Contrary to what you had expected, given the odd morning you had, the run towards Sweet Apple Acres had been rather uneventful. Well, with the exception of the one or two more screams you heard echoing from Ponyville. But the further you got away from it, the easier it was to shove into the back of your mind. Your focus now could be solely placed on the road and scenery that lay in front and around you.

Don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this… You thought to yourself as a slight smile splayed across your lips.

You loved taking this road to get to work, and for more reasons than one.

The road ran right along the fringe of one of Sweet Apple Acres’ apple orchards, just tight enough to blur the line between the road and the property, if not for the white fence. In the mornings, when you walked to work and were actually on time, the sun would just have barely peeked over the mountains, causing the leaves of the trees to play a beautiful contrast of shadows and light on the road as the sun shone through them. In the evenings, when you were done with work, the trees on the side of the road burned an auburn color as the sky itself was set ablaze by a sea of oranges and reds.

In truth, the natural beauty of it would have been enough for some, but for you, it held something more.

It had been on an evening like that, right on that very road so many months ago, that you had found yourself walking with Applejack when she offered you the job on the farm.

By that point, about three weeks had passed since you gracelessly found yourself on that dirt road in the park, wearing your pajamas. The panic that followed from the ponies that fateful morning only subside once a purple unicorn ran in and levitated your flaying form off the ground and dragged you away as if she were a small child with a balloon.

It did wonders to restore the peace for the ponies, but it sure as heck didn’t help your own panic.

The days that followed that event were spent with you being studied, interrogate, and prodded by that purple unicorn you soon came to know as Twilight Sparkle. It had been the most intense couple of days of your life. You had to recall every detail about yourself and your species in order to answer her questions as honestly and completely as possible, especially because you weren’t too sure of what she would do if she found out you had lied to her. The display at the park though was enough to fuel your imagination. And plus, you were pretty sure you were going to be sent to some prison, or zoo anyways.

Especially after she asked you about your diet… A powerful unicorn grimacing at you was not a very nice sight, but, you at least had to make sure you got fed right at your new home. You really weren’t looking forward to the prospect of thrown peanuts being your only source of sustenance.

It should go without mention then that you were rather surprised when she deemed you safe, and informed you that she had arranged for one of her friends to provide you with a temporary housing arrangement.

The place she took you too was outside of town. And honestly, it only made sense seeing as you caused such a huge panic when you first arrived. The town and its citizens would have to get accustomed to you one step at a time.

And, thinking back on it, you couldn’t help recall that being the best step you ever took.

As soon as you set foot on the property, you were greeted warmly by its residents. An elderly pony with a green coat, a giant pony with a red coat, a small one with a red bow, and an orange coated pony wearing a Stetson hat.

“Howdy sugahcube!” The pony with the hat had called out to you as she smiled and held out her hoof towards you. “Mah name’s Applejack. Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres!”

Standing there, taking hold of Applejack’s hoof and feeling her shake it vigorously, it had been the first time since you arrived that that you had been able to smile honestly.

And, as you approached your destination, that morning’s events washed away, and that same smile splayed itself across your lips.

_________

That smile though, soon gave way to a confused scowl as you wondered around the seemingly empty property and called out.

“Hello?... Applejack? You out here?”

You called out for her for the third time as you began making your way towards the barn.

“Big Mac? Granny Smith? Applebloom? Anypony in there?”

You stopped just outside of the barn, your hand extended towards the doors. You did another cursory look around, checking to see if anypony had come into view. The events from earlier where starting to replay in your mind. Everything was just too eerie.

“Heh, yeah right…” You suddenly let out in a humorous guff as you pushed the door and walked inside the barn. “Like Applejack would let anything like what’s going on in Ponyville threaten her family and farm.”

You let the door close behind you, and walked further inside.

The inside of the barn looked oddly… organized to you. The buckets for the apples were still where you left them, so Applejack had not gone out to the orchard yet to buck the trees. The plow was still in its place near the corner, so you knew Big Macintosh wasn’t out plowing the southern field like Applejack had asked him to do once they resumed work. And even your tools that you use to do repairs around the property were still in their place, so that meant Applebloom and her friends hadn’t borrowed them to use in their latest attempt at getting a cutie mark.

