Only on the Surface

by A cubed

Rating: teen
Tags: Sex, Bon-Bon, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Lyra, Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mayor Mare, Romance
Length: 17944

Prejudice has moved from interracial couples to gay couples. Lyra and Bon Bon get married and taste this head-on. Applejack starts coming out to her family and friends, with Twilight's help. Derpy's children are adopted.

Main Plot: Applejack tells her family and friends that she is gay.
In her youth, Granny Smith was part of the movement giving marriage rights to interracial couples. Could you believe that, just forty years ago, many ponies considered it taboo for a relationship to exist between a unicorn and pegasus? Nowadays it's a different story: interspecies marriages happen all the time, and nopony bats an eyelash... as long as they are different genders. It seems that since then, the prejudice has shifted direction towards gay and lesbian couples now.
Lyra and Bon Bon are victims of this prejudice firsthoof, but regardless, they still got married a couple of weeks ago. Upon their return, Mayor Mare- an avid supporter of gay rights- finds herself swarmed with grievance letters from the handful of homophobic ponies living in Ponyville, which she addresses at a town meeting. The meeting... doesn't go so well. As differing viewpoints clash, many are caught in the crossfire, and buried secrets are revealed.
Friendships and loyalties will be tested, but others strengthened.

Romance tag for Applejack, LyraBon, and DerpTurner (aka DerpyDoc)

Rated Teen for allusions to sex. I will eventually write clop scenes (mostly LyraBon), but not right now.

Cover art by WhiteDiamondsLTD on Deviantart

Published 2013-02-17 07:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-01-17 21:03:50 UTC

Sex Happens. Twice.

/x/x/x/

Attention citizens of Ponyville

It has come to my attention that there are many residents who do not approve of homosexuals living among us. I would like to address this issue in a Town Meeting this Sunday. Due to the somewhat adult nature of the meeting, I request that you make plans for your foals, whether it be daycare, babysitting, what have you. Attendance is not mandatory; however, due to the nature of this issue, I expect most if not all citizens to attend.

Twilight Sparkle, please contact the Mayor’s office ASAP.

Thank you,
Mayor Mare

/x/x/x/

The article was put on the front page of the Ponyville Gazette. As a result, many plans were changed for that next Sunday. All tickets for the train stations were redeemed, and postmarked to be used on the Monday afterwards. This was a big issue among citizens in Ponyville.

The majority of the population tolerated homosexual rights. Heck, most of them encouraged it! However, there was a minority who opposed. That minority, though small percentage-wise, was still quite a bit of ponies population-wise. The mayor had always been receiving grievance notices from ponies who were aware that their neighbors were gay, but that hadn’t really been much of a problem: everypony gets junk mail, after all.

However, there was a certain event two weeks ago that had massively increased the influx of said grievance notices. Two citizens had gone to Canterlot to be married by the Princess herself, and stayed for a week afterwards to have a honeymoon. After that week, they returned to Ponyville, proudly married, and ready to face the rest of their life together. Only thing is, they were both female.

This was met with mixed results among Ponyville’s citizens. Nothing really changed among the friends of the new couple, but those that did not approve of gay marriage certainly did get- for lack of a better term- saddlesore. Ever since that day, Mayor Mare’s mail intake doubled. She decided enough was enough, wrote a letter to the town, and had it published in the newspaper on Thursday.

Today is Saturday.

/x/x/x/

‘But Twilight-’

“No buts, Spike. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go tomorrow.”

‘Why not?’

She sighed. “Because biologically, you’re still technically a baby dragon.”

Spike’s face fell at this. Twilight looked away, and continued. “Look, I’m sorry Spike, but your presence at the meeting would cause unnecessary drama that would detract from the main issue.”

His claws clenched into fists. ‘That’s not fair, Twilight.’ the young dragon looked up at his caretaker, friend, and parental figure. ‘You know that I’m mature enough by now to voice my opinion on these kinds of things!’

“Spike, I do know that!” voice full of exasperation and high in volume for just a moment, before the unicorn took in a deep breath, extending her hoof from her chest as she did so. She continued, transforming her rebuttal to an explanation. “It’s just that, not everypony else in town does. I mean, you still look like you did three years ago when we came here. Appearances can be deceiving, and seems to be the only thing many ponies in this town go by. I mean, think about it: some of them are so closed-minded that they’re angry about something as simple as gay marriage. I wouldn’t doubt that there are those who consider you a foal, despite how much you’ve grown...” At this, she looked down at her number-one assistant’s still-stocky baby-dragon form. “...Mentally.”

‘...oh. Right.’ Spike’s resolve deflated quicker than a popped balloon, or Pinkie Pie’s mane when he’d inadvertently caused her to fall into depression on her birthday after pretty much telling her that her friends hate her. He sat on the floor, pulling his knees to his chest. ‘I forgot that not everypony else is the same as you.’

Twilight knelt down to his level, and wrapped a foreleg around the young drake. “I’m really sorry, Spike. But, look: a few decades ago, there was all the arguing about interracial marriage. You remember when I wrote that research paper about Starswirl the Bearded and his wife, and how many said that it was supposedly blasphemy against the Princess?”

Spike looked away from Twilight’s face, remembering. He had read the biography out loud while Twilight took notes. One of the ridiculous things he remembered reading was that many ponies took great offence to Starswirl’s relationship with the pegasus mare. One of the big arguments against it was that a unicorn and pegasus could potentially sire an alicorn baby, despite all the evidence that it was impossible for an alicorn to be born by a normal birth- and even Celestia herself denying the claims.

‘Yeah,’ he finally said. ‘I remember.’

“Well, it’s moved on to something different now, but still pretty much the exact same thing: prejudice by physical differences.” her face grew dim for a moment, eyes downcast. Trying to forget about the incident, Twilight shook her head and put on a smile: that was in the past, and Spike’s issue is in the present. “At least there’s a bright side,” she said. “By the time you’ve matured enough to be the size of a full-grown pony, there’ll be something else to argue about. Maybe somepony won’t like marriage between ponies with different mane colors!”

He smiled a little at the attempt to cheer him up. ‘Yeah, maybe.’ He said, hugging Twilight. ‘Thanks.’

She didn’t say anything for a moment, until Spike let go and started to stand up. “Tell you what,” Twilight began to say. “After dinner, if we get the library cleaned and finished tonight, you can have the day off tomorrow. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle can’t go to the meeting either; maybe you can hang out with them?”

‘The day off? All right!’ Spike hurried off to finish his chores for the day. Twilight turned and glanced at the half-unpacked box of the week’s new orders.

“Well, these books aren’t going to organize themselves...” the lavender mare mused to herself. “Stupid nonexistent spontaneous animation spell...”

/x/x/x/

‘But Applejack-’

“No.”

‘You can’t just say-’

“No.”

‘You aren’t even listen-’

“No, Applebloom.”

‘Dummy says no!’

“No- uh...”

A moment of silence passed. Applebloom grinned smugly at her older sister. The grin was not returned. The older mare sighed, and she removed her hat, setting it on the kitchen counter before turning to the yellow filly.

“Applebloom...” Applejack sighed. “Even if ah did say yes, it ain’t even up to me. Mayor mare said no foals, an’ yer still just a filly.”

The younger of the two’s grin dropped immediately as she replied with another ‘But Applejack!’

“Applebloom, no arguin’.” her voice was stern and firm for a moment, before she inhaled and spoke with a more apologetic tone. “This ain’t even mah decision, okay?”

The orange mare received a ‘humph’ in response as Applebloom crossed her forelegs.

“Applebloom, y’all know that if ah COULD,” she taps a hoof on Applebloom’s shoulder each time she accented one her words. “Ah WOULD let y’all into the meetin’. Granny an’ Big Mac an’ me raised y’all right, and y’all prob’ly know more than some o’ them idiots out there who got us into this mess by sendin’ all those letters to the Mayor. Unfortunately for you, fillies s’posedly ain’t s’posed ta know ‘bout this ‘cause of them.”

Silence, broken by a sigh. ‘Ah know that, but sis, it ain’t fair!’ the redhead complained. ‘Just ‘cause Ah’m a filly don’t mean ah ain’t a part o’ this community.’

“Ah know it ain’t fair. Life playin’ fair is like a cow layin’ eggs, it just doesn’t happen. But that’s just the way...” Applejack hesitated for a moment before continuing. “That’s... the way things have to be.”

A sense of deja vu washed over Applejack as she remembered a conversation between herself and her father...

“But Daddy,” filly Applejack said. “Mama can’t go to sleep forever! Ah, ah want her to stay here with me!” a tear slipped out of her eye and glistened on her cheek, followed by two others.

‘I’m sorry, AJ.’ the filly’s lip quivered. ‘Mama... can’t be with us anymore. She’s gotta go to another place, away from us.’

She sniffed before replying. “But, but what about the baby? Doesn’t she love lil’ Bloom?”

The older stallion leaned down to his young daughter’s level. ‘Your mother loves Applebloom very much, and she loves you and your brother too. But, sometimes... sometimes ponies just have to do what they have to do. This is one of those things.’

Applejack trembled. She tried to put on an angry face, a facade to cover the fact that more tears were coming. But it wasn’t enough: she closed her eyes and let out a wail as she closed the gap between herself and her father. She wrapped both of her forelegs around one of his. He set down on his haunches and wrapped his other foreleg around the crying filly.

“But ah, -sniff- I don’t want her to -sniff- go away, daddy! It’s not -sniff- not right! We gotta -sniff- stay together forever!” she exhaled and inhaled heavily before continuing. “You said -sniff- that family is forever...”

He closed his eyes and leaned down, as if his encasing her away from the outside world would prevent the pain of loss from reducing his baby girl to this. It didn’t work, though, and she continued to cry.

‘I... I said that, didn’t I...’

“You did.” she sobbed a few times. “Why did you lie to me?”

He had nothing to say to that. What could he say? She was right: he did lie to her. He promised her that, even though there would be another baby in the family, there would still be enough love to go around for all of them. He’d likened it to the fact that Princess Celestia was immortal, and loved everypony, and would continue to love everypony forever. Since Celestia could love ponies she’d never met before, he had continued, then love was forever among ponies who have met before, and were close. Like family.

She had asked him if that meant that if they all loved each other, they would be together forever as well. He said yes, thinking, hoping, that he would have to wait to tell his children about death for when his own mother eventually passed, so it would be less of an emotional toll than their own mother. This was an unforeseen tragedy, and he regretted having lied. Although...

‘I didn’t lie to you, AJ. Maybe your mom can’t be here in Equestria with you, but she’ll always be with you in spirit. Actually...’ with his free foreleg, he reached up on the table for the stetson hat. He grabbed it and held it in his hoof by the filly’s head. He contemplated the consequences of this decision: on one hoof, perhaps Applejack wouldn’t be as sad. On the other hoof... ... ... lacking any counterpoint, he said, ‘I want you to have this, Applejack.’

She sniffed, and looked at the hat. Her eyes; wrinkled, wet, and red from the tears; opened slightly as she saw her mother’s favorite apparel held right in front of her.

“But... but that’s mama’s hat.”

‘Yes... yes it is.’ he turned it around on his hoof. ‘And, if you wear this, she’ll always be with you. Have you ever seen her without this hat on?’

Applejack sniffed again. “Not before today.”

‘Well, neither have I.’ he replied. He held the fabric to his muzzle and inhaled. It still smelled of her mane: apples and strawberries. He set it on his daughter’s head, and when it comically covered her face due to its largeness, he leaned it back up so he could see Applejack’s face.

‘Can you feel her?’

The filly rubbed her eyes with her hooves, and she started to nod.

“I think so... a little bit.” she pulled it off and held it close to her body, hugging it to her chest. “It’s just a little big.”

‘Well... you’ll grow into it. The good thing is that you can still feel her presence, right?’

“I s’pose so... but... it’s nothin’ compared to the real thing.” she leaned on her father’s chest. “...it ain’t fair.”

‘I know it’s not fair, AJ.’ he said, leaning his head on hers. ‘I love her too. But... sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes that’s... just the way things have to be.’

