about—!"

Once again, Applejack's kiss stopped her words. "Settle down. Ain't nowhere and nothing I'm s'pposed to be doing right now other'n this right here with you." She nodded to the room behind Fluttershy, and Fluttershy turned, blinked, saw the meadow and the edge of the Everfree Forest through the broken remains of her front window. "Still, I reckon we better stop by Glazier Point's place and see if'n he can get that fixed up 'fore Dash and the weather team start bringing the April showers in."

For a moment, Fluttershy couldn't think why her window would be broken, but then the events of earlier in the day—before she and Applejack had gotten together—came rushing back to her: the date she'd forced Applejack to set up for her with Big MacIntosh; how horribly it had gone when she'd started to show and explain to him about her...her little wiggler; streaking home tear-blinded after he'd taken off, running away from her; crashing through the glass and lying on the floor till Applejack had rushed in to pick her up and show her who in the Apple family she was truly in love with....

"Honeycomb?" Applejack's voice shattered her thoughts, and she whirled, pressed her face into the side of the earth pony's neck, breathed deeply the beautiful scents of loam and clean grass that always lingered there. "You OK?"

Fluttershy swallowed. "Have I said how sorry I am yet? About Big MacIntosh and you and me and...and everything I made you do?" She pulled back, dared to dart her gaze up. "I was such a fool, Applejack."

Applejack's eyes went half-lidded, and with a sideways smile, she stretched over to plant another little kiss on Fluttershy's lips. "You just wait. The foolish things I reckon I'm gonna do the rest of our lives together, you're gonna forget all about whatever we done today."

Hearing the rest of our lives together made Fluttershy's jaw drop, and it dropped even further when Applejack started for the door again and said, "Besides, we still gotta tell our friends 'bout us, and that's gonna take just a little finesse."

The seesaw of Fluttershy's feelings crashed down hard on the panicky side. "Tell them?! Tell them what?! Tell them how?! Tell them—?!"

"Fluttershy?" Applejack's eyes when she turned back held an infinite patience, the sort of patience Fluttershy knew very well from her work with hurt, scared animals. "Do you love me?"

"Always!" She wanted to sink into the carpet and pull it over her like a blanket. "Please don't think I would ever—!"

"And do you trust me?"

Again, everything froze around Fluttershy, that horrible voice back in her head hissing that she should just run upstairs right now before she got hurt or hurt somepony else. Because she was stupid and worthless and—

No! she yelled silently at the voice. Applejack's too smart a pony to be wasting her time on something worthless! And look! I'm wearing Applejack's hat, aren't I?! Aren't I?! Why would Applejack let somepony worthless wear her hat?!

If the voice was shocked at Fluttershy's response—and she guessed it was, the way it vanished from her thoughts again—Fluttershy was even more shocked. Panting like she'd run all the way from Sweet Apple Acres, she forced her hoofs to move her toward Applejack and told her the truth: "I trust you in every single way I can. I just... Sometimes, you might have to remind me when I fall down crying—maybe you've noticed I do that a lot? But you quietly and gently whisper, 'Fluttershy, do you trust me?' And I'll remember that I do, and..." She took a breath so deep, she felt it all the way out to the tips of her wings. "And ev'rything will be OK."

Applejack nuzzled her neck. "That's my gal." She grabbed the doorknob in her teeth and pulled the door open, as gorgeous and blue a spring afternoon outside as Fluttershy thought she'd ever seen. Applejack gestured for Fluttershy to step through, and with another breath, Fluttershy did, the door clicking shut behind her and Applejack sliding into step beside her. "'Cause, yeah, there's things the others need to know about us, but there's things that just plain ain't any of their business, too. Follow my lead, and we'll—"

She stopped speaking all of a sudden; Fluttershy looked over in alarm and had to blink at the big, goofy grin on Applejack's face. "Seeing you in my hat," she said. "Sweet Mother of Mercy, I don't know how my heart ain't bursting outta my chest right here and right now."

Fluttershy's teeter-totter emotions whirled again, joy blooming like wildflowers inside her, and she felt a song coming on.

"Hello, my friend the butterfly!"

she sang, her only accompaniment the rustle of the trees and the chatter of the brook.

"Can you guess what's on my mind?
I'll ask the breeze that's dancing by:
Can you guess what's on my mind?
The sun and all the sweet blue sky,
Can you guess what's on my mind?
These thoughts I've never thought before
And feelings never felt:
It's, oh, so fine."

The music kicked in then, and Fluttershy couldn't help putting a strut in her step as she circled Applejack, the earth pony staring around with her eyes wide and her ears down.

"Squirrels there jumping tree to tree,"

Fluttershy went on,

"Take a guess what's on my mind!
Stream all laughing, wild and free,
Take a guess what's on my mind!
Daisies grinning back at me,
Take a guess what's on my mind!
These thoughts I've never thought before
And feelings never felt:
It's, oh, so fine."

She burst into the sky, let the music raise her more than she was sure her wings ever could.

"Bunnies playing all day long,
Shall I say what's on my mind?
Beavers working fast and strong,
Shall I say what's on my mind?
My heart alive with joyful song:
That's what's on my mind!
And my ears perk and my eyes shine
And the whole world is, oh, so fine!"

Lifting her voice as the music crescendoed, she arched her spine to thrust her chest at the sky, spread her front legs, and threw her head back.

"Royal sisters, day and night,
You know what's on my mind!
And love, your niece, so warm and bright,
She knows what's on my mind!
My life at last is going right!
At last, I know my mind,
Know thoughts I never thought before
And feelings never felt!"

The music hit a chord and stopped as something moved between her ears, Applejack's hat slipping off. Without a thought, she spun into an outside loop she'd never even imagined herself doing, darted for the ground, and slid up next to the gaping Applejack just in time for the hat to plop right down into place again. Smiling at her perfect, glorious, beautiful marefriend, she whispered the final

"And it's, oh, so fine,"

then leaned forward to touch her lips to Applejack's cheek.

A moment of nothing but the wind playing in the trees, a few birds chirping, the stream splashing away under the bridge that led to town, and self-consciousness suddenly crashed down over her. "Goodness," she murmured, letting her mane fall forward to cover her blushes. "I...I think maybe your hat's gone to my head."

Applejack pulled her mouth closed with a snap Fluttershy could hear. "That...that was...that was—" Bringing up a hoof, she brushed Fluttershy's mane away and gently kissed her. "Have I mentioned how you're the most amazing, gorgeous, fantastic pony that's ever lived anywhere? Have I mentioned that to you yet?"

Giggling, Fluttershy shook her head.

"Well, you are." Applejack turned for the bridge. "Now, c'mon! There's a couple other folks I wanna tell that to!"

Author's Note

In light of the recent little note from the moderators:

The musical number here is no longer "Feeling Good," written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for their 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd. I will admit, however, that the musical number is very much inspired by that song, especially Nina Simone's version from her 1965 album I Put a Spell on You.

Just as a warning, I've got one more musical number planned for the story, but not till the grand finale in chapter 10. Still, I do reserve the right to insert a musical number into any chapter at the drop of a hat, so again, please be aware.

Mike

1 - Metamorphic: Marble

Crossing the bridge with the bright blue spring afternoon overhead, Fluttershy brimmed with happiness to hear Applejack humming the song beside her. But with each step they took toward Ponyville, those good feelings got shakier and shakier. "Umm, so," she finally said as they came around the little hill into sight of the buildings at the edge of town. "What are we...what are we actually going to do?"

"Fair question." Applejack nodded. "First, we'll stop in at Sugar Cube Corner to tell—"

"Pinkie Pie??" Fluttershy almost froze, her ears folding at the imagined shouts of Pinkie leaping from rooftop to rooftop to let all of Equestria know that Applejack and Fluttershy were now marefriends. "But won't she—! I mean, shouldn't we tell Rarity first? She'll be so hurt if we don't! Oh, she'll say that she isn't, but you know how sensitive she is! Or Rainbow Dash! She's my oldest friend, after all, and might feel—!"

The sweet, firm press of Applejack's lips to hers stopped her words, but her doubts kept gibbering away: Kissing?? In public?? What if somepony saw?? "Now, honeycomb," she barely heard Applejack saying. "'Cause you told me to, I'm gonna ask nice and quiet if you trust me."

"I do!" Scrunching her eyes closed, Fluttershy made herself whisper it over and over again—"I do! I do! I do!"—till she could hear it more clearly than that horrible little voice in her head. Peeking out from behind her bangs, she swallowed to see the concern on Applejack's face. "I do trust you," she said as loudly as she could manage. "Really and truly, Applejack, I do. But I'm just so...so..."

Which was when Fluttershy realized that she didn't know what she was feeling. She wasn't scared or nervous, she knew, because, well, how could she possibly be either of those things when she was wearing Applejack's hat?

And yet... Her stomach in knots, all four knees trembling, she hung her head and murmured, "I'm just so me...."

Applejack's low chuckle stroked her ears. "Are you now?" The gentlest, softest little kiss caressed the side of her neck. "Well, just so happens that that's the exact same pony I'm crazy in love with."

The clench in her middle loosened so suddenly, Fluttershy was sure she heard a snap, and she found she could breathe deeply again. Straightening, she let her gaze rest on Applejack's happy face and said, "Thank you. I love you, too, in case I haven't said it lately."

"Honestly, honeycomb? I hear it ev'ry time you gimme that sweet, sweet look with them purty blue-green eyes." Applejack turned back toward town. "Now! You ready?"

"Yes, I am!" Fluttershy had never meant it more in her life; she stood and trotted to Applejack's side.

Applejack nodded, and they set off once more. "So, like I was saying: Pinkie, then Rarity, then the glass shop to get 'em out here fixing your window, then Rainbow Dash, then Twilight."

Fluttershy nodded, too, and feeling Applejack's hat shift between her ears, she opened her mouth to ask if maybe Applejack might want to take it back so—

So nopony'll know about the two of you, you mean? that awful voice muttered, and Fluttershy pulled her mouth closed, determined that she would never say such a terrible thing. Why wouldn't she want ponies to know she and Applejack were in love? It was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her in her entire life!

Wasn't it?

A picture spun into her head: Applejack with a whole crowd of ponies around her, all of them laughing and slapping her on the back. You know how ponies are always looking at her? that voice whispered. Guess what that means?

And suddenly Fluttershy was standing next to Applejack, all the ponies in the crowd staring at her, too. Even just imagining it, she could feel the sweat start trickling down the backs of her knees, and the sweat went cold when the voice continued: You thought it was bad getting those medals from the princess or being in the play? Imagine all the times Applejack gets awards. And you'll have to be right there—

"Honeycomb?"

Startled, Fluttershy blinked and winced. Looking around, she saw they'd not only reached the town square, they'd crossed it and were standing in front of Sugar Cube Corner, Applejack's muzzle curled in that little crooked smile of hers. "Looked like you was thinking something powerful, so I reckoned I wouldn't disturb you."

"Oh, no." Fluttershy felt herself blushing, and trying to stop, as always, just made her face heat up all the more. "I...I'm not very good at thinking, so please disturb me any time I'm doing it."

Applejack cocked her head. "Not very good at thinking?"

Unsure how to explain, Fluttershy shrugged, her gaze focused on the ground. "A lot of the time, even when I know something, if I start thinking about it, it gets all..." She held a hoof up and swished it around in the air. "All tangled up and confusing, and I start not being sure if I really know it or if I'm just imagining that I know it." She swallowed. "I don't like it when that happens."

Everything got so quiet in front of her, Fluttershy snapped her head up in a panic, afraid that Applejack had run away. She was there, though she had a look on her face like she'd bitten into an apple and found half a worm. "You having second thoughts 'bout us?" she asked quietly.

"No!" Fluttershy jumped forward, rubbed her cheek against Applejack's neck. "Never! I wouldn't!" She pulled away again so she could meet her eyes. "It's...it's just my brain, not me!"

For a long, horrible second, Applejack didn't do anything but blink. Then she smiled and patted the hat Fluttershy was wearing. "Well, remember you got the thinking cap on now. Might be that'll help you and your brain."

"It does!" Fluttershy nodded so hard, she had to stop, afraid the hat might fly off. "It already has, I mean!"

"Glad to hear it." Applejack touched Fluttershy's face, and Fluttershy closed her eyes, leaned into the strength she felt there. "Now, pull yourself in a big breath, then blow it all the way out, OK?"

With another nod, Fluttershy inhaled and exhaled.

"That's my gal." Opening her eyes, she saw Applejack take a breath of her own. "Time for step one, then." She turned, pushed open the door, and stepped into Sugar Cube Corner, Fluttershy making herself follow.

Midafternoon, the shop was empty of customers, Pinkie pulling some metal baking trays from the display behind the counter. "Hi, guys!" she said, tossing the trays to balance across her back and turning for the doors into the kitchen. "I'll be with you in eighteen and a half shakes of a pony's tail!"

Nosing the door open, she stopped, her eyes blowing up like balloons, a shiver rattling her violently from ears to tail. The trays clattered everywhere, and Pinkie leaped spinning over the counter, her grin so big and wide, Fluttershy was afraid it might go all the way around her head and unzip it.

Bracing herself for Pinkie to start shrieking the news about her and Applejack at the top of her lungs, Fluttershy winced down nearly flat to the floor. But then Applejack was there, right in front of Pinkie and pressing a hoof over Pinkie's mouth. "Yep," she said. "And since me and Fluttershy are together now, we was hoping you could maybe squeeze in a party for us tonight."

Another wave passed over Pinkie, and she grabbed Applejack's hoof with hers. "Oh my gosh! A party! Of course!" She sort of flashed, and Fluttershy found herself caught with Applejack in one of Pinkie's bone-crushing hugs. "To celebrate the greatest day ever!"

The room spun, and Fluttershy blinked to see that she was now seated at one of Sugar Cube Corner's booths, Applejack beside her, Pinkie Pie standing on the table. "I always worried you two would never find your special someponies 'cause Fluttershy's always so—" Pinkie collapsed into a heap, her eyes gigantic and wavering behind the bubble gum bramble of her hair, and made a little mewing noise just exactly like a lost kitten. "And Applejack's always so—" She leaped to her hoofs again, her head held high, and snorted through her nostrils the way an angry bull would.

"Hey!" Applejack said.

"But now?" The world blurred once more, and they were all back by the counter where they'd started, Pinkie bouncing up and down in front of them. "Now you've got each other, and that's two worries gone just like that!" She did something with her front hoofs that made a popping sound, confetti and little streamers shooting across the room. "And I'm gonna give you the bestest party that's ever parted a tee! We'll have the whole town here!"

All at once, her eyes went shimmery, and her mane deflated, cascading down the sides of her head like a pink avalanche. "But how'm I gonna get ev'rything done in time for it to be tonight?? The invitations and the cakes and the pies and the sandwiches and the—"

"Invitations?" Applejack stepped forward again and put a front leg around Pinkie's shoulders. "Me and Fluttershy'll take care of that. And let's just make it the six of us, OK?" She gave one of her big grins. "We can save inviting the whole town till the wedding, I reckon."

Pinkie's mane exploded into its usual puffy jumble, and Fluttershy gasped as Pinkie caught her and Applejack in another massive hug with a squeal that made Fluttershy's ears fold. "The wedding! Yes! I'll start planning it tomorrow! But tonight with just us'll be the best party till then!" She stepped backwards, her lower lip trembling, her hoofs pressed to her chest. "'Cause I was kinda the teensiest-tiniest bit sad looking at you two and thinking about how you deserved to be the happiest ponies always and forever. And now you will be..."

The tiniest moment of stillness, then Pinkie was whirling. "So no more sad! Which is why we'll need banners! Big colorful ones that say, 'Hooray, Appleshy!'" She spun back. "Or is it 'Flutterjack'?" Her face crumpled. "I don't know which to use, and I like them both!"

Fluttershy blinked. "Ummm, maybe make...two banners?"

"Genius!" Another rush of pink surrounded her, and Fluttershy was suddenly standing outside Sugar Cube Corner, Applejack beside her, Pinkie's voice ringing out: "You guys get the others invited, and I'll see you all here at seven o'clock!" And when Fluttershy looked back, all she saw was the bakery's door swinging shut with a bang.

"And that," Applejack said after a few seconds of quiet, "is why we tell Pinkie first. So she'll stay happy and busy and let us take care of getting our news out ourselves to whoever we want and whenever we want."

Turning to her smiling friend, Fluttershy nodded, took off the hat, and gently placed it on Applejack's head. "And that," she said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek, "is why you get the thinking cap now."

Applejack blushed, something Fluttershy had never even imagined she would see, and it was just so incredibly cute, she had to clap her hoofs and give a little squeak.

"All right, all right." Applejack straightened her hat and started south. "Reckon Rarity's next."

Falling into step, Fluttershy couldn't help asking, "But how did you know how to—? I mean, Pinkie's a wonderful friend, but she's always so...I could never...I've never been able to..." She didn't want to say 'handle her' because it didn't sound very nice and wasn't what she really meant, but she suddenly couldn't think of any other way to put it.

"Oh, I hear you." Applejack blew out a breath. "Pinkie's the second friend I ever made who weren't related to me—you know me and Rarity were the last blank flanks in our class, right? 'Fore I run off to Manehattan to try my hoof at being an Orange like my Ma? Well, after Dash's Rainboom brung me back here, weren't too much later Pinkie first showed up, and me and her and Rarity, we just kinda hit it off in a weird way. Course, with Pinkie involved, couldn't be any way other'n weird, but still..."

Trailing off, Applejack shook her head, and Fluttershy realized she'd been holding her breath. She'd always wondered about her friends' lives before she'd moved to Ponyville, but she'd never wanted to bother them by asking. "It was fate," she whispered with a thrilling little chill.

"Y'know?" Applejack's eyes seemed to Fluttershy to go out of focus. "Used to be, I woulda guv you a big, round snort, talking that way. I woulda said fate was hooey, that the princesses keep the world running so we can go about our business on our own, and that there ain't nothing decided in a pony's life till she decides it for herself. But then—" She turned, her gaze focusing so sharply, Fluttershy could almost feel it brush through her bangs. "Then we all turned out to be perfect fits for the Elements of Harmony. And it turned out we all got our cutie marks at the exact same time 'cause of Dash's Rainboom. And when you showed me your true self, it turned out I'd been waiting for nopony but you my whole life."

Fluttershy's heart sped up, Applejack's eyes shining. "So," she finished with a sniff. "Don't reckon I'll be bad-mouthing fate too much anymore."

Not caring who might see, Fluttershy pressed herself to Applejack's side and spread a wing over her marefriend's back. Applejack sniffed again and tucked her head to Fluttershy's neck, and they continued walking along that way, touching as much of each other as they could manage, till they came around the corner to see Carousel Boutique.

"Consarn it!" Applejack said suddenly, pulling away and looking back over her shoulder. "I was gonna pick up a cake for when I apologize to Rarity."

"Oh! That's right!" Fluttershy remembered Applejack mentioning something while they were basking together in their very first afterglow earlier today. "You two had an argument?"

"Yep." Applejack stepped up to the boutique's door. "Oh, well. Reckon the promise of a homemade apple pie's better'n just about anything else in this world anyway..." She grinned over her shoulder. "Ain't like I had other things on my mind today, after all, is it?"

That made Fluttershy's face heat up again, then Applejack was pushing the door open. "Don't get yourself in a tizzy, Rarity! It ain't customers! It's just me and Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy followed her into the open space of Rarity's showroom, the unicorn turning from her workbench with a broad smile. "I shall get myself into a tizzy if I so desire, Applejack, and nothing you can say will stop me!" She gave a little giggle, and Fluttershy couldn't help joining in; when Rarity was in a good mood, the whole day always seemed to get brighter. "But do come in!" She cocked her head. "You're both looking chipper. All's well, I suppose?"

"Sugar cube?" Applejack put a hoof to her chest. "I recollect being a mite outta sorts last time you let me bend your ear, so lemme tell you right up front that I don't rightly know how anything could be any better'n it is right here and right now."

"Indeed?" Rarity blinked, and Fluttershy could almost hear her friend's mind working: other than Twilight Sparkle, Rarity was about the smartest pony Fluttershy had ever met. "I'm glad to hear it, of course, but what could possibly have changed since last we—" She gasped, her eyes widening. "Do you mean to say that your affair of the heart has—?"

"Has it ever!" Applejack grinned. "But y'know what I was saying about love and lust never going together, and how the pony I was lusting after didn't feel nothing for me?" She turned that grin on Fluttershy, and Fluttershy wanted to start singing again. "Turns out I was wrong on both counts."

The air seemed to hum, and from the way Rarity's eyes opened even wider, Fluttershy guessed she'd put the pieces together. The whole room flashed purple, and with a speed Fluttershy didn't think even Pinkie Pie could've matched, the 'closed' sign was dangling from the outside of Rarity's slamming front door, Rarity pushing the two of them into her sitting room and onto cushions around her table, her eyes blazing with glee. "Tell me everything!" she demanded.

***

Tea wasn't a drink Applejack much cared for. A good cuppa coffee or a mug of hot chocolate, something she could feel sliding down her throat and perking up her middle, that was always welcome afore a morning's work. But tea mostly just hit her as sour hot water.

Sitting in Rarity's parlor that afternoon, though, she gladly sucked down cup after cup of the stuff just to watch the way Fluttershy glowed under Rarity's careful attentions. Applejack could only marvel at how Rarity had managed to pull the whole story outta Fluttershy so far—well, not all the whole story, of course—and she marveled even more that Fluttershy had got through almost the entire thing without telling a single lie. Sure, not a word had passed her pretty lips about the luscious little wiggler she had tucked away inside her lacinia, but—

"And then?" Rarity was asking, and Applejack tensed, not at all sure how Fluttershy would handle this part of the story.

Fluttershy cringed, her gaze on her cup, and Applejack opened her mouth to jump in even though she had no idea what she was gonna say. Good thing Fluttershy took a breath and went on: "I was actually there, standing in the parlor with Big Macintosh, and—" She looked up, her eyes wavering. "I felt like such a fool! I mean, I didn't know him at all, hadn't ever said more than maybe a dozen words to him, had no idea who he was as a pony, or anything! I turned, and I...I ran, I flew, I just...just...just..."

Her voice trailed off, and Applejack almost shouted the honest truth: it was Mac who'd run from Fluttershy, not her from him! Instead, she lay a hoof over Fluttershy's while Rarity let out a gasp. "Oh, Fluttershy! You poor dear!"

"I...I kind of—" Fluttershy was looking at Rarity, but she set her other hoof gently over Applejack's. "I got kind of upset and wasn't really paying attention to where I was going and crashed a little bit through my living room window and—"

"What??" Rarity had leaped to her hoofs.

"It's all right." Applejack nodded toward the far wall. "We'll be stopping at Glazier Point's after we leave here."

Rarity cleared her throat loudly. "I was not concerned about the window!"

Fluttershy giggled, a sound that made Applejack start running the spell through her head to keep her lacinia from popping open. "It was all right, though. Because as soon as I looked up, there was Applejack, rushing in to save me. And the instant I saw her, I...I knew." Fluttershy swallowed, and the emotion in her voice made Applejack's throat get thick, too. "I knew that all the things I thought I loved about Macintosh were really things I loved about Applejack, and that...and that I was the one who'd broken Applejack's heart..."

At which point, well, there was nothing under Celestia's bright blue sky that coulda stopped Applejack from leaning in to kiss Fluttershy. And when Fluttershy turned to meet her lips, it took ev'ry bit of self-control Applejack had ever learned to keep her from easing Fluttershy over onto Rarity's deep plush carpeting to tease that gorgeous penis of hers out into the open.

Still, it took her nearly a minute to pull away from her perfect and glorious marefriend. "So, uhh," she said, not quite sure she remembered what they'd been talking about. "Just wanted to stop by and let'cha know." She turned to Rarity, the unicorn with stars literally twinkling in her eyes. "And tell you you was right and I was wrong."

"Never mind that!" Rarity leaped across the table and wrapped the two of them in a hug that woulda made Pinkie Pie proud. "I refuse to believe that there has ever been a happier moment in Equestrian history than this moment right now! That you two should have found each other when we were all so worried you would never find anypony—!"

"Hey, now!" It took some doing, but Applejack wrestled herself free enough from Rarity's grip so she could glare at her. "Just how much talking d'you all do about the private lives of your friends when they ain't around??"

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. "No more than the usual amount, I assure you." She slid to the floor and padded around to her own pillow on the other side of the table. "Can I assume that festivities are being planned?"

"Oh, yes." The blush still hovering around Fluttershy's cheeks made AJ seriously consider giving up this whole party idea so she could head home with her marefriend and—

Home. To Sweet Apple Acres. To Apple Bloom and Granny Smith and...and Big Macintosh. And weren't that gonna prove to be an interesting set of conversations?

But Fluttershy was still speaking: "Seven o'clock tonight at Sugar Cube Corner. I know it's sudden, but we're very much hoping you'll be able to come."

"Darling?" Rarity had a fierce and solemn look to her that Applejack didn't think she'd ever seen. "The third coming of Discord could not keep me from attending." Her gaze moved to Applejack's, and the sudden waver there flashed AJ back to Miss Organdy's class so many years ago, the way she'd marched her little blank flank over to the couple jerkwads taunting the prissy but equally blank white unicorn filly and told 'em if they couldn't find something else to do, she'd be happy to buck a few suggestions into their heads. "I could not be happier for the both of you," Rarity murmured, and before Applejack even knew what she was doing, she found herself leaping up to throw her front legs around her friend's neck.

Sniffing, AJ pushed away quick as she could. "Now, me and Fluttershy better get on outta here 'fore this place ends up fetlock deep in eyeball drippings." She tugged at her hat and turned away, chanced a grin over her shoulder—fast so maybe she wouldn't get all weepy again. "Seven o'clock, now, y'hear?"

"Oh, I hear." Rarity's grin looked equally shaky. "You'd better believe that I hear."

Outside, Applejack managed to get some air into her lungs. "It's kind of a lot all at once, isn't it?" she heard Fluttershy ask beside her.

Nodding, she slid over to brush her side against the tip of Fluttershy's wing. "Worth ev'ry bit of it, though."

They stood that way for a moment, then Applejack figured her knees were steady enough to carry her. "Right! Window next!"

Glazier Point's glass shop was just down the road from Rarity's, and Applejack told him what was what. "No problem, Applejack," the silver-gray earth pony said, holding out a hoof. "I'll get the measurements this afternoon and have it ready to install tomorrow or the next day."

Applejack touched the brim of her hat, then touched his hoof. "Much obliged. And send the bill to the Acres, will ya? Whole thing was my fault, I reckon."

That got a little gasp from Fluttershy, peering in through the shop's doorway, and when Applejack joined her on the street, the two of them heading for the south side of town and Rainbow's place, she knew why Fluttershy was being so quiet. "No arguments, now, honeycomb. If'n I hadn't been so bone-headed as to let you go in to see Big Mac on your own, you never woulda got so upset and never woulda crashed through that window in the first place. So I'll be paying for it, and that's that."

"Oh. Yes, I..." Fluttershy had a way of swallowing that Applejack could practically hear. "Thank you, of course, for saying that, and I guess it's kind of true, but that...that wasn't...I wasn't...wasn't going to argue about anything. If...if that's OK with you, I mean."

Looking over, Applejack saw that same strange shivery tension hovering around her that she'd had when talking about how she wasn't good at thinking. Maybe a little humor to lighten her up? "Well, if'n you need the thinking cap back, you just lemme know."

She did giggle, and that loosened the little clench in Applejack's stomach. "Oh, it's just—" Fluttershy turned, that beautiful, serious look on her face. "You trotted right into Mr. Glazier's shop and...and told him what you wanted! You didn't spend three days trying to work out the words or write it down and practice it for a week to make sure you didn't accidentally say something that might offend him or...or anything like that!" Her already wide eyes got even wider. "It was amazing!"

The sheer adoration pouring out of her caught Applejack right in the chest, and she felt like she could walk straight up to Rainbow's front door and knock all by herself. Sidling over to rub her shoulder against Fluttershy's, she said, "Stick with me, honeycomb. You ain't seen nothing yet."

2 - Metamorphic: Quartzite

Their last two stops that afternoon weren't near as sappy, and a good thing, too. Applejack didn't think she could take much more of the whole tight throats and shimmering eyes business.

Sure, things got a mite sniffly in the shadow of Rainbow's cloud house when the tough little pegasus wrapped Fluttershy in a giant hug. But then Rainbow said, "AJ's the second best pony you're ever gonna meet, Shy, so you treat her right." And while Applejack was laughing, Dash swung around and bashed her hard in the shoulder, her violet eyes solid and serious. "And I know you're gonna be good to Fluttershy, AJ. 'Cause if you ever aren't..."

At the library, Twilight just grinned. "Well! Didn't see that coming!" She invited them in since it was getting on toward seven o'clock, so Applejack and Fluttershy sat with her and Spike and traded off telling the story of how they'd gotten together—the slightly edited version again—wrapping it up just in time to head up the street to Sugar Cube Corner.

The party itself was pretty much everything Applejack had hoped and expected it would be: the six of 'em laughing and dancing, eating and drinking and carrying on till way after dark. But they did get one last bout of the chokes just as the whole shindig was winding down when Pinkie raised her cup of punch and said, "Now! We all gotta toast the happy couple!"

Afterwards, though, strolling with Fluttershy along the road to Sweet Apple Acres under a spring night sky all black velvet and soft silver specks, Applejack found she couldn't remember a single word anypony'd actually said. She could see 'em, the dearest ponies she knew outside her own kin, could still feel the touch of Fluttershy's shoulder as the love of her life sat blushing beside her, but not a bit of their speeches had stuck with her. A warm, humming cloud of happiness was all AJ came away with, and it was only now, more'n halfway home, that she felt she might be able to speak without her voice cracking.

Of course, walking with Fluttershy filled her with such a bone-deep contentment, she didn't have a thing to say anyway....

A tiny sigh rustled beside her. "That was so nice," Fluttershy said, her quiet voice making lovely little sparks crackle over AJ's body. "But..." Another sigh. "It seemed a little sad, too."

Applejack leaned over to rub their shoulders together. "Melancholy's maybe the word."

Fluttershy seemed to start a little. "Really? But...I thought that meant things that were very sad."

"Naw." The bend in the road brought them to the first of the Acres' apple trees. "It's more like when the apple bucking's done and we're bringing winter in. You know there's gonna be buds and blossoms, green leaves and red apples next year, but right then with the trees settling down to sleep, it...it kinda gets you in the chest, y'know?"

She felt the lightest little stroke of Fluttershy's wing at her flank. "Yes. Change. Even when it's more wonderful than you've ever imagined it might be, it...it's still kind of sad and scary to go from something that you know to something you don't, isn't it?"

Opening her mouth to agree, Applejack almost froze instead, the house coming into view, properly dark this time of night. But on the porch, she thought she could make out a shadow where no shadow oughtta be, a big shadow with a dark reddish tinge to it.

And as Celestia was her witness, Applejack didn't know what she wanted to do: thank Mac for running away from Fluttershy like he'd done, or smack him hard as she could across the jaw for the exact same thing. 'Cause if he hadn't run off, Applejack knew she'd be the most miserable creature in Equestria right now instead of the happiest. And how could she explain to him about her and Fluttershy?

They'd just about reached the Acres' front gate by then, and the shadow moved, stepped off the porch into the moonlight. Applejack heard Fluttershy gasp, and AJ shifted close enough to touch her again. "It's gonna be OK, honeycomb," she said—mostly trying to convince herself, she thought.

"I trust you," Fluttershy more whimpered than said, her eyes wide and focused on Mac, and she went on the way she had earlier: "I do, I do, I do, I do..." She kept walking, at least, AJ was glad to notice, and their sides pressed together, they entered the farmyard, Big Macintosh advancing steadily toward them.

For all that Applejack could read her brother better'n just about any other pony, the uncertain light and the exhaustion that suddenly dropped over her like a rain of apples from a tree she'd bucked wrong—so much had happened today!—conspired to fuddle any sense she might've had of what was going through Mac's mind. He stopped about halfway down the slope from the house, stood still as a statue as AJ guided Fluttershy up to meet him. And when they got close enough for quiet voices, she said as neutral as she could manage, "Evening."

Mac fixed his gaze on her and gave a little nod before turning to Fluttershy, and right when he took a breath, Applejack saw remorse flood his face. "Miss Fluttershy," he said, his voice maybe a mite deeper than usual. "I just wanna say I'm sorry for what I done earlier. Running out like I did ain't no way for a gentlecolt ever to behave, and I got no excuse. I was wrong, and I apologize."

It wasn't the longest speech she'd heard from him, but still, all the ice that had started forming in her middle just plain puffed away to nothing—

Till she looked over at Fluttershy, shivering behind the mask of her mane. "I'll forgive you, Big Macintosh, if..." Her chest rose and fell. "If you can somehow find it in your heart to forgive me."

Applejack gaped, and Mac shook his head. "Miss Fluttershy, there ain't nothing for you to—"

"Putting you on the spot the way I did was very, very wrong, and if I'd been thinking at all clearly—"

"You two!" Applejack stomped the hard-packed dirt of the farmyard, then glanced quickly toward the house, hoping she hadn't woken Apple Bloom or Granny Smith. No lights came on, so she lowered her voice and looked back and forth between her brother and her marefriend. "If anypony oughtta be apologizing here, it's me! I was the one who knew all the details and still made all the plans! So if'n you're gonna be throwing 'round all this talk 'bout forgiving folks, put me on that list, too!"

A little silence in the moonlight, then a slow smile curled Mac's snout. "Reckon we got us the three sorriest ponies in Equestria right here, don't we?"

Fluttershy's giggle made the last of AJ's ice melt, but Mac was going on: "Thank you, Miss Fluttershy, for being so understanding. And thank you, sis, for bringing her out here this late so's I could start making amends."

Which got the ice springing right back, Applejack shuffling her hoofs. "Actually, big brother, me and Fluttershy, we...we..." Words deserting her, she slid sideways into the warmth of Fluttershy's flank, reached her head over, and rubbed her cheek into that perfect mane.

With a happy little squeak, Fluttershy gave her a nuzzle, and AJ looked at her brother, his eyes wide with surprise.

The next instant, though, the biggest, goofiest grin spread across his face, and he said, "If'n it weren't the middle of the night, I'd be whooping right now louder'n you ever heard."

And it was like Applejack had never had ice in her middle at all. "You mean it, Mac?" she asked, her throat getting all gol-durn choky again.

He nodded. "The way you never been int'rested in having a special somepony always got me an' Granny kinda worried."

Applejack couldn't help giving him a sour look. "Has ev'rypony in this town been talking 'bout me behind my back?"

Mac's broad face went all serious. "Only those as care the most." He bent down and poked her nose with his. "And only those as wants to see you happy."

It took her more'n a few swallows before she could say, "I ever tell you I got the best big brother in the whole world?"

"Nnnnope." Stepping back, he had that big grin again, and he bowed to Fluttershy. "Welcome to the family."

A little sniffling sound made AJ look, tears running from Fluttershy's eyes, and with a rush of wings, she was clinging to Mac's neck, her face buried in his chest. "Thank you!" she whispered, her voice all thick. "For everything!"

The shock AJ saw on Mac's face changed to something that she thought might've been regret, his eyes closing and one front hoof patting Fluttershy's back. "'Tweren't nothing, sister," he said. Then he was gently disentangling himself and taking another step back. "Getting a trifle late, I reckon." He dipped his head to the both of them, turned, and started back along the slope toward the house.

Applejack watched him go, the warm, lovely silence of the spring evening embracing her, then Fluttershy was spinning around, the sheer joy on her face making Applejack's heart jump. "He called me sister!"

"That he did, honeycomb." She stepped up and touched her lips to Fluttershy's. "That he most surely did. Now, reckon we oughtta head inside ourselves?"