Indeed, the inside of the barn began to adopt that same eerie feeling you got when you arrived. You had figured that this late in the morning, everypony would already be out working. It wasn’t like Applejack or Big Macintosh to sleep in late though.

You were starting to get an uncomfortable nagging sensation in the pit of your stomach as you walked further into the barn. A few steps in though, and the door to the barn suddenly opened and closed behind you, causing you to spin around to see who had come in.

Applejack was standing right at the entrance of the barn, looking at you in shock.

“Oh, hey Applejack, was wondering where everyp-”

“What are you doing here…?”

Her voice was shallow, but loud enough for you to hear. You could detect a hint of the shock that she wore as she kept looking at you. It was enough to stop you in your tracks as a dark pit formed in your stomach.

“Sorry Applejack…” You said in honest shame as you rubbed the back of your neck and tried to ignore that sensation that was gnawing at you. “I just got here and figured I’d jump straight to work to try and make up for being late.’

“No, nononono! Oh, why are you here now? I thought ya weren’t coming today!”

Applejack’s voice was louder this time as she began to quickly pace back and forth in front of the door, her eyes focused intently on her hooves.

“What? Applejack, why wouldn't I come today?” You began to take a few steps towards her. “Listen, if it’s about me being late, I can explain. I woke up late and got mobbed while crossing Ponyville and-”

“NO YOU DOLT! YOU NEED TO GO! LEAVE NOW! GET OUT!” Her head flung around to look at you as she snapped at you.

You stopped and took a step back, as if trying to literally step away from what you had just heard. That dark pit in your stomach suddenly felt like it had swallowed something important. You had a pretty good idea of what it was.

That remnant of the dream from the night before flickered through your thoughts, and faded a bit.

“I…” Your hand reached out towards her, but you forced it to clench and brought it back down. “Listen, if you want to fire me, I understand.”

“WHAT?! No! I’m not firing you sugahcube! It’s the heat you idjet!”

Whatever you were feeling at that point, suddenly vanished in the only way things like that often could.

You blinked.

“What?”

And you cocked your head to one side.

“Applejack, its… not really that hot outside.”

To her merit, Applejack only balked a bit at your response and allowed herself a second or two to try and compose herself.

“No, sugahcube, it means ah’mmMMHAAH!”

Without warning, Applejack suddenly shuddered and fell forward on bent forelegs, a low pained moan escaping her lips. Whatever was confusing you about the events that just took place got thrown towards the back of your mind as you rushed towards her and knelt down to help her.

“Applejack!?” Your voice was leveled but filled with concern as you wrapped your arms around her and held her. She leaned her full weight into you and you allowed her head to rest on your shoulder as her hat tumbled to the ground, forgotten. With her pressed against you, you could feel she was burning up and that her coat was damp with sweat. Her breathing was also heavy and sounded pained.

“Oh Applejack… you’re burning up. What’s wrong?” You ran a hand down her back as she shuddered more forcefully. “I need to get you to a doc-”

You froze. Applejack had suddenly begun to nuzzle your neck, and let out a heavy dreamy sigh as she pressed further into it, and allowed her hot breath to wash down your shoulder and down your chest. Your mind followed your frozen state and went blank as something inside you stirred.

“Ah’m okay sugahcube. Ah’m just… in heat s’all.”

Slowly, gears started to turn again and little, blatantly obvious, pieces of information began to fit into place.

“Um, ApplejAH” Your voice suddenly caught a bit as Applejack went from just nuzzling to nibbling slightly on the underside of your jaw. You had to forcefully clear your throat to snap your vocal cords free of their shock.

“I-I didn’t know ponies went into heat…”

“Mmmhmm…”

A biologist you were not, but that didn’t seem to bother Applejack in the least bit as she slowly worked her way around either side of your throat. She was no longer leaning against you, but pushing herself against you with her hind legs. Her forelegs were now draped on your shoulders, holding herself in place as she pushed you further and further back. Your body definitely knew what was happening, but your mind was having a bit of a problem accepting it.

“Ah, mmm-Applejack, I-I think we should really talk about this before you-”

“Ah’ve dreamt about this for so long…Oh why it have to be you sugahcube?…”

You were pretty sure your heart skipped a beat and did a somersault at the same time as your mind tried to make sense of what your ears had just heard.

“Wh-what did you just say?”