Applejack cast a glance to the counter at the hat. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remember what her mother looked like wearing it. It took a moment, but the mental image snapped into place. It wasn’t an image, though, but a memory. She was on her mother’s lap on the rocking chair, and she could faintly hear a voice.

‘Applejack...’

It was familiar, but it didn’t sound right.

‘Applejack.’

That’s not her, that’s-

‘Applejack!’

Her eyes snapped open. Applebloom was calling her.

‘Y’all drifted off there for a second-’ Applejack cut her off with a hug.

“Leave the boring meeting to me an’ Big Mac an’ Granny Smith. Y’all are young anyways, so you should go out an’ have some fun with yer friends tomorrow.” she pulled away. “Who knows, y’all might find your cutie mark this time!”

Applebloom rolled her eyes, but smiled.

‘Yeah... maybe when I get my cutie mark, ah’ll get treated more adult-like, right?’

Applejack shrugged. “Who knows?”

Applebloom sighed. ‘The meetin’s probably gonna go nowhere anyways, like they always do. Ah s’pose this is for the best.’ she looked out the window, and suddenly jumped. ‘OH NO!’ she cried. ‘Ah forgot we had a Crusaders meetin’ in the clubhouse tonight! Ah’ll be home for dinner AJ, see ya later!’

She galloped towards the door, but Applejack yelled, “Applebloom, wait!”

The eager red-maned filly skidded to a halt. ‘What do ya want!?’ she cried impatiently.

“Ah...” she hesitated for a moment. “...Ah love you.”

‘Yeah yeah, love ya too, bye!’ and she shot out the door.

Applejack watched the door slowly close, and looked at the counter. The hat was still there. She reached a hoof out and grabbed it, and held it close for a minute or two. She brought it up to her muzzle and sniffed it before putting it back on her head.

It still smelled slightly of strawberry.

/x/x/x/

‘But Rarity-’

“No.”

‘What if mom and dad say-’

“It doesn’t matter what mom and dad say, Sweetie Belle. They aren’t in town right now, and you know their rule.”

She sighed. ‘When they’re not here, you’re my boss. I know...’ the white filly traced a circle on the ground with a hoof. Suddenly, Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened, and an imaginary lightbulb went off over her head. ‘But it’s been forever since we did anything together!’ The obvious guilt-trip tone was obvious.

Rarity rolled her eyes, able to see through- well, hear through, technically- the facade. “I know that. But do you really want the thing we do together to be sitting around all day listening to ponies talk about something that really doesn’t merit all the fuss and commotion? Is that your idea of fun?”

The lightbulb shattered as the younger unicorn’s face fell. ‘...no...’ she sighed. ‘I guess not.’

Rarity sighed as well. This disappointment wasn’t fake. But then, an idea came: “What if I take you to Sugarcube Corner tomorrow, after the meeting lets out?”

A gasp was heard, followed by an exclamation of ‘Really!?’ Sweetie Belle’s mood perked up considerably as she considered this possibility. Quality time with Rarity AND cupcakes? At the same time?

The blue-eyed mare nodded. “Really.” she said. “My only client at the moment is Hoity Toity, and I still have another three days to finish two and a half dresses. I could take a day off and still make the deadline.”

Sweetie Belle hugged her big sister. ‘Thanks, Rarity!’ she exclaimed. ‘You’re the best!’

The hug was returned. “You promise a filly a cupcake and suddenly you’re ‘the best’, regardless of what was being discussed immediately before.” Rarity mused to herself. “Funny how that works out.”

“But if even a speck of dust is in your mane, you’re taking a bath before we set foot outside this house.”

‘Aw...’

/x/x/x/

“Cloudsdale’s over this.”

‘Well, Rainbow, Cloudsdale’s more focused on factories and weather than social issues, so that’s not really a surprise.’

“Yeah yeah, I know. I just wish that you and the others lived there sometimes.”

‘I’m sorry.’

“Don’t apologize, Fluttershy. It’s not your fault. That’d be like Twilight apologizing for not having any wings.”

‘Twilight with wings?’

“Ridiculous, right?”

‘Yeah... ridiculous...’

/x/x/x/

“Of course I’ll babysit tomorrow! Why would I sit around in a boring old meeting all day when I can be with the twins? I mean seriously, I would do anything other than sit around in a boring old meeting all day, because you know better than most anypony else that I can’t sit around anywhere all day. I mean, there was that one time with the mirror pool where I had to watch the paint dry, but that was different because I wasn’t the only me right then, and it was a matter of life and death- well, social life and death, because I wouldn’t be dead and gone, just gone with the other mes, but still, I would probably die if I never got to see my friends again. And if I never came back to Ponyville again, I would never be able to be here with you guys and the babies, and that would be really bad. I just love you all to death and I would take any and every opportunity to be there for the kids, and lookee here, an opportunity! So you two have fun tomorrow- well, as much fun as you can have in that situation, of course, I’m not trying to be sarcastic here, and if you thought I was then I’m sorry!”

Pinkie took in a deep breath before starting to talk again. But when she did, she saw that the Cakes were sprawled on the ground, eyes turned to spirals and tongues lolling out.

“Oops...” she laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “I broke them again.”

/x/x/x/

“Who knew so many foals lived in Ponyville?” Amethyst Star sipped her coffee, black.

“After being used to 16, 40 seems like quite a jump.” Cheerilee sipped her coffee, two sugars.

“But if we split among the four of us, surely we will reduce the fuss.” Zecora sipped her tea.

“At least we don’t have to watch ALL of the foals in Ponyville.” Nurse Redheart sipped her coffee, milk and cream.

The three most dangerous & destructive fillies in town would hopefully steer clear of the school during their, ahem, adventures. If not... the four mares shuddered.

/x/x/x/

Two ponies, newlyweds, laid in bed next to each other, looking up at the ceiling.

The first pony said, “To think we angered enough ponies to merit a town meeting.”

The second pony replied, ‘All we did was get married. It’s not like anything really changed, right?’

“I know, but still. It amazes me.”

‘We’ve kissed in public before, I really don’t see the difference.’

“Maybe it’s because now you have a ring on your horn?”

‘Hmm. Probably. But if they get angry at what my horn looks like, imagine what they’d think if they knew what I did with it.’

The first pony blushed heavily at this. “Well, we’re certainly not doing THAT in public!”

‘Aww. Well... we could just not go to the meeting tomorrow. Town Hall, Sugarcube Corner, and the school are the only places we’d need to avoid. Otherwise, it’d be a ghost town. Or, we could just go into the Everfree Forest- then again, that’d probably be dangerous.’

“Please don’t tell me that you spend a lot of time thinking about this.”

‘...okay. I won’t tell you.’

“Lyra!”

‘Come on, Bon, it was a joke!’

“...who said I wanted it to be a joke?”

The sea-green unicorn raised her eyebrow at this. ‘The plot thickens!’

The cream-coated mare raised her eyebrow at this. “You calling me fat?”

Lyra smiled. ‘What, that comment didn’t sit right with you?’

Bon Bon smiled back. “Interesting choice of words.”

‘While that may be true...’ Lyra leaned over her lover. She stopped smiling, and whispered, ‘My choice in a wife is definitely a much better one.’

Bon Bon’s eyes widened. She stared into her partner’s eyes for a moment. A hoof reached out, and swept a tuft of sea-green and white hair to the side. Another reached behind Lyra’s neck, and pulled her down.

/x/ Sex happened. /x/

They laid together in each other’s forelegs as their breathing returned to normal, and their heartbeats slowed. Lyra’s horn slowly stopped glowing, but the earth pony’s essence still lingered.

‘Hey Bon Bon.’

“Hmm...” she nuzzled the fur on Lyra’s chest.

‘Do I...’

Bon Bon opened her eyes.

‘Make you...’

“Don’t you dare-”

‘Horny?’

Bon Bon sighed. “Thank you for reminding me that I didn’t marry you for your sense of humor.”

‘...I’m guessing this is a bad time to ask for a sandwich?’

“Good night, Lyra.”

/x/x/x/

Sunday

/x/x/x/

“See you later, Spike.”

Twilight headed for Town Hall, while her assistant headed to Carousel Boutique. It was earlier than most of Ponyville’s other citizens, as Mayor Mare requested her assistance in preparations for the meeting. After proving her mettle at her first Winter Wrap-Up, Twilight was an invaluable asset to anything important the town had planned.

The door was opened, so she didn’t knock. She just walked in. The main central area was clear to the raised area in front. A simple podium sat there, occupied by the Mayor, who was arranging papers. She didn’t look up at Twilight’s entrance, so Twilight assumed she didn’t hear. Not wanting to interrupt, but forced to anyways, she coughed.

Mayor Mare looked up at the sound. ‘Twilight Sparkle, hello.’

“Hello, Mayor. Anything I can help with?”

She nodded, and stepped down from the podium. ‘Not at the moment, Twilight Sparkle. Your help will be more appreciated as the day goes on. I have a checklist here in my saddlebags that I’d like you to manage.’ She reached in and brought it out.

Twilight grabbed it with her magic and unrolled it slightly. It was an alphabetical list of all the ponies who lived in Ponyville.

“You want me to make sure who has and hasn’t spoken?”

She nodded. ‘That’s correct. It’ll keep the, ah, more talkative and opinionated ponies down to one turn each, and those that are more reserved will be called upon at the end.’

“I see. Well, that seems simple enough.”

‘Also, if you could keep a chart running of approvals and oppositions, it would be helpful as well, so I can accurately gauge the ratios of who approves and disapproves.’

“Chart? No problem.”

‘Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.’

Twilight was slightly put off by the number of times she heard her second name used. It wasn’t bothersome, it just seemed too formal. Even the Princess rarely used her second name!

“Mayor, you can just call me Twilight. Everypony else does it.”

‘I know, but I’m required to keep up formalities as part of my job. Why do you think I dye my mane grey instead of its natural pink color?’

“I don’t think you need any help keeping up formalities, Mayor. You’ve been doing very well handling the town’s affairs through these past years. There have been no recessions, we’ve recovered from natural disasters, and you handled the parasprite invasion well.”

‘Well thank you, Twilight Sparkle. However, those have been economic and physical, things that don’t directly affect this town. There are still social issues such as this one that are hurdles that I still need to take care of. Perhaps if this gay marriage dispute settles down and dies, I could dispense formalities. But until then, I shall address thee by your full name.’ She looked towards the front door of Town Hall. ‘They’re arriving. Twilight Sparkle, please step up here and take roll of attendees. There’s two boxes per name, so use the first for attendance and the second for speaking.’ she headed to the front and began greeting ponies.

‘Thee?’ Twilight asked herself. She shrugged it off and did as she was asked, silently taking roll.

/x/x/x/

The Apple Family left Sweet Apple Acres together. Applebloom didn’t attempt a final plea as she knew it was fruitless. Plus, she enjoyed the prospect of a full choreless day to spend with her best friends and Spike, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Applejack and Big Mac shared a collective sigh as they thought about the consequences of not doing any work today: double the load tomorrow. Still, this was for a good cause, and they maintained straight faces.

The walk was relatively quiet. Applebloom was formulating plans for the day in her head. Big Macintosh hardly said anything anyways, so with nopony initiating conversation, he stayed silent. Granny Smith didn’t speak either: she was old, and getting winded on the walk. Talking would just expend more oxygen.

Applejack was wrapped up in her own thoughts. She was worrying about the consequences of the Town Meeting. Everypony in town’s feelings on the subject would be laid bare for all others to see. After this, there would be no going back. Normally, that wouldn’t worry the orange mare: however, this was something important to her.

If it was about something meaningless, like which vegetable tastes the best, she would think nothing of it- other than wonder why Mayor Mare would waste valuable time and resources on something stupid like that. But this directly affected Applejack: she wasn’t sure if she could speak her mind on the subject without somepony asking questions.

If anypony questioned her opinion, it could potentially lead to a confrontation about whether she herself was gay or not. Applejack was a terrible liar: the truth would no doubt come out if it came to that. She took a deep breath and focused on the ground beneath her hooves.