At Fluttershy's blush, Applejack's imagination sparked to show her a picture of her old bed upstairs, Fluttershy stretching all gorgeous and languid over it. AJ's breath went jagged, and she felt the telltale tickle between her hind legs, heard the wet crinkle of her lacinia folding open. "If'n you wouldn't mind, I mean," she managed to say.

***

Nestled in dreams of purest sunshine and bliss, Fluttershy reveled in the happiness surrounding her as soft as new spring grass. It kept growing bigger and bigger, though, wrapping her up and tickling her in ways she didn't think she'd ever been tickled before.

Everything was so overwhelmingly perfect, she couldn't keep it in her dreams, and she found herself gasping awake in a golden cloud of sensations: lying on her side with Applejack right in front of her, those incredible green eyes half-closed and unfocused; eager hoofs massaging the muscles at the base of her wings; the maddeningly sweet, salty scent that she'd learned yesterday meant an aroused mare; and oh, most wonderful of all, the hot, liquid rapture of her wiggler enveloped in the depths of her marefriend.

Without even thinking, she began to move her hips, slid into synchronization with Applejack's motions, and the deep throaty growl of pleasure that Applejack gave made Fluttershy whimper with joy.

Applejack's gaze got a little more focused. "Morning," she panted, not slowing at all. "Shhh, now! We—" Her teeth clenched, her eyes wavering. "Don't wanna...wake nopony!"

The massive waves of pleasure kept rising through Fluttershy, squeezing her lungs and making her want to cry out. So she grabbed Applejack's head and pulled her into a kiss, pushed hard against her lips to muffle the sounds now bursting in squeaks from her.

It seemed to be the right thing to do judging from Applejack's moaning response, her whole body tightening and shuddering around Fluttershy. The intensity of it pushed her over the edge, and she came so strongly, she felt it everywhere, her mind, heart, body, and soul all spasming together in a climax that flooded ecstasy over and through her.

Was she still breathing? She didn't know and didn't care. As long as she could stay wrapped in Applejack like this for the rest of her life, she would never want anything ever again.

A timeless time later, Applejack pulled her lips away, and a timeless time after that, she gave her low chuckle and stroked Fluttershy's mane. "Best alarm clock ever."

Fluttershy's wiggler had started shrinking inside Applejack, but the touch of Applejack's hoof made it give a happy shiver, Fluttershy sighing and tucking her head under Applejack's chin. "I think mine was set a little later than yours, though."

"Actually?" Applejack gave her ear the slightest nibble, and Fluttershy almost came again just from that, her every nerve so sharp and open. "I woke up when your li'l wiggler started tapping at my door. You was still sleeping, but she was mighty insistent, and, well, I sure ain't one to turn away a friend when she comes a-calling."

"Oh." For once in her life, Fluttershy didn't feel embarrassed to be blushing. "Yes. It...I mean, she...she does go out on her own like that most mornings." She slid her head along the pillow till she met Applejack's smiling eyes. "And if you keep treating her as nicely as this, I don't think we'll ever be able to train her not to."

"Let's hope we don't." A rose-petal perfect kiss, and Applejack stretched, Fluttershy quivering at the smooth and gorgeous flexing of the earth pony's muscles. "Still, shower time, I reckon." She grinned. "Care to join me?"

Her body shouted, Yes! But Fluttershy couldn't help swallowing, her mind spinning with doubts that she really didn't want to be there. "Umm, I'd...I'd like that very much, but..." Picking the one doubt she knew Applejack would understand, she touched her marefriend's face. "We should tell Apple Bloom about us first. In case she sees us coming out of the bathroom together, or..." She swallowed again. "In case she heard something last night or this morning."

Applejack gusted a puff of breath from her nostrils. "Reckon you're right." She rolled out of bed onto all fours, her unbound mane cascading around her broad shoulders and catching the light of the sunrise streaming in from the window on the other side of the room. "You wanna go first, then?"

Fluttershy couldn't move, her eyes drinking in Applejack's golden glory, the one thing she would never, ever doubt. "You're so beautiful," she whispered.

A slow smile grew across Applejack's muzzle, her eyes rolling closed, and Fluttershy watched a shiver run over her from snout to tail. "Hearing you say that, honeycomb, I'm gonna be clambering back into that bed with you and not wanting to get out again." She turned, tapped the lock button on the doorknob, and pulled it open—

To reveal a wrinkle-browed Apple Bloom blinking back. "What's going on in here?" Then her face cleared. "Oh! Hey, Fluttershy! You guys having a sleepover?"

Applejack seemed to have frozen solid in the doorway, and after a few seconds of silence, Fluttershy cleared her throat and put on her best calming smile. "Why, yes we are, Apple Bloom!" Double checking to make sure her lacinia was properly closed, she climbed out of bed and tippy-tapped across the room to the two sisters. "As a matter of fact, Applejack and I may be having a lot of sleepovers from now on."

That made Applejack sputter something that could either have been a laugh or a cough, and Apple Bloom looked back at her before turning again to Fluttershy. "You have a pillow fight? 'Cause it looks like you mighta hit Applejack too hard in the head."

The sound Applejack gave then was definitely a laugh, and she moved too quickly for Fluttershy to follow, scooping Apple Bloom up and rubbing a hoof between her ears. "I'll show you getting hit too hard, little missy!"

Apple Bloom giggled and squirmed, and Applejack set her down, her hoofs still resting on Apple Bloom's shoulders. "Y'see, sugar cube," she said in a voice so gentle, Fluttershy felt herself getting teary-eyed. "Fluttershy and me, we...well, we figured out yesterday that we're each other's special someponies. So we're gonna be together from now on."

Giving a few blinks, Apple Bloom stared back at her sister. "Y'mean you two're gonna get married?"

"Reckon so."

A few more blinks, and Apple Bloom's whole face lit up. "That's the best!" She ducked away from Applejack, and the next thing Fluttershy knew, the little filly was hanging from her neck. "I can't wait to tell the gals that you're gonna be my other big sister! They'll be so jealous!"

She bounced out of the room with the biggest grin on her face, and Fluttershy heard Applejack chuckle. "Have I mentioned lately that I got the best family in the world?"

"Ummm." All Fluttershy's doubts came spinning back into place, and she found she had to look at the floor. "That's the fourth or fifth time you've mentioned us getting married in the sixteen hours since we first kissed."

The silence that followed was horrible, but Fluttershy couldn't raise her eyes. "A fair point," Applejack said after a moment. "I just...we've known each other so long already, and...and thinking about you and me and what our foals're gonna be like, I...I got a little ahead of myself, I reckon."

One word there shocked Fluttershy's gaze up like she'd been struck by lightning. "Foals? I can't have foals, Applejack! I don't...I'm not...how could I possibly??"

Applejack blinked. "Well, getting all rude and biological, seems to me that you got one half the equipment and I got the other, so—"

"What??" Her spinning mind screeched to a halt at a thought that had never once even begun to occur to her. "I...I would be the father??"

"Well, honeycomb, like I said: you got the equipment. Unless—"

"I...would be..." It rang through Fluttershy like a bell, rolled through her like thunder, and suddenly she wanted it as strongly as she'd ever wanted anything in her life. "I would be a good father," she said, her voice shaking even harder when she tried to make it stop. "I would never yell at our foals and would never call them names and would never, ever be mean to them! Not ever at all!"

"So you're saying you can?" Applejack was blinking, a blush darkening her cheeks. "I mean, I've felt you pumping it out right enough, but..." Her gaze flicked away and back. "It got ev'rything in it it's s'pposed to?"

The tornado in her head leaped back to full whirl. "I...I don't know." Which was when another possibility struck her so hard, she couldn't help reeling from the impact. "And what if...what if they end up like me?? What if our foals come out not fillies or colts but freaks and monsters?? What if—??"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Hoofs grabbed her, wrapped around her, pulled her to the refuge of Applejack's warm, solid chest. "We don't use them words, remember? Ain't no freaks here, and ain't no monsters, neither!"

Pressing her face into Applejack's neck, she inhaled deeply the slightly stale but wonderfully real scent of her skin and sweat. "But what if, Applejack? How could I do that to them? How could I make their lives growing up be as horrible as mine was? I couldn't!"

"It wouldn't be, honeycomb." A hoof touched her chin and gently pushed till she found herself looking into Applejack's smile. "If we have foals, we'll love 'em no matter what." She gave a little shrug. "And if it turns out we can't have foals, we'll foster or adopt. But always, it'll be about you and me loving each other and loving whatever family we get."

But the voice in her head—that horrible, horrible little voice—muttered softly, She's so disappointed in you.

"No..." she was barely able to breathe out, and when Applejack's ears folded, she shook her head. "I mean yes! Yes, it's all about love and...and...and what you said. But—" Thinking it made her want to dance and hide at the same time. "But you want them to be our foals."

Applejack licked her lips, and Fluttershy could feel her marefriend trembling. "I won't lie to you, honeycomb. 'Cause I do want that. I very much do."

"Then..." Her voice failed again, but closing her eyes, she forced herself to go on. "Then we have to find out. Before we even try, we...we have to find out what'll happen, what my...what exactly my wiggler can and will do."

Another of Applejack's butterfly-wing kisses touched her lips. "We'll take the day off, you and me, and we'll head on over to Ponyville General. Redheart'll know how to test—"

"No!" This time, Fluttershy couldn't keep from shouting it, pushing away from Applejack and leaping into an agitated hover. "After my lacinia first opened up, Mom took me to the hospital, and it—!"

Memories she'd tried so hard to forget crashed through her: the tests and the whispers and the cold, cold tables; the pokings and the proddings and the terrible stink of fear and blood and piss; crying and shrieking at Mom all the way home only to find Dad packing when they got there; the shouting and the screaming and shard-filled silence afterwards; the stone-solid look on Mom's face when she said, "You," the last word she ever spoke to Fluttershy...

"Never again!" Fluttershy shook her head so hard this time, she started spinning in the air and had to settle back onto her hoofs to get her balance back. "Never!"

"You—" Applejack sounded confused. "You ain't been to a doctor since you hit puberty?"

Shame at her outburst flooding her, Fluttershy focused on the grain of the floorboards. "When I get sick, I take what I give my animal friends, and that works just fine." She forced her gaze up, determined to make Applejack understand how important this was to her. "I...I can't...can't...can't..." But as usual, her words ran dry, and she was left staring at her marefriend in tongue-tied desperation.

Applejack was staring, too, but after a long couple of seconds, she sighed, stepped to Fluttershy's side, and touched her forehead to hers. "All right, honeycomb, all right. But...how're we s'pposed to figure it out, then?"

"There's only one way," Fluttershy said, every single part of her shaking now at what was going through her mind. But to father Applejack's foals, she would have to know. And that meant—

***

When she'd been a schoolfilly, Applejack had always liked the library. An air of quiet busyness hung in the dust-shiny sunlight coming in the round windows, like somepony was working on something mighty important the next table over.

This early, though, the place was empty, and Twilight didn't look too fulla life herself as she came stumping down the stairs. "Well!" She smiled and visibly tried to perk up. "Good morning! Great party last night, wasn't it?"

"Yep," Applejack said, and she looked at Fluttershy, her mane across her face like a curtain. Sighing, AJ opened her mouth to start the real story of what had brought her and Fluttershy together, but—

"Please, Twilight," Fluttershy said, peering out from behind her hair. "We need your help badly. It's all my fault, and I'm so very sorry, but could we...could we please see you alone and in private? Please?"

The wide-eyed surprise on Twilight's face made Applejack reckon the unicorn was good and awake now. "Well, yes, of course, Fluttershy! I'm always happy to help my friends if I can!" She moved her gaze to focus on Applejack. "But what exactly—?"

"Not here." Fluttershy had pulled back into her mane again. "Downstairs in your lab. Please, just the three of us." She turned slightly toward where Spike was dusting some shelves.

"Lab?" Twilight's surprise got even bigger, her attention still on Applejack.

Applejack shrugged. "It's a medical question."

Fluttershy seemed to shrink further, and Twilight's brow wrinkled. "You know I'm not trained in medicine, right?"

"I done told her that, but—"

"Please." Fluttershy sobbed the word.

Her heart near to tearing itself in two, AJ moved to Fluttershy's side, kissed her cheek, then looked back at Twilight. "It'd mean a lot to the both of us."

"Of course," Twilight said again. Her ears kept trying to fold, AJ could see, but she gave a pretty good reassuring smile before turning for the doorway at the back of the room. "Right this way."

About to follow, Applejack had to stop when Fluttershy pressed her face into her mane. "Thank you," Fluttershy whispered. "I love you."

Nuzzling her again, AJ nudged her toward Twilight, the glow of the unicorn's horn pushing the door open. With slow steps, Fluttershy went through, and Applejack nodded for Twilight to go next, scooting in after her as the door swung closed.

It was the first time Applejack had seen the library basement; she wasn't sure the place had had one back in her school days. And even if it had, it surely hadn't been fulla the equipment that now sat in the big room at the bottom of the stairs Fluttershy and Twilight were starting down. "All right," Twilight was saying, and the glow of her horn made Applejack's tail bristle, purple lightning dancing over the door they'd all just come through. "That's locked. Now, what—?"

"Promise," Fluttershy said, spinning on the lowest step and giving another heart-breaking look. "Please, Twilight. Promise you'll never tell anypony anything about this."

Twilight gave a nervous laugh. "You mean a Pinkie Promise?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "A Twilight Promise."

Even from a couple steps above Twilight, Applejack could see her swallow. "You're my friend, Fluttershy." She gave a quick glance over her shoulder. "Both of you are." She looked back at Fluttershy, reached out, and rested a hoof on the downcast pegasus's shoulder. "Not even Princess Celestia will hear what you tell me down here. Or, you know, at least she won't hear about it from me unless you say I can tell her. Is...is that OK?"

A half a second, and Fluttershy nodded.

"All right." Twilight took the last step to stand beside Fluttershy and looked back and forth between her and Applejack. "Now, what's this all about?"

Still not sure what she should say, Applejack sighed. "How you wanna handle this, honeycomb?"

Her gaze fixed on the stones of the basement floor, Fluttershy murmured, "We'll have to show her." She took a wide-hoofed stance. "She'll never believe it otherwise."

The old familiar icy feeling grabbed Applejack's gut. "Well, now, hold on a minute!" She rushed down the stairs and slid between the two of them. "Lemme get her ready!" She took a breath, focused on Twilight's wide eyes. "See, Fluttershy, she...she—" And, well, there weren't no other way to say it but to say it. "When her lacinia opens up, she...she's got a penis inside."

In the silence that followed, Applejack could almost hear Fluttershy trembling behind her, and Twilight's blank expression got even blanker till their unicorn friend cleared her throat. "If it was any ponies other than you two, I'd be telling myself this is some kind of weird prank." She drew a shaky breath. "But it's not, is it?"

Applejack shook her head, and Fluttershy mumbled again, "We'll have to show her."

Twilight looked like she'd swallowed a bug. "I'm really, really sorry, but...she's right."

Turning, Applejack stepped back to where Fluttershy stood quivering. "There a sofa or something we can use?"

The hair in front of Fluttershy's face waved back and forth. "I don't want to be a bother..."

A purple flash attracted Applejack's attention, a lounge chair not quite as fancy as Rarity's fainting couch appearing to Fluttershy's left. "You just lie on down," Applejack told her. "And I don't wanna hear nothing about you being a bother." She pushed away all her feelings except her truest and deepest ones. "You're the bravest pony I know, putting yourself through all this for foals we don't even know we can have yet."

Fluttershy shuddered, drifted up and sideways, and settled onto her side on the sofa. Applejack moved behind her, stayed right there whispering into her ear: "You're the love of my life, honeycomb, and I ain't never been prouder of any pony than I am of you right now."

A smile smoothed away Fluttershy's tight-lipped grimace. "Oh, Applejack. You always know the right thing to say."

AJ leaned over and kissed her just as soft and gentle as she knew how. "I got Equestria's greatest inspiration right here in front of me."

That got the sweetest little coo from Fluttershy, and Applejack heard Twilight sigh as well. Then came the familiar squish and rustle of Fluttershy's lacinia opening up, the rich musk of it making AJ shiver. Twilight's sigh became a gasp, and Fluttershy clenched her eyes, her lips tightening again. "This..." Twilight said breathlessly, her eyes wide and focused on Fluttershy's nether regions. "It...it's...it's—"

More than a little annoyance flashed through Applejack—she was the only pony oughtta be staring at Fluttershy that way!—but she swallowed it down. "Two questions, Twilight. First, you reckon Fluttershy can make foals with that there wiggler? And second, if she can, how likely're they to end up half-n-half like her?"

Twilight shook herself. "I've read about this. I'm sure I have!"

Fluttershy's eyes flew open, and she sat up so suddenly, Applejack had to pull her head back so she wouldn't get bashed in the jaw. "Oh, Twilight! Do...Do you mean it??"

"It was...somewhere!" Twilight's gaze was focused off to her right. "A tall, thick book with a dark blue cover and—" Her horn flared. "I'll be right back!" And she vanished with a fizzing flash of lilac-scented light.

Applejack blinked, then looked down at Fluttershy. Fluttershy was looking back, and the hope in her face made AJ's heart beat faster. "She knows!" Fluttershy squeaked. "She'll be able to do something, Applejack! Oh, I know she will! She—!"

Another flash of light, and Twilight appeared in the center of the room, a whole constellation of books whizzing around her. First one, then a second, then a third passed in front of her nose, each one's pages flipping while she said, "No, no, no, no, no." The fourth and the fifth went the same way, but partway through the sixth, her horn lit up so bright, Applejack had to squint. "Ah, ha!" she shouted, and all the other books clattered to the stone floor. "Here it is! Partial Stallionogen Insensitivity Syndrome!"

Having known Twilight for a while now, Applejack waited till her friend blinked and gave a nervous little laugh. "Which probably doesn't mean a whole lot to you. Ummm..." Two more sofas popped in on either side of Fluttershy's, and Twilight nodded. "Maybe we should sit down. This could take a while."

Sure enough, it did, and while Applejack didn't pick up all the details, she got the gist of it pretty well, she reckoned. "You mean," she said, interrupting Twilight after a long stretch of palaver and putting a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder to maybe take the sting outta her question, "Fluttershy was s'pposed to be born a colt?"

She felt Fluttershy shiver, but Twilight was shaking her head. "Fluttershy was meant to be born exactly how she is." She smiled and reached over to pat Fluttershy's hoof. "And we wouldn't want you any other way."

AJ's heart practically popped right then and there with love for both her friends, and she nuzzled a kiss against Fluttershy's neck, Fluttershy blushing so hard, Applejack could feel the warmth of it. "Thank you," Fluttershy murmured, the first words she'd said, AJ realized, since Twilight had started her whole talk.

"The thing is," Twilight went on, "foals in the womb are pretty much the same at the start. But they have these little, well, let's keep it simple and call them switches, OK? If they're set one way, they make something called stallionogen, and the foal grows into a colt. If they're set the other way, they make marestrogen, and the foal becomes a filly. Fluttershy's switches got...got mixed a little, half of them set one way and half of them set the other. It's really, really rare." She tapped the book she'd been looking through. "This case study is over seventy years old, and the only other examples it cites are from monographs first published two and three hundred years ago."

"Oh, my." Fluttershy had gone very still under Applejack's hoof. "All the animals I've helped with their babies, I...I've never seen anything like me, either. I just...I never even thought of that till right now."

A little of that dang ice had started forming in AJ's middle. "Then...them two questions I asked?"

Twilight gave about half a frown. "You need to see a real doctor."

"No." Fluttershy's voice was as sharp as Applejack had ever heard it, but it softened again when she leaned forward to take Twilight's hoofs in her own. "Please. They won't know any more than you do: you just said so. And none of them are going to be as smart as you, Twilight. None of them."

The rest of Twilight's frown looked about ready to start curving into place, so Applejack said, "How 'bout this, sugar cube: you just tell us what you'd do next if'n this was some research project the princess had sent to you."

For a minute, AJ wasn't sure Twilight'd go for it, but then her frown got thoughtful. "Well, I'd need samples, of course, of Fluttershy's blood and her, well—" Her purple cheeks turned almost black when she blushed. "Her semen. That'd probably do for your first question. But for the second?" A scroll and quill popped into place in front of her, and she began making notes. "I'd need certain samples from her parents, too, and any brothers or sisters she might have to compare their genes to—"

"What??" Fluttershy sprang into the air like she'd been stung by a bee, and if Applejack had thought she'd been loud and sharp before— "My parents?? My brother?? Are you insane?? They never wanna see me again, and I never wanna see them again! That's—!" She slapped her hoofs over her mouth, her face turning bright red; her wings froze, too, and she dropped back onto the sofa with a little squeak.

Applejack couldn't do more than stare, her thoughts a jumble. Fluttershy didn't wanna see her family again?

"Ah. Well." Twilight recovered a mite quicker. "That's what I'll need if I'm going to help you, Fluttershy. Now, maybe a real doctor at a real hospital who had real experience with these sorts of things would have a different methodology." Twilight brightened. "Or maybe Princess Celestia would be able to—"

"No." Fluttershy moved her hoofs from covering her mouth to covering her eyes. "No. Please..."

Pushing ev'rything else aside again, Applejack focused on the matter at hoof, jumped up to lay a front leg across Fluttershy's shivering shoulders, and used her quietest voice: "There's four choices. One, we forget the whole thing, get married, and live our lives just accepting whatever comes as far as foals go. Two, we head over to Ponyville General and see what they say. Three, we have Twilight ask the princess. Or four, we get those samples from your folks that Twilight's talking about." And while it brought tears to AJ's eyes, she had to be honest. "This ain't a choice I can make for you, honeycomb, but whichever one you pick, I swear I'll be right there with you, helping you any way I—"

"Number four." Fluttershy raised her head, such despair etched across her beautiful face, Applejack almost cried out. "I mean, my family already knows I'm a freak." She turned to Twilight. "What do we need to do?"

4 - Igneous: Pumice

For all the talk she'd heard from Rarity over the years about how a good cry could make a pony feel better, Applejack hadn't ever found that to be the case. Sticky and sweaty and exhausted it'd just left her ev'ry time afore this.

And lying in Fluttershy's embrace after her wracking sobs had run their course, sure, she was all sticky and sweaty and exhausted. But something odd and peaceful floated in her middle, too, like she'd cracked loose a rotten chunk inside there and squeezed it out through her eyes.

"Better?" she heard Fluttershy ask.

Sniffling, she nodded. "Reckon we'll both need a little washroom time." She shifted herself, settling back so she could look at Fluttershy's gentle smile. "Thank you."

Fluttershy's smile wavered. "Please don't. If it weren't for me blurting out that terrible thing,—"

Applejack reached up and touched a hoof to her marefriend's beautiful lips. "It's been kicking around my head all week, honeycomb. Soon as you said we was going to Manehattan, I been doing everything I could to keep myself from thinking about it, but..." She sighed, remembered the way she'd snapped at Mac when he'd asked if they was gonna see any of the sights in the big city. "I never been any good at lying, 'specially to myself. You forced me into seeing it, and I'm gonna thank you for that whether you wants me to or not."

They lay together a while longer, but not even Fluttershy's wonderful warmth could stop Applejack from wanting to get the gooey feeling off her face. The compartment's washroom weren't more'n a broom closet with running water, so they had to get cleaned up one at a time, but even when Fluttershy insisted Applejack go first, she didn't mind. 'Specially since sitting by the window listening to Fluttershy splash in their little shower gave her a chance to think.

Not that she much liked what she was thinking, but she wasn't about to sugarcoat it no more. All week, she'd been feeling so virtuous, so in control and so smart when in actual point of fact, she'd been acting as low and useless as the rotten bottom rung of a water-logged step ladder.

Even worse? She'd been telling herself over and over that she was doing it to help her lover and best friend! Made her wanna kick her own teeth in now that she saw how all she'd really been doing was trying to show off how much better her life was than Fluttershy's.

Well, no more. She had parent problems enough of her own, and tearing them scabs off had to be first order of business. Or second order: getting Twilight's samples from Fluttershy's folks was number one. She gave a sharp nod, picked up her hat, and smooshed it into place, more than a little amazed that she didn't feel embarrassed about admitting how much of a heel she'd been and then crying her eyes out like that.

It was just...being with Fluttershy made it OK. Having that sweet, gorgeous pegasus in her life made ev'rything OK.

Not long after that, Fluttershy was stepping outta the washroom, her pink mane still a mite damp, and Applejack was getting rumbly 'bout the middle for some lunch. So they headed to the dining car with their tickets for a pretty fair dandelion sandwich with hay fries and a slice of rhubarb pie.

Remembering train trips from her younger days, Applejack asked the waiter if'n they had an observation car, and he told 'em it was two carriages up. So she led Fluttershy through the rattling hallways to a little staircase, then got to see the delight blossom across her face as they came up under the big glass dome, comfy couches with little tables lined up along the sides.

Nopony else was in the place, so AJ spent a while just basking in Fluttershy's enjoyment, the way she flew around practically pressing her snout against various parts of the panoramic window, forests on either side of them and Canterlot Mountain getting steadily larger ahead. But Applejack couldn't forget that they weren't no closer to getting a plan together, and figuring she should take the first step, she girded herself for the next time Fluttershy came flitting down to settle on the couch they'd claimed for themselves. "Since we're sharing about our folks, reckon I oughtta tell you about mine."

Fluttershy's eyes went wide, and they pretty near stayed that way the whole time Applejack was talking, a story she'd never told afore from beginning to end, she realized: how Orange Marmalade, a high society filly, caught the wrong train and ended up on the platform at Ponyville Station 'stead of in Canterlot; how the young owner of Sweet Apple Acres, a stallion name of Red Gravenstein, had come to meet the train and pick up his seed order; how the two had locked eyes and decided they were seeing their deepest desires walking around on four hoofs.

The way Applejack pieced it together later from Granny Smith and a few of the older folks in town, things had started getting rocky even afore Big Macintosh'd been born less'n a year after their sudden wedding. Applejack could remember herself how on some mornings, not a single word got spoken between her ma and pa. But there was good times, too, plenty of 'em, 'specially 'round the time before Apple Bloom was born. "It wasn't till afterwards I first heard the word 'divorce.'"

"Oh, dear," Fluttershy muttered. She'd put her hoofs around Applejack's early in the story and had never taken them away, something Applejack found almost unbearably wonderful.

Applejack tried her best to shrug, but she knew she weren't fooling anypony. "Mama and Poppa sat us down and 'splained how Mama loved us all very much but that she had to go back and live with her folks in Manehattan again. They had a whole schedule worked out for us to shuttle back and forth, but then..."

The memory still dug at her like splinters. "A few weeks after Mama moved out, Poppa got a letter. He came late to supper that night, and Granny didn't even make her grouchy face at him. And when supper was done, he said...said that Mama'd taken sick and that we weren't gonna be spending time with her in Manehattan like they'd planned. He...he got real quiet then, and that was when he said him and Mama hadn't never really loved each other and how the only good thing to come outta their time together was us three kids. We was the real Apples, he said, not her and not him, and he said...he said we oughtta just forget about the both of 'em. Granny tried to hush him up, but next morning...next morning, he was gone."

She tried to skim over the details after that, but Fluttershy's quiet questions made her go over the whole thing: the letter Granny'd found that signed Sweet Apple Acres over to the three children; the quarrels and the fights and the screaming AJ got into at school that'd left Rarity pretty much her only friend; the detective Filthy Rich'd hired who tracked Poppa to the harbor town of San Pinto just south of Los Pegasus and the cargo ship Heron's Laugh.

By the time she got to that part of the story, the train had entered the tunnels below Canterlot, was rumbling through the darkness toward the switchplates that would send them out the other side of the mountain instead of up the winding tracks to the city itself. The conductor came by and used his horn to start a couple little lamps glowing, their light reflecting off the observation dome and making Fluttershy's pale yellow hide look even paler. "And your father just...just sailed away?"

Applejack forced a nod. "Mac's had a subscription to the Los Pegasus Herald all these years just so we can keep track of the Heron's Laugh in the shipping news. She's due into Vanhoover this week, matter of fact, and far as we know, Poppa's still aboard." Her throat tightened, and she couldn't help thinking she was lucky she'd gotten all her crying done earlier. "Mac went to San Pinto once to meet the ship and see him, and Poppa told him he weren't ever gonna spend another night on land long as he lived."

The light of evening swooshed over them, the train rumbling from the tunnel out into the flatlands past Canterlot, the sun going down behind long streamers of clouds, pink and fiery against the deep blue sky. "That's..." Fluttershy's voice was so quiet, Applejack had to look to see if she was actually speaking. "My dad left and never came back, too. Then Mom stopped talking to me, and Burr got so sour, I couldn't...he wouldn't..." Her eyes shimmered in the lamp light. "I love you, Applejack. More than I'll ever be able to say."

"'Cause we found each other." Applejack moved her hoofs to surround Fluttershy's, raised them to her lips, and kissed them. "When no other pony even knew we was lost."

A moment, and the deep, musky scent of Fluttershy's arousal drifted over her. Standing, they hurried back to the compartment, Applejack running the spell in her head to keep her lacinia closed, and when she opened the door, she almost cheered to see that the porter had been by to let the beds down from the walls. She turned at the sound of the latch clicking closed, wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy, and kissed her long and deep. "Inside me," she whispered. "Soft and slow and gentle, but please, honeycomb."

The sound of her lacinia crinkling open was the only answer Fluttershy gave. She flew to the bed, the two cushioned wall panels meeting in one lovely little surface, and Applejack bounded up after her, her own lacinia slipping open and making her groan. Standing above Fluttershy, she shook off her hat and let the desire build before sliding into her lover's embrace.

They kissed and stroked each other for long, luscious minutes, and Applejack shuddered with joy at Fluttershy swelling against her. A wiggle of her hips, and AJ clenched her teeth as Fluttershy slid straight in, the combination of sensations absolutely perfect: Fluttershy filling her heart, her mind, her body, and her soul. "Just...like...that," Applejack panted out.

Again, Fluttershy's body replied, her gasps warm against Applejack's neck, her tiny movements deep inside Applejack driving her straight to the edge of bliss and—sweet Mother of Mercy!—somehow letting her hover there. Peppering Fluttershy's ears, mane, forehead and face with kisses, she hung on as long as she could, vibrations building and building and building till AJ was sure her eyes were gonna pop right outta her head.

Then Fluttershy squealed breathlessly, "I've got to move!" She gave one big pull and thrust, and Applejack just plain exploded, her nerves crackling and spilling over like they'd each and ev'ry one been struck with fifteen or twenty lightning bolts of pure pleasure. Fluttershy squealed again—"Oh! Oh! Oh, my!"—and Applejack felt her explode as well, the frantic clasping of her hoofs against Applejack's back sending another wave of orgasms cascading through her.

She rode that wave around and down and down and around, relaxation smoothing over her like a soft blanket on a chilly evening. The sky outside their window showed the last pink afterglow of sunset, and when Fluttershy made a gentle little noise into the crook of her neck, Applejack bent her head down and touched a kiss between her ears.

"How?" Fluttershy asked drowsily. "How can it possibly get better every time?"

Applejack couldn't help chuckling. "Reckon we must be doing something right."

Supper in the dining car seemed perfect, too, though AJ thought it had more to do with the smiling, blushing pegasus across the table than it did with the food. But the menu did offer a nice little cider from her cousin Betty's spread outside Fillydelphia—Applejack made a mental note to ask Bets how she'd managed to pull off a deal with the railroad.

Waking late and lazily the next morning was so delicious, they made love again, and Applejack tried her dangedest to keep her eyes open this time, wanting to see Fluttershy's face when she climaxed. But in the aura of a gathering orgasm, those eyes of Fluttershy's were near to lethally gorgeous: AJ spasmed so hard, she almost passed out from sheer ecstasy. So they dozed a bit more, then finally got up to have lunch and let the porter fix the room. They spent the last hour or so of the trip up in the observation car, AJ finally learning that Fluttershy's mother Carnation had worked in Cloudsdale as a specialist in alterations.

"A what now?" Applejack asked.

Fluttershy explained that rich ponies sometimes needed changes in the fancy clothes they bought. Her mom had worked for several different tailors making hems longer or shorter, loosening or tightening collars, adding or removing buttons and buttonholes, that sorta thing. "Mom isn't like Rarity; she doesn't do her own designs. But working with other ponies' designs, she does the most amazing things."

She also learned that Fluttershy's father was named Bolide, and that he'd worked in most of Cloudsdale's finest restaurants at one time or another as a saucier.

"A what now?" Applejack asked.

Fluttershy explained that fancy restaurants usually had a buncha different cooks in 'em, each specializing in one sorta dish or another. "Dad makes sauces, gravies and soups, and in a really well-run kitchen, that's usually the third or sometimes even the second most important chef. Dad's good at it, too—his name always shows up whenever anypony's listing the top five or ten sauciers in Equestria—but, well, he gets fired a lot."

By then, the conductor was announcing Manehattan Central Station, and they headed down to their compartment to gather up their luggage. "All right," Applejack said, glad she finally had enough info to put a plan together. "We'll set up at Aunt and Uncle Orange's place, then head over to the weather bureau. If'n you're right, your brother'll know where your ma is, and, well, Aunt and Uncle are about as fancy as ponies get: they'll likely know what restaurant your Dad's working in if he's working in one."

When the train pulled into the station, they thanked the conductor and were the first ponies off. Applejack led the way, but with Fluttershy pressed in so close beside her, her eyes wide and staring around the veil of her mane at everything, AJ almost offered to carry her the whole way.

She had to admit, though, that there was a lot to stare at. Ev'ry time Applejack visited, it seemed like Manehattan had grown, buildings of brick and glass towering up around them, carriages rattling ev'rywhere through the streets outside the station, the smell of so many ponies not really bad—dry hay and damp sweat mostly—but pretty close to overwhelming. Still, AJ knew the way from the station to the Oranges' townhouse, and keeping her eyes on the signs, she got 'em there right enough.

"Jackie!" her aunt and uncle exclaimed in unison, jumping up from a red silk sofa after Cloves the butler led AJ and Fluttershy onto the plush white carpet of the sitting room to the left off the foyer.

And just that one word triggered Applejack's memories of the time she'd spent here trying too hard to be the sort of pony her Mama had been. "Aunt! Uncle!" She could already hear the Manehattan accent creeping into her voice. "Thank you both so much for letting us stay."

Aunt Orange whisked a hoof through the air. "It's just so wonderful to see you again, Jackie! And so grand to meet you, Fluttershy! You're lovelier in person than the magazines ever even hinted!"

Fluttershy blushed, of course, and it took Applejack another couple seconds to realize her aunt was talking about Fluttershy's modeling career. "Now I know," Aunt Orange was going on, "that you said we shouldn't make a fuss, Jackie, but we couldn't keep the news of your stay a secret. It'll be a small affair this evening—family only, of course—but your cousins are ever so eager to say hello! And, well, with two of the Elements of Harmony under our roof, we certainly had to—"

She went on and on, Applejack agreeing to ev'rything and never getting too far from Fluttershy. "We've an appointment this afternoon," she told her aunt when she could squeeze the words in. "But once we return, we shall be at your disposal."

At least Fluttershy was smiling. In fact, she looked almost relaxed sitting beside Applejack on one of the silk sofas, and the tension in AJ's shoulders loosened when Fluttershy actually said, "Thank you for your kindness, Mr. and Mrs. Orange."

After double-checking with Uncle that the weather bureau was just about ten blocks further toward the center of the city, Applejack stopped quickly in their room upstairs to grab a bag. She stuffed the kit Twilight had given them into it, then put a hoof to the side of Fluttershy's face. "You ready, honeycomb?"