You felt Applejack let out a trembling sigh as your question caused her to tense and her grip on your shoulders tightened. After a pregnant pause, she managed to say your name with such emotion behind it, that it immediately commanded your full attention.

“For… for months now, a-ah haven’t been able to get you out of mah mind. Ah can’t stop dreaming about you sugahcube. These past month have been torture…”

Something inside you reacted, and you managed to put your hands on her shoulders, forsaking what little balanced you had left… and fell back as you managed to push her away enough to look at her face. Her warm breath washed across your lips as you took in the sight of the pony that now had your full attention.

And also had you pined to the ground.

“Ah’ve wanted to tell you, ah just didn’t know how... But…”

All those emotions you had, all those fragmented dreams suddenly found themselves thrown to the forefront of your mind, and an ember of hope looked ready to spread like a wild fire. Had you really been so caught up in your own doubts about a pony and a human being able to be together, that you never took into account how Applejack might view the topic?

A smile spread across your face as you looked at Applejack with baited attention.

“But… not like this. Not while ah’m in heat… Not while ah can’t control mahself like this…”

That smile vanished, and was instead replaced by bitter realization as that that small ember of hope fell into an ocean of doubt, and you forced yourself to look closer at her. She looked pained… distant. Her mane was disheveled. Her eyes were half-lidded, but what you could see of her usually beautiful emerald green eyes were nothing but a cloudy and faded shadow of their former beauty.

“Listen, Applejack, maybe we should wait and MMM!”

You had dreamt of this.

Applejack had taken advantage of your open mouth and had flung herself into a kiss, her tongue finding no resistance and greedily tracing every outlined detail of the inside of your mouth.

But, no matter how much your body and heart desired what was happening, you didn’t allow yourself to be swept by it.

She was right, she wasn’t thinking straight. She wasn’t Applejack. Not right now. Not during the heat. She wasn’t the same pony you had fallen for. Applejack would never push herself on you like that… And you would never take advantage of her like this.

That hope you felt and the remnant from that morning’s dream became a slightly bit more faded.

The events in Ponyville suddenly made much more sense.

Applejack was beginning to grind against you as she pressed further into the kiss and ran a hoof down your chest. You couldn’t let this get further… you needed to do something before it got out of hand.

“mmMMAPPLEJACK!”

You managed to summon enough strength to push her off you. Her reaction to it only confirmed what you thought as she growled in protest and tried to lunge into a kiss again. You couldn’t hold her off for much longer. She was a pony after all.

You reached into a reserve of strength and pushed her off to the side as you rolled out from under her and staggered to your feet. You took a couple of steps back to put some distant between you and the heat hungry Applejack. She did not look happy.

“We need to talk about this! You aren’t yourself right now and I don’t’ want to take advantage of you like this!”

“Aww, sugahcube, that’s noble of yah… But who’s to say ah won’t take advantage of you?”

Yeah, that wasn’t Applejack anymore. That wasn’t the same mare that had walked into the barn in the beginning. This one was slightly more crazy.

You looked to your left and right, trying to find an escape route. You didn’t want to look behind you for fear of taking Applejack out of your field of vision, so instead you looked behind her.

There was a window right behind her, but there was no way you were going to be able to get right behind her to reach it.

Not with your pants on at least if she had any say in it.

A very bad idea started to form in your head as you took more steps backwards. You really hoped you were judging the right distance to the wall behind you, if not, this was going to be the shortest escape attempt in history.

“Okay…okay, maybe we can talk about something else then?”

Applejack didn’t reply, but simply lowered her head as her eyes focused intently on you and a devious grin spread across her lips.

“Like, how about symmetry?”

This venue gave Applejack a small pause as one of her eyebrows raised.

“Take that window behind you for example.” You told her as you took one step to your right and placed yourself right in front of the window across the barn. Applejack simply cocked her head to the side, not entirely sure at what you were getting at.

“Symmetry in construction, especially in something as simple as a barn, dictates one simple rule…”

“Yeah? What’s that sugahcube?”

“That if there’s a window on that side of the barn… THEN THERE’S ONE RIGHT BEHIND ME TOO!”

You turned around and jumped, and Applejack let out a gasp.

… You jumped right into the wall, the window you were aiming for being just slight off to you left. You shouldn't had taken that step to the right.