When they finally got to Ponyville proper, Applebloom bid her family farewell before heading to Carousel Boutique. When she arrived, she knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door was opened by Rarity. Atop her mane sat a small maroon beret, and she had on a black sweater.

‘Applebloom, hello. Sweetie Belle and Spike are inside.’

“Hi Rarity... Nice hat.”

‘Oh, this?’ she blushed slightly. ‘It’s just a little souvenir I bought from a gryphon merchant in Canterlot a few months ago. We’re having a big important town meeting today, so I thought I should dress formally informal. You don’t think it’s too much, or too little?’

Applebloom returned with a blank stare. “Yer askin’ ME for fashion advice?”

Rarity blinked. Then, she blinked again. ‘Oh. Sorry. Well, have fun today.’

“Thanks Rarity. Will do.” Applebloom stepped aside to let her friend’s sister through the doorway, and when it was clear, she stepped through, letting the door close behind her. “Sweetie Belle?” she called out into the dress shop. “Spike?”

Her pink-and-purple-maned friend’s head peeked out from the side of a doorway. ‘Hey Applebloom!’ she called out, waving a hoof. ‘In here!’

The earth filly trotted over to find the aforementioned Sweetie Belle and Spike, coloring on a table. The dragon exchanged a greeting with Applebloom.

“What’re y’all doin’?”

‘We’re coloring until Scootaloo gets here.’ It seemed to be true. Sweetie Belle had been drawing a rough sketch of her, Applebloom, and Spike being pulled in the wagon by Scootaloo on her scooter. Spike drew a slightly less rough sketch of Rarity, but still fairly unrefined. As Applebloom was studying their handiwork, Sweetie Belle nudged the box of crayons over. ‘Wanna join in?’

Applebloom shrugged. “Why not?” she said as she sat down, grabbed some paper, and thought about what to draw. In the past, the filly would have done something simple, like her siblings bucking apples, or a family portrait, or something else of that nature. However, this time she decided against doing something simple, in case Scootaloo took a while (it was fairly early in the morning, so it wasn’t out of the realms of possibility) and started looking around the boutique for inspiration.

Her gaze took her to a window, outside of which you could see Canterlot on the mountainside in the distance. This gave her an idea. She took a few select colors of crayon, and started to carefully sketch a mountain.

About fifteen minutes passed. Scootaloo still hadn’t arrived yet. Spike had drifted off to sleep, leaning against the wall and drooling a bit. Sweetie Belle started a second drawing, this time of herself and Rarity. Applebloom continued work on her Canterlot Castle.

Another fifteen minutes later, there was a quite loud, yet rhythmic series of knocks at the door. This woke Spike up, and made him fall out of his chair. Sweetie Belle giggled at this, and said ‘I’ll get it!’ before galloping off. Rarity would disapprove of running inside the shop, but Rarity isn’t here, is she?

She opened the door to reveal a young magenta-maned pegasus.

“Sweetie Belle, good morning, I’ve got so much stuff planned for today! Where’s Applebloom?”

‘Good morning, Scootaloo. Applebloom’s inside coloring with Spike.’

“Coloring?” the filly’s eyebrow raised. “With Spike?”

‘Well you were taking forever,’ the young unicorn said, slightly exasperated. ‘So we were coloring. And yeah, Spike’s coming with us because he can’t go to the meeting.’

“Huh. Okay. Well, go get them, we’ve gotta get going ASAP if we want to do everything we’re gonna do today!”

Sweetie Belle decided not to point out the fact that regardless of when they got going, and the speed of which they were doing those things, they would still do everything they were going to do that day even if there were undone things on the list that were originally planned and intended to be done, because all the things that would be done would have been done, and anything they didn’t do wouldn’t have been done that day anyway. Instead of confusing herself (or, more likely, Scootaloo), she simply said ‘Okay!’ and headed back inside.

Spike was rubbing his head, and Applebloom was still coloring.

‘Guys,’ she said. ‘Scootaloo is here, so we’ve all gotta... whoa.’ her train of thought was derailed after looking at Applebloom’s project. It was a realistic representation of the base and several towers of Canterlot, as well as the mountain it sat on. ‘Applebloom...’

No response.

‘Applebloom?’ She tried again, no response.

‘APPLEBLOOM!’ she yelled, this time getting a response.

“Gah! Sweetie Belle, what’re y’all yellin’ for!? Ya scared me half ta death!”

‘Scootaloo’s here, didn’t you hear?’

“Oh. Why didn’t ya say so?”

‘I thought I did... Anyways, you drew that?’ she asked, pointing to the paper.

“Yeah, but who cares, we gotta go crusadin’ now.” she left the paper behind and headed out the door. “You comin’?”

The unicorn filly spared one last glance at the picture before answering. ‘Yeah, I’ll be there in a second.’ she stepped out the door, closed it behind her, and stepped into the wagon, putting her helmet on.

Spike looked between the other two passengers. ‘Where’s my helmet?’

‘Oh, Spike, sorry. I think we have a spare here-’ she grabbed something with her teeth. ‘Yeth, her it ith.’

Spike narrowed his eyes at the helmet. He put it on, buckling it under his chin. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom giggled.

‘The pink really goes well with your scales, Spike!’

‘...shut up.’

/x/x/x/

Bon Bon was awakened by the sun, upon which she became aware of Lyra’s soft snoring. And morning breath.

She wriggled out of the unicorn’s forearms, which fell limply to their owner’s side. After yawning, Bon Bon stepped off the bed and headed towards the kitchen. She spent the next five or ten minutes making breakfast for the two of them, a salad of spinach and dandelion. After this was done, she headed back upstairs to wake her lover.

She set her hoof on the sea-green mare’s shoulder, and shook lightly. “Lyra,” she cooed. “It’s time to wake up.”

She slowly turned over in the bed, pulling the sheets tighter around her body. ‘Five more minutes... zzz...’ she murmured.

Bon Bon tried again, shaking a little harder. “Lyra, wake up. It’s morning.”

‘Mommy, I don’t wanna go to school. Go ‘way.’

Bon Bon sighed, and used her last resort. She whispered, “Look, a human.”

‘WHERE!?’ Lyra bolted upright in the bed, flinging the sheets off, face full of visible excitement. This excitement faded when she didn’t see any humans. She looked around and saw nopony. ‘Bon Bon?’

A muffled noise came from underneath the blankets on the floor. Lyra grabbed the edge, and pulled, revealing a blue and pink mane, followed by the rest of her wife. She grinned sheepishly. ‘Uh, sorry Bonnie...’

A light blue eye twitched.

Lyra reached a hoof down to help her up, which was received. But, instead of pulling up, the cream-coloured mare pulled down, causing the unicorn to cry out and fall to the ground.

“You know, you should have expected that.”

‘You know, it’s unfair to get mad at me for flipping out after you dropped the H-bomb.’

Bon Bon grinned. “I guess you’re right. But it was funny.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe to you.’

“Aww, did I hurt your feelings?”

‘Nope. You did hurt my flank though.’

“Poor baby.”

Lyra peered over at her cream-coated companion. ‘My sarcasm senses are tingling.’

“Good, then they’re working!”

Lyra started to fake pout. ‘Well, don’t I feel appreciated.’

Bon Bon smiled. “All right, let me make it up to you. I’ll show you how much I appreciate you by letting you decide how. Choose anything you want me to do.”

Lyra stopped fake pouting. ‘Anything?’

Bon Bon nodded. “Anything.”

Lyra put her hoof on her chin as she pretended to think hard about what she wanted in return. ‘Well, I could ask you to make something special for breakfast. But... why would I waste an ‘anything’ on something as mundane as breakfast? Hmm...’

As she was waiting for Lyra to ‘decide’, Bon Bon rolled over closer to the unicorn, so she was right-side-up.

‘I know, how about a hike through Everfree Forest?’

The earth pony rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t that sound fun?” She stood up on her hindlegs, and moved her left hoof onto Lyra’s other side, positioning herself dead center.

‘I suppose there is one other thing... but... it seems like you already know what that is.’

Bon Bon winked suggestively, licked her lips, and lowered her head.

/x/ Sex Happened. Again. /x/

Lyra’s eyes glazed over as her pulse slowed to normal. The muscles in her back legs relaxed, freeing the pony trapped inside from captivity.

Bon Bon dragged herself forward, and laid herself down atop her lover. She could feel hooves stroking her mane.

‘We should probably shower before going today.’

“You think?”

/x/x/x/

Author's Note

This chapter was an exercise in slice-of-life, dialogue, and romance. The real meat of the story will be starting in the next chapter. I’ll try to have at least one or two LyraBon scenes each chapter, because I really like the pairing.

You’ll notice I censored over possible clop scenes. That doesn’t mean they WON’T be written, it just means they AREN’T written... yet. At this point, I don’t think they add much to the story, and I don’t think removing them takes much from the story. Plus, some people don’t like clop scenes, which is understandable. And, I wouldn’t be good with them anyways, as I am not a lesbian, pony, or someone who’s had any kind of sex before.

By the way, for this story, I’m not going to adapt to Alicorn Twilight.

Fall Before You Trip

Pinkie Pie’s voice is heard, saying “Last time, in Only On the Surface... Mayor Mare got sick of so many ponies complaining about something that she got Twilight to make a town meeting. Sounds boring, so I’m just staying with the twins- we’re gonna have so much fun! Anyways, Spike and the Cutie Mark Crusaders all wanted to go, but they couldn’t for whatever reason. Lyra and Bon Bon had some special alone time- twice!
Twilight had a talk with the Mayor, and for some reason, she said ‘thee’ in conversati-ation. Kinda weird, but, whatever! Oh yeah, and Applejack’s nervous about the meeting for some reason- but I would be too, if I knew I had to sit around and listen to other ponies talk for hours. Because it gets really boring just listening to somepony talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and-”

/x/ Sparing your Sanity, flashing forward /x/

“Talk and talk all you want, Rainbow Dash,” the very arrogant stallion Cherry Cola was saying. “But you’re still fundamentally wrong.”

After a long day of deliberation and debates, most if not all the citizens of Ponyville who had showed up had spoken their piece. Nearly half had simply said ‘yea’ or ‘neigh’ (the ‘yea’s outnumbering the ‘neigh’s by a landslide majority). The other half had offered more in-depth explanations.

Most of them had been resolved without an issue: there were many points on both sides made near the beginning of the day, but there had been stalemates abound. As the day went on, many discussions fruitlessly repeated ones from earlier, until eventually, they just stopped bothering to discuss, simply offering their opinion.

“Oh, fundamentally,” the irate pegasus rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t know fundamentals if they bit you in the plot! On a strictly fundamental level, love is still love, you bucking prude!”

Twilight was keeping track of the yea/neigh ratio, as well as organizing by gender, age, familial status, even color (she was bored at the yea/neigh dry patch). Yet she still paid enough attention to keep the opinionated rainbow pegasus in check.

A throat-clearing noise came from the front of the room, amplified by a maroon aura of magic. “Rainbow, please at least try to have a civilized discussion.” Twilight requested. “After all,” directing this towards the other speaker. “Civility is something your current debate is lacking in.”

The mayor had allowed free discussion for the meeting, sitting in only to observe her citizens. She was used to listening in silence, being seen and not heard: she’d done it nearly her entire foalhood. She said nothing to the various snipes and passive-aggressive comments, such as this one. However, her brow was set a bit higher; she hadn’t expected Twilight to behave in such a manner in this setting.

Cherry rolled his eyes at the thinly-veiled insult, ignoring it and continuing. “Your crudeness amuses me, Rainbow Dash, but the purpose of marriage is to have a family. Families include children, and in case you didn’t know this, neither two mares nor two stallions can have a baby!”

A voice new to the conversation asked, “What does being able to have kids matter?”

Rainbow and Cherry- and most of the room following the conversation- turned their heads towards this third voice. If they were quiet during the heated discussion, the decibel level emitted now would be in negative levels. The mare had spoken.