Nodding, Fluttershy smiled, and she was still smiling when they got out onto the street and started toward downtown. "Well, now!" Applejack said, bumping her shoulder. "Quite a pretty afternoon, isn't it?"

"Your aunt and uncle are very nice." Fluttershy's smile took on a sly, almost unbearably sexy edge. "And I really like what they do to your voice."

Applejack laughed, but with each block they traveled, she noticed, Fluttershy's smile got thinner. At least the weather bureau stood out against the Manehattan skyline, piles of clouds floating around it and open archways on ev'ry story all the way to the big flat roof. AJ held the lobby door open for Fluttershy, and her ears fell at the grimace on her marefriend's face. "All right, now," she said softly. "How mucha this d'you wanna do yourself and how much d'you want me to do?"

"All of it." Fluttershy quivered, her eyes bunching shut. "You, I mean, if you wouldn't mind." Her eyes opened again, Applejack's heart near to breaking to look at them. "Please?"

"All right, honeycomb. Stick close to me, though."

That didn't turn out ot be a problem, actually: Fluttershy hugged AJ's flanks all the way across the lobby to a guard pony at a desk. "Silver Burr?" The guard looked through some pages on his clipboard. "Air quality department. That's on the fifth floor right across from the elevators." He gestured with his snout toward the grand marble staircase at the far wall. "Elevators are around behind the stairs."

"Thank you, sir," Applejack said in her best Manehattan tones, and with Fluttershy right beside her, she found the contraption and told the operator, "Fifth floor, please."

Fluttershy seemed to curl further in on herself with each ping of the elevator's bell, and when the operator announced, "Fifth floor," her horn flaring to open the door, Applejack had to give Fluttershy a little push before she took a shaky step into the tiled hallway, a chilly breeze blowing through the open archways at either end, nothing but blue sky and a few of the city's taller buildings visible through them. AJ didn't much like thinking about the five-story drop that lay out there as well, but with Fluttershy staring at the door across the hall and shivering, Applejack had plenty to focus on other than her own worries.

Air Quality was stenciled on the frosted glass doors, and Fluttershy swallowed so hard, Applejack could hear it. "Maybe he won't be in."

Applejack sighed and gave Fluttershy a nudge toward the doors. "Only one way to find out."

Inside, a small horseshoe-shaped counter marked off a smaller reception area, the rest of the giant open room filled with clouds shaped like chairs and desks and cabinets. Pegasi among the clouds flitted back and forth, up and down, and side to side, all of them talking or writing or sticking pins into a bunch of different maps. One grayish-brown pegasus stallion was drifting past the counter's upper curve; he looked over as Applejack herded Fluttershy in, and AJ couldn't miss the way his eyes lit up, tracing over Fluttershy from the top of her mane to the tip of her tail. Settling to the floors, he just about licked his chops and said, "Well, now! What can I do for you lovely fillies?"

And as much as AJ wanted to paste him a good solid kick across the jaw, she smiled instead and exaggerated her Manehattan accent again. "We're hoping you can direct us to Silver Burr."

The stallion blinked. "Ragweed? Why would you want—?"

The stomp beside her startled Applejack, Fluttershy's expression fierce; she sprang across the reception area to glare the wide-eyed stallion straight in the face. "His name is not Ragweed! It never has been Ragweed! You're being purposefully hurtful when you call him that, and I will not stand by quietly and let you!" Her voice, while not really getting any louder, had been getting more and more intense with each word till she was practically growling. "Do I make myself clear?"

The big stallion nodded so hard, Applejack was surprised his head didn't pop right off, then a nasally sorta whine came from just overhead: "That smell... It can't be!"

Fluttershy's ferocity vanished like it had never been there, and the big stallion scrambled into the air to vanish among the cloud desks. A smaller stallion descended, paperwork filling his saddlebags, his hide a pale beige color, a little pair of glasses perched on the end of his nose, and his cutie mark a trio of pussy willow branches. "Ummm," Fluttershy said, her ears falling. "Hi, Burr."

Applejack stepped forward, offered him a smile and a pure Manehattan accent. "Good afternoon, Mr. Burr. My name is Applejack. Might there be somewhere we can talk?"

Silver Burr didn't look at her, his expression hard and fixed on Fluttershy. "What do you want?" he asked so quiet and nasty, AJ couldn't keep her hackles from rising.

With an effort, she swallowed her anger, tried to keep her voice level and calm. "We're sorry to interrupt your work, Mr. Burr, but your sister's here to—"

"Sister?" He stepped right up to the counter, and even though Applejack could still barely hear him, the sneer on his lips was loud and clear. "'Half-sister' might be more accurate. With your other half being more a brother and all, I mean." His right eye twitched. "Except a real brother or sister would never have abandoned Mother and I!"

It took even more effort for Applejack not to start shouting, but Fluttershy's words, just as quiet as Silver Burr's, somehow cut even sharper than any shout. "You didn't want me there."

Shaking his head, Silver Burr gave the softest snort. "Just like Dad, aren't you? He runs off to another five-star restaurant, and you run off to become a national hero and a famous model palling around with royalty. And what about us? What about your family?"

Indignation almost choked Applejack, and she pushed between Fluttershy and her brother. "You listen to me, you—"

"Do you know?" His deep green gaze flicked over as fast as a rattlesnake, and the dark, poisonous energy in those eyes froze Applejack's tongue: just her luck that the Stare seemed to run in the family. "Whoever you are that she's whined and wheedled into doing her dirty work for her, do you know what she is? Deep down inside, I mean?"

Sucking in a breath, Applejack forced the words out in a low, tight voice that she barely recognized as her own: "I'm her friend and her lover, and I reckon I know more about this beautiful, wonderful mare than you ever have or ever will!"

"Lover? You mean you two—?" His eyes widened, then his sneer came back. "That's disgusting!" he hissed. "Get your deviant selves out of here before I call security!"

Applejack opened her mouth in what she knew would likely be a doomed effort to beg him for fifteen seconds of his time, but somepony shouting "Ragweed!" from higher up in the giant room interrupted her.

Both Fluttershy and Silver Burr winced, and the voice went on: "We need those pollen counts now!"

Fear washed over Silver Burr's thin little face, and all at once, Applejack knew exactly how to handle him. "Yes," she said, speaking a mite louder than they had been so far. "Go ahead and call security. Or better yet, lemme yell for your boss. I'm sure your colleagues'd love to meet a famous supermodel like your sister Fluttershy as well as her marefriend and fellow Element of Harmony. They'd prob'bly have all kindsa questions they'd wanna ask us—and all kindsa questions they'd wanna ask you." She half-closed her eyes. "I'm betting you'd just plain love being the center of attention that way, wouldn't you?"

He was shivering now. "Ragweed!" that voice thundered again, and when Silver Burr's green eyes met hers this time, Applejack thought they looked more seasick than anything else.

"Please," he whimpered. "What'll it take for you to leave?"

Applejack swung Twilight's pack onto the counter and unrolled it. "First, where's your mom at?"

"Mom?" Nastiness crept back into his expression when he turned it Fluttershy. "Whatever you're after, you must really be desperate."

Fluttershy had pulled back behind her mane again, and for all that Applejack thought she could hear her mumbling, AJ figured she needed to deal with Silver Burr right then. "Where?" she asked again, pulling one of the sticks out of the tube.

"She's working mostly for Lace Brocade over on Fifth Avenue these days." He was getting jittery again, glancing back toward the part of the room the shout had come from. "Now, if we're done, I—"

Raising the stick, Applejack got out, "Open your mouth."

"What?" He gaped at her, and Applejack jabbed the stick in, swirled it around inside like Twilight had told her, then pulled it out before he had a chance to react. Biting down, she did her best not to startle when a little purple ball of fire flared up and enclosed the thing's tip.

"By the bright blue above!" that same voice shouted. "Will somepony wake up that good-for-nothing pollen head? Or have the bees carried him off again??"

"Just go!" Silver Burr more coughed than said, and spreading his wings, he leaped into the clouds and disappeared from sight.

Shaking her head, Applejack stuck the activated stick back into the tube, and tucked it into her pack. "C'mon, honeycomb," she said, stepping over to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy didn't move. "I'm sorry," she was muttering. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry...."

5 - Igneous: Obsidian

It had been every bit as horrible as she'd expected.

"C'mon, now, honeycomb."

No, wait. That wasn't exactly true. Because the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it had been even worse than she'd expected.

"Keep on a-walking. There you go."

Because Burr had been right. Every word he'd said had been exactly and completely right.

"Up the steps here now. Careful! That's my gal."

She'd been mean and selfish and evil and stupid and—

"Jackie? What...what's wrong? Is Fluttershy all right?"

"Not as such, Aunt Orange. Cloves? Can you help me get her into the parlor?"

She had been just like Dad. In every single way.

"Bend your knees, honeycomb, and set on down; yeah, just like that."

"But what happened?"

"Honestly, Aunt Orange? I'm so spitting mad right now, I don't think I can talk about it."

Without even a backward glance, she'd packed up her things and left Burr and Mom all alone.

"Oh, Jackie, forgive me! What can I do to help?"

"Maybe a glass of orange juice: get some sugar and vitamin C into her or something."

"Of course. Two glasses, please, Cloves, and you sit down as well, Jackie. You look like you're about to collapse!"

"Yeah, I... Fluttershy? I'm squeezing in next to you, OK?"

Warmth pressed solidly against her, Applejack's wonderfully familiar touch shocking Fluttershy, making her blink and gasp and burst out with, "But that's not true! I did go back! After I got my cutie mark! I went back and showed them and thought it might make a difference! But it didn't! They still didn't care, still didn't want me there! So what else was I supposed to do?? What else was I—??"

Hoofs grabbed the sides of her head, and Fluttershy found herself looking at Applejack, her complexion a much darker orange than usual. "Honeycomb!" Relief flooded those lovely green eyes. "Are you OK?? Can you hear me??"

Fluttershy blinked and realized she'd been lost in her thoughts—"zoning out," Rainbow Dash had always called it—something that hadn't really happened to her since, well, probably since the last time she'd talked to Burr... Blushing, she tried to look away, but Applejack was still holding onto her—

And Applejack wasn't wearing her hat. Alarm shot through Fluttershy...until she noticed the weight on top of her own head, the familiar crisp brown brim just visible at the top of her field of vision. With a sigh, she dropped her gaze. "I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean to be a bother."

Her alarm mixed with joy as Applejack threw her front legs around her, wrapping her in a fierce embrace. "Thank Celestia! You was so totally out of it, I couldn't think what to do! Other'n get you back here, then go and buck that brother of yours clear out into the middle of the harbor!"

"Oh. Ummm..." Fluttershy leaned against Applejack, inhaled the earthy scent of her mane, and tried not to think about how much she might enjoy watching Silver Burr get kicked into the path of an oncoming steamboat. "He...he was so much nicer before Dad left."

"Ah." The sad little sound reminded Fluttershy that she'd heard Applejack's aunt speaking earlier, but she didn't want to pull back from the sweet strength of Applejack's hug. "You're a child of divorce as well, Fluttershy?"

Applejack's grip quivered, and she pushed away just a bit, Fluttershy's heart tightening. "That reminds me, Aunt Orange." And for all the sadness in her voice, her delicious Manehattan accent still sent a thrill up Fluttershy's spine. "I believe I'll be paying Mother a visit while I'm in town."

The silence across the room folded Fluttershy's ears, and when she looked over, she saw much more than simple surprise on the older mare's face. "I...I'm not certain I'd recommend that, Jackie."

That made Applejack's chin come up and her eyes narrow; Fluttershy started stroking a hoof along Applejack's neck in the hope that it might keep her calm. Whether it was working or not, Fluttershy couldn't tell, but Applejack didn't shout at least when she asked, "And why is that?"

"Marmie, she—" Mrs. Orange shook her head. "Your mother, I mean. She—"

Movement at the room's doorway interrupted her, and Cloves came in, two glasses of orange juice floating in the cinnamon-sparkle glow of his horn. "Miss Applejack? Miss Fluttershy? Is there anything else you need?"

Briefly glancing away from her aunt, Applejack shook her head, but Fluttershy gave the unicorn butler a smile as she took the glass in her hoofs. "Thank you, Mr. Cloves. This should be just fine."

He set Applejack's glass on the table, nodded, and left. Fluttershy took a sip from the straw even though the tension in the room left her stomach feeling about the size of a walnut and gently lay one wing across Applejack's back, Applejack gazing fixedly at her aunt once more. "You were saying something about my mother?"

Mrs. Orange sighed and climbed up to settle onto one of the other sofas. "I go to see Marmalade at least once a week, and she...she's fine, Jackie. In her own way, that is."

Applejack's muscles felt as hard as cord wood. "And what way is that?"

"She..." Mrs. Orange crossed her front hoofs daintily. "She thinks it's still twenty-five years ago. As near as the doctors can tell, she's mentally stuck there and doesn't recall meeting your father, doesn't recall her life in Ponyville, doesn't recall...doesn't recall you or your brother or your sister. Often, she...she mistakes me for our mother when I come to visit, and when mother herself stops in, Marmie thinks she's talking to our late grandmother Pekoe..."

Fluttershy kept letting her feathers drift along Applejack's back and felt more than a little relieved when the muscles there shivered and relaxed a bit. "Ah. Yes. Well." Applejack puffed through her nostrils. "Macintosh mentioned something about that." She shuddered again, but the horrible atmosphere in the room, Fluttershy was happy to notice, seemed to be draining away as Applejack unwound under Fluttershy's pinions. "Still, Aunt Orange, I have to see her. I...I have to."

Mrs. Orange was nodding. "Very well. I'll call Bellview tomorrow and make arrangements for us to—"

"No." The sharpness in Applejack's tone almost made Fluttershy stop her ministrations. "Thank you, aunt, but this is something I have to do on my own."

And there was no possible way Fluttershy could keep quiet at that. "On your own?" she asked.

Applejack's ears dipped, and she turned her head, a sheepish smile pulling at her snout. "On our own, I mean, of course, honeycomb."

Fluttershy gave a nod and couldn't help smiling at Mrs. Orange's little chuckle across the room. "Well, let me know when you're ready, and I'll give the hospital a call. They have regular visiting hours, of course, but I've always felt it polite to let them know when we're coming." She brushed her hoofs together and gave a smile. "On a happier note, however, we've had nothing but acceptances to the party this evening! It's already being spoken of as the social event of the season!"

Which was all it took for ice to flood through every part of Fluttershy's body.

***

"You look—" Applejack stopped, tried to find the right word to describe Fluttershy shivering in front of their room's mirror, one of the several green sweaters she'd brought with her stretching deliciously around her. "Mouth-watering," she finally went with.

Fluttershy blushed and looked away, but Applejack caught the smile that pulled at her lips. "That's not very helpful."

"Sorry, honeycomb." She tugged at the vest she'd thrown into her own pack for the inevitable party Aunt and Uncle would want to throw, then she stuck her nose in the air and said in her thickest Manehattan accent, "When it comes to telling you how beautiful you are, I can no longer be counted on to be in any way objective."

That got an actual giggle out of Fluttershy, and Applejack nearly suggested they send their regrets downstairs and spend the rest of the evening up here cuddling. That whole awful walk back to the Oranges' after meeting Silver Burr, Fluttershy barely moving—barely breathing, for that matter—the whole way, it had scared AJ worse'n anything ever had in her whole entire life. Calming Fluttershy down from her quiet little panic attack about Aunt's party had been pretty much standard operating procedure compared with trying to figure out how to get her outta that building and up the road the ten blocks to Aunt and Uncle's place.

And now? AJ couldn't stop grinning to see Fluttershy arranging and rearranging a few strands of her mane, her wings twitching just a bit through the slits in the back of her sweater. "Your aunt and uncle are very nice ponies," Fluttershy was saying, "so I'm sure all your cousins will be very nice, too."

"They'd better be." Applejack put on her serious face and stepped over to nudge her shoulder. "But you just stick right with me as much as you need to, honeycomb. You don't even hafta talk to nopony if'n you don't want to."

The smile that Fluttershy turned toward her was nothing short of beatific. "You always know exactly how to make me feel comfortable, Applejack. I don't think I would've made it today seeing Burr without..." She swallowed, her smile fading.

Applejack touched her paling face. "You're done with him. And I was one hunderd percent serious about kicking him into the bay if'n you want."

That got some warmth back into her cheek, but she still didn't smile. "Oh, no, you...you mustn't. Please tell me that you won't."

Taking Fluttershy's hoof, Applejack brought it to her lips. "In this, as in all things," she said in as flowery a manner as she could, "I am your humble servant."

Again, Fluttershy's smile shone like the noontime sun coming out after a dank, overcast morning, and Applejack gestured to the door. "Now, let's go see who all's showed up for Aunt and Uncle's shin-dig."

It sounded to be a fairly respectable crowd, AJ thought, leading Fluttershy down the stairs, the mumble of friendly chatter reaching her ears from the various parlors and sitting rooms; Fluttershy must've thought so, too, the way she squeezed closer to Applejack. The only ponies in sight, though, were Uncle Orange and Cousin Tangelo, talking quietly just past the bottom step. Uncle seemed to keeping an eye peeled for them, 'cause he gave a nod and a smile soon as they made the turn at the landing. "Evening, fillies."

Descending with Fluttershy to join the two gentlecolts on the hall carpet, Applejack nodded back. "Guarding the pass, are you?"

Tangelo put a hoof to his chest, his natural-born Manehattan accent thicker'n anything Applejack knew she could muster on her best day. "Mother threatened us with the most ghastly of tortures should we carelessly allow anypony to disturb your preparations." He waggled his eyebrows at AJ. "In your case, cousin, I don't see how any number of hours could make much difference, but you, Miss Fluttershy,—" He swept into an elegant bow. "You're an absolute vision of loveliness."

"Thank you," Fluttershy murmured almost too quietly for AJ to hear even standing right next to her, but then she shrank back into her hair, her eyes going wide. "Oh, dear! I...I hope we haven't kept you all waiting!"

"Tut, tut, my dear." Uncle Orange patted her hoof. "It's just a little family get-together."

"Is it now?" Applejack couldn't help giving Tangelo some of her own eyebrow action. "Somepony other than Aunt Orange took charge, then?"

Uncle Orange rolled his eyes, but Tangelo laughed. "When Mother and Father say 'a little family get-together,' I often think they mean it the same way your friend Princess Celestia might. Fewer griffon ambassadors, perhaps, but otherwise—"

"Griffons??" Fluttershy's squeak struck Applejack as sharp as a needle.

AJ turned and managed to whack Tangelo in the shoulder before resting the same hoof gently on Fluttershy's. "It's OK, honeycomb. Cousin Tangelo here's always had delusions of being some kinda comedian."

That Tangelo blushed made Applejack remember why he was her favorite Orange cousin. "Forgive me, Miss Fluttershy." He gave a more regular sorta bow. "If you would find it more seemly, I shall endeavor to restrain my natural exuberance."

"Oh, no!" Fluttershy touched the sleeve of his dinner jacket. "Applejack and I have a dear friend named Pinkie Pie who's very much the same way, and I wouldn't ever want her to feel bad about it! So you mustn't, either!"

"Well!" Tangelo turned to AJ with as smug a look as she'd seen on anypony's face in a month of Sundays. "To have my sense of humor compared to the Element of Laughter herself, I have to say, completely vindicates me for all the times in our youth that I short-sheeted your bed, cousin."

"And the frogs I'd put into yours?"

He sniffed. "No. That was just cruel."

Uncle Orange gave a discreet little cough. "If I might suggest we join the others, Tangelo? Before your mother comes searching for us with that tight-lipped look on her face?"

Tangelo's expression of phony horror was so over the top, Applejack had to laugh, and she almost did a little dance when she heard Fluttershy giggling, too. The four of them moved as a group into the next room, and even the two dozen or so unfamiliar ponies sipping drinks and munching hors d'oeuvres didn't seem to do more than make Fluttershy move closer to Applejack, something AJ didn't mind in the slightest.

Aunt Orange's smile struck AJ as more relieved than tight-lipped. "I'm so glad you were feeling up to our little soiree, Fluttershy." She slipped between Fluttershy and Tangelo. "Let me introduce you to the Orange side of Applejack's lineage."

And they pretty much all were family, Applejack was a mite surprised to discover: Uncle Orange's family, sure—his older sisters Valencia and Bergamot and their kids, mostly Applejack's age or older with wives, husbands or significant others in tow—but AJ knew them from the time she'd spent here in Manehattan. Back then, she'd called 'em aunts and cousins even though they weren't blood kin, and now she found herself grinning from ear to ear hearing about what they'd all been up to since the last time she'd been in these parts.

They were all real nice to Fluttershy, too, and after the way Silver Burr had acted, Applejack wanted to just kiss each and ev'ry last pony there. Fluttershy's smile lost pretty near all its strain after less'n ten minutes, and she even got involved in the conversation when folks started asking about the princesses and Discord and the Crystal Empire and all that. By the time Cloves was announcing dinner, Applejack was feeling better'n she had since the last Apple family reunion, and most of the younger fillies in the group were gathered around Fluttershy like cats basking in a sunbeam.

"This is so awesome!" the only unicorn in the room was saying, her eyes practically spinning as ev'rypony moved to take their places: Cousin Minneola had introduced her as Silk Screen, her roommate at the Manehattan Institute of the Arts. "Say you've come to town to get back into modeling! Please tell me that's happening!"

"Oh. Ummm, no, actually." Enough discomfort came into Fluttershy's face that Applejack got ready to step in. But instead of folding up, Fluttershy took a breath, looked around the table, and very nearly raised her voice. "You folks might be able to help, in fact, with why Applejack and I are here. If...if you wouldn't mind, I mean."

"Help?" Tangelo put a hoof to his perfect shirt front. "In any way that we can, of course!"

A smile flickered across Fluttershy's face, then evaporated as she looked down. "I...I'm trying to reconnect with my own family: we...we were never very, well, very close, I suppose you would say. I saw my brother earlier today for the first time in...in a very long time, and he said our mother Carnation is doing alterations now for—"

"Carnation?" Cousin Satsuma said from the other side of the table. "She's your mother?"

Applejack blinked. "You know her?"

Satsuma turned to her husband. "Shears works with her at Lace Brocade's."

***

Parties were always kind of blurry for Fluttershy, and while the Orange's dinner was really very nice, it all got a little unfocused after Applejack's cousin had said she knew Mom. Fluttershy tried her best to be sociable, was pretty sure she answered whenever anypony asked her a question, and the food was very good, the portions small and cute and about all she felt she could handle in her stomach at the thought that the pony across the table had seen Mom recently...

After dinner, there was more chatting, the room warm with the scents of coffee and tea, and Fluttershy whispered to Applejack, "May we please go talk to your cousin?"

She didn't want to be rude and point to which cousin she meant, but Applejack of course already knew and quickly ushered her over to the small brownish earth pony with the white flowering tree on her flank, her husband not much larger, light red, and showing a pair of pinking shears for his cutie mark. "Satsuma? Shears? A moment?" Applejack asked them.

"Of course!" Satsuma had kind, clear eyes that made Fluttershy think of sunlight on a flowing stream. "We were just saying—"

"It's so odd." Shears was shaking his head. "Carnation's been at the shop for more than a year now, and I've never heard her mention that she has a daughter, much less that she's, well, that she's related to you, Fluttershy."

"Ah." Fluttershy tried to keep her breath from racing. "Well, she...she wouldn't bring it up, I'm sure..."

Applejack moved close, and Fluttershy pressed herself even closer. "It's, uhhh..." Applejack's voice sounded rough. "It's kind of a bad situation." A little silence, then she went on: "Is Carnation gonna be working tomorrow?"

"You know?" Shears cocked his front leg and glanced at the watch around his pastern. "I think she might be at the shop right now. She's working on an order for Soubrette, the opera singer, so she's been coming in each afternoon this week and is sometimes still there when I arrive the next morning." He looked over at her. "We could head over right now if—"

Satsuma elbowed him in the ribs. "I'm sure Fluttershy has already had quite the strenuous day, dear. Why don't we plan on getting together tomorrow and—?"

"Tonight, please," Fluttershy heard somepony say, and she was a little surprised at how much it sounded like her. After all, she knew that Satsuma was right. On the train for most of the day, then getting unpacked here, and finally that dreadful talk with Silver Burr: she must be much too exhausted to try seeing Mom now. And yet, there she was saying, "I would very much like to see if she's there tonight."

"Honeycomb?" Applejack asked, and her love and concern so filled that one word, Fluttershy just wanted to close her eyes and revel in the sound.

But she couldn't. "Please." She touched a hoof to Applejack's front leg. "The longer I put this off, the longer I'll want to keep putting it off. If we could go now, that would be—" She turned back to Shears. "I'm sorry, but could we, please? If it wouldn't be too much trouble?"

Shears looked like he wanted to be anywhere other than where he was, a feeling Fluttershy knew all too well, and Satsuma blew out a breath. "If you think it'll help," she said.

So Applejack asked Cloves to call a cab, and as soon as she let Mr. and Mrs. Orange know that they were leaving, it seemed as if the whole party knew, several of Applejack's wonderful aunts and uncles and cousins volunteering to come with them. Fluttershy didn't want to tell them no, didn't want to tell them that she knew she was going to fall completely to pieces seeing her mother and that she'd prefer not having such nice, friendly ponies watch the terrible things that were about to happen, but she couldn't find the words, couldn't even manage to shake her head.

Fortunately,— "Thank you all," Applejack said beside her. "This meeting's gonna be a mite sensitive, and as much as we'd appreciate having the whole mob of you at our backs, I reckon we'll hafta make do with your moral support alone. Besides, ain't no way all of us'd fit into a taxicab."

That got a chuckle from everypony, then Cloves was entering the parlor to say that the cab had arrived. Fluttershy stood by the front door while Shears and Satsuma said their good nights and Applejack sprinted upstairs to grab her hat and her pack. Mrs. Orange promised they wouldn't lock up till Applejack and Fluttershy returned, and Fluttershy sort of watched herself follow Applejack and her cousin and her cousin's husband down the front steps. Across the sidewalk, up into the cab, and Shears told the address to the big pony in the harness; he nodded and began trotting them along the darkened streets, Fluttershy feeling both too hot and too cold with her sweater wrapped around her.

It was a quiet ride—or at least Fluttershy didn't notice if Applejack or the others said anything. In the same way that she had before meeting with Silver Burr, she was frantically running over things she could possibly say, trying to find some magical word or phrase that would make her mother see, would make her mother understand, would make her mother smile at her after so many years.

Of course, a part of her knew those words didn't exist. She hadn't been able to find them for Silver Burr, after all, and neither could Applejack who was so much better with words than Fluttershy was. But she had to hope. She had to believe. She had to wish that somehow, in some way—

The cab rattled to a stop, and Fluttershy started at the unmistakable touch of Applejack's hoof to her shoulder. "We're here, honeycomb."

She blinked, focused on Applejack, then looked past her at the big dark building the cab had pulled up beside. "So soon?" she managed to squeak out.

Applejack nodded. "You want me to do the talking again?"

As much as she wanted to say, It won't do any good, she instead said, "I'm sorry, but yes, please." She turned to Satsuma and Shears, both of them looking as uncomfortable as she felt. "And thank you both so much. You've made this so much easier for me."

Satsuma sighed. "Than why do I feel like I've made a terrible mistake?"

And as much as she wanted to say, Oh, it'll be terrible, all right. But it won't be a mistake, she instead just gave them as much of a smile as she could and stepped down from the cab.

***

Big and square and shadowy with high, arched windows and a crudely stenciled sign on the front, the House of Brocade squatted in the middle of the block more like a factory than any sort of dressmaker's studio. Applejack stood on the sidewalk beside Fluttershy and Shears and just plain couldn't imagine Rarity looking around with anything other than a turned-up nose. "You sure this is the right place?" she asked Shears.

Shears rolled his eyes. "If you knew anything about Lace Brocade's designs, you'd know that she often incorporates metallic elements of her own forging into her—"

Applejack frantically waved a front hoof. "I withdraw the question." She took a breath to steady her nerves and found it didn't work. "Thanks, though, for you and Satsuma holding the cab for us. We...we shouldn't be too long."

His keys in his mouth, Shears unlocked the door and pushed it open. "You sure you don't want me to come in?"

"No," Fluttershy barely whispered, but Applejack couldn't miss the anguish behind her words. "Thank you again. We'll try not to be more of a bother than we've already been." And she stepped through into the semi-darkness inside.

Patting Shears on the shoulder, Applejack followed, a wavery light bouncing around the big, open space on the other side of the door. Foundry equipment lay silent and cold to their left, sewing machines and looms to their right, racks holding clothes in various stages of completion lined up ahead of them, and Applejack revised her opinion: Rarity would give her eye teeth to have the run of a place like this.

"There," Fluttershy said quietly, and Applejack followed her pointing hoof through the racks of clothing to the room's only lantern suspended along the far wall. And under it, a lemon-lime pegasus pony hunched in front of a ponikin figure with quite a fancy dress on it, the pegasus working with hoofs and teeth to attach what looked like tiny beads along the hem.

After seeing and hearing Silver Burr, Applejack couldn't imagine what this was all gonna be like, so she nuzzled Fluttershy's neck and whispered, "You wanna wear the hat?"

Fluttershy's eyes went wide, but the smile that shivered around her snout was the closest to something other than stark terror that Applejack had seen on that dear, dear face in more'n an hour. "I love you," Fluttershy whispered back. "But for this, I...I don't think it'll help." She pushed away then, a spasm of motion that propelled her through the clothing racks and into the light on the other side.

Sucking in a breath, Applejack followed, reached her side just as the older pegasus mare's ears flicked through the thinning strands at the front of her peach-colored mane. She craned her head around, and eyes as beautiful a blue-green as her beloved's were gazing coldly back at her, Applejack completely unsure what to do next.

"Hi, Mom," Fluttershy said, the sound as fragile as a soap bubble.

Silence filled the whole vast room, then Fluttershy's mother turned and went back to work on the dress.

And while Fluttershy didn't pop, she came all over entirely forlorn, not just her expression but her whole body, everything about her shrinking into her sweater and her mane.

Anger burst through Applejack, but she swallowed it down. "Ms. Carnation?" She stepped forward, a little surprised at how steady she managed to sound. "My name's Applejack, and your daughter and I have come to—"

"No, you haven't," said a voice like a winter-bare branch tapping a midnight windowpane. "She's here because she wants something, and you, whoever you are, you're here because she's tricked you into getting it for her." The needle flew between her hoofs and her teeth, her wings quivering as well to waft it around way too fast for Applejack to follow. "We might as well all be honest with each other right from the start, don't you think?"

"Honest?" Applejack gave a little hiccuppy laugh and felt a ton and a half better for it, her anger loosening around her middle. "Now you're speaking my language, ma'am!"

Ms. Carnation's ears flicked again, but she didn't look away from her needle slinging. So Applejack took another step toward her and went on: "Truth is, we are looking for something from you, something we can't get from nopony else, and something that'll only cost you thirty seconds with your mouth open. But the truth also is that she didn't hafta trick me into coming. 'Cause I'm crazy in love with her and she's crazy in love with me."

"Ah." Ms. Carnation turned then, a smile scuttling slow as a spider across her face. "That's her best trick, actually." She wafted into the air, her front hoofs touching just at her breastbone. "She's so exquisitely lovely, after all, so perfectly formed and finely wrought in every apparent detail." Those eyes darted over to meet Applejack's, and again, she felt the electric lick of The Stare stroking over her. "Is she not?"

It took some effort, but Applejack nodded.

"But that's her curse, you see." The older pegasus drifted in a wide circle around the frozen and withdrawn Fluttershy, her shoulders hunched and her mane covering her face. "She lures you in with her sweetness, ensnares you with her love and her kindness and her devotion, makes you think she's one of Celestia feathers shed from on high, come to life, and bestowed upon you. And then?" Ms. Carnation had come all the way around by that time and settled to the floor beside Applejack, ev'ry one of AJ's instincts yelling at her to run. "Then she destroys you and everything you hold dear."

Applejack cleared her throat. "I've known your daughter for more'n a couple years now, ma'am, and I...I ain't found that to be the case."

"Give her time." Ms. Carnation was looking at Fluttershy, and sitting this close to her, Applejack could see the small twitches racing up and down her neck. "Fifteen, sixteen years, then bam!" She stomped a hoof, and Applejack coulda sworn ev'rything loose in the entire building rattled and shook. "Overnight, she'll tear it all away, stomp you into the ground, and flutter away to her next conquest. It's what she does." Her voice dropped to a growl. "It's what that thing is..."

And with those five little words, ev'ry ounce of AJ's anger roared back into place. Gritting her teeth, she forced out, "Gonna disagree with you mightily on that, ma'am."

Ms. Carnation's head swiveled toward her so slowly, Applejack was sure she heard a sound like a rusty hinge. "Then you're as much of a fool as I once was, and I have nothing more to say to you." She rose to all fours and moved past Applejack toward the dress she'd been working on.

Slinging off her pack, Applejack grabbed Twilight's little case and pulled out one of the collection sticks. "How 'bout this, ma'am?" she asked, making an effort to clench the stick loosely so she wouldn't activate it. "You lemme swirl this thing around inside your mouth for three seconds, and I promise you I will do ev'rything in my power to make sure you never lay eyes on your daughter again for the resta your natural-born life." She raised the cottony end of the stick higher into the light. "That sound like a deal?"

Another moment of suspended silence, Carnation standing unmoving with her back to them, and Applejack started planning her next move: leaping over, slugging Carnation as hard as she could across the face, and jabbing the stick into her mouth when she screamed. No way Fluttershy'd approve, but it'd get their sample, and the tension winching AJ's shoulders tight as rocks would maybe stop screaming at her to—

"You know?" Carnation turned. "That's actually worth three seconds." She opened her mouth, and AJ leaped with her carefullest aim, swabbed around, pulled the stick out just as Carnation snapped her teeth shut. Applejack used her own teeth to set the purple fire of Twilight's spell glowing, then tucked the stick away into the case. "Now get that thing out of here," Carnation said, her voice still as smooth as ice, and AJ looked up to see she was back at her dress again.

Not trusting herself to speak, Applejack made sure Twilight's case was safely settled in her pack, then made her way back to Fluttershy, still sitting where she'd been the whole time, her sides barely moving. "Time to get up, honeycomb," she whispered, kissing her gently on the nose, but just like earlier with her brother, that didn't seem to make a bit of difference. She might as well have been some kinda statue.

Without sighing—she wouldn't give Carnation the satisfaction of hearing it—AJ flipped her hat onto Fluttershy's head, then butted her own head against her marefriend's flanks, coaxing and chivvying her till she was standing. "We're heading out now, OK?" More nudging against her shoulder got Fluttershy shuffling in a circle, and as soon as she was facing the door, Applejack gave her a push from behind. "Start walking, and we'll be outta here lickety-split."

It took a little longer than that, Applejack wanting the whole way to rant and rave and fume and bring this whole consarn building down on the head of that...that...that—

"Applejack?" A stallion's voice, Shears peering in from the front door. "We were getting a little—" His eyes went wide. "Fluttershy? Is she...OK?"

"She will be." Her throat felt so tight, Applejack wasn't sure how she got the words out. "Can we head back to Aunt and Uncle's, please?"

A little cajoling got Fluttershy into the cab, and the ride back was even quieter'n the ride out. By the time they pulled up at Aunt and Uncle's place, AJ had cooled down enough to give Satsuma and Shears a tired smile. "Thanks, and I mean really. Fluttershy needed to do this. But, uhhh..." She almost let her anger take over again, but she breathed it back down. "Next time you see Carnation, I'd appreciate it if'n you wouldn't mention anything about all this. She made it all kindsa clear she don't wanna see Fluttershy again, and that feeling's more'n mutual."