“HA!” Applejack’s shocked gasp turned into a mock laugh. “We let Caramel help build that wall last time we raised the barn! He made it too big! That whole wall if off by one foot compared to the one behind me!”

You staggered as you picked yourself off the ground and rubbed at your forehead, trying to realign the double image you were seeing.

“Ok, wow that hurt…” You grunted as you placed your hand on the molding of the window you had been aiming for. “Guess that explains why the barn always looked a bit off from afar…”

Applejack simply smirked as she started walking slowly towards you, adding a rather enticing sway to her every step.

“So yah done stalling now sugahcube?" She said with an alluring smile. "Yah ready to be mah stallion?”

“Umm, yeah, about that…”

You tightened your grip on the windowsill as you jumped and pulled yourself through it.

“COME BACK HERE!”

Applejack’s voice was drowned out by the pounding of your feet as they struck the ground running. You were heading straight into the orchard, and you weren’t going to risk looking behind you, let alone stop if she was calling your name in anger.

______

Damn it! Why did I have to look behind me!?

Apple trees zoomed by you as you ran as fast as you could, your legs burning from the exertion. You were desperately trying to figure out how this particular turn of events had come about.

I don’t know why I thought this would work!

Your thoughts though were easily drowned out by the sound of pounding hooves right behind you.

“You know yah can’t outrun me sugahcube!”

Right, Applejack was one of the fastest ponies in Ponyville. And you, you were a decent runner as far as humans go, but you knew from experience you couldn’t outrun her.

Why you thought you’d be able to outrun her now, well… that was just a mystery.

You risked looking behind you again, and were greeted by a sultry grin from Applejack.

“Applejack! Can’t… we… just… talk… about-”

“I’M DONE TALKING SUGAHCUBE!”

“But we haven’t really discussed anyOOOF!!!”

Applejack tackled you off the path you were running, sending you both rolling. You both only stopped when you slammed into a tree with your back, and a good portion of your head. To your own merit though, by instinct or conscious effort, you twisted your body around during the roll and took the brunt of the impact against the tree.

That warm liquid-like sensation you felt running down your neck though was by no means comforting.

Your head swam as you tried to refocus on the sight in front of you and forced one eye open. Applejack was on top of you, not looking as dazed as you.

To your relief, aside from her heat crazed look, she didn’t have one scratch on her. And, as she began to stir, you couldn’t help but smile a bit… even if your current head trauma caused you to drool a bit.

“Su-sugahcube?!”

She immediately stood up and placed her hooves to your face as her eye focused on you. They were the beautiful emerald green you knew.

“Oh, hi Applejack…”

You tried to widen your smile, but Applejack simply looked horrified.

“Glad you’re okay Apple-”

You froze as you felt her hoof caress your cheek, her eyes never leaving yours. You could see a tear begin to run done her own cheek.

“Hush yah idjet… Oh Celestia… what hav’ah done?”

You tried to bring your hand to her cheek to wipe away that tear. Something like that had no right to besmirch such a sight. But Applejack instead took it in her other hoof and pressed it against her chest. You were shocked by how frantic her heart felt.

“W-wait right here sugahcube!” She commanded as she kissed your forehead, but pulled back when you grunted in pain.

“Ah’m gonna go get help!” She bit her lip as more tears began to flow. “D-don’t move! Don’t move yah hear!?”

And with that, Applejack got off you and was already galloping at full speed down the path she had chased you through.

You laid there in a daze and saw her disappear around a bend, the trees obscuring her out of sight.

“Sorry Applejack…”

Another grunt escaped you as you forced yourself onto your feet and your head thumped like a drum.

“I-I can’t deal with this right now…”

Your feet began to move of their own accord as you walked further into the orchard, weaving around trees, and disappeared out of sight.

Not if I can’t be certain that this heat isn’t making you say and do things you don’t mean…

And, as your thoughts settled, a dense fog encroached further onto that remnant of last night’s dream. Funny what a bump on the noggin could do…

Author's Note

I have to admit that this chapter was a huge step out of my comfort zone. But practice makes perfect I suppose, right?

Constructive criticisms are welcomed. Nonconstructive criticisms can be politely thrown out the window at the cat that wouldn't stop mewing the whole time I tried to finish this chapter.

Disclaimer - All characters presented in this work of fiction are owned by their respective creators and owners. In short, all the wubs go to Hasbro.