“Well, Ditzy Doo,” he said, acid dripping from his voice. “If you paid attention in school-”

“Shut your mouth!” Rainbow yelled, wings flaring. “If you call her that again, I swear to Celestia I will buck your face so hard you’ll crap teeth!” The threat rung through the atrium as she awaited Twilight’s reprimand... but none came. She didn’t chance a glance, though, defenses up for Derpy. It wasn’t common knowledge, but Derpy wasn’t stupid: she just had a muscular problem impacting her flight, speech, and causing a lazy eye.

“Fine.” he replied ever-so-sweetly to the peeved-off pegasus, before returning his attentions to the previous conversationist. “Hooves, if you paid attention in school, you’d know that foals are made when a mommy and a daddy really really love each other.” In a harsher tone now, “Sperm meet the eggs in the uterus: you need a stallion for the sperm and a mare for the eggs.”

Magenta eyes glared daggers at smug, sarcastic greens, while two violet orbs switched between them. The brain behind these dark purple eyes mused to herself, ‘You don’t necessarily need sperm to make a foal...’

“I’m not stupid, Cherry.” Derpy’s response came. “I know where babies come from.”

“Then my point is made, is it not?”

“So you’re saying that if two ponies can’t have kids together, then they shouldn’t get married?”

He appeared confused by the question. “Uh, yeah!” came his blunt retort. “Obviously.” Arrogance rang through the room as if the bells of Ponyville had been rung by the town’s teenage political activist.

Twilight raised a hoof to interject, but stopped at a glance towards the newly-married couple. She saw that Lyra was smiling and rolling her eyes. The purple unicorn looked around the room for the others of her ilk. Every unicorn she could see the face of- Rarity, Minuette, even Vinyl (who had gone glasses-less for the meeting)- was either smirking or rolling their eyes: ‘Good,’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘At least we know about magical conception.’

“Then that means I should file for divorce, right?” Derpy replied.

Cherry looked even more confused at this question. Was she trying to drop a troll logic bomb or something? He shook his head and exasperatedly exclaimed, “How in Equestria is this relevant!?”

Those in the know shuffled about nervously. Carrot Top, Raindrops, Flitter, Rainbow Dash... nopony else understood what was happening here but those closest to the gray mare.

“It’s exploiting a fallacy.” she explained. “Since I’m physically incapable of having children, by your logic, that means I can’t get married.”

“This is a load of crock!” Cherry interjected. “You’ve got two kids, and everypony in town knows them. For Celestia’s sake, Amethyst watches my kid’s best friend on the weekends! I’m not going to fall for-”

“Ammy and Dinky are adopted.”

The rolling murmur that had started at the revelation of Derpy’s apparent inability to conceive- despite knowing that she had two children- stopped when they realized their base of knowledge about the pegasus had been compromised, falling into a pure silence. Davenport dropped a quill, apologizing profusely for causing such a loud noise.

“When Time Turner and I were younger,” she said in the silence. “Back when we were living in Fillydelphia, we eventually decided we knew we wanted kids. We’d been married for a few years, and we thought we were ready. So, we tried...” she blushed a bit. “Oh, did we try... and try...” the blush went away, replaced instead with a shadow caused from her mane now obscuring her eyes. “For six months we tried...”

One X. Negative.

Derpy closed her eyes, unwilling to let escape the saline liquid, and smashed the plastic test into the wall. The X taunting her so, as if standing next to a D, was no more. But the results were still unchanged: her belly was still empty of a foal. She proceeded to wash her hooves, and tears joined the tap water spiraling down the drain.

“I just didn’t know what was going wrong... Neither of us did. At the time, we didn’t think it was anything big, so we tried to find ways to help: teas, herbs, even hemp sheets in the hopes that it would work. We were desperate...”

The couple used to enjoy sexual intercourse together: linked in the most sacred of ways. However, the pleasure had faded, and instead of a beautiful act of love, it had been warped into a twisted game of 'how-much-can-I-ejaculate?' for Time Turner. His wife wanted nothing more than a baby of her own, and he wanted nothing more than to give her what she wished.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. After finishing, they did the same thing they’d been doing for the past month. He pulled out, and positioned himself to his wife’s side. They held tight in each other’s forelegs, praying to Celestia for a miracle. However, nothing came but sorrow and tears: Derpy would use another test, it would wind up negative, and after the day cycled, they would repeat the process.

“So, we decided to seek a medical professional’s help. I wish we’d gone there first... maybe it would have numbed the pain of hearing the doctor’s words about our blood work...”

“Ahem, Mister Turner, Miss Hooves. I have some good news, and... some bad news.”

The pair had fallen asleep in the lobby after the testing had begun, and awoke to find themselves facing the moment of truth: what had been keeping them from a family this whole time? “Good news first...” Derpy said, still waking up. The doctor looked at the, well, Doctor, who nodded his head in affirmation.

“The good news,” he began, “Is that you’re both as healthy as a horse, no pun intended. Immune systems good, free from any viral blah blah blah (at this point he began saying things that Derpy couldn’t understand).”

The mare squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth. “I don’t care,” she grunted through her teeth, cutting him off. “About my immune system, Doctor...” she opened her eyes and yelled at him, “WHY CAN’T I HAVE MY BABY!?”

Others in the lobby suddenly looked up at the outburst. A foal started crying. The doctor sighed, looking away in shame. He hated to be the bearer of bad news, whether it was of malignant cancer, a failed surgery, or...

“I have an ‘inherent blood-born gamete-targeting pathogen’, he said. That means... my blood kills anything living inside me. We could have made any number of foals during the time we were trying to get me pregnant, but it wouldn’t have mattered... they would have all been dead and miscarried.

“It’s the same chromosomal affliction that affects my equilibrium and eye muscles, I was told by the doctor’s assistant. Goldenrod Blaze, I still remember what his name was. He told me about the disease, and how it would be named after me... Time Turner hit him in the face with his hoof, and we left.”

Cherry was glaring at the wall as she told the story. “Well...” he started, before making eye contact with Derpy. “So you adopted two foals because you have some special disease, making you a freak of nature...” he grinned smugly, finding a weak point. “...just like the gays.” Beat; Gasps. Gold eyes widened and watered, while greens narrowed maliciously, set over a smug grin.

Rainbow flared her wings, screamed in rage “ALRIGHT, THAT’S IT!” and charged, but was intercepted and forced to the ground. Looking up at her captor, Dash grunted and tried to force her way out.

“Dammit Applejack,” she cried, “LET ME GO!”

“No, Sugarcube,” she said. “He ain’t worth it.”

The pegasus stopped struggling, realizing it was fruitless with both wings pinned, and instead used her words as a weapon. “This is why she left you, Cherry.” she sniped. “You’re a plot hole: always have been, always will be.”

The doors slammed open: when everypony was distracted by Rainbow, Derpy had started running, leaving behind a trail of tears. Fluttershy and Raindrops flew after her, leaving everypony else in a situation that had crossed the line twice.

His eyes twitched. “Sticks and stones, Dashie.” Cherry sneered.

“How about hooves?” a male voice yelled.

Cherry looked to his right to see a steel-blue hoof barreling towards his face. Lucky made contact, catching the brown stallion off-guard, and causing him to trip over his own hooves and fall onto the ground. He raised his forelegs in self-defense as the assault continued.

Blows rained as Lucky continued to talk. “You think you’re a big boy,” SLAM! “Picking on those weaker than you?” SLAM! “Well, see how it feels now!” He attempted to land one more, but felt himself be restrained by oversized, muscular forelegs, and pulled back. Snowflake and Applejack were restraining the two dangers to Cherry Cola’s well-being.

“Stop!” Mayor Mare shouted, having seen enough. “Meeting adjourned!”

“You’re bucking insane!” Cherry screamed, before spitting blood and what looked like a tooth on the ground. “Leave it to a gay supporter to overreact to everything-”

“Cherry Cola, dost thou know when to shut up!?” the Mayor cried, continuing as she stormed towards the scene. “Thou art making a damn fool of everypony with legitimate reasoning to oppose gay marriage with this word-bait tactic of yours! If thou recall thy earlier argument, ‘twas about same-gender couples’ inability to conceive children, and not a catch-all insult to those different from thyself like what thou bastardized it into!”

By now she was standing right over Cherry, who had rolled to be right-side up.

“Why are you talking so weird?”

“Town hall.”

“But you-”

“NOW.”

Cherry could have sworn he saw fire behind her pupils: he knew she meant business.

“Your father will be receiving a letter, Cherry.”

“Whatever, Mom. He’ll be on my side anyways.” With that, he turned and slumped off, spitting another globule of blood as he went..

Mayor Mare could feel the eyes of everypony in the room. She turned and cleared her throat to address her citizens. “...go home.” she said. “We’re done here.” and with that, she followed her (apparently) son.

Twilight teleported to the Mayor’s side. “Mayor,” she began. “When I finish organizing and record the accounts of the ponies who didn’t speak yet, do you want them-”

“Don’t bother, Sparkle.” she rudely cut off. And she said nothing else. Just kept walking.

Twilight said nothing, just watched her leave. ‘I didn’t know CC was her son... but... why... why the mixed ancient Equestrian?’ she asked herself. ‘And why doesn’t she want the records? ... Should I talk to the Princess?’ she pondered this for a moment, staring into empty space as she weighed her options. ‘I probably should at least ask her why this prejudice cycle started again...’ Twilight pulled out the records and scanned through them.

‘Hmm,’ she mused. ‘I’m almost finished... no use in wasting perfectly good notes, might as well finish them... oh, I can write a research paper! I can do that in tomorrow’s Free Time... I’ll just need Filthy Rich (ugh, I’ll interview him tomorrow), Derpy (I should visit her tomorrow, anyways), those two, The Mayor (I can ask her about what just happened, too), Zecora, him, Nurse Redheart, her, Amethyst Star, Pinkie Pie, and... Applejack? ...huh, I guess she didn’t say anything at the meeting. Big Mac and Granny Smith both voiced support, maybe she’s the same? I need to ask her though anyways, can’t compromise data. I could probably take care of that tonight, if only I could find her in this crowd.’

“Twalight?”

‘Well,’ she thought to herself. ‘That was easy.’

“Applejack, hi, I was just looking for you: I’d like to ask you a few questions, would that be alright with you?”

“Sure, sugar. Ah was gonna ask you some questions, too. Y’know, ‘bout this whole...” the orange mare waved a hoof, thinking of the right word to use.

“Helter-Skelter?” Twilight supplied.

“Ah love that song.”

“What?”

“Uh... nothin’.”

Twilight raised a brow at this, but pushed it aside. “...Then I guess it’s good that we bumped into each other.” She telekinetically started sorting through her materials for everything she’d need on Applejack, but was interrupted the Appleloosan twang.

“Twalight, you mind if we do this in the treebrary?”

The unicorn paused before she began packing her things back into saddlebags. “Of course, Applejack.” she said. “But why the treebrary specifically? Why not at Sweet Apple?”

She shrugged, mane bobbing. “Because it’s right there?” she said, pointing not twenty yards away.

“...oh...” Twilight replied.

“Plus,” AJ continued, “It’s more private inside a tree than in an orchard.”

“Right. You’d probably want privacy when talking about this situation, especially here.” There weren’t very many opposed to gay marriage, but there were some that were quite surprising: for example, Carrot Cake strongly opposed, citing it as a ‘bad influence’ for his children.

Twilight started heading towards her home, and Applejack followed. The lights were off, so Spike was still off with the Crusaders, no doubt having the time of his life.

MEANWHILE IN A QUARRY SOMEWHERE

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-” Spike inhaled deeply before resuming. “aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Scootaloo, slow down, you’ll kill us all!”

“Slow down? SLOW DOWN?” she started laughing maniacally. “Those words don’t exist in MY dictionary! Onward, crusaders! To cutie marks! OR DEATH!!!”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle then started screaming in enjoyment of the adrenaline pumping through their veins, knowing that at any moment, they could receive serious bodily harm if Scootaloo handled the scooter wrong, loving the danger every second of the journey.