The two nodded, and Applejack steered Fluttershy out onto the sidewalk and back up the stairs, Cloves waiting silently at the open door. "Is there anything I can get for either of you, Miss Applejack?"

She shook her head, nudged Fluttershy toward the darkened stairs. "I reckon sleep'll help the most, Cloves, but thanks."

"Good night, then, Miss."

"Good night." Using head and hoofs, she guided Fluttershy up and into their room, the urge to slam the door shut like she was bucking a fifty foot apple tree nigh onto irresistible.

She didn't, though, just closed it quiet and gentle, not wanting to disturb the silence of the house. Except—

A soft shuffling sound made her perk her ears, a steady rhythm to it and something else, something like...

Like the strumming of a guitar. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Fluttershy, the hat drooping to shadow most of her face, her mouth opening, her sweet voice drained colorless and singing:

"The walls collapse and fall.
I'm pinned and cannot rise.
My blood slows to a crawl,
Frozen by their eyes."

Her head came up, her eyes fixing on Applejack so sad and deep, AJ couldn't breathe, and Fluttershy sang even more plaintively:

"Hold me close;
Let me rest tonight against you tenderly.
Please whisper it'll be all right.
Please whisper that to me.
Please whisper that to me."

Applejack practically flew across the room and swept Fluttershy into the biggest hug she could manage, her marefriend as cold and unresponsive as a mass of wet bed sheets on laundry day, her whole face clenched as she gave a second verse:

"My eyes don't want to see.
My ears don't want to hear.
They tear my heart from me
Ev'ry time they're near."

Those eyes rolled open and stopped Applejack's breath again.

"Hold me close;
Let me rest tonight against you tenderly.
Please whisper it'll be all right.
Please whisper that to me.
Please whisper that to me."

Her vision clouding up, Applejack raised Fluttershy and set her onto the bed, wrapped her close, tried to will some of her own warmth into her friend's shivering body. "Hang on," she whispered, the music continuing its quiet shuffle behind her. "We'll get through this. I promise you, honeycomb: we will."

A twitch and a touch, Fluttershy finally moving, her breath cold against Applejack's chest and carrying another verse:

"Their lightning shakes the sky.
Their thunder cracks the ground.
I'll say my last good-bye
To them without a sound."

Looking down, Applejack met Fluttershy's eyes, those beautiful lips singing:

"Hold me close;
Let me rest tonight against you tenderly.
Please whisper it'll be all right.
Please whisper that to me. Please—"

Her voice broke, and the music shuffled along a few more beats before cutting off, Fluttershy finishing on her own: "Whisper that to me."

Applejack pressed herself to those lips, her heart jabbing her as jagged as a pine cone. "It'll be all right," she said over and over till she felt Fluttershy relax into sleep against her. "It'll be all right."

Author's Note

When I first:

Started putting together notes for Igneous, the whole Fluttershy part of this story, I knew that the end of chapter 5 needed to have her sing something like "So I Can Take My Rest," one of the standout songs Robert Earl Keen wrote for his 1993 album, A Bigger Piece of Sky. But I knew that I couldn't actually use "So I Can Take My Rest" 'cause I'd hafta rewrite more than half the song to make it into something a pony might sing.

But that's OK, I told myself. I'm sure I'll find another song

Well, turns out I couldn't. So if you take the link above and listen to the song, you'll see that only the first verse is left untouched from the original. I changed one word of the chorus--"arms" becomes "hoofs" here--then I rewrote the 2nd and 3rd verses to fit the situation while trying to keep as much of Keen's imagery as I could.

Then, after this friendly reminder from the moderators, I went back and rewrote the rest of it, too. So it's now a whole new song!

6 - Igneous: Granite

That awful whispering voice in her head woke Fluttershy slowly: No, no, it was saying. Don't open your eyes. It'll be better for you and everypony else if you just go right on sleeping. Forever, in fact...

Memories of the night before jabbed at her, and she tried to curl into a ball. But—

Movement all along her back, a warm, wonderful flexing of long, sinuous muscles, and her every nerve ending lit up like a sky full of shooting stars. "Morning, honeycomb," Applejack murmured into her ear, and Fluttershy realized she was spooned in her marefriend's embrace, Applejack's front and back legs wrapping around to squeeze Fluttershy gently between them.

Such an intense sensation of safety and security flooded her that she let out a happy little moan, her wiggler pulsing against the inside of her lacinia. Applejack's low, luscious chuckle got another pulse from it, and her hoof sliding along Fluttershy's side, across her stomach, and resting on her bulging flap just about set it to bursting.

"Well, now." Applejack's sweet breath tickled the nape of Fluttershy's neck, and that hoof began tickling her lacinia. "Anypony home?"

Fluttershy couldn't hold in a gasp as her lacinia sprang open, her wiggler popping out. "Oh, yeah," Applejack said from somewhere—either Applejack was moving or she was, Fluttershy finding it a little difficult to think when Applejack's caresses, so soft and coaxing but so firm and insistent, were setting her wiggler to stretching and stiffening.

The world rolled, and Fluttershy opened her eyes for the first time, saw that she was on her back, the light of a new spring morning splashed over the ceiling above her, all the warmth she'd felt from Applejack now concentrated around her hind legs. Panic stabbed her, and she bent her neck to look down along her chest.

Applejack lay stretched out on the lower part of their bed, her front hoofs resting on the insides of Fluttershy's thighs, her gaze fixed on Fluttershy's wiggler, tall and bulging, all red and pink and yellow. "Oh, yeah," Applejack said again. "That's what I'm talking about..." She licked her lips and left them open, started leaning forward, a sort of fire coming into her eyes, the panting of her breath stroking the tip of Fluttershy's—

"No!" Fluttershy managed to get it out as a strangled grunt rather than the scream she was hearing in her head.

Still, it made Applejack look up and blink. "Honeycomb?"

Ears folding, Fluttershy reached down, curled her hoofs around Applejack's, and pulled. Applejack didn't move, of course, but she anchored Fluttershy, let her slide herself along the bedclothes and slip her body underneath her marefriend's till they were nose to nose, chest to chest, stomach to stomach and flap to flap. "Please," she told Applejack's surprised face. "I want you where I can see you." She dug her hoofs into the golden glory of Applejack's unbound mane. "Where I can touch you." She was panting now, her wiggler pressing hungrily against Applejack's lacinia. "Where I can taste you..."

And pulling Applejack's head down, she pushed her lips into hers, poured out every ounce of the love and desire she felt for her strong, beautiful, marvelous friend. Half a heartbeat, and Applejack gave a wordless rumble deep in her throat, cradled Fluttershy in her front legs, and returned the kiss with such passion, it swirled Fluttershy away like a storm wind, wild and powerful and maybe just a little bit scary. It was a good kind of scary, though, an idea Fluttershy had never understood till that exact moment.

Lost in bliss, Fluttershy had no idea how long the kiss lasted before Applejack pulled away, but opening her eyes again, she smiled when Applejack said, "That's one mighty compelling argument." A lovely crinkling sound sent the sweet aroma of aroused mare drifting up. "Reckon we oughtta explore it more in depth..." Her hips shifted on top of Fluttershy, and Fluttershy pressed her snout into Applejack's neck to muffle her yelp as Applejack slid hot and tight and perfect around Fluttershy's wiggler.

She couldn't find the words for it, but then she didn't have to, clinging to Applejack's broad back and abandoning all thought, all reason, all control. Pinned between the soft comfort of the mattress and the fervid desire of her marefriend, Fluttershy just let go and dissolved in the pure liquid pleasure surging through her from Applejack's body. With each thrust of those powerful hindquarters, Fluttershy felt herself both plunging deeper and deeper into the hidden recesses of Applejack's core and stretching higher and higher toward the starburst pinnacle of sensation. Constrained by Applejack, she still expanded, still spiraled upward, infinite light and heat boiling up within her until—until—

She screamed, bellowed, everything within her pumping forth in sheer ecstasy, the universe shattering into confetti like all of Pinkie's party cannons going off at once. Minutes, hours, days it seemed to last, Applejack quaking above and around her, Fluttershy never wanting it to end, never wanting anything but this to happen to her ever, ever, ever again.

The torrent, though, became a rush at some point, became a stream, became a trickle, and she found herself floating along, still on her back, Applejack sprawled partly over her and partly over the blankets, her snout gently nuzzling Fluttershy's ear and murmuring in that extra husky voice: "Love, love, love, love, love..."

Fluttershy took a breath, relaxation like a warm bath around her, and immediately gasped in alarm. "Oh, dear! I hope my shrieking didn't wake your aunt and uncle."

"Shrieks?" Applejack's chuckles shook her. "You squeaked a mite into my shoulder, honeycomb, but other'n that..."

Blinking, Fluttershy looked over—

And saw tears in Applejack's shimmering eyes, something that wasn't quite a smile and wasn't quite a frown wavering on her face. "Applejack? Are you OK? I...I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Sniffling, Applejack reached out, stroked a hoof so softly through Fluttershy's mane that she could barely feel it. "I don't wanna say."

Alarm shocked her sideways, Fluttershy leaping into a hover. "Oh! I did! I'm so, so sorry! I'll get Cloves to call a doctor and—"

"No, honeycomb!" The smile part of Applejack's odd mixed expression got bigger, Applejack reaching up, taking Fluttershy's hoofs in her own, and pulling her back onto the bed. "It ain't nothing like that. It's just—"

The frown surged over her, and with a growl, Applejack rolled onto the floor, her anger spiking so sharply, Fluttershy could smell it. "Applejack?" she managed to ask.

"You're a miracle, d'you know that??" Applejack choked out, and her voice was another mixture, both sad and angry, Fluttershy thought. "I mean, I had the greatest life I could ever imagine, family and friends and work that I loved! And then you showed me your real self and...and ev'rything got better! Five hunderd thousand and fifty times better! More'n that! Just...a miracle! You! A miracle!"

Fluttershy couldn't breathe, her love for Applejack warring with a sudden fear for her. "And then!" Snorting, Applejack stomped a hoof and tossed her head, her loose hair puffing like a fireball. "Don't know as how I've ever rightly met a pony I'd call evil, but by thunder and mercy, that monster we met last night, she's all that and more! Thinking 'bout you growing up with that for your mother and still turning out who you are, I just—!"

Whirling, Applejack dropped kneeling to the floor beside the bed, her hoofs reaching up to clasp Fluttershy's. "I meant ev'ry word I said about keeping you away from her, and I swear to you on my life, my love, and my honor: if she so much as sets a hoof within ten miles of Ponyville, I will stomp her so hard, she ain't never getting up again! As long as I has breath in my body, that mare will not be coming near you!"

Sliding from the bed, Fluttershy threw her front legs around Applejack's neck, buried her face in that powerful chest, and drawing on her marefriend's strength, she said, "Don't let her do that to you, Applejack; please don't! It...it's one of her games, you see, the way she always pretends like she's the heroine of some overblown movie, or one of those novels where everypony's always shouting at everypony else." Moving her hoofs to Applejack's chest, she straightened so she could look directly into those wide green eyes. "Believe me: if you don't ignore her, she'll worm right into your brain and make you as crazy as she is. Just...let her go. That's all you can do. Let her go. Promise me."

Applejack blinked. "Honeycomb, I—"

"Promise." Fluttershy heard the hardness come into her voice, could feel that cold lump forming in the middle of her head, and while she couldn't really control the Stare, she knew the early warning signs of it all too well. And while most of her coping strategies involved running and hiding before the power could burst out of her, this time she couldn't turn away, had to make Applejack understand how important this was to her. Without, she hoped, zapping her with this other horrible legacy she'd inherited from her parents....

Forcing her breathing to slow, she tried to grasp for that pool of calm she'd felt lying in Applejack's embrace just a few minutes ago. "Please, Applejack. Promise me you'll never hit Mom or Silver Burr or my dad no matter what they do. Please."

A sort of shifty look came into Applejack's eyes, but Fluttershy was pretty sure she knew what that meant. "And no asking Big Macintosh or anypony else to hit them, either."

Lips pursing, Applejack puffed a breath through her nostrils. "Fine. No hitting, no kicking, no stomping their sorry faces, or nothing else like that."

The lump in her head melted away, and Fluttershy leaned into Applejack, rested her head on her shoulder. "I love you."

Applejack chuckled, the tension Fluttershy could feel in her muscles starting to smooth away. "And I love you. Even if you do got me wrapped around your pinfeathers..."

***

They took separate showers again—AJ was near to certain Aunt and Uncle didn't have a problem with her and Fluttershy being together, but after meeting Carnation and Silver Burr yesterday, she didn't mind at all keeping things a mite discreet. And it let her indulge in something she realized she'd never done before, the warm water running over her as she fantasized about what it'd be like when her and Fluttershy could finally be together in the big tub back home, soaping each other up and—

And she didn't have all morning. Humming the spell to keep her lacinia closed, she dried herself, waited for Fluttershy to finish combing her mane, then led the way downstairs.

They exchanged good mornings with Aunt Orange and Cousin Tangelo while Cloves set out two more bowls of oatmeal and a fresh plate of hash browns. "Cinnamon toast?" he asked.

Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically, so Applejack shrugged. "What the hay. We're on vacation, right?"

"Indeed?" Tangelo cocked his head. "Might one hope, then, that last night's meeting went better than expected?"

Judging by the way Tangelo's ears fell, Applejack figured the hot bubbles of anger that started boiling up inside her must've shown on her face. "Not so much, I take it?" he asked.

It still wasn't anything Applejack could talk about without wanting to break things, so she just shook her head. But— "Actually," Fluttershy murmured, surprising Applejack and making her look over, the pegasus sprinkling raisins on her oatmeal. "It was pretty much exactly what I was expecting. She doesn't ever want to see me again, and as terrible as it is to say, I...I think I'd be OK with that..."

"Oh, my dear." Aunt Orange reached a hoof across the table to touch Fluttershy's. "Well, now that you're with Jackie, you must think of us as your aunts and uncles and cousins; you simply must." She gave a quick nod, and Applejack's heart almost burst right through her ribs.

"I—" Fluttershy was blushing, but her smile shone like the first, sweet light of dawn. "I'd like that. Thank you."

Aunt Orange nodded again, and Cloves came in with their toast. Applejack dug in to her oatmeal, ev'rything so nice and warm and pleasant that she got another surprise when Fluttershy kept talking. "And, well, I don't want to be a bother, but Applejack thought that you or some of the others might be able to help me find my father."

AJ's oatmeal tried to go down the wrong pipe; she had to do some coughing while Tangelo arched an eyebrow at Fluttershy. "Did she, now?" He aimed the eyebrow at Applejack. "And why in Equestria would she think that?"

"Well, Dad's kind of famous. His name is Bolide, and he—"

"Bolide??" Tangelo did some coughing of his own. "The saucier?? He's your father??"

Finally able to breathe, Applejack asked, "You know him?"

"Who doesn't?" Dabbing his muzzle with a napkin, Tangelo looked genuinely distressed. "He was in the paper again not more than a week ago! A huge contretemps with Haute Cuisine when she wanted to put some new items on the menu at her restaurant; I mean, she had to call in the police! She fired him as she always does, but this time, she insists she'll never again let him into any of her kitchens." He shook his head. "Fluttershy, you have my sympathies."

Fluttershy gave about half a shrug, but it was all Applejack could do to keep from giving a stomp. "Then he's left town? You're sure?"

"Excuse me, but I don't recall saying he'd left town." Tangelo gave her a half-lidded glare. "He's been renting a suite for more than a year at the Carriage House on Park Avenue, and I've heard from several unimpeachable sources that he's taken up a permanent stool in their downstairs bar, muttering over and over about how it's just a matter of time before some other restaurant makes him an offer."

"It's true." Fluttershy sighed. "He was always getting fired when we were in Cloudsdale, but everypony was so convinced that he was the best saucier in town that, well, he just cycled from restaurant to restaurant." She blinked at Cousin Tangelo. "But a week, you said? That's a long time for him. I don't remember him ever being without a station for more than a couple days..."

Applejack tapped the table. "All right. We'll head over to the Carriage House, try to catch him before he gets too salted up, and—"

A crash from the hallway—the front door busting open, it sounded like. Hoofs clattered on the tile, Cloves appearing at the kitchen door with an alarmed look on his face, and a panicked voice shouted, "Cousin Jackie!" from the front room. AJ leaped to her hoofs just as her cousin Minneola pushed panting into the dining room. "Oh! Thank Celestia!"

Cloves cleared his throat. "Miss Minneola, madame, and her roommate Miss Silk Screen as well, I believe."

Sure enough, the light-gray unicorn with the mesh pattern cutie mark came tumbling in behind Minnie. "They're still here??" Silk Screen looked around with big amber eyes. "Yes!"

Fluttershy had gone all white around the eyes, so Applejack stepped over, reached up to adjust her hat only to discover she wasn't wearing it, then scowled and said in her best 'take charge' voice, "All right, now. Let's just simmer down, and you can tell us what'cha need from—"

"We need you guys!" Minnie was about a year younger than Applejack, her coat a lighter orange, her mane more honey colored, and her cutie mark a swoosh of red like she'd run smack into a paintbrush. She spun, planted a quick peck on Aunt Orange's cheek—"Morning, Auntie! Shut up, Tangelo!"—then whirled back to Applejack. "Today's our life drawing class at ManeArts, and our model had to cancel!" A blush darkened her face. "Silky kind of maybe blurted out completely by accident that Fluttershy was staying here, and Professor Vellum said—!"

"Extra credit!" Silk Screen pushed past Minneola and dropped to her knees on the dining room carpet, her gaze fixed on Fluttershy like a mare fresh off the desert eyeing a jug of cider. "Please! You gotta! 'Cause life drawing's just not my thing, but if I don't pass, I can't get into any of the classes I really want next semester!"

"Silky!" Minnie slid forward, shoving her shoulder so hard into Silk Screen's, the unicorn toppled right over. "Will you—!" She took a breath, and Applejack could just about smell the young mare trying to get herself under control. "I'm really sorry about this, Fluttershy. I know you don't like being in the spotlight, and I totally wouldn't blame you if you said 'no.'"

"What??" Silk Screen scrambled to her hoofs, but Minnie body-checked her back onto the floor.

"Thing is—" Minnie took another breath, and the glint that came into her eyes was something Applejack had only ever seen from Rarity. "It would be, like, such a privilege to be able to draw you, I just...I can't even tell you how much I'd—" She clapped a hoof over her mouth. "OK," she mumbled. "Gonna stop talking now."

Applejack blinked, looked back at Fluttershy, and met her wide-eyed gaze looking back. "Draw me? What...what does that mean?"

Silk Screen bounced up again. "It's so completely simple! You just stand there and—"

"No, no." Minneola still had that look in her eye. "You'd lie there all comfortable and relaxed like you're all on your own out in the woods somewhere, and we'd just sit there quietly with our easels or our pads or whatever and...and draw you. You wouldn't hafta look at us—I mean, it'd be even better if you didn't—and...and I can already see exactly the pattern of light and shadow I wanna do with your wings...." She shivered, stopped, and cleared her throat. "I mean, y'know, if you wouldn't mind."

AJ had to laugh, hearing somepony else use that phrase on Fluttershy, and she was glad when Fluttershy giggled, too. Wishing again that she had her hat on so she could push the brim back, she instead crossed one front hoof over the other and planted the tip in the carpet. "Reckon we can call on your dad later, but it's up to you, honeycomb."

"I..." Fluttershy smiled and rose gracefully to her hoofs. "I'll be happy to help."

"Yes!" Silk Screen leaped into the air with a hoof pump. "C+, here I come!"

Turned out, though, that the class didn't start till eleven o'clock, so Aunt Orange got the gals to settle down and have some breakfast while Cloves called for a cab. It gave AJ time to get her hat and bag from upstairs, but, well, it also gave Fluttershy time to get nervous, AJ inching close to stroke her side against Fluttershy's shivering wings. And when Cloves stepped in to announce the cab's arrival, Fluttershy startled so high, she near to smacked the ceiling. "But...what should I wear?" she squeaked.

"Nothing." Minneola smiled. "That's kinda what life drawing means, y'see..."

Tangelo sighed extravagantly and wished aloud that he didn't have an appointment with a client so he could attend—he did some sorta lawyering, AJ seemed to recall. Aunt Orange wished them well, and Silk Screen bounded down the steps, Minnie following a mite more sedately while Applejack gently prodded Fluttershy after them.

The cab ride went right through the heart of downtown, so Applejack started asking questions she already knew the answers to 'bout the fancy buildings they was passing. As she'd figured, Minnie and Silk Screen were natural-born tour guides, and the cabbie chimed in with some stories, too. So together, they managed to distract Fluttershy the whole way, even getting more'n a few smiles from her till the cab pulled up alongside the west side of Manehattan's Central Park, the Art Institute's buildings standing tall among the trees, a clock somewhere starting to strike eleven.

Applejack paid the cabbie and stuck with Fluttershy, the gals rushing ahead to a low building where an older unicorn with little square glasses, a pointy beard, and a tweed jacket was pacing, a sour look on his face. "Professor Vellum!" Minnie shouted, and he looked up.

"Miss Orange!" he snapped. "Eleven o'clock, I said!"

"Clock's still chiming, sir!" Silk Screen waved a hoof frantically. "So technically, we're on time!"

Squinting, the professor adjusted his glasses, and Applejack couldn't stop a grin at the change that came over his face when his gaze lit on the two of them coming along. "Miss Fluttershy!" he said, his voice suddenly as sweet as maple syrup. "I can't tell you what an honor it is to have you here!"

Fluttershy blushed, but Applejack could tell it was wunna her happy blushes. "Thank you. I'm sorry we're almost late."

"Oh, not at all, not at all!" His horn flared, and the door behind him swung open. "In fact, I may have mentioned to a few of my colleagues that we were expecting you to model for us, and, well, more than one of them asked me to stall the session till they could find somepony to cover their classes..."

They were moving down a hallway by then, and the professor's magic pushed another door open, quite a tangle of voices washing out. Minneola and Silk Screen scooted through, but Fluttershy froze, her tail frizzing out behind her. AJ leaned over, whispered as warm and soft as she could, "It'll be OK, honeycomb. We're just helping Cousin Minnie and her friend, remember?"

Blinking, Fluttershy gave one of her loud swallows. "Yes. Helping. That's...that's a good thing to do."

The professor stood by the door looking concerned, but Applejack showed him her biggest grin. "Where d'you want us, Teach?"

"Just in here." He gestured, and Applejack peered through the doorway into a large, low room, the walls, floor and ceiling painted black. To her left, black curtains hung down to frame a raised area with a pile of pillows, a few lights shining on them to make it look like a little stage. And to her right—

Ponies of ev'ry shape, size, and variety filled the room, some about Minnie's age, but some as old or older'n the professor, she guessed, all of 'em with easels or pads of paper, pencils or brushes gripped in mouths or pasterns or hovering in varyingly-colored clouds of magic.

There didn't seem to be quite enough space for 'em all, and Professor Vellum's scowl made her think he'd noticed, too. "Excuse me a moment," he murmured, then he stepped out in front of the little stage. "Good morning," he called, and the buzz of voices slowly dropped. "I'm glad so many of you could join us for this special occasion, but I must remind my colleagues that this is a session of Life Drawing 101. And as such, actual students enrolled in the class will be given priority when it comes to positioning themselves once our guest has taken her pose. Faculty members, I'll ask you to be kind and give way should a student ask." He turned and beckoned.

Fluttershy, of course, didn't move, so AJ sidled up beside her. "It'll be all right, honeycomb," she muttered.

"Yes." Fluttershy shook herself and advanced timidly toward the beaming Professor Vellum, Applejack sticking as close to her as she could.

"Miss Fluttershy," the professor was saying, "has taken time out of her busy schedule to assist us this morning, and ManeArts thanks her as well as Miss Orange and Miss Screen for making this wonderful opportunity possible." His gaze flicked over to AJ's, and he smiled. "Those of you who follow the news will also know Miss Applejack from the stalwart service the Elements of Harmony have provided to all of Equestria, and we thank her as well for her presence here today."

A smattering of applause rose from the assembled ponies, and Applejack felt her own face heat up to match the blush spreading across Fluttershy. Professor Vellum then motioned to the pillows. "If you would, Miss Fluttershy?"

"Thank you," Fluttershy said so softly, AJ was pretty sure nopony but her heard it. Fluttershy cleared her throat and asked just a mite louder, "How do I—? Or where—? Or what should I...do?"

The professor must've made out at least some of that. "In whatever way you're comfortable, my dear."

"Ummm..." Fluttershy touched a front hoof to the pillows like a cat touching a paw to wet grass. "I...I don't know." She glanced back over her shoulder at the room full of ponies, and Applejack was sure her pale yellow hide got even paler. "I...I—"

"Professor?" Minneola hopped onto the stage. "If I might?" She moved to AJ's side, started crowding her back behind one of the black curtains. "Jackie, let's put you...right here, OK?" She tapped a part of the floor. "You need a pillow or anything?"

AJ frowned at her cousin, then shrugged and sat. "Don't reckon so."

"Great!" Minnie grinned and moved back to the pile of pillows a couple yards away. "And Fluttershy, we'll put you right up here facing Applejack like you're...like you're out in one of her orchards, see? Just sitting in the sun and talking." Minnie was kicking the pillows around to form a little hill. "Up on top here."

Fluttershy blinked at Minnie, but when she climbed up and nestled in facing Applejack, her left side to the audience, a little murmur of what sounded to Applejack like appreciation rustled through the crowd. "Oh, yeah," Minnie more sighed than said. "And your wings, just...just open 'em out, relaxed and loose and gentle over the ground, OK?"

Not looking away from Applejack, Fluttershy flared her wings and let them drape down across her sides as delicate as dandelion fluff, and Applejack added a little murmur of her own to the one that gusted around the rest of the room. How in the wide, wide world of Equestria had she not gotten 'round to nuzzling them gorgeous feathers yet?

"Very nice," she heard the professor say quietly. "Full marks, Miss Orange." He raised his voice. "If you're quite comfortable, Miss Fluttershy?"

Applejack cocked her head at her marefriend, and Fluttershy nodded to her, a sweet little smile on her face. "I am, thank you," she said just loud enough, AJ reckoned, for the professor to hear.

"Thank you." Professor Vellum had moved to take a place among the other artists, a big pad of paper and some sorta really thick pencil hovering in the glow of his horn. "One hour, please, class. Shall we begin?"

What drifted over the room then wasn't quite silence, not with three or four dozen ponies breathing and shifting and scratching away on their papers or their canvases or whatever they were using. Applejack hadn't never heard nothing like it before, this concentrated and busy sort of quiet, ev'rypony working alone but in a group, too, the students leaning over to see what the professors were doing and the professors pointing to the student's pages with their own pencils and murmuring words too low for Applejack to hear from her place off to the side of the stage.

Another thing it wasn't was boring, strange to say. Sitting there, watching all these folks watch Fluttershy while Fluttershy kept her eyes firmly on her, Applejack had too many feelings running through her to be bored: proud of Fluttershy; glad to be helping her cousin; and weirdest of all, whatever the exact opposite of jealous was. 'Cause for all the looking them other ponies was doing, nunna them was going home with Fluttershy when this day was over.

The hour ticked by, and with ev'ry smile and wink she and Fluttershy traded across the gap separating them, Applejack got more and more amazed at the transformation she was seeing in her marefriend. Not that Fluttershy really changed on her pile of pillows under them big lights, but she somehow became airier, more like she was floating all on her own out there, and also more solid, the delicate curve of her neck strengthening without her moving a hair.

How a pony could get more ethereal and more like a statue at the same time, Applejack couldn't quite figure. "Regal" was the word that came to her, and as much as it made AJ grind her teeth, she couldn't help remembering what Carnation had said last night about Fluttershy being a feather shed from Celestia's wings. Like she came from a different place than ev'rything else around her...

A solitary sigh, and Professor Vellum's pad of paper folded closed, the light of his magic winking out. "As much as I hate to say it, class," he said, "that's the hour."

The whole group seemed to sigh, then, and Applejack rose, stretched, took the couple of steps that brought her to the pile of pillows, and nuzzled Fluttershy, still settled there as serene as a daisy in a field. "How you doing, honeycomb?"

"Oh, Applejack!" Fluttershy gave her an actual kiss, startling AJ almost as much as the joy in her voice. "It was wonderful!" She leaped up, spun in the air, and lit on the edge of the raised area facing the rest of the room, the artists all packing up their supplies. "Thank you all so, so much! Posing for those photographers was always so loud and hectic and horrible, but this! This was—" She shivered, her eyes rolling closed, her smile just plain radiant. "Exquisite," she finished, and AJ almost cheered to hear her usually tongue-tied friend come out with what was no doubt the exact word for what she was feeling.

The ponies filing out of the room were all smiling, more than a few looking a little dazed but most with that determined expression AJ knew from seeing Rarity about to jump into an all-night session. "OK," Applejack heard Silk Screen saying from among the several ponies gathering in front of Fluttershy. "I think maybe I see what the point of life drawing is now..."

That got a few chuckles from the group, and Applejack moved to Fluttershy's side as Professor Vellum came up. "Then I would say Miss Fluttershy has accomplished the impossible today." He gave Fluttershy a bow. "And any time you're in town, Miss Fluttershy, we'd be more than happy to have you visit again."

"Yes," said an older mare behind him, her graying red mane tied back in a bun. "I would love to have you pose for my graduate seminar if you've ever a mind to."

"Or to the better!" A pegasus pony with a fly-away mane, a sharp, waxed moustache, and some accent AJ didn't recognize slapped a torn piece of thick paper down on the lip of the stage. "Come sit for me, and I will make of you an artwork to last the ages! You!" The pegasus, ev'ry part of him some shade of brown, aimed a hoof at Applejack. "Make the arrangements, and Equestria will be thanking you!" He flung a pack over his back and stalked out of the room.

Scooping up the paper, AJ saw the words Burnt Umber and an address on Manehattan's Upper East Side scrawled there. She blinked at it, then looked up to see astonishment on the faces of the other ponies still in the room. "Whoa," Cousin Minneola said, staring after the pegasus. "That...that was Burnt Umber...." She whirled on Fluttershy. "Burnt Umber just asked you to pose for him!"

Silk Screen's magic tugged at Minnie's mane. "And we've gotta get lunch, then over to Art History."

"Eeep!" Minnie grabbed her own pack and slid into it. "See you later, guys! And thanks!"

The professors all said thanks and invited them both to lunch, an offer AJ wouldn't've minded taking up. But Fluttershy spoke quicker: "Oh, thank you all so much, but right now, I...that is, the business we're in town for, we...we've really got to be getting over to the Carriage House and...and maybe a few other stops..."

And with that, she was making for the door. AJ tucked Burnt Umber's card into her pack and followed. "Honeycomb?" she asked, catching up with Fluttershy in the hall. "We in that much of a hurry?"

"All those ponies." Fluttershy's gaze was fixed on the floor in front of her. "They...they wanted to spend an hour just...just being in the same room with me."

Pretty sure she wasn't following Fluttershy's train of thought, AJ bumped her with her shoulder. "Well, folks like that, stands to reason they'd wanna spend time with the most beautiful mare in Equestria, don't it?"

Fluttershy leaped forward, pushed open the door they'd come through earlier, and hovered in the spring noontime sunlight just outside the building. "But then...either they're right about me, or...or Mom is." Her wings faltered, and she dropped the couple inches to the little concrete pathway. "But if Mom was right, those ponies in there would've seen it! They're artists! It's their job to see! They would've known that I was cursed and monstrous, and they wouldn't've wanted anything to do with me!"

"So,..." Applejack tried to parse out Fluttershy's point. "Since they didn't see that?"

"It means Mom's been wrong all this time!" Elation burst over Fluttershy's face like the first apple blossom of spring, but it faded quickly to her more usual slightly worried look. "And it means I can't...just...let her go, can't forget about her and Burr and Dad. I...I've got to get them back!"

***

The revelation had come over Fluttershy slowly during that whole, wonderful hour. She'd started out so very, very nervous about the whole thing, but after Minneola had set everything up so she could just concentrate on Applejack, well, that made everything so much easier.

As the time had gone by, though, she'd come to realize that she wasn't feeling those dozens and dozens of eyes on her the way she always had during photo shoots or on the runway during her modeling days. Back then, it had been relentless: the photographers, the fashionistas, their assistants, everypony in the world, she'd sometimes thought. The only way she'd survived was by convincing herself they were just interested in what she was wearing, but she'd quickly come to see that the clothes got attention mostly because she was wearing them. She was horribly at the center; everything revolved around her.

But in that quiet room filled with strangers just now, while she could feel them looking, they weren't really looking at her. They were looking at the space around her, at the way light and shadow played over her, at the shapes that came together to form her. And it was incredible, like she was a rock or a tree or a bed of flowers, something to be contemplated instead of something to be gawked at, like—

Like the way Applejack looked at her. These artists, they were seeing her just as truly—maybe even more truly—than the pony who had finally shown her what love meant. And if they weren't recoiling in horror...

"All right, now," Applejack was saying, a little squint creasing her forehead in the sunlight. "I want'cha to stop and think about what you're saying."

But Fluttershy knew that would be a mistake, knew she could talk herself out of anything if she gave herself enough time. "There has to be a way, a way to—" Not 'win them over' or even 'get them back' like she'd said a minute ago. "A way so they'll see what those artists did, a way so..." Her voice faltered, but she had to get the words out, had to say them to make them real. "So they won't hate me anymore..."

"Oh, honeycomb." Applejack's sweet, strong flank touched hers, and Fluttershy leaned into her. "What was it you said about your ma? That she'll worm into your brain and make you crazy? Sometimes, there ain't nothing you can do."

"I—" And for all the times in her life that she'd gone back and forth on this point, Fluttershy felt that maybe she'd finally made up her mind. "I've got to try."

Applejack sighed. "Whatever you decide, I'll be right there beside you." She nudged Fluttershy with her shoulder, then stepped away. "Now, how 'bout we head over to the Carriage House, see whether we can't find your dad and maybe get us some lunch."

Glad to have a plan, Fluttershy strolled with Applejack through the park, amazed at how odd the place felt. She was used to the two sorts of landscape around Ponyville—the wild and the controlled—but here, the grass and trees seemed more like sculptures than anything else, not even as much wildness in them as the tomatoes she grew in her garden. It gave the place a lovely air of safety and security, but for once in her life, Fluttershy wasn't sure she liked that.

They followed a winding path around a lake she could tell was pony-made and came out on the south side of the park, a crosswalk here leading over to the Carriage House, the biggest, fanciest hotel Fluttershy had ever seen, outside and inside; the lobby had a lovely trickling fountain, the carpets so marvelous against her hoofs that she almost wished she could be Pinkie Pie for a moment and roll around in them without feeling embarrassed. The desk clerk pointed them to the other end of the lobby for the downstairs bar, and stepping in behind Applejack, she was pleased to see that it was much more a restaurant than the sort of rough-and-tumble bar she always thought of whenever she heard the word.

"Table for two?" the young mare at the kiosk inside the door asked.

Applejack shook her head. "We're looking for Bolide, actually."

The young mare's ears fell. "Are...are you sure?"

Fluttershy nodded, and the mare directed them to go straight through to the back wall, then follow it around to the actual bar, a curving counter of wood and brass, Fluttershy saw when she and Applejack made their way through the laughing, chattering lunchtime crowd at their tables and into a large dark alcove that seemed separate from the rest of the restaurant. The one pony in the place sat upright on the farthest stool, and even though he was heavier than she remembered—puffier, at any rate—that off-white hide, sandy-brown mane, and fireball cutie mark were unmistakable.

Swallowing, she started in, heard Applejack's muffled hoof falls behind her, and somehow managed not to stumble all the way along to where he sat, a bowl of pretzels at one elbow, a bowl of potato chips at the other, a glass of something amber-colored and foul-smelling on the countertop between them.

