A Kindred Spirit

Having exploited my rather infallible sense of direction, I found my way into the Canterlot Gardens. I wandered a bit through the peaceful green expanse until stumbling into the very ponies I was looking for; Applejack and Fluttershy.

Applejack was first to speak. "G'mornin."

I brightened at hearing the similar dialect; nice as Twilight and Pinkie were, they didn't carry that feeling of home about them, especially Pinkie.

I nodded, the regular thing to do without a hat to tip. "Mornin, Applejack."

For some reason, Fluttershy suddenly cowered into a ball and began to cry. The whole pleasant atmosphere was shattered. I reacted to the disconsolate yellow mare first.

"Fluttershy! What's the matter!?"

Fluttershy did not move, sobs were still wracking her but she managed to eke out, "P-p-please d-d-don't hate m-m-me!"

I was utterly confused. "Umm, who are you talking to?"

Driving the spike of my confusion deeper, she stuttered, "Y-y-you, of course!"

My mind was racing to find a sensible solution, while my mouth decided to mumble "Wha-?"

Oh.

She thought I would be angry with her over my transformation into a pony!

My whole demeanor shifted from shocked and confused to soft and comforting. Innate fatherly instincts took over, and I, with varying levels of awkwardness, decided to give the poor mare a hug. I spoke in a low, soft tone of voice.

"Fluttershy, I'm not mad at you. Not in the slightest. If I was mad at anyone I'd be mad at myself. It would take a petty pony to be mad at you in this situation. Now come on. Stop crying and get up."

The sniffling Fluttershy stifled her tears and started to get up. What I was not expecting is for her to suddenly pounce on me and tie me into a soft hug.

The couple of seconds I had allotted her were up, so with my face of scarlet I maneuvered her down on her hooves and she spoke again.

"I'm really glad you aren't angry with me... I don't know what I'd do with myself/"

I felt a touch of anger; not with her, of course, but with anyone who would have been mad at her.

"Like I said, anyone who is mad at you in this situation is a petty, petty pony." I finished this sentence with distaste, almost so vile as to cause me to spit. I refrained.

"Okay. I'm going to go and get cleaned up...if that's alright with you."

"'Course, Fluttershy. Go ahead." I dismissed the submissive pony with a compassionate smile.

Applejack, who had been standing by during this whole ordeal, approached me with a warm smile on her face. This caused my cheeks to heat and my eyes to wander again. Really, how many times would this happen in a day?

"That was big of ya. Mighty big. You're a well-spoken kind of guy, you know that?"

Again, another subtle blushing on my part.

"Aww, AJ, I'm just doing what I feel's right is all. You mares do it all the time."

The orange pony continued with her reasoning on this particular subject. "In that predicament you were in, usually the stallion'd just stand there and wait for the mare to do something. Stupid modern macho masculine stuff making stallions into some sort of machines instead of the ponies they're supposed to be. Now you're a different story. You're a right gentlecolt. Part of a dyin' breed."

Every word she said just made my face shade into a deeper red. "Come on, AJ, you're makin me blush."

She just grinned and said, "Just bein' honest with ya. That'd be my job. Say, speakin' of jobs; ever worked on a farm?"

"I don't rightly know, Applejack, but I'm gonna guess not."

Questions such as these filled the time as we traveled slowly towards the doors of Canterlot Castle to meet with the ponies we would.