Spike clutched tightly to the wagon and started screaming again, out of fear. “I am not enjoying this at all!!!”

NOW BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

Yup, Spike was totally having a blast with those darn lil’ fillies.

As Applejack followed Twilight inside, she wiped her hooves on the doormat before stepping onto the floor. Twilight shut the door with her magic before setting all the materials she wouldn’t need onto a writing desk, which for some reason reminded her of a raven, despite the sleeping owl perched on top.

“So, Applejack,” she asked before approaching the earth pony. “Do you want to ask first, or answer? It’ll take me less than a minute to ask, but if you’ve got something really important, I can most certainly wait.”

She started rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “Ah wouldn’t mind answerin’ first, if y’all don’t mind...”

Twilight shrugged and brought the notebook in front of her. “All right then, question number one. Do you support or oppose the thought of gay marriage?”

“Support.”

“Okay,” Twilight wrote the answer down. “This is optional: What is your opinion on those with the opposite mindset?”

Applejack shrugged and looked out the window. “Ah don’t know... maybe they just don’t understand what it feels like...”

“What... it... feels... like... okay. Now, this is also optional: what is the reasoning behind your own opinion?”

The earth pony pursed her lips. “Uh... pass.”

Twilight nodded and made note of the pass. “I don’t necessarily have a question number two, but would you like to discuss any of the points that were made today?”

“Not really.”

“Okay then, thank you for your participation- ugh, sorry, force of habit from today. Thanks for helping.” she turned around and approached the desk again, and began to put all the things away for use tomorrow. “You can sit down somewhere if you’d like.” she said.

“Uh, ah can stand, it’s fine...”

Twilight nodded and finished packing everything neatly. Satisfied that everything was put in the exact right place, she turned back to face her company. Applejack suddenly turned her head to the side, and had a slight blush.

The unicorn tilted her head a bit, and approached her guest. “Is it warm in here, Applejack?” she asked. “Your face looks a little red, should I turn down the heat?”

“Y’all don’t gotta worry about that, it’s fine. Ah just... Ah’m just a mite parched, Ah’ll take care of it at home. But for now-”

“I have water here, let me just get you a glass.”

“Oh. Uh, thanks Twi...”

Twilight nodded and headed towards the kitchen. Well, kitchen was saying a bit much... it was just a sink and pantry, after all. But still, it served their needs for food. Plants, grain, and water. What Twilight lacked in vigorous exercise she made up for by eating light. There used to be gems, too, but since Spike had been consistently eating all of them since moving to Ponyville, Twilight had hid them somewhere in the library and only got them out for him on a meal-by-meal basis.

After filling the glass, Twilight turned back to Applejack and found her biting her lip and looking out the window. She said nothing but walked closer.

Suddenly, AJ started saying something quietly to herself. “It’s still the afternoon, Applebloom don’t come home til almost sundown, Spike shouldn’t be comin’ in here ‘til nearly then-”

“Applejack?”

The earth pony jumped a bit, inhaling sharply, but calmed down immediately. She took the water in hoof, saying thanks, and took a drink.

“What were you saying about Spike?” Twilight asked, curious about the short dialogue.

One of Applejack’s eyebrows raised. “What about Spike?”

“You were talking about Applebloom and Spike.”

“Ah didn’t say anything.” She looked genuinely confused.

“Well, you were saying something...” Twilight reasoned, “Maybe you just didn’t realize you were talking out loud?”

The earth pony shrugged. “Maybe,” she said, before taking another drink. “Well, Ah came here to ask you something, might as well do it now.” She breathed in, and asked, “If somepony else was gonna ask you the things y’all asked everypony else, what would y’all say?”

Twilight’s brows rose in surprise: she hadn’t expected this question. “That’s... an interesting question, Applejack.”

The orange mare set her glass down on the counter. “Ah just wanna know, from you. You’re smarter than pretty much everypony else who talked today.”

“Well,” she replied. “Thank you for that, but... I mean, I’ll tell you, it’s just... an unexpected question.”

Applejack exhaled.

“I mean, I support it. What other ponies do is their own business. But... I can’t say that those who oppose the thought are all that wrong.”

Applejack’s rear leg muscles weakened.

“I mean, ponies like Cherry Cola are way off about pretty much everything, but even he had a few points that are sort of right, given the mindset that- hey, where are you going?”

Applejack was headed to the door, head hanging lower than it normally was. She glanced up and said “Ah got what Ah needed, Twi... thanks.”

“What in Equestria are you talking about? You said you wanted to hear what I had to say!”

Applejack sat on her haunches. “Ah’ve heard enough. You said that they aren’t wrong. You only support it because you’re a nice mare, but no other reason. Ah didn’t need to know anything else, so Ah’m going home.”

Twilight’s lips moved without making any sound. Did she really miscommunicate that badly? Quickly, she ran through the things she said in her head. ... ... ... Well, it wasn’t exactly orchestrated in the exactly right manner, but she was getting to the explanations! Anyways, why would her not-full-support of gay marriage affect Applejack in such a way that-

...oh.

“Applejack, wait!” she cried, before teleporting herself between her friend and the doorway. “You didn’t let me finish!”

The earth pony looked up through blonde fringe. “Ah know what you’re gonna say, though, and Ah’m tellin’ you that it’s fine.” She blinked, and her eyes started to glisten a bit. “Thanks for bein’ my friend and all, but Ah’m gonna have to ask you to move so Ah can go home-”

“No, you don’t know what I’m going to say, Applejack. You know why? Because I like mares, too.”

Silence fell in the room as the implications of this statement settled in Applejack’s mind.

“But- how- you-”

“I see that I didn’t say things in the right order, which made you think that I didn’t support it, and I’m sorry for the confusion I caused you just now because of it. It hit you doubly because you yourself are gay- and don’t ask me how I know that, because I just analyzed everything you did in the past few minutes, and the more I think about it, the clearer it is. Why else would you become suddenly depressed after one of your best friends tells you they don’t support a certain life choice?”

Applejack was nearly speechless. “But... if you... then why...”

“Just because I’m gay- well, actually I’m sort of bi, but still- doesn’t mean that I can’t think that the other side has a few points. There are a few- but only a few- things that they say that have some merit, but all of those things are founded on ignorance. They’re not stupid, it’s sound logic, but that logic is made without the proper base of knowledge. They didn’t grow up knowing everything there is to know about love and science- and I should know, having been foalsat by Princess Cadance and reading textbooks every day.”

Applejack contemplated this for a moment. “...go on.”

“First of all, the issue of family. While it’s true that haploid gametes from opposite genders need to fuse to form a zygote leading to a blastocyst, sexual intercourse is not the only way of sharing sex cells.” Applejack blinked, obviously not having understood any of that. Twilight sighed, and reiterated. “A sperm and egg need to come together to make a baby, but you don’t need to have sex between a mare and a stallion to do it.”

Twilight continued upon affirming that she was understood now. “It’s possible, using magic, to artificially fertilize an egg cell using magic. It’s possible to get the DNA from an egg by absorbing it with a unicorn’s horn, then releasing the magic energy into another mare’s uterus. It’s just a simple transmutation spell. Anyways, once the DNA from the first egg merges with the second egg, a foal will start being formed.”

Applejack nodded slowly. “So...” she said. “Cherry’s spouting hot air?”

Twilight nodded quickly. “For the most part, yes.”

The earth pony paused and thought about this. What Twilight said made sense now: it just took some explaining. “Ah feel stupid now. I shoulda known better than to assume what you were gonna say before y’all said it.”

“I don’t blame you: I’m still in analytical mode from the meeting, probably won’t be out of it until after a good night’s sleep.” she looked out the window: it was getting darker. “When do the crusaders usually retire?” Twilight asked. “I mean, on the topic of sleep, Spike needs his rest.”

Applejack looked out as well. “Ah don’t think it should be very long now...” she glanced back at the unicorn. “Twi? What happened here... it stays here, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course, Applejack. I would never dream of violating your trust. I mean, I don’t want anypony other than my family knowing about myself for the time being. You can see how letting the whole town know would be bad for the business.”

“Don’t Ah know it...” she paused for a moment before asking, “You told your family?”

“Of course I did. I mean, it took a while after I found out about my feelings, but it did eventually get done. First, I did some research about it, and then I asked Princess Celestia. They both told me about all the scientific research done on the subject, and I found out about the magical impregnation. Afterwards, I talked to Cadance about it, what with her being Princess of Love and everything. During that conversation I mustered up the courage to tell her about myself being interested in other fillies somewhere down the road.

“She was happy for me, which was good. That night, Shining Armor came to bring me home... it was the night before he left to military training. I wanted to tell him then and there, so I did. Same positive result, so I told my parents, too. Spike sorta found out over the years he was my assistant back in Canterlot. So my whole family has known since then.” Twilight finished her short story. “Why do you ask?”

Applejack shrugged. “Ah haven’t told mah family yet.”

“Why not?” Twilight inquired. “Aren’t they in full support?”

She nodded. “Yeah, they are, Ah just never got up the nerve to tell ‘em.”

“Afraid of rejection?”

Applejack nodded again. “Ah know nothin’ will change, but there’s always that possibility. Family’s the most important thing in mah life, and the thought of losin’ that scares the hay outta me...”

Twilight put a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “I was scared of that happening, too. It felt like my legs were made of jelly before I told my mom and dad. But, if family is as important to Applebloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith as it is to you, then this shouldn’t be a problem even if they didn’t support gay rights. Make sense?”

Applejack sighed. “Yeah,” she said. “Ah guess so...”

The unicorn moved her hoof back to the ground and returned her gaze to the window outside. The sun was just touching the horizon. In the distance, a small dust cloud was steadily growing bigger. It increased in size until it was visible as Scootaloo pulling a wagon full of fillies and a dragon.

“The Crusaders are here,” Twilight stated.

“Ah see that... Ah should probably get Applebloom and go home.”

“Probably.”

“...thanks for all your help today, Twilight.”

She shrugged and smiled. “It’s no trouble at all, Applejack.”

She headed for the door, and stopped before opening it. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. She reached a hoof towards the door handle and stopped. She breathed in and out twice before turning. “If it ain’t too much trouble, can Ah ask y’all to have dinner down at Sweet Apple? Ah wanna tell them about this whole...” she motioned a hoof around in circles. “...lesbian thing.”

Twilight put a hoof to her lips and thought about this proposition. It had been a while since she’d had hearty home cooking Apple family-style, and it would be a very nice gesture for Applejack, but what about Spike?

“Hmm...” she said. “I have some extra bits lying around somewhere, I can have Spike go out to eat: he’s a growing dragon, and he’s responsible enough to not need supervision. Sure, why not?”

Applejack smiled. “Thanks, Twi.”

The door suddenly slammed open, revealing a worse-for-wear dragon panting and clutching the door frame, covered in scrapes, scratches, and dirty hashtag- shaped marks, with a pink-striped helmet impaled by his lime-green spikes atop his wide-eyed head.

“NEVER.” he panted. “AGAIN.”

“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed upon seeing her assistant in such a state. “What happened?”

He let go of the door frame and pointed out at Ponyville square. “THEM.” he panted. “They happened.” He ripped the helmet off, dropped it on the floor, and headed to the stairs. “I’m going to bed... good night Litwight and Jappleack... or, whatever...” he collapsed onto the bottom step and started snoring.

The mares exchanged a look of disbelief. Then, they looked out the doorway to see three adrenaline-filled fillies stumbling around and looking a little sick, but still happy.

“...Well,” Twilight said. “I guess I don’t need to worry about Spike after all. I’ll put him to bed, you should send Sweetie Belle to Rarity’s and send Scootaloo to-”

“Yeah,” she said. “Ah got it.”

/x/ MEANWHILE IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE /x/

“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, are you really bored so soon?”

Zecora noticed the bored-to-death and the slightly-less-than-bored-to-death-but-still-a-moderate-amount-of-bored fillies sitting in the corner, away from the other foals.

“Why not listen to a book being read, or get a balloon hat to wear on your head?”