She wasn't sure he'd noticed them, but just as she reached him, he turned, gave a leer so greasy Fluttershy could almost hear it sliding across his face, and said in that rough voice, "Well, now. What can I do for you two fine young fillies?"

All she could think of to say was, "Hi, Dad."

His whole body flinched, his leer twisting into a grimace. He squinted at her a moment, then looked away to focus on his glass. "And that just makes it a perfect week, doesn't it?"

"Dad,—"

"Though I've gotta admit..." He stuck his head into the potato chip bowl, came up chewing, grabbed his glass, and took a swig of whatever it was. "That it's you coming to look up your ol' dad, Flutsy, insteada that mousey brother of yours just shows which wunna you got the balls, right?"

Struggling to hold onto the resolve she'd felt back at the Art Institute, Fluttershy tried to open her mouth, tried to say something—anything!—other than the I'm sorry that came immediately to the tip of her tongue.

But nothing at all came out, Dad's leer back. "Well? Am I right? Or am I right?"

A laugh burst out behind Fluttershy, and she couldn't help jumping, Applejack squeezing past her to settle on the stool next to Dad. "Well, now, Mr. Bolide! Flutsy didn't tell me you was such a jokester!" She stuck out a hoof, her regular accent thicker than Fluttershy had ever heard it. "Applejack's the name, and this here daughter of yours is my game!" She winked at him. "And I mean 'daughter,'"—she made air quotes with her hoofs—"if'n you know what I mean. And I reckon you do."

Fluttershy couldn't gasp because she couldn't get her lungs to suck in any air. Dad was staring at Applejack like she'd sprouted wings and a beak, but he said, "You've got ten seconds, hayseed, to tell me why I shouldn't kick you out into the—"

Applejack pounded the bar. "Hey, saloon keeper! Let's get a bottle of Bob Tail's out here! I'm meeting my feeancy's papa, ain't I?"

"Bob Tail's?" Dad's narrow eyes opened a bit. "They drink good stuff like that out in Hicksville?"

"Mr. Bolide?" Applejack pushed her hat back, and Fluttershy gaped. She somehow looked like a completely different pony! "Bob Tail hisself was my gran-pappy's second cousin on his mama's side." She nudged him with an elbow. "And the name they guv me, well, I reckon I got the stuff running through more'n half my veins."

A slightly-frowning unicorn came out from a door behind the bar with a bottle floating in front of him. "Mr. Bolide," he said, and the frown was in his voice, too. "The management has asked me once again to remind you that you have reached the credit limit for—"

"Credit??" Making a rude noise with her lips, Applejack reached into her bag and tossed more coins onto the bar than Fluttershy saw in a month. "Cash on the barrelhead if'n you know what I mean." She nudged Dad again. "And I reckon you do."

Dad grinned, pushed the pretzel bowl toward Applejack, and...and it just got worse from there. Dad and Applejack poured drink after drink from the bottle—they weren't even very big drinks, the glasses shorter than Fluttershy's front hoof, she was sure—and got to talking and laughing louder and louder. She wanted to fold up, wanted to hide, wanted to be anywhere in Equestria other than on this stool beside the two of them. Ponies from the restaurant were even turning glares and folded ears at them!

What was Applejack doing? This wasn't like her at all! It made Fluttershy remember those days when she was growing up and Dad would be between stations and he and Mom would both be home all day and she would dread coming home from school not knowing if she'd find them dancing or screaming or—

"Saloon keeper!" Applejack yelled, her voice as sloppy as Dad's. "'Nother bottle!"

"AJ?" Dad threw a front leg around Applejack's shoulders. "You're OK! Better'n this wimpy little daughter or son or whatever of mine deserves!"

Cold anger flashed in Applejack's eyes, but it was gone almost instantly, Applejack pounding the bar and laughing along with Dad. But Fluttershy knew she'd seen it, and she got less scared but more nervous. Was...was Applejack pretending?

The unicorn bartender came out, his frown even sharper than before. "Mr. Bolide, if you and your guests wish to continue your...luncheon, we will happily have whatever you require sent up to your room."

Dad blinked at the bartender, but Applejack's expression got just plain mean. "You kicking us out??" she demanded.

"Hey!" Dad leaned unsteadily forward. "I been paying for this place since I got to town! I got more invested in this hotel here'n you do, buster!"

"You tell 'im, Bo!" Applejack had slid off the stool, nothing even a little drunk about her suddenly.

"That's right!" Dad dug one front hoof into the front of the unicorn's fancy shirt and was cocking the other one back, his teeth all gritted and his voice as awful as it had ever been. "Maybe you needa reminder 'bout who's always right, huh??" He swung for the unicorn, Fluttershy gasping and trying to leap forward—

But Applejack had grabbed her, was holding her back, the unicorn's horn flaring, a ball of white light exploding across Dad's face. It spun him around and tumbled him to the floor; he bounced a little when he hit the carpet, then he lay there with his eyes closed and his mouth open, snores rattling up from him.

The unicorn turned his unhappy look to Fluttershy, sparks still popping from his horn. "You gonna need summa this, too?"

"No, sir," Applejack's Manehattan voice said behind her. "In fact, I'm obliged to you for smacking him down and letting me keep a promise I made to my marefriend here." Fluttershy turned, saw Applejack moving to Dad's side, one of Twilight's sticks gripped in her teeth.

"Hey," the unicorn said. "Whaddaya think you're—?"

"Now, now." Applejack knelt, swabbed around inside Dad's open mouth. "This little ruckus will get plenty of play in the papers already." She bit the stick, and the little spot of purple fire sprang up around the end. "Do you truly want to drag Fluttershy's name into it as well?"

"Fluttershy?" The confusion in the unicorn's voice made Fluttershy turn to look at him, and the way his eyes went wide with shock made her realize he'd just recognized her.

"Indeed." A light hoof touched Fluttershy's shoulder, and Applejack leaned past her to grin at the bartender. "For if she and I get dragged into this, that then involves the princesses and the Elements of Harmony and...well, I think you can see how it will all be so much simpler if it's just you having to pop a guest who's already well-known for being unruly." She cocked her head. "Agreed?"

The unicorn didn't look any happier, but he gave a tight little nod.

"Then, honeycomb?" Applejack's hoof gave Fluttershy's shoulder a gentle push; Fluttershy had just enough presence of mind to put her hoofs out and land on them as she settled to the floor, Applejack's real regular voice saying, "Let's get ourselves gone afore I can't stop giving that papa of yours a kick anyway."

7 - Sedimentary: Flint

Stepping down from the cab onto the sidewalk in front of Aunt and Uncle Orange's place, Applejack said it again same way she'd been saying it the whole ride back: "I'm sorry."

"It's OK," Fluttershy mumbled just like she'd been doing, but AJ could tell she didn't mean it.

"Honeycomb," she started, but Fluttershy slipped past her and up the steps, the cabbie clearing his throat and nodding to the box strapped to his side.

Paying the fare left her about two bits—Bob Tail had raised his prices since she'd last bought a bottle of his hootch—but AJ had more coin in her bags upstairs. Not too much more, but enough so she wouldn't hafta start worrying. Besides, Apple family credit was good anywhere the Riches ran a bank, and here in Manehattan—

But nunna this wool-gathering was doing any good. "Thanks," she told the cabbie, then she galloped up to the front door, Cloves holding it open. "Miss Fluttershy?" she asked.

He nodded toward the parlor. "Is everything all right, miss?"

Applejack blew out a breath. "If'n you got any lunch sitting around, I'd be much obliged. Give us, say, five minutes?" Time enough maybe to coax Fluttershy into talking....

Cloves nodded, and AJ nodded back before stepping through the doorway into the parlor.

The day curtains filtered the light coming in from the street, made the room soft and inviting, and Fluttershy perched on one of the red velvet davenports across the room, her eyes closed and her face averted, set Applejack's heart to pounding. "Please, honeycomb." She stayed by the door and didn't even try to keep the plaintive tone outta her voice. "I know I done messed this up, but I...I need you to talk to me about it. You and me, we...we can't never have nothing hidden between us, so whenever I do something stupid, I hafta have you tell me—"

"It wasn't you." Fluttershy's voice drifted up, soft as one cricket alone in a field. She raised her head, looked back over her shoulder, and Applejack caught her breath to see fear in those beautiful eyes. "That's what was so...so awful. Him, I expect to be...like that. But that you could even pretend it, it was...was..." Her voice trailed off, and a shiver shook her from ears to tail.

"OK." Applejack didn't dare smile no matter how relieved she felt. When it came to talking, her honeycomb wasn't too different from them wild critters she tended so well, AJ had noticed over the years: she'd rather scurry into her burrow and leave a pony sitting there blinking. But like fixing zap apple jam, sure, one wrong move'd spoil the whole batch, but do ev'rything respectful and proper, and the result was beyond compare. "I know it was awful, but can I please tell you why I pretended the way I did?"

Still looking at her—thank the Mother of Mercy—Fluttershy gave a little nod. Applejack took half a step toward her. "I thought maybe if'n I could get him in a good enough mood, he wouldn't be so ornery as your mom and brother. I thought I could make him think I was the same as him so he'd just open right up and let us get Twilight's sample from him." She took another half a step, kept herself focused on Fluttershy, and shook her head. "I was wrong, thinking that."

Fluttershy nodded more vigorously. "You can never get Dad into a real good mood. He only seems to get happy when he's making fun of somepony." Her gaze drooped to the floor. "I...I should've told you."

"No, honeycomb." AJ wanted to leap across the room, scoop Fluttershy up, cradle her and shield her from all the foul things out there in the world. But instead, she made herself drift over on slow, quiet steps, made herself stop and kneel next to the sofa, bent her head down so she could say it close and soft, "I shoulda seen earlier what kinda pony he was, but by the time I did see it, I'd already started pretending and there weren't nowhere to go but straight ahead." She lowered her voice even further. "Can you forgive me?"

Her half a heartbeat of hesitation sent chills shuddering down Applejack's back, but when Fluttershy nodded, it smelled more real than anything she'd done since they'd left Bolide stretched out on the floor of the Carriage House bar. "But—" Fluttershy said, and a spark of actual, honest anger showed in the look she turned to AJ. "You promised."

It took a fair piece of self-control for Applejack not to whoop with joy: there was her honeycomb peeking out at her! "I did," AJ said, keeping ev'rything quiet and gentle. "And I won't try to sugarcoat it, won't try to hide behind saying I didn't hit him myself and didn't ask nopony else to hit him, neither. 'Cause you're absolutely right. I tricked him and that bartender both into a place where they wouldn't have no choice but to mix it up, and I'm sorry. I—" This admission stuck in her craw a little, made her swallow before she could get it out. "I weren't smart enough to figure any other way to get what we needed and get us outta there."

A hoof touched her shoulder, and she looked up to see Fluttershy's beautiful, serious face. "He does that," she said. "No pony in the world's as good at breaking things that aren't his as Dad is." She leaned forward and touched a kiss to Applejack's nose, AJ closing her eyes and taking her first real breath in what felt like hours.

Reaching out, she stroked a hoof through Fluttershy's mane, whispered, "Thank you," and rested her forehead against her marefriend's.

The silence this time settled between them all lovely and warm till she heard a quiet clearing of throat. "Luncheon, Miss Applejack, as you requested."

"Thank you, Cloves." She brushed her lips over Fluttershy's. "Feeling peckish, honeycomb?"

"A little," came the answer, and AJ pulled back to see Fluttershy still looking worried. "Do you...do you think I could do it, Applejack?"

That got Applejack blinking. "Eat lunch, y'mean?"

Fluttershy made a little giggling noise, her wrinkly smile the most adorable thing AJ had seen in, well, she couldn't actually recall ever seeing anything near as adorable. "No, silly." She got all serious again. "Do you think I could actually make up with my folks and Burr?"

"Ah." And as much as she wanted to offer something just vague enough to be reassuring— "I don't like saying it, but I gotta be honest. I don't think they're worth the time you'd spend trying."

Flinching a little, Fluttershy nodded. "Still, I...I can't do nothing. I can't..."

Applejack stood slowly. "Well, right now, we can eat lunch. And then—" She didn't want to say it, had done her ding-dangedest not to so much as think about it since first broaching the idea to Aunt Orange yesterday afternoon. But not thinking about it hadn't made it go away. Clearing her throat, she started again: "I think then—" And the words came out with such a thick Manehattan accent, so wanted to look around to see who was speaking. She struggled to take a breath that didn't seem to wanna get taken and said, "Then I think we'll call Bellview and see if my mother is receiving visitors."

***

If there was one thing Fluttershy knew about, it was being quiet. She and Burr had invented the game "Shhhh" for when Dad was home being grouchy, and even all these years later, she sometimes still found herself practicing the moves they'd come up with.

But what hovered around the table while she and Applejack ate the crunchy sprout sandwiches Mr. Cloves had made for them, while it wasn't awful like silence, it wasn't restful like quiet, either, didn't seem to be either bad or good. And that confused her. Because in all the years she'd known Applejack, she could only think of three or four times they'd ever had bad silence between them, and since they'd become marefriends—was it really only five days ago they'd shared their first kiss and their first—?

Various parts of Fluttershy started heating up, and she put a tiny bit more thought into the spells she always had running through her mind to keep her lacinia closed. But since that first, wonderful day, they'd had nothing but good quiet between them, so very, very good—

Except, she had to admit, the silence after they'd seen Burr. And after they'd seen Mom. And just a little while ago after they'd seen Dad.

But those bad silences had all been Fluttershy's fault, she knew, and they'd all come about because she was too weak to turn the silence into something good and quiet, hadn't been able to use any of the game techniques she'd developed. And the strange, half-silence, half-quiet in the air around them now, Fluttershy had to admit, didn't feel like something that would respond correctly to her usual moves.

Still, she inched a little closer to Applejack at the table, and that seemed to help, Applejack giving her a sweet but tired smile. She made sure to touch Applejack's hoof or shoulder when she reached for the salt or the lovely remoulade Mr. Cloves had set out, and she even fluffed up her left wing so she could trail the very tips of the feathers along Applejack's side. It all did a little good, but not nearly enough.

Probably, she found herself thinking, because "Shhhh" wasn't the sort of game Applejack would enjoy very much. Fluttershy loved the farm pony for more reasons than she would ever be able to list, but near the top was how there Applejack was, how firm and solid and physically present. When Applejack stood somewhere, she was unmistakable, and she did it with such good-hearted honesty that Fluttershy could hardly keep herself from touching her all the time just so she could feel how sure and real Applejack was.

While the whole point of "Shhhh," of course, was to disappear, take up no space at all, and just melt away into the air, three things Fluttershy couldn't imagine Applejack ever doing.

No, the more she thought about it, the more Fluttershy came to understand that this was an Applejack silence. So she would have to use Applejack methods to turn it good and quiet. Even if that meant...talking.

Clearing her throat but completely unsure what she was going to say, Fluttershy leaned toward her marefriend. "Applejack, I...I'll do whatever you need me to do."

Applejack turned, swallowed her last bite of sandwich, and blinked a few times. "I appreciate that," she said, that sexy and sophisticated Manehattan accent floating around behind her words. "I'm afraid I don't quite know what I might need from you just yet, but..." She smiled. "All the sweet little caressy things you been doing to me all during lunch here have been helping a whole lot." A sudden flex of her neck, and she pressed a kiss to Fluttershy's lips. "I couldn't even be thinking about doing this if'n you weren't here."

The urgency behind the kiss spun Fluttershy's head, words deserting her yet again. I'm glad would be wrong despite how very, very glad she was right at that moment, and Thank you, her usual answer anytime somepony seemed to expect her to respond, wouldn't be right, either.

Looking at Applejack's smile, though— "I love you," Fluttershy said, and once again, she knew it was the rightest thing she'd ever said.

Or was "rightest" not a word?

That wonderful deep chuckle of Applejack's brought her attention back, and Applejack gave her a slightly more leisurely kiss before standing from the table. "Finish your sandwich, honeycomb. I'm gonna tuck this sample case of Twilight's away safe in my luggage, then see Cloves about how we can get into Bellview."

Nodding, Fluttershy watched Applejack trot out of the room, her step neither bouncy nor dragging but—like everything else today—a weird combination of the two. Still, it made sense that Applejack was both excited and nervous about seeing her mom for the first time in a decade, and Fluttershy was absolutely certain the meeting wouldn't be anywhere near as awful as her meeting with Carnation had been. Unless—

Fear tickled her heart, but she knew what she needed to do. Swallowing the last two bites of her sandwich, she stood, padded over to the kitchen door, gave a gentle knock, and pushed it open to peer inside.

The place took her breath away, every counter so clean, the blue and white tiles sparkled in the sunlight drifting through the window above the sink. The stove top, the oven door, the refrigerator, the pots and pans hanging above the island in the center of the room, it was all as neat and tidy as a dream, the sort of kitchen even her dad might've had a hard time complaining about.

"Miss Fluttershy," came Mr. Cloves's rich voice from off to her right, and she turned to see him standing at a small table in the corner under another window, a silver coffee pot in front of him and a polishing rag floating in the glow of his horn. "How can I help?"

"Oh, ummm..." At any other time, Fluttershy might've apologized and backed out of the room. But for Applejack, she needed to...to... She forced herself to take a step forward. "I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Cloves, but I...I—"

"Not at all, my dear." Mr. Cloves beamed at her, the rag drifting down to settle on a piece of newspaper. "Many of a butler's tasks are such that a little interruption can be most welcome."

Still blushing, Fluttershy murmured her thanks and took another few steps, coming to the edge of the island in the middle of the kitchen and peering around it at him. "It's just...Applejack and I are going to visit her mother in the hospital, and I, well, I've known Applejack for maybe three or four years now, and till just last week, I thought her parents were both—" She looked around and whispered, "—dead." She cleared her throat. "So I was wondering: did...did you know Marmalade, sir? Before, I mean?"

Mr. Cloves's smiled dimmed a just a bit. "Ah, Ms. Marmalade." He cocked his head. "Without meaning to be presumptuous, Miss Fluttershy—part of a butler's job is quickly getting a feel for the guests in the house—but I would say that she was in many ways your exact opposite."

Fluttershy blinked at the older unicorn, not sure if she wanted to ask him what he meant, but he was going on anyway. "While you are demure, she was vivacious; while you are a pegasus very clearly grounded in your self and your work, she was as flighty an earth pony as I've ever met, passionate and spontaneous. The house always seemed so much more alive when she was in it." His smile dimmed even further. "She was a tragedy waiting to happen, in other words, and the fate that has at last overtaken her is perhaps the kindest possible for a pony of her demeanor."

"I...I think I understand," Fluttershy said, surprised to find that she maybe did. "Butterflies are always so beautiful, but they...they don't usually live very long."

The butler gave a quiet nod. "But now, she shall live forever in her own mind as young and carefree as she was in those halcyon days..."

Another odd half-silence, half-quiet descended, and Fluttershy wondered if it was something about the Orange family that made things never quite happy and never quite sad, or if it more all this poking around in the past that was mixing things up. Not having an answer, she nodded to him and said, "Thank you, Mr. Cloves."

"Not at all, my dear." He stood, his light-brown magic tapping the lid onto the jar of silver polish. "I shall get in touch with the ward nurse at Bellview and see if Ms. Marmalade is accepting visitors this afternoon."

"Thank you," Fluttershy said again, and while his magic rose up into a cloud around him, she turned and walked slowly back into the dining room, Mr. Cloves's words humming in the back of her brain. She wasn't quite sure how to think about them, but she definitely wanted to think about them, wanted to figure out how she felt being called the exact opposite of—

"Honeycomb?"

"Eeep!" Startling sideways, Fluttershy nearly ran into the wall in the parlor, Applejack grinning at her from the doorway.

"Finish your lunch?" Applejack asked.

Not quite sure how she'd gotten into the parlor—she must've kept walking after leaving the kitchen, gone straight through the dining room, and ended up in here—Fluttershy swallowed and nodded.

"OK, then." Applejack had on her hat, her pack slung over her back, but it was bulging differently than it had been earlier. "Lemme round up Cloves, and we'll see about—"

"Bellview's visiting hours, Miss Applejack." Mr. Cloves had stepped through the doorway from the dining room. "They will be accepting till five o'clock, and the ward nurse informs me that your mother has been in very good cheer today."

Applejack was staring, her mouth open a little. "Well, thank you, Cloves. I don't know how you—"

"Miss Fluttershy informed me of your plans." He gave her a bow, and Fluttershy felt her face go hot. "The nurses are expecting you both, and a cab should be arriving here shortly."

The look Applejack turned toward her had so much love in it, Fluttershy had to catch her breath. "Thank you both, then." She sat, and Fluttershy was almost sure she noticed a little quiver in Applejack's front legs. "I didn't think this place was so far away we'd need a cab."

Mr. Cloves's professional smile did the same sort of quiver. "I would advise it, miss." He bowed once more, his magic pushing open the dining room behind him. "I shall inform you upon its arrival."

"Much obliged." Applejack stayed focused on the door till it finished swinging, then she got up—still shakily, Fluttershy thought—and crossed the room to settle beside Fluttershy. "Don't mind telling you, honeycomb, that this whole thing's got me a mite squirmy. I mean, you heard Aunt Orange! She...she like as not ain't even gonna know who I am..."

Unable to think of anything to say, Fluttershy stretched out a wing and laid it gently over Applejack's back, the muscles there hard and tight. Applejack sighed, though, when Fluttershy began stroking her feathers up and down, and a little of her tension seemed to drain away.

Whether they sat in silence or quiet, Fluttershy again couldn't decide, and she was just thinking she might have to give up her crown as "Shhhh" world champion when Mr. Cloves came in to announce the cab. Applejack rose and headed for the door, Fluttershy thanking Mr. Cloves and following.

"Bellview Hospital," Applejack told the big earth pony in harness, and he nodded, pulled away from the curb, Fluttershy taking the space beside Applejack on the forward-facing bench, the spring afternoon so lovely and clear, Fluttershy thought she might just make a remark about how glad she was that the cabs were open to the sky. She also thought about maybe asking if the cab companies kept a separate fleet of carriages with closed roofs for the winter months or for those times when the weather ponies had storms scheduled.

But in the end, she couldn't bring herself to break the silence—and this time it most definitely was a silence, Applejack's discomfort so palpable, Fluttershy could almost feel it jabbing at her like pins. The cab took a few right turns and few lefts, and a scent of salt water started tickling the air before too long. "The bay?" Fluttershy made herself ask.

"Hmmm?" Applejack stirred almost like she was coming awake, blinked and looked around. "Oh. Yeah. The...the hospital's just a block or two up from the shore." She focused up the street past the cabbie, a large brick wall about a block ahead, some lovely-looking trees visible past its top. "Wonder if Mom has a view from her room?"

Her heart as sharp as a pine cone, Fluttershy pressed her shoulder to Applejack's. "It'll be all right," she murmured.

Applejack gave a bark of a laugh. "Sweet of you to say, honeycomb, but..." Her voice trailed off, the cab moving along the brick wall to pull up at a gate with a sign over it: Bellview City Hospital. "I can't quite imagine how that'll be the case," she finished. Stepping down from the cab, she bent her head around, plucked a few coins from her bag, dropped them into the cabbie's fare box, and started for the gate.

Drifting down to the sidewalk herself, Fluttershy swallowed and turned back to the cab pony. "Please, sir," she said, the words hard as stones in her throat, "can you wait for us? I...I'm not sure how long we'll be, but we'll need a ride back to...to the house where you just...just picked us up if...if that's all right?"

The cabbie smiled, his rough face suddenly gentle. "Not to worry, miss. Mr. Cloves explained the sitch." He tapped one big front hoof against the street's paving stones. "I'll be right here when you come out."

She almost leaped up to kiss him, but that would've been so very awkward that she just nodded and said, "Thank you." Then she was rushing to catch up with Applejack, talking with the guard at the little window in the gate.

"Yes, ma'am," the uniformed pegasus was saying, flipping through the pages on a clipboard. "Got the both of you right here. If you wanna go on in, the doctor'll meet you at the front desk."

"Thank you," Applejack said, her voice almost one hundred percent Manehattan.

The guard pulled back, the gate rose, and the grounds beyond made Fluttershy smile, trees, grass, and flowers rolling out on either side of a gravel path that led to a lovely, ivy-covered building just ahead, a light aroma of roses mixing with the sea breeze. "How pretty!" she heard herself say.

It was entirely the wrong thing to say, she knew, and her ears were folding before Applejack even grunted, "Yeah," her hoofs making a steady chuff-chuff-chuff in the gravel as she walked to the hospital's front door.

Hanging her head, Fluttershy followed Applejack inside, a pegasus in a nurse's uniform seated behind the big curving counter in the middle of the room. An older unicorn stood in front of the counter, her mane tied back in a tight bun, a file folder floating before her in the silver glow of her horn. "Ah, Ms. Applejack, Ms. Fluttershy, such an honor to meet you." She closed the folder and held out a hoof. "I'm Dr. Pineal, your mother's care specialist and physician."

Applejack just touched the doctor's hoof and nodded, so Fluttershy felt she had to say, "Thank you, doctor, for letting us stop by today."

"Yes. Well." Dr. Pineal frowned, her magic opening the folder once again. "How familiar are you with your mother's condition, Ms. Applejack?"

"Not too." Applejack gave a shrug that looked to Fluttershy more like a nervous twitch than anything else. "She got no memory after 'bout twenty years ago, isn't it?"

"Not quite." The doctor's frown deepened. "The memories are all there. She simply can't face them. And going over the reports of the incidents that occurred the two times your brother stopped by a few years ago, I—"

"Incidents?" Applejack's voice didn't sound like her at all, her eyes wide and focused on the doctor.

Fluttershy moved a step closer to Applejack, the doctor turning some pages. "Your mother became very agitated, both verbally and physically, in a way she hadn't before and hasn't since." Dr. Pineal glanced over the top of the folder. "I wasn't on staff at the time, but the reports say it was literally days before she calmed back down to her usual self."

White rimmed Applejack's eyes. "Mac never said nothing about...about..." She took a shaky breath. "You don't reckon I oughtta see her, then."

"Honestly?" She closed the folder. "I'd not recommend—"

"No." Fluttershy hadn't meant to say it out loud, but the prickly pressure building up in the middle of her head wouldn't let her keep silent. Collecting every bit of politeness she had inside her, she wrapped it around the awful power of The Stare and said as calmly as ever she could, "Please, doctor, we...this is something we need to do."

"You need to upset one of my patients?" Dr. Pineal shook her head. "I can't be responsible for—"

"You won't be." It took even more effort this time to get the words out, the doctor blinking at her in almost the same way that Applejack was. And even though most of Fluttershy's instincts were squeaking at her to find something she could hide under, one of the multiple voices in her head—the one she was choosing to listen to—kept whispering, For Applejack. For Applejack. For Applejack. "I'll take full responsibility."

"You?" Dr. Pineal looked down her snout at Fluttershy. "Have you any training in cases like this?"

As much as she wanted to point to her years taking care of Ponyville's animals and the various creatures at the edge of the Everfree Forest, well, she didn't really have any sort of training for that. "Ummm..." She'd never thought more quickly in her entire life. "I'm an Element of Harmony, doctor, and my friend Applejack is, too." Though it probably would've sounded more impressive, Fluttershy was sure, if her voice hadn't been shaking so badly...

For Applejack. For Applejack. For Applejack.

Closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the skepticism on the doctor's face, she whispered, "Please. We won't stay long, but we...we just have to try..."

The silence then wasn't exactly a silence, Fluttershy was surprised to notice. Squinting one eye open, she saw Applejack looking back at her with so much love, she just wanted to melt. Dr. Pineal was looking a little misty-eyed, too, and after a moment, the unicorn heaved out a sigh. "Three minutes," she said. "I'll be monitoring the room the whole time, and at the first sign of trouble, I'll be in and you'll be out. Understood?"

Fluttershy could only nod, and she gave a little sigh of her own when Applejack's solid warmth pressed against her. "Thank you," her marefriend said.

"You're welcome," the doctor answered, shaking her head and turning away even though Fluttershy wasn't sure Applejack had been saying it to her. "Right this way."

Dr. Pineal led them to an elevator, and they rode it up to the third floor. Another nurses' station sat just outside the elevator door, and Fluttershy liked the look of the ponies there, their smiles a little tired but genuine. "She's in room 301," the doctor, turning left. "Mrs. Orange visits at least once a week, and she'll often bring some of your mother's former school friends along." She gave a lighter sigh. "Your mother usually thinks it's her mother and her aunts, but she happily plays board games and chats with them: she tells them that she's here recovering from a bad bout of the pony pox, or that she's just had a tonsillectomy."

The hallway was carpeted, muffling their hoofs, and the late afternoon sunlight slanting in from the window at the end of the hall brought out the warmth of the slightly beige walls. "It, uhh..." Fluttershy cleared her throat even though there was nothing there to clear. "It's a lovely facility you have here, doctor."

"We try." She stopped at the door just to the right of the window, the number 301 painted on it like it was a regular hotel room or an apartment, and she looked so serious, Fluttershy almost took a step back. "The mirror on the other wall has a spell on it so we can see and hear everything that takes place in the room up at the nurses' station. So the minute anything I don't like starts happening, I will be knocking on this door."

Fluttershy started to nod again, but Dr. Pineal was already turning to the door, knocking briskly, and pushing it partway open. She stepped through and looked past it into the room. "Marmalade? You have visitors."

"Marvelous!" came a cheery voice, and Applejack froze in place beside Fluttershy. "I've been feeling ever so much better today, doctor, and now to have guests as well?" The door came the rest of the way open, and there, blinking and smiling beside the doctor, stood a middle-aged, honey-colored earth pony in a white sundress much too young for her, her mane and eyes—

Fluttershy froze as well. The mare was so clearly Applejack's mother that Fluttershy would've known her if she'd just passed her on the street. The shape of her ears, her cheekbones, everything about—

"Clementine!" The older mare's face lit up, and she rushed past the doctor, threw her front legs around Applejack's neck, peppered her cheeks with kisses. "Oh, sister! It's so good of you to stop by! It seems like simply ages we've been apart!" She skipped away back into the room. "But come in, come in! I must give you the grand tour!"

Applejack was quivering but otherwise unmoving. Quivering more than a little herself, Fluttershy came up behind her and nudged her flank, Applejack shying forward till she was halfway through the door. Fluttershy kept right behind her, though, pushed again, and Applejack scooted the rest of the way in. Dr. Pineal gave them both what Fluttershy could only call a stern look, then moved back out into the hallway, the waver of her magic pulling the door closed.

Her heart hammering—For Applejack. For Applejack. For Applejack—Fluttershy shuffled around and saw a light and airy bedroom suite smelling faintly of marshmallows: a sofa and some bookshelves stood on this side of a table that divided the room in two, a few reclining chairs and a canopied bed on the far side. Applejack stood a few paces further in, staring around as well, and Marmalade was sort of grinning over her shoulder beside the table. "As you can see," she was saying, "not a palatial mansion, but just right, I find, for my convalescence." She cocked her head at Applejack. "Far be it from me, Tiny, to question your fashion choices, but that hat! It—"

She stopped, a frown twitching over her snout as quick as a hummingbird's wing, but then her smile was back bigger than ever. "Or is it a costume ball this evening? Oh, how I wish I could attend! Perhaps you and your friend could smuggle me out! Ever since my fever broke, I've felt nearly my old self again, and a turn or two about the dance floor would be just the thing to get me fully back onto my hoofs!" Her gaze darted over to Fluttershy. "But c'mon, Tiny! Don't keep me in suspense! Introduce us!"

Applejack's mouth moved, but the only thing that came out was "Uhhh..."

Marmalade rolled her eyes. "Clementine! What am I to do with you??" She sprang across the room and held out a front hoof. "As I'm sure you know, I'm Orange Marmalade, and any friend of my sister's is a friend of mine!"

And the words came out of Fluttershy's mouth before she could even think about stopping them: "I'm a friend of Applejack's."

Absolute silence engulfed the room, all the color seeming to drain from Marmalade's whole body, the wrinkles around her eyes becoming more pronounced as they opened wider and wider. "No, no," she whispered. "I...I can't see Applejack. Can't."

A choking gasp from behind her: "Mama, I—"

"Can't!" Marmalade coughed it more than said it, her lips tight and her ears folding flat against her head.

Meeting Applejack's anguished gaze for a second, Fluttershy held a hoof up, then drifted forward, not letting herself stray from the fevered shine she saw coming into Marmalade's eyes. "You're safe here," Fluttershy told her in the same way she would tell a bird whose broken leg she was splinting or a possum whose babies she was helping deliver. "You know you're safe."

"Can't!" The word lashed out quietly but just as quickly as Marmalade's hoofs, grabbing Fluttershy's between them and squeezing hard. "She hates me!" Marmalade pulled Fluttershy close, her voice no louder but thick with pain. "Please! Tell me she hates me!"

Fluttershy didn't resist, kept all her attention riveted on the older mare, their muzzles nearly touching. "Why do you want her to hate you, Marmalade?"

"She must!" Marmalade hissed. "It's the only way I can know she's still true! That she isn't infected with our lies!" That vanilla smell washed over Fluttershy, Marmalade's hoofs sliding up to grip her shoulders, those Applejack-green eyes widening again. "Mackie and Jackie and, oh, my sweet little Bloomer, they...the only truth I ever had in me came out in them. They...they can't ever see me all shallow and sallow like this! It would...it would kill me..." She buried her face in Fluttershy's chest, dampness spreading there. "Kill me.... Kill me...."

The tiniest of groans prodded Fluttershy's ears, and she looked over the top of Marmalade's head to see Applejack standing like some statue, her face so bunched up with grief, Fluttershy almost cried out. But then the weeping against her chest suddenly stopped, Marmalade letting out a gust of a sigh and pulling back. "Oh, dear," she said, wiping a fetlock over her eyes. "I...I don't know what came over me." She gave a faint smile. "I'm so sorry; I suppose it's just as well I'm not going to the ball with you both this evening."

A knock at the door, and Dr. Pineal pushed in, her eyes narrow. "I'm sorry, Marmalade, but visiting hours are over."

Marmalade's smile wavered. "Thank you, doctor. I...I believe I shan't even argue, I feel such a need for a nap." She plodded around to face the still-stricken Applejack. "Forgive me, sister. My health, I fear, continues fragile." She reached for Applejack's cheek, her hoof shaking more and more violently the closer she got, but when she finally made contact, the touch was as steady and gentle as anything Fluttershy had ever seen. "I love you, Clementine," she said. "Thank you for coming to see me."

"I—" Applejack's voice sounded like a sack of broken glass. "I love you, too,...Marmie."

Another shadow of a frown flitted across Marmalade, but it was gone almost before Fluttershy could notice it. Then the older mare was moving away, her hoofs dragging slightly, her head drooping. "Yes," she said. "A...a nice bit of a nap before supper."

As soon as her back was to them, Fluttershy jumped to Applejack's side, her marefriend colder than the first snowfall of winter. "Applejack?" she whispered, nudging her shoulder.

Applejack just shook her head.

"Well." Dr. Pineal was watching Marmalade climb into bed across the room. "That went a great deal better than I expected."

But Fluttershy, looking back at Applejack, wasn't so sure.

8 - Sedimentary: Shale

"Tickets," Applejack said, climbing into the cab ahead of Fluttershy. It was actually her first word in all the long, long minutes since they'd left her mother's room on the sanitarium's third floor.

"Tickets?" Fluttershy had been more than a little worried, following Dr. Pineal down the elevator and to the front door, by Applejack plodding along, her eyes not really focused on anything. The doctor had seemed quietly excited, saying something about Marmalade's reaction to Applejack's visit being a breakthrough and possibly pointing the way toward a new line of therapy, but Fluttershy hadn't been paying that much attention; more than once on the way, Applejack had nearly walked straight into a wall, and Fluttershy had had to lean against her to bend her course away from it. The doctor hadn't seemed to notice that, though...