Diamond looked up at the new company and sighed. “Miss Cheerilee’s interpretation of children’s tastes in literature is juvenile at best, and although I can appreciate the artistic aspect of Amethyst’s attempts at appeasing the younger kids, I outgrew balloon hats a long time ago. So please- Zecora, is it? Just leave us alone, okay?”

The zebra’s eye twitched. “If indulging in your inner child is too taboo, perhaps you could find something else to do? Would you rather lie here, bored out of your mind, or-”

“I’d rather lie here, bored out of my mind.”

“... well ... fine.”

/x/x/x/

“Holy Celestia that was boring,” a voice said, opening a bedroom door.

“Lyra, come on.” a second voice said, following the first inside. “It wasn’t really that bad, was it?”

“Bon Bon, I listened to a bunch of ponies saying ‘yea’ or ‘neigh’ or arguing with each other, and literally nothing fun happened until Lucky was wailing on Cherry. And we didn’t even get to see what would have happened after that!”

The earth pony rolled her eyes. “You really expected it to be fun?” she asked. “And why did you enjoy that fight, anyways? It was balanced quite unfairly: everypony knows that Cherry’s an entitled brat who only knows how to fight with words.”

“Well, yeah,” Lyra replied. “That’s why it was awesome! Who doesn’t want to see uppity stallions get their flanks kicked?”

“Me.”

The unicorn rolled her eyes. “Oh, you don’t count. The only things that interest you are your chocolate shop and this,” she said, tapping her horn with one hoof.

Bon Bon blushed. “Lyra!” she cried, embarrassment clear in her voice and on her face.

A cheeky grin replied, “That’s my name, don’t wear it out!”

This time, the earth pony rolled her eyes. “Mature.”

“Me? Mature? Ha!” Lyra laughed. “Funny joke.”

“Like your harp playing?”

Lyra stopped laughing and narrowed her eyes at her spouse. “You,” she said, “Are the worst type of pony.”

Bon Bon shrugged. “I try.”

A pleasant demeanor returned to the unicorn’s face. “I’m gonna take a bath before bed.” she said, turning to the bathroom door on the right side of the room. “You can join if you like,” she whispered seductively, swishing her tail and fluttering her eyelashes.

This was returned with a face that said ‘Are you serious right now?’

“Will this work better if I lick my lips and bit my tongue?”

“No.”

Lyra slumped her shoulders. “Okay,” she sighed. “You don’t love me, I understand. I’ll just take a cold, lonely bath all by myself, singing depressing songs...”

“Not too loud, I’m tired.”

“...Eating chocolates.”

Bon Bon snapped to attention. “Alright, I’m there.”

/x/x/x/

OBLIGATORY SEX SCENE- BATHTIME EDITION

/x/x/x/

The door to Sugarcube Corner slammed open.

“Dear, what if the kids are asleep?”

Carrot Cake strode in angrily. “They’re with Pinkie Pie, and it’s before sundown. They’re awake.” he snapped, before heading into the kitchen. “Tuck in the kids, I’ll get tomorrow’s batches started.” and with that, he slammed that door.

Cup Cake pursed her lips. She’d always known he was slightly homophobic, but this was the most heated she’d ever seen him about anything. She worried for his heart... it wasn’t as strong as it used to be.

“Do you hear that!?” Pinkie’s voice carried down the stairs. “Mommy and Daddy are home!” Joyful cheers followed this revelation, followed by a stampede of hooves. A pink blur zoomed down the stairs and towards the blue-coated mare, stopping just in front of her. “Eeeeerrrkkk... chaa! Ding-dong, now arriving at your destination!”

“Mama!” the babies cried simultaneously, reaching out to the older pony. She reached out two hooves and picked them up, holding them close.

“How was today, Mrs Cake?”

“Oh, it was fine, Pinkie. You would have found it boring, though...” her attention drifted off to the kitchen door. She absentmindedly asked, “Did you have fun on your extended playdate?”

“Oh boy, did we!” Pinkie Pie could barely contain her excitement. “First we played hide and seek- Pumpkin won, but she cheated by phasing through the wall. Then we played tag- Pound won, because he can fly really fast now. Then we played some Call of Duty- we stopped, because those two are really bad at covering my flank! And after that we read a book or two, but then I got bored of the books and we went on a walk- they fell asleep on the walk, so while they had their nap I narrated the beginning of the chapter, and after that...” this was about the time where Pinkie would open her eyes to find the Mrs Cake sprawled on the ground with spirals on her eyes, and the twins sucking on her mane, but... she was absently gazing at the kitchen, slowly rocking the babies (they were sucking on her mane, though).

“...Mrs Cake, is everything okay?”

She jumped. “Huh? Oh, sorry Pinkie Pie. It was just... a stressful day for me and Mr Cake... we’re all going to hit the hay early tonight, all right?”

Pinkie saluted. “You got it, Mrs Cake!” and with that she trotted towards the stairs. Turning around, she said, “And instead of hitting the hay you should really just sleep on it.” and she continued up the stairs. But again, before hitting the top, she looked down and said, “Come to think of it, you should get a mattress instead, because hay is really hard to sleep on. I mean, it gets all itchy!”

Cupcake nodded. “I’ll think about it. Good night, Pinkie.”

“Good night, Mrs Cake. Good night, babies!”

“Night night!” Pound cried.

“Pinkie Pie!” Pumpkin cried.

Pinkie smiled at them, then went the rest of the way upstairs. She started bouncing along the hallway, but then she slowed to a canter and eventually a trot. Her smile faded. ‘Why did Mrs Cake look so sad?’ she mused to herself. ‘Did something happen today?’ she asked. But, she shrugged this off. ‘I can ask somepony tomorrow- maybe Twilight or Dashie or somepony!’

And with that, she bounced the rest of the way to her room, and closed the door.

Five minutes later, she exclaimed, “Eat napalm, campers!”

/x/x/x/

Applejack, Twilight, and Applebloom- who was riding atop her older sister- were nearly at the farmhouse, and the sun had started setting.

“So, Twalight,” the filly asked. “Why exactly are y’all comin’ over for dinner tonight?”

The mares exchanged glances, and Applejack shrugged. Twilight looked back to Applebloom. “No reason, really,” she said. “Why exactly did Scootaloo go the the quarry?”

She thought about this for a minute. “No reason... oh!”

Twilight nodded at the redhead’s revelation.

They walked in silence for a moment. “Spike’s alright, right? He looked a little shook up. Is he okay?”

“He’s fine, don’t worry.” Twilight said. “He just needs some sleep.”

“Yeah,” Applejack said. “His life’s been in danger before: you should feel lucky y’all caused it, and didn’t save him from it.” Unpleasant memories surfaced upon thinking about the dragon code. Applejack shuddered.

“Ah’ll bet...”

They continued to walk in silence. The moon started shining more as the sun set. Stars were appearing in the eastern sky, and Applebloom marveled at the sight. She’d always seen the stars since her birth, but only since Luna’s freedom from Night Mare Moon had they been so vibrant and beautiful.

Of course, every filly had a somewhat short attention span.

“Say, how did things go at the meeting?”

Twilight paused a moment, but just a moment, and continued to walk. She inhaled, about to say, ‘It was boring, you wouldn’t have liked it at all.’ but was not expecting Applejack to interject so bluntly.

“Cherry Cola started spouting hooey about ‘fundamentals’ to Rainbow Dash, that didn’t end well. He started talking about how if two ponies can’t have babies, they shouldn’t be together.”

Applebloom rolled his eyes. “‘course he did. Did anypony say anythin’ about ponies who can’t have kids?”

“Derpy did. Turns out she can’t have kids, and she adopted Dinky and Amethyst.”

Applebloom gasped. “Do they know?”

Applejack nodded no. “Ah think Amethyst knows- Ah mean, Derpy and Time Turned don’t got no unicorn in their blood, she’s gotta know. But there ain’t no way Dinky knows. Don’t tell anypony at school, not even Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo.”

“Ah promise,” she replied. “Cross mah heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye!”

Applejack nodded. “Good.”

“Well,” Applebloom pushed, “What’d Cherry say back!?”

The orange mare didn’t say anything for a minute. Then, she said, “He called her a freak of nature, just like the gays.”

“WHAT!?”

“Rainbow Dash tried to attack him, but Ah tackled her to make sure she didn’t do nothin’ stupid. Derpy ran out though, cryin’. Fluttershy and Raindrops chased after her.”

“Why’d you stop her? He had it comin’!”

“Well, Lucky gave ‘im a good pummelin’. Hit him right in the face, then started slammin’ hooves down. Knocked some teeth out.”

“Hehe, nice. Serves that jerk right.”

“And to top it all off, the Mayor started yellin’ at him right in front of everypony! Needless to say, we didn’t really do much else after that. We all kinda went our own ways after that.”

“Eh, it figures. Wish Ah coulda gone.”

“Not even Diamond Tiara went, Ah doubt you’re goin’ for a while.”

“Aw man... Well, we’re here.” Applebloom jumped off of her sister. “Ah’m gonna go get washed up for supper.” and with that, she ran in the house. The mares heard a “Hi Granny!” before the door closed.

Twilight was staring at the house. She didn’t expect Applebloom to be interested in or know anything about the meeting or anything Cherry said, and she certainly didn’t expect Applejack to tell her anything!

“Sugarcube, y’all comin’ in?”

This shook the unicorn out of her trance. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m coming.”

She followed Applejack in. The orange earth pony informed Granny and Big Mac of their dinner guest. ‘Hello’s were exchanged, and Twilight was told where the bathroom was. She headed up the stairs, encountering a wet Applebloom. She looked four shades brighter- or, I should say, less dirty- than before.

“‘scuse me,” she said, before heading the rest of the way down. Twilight blinked a few times, still shocked about the exchange from earlier. Applebloom was smart for her age: it seemed like just yesterday she was writing gossip columns. She was taking big steps up.

After washing her hooves, satisfied that all the dirt from the road was gone, the purple unicorn headed back downstairs to find Applebloom pulling a fifth chair to the table, then sat in her own. Twilight asked the older apples if she could assist with anything, but they assured her they had everything under control.

Big Macintosh set out four plates, cups, and sets of silverware, then took a look at Twilight and blushed, mumbling an apology before getting a fifth set of each. He then went to the oven and pulled out a pot of baked apples, setting it on the table. Applejack set down a loaf of bread and a block of cheese, and Granny Smith brought a jar of applesauce and a salad bowl full of various greens and flowers.

The apples then sat in their seats: Big Mac to Twilight’s left, Applejack across, Granny Smith on the right, and Applebloom to the right. They all connected hooves, Twilight included, and blessed Celestia. After that, Applejack told Twilight to ‘dig in’.

They supped; conversations were shared, food was eaten- and complimented by Twilight- and the end of the meal left everypony satisfied... except, that is, for one orange mare, who had something to say. She coughed to get their attention, a simple ‘Ahem’. She commanded the eyes of her three family members and friend.

“Everypony, there’s... somethin’ Ah gotta tell y’all...” she closed her eyes, and took a deep breath in, exhaling it slowly. Upon reopening her eyes, she looked to Twilight for support. The unicorn smiled and nodded, affirming that she was there for her friend.

Applejack glanced between her grandmother, brother, and younger sister before looking down at her plate, and the remnants of her meal.

“Ah didn’t say mah piece at this meetin’ today, because...”

She looked back to Twilight, before breathing again.

“...because Ah didn’t want ponies to find out...”

She closed her eyes, and upon opening them, looked at Granny Smith.

“That Ah myself... was a fillyfooler.”

There was a moment of silence following the revelation. Twilight observed the blank faces of the apples. At first nothing, but then, they did react. Big Mac smiled, and patted an affectionate hoof on his sister’s shoulder. Granny Smith closed her eyes and nodded. Applebloom cried, “All right Applejack!”, pumping a hoof in the air. “Granny, can we bust out that zap-apple pie we’ve been saving for a special occasion?”

The ancient mare opened her eyes and looked at Applebloom. “Ah suppose so,” she said to her youngest granddaughter. “Why don’t you go get it out of the pantry while I have a word with your sister?”

“Okay!” she exclaimed, before jumping out of her chair and racing into the other room.

Granny Smith smiled at the zealous display, before turning her gaze upon Applejack. “Ah’m glad y’all finally built up the nerve to tell us all, AJ.” she said. “On top o’ that, now your good friend Twilight knows, too!”

“Granny,” she replied. “Ah actually told Twilight a few hours ago. Well... she kinda found out about it, but still. She agreed to come here with me tonight and be there for me when Ah told y’all.”

Twilight blushed a little. “It was nothing, really,” she said, trying to be as modest as possible. “I just came for the food.”

Granny turned her head so her gaze met the unicorn’s. “Thank y’all for helping mah grandbaby with this, Twilight. The good Princess taught y’all well. Yer welcome here, ‘jus’ for the food’, any time.”

Big Mac nodded. “Eeyup.”

Applebloom trotted in, carrying the pie atop her head. “Twalight,” she said, “This is gonna be the greatest pie y’all have ever tasted!” she slid it onto the table, and put her hooves on the unicorn’s shoulders. “This. Will. Change. Your. Life.” she said, moving her head closer with each syllable.

“Applebloom,” her older sister chided, “Ah don’t think she appreciates you pullin’ her head down like that. Y’all wanna think about knockin’ it off?”

She pulled away. “Wha-?” she asked, before realizing what she’d done. “Oh... hehe... sorry, Twilight...” she said, blushing.

“You’re fine, Applebloom,” the unicorn replied. “But it’s just pie: if I can expect the same quality from your desserts as I can from your dinner, I know it’ll be amazing, but life changing? Will it really affect me that much?”

All the apples exchanged knowing glances. Big Macintosh peeled the aluminum foil off the top of the pie pan, revealing the golden crust underneath. Applebloom jumped on her seat, planting her hooves on the table to inhale the aroma. Granny Smith set her hoof on the filly’s shoulder and pulled her back, nodding her head ‘no’. Applebloom pouted.

Applejack reached behind her into a drawer, and pulled out a pie cutter, handing it to her brother as it it were the holy grail. He took it in hoof, and made the first cut, as if he was a surgeon. Slowly pulling the cutter along, slicing out a piece, letting the sticky rainbow juice flow out slowly but surely... and eventually, finishing the cut.

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle to herself at the pomp and circumstance.

Big Mac slowly slipped the cutter underneath the slice, and carefully lifted it out. The filling was now exposed; Twilight felt as if the pie was voyeuristic, seeing as some saliva slipped out of Applebloom’s mouth and onto the table. The slice was set down on her plate, and the stallion started cutting more pieces.

Twilight looked at the pie. Yes, it looked delicious, but it was just another apple pie... right?

“Go on,” Applejack said. “Take a bite. It’s our thanks to you for helping bring us closer together.”

Twilight picked up her fork, and cut a bite from the slice. She looked up to see the apples awaiting her reaction. She looked back down at the plate, and the pie. She scooped the piece with her fork, and, after looking back up at her hosts, but the bite in her mouth.

Four sharp inhales were taken, and Twilight chewed. It tasted like regular apple pie. But then... there was another flavor. At first, it tasted similarly to cinnamon. But then, it shifted to clove. And even then, it shifted to a somewhat ginger-y taste. But it still wasn’t done: it had a sour taste, like a granny smith, but then mellowed out into a more sweet taste.

By this time, she was done chewing, and swallowed. “You know,” she said. “It has a nice flavor... very interesting, and I like how the layers kkiinnddaa cchhaannggee oovveerr ttiimmee aaannnddd bbbllleeennnddd tttooogggeeettthhheeerrr fffffooooorrrrr aaaaa bbbbbiiiiiggggg fffffiiiiinnnnniiiiissssshhhhh zzzzzzzeeeeeeerrrrrrrggggggg mmmmmmmuuuuuuulllllllfffffff I CAN FEEL NIRVANA dddddddeeeeeeessssssshhhhhhh mmmmmmmooooooorrrrrrrttttttt AND HE SMELLS DELICIOUS qqqqqqqwwwwwwwoooooooppppppp rrrrrrraaaaaaacccccccsssssss ddddddduuuuuuudddddddeeeeeee THESE COLORS TASTE LIKE MUSIC!!!”

Twilight’s chair had fallen over backwards and she was now convulsing on the ground, eyes turned a pulsing rainbow color. Her horn was glowing an unidentified color and she was salivating uncontrollably out the side of her mouth.

Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith exchanged glances, but Applebloom kept watching Twilight. After a moment, she looked back up to the table, and at the unicorn’s plate. She said nothing for a moment, but then she asked, “Can I have the rest of Twilight’s pie?”

/x/x/x/

Twilight woke up to find herself walking in Ponyville Square in nearly pitch darkness with a killer headache, leaning on somepony. She pulled away, nearly collapsing, but recovering. She put a hoof on her head and turned to her crutch. It was Applejack.

“Rise and shine there, Sugarcube.”

“Wha...” a pang hit her head before she formulated her question. “What... happened?”

“Zap apple pie happened,” she said. “Y’all can see why we sell it as jam.”

Twilight could remember eating the pie, then... walking through a meadow, then... swimming through the clouds, then... Pinkie Pie wearing some weird armor and holding a weird metal object, then... falling, but with weird pink appendages on her hooves, then... nothing. Then waking up on Applejack.

“That was...” she began to say. “The single wierdest moment...” the unicorn continued. “Of my entire life...” and finally, she finished. “And I’m including the first Discord incident.”

Applejack threw back her head and laughed. “Yup, that’s pretty much what all non-apple family folk say! But, you still enjoyed it?”

“Umm... yeah, I did... It was just... like a really bad drug trip... or, at least, what I’ve read about really bad drug trips... how did I get here?”

“Oh, after y’all didn’t get up, Ah started walking you home. That’s why you’re here right now.”

“Okay...” Twilight said. But then, she said something else. “What if I didn’t recover by the time I got home?”

“Ah woulda taken y’all to the hospital.”

“Oh... well... that’s nice. Thanks, AJ.”

“Least Ah could do. Y’all helped me do somethin’, Ah can return the favor ten times over.” she looked up to the treebrary. “Well, here’s your stop. See y’all tomorrow, okay?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, see you tomorrow...” the orange mare nodded as she began to walk away. Twilight was going to say something else, but she wasn’t quite sure what to say. She attributed it to tiredness and went into the library, closing the door behind her.

/x/x/x/

“...Luna...” Celestia asked. “...why are you curled in the fetal position?”

“Somepony... ate... Zap Apple Pie... for the first time.”

Celestia bowed her head, and laid a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “Shhh... It’s okay,” she said. “It’s over now.”

/x/x/x/

Regards,

Mayor Mare

Utterly pointless is what this letter is. Even if he did care about his son even a little bit, I can’t expect him to think rationally. I’ve met his parents, he’s screwed up beyond repair. So if I’m left without logic, what am I even bothering sending this for? Principle?

He can’t be bothered by principle. The only principles important to that prude are money and power. Ponyville’s so small, we don’t have either. What value we have is sentimental at best, and the only outreach we have is zap apple jam, and I don’t even control that!

As long as business is privatized, I can’t do a single thing. Sure, I can get on my knees and beg Filthy Rich to let us get a cut of his profits, but do I seriously expect that tightwad to become a philanthropist? Think logically now: I’m the only one who can do that, it seems. Plus, after today’s display, I must have lost all his respect and chances at cooperation anyways!

But this isn’t about Filthy: it’s about my ex-husband. Dammit, why can’t everything be simple anymore!? Ugh, I need to talk to Captain Spitfire, they all should know what to do. But no, I can’t do that, the Wonderbolts are in Fillydelphia right now! So what, can I message the Princess?

Oh wait, that’s a great idea. ‘Hey Princess Celestia, how can I siphon money out of somepony’s accounts and avoid paying enough taxes to keep us from going even further in the hole?’ Every bit needs to go into that griffin uprising across the ocean, so thinking purely about my own town would be selfish.

Twilight Sparkle could manage the accounts and find me a way to squeeze out as much money as possible, but she’s already done so much for me... I really should apologize for brushing her off like that today. I need to quit shoving my allies away, I only have so few...

...

I don’t know why I kept that picture frame. Me, my ex-husband, my parents...

Two siblings, two parents... how perfect...

...Damn family pictures.

/x/x/x/

Author's Note

First of all: HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS. Over 70 likes? I literally love each and every one of you who helped get that number. Thank you, all of you, so much! And to you 4 dislikers, well, that can't be helped and I can't please everyone, but I love you as well because you bothered to show an opinion.
Second of all: I AM SO BUCKING SORRY. It's unforgivable how long it took me to update. I mean, I never study for high school (yet run a solid 3.4 GPA) and have no social life, so there's literally no reason not to do this other than brony music and fanfics and fanart and family stuff.

If you have any fears, let me dispel them here:
No, Rainbow Dash will not turn out to be gay. I don't hate that trope, but it is overused. She just passionately supports.
Cherry Cola is an irrational putz, but there will be rational gay opposers, too. My dad is one, so I can write them pretty well.
Mayor Mare's ancient equestrian voice returns, but I'm hoping that stinger at the end sheds some light on it.
Yes, Applejack was blushing that first time because she was looking at Twilight's flank. No, not because she has any feelings for her, but because the flank was there. And yes, she may be a bit OOC this chapter, but come on: personal crisis. She'll be back to normal next chapter.
If all the random bits of detachment (Beatles, the cutaway to Spike & the CMC, Lewis Carrol, Call of Duty) are detracting from the story, I'll gladly refrain from doing them, just say something in the comments. I just want some lighthearted elements to keep it from becoming too depressing, and if the cultural references won't work, I'll just put in cavity-causing moments with Dinky and the Cake twins.

Don't question my biological science, I'm not even in college yet.
Did you like the obligatory bath sex scene? Don't worry, I'm actually looking forward to writing the clop scenes. I went on a kick of making up parodic clopfic ideas to make fun of the whole genre, so it'll be nice to write some actual romantic clop.
Don't ask about the pie. Craving apple pie and listening to Tool (the later half of Aenima) doesn't mix well with writing fanfic.

Anyways, it's nearly 2:45 AM right now, and I want to wake up in time for donuts tomorrow. I'm hoping that publishing now isn't a terrible idea since it's so early, but there are night owl Americans, and it's morning in lovely London and pretty Paris. So... yeah. Good night.

Continnuation; Announcements

/x/ And now... ducks. /x/

In a pond, a duck quacked. It paddled through the water a little bit. It ruffled its feathers, then didn’t do anything for a while. But then, a little piece of bread landed in front of the duck. It quacked again, then ate the bread. It turned in the water towards the direction where the magic bread came from. However, all it could see was two ponies sitting on a bench.

One, an earth pony, sat normally. However, the other one, a unicorn, sat in a bizarre fashion. Straight up and down. The duck seemed to contemplate this for a moment. Then, the duck seemed to contemplate this some more... ... ... the duck quacked again before losing interest and swimming away.

“Bonnie, I’m bored.”

A blue eye twitched, but the smile upon the face below it stayed in its place. The head this face belonged to turned slightly, allowing the head’s owner to look at her company. No eye contact was made, as the unicorn’s head was lolled back over the bench.

“You know,” the earth pony said. “Watching the sky won’t cure your boredom.” She turned her attention back to the ducks, tossing out another piece of bread. Two of the ducks snapped at each other for it, but a third swept in and took it for himself before flitting away. Bon Bon giggled at the display, and finished her thought. “There’s no clouds scheduled for today anyways. You might as well help feed the ducks.”

“I’d rather feed myself right now.” Lyra leaned her head forward to see a piece of bread. She leaned back and retorted, “That’s animal food.”

Bon Bon facehoofed. “You know,” she said, grabbing another piece of bread. “It’s made of butter and flour.” she took a bite, tossing the rest into the duck pond. “And scientifically speaking, ponies are animals, too.”