"Tickets," Applejack said again. She leaned forward. "Cabbie, we'll be heading back to where you picked us up, then if'n you'll wait another couple minutes, we'll be loading up our luggage and making for Central Station."

"You got it," the big earth pony said, hauling the cab away from the curb and all the way around in a u-turn, trotting them back up the street away from Bellview.

"Ummm." Fluttershy didn't like the way Applejack's eyes looked sort of jagged around the edges. "Applejack? Are...are you all right?"

"Never better." She slapped the bench they were sitting on with one front hoof, her eyes focused on the road ahead. "But we got ev'rything we come to Manehattan for, don't we? So if'n we leave tonight, we can be in Vanhoover just in time to catch my poppa's ship when it comes in." A twitch jerked her cheek. "Then we'll be done with all this and can get Twilight's samples back to her right on schedule."

"That's, ummm, nice," Fluttershy said, but it wasn't nice, wasn't nice at all! Something had happened to Applejack during those few minutes in Marmalade's room, and while Fluttershy could certainly make some guesses about what it was, well, she shouldn't have to guess! This was Applejack! She didn't keep her thoughts or feelings bottled up! It was one of the many, many things Fluttershy loved about her: she spoke her mind, plain and true.

Except... That awful little voice slipped like pond scum into Fluttershy's head. She's been speaking with that Manehattan accent a lot since you got here yesterday, hasn't she? And that's not really her, plain or true...

Shocked to hear her whisper talking about somepony other than herself, Fluttershy froze. And earlier today, the voice went on, was she being plain and true when she was being every bit as mean and nasty as Dad?

The ice inside her shattered under the fiery force of The Stare bursting from the center of her brain. But for the first time in her life, Fluttershy bent the power of it inward, turned it against the snide little asides that had haunted her in either her mother's voice or her father's for her entire life. No! she silently shouted. That was just a trick Applejack tried so we could get the last of the samples Twilight needs to find out if my wiggler can make foals and if those foals'll be half-filly and half-colt like me! You know that as well as I do, and I will not stand here and have you call my marefriend a liar!

With a crackling puff, the whisper sizzled away like water on a hot skillet, Fluttershy blinking to see the cab slowing to a stop outside the Oranges' townhouse.

Had she—? Had she just Stared down herself?

But she didn't have time to wonder about it, Applejack already hopping onto the sidewalk, the cabbie unbuckling his harness and stepping away from the cab. "You gonna need any help with them bags, miss?"

"Don't reckon so!" Applejack was taking the stairs two at a time, charging through the front door just exactly as Mr. Cloves was opening it. The butler's eyes went as big as dinner plates, and Fluttershy heard Applejack yelling, "Sorry, Cloves, but we's got a train to catch!"

Fluttershy actually flew from the cab to the front step in order to reach Mr. Cloves more quickly. "Are Aunt or Uncle in, please, Mr. Cloves? We...I'm not quite sure what we're doing, but Applejack seems to think it's time for us to go."

The astonished look on Mr. Cloves's face only stayed another second, then he gestured to the parlor door, Aunt Orange stepping out with an astonished look of her own. "Cloves? Fluttershy? What's all this crashing about?"

"Sorry, Auntie!" Applejack practically slid down the stairs, her packs and Fluttershy's slung over her back, touched a quick kiss to Aunt Orange's cheek, and spun away. "It's been wonderful seeing y'all again, and thanks loads for putting us up. Give our regrets to Uncle and to Tangelo and tell 'em we'll see 'em again next time we're in town, but right now we—"

"Applejack!" Aunt Orange's voice made Fluttershy want to find someplace to hide, and even Applejack screeched to a halt. "You will stop this jiggery-pokery at once! Starting a journey so late in the day? Preposterous! And—" Her lower lip quivered. "Jackie, I...I thought you were going to visit your mother while you were here."

Another twitch jerked Applejack's cheek. "We just come from there." And her voice, as cold as a wisp of late winter fog, made Fluttershy not only want to hide but to move permanently into that hiding place. "Doc said we mighta guv her some sorta breakthrough."

Frozen again, Fluttershy couldn't look away, Applejack's gaze darting half-angry and half-sad at her for half a heartbeat. "So I figured long as we're having such luck with our parents, we'd hurry on out and track down my dad." Something almost like her regular look came over her, and she shuffled the four or five steps back to where her aunt stood. "Really and truly, Aunt Clementine, I...I can't thank you enough for being here. We'll have a good, long visit when...when ev'rything's settled, and y'all'll hafta c'mon out to the Acres this summer." She gave her an actual kiss, then made for the door. "You, too, Cloves. Reckon you could use a vacation."

"Jackie, I—" Aunt Orange started, but Applejack was already down the steps and onto the sidewalk.

Feeling like a dandelion in a windstorm, Fluttershy hurried over to Aunt Orange. "I'm terribly, terribly sorry, Aunt Orange. I think that seeing Marmalade has upset Applejack awfully, but she's trying so very hard not to show it, I don't know what to—"

"Fluttershy!" The shout seemed to echo up from the street.

Aunt Orange was blinking, but she moved quickly, embraced Fluttershy, sighed into her ear. "Please, Fluttershy, take care of her. She...she's very precious to us. You both are."

"Thank you." Fluttershy let herself inhale the lovely citrus smell Aunt Orange always seemed to have about her and pushed away. "Thank you."

Rushing out the door, she heard Mr. Cloves' deep voice murmur something, but she was already across the pavement and into the cab before her brain could manage to untangle his words: "Trust yourself, miss. You're stronger than you think." Then the cab lurched beneath her, and she fell more than sat onto the bench beside Applejack.

Applejack gave her a smile, and again she looked so close to her usual self, Fluttershy could almost pretend nothing was wrong. "Careful, honeycomb," she said, and Fluttershy almost cheered to hear her nickname on Applejack's lips for the first time since they'd left Bellview.

Yes, everything was all right now, Fluttershy told herself. She was sure of it. After that whole thing with Dad and everything that had happened with Applejack's mother, it just stood to reason that a pony as flighty as she was would start over-reacting and imagining things.

Except...

And this time, it wasn't the awful sneering voice in her head pointing out how Applejack had run from her aunt and uncle's house with barely a good-bye. How she'd glared so icily at Fluttershy in the hallway. How she was sitting right now all scrunched over against the side of the cab instead of letting her shoulder touch Fluttershy's.

Another silent ride went by, Fluttershy discarding several comments that might've gotten a conversation started. None of her techniques for changing a bad stretch of silence into something nice and quiet seemed like they'd work here, and the darkest sort of fear made her not want to try even the ones that had worked earlier—how horrible would it be if she went to touch Applejack's hoof, and Applejack pulled away??

Wracking her brain, she tried and tried to think of something new that she could do while they passed block after block of buildings, but nothing came to her as the cab pulled up outside the spires and archways of Manehattan's Central Station, the setting sun reflecting orange light from all its windows. Sighing, slipping into her saddlebags, she followed Applejack through the big doors and across the big lobby, stood beside her while she made a deal with the ticket clerk that let them circle back to Ponyville by way of Vanhoover, then shared a supper of potato perogies and blueberry pie with her at a little shop beside the platform while they waited for the train to start boarding.

Evening had come down by the time they got onboard, the bed already folded down in their compartment, and tucking her saddlebags into the little closet, Fluttershy was sure that every part of her body was trembling. Two dozen words, maybe: that was all they'd each managed to squeeze out between them in the past couple hours, and she felt like she was going to explode! She wasn't any good with words—she never had been! What was she supposed to do to get Applejack to tell her what was—??

"Well." Applejack's voice, and Fluttershy nearly jumped out of her hide to hear it. Standing by the closed door of their compartment, she looked back to see Applejack tossing her hat onto a wall hook, the rising moon shining in cold, gray flashes between the houses and trees rushing by the window just past the bed. "Reckon I'm gonna turn in." And she climbed up onto the mattress, pressed her head into the pillow.

Desperate and doubtful but refusing to freeze, refusing to do nothing, Fluttershy took a breath and reached out a hoof.

***

"No."

For an instant, her headache digging like a tick into the back of her left eye, Applejack figured she musta heard wrong. Raising her head from the pillow, she stared to see Fluttershy sitting gentle and demure with eyes downcast by the compartment door, her yellow hide somehow gleaming like quicksilver in the moonlight.

And she was wearing Applejack's hat.

Applejack opened her mouth to ask what in the bright blue above was going on here, but Fluttershy raised her head, then, and her eyes—

Sweet Mother of Mercy, her eyes looked solid black and deeper than the darkest midnight. "You won't be turning in just yet," Fluttershy said.

The weird glow about her and the tension behind her words—had Fluttershy honestly just contradicted her??—made AJ's blood go all ice-watery. And then...then Fluttershy stood, those black, black eyes locked on Applejack's, her wings slowly unfurling, perfect as rose petals at the touch of dawn. "Back at the Art Institute," Fluttershy went on, her words quiet but intense, "when I opened my wings, I heard everypony in that room gasp. But I was looking at you, Applejack. And I'm not sure if I heard you make any noise at all."

The objection Applejack began forming in her throat sputtered to nothing, Fluttershy's wings billowing forth from her sides, and the last of Applejack's headache vanished in a jolt of sheer wonderment. They couldn't be as big as that, seeming to fill the compartment from wall to wall, couldn't be that creamy and curvaceous and majestic. Nothing could be!

"So now." Fluttershy gave a slow smile that sent another jolt through Applejack. "I want to hear from you about them." Her wings flexed with an unearthly grace, Fluttershy drifting into the air and settling onto the bed at Applejack's rear hoofs. "I want you to tell me—" Fluttershy leaned forward, and Applejack's eyes went wide, the pegasus trailing her feathers soft and gentle down Applejack's side. "What does that feel like?"

"Guh!" was all Applejack could manage, pure pleasure crackling along her every nerve.

"No, no," Fluttershy said softly, and the stroking stopped, Applejack gasping like she'd had the glass dashed from her lips afore she'd managed more'n a mouthful. "Words, Applejack." That indescribable caress resumed, made Applejack's head snap back into the pillow and her eyes clench shut. "Tell me what's it's like."

"Like?" Her voice cracked, and so did the piles and heaps of mush that'd been blocking up her brain all afternoon, the electric glory of Fluttershy's touch slicing through it and boiling it away. "Like the day of Winter Wrap-Up," AJ forced out, somehow shaping the sensations into sensible sounds. "I'm cold and wet and covered with mud and cursing the seeds and the weather and the earth and the sky their very selves. I got nothing but trouble, nothing but heart-ache, nothing but muscle-tearing toil ahead of me all the days of my life, and then..."

She wanted to dissolve into moans and whimpers, but she needed the words, needed them like she needed air, like she needed these feelings never to end. "Then there's a whispered little whoosh, the earth breathing and the sky dancing, and the first warm breeze of spring comes wafting down over me, gets me goosepimply and tells me life's worth living again!" She flailed her front legs down, wanted to bury her hoofs in the downy depths of those wings, but they whisked away, left her cold and grasping at nothing but bed linens.

"And this?" that sweet voice asked, the feathers now dancing teasingly across her chest and stomach. "What's this like?"

Gritting her teeth, she shoved the words past the spasming muscles in her neck, her hoofs pawing at the sheets. "Like the doggiest of dog days in summer!" Bottle rockets popped and sparked inside her. "It's a hunderd and ten in the shadows of the biggest trees in the south orchard, but I'm out in the fields nowhere near 'em! The sun's beating me down and sucking the water clean outta me, and I'm stomping and snapping, stomping and snapping, getting the corn shook down and brung in! And then, right then, right when I think I'm gonna vaporize into nothing but a fine orange and yellow mist, down comes a cool, liquid breeze to tell me there's evening a-coming and rest on the way."

"Mmmmm," she heard, and Applejack started to open her eyes, wanted to see Fluttershy, to tell her—

But then those wings, those feathers, the luscious warm haze and cool tickle of them, they moved again, trailed down her stomach to her lacinia, Applejack's whole world exploding with white fire. "And tell me," came those maddening gentle words. "What does that feel like?"

Applejack's lacinia tore open like she'd never had one, Fluttershy's pinions against the sensitive skin beneath more than enough to trigger orgasmic convulsions that shook Applejack from ears to tail. "Please!" a voice screamed, and she knew it weren't Fluttershy's so it had to be her own.

"Words, Applejack."

"Words??" She couldn't move, couldn't think, could only feel the exquisite agony wracking over her. "Like I'm laying in bed after you showed yourself to me and then said you weren't for me! Like knowing the only pony I ever wanted in my whole life didn't want me back! Like an itch inside me ev'rywhere and plunging my own hoof up there wanting to scratch it and not ever getting no relief! Never getting no relief!"

"Relief?" asked a hot, panting whisper. The wings brushed along Applejack's inner thighs, and crying out, she threw her hind legs wide, sure a blast of steam went bursting from her vulva; crying out again at the perfect solidity sliding between her lower lips; crying wordlessly to feel the by now wonderfully familiar shape of Fluttershy's penis filling her to the very brim. Fluttershy's mouth covered hers, muffled her next cries, those wings wrapping her in satin, silk and lace, each pump of Fluttershy's body shattering her, scattering her, casting her into a joyous maelstrom that spun her on and on and on and on to climax after climax after climax...

Until slowly, languidly, she found herself back, her reconstructed body as boneless as custard and never wanting to move again. And why should she? Everything in her and around was so smooth and balanced, so absolutely at rest and at peace, any change—any change at all—would be a step downhill.

But she did hafta admit she was breathing, and that was wonderful, too, the in-and-out of her chest, and the beautiful, unmistakable scent of her beloved honeycomb—

Which made things start twitching in her head, made her blink and stretch herself along the bed sheets till she was looking up at Fluttershy lying beside her, Applejack's hat just visible squished between the back of Fluttershy's head and the wall of the train compartment. Fluttershy was smiling that smile of infinite compassion, her deep turquoise eyes still nearly black in the moon's silver light. "Now," she said so soft and so gentle. "Maybe you can tell me what happened to you at Bellview this afternoon."

Tears blurred Applejack's vision, and she buried her face in Fluttershy's neck where the curl of that luscious pink mane spilled over. "I hated you," she coughed out, the words as hot and horrible as vomit against the back of her teeth but needful, oh, so terribly needful... "She's my mom, and she was hanging onto you and crying to you! She wouldn't even look at me, and saying she thought I should hate her?? How could I hate her?? And how could I hate you?? Of course she'd go to you for comfort! That's your talent! It's what you do! But I just...I wanted her to...and she wouldn't! Not to me..."

Fluttershy's hoofs rubbed Applejack's back, her wings cozier than any blanket could ever be. "She said she loved you. You heard that, didn't you?"

Applejack groaned; she'd been trying all day to tell herself exactly that. But— "She weren't saying it to me. How could she? She don't even hardly remember me." She sighed. "She was seeing Aunt Clementine there, not...not me..."

"No." Again, hearing Fluttershy come out with a straight denial like that, it made Applejack's ears fold, made her pull away and meet her gaze. "The doctor said your mother does remember. She just feels so horrible and guilty about everything, she doesn't want to think about it. She knew who you were. And being able to say that she loved you and hearing you say it back, that..." Fluttershy sniffed, her eyes going a shimmery. "That's why the doctor said she'd maybe had a breakthrough: because of those words..."

The tiniest bit of hope wavered in Applejack's chest, but her next thought nearly extinguished it, nearly made her push herself out of Fluttershy's embrace completely. "'Cept nunna that helps with the way I got so mad at you. I was just so...so—" She wanted not to say it, wanted to lapse back into the silence she'd used all afternoon to stop herself from dealing with these horrible, horrible feelings.

Which was pretty much exactly what Mom had been doing all these years, weren't it?

Taking a breath, she pushed herself along the bed till she could look straight into Fluttershy's eyes. "I was so angry at her for being who she is and so angry at myself for not being who she needed me to be that I...I turned it all toward you. But I knew that was wrong, so it just made me get angrier at me, and then I couldn't look at you no more 'cause I figured I was a heel and I didn't deserve you and I couldn't...couldn't stand, well, anything. I had to get on outta there. Which didn't do no good at all with you right there to remind me what a monster I was being, and it all...it all just kept getting worse and worse and I didn't know how to stop, didn't know what to do." She swallowed, forced her gaze to hold Fluttershy's. "Can you ever forgive me?"

Fluttershy looked as earnest as AJ reckoned only she could. "If you can forgive me."

It took Applejack a second to find her voice. "For what??"

"I..." A shiver ran through Fluttershy so strongly, Applejack could feel it. "I couldn't think of a way to make you talk to me, either. So I...I remembered at lunch when you said me touching you helped. And I just wanted to help you so much and you were so sad and so...so beautiful, I—" She shivered again. "I didn't mean to get so out-of-control with my wings, but once I started, it was just so...so—" She was blushing furiously. "Just so good. And I...I'm really, really sorry," she finished in a whisper.

"Don't be, honeycomb." Applejack couldn't stop a shiver of her own, her body still more'n a little custardy from Fluttershy's glorious onslaught. "Where I was going, I needed a little tumble therapy to bring me back." She kissed her marefriend's nose. "Just like always, you knew the exact right thing to do."

The smile that blossomed over Fluttershy's muzzle made AJ kiss her again, but then Fluttershy said, "It's just that from now on, we both have to remember to take your advice."

That got Applejack blinking, and Fluttershy gave a crisp nod, her mane rustling along the sheets. "You told me earlier that you and I have to talk about things when they come up." She closed her eyes. "I...I know that's going to be hard for me, but I never thought it would be hard for you, too." Those eyes came open again, and the love in them made Applejack want to leap up dancing and cuddle in closer both at the same time. "Oh, and if you won't let me call myself a monster, well, I won't let you call yourself one, either."

Moving forward, Applejack slid her hoofs into the softness of Fluttershy's mane and kissed those perfect, perfect lips. "Honeycomb? You got yerself a deal."

Fluttershy gave a happy little squeak and tucked her head below Applejack's chin, Applejack having to close her eyes at the feel of her, at the thought of her, at the whole entire idea that somepony as wonderful as this would want anything to do with a dusty old farmer like—

"Oh, and..." Fluttershy untucked herself, a surprisingly stern look on her beautiful face. "And I don't ever want to hear you say you don't deserve me, either. Because I'm the one who doesn't deserve you."

All AJ could do was gape at that, Fluttershy's sternness already dissolving, her eyes getting a shimmer to them. "You've given me so, so much, Applejack. I mean, you gave me a family after I'd spent my life living with, well, you saw my folks. But when I came to Ponyville and Rainbow brought me around to Sweet Apple Acres and I met you and Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom and Granny Smith, you...you gave me a whole different way of looking at family. And then...then you gave me your friendship, and after that, you gave me all of Ponyville."

"Gave you?" Applejack blinked, then tapped a hoof gently against Fluttershy's chest. "Honeycomb, nopony done gave you them things. You earned 'em fair and square."

That got Fluttershy blinking, and Applejack tapped her hoof the tiniest bit harder. "'Cause of who you are and what you do, you made yourself indispensable to the town and...and to me." AJ swallowed. "And as for me giving you anything, I mean, what've I got really? With the Acres, it's more like I belong to it than it belongs to me." Her ears flicked at the sound of a guitar strumming a simple, quiet three chord pattern, and she smiled. "Heck, I don't much like to think it—"

Taking a breath, AJ let the words drift up from her heart, let the music rise from her soul, mixed them both together and sang,

"But my love is all I've really got to offer,
A love I only know because of you.
I never saw the light
Until you hove into sight:
It's true."

She touched a hoof to Fluttershy's cheek.

"It's true."

Eyes going wide, Fluttershy's jaw dropped. AJ slid her hoof to her marefriend's chin and continued:

"But my love won't shelter you from sudden rainstorms,
Can't tuck you in if you're down with the flu.
My heart and hoofs and head:
Those'll do more good instead.
It's true."

She shrugged.

"It's true."

Fluttershy shivered again, and Applejack was sure the pegasus had never looked more beautiful. Stroking her mane, Applejack sang,

"What is love? Just a word, just an ember.
What I promise to you is my fire.
Let you know, understand, and remember
That I'm yours, and you're all I desire."

The guitar began working into a key change, and Fluttershy threw herself around AJ. "Oh, Applejack! That...that's everything I could ever dream of!" She pulled back, once again all blinking and earnest. "I only wish I had something anywhere near as wonderful that I could give to you..."

Her smile deepening, AJ slid into the final verse:

"Just be the sun that wakes me ev'ry morning,
And be the moon to show when day is through.
If you hold me, I can feel
That love is something real:
It's true."

Three final descending chords, and Applejack whispered the last two words.

"It's true."

Nothing but the rattlety-clack, rattlety-clack of the railroad car for a moment, then Fluttershy squealed and squirmed herself deliciously against Applejack. "Oh, yes, Applejack! Yes, yes, yes, yes!" She was absolutely glowing again in the moonlight, her wings doing glorious things along Applejack's back and sides. "Say you'll marry me! Please, please, please say you will!"

"Well, now." Applejack had to chuckle, that perfect peacefulness flowing back into her. "'Tweren't exactly the way I was planning on getting that question popped, but I reckon it'll do." She bent her neck to kiss the top of Fluttershy's head, tucked once more into the crook of her neck. "You and me, honeycomb. You and me."

Author's Note

In my brain:

Applejack is serenading Fluttershy with the song "That's All" written in 1952 by Alan Brandt & Bob Haymes. There are a lot of versions of it out there on the internet, but this one by Jennifer Zarine is a nice, simple arrangement, one suitable for Applejack.

But, of course, Applejack isn't allowed to sing that song in the body of the story anymore, so I wrote her another one instead.

9 - Sedimentary: Sandstone

For the next day and a half, Fluttershy found herself hoping the train ride would never end.

Not that she wanted anything bad to happen to the city of Vanhoover, of course: she'd never been there before and imagined it would be a very lovely place. But still, snuggling with Applejack that first morning aboard or sitting across from her in the dining car or beside her in the observation car, Fluttershy couldn't help wishing that the train might somehow get shunted onto a sidetrack and keep going around and around in circles through the beautiful forests for a few extra days or weeks.

She was fairly sure that wouldn't happen, though. Almost as sure as she was that things were going to get a lot less pleasant when they arrived in Vanhoover and went looking for Applejack's father...

So she did her best not to think about it, a skill she'd gotten quite good at over the years. And Applejack made it easy, especially when Fluttershy came awake that second morning to find Applejack watching her with a blush on her cheeks and her hat in her mouth. "Just wondering...," she mumbled around the hat's brim, her gaze darting up and down.

It took Fluttershy a few blinks to realize what Applejack was asking, and a cold dizziness washed over her. "You...you want me to wear your hat?"

"I..." Applejack set the hat down on the blankets between them. "I'm doing what'cha said, honeycomb, following my own advice and talking 'bout...'bout things I needs to talk about." She didn't seem able to hold her eyes still. "It's just, I really, really, really liked it when you...when we first got on the train and you...took charge." The tip of her tongue peeked from the corner of her mouth. "I'm asking if that might be something you'd like to try again. Just maybe not so—" She shivered. "Not so intense this time..."

Fluttershy shivered, too, so many things mixing around in her still-sleepy brain. "I...I don't really like being in charge," she whispered, focusing on the pine trees rushing past under the lovely spring morning outside the window since she didn't want to see Applejack looking disappointed.

"Oh, but honeycomb." A strong hoof gently stroked her mane. "You're so good at it."

"What??" That brought Fluttershy's attention back in a hurry. "How could you—? Why would you—? When have you ever seen me being good at being in charge??"

"Might be I mentioned two nights ago?" Applejack's smile made Fluttershy's face heat up. "Or might be you recall taking charge of a certain dragon and saving all of Equestria from a hunderd year smoke screen?"

Shifting under the blankets, Fluttershy wanted to look away, but Applejack's honest sincerity held her transfixed. "And ev'ry time I been to your cottage," Applejack was going on. "I mean, with all them critters tucked up inside that place, it oughtta be a howling, squeaking, squawking mess. But instead? What'cha got there is the peacefulest spot I ever seen. And you wanna know why?" Her hoof touched Fluttershy's chest. "'Cause all them animals loves you and trusts you and respects you. And they know if'n they got any problems with anything, you're the pony they needs to see, the pony who's got 'em covered, the pony in charge."

Quivering, Fluttershy could hardly breathe, and the longing in Applejack's eyes didn't help one bit. "Now, I loves you and trusts you and respects you just the same, but—" Her mouth tightened. "Could be you've noticed I'm a mite headstrong. And you, honeycomb, well, you ain't. So seems to me if'n we just let things take their natural course, we'll end up doing things I wanna do all the time. And that ain't healthy for us."

"But...why?" Arguing was one of the few things Fluttershy ever used the word 'hate' to describe, so she tried to think of a way to get out of this conversation without it turning into one. "I...I love you, too, Applejack, and I love doing things with you no matter whose idea they are."

"Ain't the point, honeycomb." Applejack had that determined look about her that usually made Fluttershy feel better. "You and me, we're friends, equals, and partners in this." She moved her hoof back and forth between her chest and Fluttershy's. "Now, maybe you ain't comfter'ble being in charge, but, well, I ain't exactly comfter'ble being number two, either." That sly little smile crept over her snout. "Though after t'other night, I reckon I sure could get comfter'ble with it ev'ry now and then..."

"I— I just—" Fluttershy didn't want to say this part, didn't want to think about it, just wanted to pretend none of it had ever happened, but...she had to make Applejack understand! "Maybe you remember the Grand Galloping Gala? Or Iron Will?"

"Oh, honeycomb,—"

"Because that's me in charge!" She clenched her eyes, spat out the words, sharp as fishhooks in her mouth. "That's what happens when I want to have things, and that's why forcing myself on you the other night, the way I tortured you and had my way with you, it was so...so terrible! Inexcusable!"

"No!" Hoofs grabbed her shoulders roughly, snapped her eyes open, Applejack glaring at her from maybe an inch away. "Honeycomb, you didn't—! It weren't—!" A light seemed to flare in Applejack's eyes, and then...then she was kissing Fluttershy harder and more thoroughly than Fluttershy had ever been kissed, her embrace tight and fierce and melting Fluttershy like butter.

Her heart soaring, Fluttershy let herself be swept away in the waves of Applejack's passion till a timeless time later when those lips pulled away, moved against hers, asked in that sweet, rough voice, "Reckon you like that, honeycomb?"

"Mmmm-hmmm," was all Fluttershy could manage.

She expected to hear Applejack's low chuckle, and when she didn't, she opened her eyes to find Applejack looking across at her, a tiny sour sliver of fear in her scent. "Well, turns out I like getting swept off my hoofs that way, too, sometimes. To tell you the honest truth, I never woulda imagined I had that in me, but you—" She reached out a hoof to Fluttershy's cheek, and Fluttershy almost gasped at the way it was trembling. "You done changed ev'rything, and you...you're the only pony I'd ever let do that to me." She squirmed, reached under the tangle of blankets, pulled out her hat, and popped a couple of dents out of the crown. "So,...please?" she whispered.

Fear and love wrestled in Fluttershy's head. "But—" Knowing her hoofs were shaking, too, she still stretched them out to take Applejack's hat. "But what if I start getting all mean and scary?"

Excitement crackled over Applejack's face, her breath coming faster. "Well, I'll just ask for the hat back. We'll both do that, how 'bout? Whichever of us is wearing the hat, if she starts getting too bossy or whatever, the other one'll just ask for the hat, see? It'll be like...like an emergency brake and'll stop ev'rything smack-dab in its tracks wherever we are and whatever we're doing!" She gave a crisp nod. "That make you feel better?"

"I...I guess..." Though she wasn't really sure, Fluttershy still turned the hat slowly in her hoofs, swallowed, and set it gingerly atop her head.

A happy little squeak flicked Fluttershy's ears, and she wondered for half a second how a mouse had gotten into their compartment. But the way Applejack's eyes shone, her hoofs drawn up to her chest, Fluttershy realized that her tough, strong marefriend had just made that noise. "Now," Applejack said breathlessly, "you wanna get up and go to breakfast, we'll get up and go to breakfast. You wanna get up and do some dancing, we'll get up and do some dancing. Anything you want, honeycomb. Anything at all."

The first thing that popped into Fluttershy's head she brushed away immediately. But it stayed, made her think about how...how nice it would be. "Well, umm, I...I don't know if this would really be what you have in mind..."

"Don't matter what's in my mind." Applejack's mouth went sideways. "Only matters what's in yours."

Fluttershy took a breath. "Preening, then."

Applejack blinked. "You what now?"

Pushing the blankets away, Fluttershy rolled onto her stomach, tucked her legs underneath, willed herself to relax, and let her wings drape open across the bed. "It...it's how we pegasi take care of our wings." She bent her neck around and winced, tugging at her primary remex feather with her teeth. "I usually do it myself, but I've never been very good at it and I can't have them do it at the spa very often because I—" She blushed. "I find it a little bit arousing. So I was hoping maybe you wouldn't mind me teaching you how to...how to preen me?"

She peered out from under the brim of the hat and saw Applejack looking back like Pinkie Pie in a candy store, her wide eyes focused on Fluttershy's wings and her mouth partway open. "Oh, yeah," she said, and she leaned forward, touched her snout gently to the tips of Fluttershy's pinions. "Just tell me where, what, and how."

Fortunately, the basics were pretty simply and Applejack picked them up quickly. Because as the earth pony got more and more into it, Fluttershy found herself less and less able to form actual words. "Like this?" Applejack would ask, then she would nuzzle Fluttershy's ulna in a way that would make her splay her secondaries and moan with pleasure. "Or how 'bout—?" And she would lick the base of Fluttershy's alula, the group of feathers rotating exactly the proper amount and sending joyous shivers ricocheting through Fluttershy's body.

Halfway done with her right wing, Applejack's tender lips and firm teeth were causing so much pressure to build up behind Fluttershy's lacinia that she had to shift her hips. "Ev'rything all right, honeycomb?" Applejack asked.

"Better than that," Fluttershy managed to say before the next series of little nibbles robbed her of speech again. She could smell Applejack's arousal by then, too, and that only added to the growing fullness behind her flap. And when Applejack finished off that first wing with a lingering caress of a kiss right at the base, Fluttershy had to cry out, her lacinia practically bursting open, her penis sliding out all hot and hard along her stomach.

A gasp behind her, then the crinkle of Applejack's flap unzipping: Fluttershy drank in the air, spicy with her beloved's scent. "Honeycomb," Applejack more choked than said.

Fluttershy didn't look at her, couldn't look at her. "Left wing," she forced out.

"What??" Applejack's voice was a strangled growl. "I'm hanging open here! I need you! Right now!"

"And I need you." Gritting her teeth, Fluttershy dug for every ounce of restraint she'd learned living her whole life as a mare with stallion parts lurking just under her lacinia. Eyes open barely a slit, she watched the countryside whisk by outside the compartment window and flapped her left wing once. "So please hurry."

Applejack's panting and groaning tore at Fluttershy the way she'd always imagined the claws of a dragon would, but she refused, refused, refused to move her hips at all, her penis throbbing against her like an abscessed tooth. Not wanting to think about Applejack's frenzied mouth, already a quarter finished with her left wing, she found herself unable to think of anything except not thinking about it, her entire consciousness a white-hot needle stabbing into the part of her that simply would not think about Applejack perfectly tonguing, lipping, and toothing every last barbule of her feathers with a speed and precision that would have taken her breath away...except Fluttershy wasn't sure she was breathing anymore.

By the time Applejack was halfway done with her left wing, Fluttershy began to hear the pitter-patter of liquid on linen: Applejack literally dripping with desire, her every breath a rasp in Fluttershy's ears and against her flanks, the aroma of her arousal swirling around Fluttershy as thick as smoke. That was the moment Fluttershy knew she wasn't going to make it, knew she was going to spin and leap onto her marefriend like one of those tigers she'd read about in a book on jungle animals that she'd had to lock away in the attic afterwards because she just couldn't sleep otherwise.

Three-quarters of the way along, her every muscle screaming "Spin and leap!" at her as harshly as her mother, as gutturally as her father, as whiningly as her brother, Fluttershy still held her place. She was wearing the hat, after all, so she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to. Or something: she wasn't quite able to remember what Applejack had said since the lightning storm that had replaced her nervous system had blasted her brain to ash.

And then Applejack tugged the last feather into place, her mouth vanishing from the center of Fluttershy's universe. Feeling both light and heavy, a storm cloud floating lazily despite the furious rain lashing within, Fluttershy rolled over, her legs spreading, her penis jutting into the air like Canterlot Tower, her slitted eyes locking on Applejack at the end of the bed, the earth pony's mane wild and sweaty around her face, her nostrils flaring, her teeth grinding. "All right," Fluttershy heard a voice that was too impossibly calm to be hers say. "Now."

With a snarl, Applejack sprang forward, and—

Another book that Fluttershy kept locked up was one she'd found at the bottom of a box of flower pots she'd bought at a garage sale last summer. Smoke Jumper told of a massive fire that had swept through part of the Everfree Forest several decades ago; the author, Ice Slicer, was the pegasus whose team had spent three days fighting the fire and had saved Ponyville from burning down. Fluttershy had stayed up all night, unable to stop reading, every hair on her head standing up at Ice Slicer's vivid descriptions, then she'd crawled upstairs just after dawn to tuck the book away in the attic with all the other things she had that were just too scary to leave lying around the house.

And somehow, those next few minutes in the train compartment—she wasn't even sure how long it went on, Applejack slamming herself down onto her with the force of a flash flood, wrapping herself around Fluttershy in every way one pony could wrap herself around another, and pumping, pumping, pumping with a ferocity that shot bolts of solid pleasure straight up Fluttershy's spine and into her head as hard as hammer blows—the whole experience got tangled with her memories of Smoke Jumper like she'd been caught in one of the updrafts Ice Slicer wrote about, the flames that had come roaring out of the Everfree fueled by its odd magic, that had instantly superheated the air and had flung the fire fighters fetlocks over tail sometimes a mile or more away from where they'd started.

Of course, in this case, it was sheer physical ecstasy crashing over and around her, hurling her screaming through multiple tumbling orgasms that shouldn't have been possible—or even survivable—Applejack's body seemingly so famished for Fluttershy's that she sucked every last bit of her in and left nothing behind but a quivering vapor of pure bliss.

The quivering went on for another uncountable stretch of time until she became aware of a lovely little breeze, cool and drifting over her face at regular intervals. It let her know that she still had a face, at least, but it took her several long seconds to remember how to work her eyelids.

Cracking them open finally, she flopped her head over and saw Applejack sprawled half beside her and half across her, her steady exhaling the breeze she'd been feeling. Fluttershy craned her neck a little further, saw the hat wedged between the two of them and the window, and the shadows among the pine trees outside told her it wasn't even mid-morning yet. So they'd only been passed out for maybe half an hour, forty-five minutes at the outside.

Applejack stirred, her eyes slowly coming open, and just the thought of this wonderful, exciting, miraculous pony lying tangled with her in the sheets and blankets was all it took for Fluttershy's heart to pick up. She couldn't help smiling, couldn't help giving a happily contented sigh, and if she'd been able to move, she would've scooted closer to her beautiful, beautiful marefriend.

"Whoosh," Applejack said, a smile spreading over her own muzzle. "Thought for sure I said something about 'not as intense' earlier..."