“I mean dumb animals, Bonnie.”

All the ducks in the pond suddenly stopped and stared at the unicorn. Many of them exchanged glances before returning the glares. Lyra looked back up, realizing what she’d just said.

“Umm...” she awkwardly started. “...sorry?”

One of the ducks replied, “Go [quack] yourself,” before flying off, taking the other ducks with it.

Bon Bon sighed. “Well, my break’s just about over, anyways.” she packed the leftover bread into her saddlebag before getting down off of the park bench. She pulled her coin purse out and set it next to Lyra. “Please don’t spend all of it. Again.”

“Thanks babe, love you!”

“And don’t just buy junk food, get a salad or something.”

Lyra’s eye twitched. “...I retract the ‘love you’.”

Bon Bon rolled her eyes before trotting back to the chocolate shop. She managed the Ponyville branch of the corporation, the Filly Wonka Chocolate Factories. The chain was more targeted towards foals, but the job paid well, had flexible hours, and it always smelled like chocolate. Many times she would come home and... well... let’s just say that Lyra really likes chocolate. #seductive wink

Anyways, her schedule started early in the morning: like, really REALLY early in the morning. Like, not-even-Celestia-is-up-yet early. She had a break a couple hours after dawn- which was finishing right about now- and worked until about 10:00. This gave the two enough time for lunch (among other things) before Lyra headed to her own workplace.

Knowing a certain pair of eyes was watching her go, she exaggerated the movements of her back legs a bit more than was needed. Lyra’s eyebrows went up slightly, and her heart skipped a beat. She half-grinned a bit before grabbing the coin purse with her magic and jumping off the bench.

She came face-to-face with Cherry Cola. His face held nothing but contempt for the unicorn.

“Enjoying the show?” he spat. Partially out of anger, partially because his jaw was wired shut.

“So what if I am?” Lyra replied cautiously. “She’s my wife.”

Cherry lowered his head slightly just enough for the cliche shadow to obscure one eye. “Just because my mother says your ‘marriage’ is legally acknowledged,” he edged past her, not breaking eye contact. “It doesn’t mean that your kind belongs here. You’ll never be welcome here in Ponyville.”

“Kay,” she replied. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

He glared back at her for a few moments before walking away muttering something under his breath. He headed towards the Everfree Forest.

Lyra rolled her eyes and headed into town. Apparently it wasn’t enough to show that his opinion was outnumbered. The “I’m right, you’re wrong” mentality was so pervasive on the stallion you could hear it in his hoofsteps. It’s gotten him into more trouble than he could deal with, from marital issues to bar fights.

You see, Cherry talked a big game, but he had no physical ability to speak of. His words were acid, but she didn’t have to worry about him doing anything physical to her. Being a unicorn, Lyra had the advantage, especially considering her trickster class of magic. She also had some experience in martial arts under her proverbial belt, but Lyra would bet her foam finger collection that she could take him regardless.

Steering her mind in the direction of her stomach, she mentally analyzed the list of places to eat. The unicorn decided not to head to her number one spot, Sugarcube Corner, for a couple reasons. Bonnie asked her not to eat any junk food, Pinkie can be a handful this time of the day (week... month... year...), and because Carrot Cake seemed a bit steamed about the meeting yesterday. She figured it would be best to steer clear for a few days.

Luckily, a good second-place option came up in the form of Applejack.

“Sup AJ.” she greeted.

“Mornin’, Lyra. What can Ah get for you?”

“So I had an encounter with Cherry before I came over here.” Lyra sniffed the merchandise. “How much for the fritters today?”

“Oh, really? He say anything? Fritters are three bits, but y’all can buy two for five.”

“Yeah. He said ‘our kind wasn’t welcome here’. Wow, two for five, really?”

Applejack snorted in laughter. “Your ‘kind’? Oh, that’s priceless. Yeah, we’ve got a bit of extras on hoof.”

“Yeah, but his jaw’s wired from Lucky yesterday, so it sounded more like ‘Yurr kurnd ishint wullcurm hurr’, and...” she trailed off in joint laughter at her impression before continuing. “Got extras, huh? You hardly ever have extra fritters, mind if I take four for ten?”

After she was done snickering, Applejack replied. “Yeah, we opened up a zap apple pie last night, so-” a ‘chink’ is heard. “So Ah’m sellin’ some o’ the fritters we were gonna eat today. And sure, sugarcube, buy as many as you want.”

Lyra didn’t say anything in response. Her mouth hung slightly open in awe. After a moment, however, she shook this off and (quite loudly) asked (more like yelled), “You opened a Zappie!?”

The earth pony nodded; the volume didn’t faze her, as she’d been around Pinkie Pie for long enough. “Yeah, we did. So, four fritters, or you thinkin’ more? Also, can y’all please get your hooves off the cart and your face outta mine?”

The unicorn looked down and saw that her hooves were indeed on the cart, then looked back up to see that yes, her face was in very close proximity to Applejack’s. She quickly composed herself, and took a deep breath. After this, she calmly said, “Enough with the fritters, what’s with the pie? You only bust that out for special occasions...” she thought about the possible reasons, until one in particular popped into her mind.

“I see,” she said. Raising an eyebrow suggestively, Lyra leaned in and whispered, “Big Mac’s gotten Cheerilee preggers, eh?”

Applejack’s eyes widened, and she blushed furiously at the accusation towards her brother, of all ponies. “No!” she cried. “Mac ain’t courtin’ nopony, least of all Cheerilee! It was because I... I...”

‘Oh, now she’s gonna ask, and Ah’m gonna have to answer, then she’ll know about me, and that ain’t a bad thing but Lyra ain’t exactly got the tightest lid on secrets, not that Ah think that she’s gonna go tellin’ everypony willy-nilly around town, but she might accidentally yell about it or somethin’ and she’s already attracted some attention with her yellin’ so other ponies are probably listenin’ and Ah don’t just wanna jump right into lettin’ everypony know about me so I-’

“Hi, Lyra!” Twilight Sparkle greeted. “Good morning Applejack, and thanks for helping me finally end that big important research paper on the soil in your orchards. Oh yeah, and for the Zap Apple Pie, it was delicious! It took me weeks to finish that paper, and the pie really hit the spot!”

‘Oh thank Celestia!’

“Wait a minute...” Lyra said. “AJ. You’re telling me you gave Twilight some of that pie because she finished an essay?”

“It was a Big and Important essay,” Twilight corrected, putting emphasis on the words Big and Important. “For the Princess.”

Lyra pouted.

“Don’t be sad, Ly,” Applejack tried to comfort her. “Y’all still got dibs on one come Hearth’s Warming Eve, remember? And besides... she had the normal first-time reaction.”

Lyra’s pout subsided, then she cracked a smile. “Man,” she said. “I can’t believe I missed it. You should’ve taken a picture, because that would’ve been GOLD! Anyways, I’ll take the four fritters, and... let’s say six apples. Two red delicious, two golden delicious, and two granny smith.” She nodded as she placed her order.

“Got it, that’s 13 bits.”

The transaction was put through: Applejack got her money, and Lyra got her food.

“Thanks AJ. See ya, Twi!”

Twilight bid her farewell as Lyra walked away biting into a fritter. She turned her attention back to the apple cart.

“Thanks, Twi-” Applejack began, before being cut off by a hoof-wave.

“Eh, I owe you one for walking me home,” the unicorn responded. “Anyways, I just wanted to swing by and get some breakfast before finishing interviews. I’ll take some apples, four maybe?”

“Well, Ah owe a thanks besides. Who’s all gettin’ interviewed? And Ah’m guessin’ ya don’t have a pref’rence on which kinda apples, right?”

Twilight answered the questions out of order: “Whichever, they’re all good and I can’t pick between them.” she then recalled the list she made the other day. “Well, it’s just cleanup for those who were there- Filthy Rich, Derpy, some other townsfolk- and I’m going to talk to the ones who weren’t there. Zecora, Amethyst Star, Cheerilee, I’ll go to the hospital to talk to Nurse Redheart, and Pinkie Pie.”

Applejack picked out a braeburn, red gala, granny smith, and red delicious, and set them on the cart in time to ask “Pinkie Pie?”

As Twilight nodded, she set out the price, two bits. “I’ll have to head to Sugarcube Corner. I’ll probably head there last, Pinkie and I have plans for lunch.” her face turned a shade darker. “I’ll probably need cupcakes after dealing with Filthy Rich, anyways.”

The earth pony grimaced. “Ooh. That don’t sound good.” she scraped the bits onto her hoof and set them in the register. “Hope these apples tide ya over for that mess.”

Twilight nodded as she took the apples with her telekinesis. “I’ll need as much help as I can get,” she laughed humorlessly. “Anyways, have a nice day, Applejack!”

“Thanks, you too.” she waited until Twilight was out of earshot before muttering to herself ‘As nice as it can get talking to him, anyways...’

/x/x/x/

Zecora was interrupted from her meditation by knocking at the door. It wasn’t loud, obnoxious banging, so it wasn’t Applebloom, the other Crusaders, or Rainbow Dash. It was audible, so it wasn’t Fluttershy. There was knocking, so it wasn’t Pinkie Pie. Nothing was scheduled 3 weeks in advance, so it wasn’t Twilight or Rarity.

“It seems I have a visitor,” she said, answering and opening the door.. “Who could it be, knock-knock-knocking on my door?”

A male voice replied, “Mornin’, Cora.”

The zebra smiled, nodded, and opened further. “Good morning, my dear,” she kissed her visitor on the forehead, before backing away and letting him in the rest of the way. “What brings you all the way out here?”

The visitor wiped his hooves on the mat before stepping onto the floor. He smiled.

“Eina,” She winced.

“Got in another fight,” he said.

“I can see that,” she replied. “Where is my tooth-repairing potion at?”

She rooted around for a moment as her visitor surveyed the wall decorations. He pursed his lips at them before turning away, feeling them staring at him. ‘Creepy things...’

“Aha!” the zebra proclaimed. “Recently I made a new batch. Now, open your mouth, and down the hatch!”

She poured the potion into Cherry’s mangled mouth before standing back and letting the alchemy work its magic. He gently swished the concoction around his teeth, feeling a gently tingling sensation.

“You mentioned you got in a fight. May I assist you in your plight?”

He nodded, waving his hoof before swallowing. “No, it’sh fine. Jusht dealing with shome poniesh being intolerant of other people’sh opinionsh. I'm shure you undershtand.”

“Ah, I believe I do. But do not worry, I’ll be there for you.”

“Thanksh babe. How long until thish works?”

“Well when I give this to Apple Bloom, and wait to weave its toothy loom, a minute it takes for a small break, but as for this... I know not just how long it will take. Do you plan to stay for a while?”

“Ash much ash I’d like to I gotta take care of shome legal shtuff. Inshurance and the lawshuit and shtuff. But it wash nishe to shee you for what I could today.”

Zecora nodded. “Important documents you must file. But when you finish, I’ll be here. I trust I’ll see you soon, my dear?”

“Of courshe,” he said, giving her a gentle peck on the lips. “Anyshing for my lovely fianśhe.”

/x/x/x/

Author's Note

Very short chapter is very short, and VERY late, but I have a few things to say.

Now, despite its flaws and questionable editing and plot choices, I'm proud of this, my most successful story through my entire fanfic career.
I certainly want to finish this story, but I do have plans to reboot it on my new account. So I'll be finishing this story on this account in its original plan, and then publishing the reboot on my other account, nightcoremoon. So yes, the plot points I had implemented at first will still be picked up and followed to the extent that I can salvage them. I hope people are willing to jump back in.

Furthermore, I will most likely be editing the first two chapters to fix the issues in editing, pacing, flow, characterization, and other miscellaneous problems. I will not, however, be changing the plot for inclusion of characters introduced after I wrote this (or alicorn Twilight); I will implement them eventually, or I may not. Only time and my muse will tell.

The majority of this chapter was written in 2013 save for the second half of the final section, which can explain why it feels so different. Anyway, I'd love to see what people think of me getting back on this ancient tome.