***

By the time they got themselves cleaned up and out the door for breakfast, it was already lunchtime, but Applejack didn't mind in the least. She felt pumped up full as a balloon at wunna Pinkie Pie's parties, giggling in a way she weren't sure she'd ever giggled before ev'ry time the train lurched and sent her and Fluttershy bouncing into each other. At lunch, she just couldn't stop touching her, couldn't stop looking at her, couldn't stop smiling at her marefriend, her fiancée now all true and official, the pony she loved more'n a little bit of a tongue-curl and a puff of breath like the word 'love' should even be able to express.

Turned out they had to eat quick since the train was coming into Vanhoover, but that was OK, too, since the workout she'd just shared with Fluttershy had left her more famished than half a day of apple bucking did; she sucked the food down fast enough to make Big Macintosh proud and had to make an effort not to stare at the graceful and demure Fluttershy, never seeming to rush but somehow managing to keep up with AJ bowl for bowl and cup for cup.

Back at the room, she spared a thought for whatever poor pony hadta do their laundry, but with the hilly outskirts of Vanhoover winding by outside the window, she just grabbed her and Fluttershy's saddlebags and tossed a couple extra bits onto the pillow. Then the train was pulling into the big, square-windowed station, and they were stepping out onto the loud and bustling platform, the place a whole lot closer to Manehattan-busy than to Ponyville-busy. But if'n there was one thing ev'ry train station had, it was—

A glance found the newsstand over by the front doors, so she tapped Fluttershy's shoulder, pointed at it with her snout, then started through the tangle of ponies moving back and forth between the trains. Fluttershy kept up, things getting quieter the further from the engines they got, and by the time they reached the stand, she could ask the big brown earth pony behind the counter in a near-to-normal tone of voice, "Y'all carry the shipping news?"

He gave her a sideways look from under his plaid hat. "What, you think the biggest port in Equestria's gonna have some kinda magazine that lists the ships coming in and out? That what you think, lady?"

Fluttershy was cowering some behind her, but AJ just gave the vendor about a quarter of a glare. "Please," she said with just enough of a Manehattan accent. "The second biggest port in Equestria."

That got a guffaw outta the news pony, and he slapped a pamphlet onto the counter. "Normally, that's a bit. But for you, it's two."

She flicked three from her saddlebag. "So the next wunna'll be half-price."

Another guffaw from the newsie, and Applejack rolled the pamphlet up, tucked it into her bag, checked that Fluttershy was still with her, then stepped outta the station. The park across the street looked inviting under the early afternoon sunlight, so she pointed it out: "Reckon we can set some and check for the Heron's Laugh."

The trembly way Fluttershy nodded told Applejack her honeycomb was feeling the pressure of all the buildings and ponies around 'em, another reason the park'd prob'bly be the best place for a minute or twenty. Fluttershy pressed mighty close to her, too, as they took the hoof bridge over the steady stream of carts and cabs going to and fro from the station—not that Applejack minded at all, though she did hafta get the lacinia-closing spell going in her head a little quicker'n usual...

The park, it turned out, wound along the top of a little bluff, so picking a shady tree, AJ settled herself and Fluttershy where they could look out over mosta Vanhoover. The city didn't seem to have buildings as tall as Manehattan's, but it sure spread out more, quite a patchwork between here and the ocean, vague and cloudy-blue just past where the grid stopped.

Fluttershy was still cuddled up to her, and AJ could feel her shaking even though the weather didn't have much of a chill to it at all for northern Equestria three weeks after Winter Wrap-up. "Honeycomb?" she asked, nudging the side of Fluttershy's neck gently with her snout. "You wanna find a café indoors somewhere?"

"Oh, no." A bigger shiver. "That...that would probably be even worse."

"Worse?" Applejack cocked her head. "You ain't cold?"

"It's just—" Fluttershy peered out from behind her bangs, something AJ didn't think she'd seen her do in a couple days. "In Manehattan, all the tall buildings looked so much like walls, I didn't really...didn't feel all the other ponies there. But here, I—" She ducked closer to the ground between Applejack and the tree. "I'm pretty sure they're all looking at me."

Fighting her first impulse to laugh out loud, AJ gave a quick look around the park. A few ponies strolled along or relaxed in the grass, and a few of 'em coulda been glancing in their direction with a mite more interest than was polite....

The thought that popped into Applejack's head was too good not to share, and nuzzling the fine hair below Fluttershy's ear, she murmured, "Y'know? I reckon you're right."

A tiny "Eep!" from Fluttershy, and she went so still, she might as well have turned to stone.

"And y'know why they're staring?" Applejack gave her another nuzzle. "Exact same reason I stares at you. 'Cause anywhere you go in the whole wide, wide world of Equestria, my ever-sweetest, orange-blossom, sugar-candy honeycomb, you radiate an aura of beauty so intense, it affects the surrounding area to a radius of two hunderd and fifty-seven miles."

This time, a little giggle came from down amongst that gorgeous pink mane, then Fluttershy's head was moving, deep teal eyes gazing warm and wide at Applejack. "Two hundred and fifty-seven miles seems very large," she said, more giggles behind her words. "And very precise, too."

Grinning, Applejack tapped her own chest. "It's what us science ponies call the 'Fluttershy Zone.'" She waved a hoof like she was Twilight giving a lecture. "All these folks in this entire parta the country are feeling a little better, smiling a little wider, walking along with just a little more zing in their steps. They're all of 'em looking 'round, too, wondering why the day's suddenly brighter, and the ones who are the luckiest and the closest, they're looking over and—" Her throat caught, and lost in Fluttershy's eyes, she realized that she meant ev'ry single word she was saying. "And they're seeing you, honeycomb. The very luckiest ponies in the whole entire world right now are seeing you."

Once again spellbound, Applejack just watched Fluttershy breathe; then Fluttershy sat up straighter, ev'ry last trace of fear gone from her scent. "Then I shouldn't be all skulking and trying to hide," she said, her gaze never straying from AJ's. "Because if they can all see me, then they'll see that I'm with the most wonderful pony in the world. And the science ponies'll call it the 'Applejack Effect' because it makes everything in the Fluttershy Zone three hundred and fifty-seven times better. And they'll all be wondering—" Her voice broke, her eyes shimmering. "They'll wonder how we managed to survive so long without the 'Applejack Effect' in our lives...."

Tingling, Applejack thought she must be floating higher than even pegasus wings coulda lifted her. She leaned forward and touched a kiss to Fluttershy's lips as gentle as ever she could. "Let's just go," she found herself muttering, her head spinning. "Get back on that train, head home, and just...just be us like this for the resta our lives, OK?"

"We will be," came the reply. "But we...we've still got something we need to do here first...."

Downy softness pressed Applejack's forehead, and managing to focus, she saw it was Fluttershy, her eyes closed, resting her mane against her. "Yeah." AJ took a breath. "We do." Pulling away from Fluttershy took more strength than bucking four dozen trees, but she did it, shifted around to pull the rolled-up copy of the shipping news from amongst her bags, and spread it over the grass in front of her. A few minutes, and she found the listing for the Heron's Laugh. "Two o'clock this afternoon, Pier S-27." Swallowing, she got herself together. "Reckon we can grab a cab down to the shore, get us a hotel room for tonight, then head out along the docks and see what's what."

The feather-light stroke drifting across her back made AJ sigh, a sense of well-being pushing in around the tightness in her stomach. "We don't have to go yet, though, do we?" Fluttershy asked.

And as much as she wanted to just stay right there for the next couple or three years,— "The sooner we get a room somewhere to stow our packs, the better I'll like it."

"All right." Fluttershy stood and stretched in a way that made Applejack wish they was in that room right now. "If it's this nice up here, it'll be nice down by the water, too."

Hailing a cab took half a minute, and Applejack asked the cabbie, a solid black mare nigh as big as Macintosh with a single rose for her cutie mark, about hotels down around the harbor. "You looking for 'quaint' or 'cheap'?" the cabbie asked.

"Little of both," AJ answered.

And that got the conversation started, the cabbie asking what they was in town for, Applejack telling her, and the cabbie starting to talk about her brothers who was all shipped out on various cargo runs up and down the coast. "Water!" the cabbie said, tossing her head. "I don't even like drinking the stuff, but try and keep the resta my family off it!"

She trotted them down through the main part of town, lotsa ivy-covered brick and wrought iron with little bitty parks every other block it seemed, and even Fluttershy got involved in the conversation, asking the cabbie how she liked living in Vanhoover and that sorta thing.

Half an hour later, she was pulling 'em up in front of a rambling stone building overshadowed by the eucalyptus trees of the fair-sized park right next door. "Tell 'em Dusty Rose sent you," she said. "Doubt it'll get you any special treatment, but at least Cracker Barrel'll know you got friends in town."

Climbing down, AJ set to digging out the fare and a healthy tip, but Fluttershy had already leaped from the carriage, was hovering at the box and nearly pouring bits into it. "Thank you so much, Dusty! It was wonderful meeting you!"

"Easy now." Dusty laughed. "Too much coin, I'll never get back up the hill." She gestured with her muzzle further down the street. "Port's just a block and a half that way. You were looking for S-27?"

Applejack nodded, and Dusty nodded back. "Cargo docks'll be to the left. Couple good taverns down that way, too, but I s'ppose your pop'll know if he's been shipping 'round these waters as long as you said." A tap of her hoofs against the cobblestones, and she pulled away from the curb. "Have Barrel gimme a call when you need a lift back to the station!"

"Good-bye!" Fluttershy waved, then settled onto the sidewalk beside Applejack. "She was so nice!" Sudden as a warm spring breeze, she spun to nuzzle Applejack's neck. "Look how brave you make me! I talked to a pony I'd never even seen before!"

And if Applejack's heart hadn't already been mush when it came to her honeycomb, that moment woulda melted it for sure. Smiling, she nuzzled Fluttershy back, then turned for the little stone path winding up the lawn to the front door of the place, 'Harbor House,' she noticed now, spelled out on the sign above the screen porch.

Inside, the lobby smelled like cinnamon and sawdust, a portly yellow unicorn not much older'n them reading a woodworking magazine behind the desk. "Ah, Dusty Rose," he said after he'd introduced himself as Cracker Barrel and AJ had given him her and Fluttershy's particulars. He pressed a hoof to his chest, his nor'western accent as thick and warm as soup to Applejack's ears. "If them brothers of hers hadn't always been about, giving a feller the hairy eyeball..." His horn wavered like sunlight on water and wafted a key over the counter. "Got a lovely room right down the hall here for you."

Following him through the lobby, Applejack started liking the place more and more, the hoof-made furniture maybe a mite crooked here and there but all the more honest for it. "Here you go," Cracker Barrel said, unlocking a door marked '3' and pushing it open on a large room with just a few too many ruffles 'round the windows for Applejack's taste. "Anything you need, just gimme a holler."

"Thanks," Applejack said. "Reckon we'll be—"

"Dusty Rose!" Fluttershy burst out, suddenly airborne beside her. "She said her brothers were all out at sea! So they won't have their hairy eyeballs there if you—!" Her front hoofs clapped over her snout, her face going as pink as her mane, and she drifted back to the floor, ducked behind Applejack with a squeak.

Cracker Barrel's eyes got a bit wider, and his smile did, too. "Well, now, thankee kindly, miss, for the information." The key drifted into the room and clattered onto the desk beside the bed. "Be seeing you." And he took off at a trot for the lobby.

Shaking her head with a grin, Applejack took a step into the room only to have Fluttershy shoot overhead with a giggle and bounce to a landing on the bed. "Oh, Applejack! What if he calls her and asks her out and they get along so splendidly that they get married and live happily ever after?? It'll all be because of us!"

AJ pushed the door closed with a hind leg and wished she could just clamber up onto that bed beside her marefriend. But the hands of the little clock on the wall between the windows were both already past one, and the tightness in her stomach wouldn't let her forget where they were and what they were doing. Still, she turned her grin toward Fluttershy while she let her saddlebags slump to the floor. "That's us, honeycomb: spreading joy and love ev'ry durn place we goes."

Of course, Fluttershy came all over serious, the way she picked up ev'ry little emotional wobble. "Oh, Applejack, I'm sorry." She hopped off the bed. "Do you want to be waiting on the dock when your father's ship comes in?"

"Honestly?" The words jabbed her throat like chunks of rock, and AJ had to look away from Fluttershy's earnest gaze, had to keep her attention on unzipping her big bag to pull out her walking-around pack. "I wanna get myself as far away from this place as I can."

The silence behind her was full of Fluttershy. "But you won't."

"Nope." She slung the pack 'round her middle, straightened her hat, and turned to her marefriend. "'Cause an Apple don't run." She shrugged. "Leastwise, this Apple don't run, not from this no more." The words got rocky again. "'Sides, I made you face down the volcanoes your folks turned out to be. Reckon I can face my own more settled sorta awfulness."

Fluttershy was shaking her head almost imperceptibly. "You didn't make me. You gave me every chance not to see them again, but I...I thought maybe after...after so long..." Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head harder. "So. One more, and we'll be done with them forever."

As much as she doubted it—family never left, she'd learned, even when they actually did up and leave—AJ still nodded, grabbed the room key from the desk, and dropped it into her pack. "Might be he's not even aboard anymore, moved on and didn't leave no forwarding address." She stepped to the door. "A pony can always hope."

In the lobby, a little grass-green pegasus mare with a couple gold rings through one ear now sat chewing gum behind the desk, and all the way down the street to the harbor, Fluttershy giggled and spun elaborate tales 'bout how Cracker Barrel and Dusty Rose had already run off together—they'd bought wunna them giant airships, they ended up deciding, with Barrel running the passenger part while Dusty steered it from city to city. It all helped AJ not to think about what was coming up at least....

The air got saltier and spicier the whole block and a half, then they came to the corner, the street near to as busy as around the train station. Right across the way, all along that whole side of the road, stretched a fence, a big round gate in it with a sign over it: 'Port of Vanhoover.' What had to be warehouses sat on the other side, but Applejack could see shops and diners further along to their right. Masts from windjammers stuck up here and there past the warehouses, and she could see teams of pegasi flying back and forth with cargo nets, some empty and some fulla crates.

A whistle drew her attention, a uniformed unicorn out in the street signaling for the cross traffic to stop; AJ hurried across with Fluttershy, moved through the gate, took a left the way Dusty had said, and started along the warehouses.

They were labeled with the letter 'L' hereabouts, so 'S' took 'em another ten or fifteen minutes to get to, and by then the whole look and smell of the place had changed, ev'rything a little smaller, a little dingier, a little sleepier. Fluttershy had stopped talking and was walking close enough for Applejack to feel the brush of her feathers, but it didn't seem so much like she was scared as it did she was being supportive, something AJ appreciated more'n she'd ever be able to say.

Around the 'O' warehouses, she'd started noticing guard ponies stationed at the walkways that led out through the warehouses to the docks themselves, and 'S' weren't no different. With a clock somewhere in the city chiming two, AJ swallowed, grinned at Fluttershy, and stepped up to the little guard stand. "'Scuse me," she said to the earth pony there. "We's looking for Pier S-27."

He gave her a look, gave Fluttershy a longer look, then tapped the clipboard resting on the plywood counter in front of him. "What'cher business?"

Applejack shrugged. "My poppa's the cook aboard the Heron's Laugh."

The guard blinked. "Gravy's gotta daughter?"

That made AJ cock her head. "He know you call him Gravy?"

Already a light gray color, the guard pony got even paler; he picked up a pencil in his teeth and scrawled something on his pad. "How 'bout I just put down 'Personal'?"

"Much obliged." Applejack nodded to him. "This way?"

"Follow the signs." He waved a hoof down the walkway, the two warehouses on either side towering up a good four stories. "Twenty-seven'll be left, then seven berths down: you oughtta see the Laugh pulling in."

Another nod, and Applejack moved into the shadow of the warehouses, Fluttershy beside her. A long couple of minutes finally brought them back into the sunlight, and ahead across a stretch of concrete lay the bay, blue wavelets sparkling all the way out to the horizon, she thought at first. Pretty quickly, though, she noticed the breakwaters stretching all across the surface: channels for the ships to travel down, she reckoned, and something to bust up the incoming waves. She could see the shape of the cove now, too, the land curving out to the left and right to further protect the harbor from the open sea.

The port looked a lot busier off to their right, the part they'd walked past; turning left, she saw just one ship pulling in, a fair-sized two-master, pegasi flitting among the rigging and lashing the sails into place along the crossbeam—or whatever them sailor ponies might call it: Macintosh was the one knew all that nautical terminology. Still, Applejack couldn't miss the ship's name carved along the bow, and blowing out a breath, she started toward the Heron's Laugh.

Laughter did reach her ears, too, the closer she got, a couple dozen mares and stallions, earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, gathering on the front deck as the ship slid to a halt, the last couple pegasi tying it to the dock before joining the others. Applejack tried not to, but she couldn't help scanning the crowd in search of a dark red—

A cheer went up from the group, and a whole slew of pegasi seemed to burst from the deck and scatter toward the city. AJ saw one, maybe two flashes—unicorns popping out, she guessed—mosta the other crewponies heading toward a gangplank that lead down to the dock. Picking up her pace, she got to the base of the gangplank just as the ponies disembarked.

And not a one of 'em was even close to the right size or the right color.

Fluttershy was huddling behind her, a couple of the stallions aiming a glance or two their way. One of 'em, a lanky pinto with his mane slicked back, came trotting over with enough smile on his snout for three regular ponies. "Evening, ladies," he said with a bow, his voice lilting and musical and slicker'n ice cream on a hot sidewalk. "Might I be so bold as to ask how we can be of assistance?"

Applejack swallowed. "Y'all got a cook aboard called Red Gravenstein?"

The pinto's smile faded, his brow wrinkling, and for a quarter of a second, hope wrestled with fear inside Applejack that his answer would be 'no.' Till he called over his shoulder, his voice nowhere near as smooth as before, "Yo, Red! You got some mighty pretty visitors down here asking for you!"

Her blood tried to freeze, but the warm, sweet touch of Fluttershy's wing across her back let Applejack move her neck enough to look up at the deck. Nothing for a moment, then a large shadow appeared in the cabin's open doorway, stepped out into the afternoon sunlight, a few strands of silver streaking that deep brown mane, bigger and darker than Mac, his apple tree cutie mark exactly as she remembered it, those caramel-colored eyes locking on her, and—

"Red?" the pinto was calling somewhere. "What'sa problem? You OK?"

Another second, and a gravel-coated whisper drifted down to her: "Yup."

He blinked, and Applejack found she could breathe again. "Y'all head on out," Poppa said, his voice still rough and odd to AJ's ears. "Ev'rything's gonna be fine here."

The resta the crew didn't look convinced, and Applejack wasn't so sure herself, her heart pounding like Pinkie's party cannon was going off inside her. The sailor ponies moved along, though, and another figure stepped outta the cabin, a tough-looking, dark-blue mare in a long black jacket. "Trouble?" she asked.

Still standing at the railing and looking down at AJ with half-closed eyes, Poppa said, "It's nothing, cap'n. Nothing at all."

"Poppa?" Applejack squeaked out, instantly hating herself for it.

The mare—Poppa had called her the cap'n, and AJ could well believe it, the way she wore her authority as easy as she did that jacket—her eyes narrowed. "Red Gravenstein," she growled. "That your daughter down there?"

Poppa nodded once, sharp and uncomfortable. The cap'n took a breath and pointed a front hoof at the gangplank. "I'm giving you leave the resta the day. Don't gimme nunna that palaver 'bout you not liking to go ashore, and should I catch you back aboard afore nightfall, your hide'll be redder'n you ever thought it could be! Do I make myself clear??"

Half a second, and Poppa gave one more nod, turned, and started thumping down the gangplank. And before Applejack could even start thinking about pulling herself together, there he was, standing right in front of her, looking down at her with his jaw set and—

And his eyes shimmering? Why would he be—?

"So." Tension filled his voice like he'd stomped into a patch of stinging nettles. "Reckon you've come to tell me my ma's passed on."

"What??" It busted outta AJ almost before she could untangle what he'd said and follow it back to what he musta thought seeing her so suddenly after so many years. "No! Poppa, Granny Smith's fine! Never been better!" She turned to Fluttershy. "Ain't that right, honeycomb?"

Fluttershy nodded frantically, and Applejack turned back, Poppa standing stock still as a wooden statue. "But..." And as quick as it took him to blink, he sounded exactly like Applejack remembered from nigh onto a decade ago. "Why else'd you come tracking me down, AJ?"

Coughing a little laugh, she threw herself forward and wrapped her front hoofs around his neck. "You're my poppa! Ain't that reason enough??"

She felt one leg touch her back, but all uncertain like an ant's feeler. "It ain't never been afore," he rumbled.

That hit home, and Applejack sniffed, stepped back, nodded so he could see her do it. "You're right. But now—" She gestured to Fluttershy, watching all cute and befuddled. "Poppa, this is my fiancée Fluttershy. Fluttershy, this is my father, Red Gravenstein."

Fluttershy gave one of her slow smiles, the kind that always made AJ think of the sun coming out after a long and foggy morning. "A pleasure to meet you, sir."

"Call me Red," Poppa said. He looked from her to Applejack and back again a couple times. "You getting married, AJ?" he finally asked.

Applejack nodded, unwilling to trust her voice to get any words out without cracking 'em.

"Well, now." Something that coulda been a smile tugged at the edges of Poppa's face. "Reckon that's maybe a half-step better'n a funeral." He tapped a hoof against the concrete. "Could you girls use some corn chowder? 'Cause I've had me a powerful hankering for some corn chowder the past day and a half."

And just like that, they were walking back toward the warehouses, AJ in the middle, her poppa on her left, her honeycomb on her right, around a corner, and into a hole-in-the-wall tavern she hadn't even noticed when her and Fluttershy had come by this way not ten minutes earlier. Poppa was asking how they'd met, was ordering three sourdough bowls of corn chowder and three mugs of cider, Applejack not even sure what she was saying to answer him, her whole body fulla bubbles at the thought of actually sitting and talking with her poppa.

More cider followed, and Applejack and Poppa ended up trading stories back and forth, her telling about the adventures she'd shared lately with Fluttershy and their other friends in Ponyville while Poppa told 'em summa his adventures up and down Equestria's coastlines.

But funny as Poppa's stories were—and they was mostly gut-busting, tales of dancing dolphins and singing sea ponies that AJ didn't more'n half believe—he seemed to smile less and less. Not long after Fluttershy had chewed the last bite of her sourdough bowl, in fact, her mug still a good three-quarters full though AJ was pretty sure she'd had three and Poppa'd had four, the first real silence fell over the table, no other ponies in the place at all 'cept the cook.

Poppa wasn't frowning exactly, but looking at her, he swigged back about half his cider. "Married," he said, his head shaking. "It ain't gonna last, but, well, reckon it's your life, AJ."

"Ain't gonna—?" Applejack had been feeling a nice little buzz—if it weren't precisely hard cider they was drinking, it sure weren't soft, neither—but as she blinked at him now, that buzz started taking on more of a wasp or hornet quality than she generally cared for. "And what's that s'pposed to mean?"

"Love." His snout curled, his eyes narrowing. "Ain't nothing but sex misspelled if'n you want the stone-cold truth, and anypony tells you different is either stupid or trying to sell you something."

Outta the corner of her eye, Applejack saw Fluttershy, around the table to her right, go completely still, but AJ was too busy focusing on Poppa right then, her guts all a-twist inside her. "You don't know what'cher talking 'bout, Poppa."

His snout curled even further, his eyes getting all hard and glittery. "Yeah, that's it. Ain't like I didn't have my whole life torn to shreds and stomped into the mud 'cause somepony and I bought the lie, is it? And it surely ain't like I didn't ruin near to half a dozen lives since I was young as you and idiot enough to b'lieve in love."

The sneer he put into the word this time sliced through Applejack like a freshly-sharpened plow blade, opened up her chest and turned over ev'ry fear she'd been keeping hid since her and Fluttershy had first kissed. 'Cause if what'd happened to Poppa and Mom happened to her and Fluttershy—

"No!" She stomped a hoof hard against the table, plates and glasses rattling. "You gotta lotta nerve, Red Gravenstein, telling me—!"

"Applejack!" It wasn't loud but it was sure as sugar was sharp, AJ wincing and glancing over at Fluttershy, her honeycomb stretching out a front hoof and somehow managing to look both stern and scared at the same time. "The hat."

Hot and cold crashing through her, Applejack was absolutely positive she'd misheard. "You what??"

Fluttershy's hoof trembled, but she kept it extended. "The hat," she said again. "Please."

A little twitch jerking her left eye, Applejack could almost hear herself start shouting, could almost feel herself pounding and kicking, smacking Poppa around and yelling at him till he took it back that she was being as stupid as he and Mom had been. But while she could almost hear, what she actually could hear was herself earlier in the day telling Fluttershy what it'd mean if either of 'em ever asked for the hat.

Quivering with rage and fear she couldn't and damn well didn't wanna express, AJ managed to flip her hat onto the table instead of slamming it down, managed to nudge it toward Fluttershy instead of flinging it.

Nodding, Fluttershy touched the hat brim, then turned one of her serious looks toward Poppa. "Red, I can only imagine what a terrible nightmare it must've been, what happened between you and Marmalade."

Poppa flinched at Mom's name, his hard, hard gaze softening and drooping a little to rest on the table.

"But the thing is," Fluttershy went on, her voice like a dewdrop of quiet in the last-night's-beer stink of the tavern, "you didn't mean for things to turn out the way they did, and neither did she. You didn't know each other, you didn't understand each other, you didn't even have a way really to talk to each other at all." She leaned forward, rested her delicate yellow hoof against Poppa's rough red one. "But I can tell you right now that you two loved each other. I see it in Applejack's face and in Big Macintosh's face and in Apple Bloom's face; I saw it in Marmalade's face, and I see it right here right now in you."

Poppa's eyes rolled closed, and he sorta sagged backwards.

"But the thing is," Fluttershy said again, "love's not magic. Friendship is magic, and love without friendship is, well, you don't need me to tell you about that." She patted his hoof. "I'm so, so sorry for your loss, Red, and maybe Applejack and I won't last, either. But we were friends long before love came into it. And I think that might make a little bit of a difference."

More quiet followed, then Poppa gave a rumbling grunt, looked up with more of a smile than Applejack had seen from him so far. "Might be you got yourself a keeper here, AJ," he said.

Author's Note

Red quoting Harlan Ellison's line about love being sex misspelled came as a surprise to me: my fingers just typed it out, and it fit so well, I decided to finish his thought with a paraphrase from William Goldman's The Princess Bride. 'Cause why not?

Epilogue: Pearl

Things went on then sweeter'n the cider, and for all the unbelievable days AJ had seen the past couple years, sitting in that dingy ol' warehouse fry joint with her poppa and her marefriend beat ev'ry single one of 'em in ev'ry single way.

But as shadows started gathering in the doorway, Poppa started getting antsier and antsier, sweat gathering on his forehead, his gaze darting away even as he was setting up another wunna his sea stories. Sharing a frown with Fluttershy, Applejack leaned forward and rested a hoof on Poppa's. "You OK?"

Poppa twitched at the touch, tried to smile and didn't quite make it. "I was hoping..." He took a big gulp of cider. "But ain't no way one afternoon of agreeable talk's gonna be enough to chase away the..." His voice trailed off again, and he waved a hoof.

Applejack blinked at him, but Fluttershy was nodding. "Your cutie mark?" she asked quietly.

A couple more twitches might've been Poppa nodding or might've been him shrugging: AJ couldn't tell. "Night's the worst," he said, his voice breaking. "If'n I'm ashore, I swear I can...can hear them trees calling me. And I can't ever see 'em again, not after what I...what I done." He gave a chuckle without a drop of laughter in it. "Not to mention your Granny Smith's likely to peel the skin right off me next time she sees me."

And as much as Applejack wanted to tell him that wouldn't happen, well, knowing Granny... "You heading back to the ship?" she asked through a tightening throat.

"Reckon."

Poppa stood from the table, and fear struck Applejack right to the core, the ten-year-old filly deep inside her crying out silently: Don't go, Poppa! I'll be good! I promise!

The waver in Poppa's eyes made her think he could hear it, too, and when he crooked a front leg, Applejack jumped in to hug him. "I love you, Poppa."

"Love you, too." He sniffled and stepped back. "And I'll be expecting an invite to the wedding. Can't say I'll be able to make it, but still..."

"Of course, sir," she heard Fluttershy say behind her.

That finally got a grin from him. "I told you, Fluttershy: call me Red." His grin faded, his gaze moving back to Applejack's. "My regards to the resta the family, AJ. Tell 'em I—" His voice broke again. "Tell 'em I wish I coulda— I wish I hadn'ta been such a— Such a—" He took a breath, shook his head, turned for the door. "Tell 'em I'm sorry. Or don't tell 'em a thing 'bout seeing me. Comes out the same either way."

"Red?" Fluttershy stepped around the table, Poppa stopping to look back at her. "I just wanted to say thank you."

His eyes widened. "For what?"

"For being you." Fluttershy drifted over to him, her wings a blur. "For being real. For being honest. For being a pony we could actually talk to."

She wrapped a hug around his neck, and Poppa turned an even darker shade of red. "Well, now." He cleared his throat a couple times, Fluttershy settling all four hoofs on the floor, blushes touching her own cheeks. "You take good care of my little AJ, y'hear? She's 'bout the only reason I ain't entirely a sad and sorry waste of horse flesh." Another nod, and Applejack couldn't look away, her father stepping out into the spring evening.

***

The walk back along the warehouses was a mix of silence and quiet, but Fluttershy was almost getting used to that with Applejack by now. She just walked close beside her, Applejack wearing the hat again, and stroked her side with a wing till she got a response: "Poppa looked good."

The emotions roiling Applejack's voice told Fluttershy she should keep stroking, and after another few moments, the two of them standing at the port gate and waiting for the unicorn directing traffic to give them the signal to cross, Applejack said, "Reckon life at sea suits him."

Again, Fluttershy just kept stroking—not the horrible, teasing sort of strokes she'd used that night on the train, of course, but gentle, reassuring, the sort of strokes she knew Applejack needed right now. And sure enough, half a block from the hotel, Fluttershy heard the first of Applejack's sniffles. "I...I gotta fix this!" she blurted out, spinning away to plant herself on the sidewalk directly in front of Fluttershy. "Get Mom well, get Poppa thinking straight, get 'em back together and back home or I'll just...I'll go...I don't know what I'll do!"

"Yes." Fluttershy inched forward, touched her nose to her panting marefriend's. "Once we get ourselves settled, we'll be doing that." She swallowed. "There's still a chance with your parents, and we're not going to let that slip away."

A sudden rush, and Applejack was holding her close and tight. "I love you more'n I'll ever be able to say."

Closing her eyes, Fluttershy took a deep breath of Applejack's wonderful aroma. "I'll keep trying to find the words if you will," she muttered.

Applejack's low chuckle was her reward. "You got yourself a deal, honeycomb."

They reached Harbor House just as night was truly settling in, a different unicorn behind the front desk. "Oh, you're the folks in room 3? Boss is out on a date tonight, but he wanted you to know that anything you order in the dining room's on the house."

Fluttershy couldn't keep from squealing and clapping her front hoofs together, and the smile that spread over Applejack's face made her squeal and clap some more. And, yes, Fluttershy was still full from the corn chowder earlier, but, well, she could go a little wild, couldn't she? She was on vacation, after all.

She ordered the mesclun salad after the waitress, a chunky little earth pony named Patches, assured her that the ingredients were grown right down the street, and she was very glad she did, the endive and arugula simply perfect. Applejack pronounced the apple pie to be pretty much the best she'd ever tasted where she hadn't grown the apples herself, and she seemed to like the cider enough to have another couple mugs even though Fluttershy could smell that it was as hard as the cider she'd been drinking with her dad...

And as they were finishing up, Patches stopped by and thanked them from the whole staff. "Barrel's been dreaming about Dusty Rose since they was in school together." She beamed, sliding the used plates onto her platter and balancing it across her back. "Dunno what you folks said to him, but I'm wishing somepony'd thought to say it a long time ago."

"Ummm," Fluttershy said, glancing over at Applejack. "We...we didn't really say anything. Did we?"

"Hmmmm?" Applejack shook herself like she'd been half-listening or thinking about something else. "Oh, well, sometimes, honeycomb, all it takes is one little thing to make one great big difference."

Applejack seemed distracted as they made their way back to the room, too, taking a couple stabs to get the key into the door. And when Fluttershy couldn't keep herself from stroking a wing along Applejack's wonderfully firm flank as they stepped inside, Applejack actually jumped and spat the key nearly under the bed. Pulling her wing back, Fluttershy blinked at her. "Applejack? Is...is everything all right?"

"I—" Her face going as red as her cutie mark, Applejack stomped in and started pacing up and down in front of the little fireplace, Fluttershy closing the door and touching a hoof to the light switch. "I gotta say this, honeycomb, but I can't—! It isn't—! You shouldn't—! Gahhh!" Applejack tossed her head, her hat hitching sideways between her ears.

As much as Fluttershy wanted to panic, she took a breath instead and reached for the part of her brain that she used when one of her animal friends was scared or hurt or upset. "Anything you need, Applejack, you know I'm right here to help."

"I know, I know!" Spinning and leaping, Applejack landed in front of her, grabbed her shoulders with her hoofs. "And you gotta know I love you! 'Cause I do! More'n a tree loves the rain!"

She's leaving you, came that horrible whisper in the back of her head, but Fluttershy refused to be distracted, kept her whole attention on her marefriend. "And I love you," she told her, "more than song birds love the sky."

The hoofs on her shoulders began to shake, and Applejack lurched forward, wrapped Fluttershy close, pressed her face into the side of her neck. "Love," Applejack sighed more than said. "That's the feeling I'm talking about right there." For an instant, she relaxed, then Fluttershy felt her muscles tense, and she sprang away. "Not that the sex ain't great! 'Cause it is! Better'n great! It's—!" She shivered, her eyes pulling closed. "It's overwhelming."

Her eyes shot open again. "And that's it! That's the word!" She smacked a hind hoof against the carpet. "I usedta listen to Rainbow and Pinkie going on and on 'bout the fun and games they had with stallions and mares and themselves and each other, but I never gave it more'n an eye roll 'cause I couldn't imagine anything like what they was talking about! But these last ten days, when you're up inside me and I'm clenching around you, it—"

She went so still, Fluttershy had to fight a little harder to keep her panic from getting out. "It's thunder," Applejack whispered, staring at nothing. "And lightning. And earthquakes and tornadoes and flash floods, all at once and all of 'em making my brain and body just sing and dance and shout for joy. And it's..." She blinked and shook her head again. "It's too much for me, all of it, just...too much. 'Cause the love we got between us by itself is so...so good, honeycomb, I don't wanna get lost in...in this avalanche of sensations. We got so much more'n just body parts; we are so much more'n just that..." Her head drooped, her ears flat under the brim of her hat. "I ain't saying this very well..."

"Oh, but you are." Fluttershy slid her front legs around her lovely and slightly-tipsy marefriend, Applejack's spine standing out like a line of stones. And even though Fluttershy wasn't physically wearing the hat right then, she knew Applejack needed her to be in charge. "You're saying that we should spend the next little while reminding ourselves what good friends we are instead of what good lovers we are." That way, Fluttershy didn't say out loud, aiming her thoughts at the spot in her head where that awful whisper seemed to come from most often, we won't turn into either her parents or mine...

Her whisper didn't give a peep in response, but Fluttershy was more interested in Applejack collapsing against her, those wonderful muscles of hers slowly relaxing as Fluttershy massaged them. "Then you don't—" Applejack stirred enough to look up. "You don't mind? Just holding me tonight and tomorrow and maybe the day after that and not having..." Her voice trailed off, and she barely mouthed the last word. "Sex?"

Fluttershy brought her wings into the massaging and was rewarded by Applejack shuddering and melting more fully into her. "I love you, Applejack," she said, pushing through the lump in her throat. "And since this is important to you, it's important to me."

"Oh, honeycomb." Applejack's expression got Fluttershy melting, too, and that started her lacinia filling up—though she had the spell running hard enough through her head not to worry about it popping open. "You gotta regret it, getting yourself tangled up with a mess of a pony like me..."

"Regret it?" Fluttershy leaned down and touched her snout to Applejack's, a simple descending chord pattern starting on a piano somewhere. "I will never regret a moment of the time I've known you, Applejack. I mean—" Taking a breath, she sang:

"Every day since I've known you
Has brought such joy my way,
For the first time I can see
That I'm lucky."

She kissed Applejack between her wide eyes.

"I'm so lucky you're with me."

Letting herself rise into the air, she kept one front hoof on Applejack's shoulder and continued:

"Every night since I've known you
Has been a pure delight,
Been a dream that sets me free.
'Cause I'm lucky."

So spun, then dropped back to snuggle up under Applejack's chin.

"I'm so lucky you're with me."

Hoofs touched her face as the music modulated to a second melody, and she looked up to see Applejack's shimmering eyes, her marefriend opening her mouth and singing:

"When you finally showed yourself,
You blew my poor heart off the shelf,
Shattered ev'rything I knew,
And brought me love so sweet and true."

Her grin feeling almost too big for her face, Fluttershy swayed as Applejack swung into the last verse:

"So at last we're together.
Our backs are to the past,
And our future's gonna be
Just plain lucky!"

Fluttershy had to giggle. "Simply ducky!"

Applejack's voice slid into harmony with hers, and they finished together, Fluttershy never wanting to look away from those beautiful green eyes:

"I'm so lucky you're with me."

The kiss they shared as the music wound up made Fluttershy's wings spread, but she put the brakes on anything more than that. "Time for bed?" she asked when she could. "And I mean for sleeping."

Blushing some more, Applejack just nodded, and Fluttershy helped her marefriend crawl in among the sheets before she turned out the lights and joined her.

***

The problem AJ had with hard cider was the way it didn't fog her memory of the stupid things she said and did while drinking it. So starting awake with just enough of an ache behind her eyes to tell her she'd had a mug or two too many, she had absolute clear recall of ev'rything that'd happened with Poppa—and ev'rything that'd happened with Fluttershy.

And when the next instant made her realize the bed beside her was empty, panic roared through her guts forest-fire hot and quick. Her mind spun up images of Fluttershy creeping out into the pre-dawn and flying off without a backward glance, getting herself away from that crazy earth pony who didn't know a good thing when she had it—

Till the whoosh of water through pipes and pattering over tile hit her perked-up ears. Focusing through the early morning light glowing at the windows, she realized the sounds were coming from the bathroom, and all the pieces fell into place: her honeycomb was in there taking a shower.

Relief flooded her hard, dropped her back onto the pillow, almost brought tears to her eyes; shivering, she tried to tell herself she hadn't really been about to leap up screaming at the tiniest hint of a thought that Fluttershy had abandoned her. But AJ knew the truth. She was hooked, pure and simple. Even this whole 'no sex for a while' thing, her attempt at self-control where her honeycomb was concerned, she knew deep down in her bones wasn't gonna end in nothing but failure. 'Cause all Fluttershy had to do was rustle her wings, and AJ would come a-running, crashing through ev'ry barrier to reach her side.

Just thinking the word 'wings' nearly did her in right there, ev'ry square inch of her crying out for the touch of them glorious feathers. Her lacinia feeling thin as tissue paper, she was half a heartbeat away from scrambling across the floor, busting into the bathroom, and jumping into the shower with her hot, wet, and oh, so delicious marefriend when she heard the click of the door and realized the water had stopped rushing. Looking over with a stab of fear, she could just about see herself attacking poor Fluttershy in her desire to suck the water off those—

Fluttershy stepped out, then, towels wrapped around her wings and mane, her eyes going wide as her gaze met Applejack's. "Oh! Good morning! I...I hope I didn't wake you, but I—" A blush as delicate as dawn's first light crept over her face. "You know how my wiggler is sometimes out when I wake up, so I thought a cold shower might be the best thing since we're, ummm, since we're not doing that right now..."

And just like that—like she seemed to do ev'ry hour or so, AJ thought with a grin—she found herself falling even deeper in love with this beautiful, confounding pegasus. "Thank you, honeycomb." Rolling out of bed, she took a wide stance and a deep breath, the world firm under her hoofs again. "Reckon I could use summa that myself right now."

Breakfast when they finally got themselves out to it was on the house again, Cracker Barrel and Dusty Rose sitting at a table in the corner of the dining room and smiling at each other like they hadn't never really smiled at nothing before. The two came over to say thanks, and while Applejack nodded and told 'em they was welcome, Fluttershy started in again stammering, "But...we didn't...I mean—"

Leaning over, AJ patted her hoof and whispered, "They're happy, honeycomb, and they wanna share it with us. Near as I can reckon, there ain't one single thing wrong with that."

A couple blinks led to Fluttershy giving a nod and a smile, and when Dusty Rose declared she'd take 'em back to the station free of charge since she had to head up the hill anyway to tell the cab company she was taking the day off, Applejack gathered their luggage lickety-split, just about had to force Cracker Barrel to take some of their money for the use of the room, then hopped into the cab beside Fluttershy for a quick and chatty ride through the spring morning, great big fluffy clouds floating around the blue, blue sky.

Dusty pretty much insisted they stop by the Harbor House next time they was in Vanhoover, and Applejack gave her and Cracker Barrel a similar invite to stay at the Acres anytime they found themselves down south. In the station lobby, the big signboard declared that the Ponyville train was currently boarding on track 6, so her and Fluttershy hied themselves to that end of the terminal quick as bunnies and scooted on just as the conductor was shouting his final "All aboard!"

They didn't need a room this time since it weren't more'n ten or eleven hours down the coast, and in her heart of hearts, Applejack was kinda glad about that. Her willpower shaky as a newborn foal, she figured being alone with Fluttershy near anything bed-like would prove more tempting than she could withstand at present...

So they settled into a couple seats, Applejack insisting Fluttershy take the cushion nearest the window, and she spent a relaxing day either dozing with her hat pulled over her eyes or watching Fluttershy watch the scenery, the ocean on one side, the hills on the other blanketed with early spring flowers, all purples and yellows, oranges, greens, and reds. And when Fluttershy snuggled into Applejack's shoulder and dozed off after lunch, contentment surrounded Applejack so sweet and so solid, she coulda taken bites out of it and chewed it like taffy all afternoon.

The train headed inland then, and they had supper while the sun sank behind a landscape that was almost familiar, the train skirting the Everfree Forest. And a couple hours after dark, when they slipped into Ponyville Station, Applejack found herself coming over misty-eyed.

Home again. And for all that it'd only been a couple days, AJ was pretty much ready to settle in at the Acres and not go any further'n Fluttershy's cottage for the next couple years.

One stop to make first, of course, one that her and Fluttershy didn't even have to talk about: gathering up their bags, they stepped off the train and moved from the soft yellow glow of the platform lights into the darkness of Ponyville's streets, their steps quick and aimed straight for the library across town. "It's not that late," Fluttershy muttered. "I'd hate to disturb her if she's already gone to bed..."

"A night owl like Twilight?" Applejack didn't let any of the tightness in her gut show in her smile. "Don't be silly."

Sure enough, though the downstairs windows of the library tree were dark, lights shone bright enough upstairs, and after a little encouragement from AJ—"So she'll know it's us and not somepony trying to check out a book or something"—Fluttershy flew up to the balcony and tapped on the glass doors.

Half a minute, and Twilight was stepping out, giving Fluttershy a hug, and waving over the railing to AJ: "Welcome home! We'll be down in a jiffy!"

And quick as that, the three were gathered in Twilight's kitchen over steaming cups of tea, Twilight reacting with gasps or grins as Applejack and Fluttershy traded off telling what'd happened to 'em the last few days. AJ wrapped up with, "And then we hot-hoofed it on over here," then grabbed her saddlebag from the floor beside her, flipped it open, took the sample case gently in her teeth, and set it on Twilight's table.

Twilight nodded, the purple glow from her horn picking the case up. "And you used the proper labels?"

Applejack nodded. "'F' for father, 'M' for mother, and 'B' for brother, just like you said."

"OK!" She smiled, the case sinking back onto the counter. "Y'know, I really have to thank you girls. This has been such a fascinating project, and to know that I'm helping two of my best friends in the world, well, it's just—!" She took a breath, blew it out. "I mean, I still think you should take all this to a medical professional, but the, uhh—" Twilight blushed. "The semen sample you gave me, Fluttershy, showed a bit low on the various counts but otherwise completely normal."

A little shiver twitched up Applejack's spine. "Then we can...we can—?" She spun on her cushion to Fluttershy, the pegasus clutching the tea cup between her front hoofs and staring at Twilight.

"I'm...normal?" she asked, the waver in her voice near to breaking Applejack's heart.

"Actually, Fluttershy..." Twilight folded one front hoof on top of the other and looked more like a doctor than half the doctors AJ'd ever met. "You're extraordinary." She gave a smile. "But, hey, we all knew that, right?"

Fluttershy just blinked, so Applejack asked the question she figured must be stuck inside that pretty pink and yellow head. "What'cha talking 'bout, Twi?"

"My research!" She leaned forward. "It turns out there are several unpublished studies of Partial Stallionogen Insensitivity Syndrome in the Canterlot Medical Center archives, and they sent me over—"

"What??" Fluttershy sprang into the air, her wings humming like a nest of hornets. "You told somepony??"

"No! I mean, not really!" Twilight held up her hoofs, a little white around her eyes. "I just said that I'd found some references to the condition and had become interested in it! I didn't use your names, didn't say it was for anything other than my general studies, and, well, the archivists're kinda used to me asking for unusual stuff!"

Applejack reached out to stroke Fluttershy's side. "'S all right, honeycomb. Just simmer down, 'K?"

Blushing brighter than a bonfire, Fluttershy drifted back to the floor. "I'm sorry," she said, her gaze fixed on her teacup. "I'm not... I just..."

"No, I'm sorry." Twilight blew out a breath. "I should've been clearer at the beginning." The shine came back into her eyes mighty quick, though. "But the files show that most ponies with PSI have such tricky internal biology that they're completely infertile! So for your ejaculate to display viable spermatozoa at near normal volume and motility—" She tapped the table with a hoof. "That's extraordinary. And it means that, all else being equal, you should be able to sire foals."

Fluttershy was shivering, and Applejack slid a front leg around her shoulders, drew her close, tried her dangedest to radiate as much warmth as she could. "I..." Fluttershy swallowed hard enough for AJ to feel it, cuddled closer, and kept her focus across the table. "Thank you, Twilight, for all the effort you've put into this. But I guess it's...it's the next question that's got me still nervous..."

Applejack couldn't keep from glancing at the little case, and when a purple glimmer lifted it into the air, she knew Twilight was thinking the same way. "Yes," their friend said with another big sigh. "And while I know you're both anxious for the results, I also know how difficult it was to gather these samples. So I'm going to go slowly and carefully and ask you to come by, say, next Friday morning at seven. If I know anything sooner or if it looks like it'll take longer, I'll let you know."

***

A lot of the time, the truth be told, Fluttershy found her tendency to ignore things she didn't want to think about kind of annoying. Whatever the things were, they very rarely went away on their own, and sometimes—well, most of the time—pretending the things weren't there just made them worse.

But that next week, she exercised her avoidance skills like she never had before, allowing herself two minutes every morning and evening to worry about what Twilight's tests were going to discover, then banishing them completely from her thoughts for the rest of the day.

That there was so much to do helped a great deal, of course, and activity, she quickly discovered, was the best way to keep Applejack from brooding, too. Fortunately, the Acres in springtime buzzed with jobs and chores and duties, and for the times in between, well, there was planning the wedding for one thing, and the question of what they were going to about living arrangements for another.

The first of these was just so wonderful, Fluttershy easily forgot everything else whenever she was able to drag Applejack over to Rarity's for sessions on dresses and decorating or over to Sugar Cube Corner to brainstorm with Pinkie about the ceremony and the reception. And the second one led to some very serious discussions, Rainbow Dash telling Fluttershy not to give up her independence and her career while Twilight kept pointing out the inefficiencies of Fluttershy continuing her animal care work out of her cottage when setting up at Sweet Apple Acres would give her so much more room.

It all felt very grown-up, and everypony had good and thoughtful points to make—even Pinkie Pie, though eating cake seemed to figure into most of her solutions somehow. And while she and Applejack hadn't even started talking about picking a date and weren't anywhere near ready to make any real 'moving in' or 'moving out' plans, still, sitting and talking and laughing with their friends did more than anything else to keep Fluttershy from worrying. Just like always.

She and Applejack did decide on a tentative sleeping schedule: together in Applejack's room at Sweet Apple Acres every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then at Fluttershy's on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the weekends. Applejack promised she'd do everything she could on those nights to make it over from the farm, and of course they would have dinner with the Apple family every Sunday night: that was the one thing on the schedule they both knew wouldn't and shouldn't change.

Fluttershy also sat quietly in the living room while Applejack told the family about her visits with Orange Marmalade and Red Gravenstein, and tears of every sort—anger, happiness, sadness—fell so freely, Fluttershy wasn't sure she could tell where one type stopped and another began. And yes, Granny Smith did declare that Red had been right about her skinning him alive if he ever set hoof within a hundred miles of her, but Fluttershy was almost entirely sure she didn't mean it...

So with one thing and another, not having heard any changes of plan from Twilight, Fluttershy woke in her bed Friday morning with Applejack watching her. "Was gonna give you another five minutes till I started in a-shaking you," she said with a kiss and a smile.

Smiling, Fluttershy kissed back. They hadn't talked about it, so she didn't know if Applejack's reasons for continuing their abstinence were the same as hers—Applejack was getting close to her fertile time of the month again, after all. But cuddling together every night no matter whose bed they were in was so incredibly comforting, it more than outweighed the frustration of not doing more than cuddling.

They managed to nibble a bit of breakfast, got Fluttershy's morning chores out of the way, then headed down the path and over the bridge into Ponyville. Fluttershy couldn't decide if she wanted to go fast or slow, so she just stuck next to Applejack, the earth pony keeping a steady pace across the town square and up to the door of the library just as the clock tower across town struck seven.

She raised her hoof to knock, but the door flew open, Twilight there with one of her slightly manic grins across her muzzle. "Girls! Great! Come in!" She whirled and vanished back into the dimly-lit library.

Fluttershy looked at Applejack. Applejack shrugged, then stepped inside, Fluttershy following her. Spike, yawning and dusting at the far end of the room, gave them a wave while Twilight stood in the center, her magic slinging books from tables to shelves at a slightly alarming rate. "A big morning!" she was saying. "We just got a message from Princess Celestia that she's bringing a very important visitor to Ponyville later today, and she asked that the Elements of Harmony meet them in the big meadow outside town!" She did a little dance. "It's so exciting!"

"Ummm," was all Fluttershy could manage to get out, and she looked at Applejack again.

Applejack's mouth was shifted a little to the side. "Seems to me, sugar cube, you also had some news for us this morning."

The books froze in the air, Twilight's eyes going wide. "Eep! Yes! Of course! I...I'm so sorry! I—" She stopped, took a breath, let the books settle back onto the tables. "Spike, why don't you head on out and let Pinkie, Rainbow, and Rarity know about Princess Celestia's arrival? We can finish cleaning here when you get back."

"All right!" Spike tossed the feather duster away and bounded for the stairs. "Lemme just grab my—!"

Twilight's magic enveloped him. "You won't need your bowtie, Romeo." The glow wafted him across the room and set him down beside the front door. "Grab a couple donuts at Sugar Cube Corner if you want to, but be back here by eight."

"Oh, boy! Donuts!" And Spike rushed out, the door slamming behind him.

Silence settled in then, Twilight turning back to them, her face so serious all of a sudden that Fluttershy wanted to hide behind Applejack. An inch-and-a-half thick binder of papers appeared beside her in a purple flash and drifted slowly down to a clear space on the table. "These are my findings, but again, this isn't my field, and I'd really like your permission to show the report to—"

"No." Fluttershy couldn't take her eyes off the binder. "Please."

Applejack's wonderful solid warmth pressed against her side, and she leaned into it, her stomach as hard and tight as a walnut. "Please," she said again. "Just...just tell us what you found."

With a nod, Twilight sighed. "There's a seventy-five percent chance, I estimate, that any foal you sire, Fluttershy, will exhibit signs of PSIS to a greater or lesser degree. The child could be a colt genetically and anatomically—that's the other twenty-five percent—but the likeliest outcome is, well, you remember how I was talking about your chromosomes being like a set of mixed switches, half of them set to stallion and half of them to mare?" She tapped the cover of the report. "Based on the samples you brought me and on the information I found in Canterlot Medical's archives, your genetic contribution will almost certainly lead to similarly mixed switches in your offspring."

The words clattered in Fluttershy's ears like the last leaves dropping from an autumn-bare tree. "Oh," she said, Applejack the only reason she didn't fall over. "Thank you, Twilight. I..." And she found she couldn't think of anything else to say. So she just said it again: "Thank you."

Pressure against her hoof made her blink and look up to see Twilight right in front of her, her eyes shimmering. "I'm sorry." Her horn started to glow. "If you need me for anything, I'll be upstairs." And with a poof, she vanished.

More silence, and Fluttershy could feel the horrible whisper in her head just waiting, waiting for Applejack to shift uncomfortably so it could start crowing hoarsely that she was leaving. But Applejack didn't move, staying as strong and steady beside her as she always did.

"Honeycomb?" Applejack asked then, and Fluttershy couldn't hold back a sob, couldn't keep from burying her face in Applejack's chest while her marefriend wrapped her front legs around her and held her. "I love you," came that voice, as perfect and gentle as the first rains of spring. "And I will love our foals when they come."

Something clicked inside Fluttershy like a lock opening, and she nodded, Applejack's skin so soothing against her face. "We will," she said. "We will love them two or three times as hard, and they will never be ashamed or afraid or left alone, and we will show them—" She pulled away so she could look into those lovely and beloved green eyes. "We will show them how wonderful a place the world can be. We will. We will."

Applejack's smile was the sunrise, warming Fluttershy's whole body, and her kiss was—

The library's door crashed open, Apple Bloom's voice calling, "Applejack! Fluttershy! Spike said you was— Oh, ick!"

Blushing, Fluttershy pulled away, followed Applejack's scowling gaze to Apple Bloom in the doorway with her tongue sticking out. "This better be an emergency," Applejack growled.

"It is!" Apple Bloom became frantic again. "Some beavers done built a dam right across the stream in the Lower Forty! The whole dang place is flooding!"

Fluttershy took a breath, looked at Applejack, saw her looking back. "Well, honeycomb? Ready for a little work?"

Wings unfurling, Fluttershy nodded and took off after the two earth ponies, galloping out of the library and down the street. After all, with Applejack beside her, she was ready for anything.

Author's Note

That last song:

Back in the middle there, is inspired by "Lucky to be Me" by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, & Adolph Green from their musical On the Town. The version I have in mind is largely the one Sara Gazarek sings on her 2012 album Blossom and Bee, and while this video here is Ms. Gazarek and her group doing the song live, it's not quite the same as the studio version. Still, it'll give you an idea of what I was thinking of.

Mike

3 - Metamorphic: Slate

"It'll just be for a few days." Fluttershy jammed another sweater into her saddlebag so she wouldn't have to look at Angel, standing on the carpet beside the bed with his back to her, his ears down and his front legs folded.

"Honeycomb?" Applejack drawled from the doorway.

"A week at most!" Trying to focus on tying the saddlebag closed, Fluttershy couldn't manage to loop the drawstring around the little buttons since it was taking every ounce of her strength not to throw herself to the floor beside the bunny and beg him to forgive her. "Pinkie Pie's promised that she'll come by every day to make sure—"

"In the first place,—" Orange hoofs reached from behind her and slipped the string into place as if it were the easiest thing in the world. "This time of year, ain't more'n about three places anywhere near Equestria you're gonna need that many sweaters."

"Manehattan!" Whirling, Fluttershy couldn't remember if she'd told Applejack yet where they were going. "My brother! I think maybe he's working for the weather bureau there, and—"

"And you think maybe your ma went with him when he moved." Applejack stretched to kiss Fluttershy's forehead. "You done told me six or seven times." Her confident smile made Fluttershy's heart pick up. "Might be I'm wrong, honeycomb, but looks to me like you could use a hug."

Fluttershy spread her wings and flew into her marefriend's embrace, buried her face in that strong, broad chest, almost burst into tears from sheer exhaustion. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," was all she could manage to say.

Hoofs stroked her back. "Hush, now," Applejack whispered, and Fluttershy found her muscles unclenching, the tension vanishing so quickly, she almost collapsed. Not that she ever would, she knew, not with Applejack holding her. "And in the second place,—" Applejack raised her voice. "Angel?" Looking over, Fluttershy saw Angel's gaze shift back over his shoulder. "You know how important this trip is to Fluttershy, don'tcha?"

A moment, then Angel gave a curt little nod.

"And you know how important you are to her as well, I reckon."

Angel's ears twitched, and the look that came over him, well, on any other face, Fluttershy would've called it remorse, but on Angel Bunny, that couldn't possibly—

"Then you come on over here, you big galoot, pat her hoof, and tell her you're gonna do your ding-dangedest to keep ev'rything here safe and tidy till she gets back."

His mouth a thin, black line, Angel gave half a hop, reached out a front paw, and tapped her rear hoof.

And Fluttershy couldn't keep from spinning and scooping her darling little friend up. "Oh, thank you, Angel Bunny! Thank you so much for understanding!"

He squirmed and tried to get away the way he usually did, but Fluttershy felt his little nose and whiskers brush against her muzzle as gently as they ever had. She gave a squeal of joy and set him down onto the carpet, Angel shaking himself, annoyance wafting sourly from his fur. He looked at Applejack, nodded, and bounced past her into the hallway.

Applejack was smiling at her, and Fluttershy found herself frozen in place, thoughts and emotions flooding her till she could almost smell the grinding gears in her head and heart. But with everything she wanted to say, all that would come out of her mouth was a barely whispered, "I love you."

Smile broadening, Applejack stepped over, and when she brushed a kiss over her lips, Fluttershy could move again, her whole body sighing. "And I love you. Now, we got us a train to catch."

The next fifteen or twenty minutes rushed by Fluttershy in a blur: grabbing her saddlebags while Applejack slipped into her own; trying not to look constantly back at her cottage as they trotted into town; walking up the ramp to the station platform, her knees trembling and her heart nearly bursting with love and fear to see all their friends along with Big Macintosh and the Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered there under a banner emblazoned with hearts and flowers and the words Bon Voyage!

"It's so romantic!" Rarity gushed at her. "A rail journey to Manehattan to celebrate your new-found love and introduce her to your family!"

Rainbow scowled a little, stepped close to Fluttershy, and asked in a low voice, "You sure you wanna do this?"

Fluttershy had never managed to lie successfully to Dashie, so she just shrugged and said, "I have to."

Blowing out a breath, Rainbow nodded. "I hear that, I guess." But then she gave her big grin, the one that always made Fluttershy feel better. "Still, your folks start making trouble, you just point Applejack at 'em and let her go."

Pinkie made some more Pinkie Promises about how she would watch over the cottage, and Fluttershy had to smile to see Rarity and Big Mac and the Crusaders nod knowingly behind her as if to say that they would all be pitching in to help. Behind them, though, Fluttershy noticed Twilight and Applejack in quiet conversation, the purple glow of Twilight's magic tucking a package into Applejack's bag.

Then the train whistle blew, tears flooding out of Pinkie while she tried to hug everypony on the platform at the same time. Fluttershy looked around, a little panic starting to poke at her, but then Applejack appeared at her side, raising her voice and saying, "I can't even start telling y'all how much it means to me and Fluttershy that you've come out to see us off. Just try not to have too many adventures while we're gone, and we'll try to do the same." She nudged Fluttershy toward the open door of the railway carriage, and Fluttershy stepped through. "Till a week or so!"

"All aboard!" the conductor called from somewhere, and Applejack scooted in just as the train lurched forward.

Standing and waving and waving and waving to her friends till she couldn't see the station anymore, Fluttershy thought her heart had turned into a hummingbird: excited and nervous and flitting around inside her chest as the open countryside outside Ponyville began flying past. Then Applejack was clearing her throat. "How 'bout we get ourselves settled, huh?"

"Settled?" And it hit Fluttershy all at once: In the three days since they'd had their early morning consultation with Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy had been running around making so many arrangements that she'd forgotten— "My ticket! I don't have one! I never bought it!"

With a smile, Applejack tapped her saddlebag. "Two first-class, round-trip tickets to Manehattan with sleeping compartment and full dining car privileges."

More panic flowed in. "And what about when we get there?? Where are we going to stay?? A hotel or a—??"

"Already covered." Applejack made a little popping noise with her lips. "My Aunt and Uncle Orange'll have a room waiting for us."

Still shivering, Fluttershy lowered her head till her mane covered her blushing face. "I'm so sorry, Applejack. I didn't...I wasn't—" She pulled her eyes closed. "How can you put up with me?" she murmured.

The brush of a hoof against her forehead pushed her hair aside, another hoof cupping her chin and gently pushing till she had to raise her head. "That ain't a question y'ever need to be asking." Fluttershy opened her eyes to see Applejack looking all soft but serious right in front of her. "It's you and me now, y'hear? You and me always and forever." Her lips puckered, and Fluttershy sprang to meet them, poured all the love she felt for her beautiful, wonderful marefriend into a kiss that made her float higher than her wings ever had.

A sweet little chuckle rumbled through her from Applejack, and she returned the kiss with a fervor that made Fluttershy's wiggler bulge against the flap of her lacinia, and—

Another throat cleared, Fluttershy jumping back to see a gray unicorn in a conductor's uniform smiling in the door that led into the train carriage. "Sorry to interrupt," he said, "but I'll need to check your tickets."

Every word Fluttershy had ever known deserted her, and all she could do was stand there trembling. Applejack, though, gave a laugh and nosed open her saddlebag. "We're in compartment C3." Her teeth plucked two pieces of paper out, and the conductor's horn glowed, his magic taking them from her. "I reckon it oughtta be around here somewhere."

The conductor nodded. "Right up in the next car, as a matter of fact." A few squiggles appeared on the tickets; he floated them back to Applejack, tipped his hat, and held the door open for them.

As soon as she stepped inside, Fluttershy fell in love with the room, its two little padded benches that would fold out into beds and its big picture window to watch the world go by. She'd only been overnight on a train a few times, and while she preferred being in one room with all her friends instead of in her own lonely compartment, she suddenly felt bashful with just her and Applejack there. Shrugging off her saddlebags and settling onto the rear-facing bench while Applejack stowed her own bags, she snuck a peek at her marefriend's powerful haunches, then looked away with a blush.

Applejack smiled over her shoulder, and Fluttershy's blush deepened—had she felt that glance? "You gonna be OK there, honeycomb?"

With a swallow, Fluttershy gave her a nod.

"Good." Applejack climbed onto the front-facing bench and flipped her hat off onto the cushion beside her. "'Cause I know we don't get into Manehattan till tomorrow afternoon, but, well, I reckon the sooner we get me up to speed, the better."

That made Fluttershy blink. "Up to speed?"

Blowing out a breath, Applejack reached across the space between their benches and put a hoof on Fluttershy's. "About your folks and your brother."

The hammering of Fluttershy's heart was suddenly louder in her ears than the clickety-clack of the train's wheels. "I'm right sorry," Applejack was going on, "but we gotta have a plan for this, and talking it out's the only way to get one."

Fluttershy wanted to shrink into the corner where the bench met the wall, but instead, another sudden thought made her leap to her hoofs. "Twilight's samples!" Panic almost sent her flying up to fling open the window. "She said she'd have a case for us to take, but I never picked it up!"

Applejack raised both front hoofs. "It's all right, honeycomb! Twilight gave me the stuff at the station! I got it right here in my bag!"

Trembling for another moment before collapsing back onto the cushion, Fluttershy didn't say it out loud this time. But the horrible little voice in her head asked that same question again: How can she put up with you? You're dull and lazy and forgetful and—

"So don't fret." Applejack's voice cut into her thoughts. "After all, if'n there's one thing I's learned since getting to know all you gals, it's that friends got each other's backs, y'know?" A scuffling sound made Fluttershy blink, and she saw Applejack rummaging through one of her bags. "Here we go!" She pulled out a cloth-wrapped package and unrolled it to reveal a long ceramic cylinder like the one Fluttershy had packed her toothbrush in.

"See?" Applejack popped one end of the tube off, and inside were four or five little sticks. "Twilight said you just take wunna these here sticks in your teeth, swab the other end around inside the cheek of the pony you're taking the sample from, then you bite down on the stick to activate the spell that seals it shut." Applejack wrinkled her nose. "A lot easier'n when she took your blood and all: we just gotta get your folks to open their mouths a minute." She recapped the tube, tucked it into her pack, and looked up expectantly. "So, gimme the run-down. Who's this brother of yours, and why d'you think he's in Manehattan?"

It took another few seconds for the words to unfreeze in her brain, and even then she found that she had to keep her gaze darting around the compartment to keep the feelings behind the words from settling into place and overwhelming her. "Well, Silver Burr's about a year older than—"

"Silver Burr?" Applejack sounded confused. "You mean like that kinda ragweed we gotta clear ev'ry year outta the—?"

"Oh, no!" Fluttershy leaned forward. "Please don't! Dad used to call him 'Ragweed' sometimes, and he hated it!"

Applejack blinked. "Sure thing, honeycomb. Silver Burr does weather in Manehattan, you said?"

"Well, I..." She took several breaths, tried to organize her thoughts. "He was always interested in plants—he's got three little sprigs of pussy willow for his cutie mark—so I just assumed he'd end up doing something botanical for a living. But...see..." She forced herself to focus on Applejack. "You remember after we brought Princess Luna back from being Nightmare Moon?"

A slow smile spread across Applejack's muzzle. "Reckon I recall something about all that."

Fluttershy blushed some more and let her eyes go back to their aimless wandering. "Then you remember that reporter from the Manehattan Messenger's magazine section who came to town and talked to us all at the library that one day." She only remembered bits and pieces of it herself, of course, since she'd spent most of the interview hiding behind Rainbow Dash. "When Twilight got a copy of that issue, I went into town to read it and ended up glancing through the whole paper. And in the back, they had a photo of the new weather recruits getting sworn in at Manehattan's Weather Central. And Silver Burr was standing right there with the rest of them! I could hardly believe it, but it was him!"

Applejack did some more nodding. "And you figure you ma's with him?"

Her throat thickening, Fluttershy couldn't keep her eyes open for this part. "Dad had left, and I...I left, too. But Burr wouldn't've left her on her own, I know he wouldn't. So if he's moved to Manehattan, then she...she's got to be there, too..."

For another long moment, she heard nothing but the rattle of the train and the thudding of her heart. Then a gentle hoof touched her foreleg. "I can't say I understand," Applejack said just as gently. "But I reckon you had plenty of reasons for pulling out. So don't you fret none about that."

"Thank you," Fluttershy managed to say, but knowing how important family was to Applejack, she wanted to say so much more, wanted to make her see what it had been like growing up in that little house in Cloudsdale with parents who—

Several thoughts tumbled through her brain like flicked-over dominoes. "Oh! But...but maybe you do understand!" Raising her eyes, she fixed on Applejack's surprised expression. "You said the other day that your parents aren't dead! But I'd never heard you ever mention them before, not in all the years we've known each other! So maybe you—!"

The surprise on Applejack's face turned to full-fledged, wide-eyed shock, and Fluttershy slapped her hoofs over her mouth, even the voice in her head driven to silence. When would she learn to think before she spoke?? She knew Applejack was sensitive about her parents! She didn't know why, of course, but a real friend would never have brought up the topic in the first place! How could she be so—??

"Huh," Applejack said, and she looked so much like she'd been kicked in the stomach that Fluttershy almost dove for the window again, almost threw it open, almost hurled herself outside so she couldn't hear Applejack say that she never wanted to see her again, that she hated her and that she would— "You're right, Fluttershy. You're one hunnerd percent right."

That froze Fluttershy solid. "I...I'm what?"

"You're right." Applejack took a deep, shuddering breath, and Fluttershy ached to see the pain on that sweet orange face. "You're putting yourself through this whole awful thing, going back and seeing your folks and all, just to make our future together more certain. And me, well, I reckon I oughtta do the same."

"No," Fluttershy said.

The hardness in her own voice shocked her a little, but Applejack's head actually jerked back. "Honeycomb?"

"I'm sorry." And for all the times that Fluttershy had used those words, she was pretty sure she'd never meant them as strongly as she did right then. "Your parents must be a painful subject for you since, well, since you never talk about them. And with the way I've been nothing but thoughtless and terrible all week, making you take care of so many things I should've done myself, I will not allow you to put yourself through any more suffering because of me."

Muscles clenched in Applejack's jaw. "This ain't up for discussion." She gestured back and forth between herself and Fluttershy. "We're partners now, you and me, and that means we share the bad stuff same as the good stuff. So—"

"No." It wasn't any easier to say the second time, but Fluttershy forced it out. "I won't let you—"

"Consarn it, Fluttershy!" Applejack shouted, leaping to her hoofs, and Fluttershy couldn't keep from cringing, bunching herself back against the wall behind her and staring at her marefriend. "This ain't about you!"

Applejack closed her wild eyes immediately, drew a breath, settled herself back onto her cushion. "OK, that ain't exactly true," she went on, her voice quiet and brittle. "But you gotta know. It...it's about how I been looking at you and your troubles the last couple days. I...I been feeling all smug and self-righteous, thinking how lucky I am to be an Apple. 'Cause us Apples don't never have problems like you have with your folks, do we? We're one big happy family, ain't we?"

She stopped, and Fluttershy slid forward to touch her hoof. "You don't have to say another word."

"Pretty sure I do." Shaking her head, Applejack opened her eyes slowly. "I wronged you, Fluttershy, the way I been strutting around town all week waiting for you to forget things so I could swoop in and fix 'em. I told myself I had to take care of ev'rything since you was so upset about seeing your folks again, but—" Her voice caught. "But never once did I even recollect that my own mama's right there in Manehattan. Right there, and I ain't so much as sent her a letter in...I don't rightly know how many years...."

Once again unable to believe what she was hearing, Fluttershy could only repeat the words, "In Manehattan?"

"Place called Bellview." Applejack was shaking all over now, and without even thinking, Fluttershy flared her wings, drifted across the space between the benches, and settled onto the other cushion, Applejack pressing herself to Fluttershy's side and tucking her head under her chin. "When her and Poppa divorced, things was real bad at the end. I reckon I told you they didn't never love each other? Well, they didn't even like each other near as I could tell, and after twenty-some-odd years together, when all the lust and plain ol' stupid biology ran out between 'em, it was like...like it tore holes in their heads and hearts."

Uncertain what else to do, Fluttershy stretched a wing over Applejack's back and let it rest there as softly and gently as she knew how. It seemed to help, Applejack making a little noise in her throat and nestling even closer. "After ev'rything was all over and Mama ended up in that sanatorium, Mac went and visited a couple times, but he said she...she didn't even know who he was. And now we're gonna be right there, and if'n I don't at least try to see her, I—" She pulled away suddenly and turned a look of sheer anguish toward Fluttershy, tears shimmering down her face. "I ain't never gonna be able to look you or any honest pony in the eye again."

Fluttershy took Applejack into her front legs and held her as the first sob burst out, Applejack grabbing her tight and burying her face in Fluttershy's neck. "It's all right," Fluttershy cooed over and over again. "It's all right."