Changing Love

Fluttershy shrank away from her friends in fright as she felt the unyielding gaze of seven other ponies. Each of the others wore a mask of shock on their faces. How could Fluttershy, the pony that barely talks to her closest friends, work up the nerve to even talk to her true love, let alone have any kind of relationship with him or her?

Twilight, sensing Fluttershy’s fright, decided to break the tense silence.

“That’s wonderful Fluttershy! Who is your true love?”

Fluttershy contemplated making a run for the exit to escape her friends piercing stares, but she knew she would never make it. She took a deep breath and spoke as quiet as is possible for a pony.

“My true love is Big Macintosh.”

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, I couldn’t hear you,” said Twilight.

“My true love is Big Macintosh.”

“One more time please.”

“My true love….is Big Macintosh,” said Fluttershy, using all of the remaining courage she could muster.

All of the other ponies showed a mixture of joy and surprise, except for one, Stetson-wearing cowpony. Applejack’s body became rigid and her right eye twitched at the mention of her brother.

“That’s wonderful Fluttershy!” exclaimed Twilight, “how did it happen, how did you two.......are you ok Applejack?”

Applejack looked far from ok. In fact, she looked like she could charge forward and buck Fluttershy straight in the chest at any moment. Sensing something bad was about to happen, Rainbow Dash flew towards Applejack and began pushing her towards the box.

“Alright cowgirl, Fluttershy is your friend,” stated Rainbow cautiously, “let’s have you take your turn in the box to take your mind off of things.”

Applejack merely grunted, but she slowly made her way towards the covered box, a well-defined frown never leaving her face. When they reached the entrance to the box, Rainbow didn’t waste any time. She shoved Applejack into the box and slammed the door behind her. Rainbow returned to her friends and glared at Fluttershy.

“Alright Fluttershy, tell us everything,” began Rainbow Dash, “How did you  meet? How long have you been together? Most importantly, why didn’t you tell me?”

Fluttershy composed herself. There was no way she was going to withhold her relationship from her friends any longer. It was time. She looked at her friends and spoke.

Applejack was taken by surprise as Rainbow Dash shoved her in to the box and slammed the door shut behind her. She stumbled and struggled to regain her balance. When she was stable again, she began to vent to herself. How could Fluttershy, one of her best friends, be datin’ her brother? How long had they been datin’? Why hadn’t Fluttershy at least told her that she had been seein’ her brother? All of these questions weighed heavily on Applejack’s mind as she took a few steps forward. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a scent that Applejack knew all too well. It smelled like….apples?

“What the?” exclaimed Applejack as she wondered why the smell of apples would be in this box in the basement of the crystal palace. After a moment or two, Applejack began to calm down and relax as the familiar scent washed over her. She closed her eyes and imagined herself back at Sweet Apple Acres, enjoying the literal fruits of her labor under the shade of one of the many trees. She was abruptly pulled out of her reverie by a light tap on the shoulder. Her eyes flew open and she spun around.

“Not too long after the last winter wrap-up, I was in my cottage tending to animals that had gotten sick in the cold weather,” began Fluttershy, “after a while, one of the local bears came by and said that one of his friends was really ill. When I went to check on the ill bear, I saw that he had collapsed and was unable to travel to my cottage. I did what I could where we were, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough and his condition would worsen. I needed the help of somepony that was strong enough to help me move the bear. That’s where Big Macintosh comes in.”

Fluttershy paused for a moment and took notice of the other ponies’ reactions. Every pony was staring at Fluttershy with rapt attention, all of them except for Cadence. Cadence seemed to be deeply bothered by something. Fluttershy considered asking Cadence if she was alright, but she remembered the other five pairs of eyes looking at her and waiting for her to continue her story. So, she decided that she would ask later if Cadence still looked bothered. Fluttershy opened her mouth once again to continue.

“I made my way to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Big Macintosh could help. When I arrived, he was pulling a cart of apples into the barn. I rushed up to him, explained my situation, and asked if he could help. He nodded and told me to take him to the bear. With his help, I managed to help the bear into my cottage. Afterward, I invited him to stay and visit. After getting the chance to talk for a while, we found that we had a lot in common. We met every night for the following couple of weeks and we decided to start dating. We’ve been going steady ever since.”

“Wow Fluttershy, that’s great!” exclaimed Twilight, “still, why didn’t you tell us?”

“Well, I was afraid of what you girls would think,” replied the yellow pegasus, a slight blush forming on her face.”

“Darling, we couldn’t be happier for you!” said Rarity, still a tad light-headed from Pinkie’s hug earlier.

“That’s awesome, ‘Shy, I’m happy for you,” said Rainbow, “I’m just anxious to see how Applejack handles this.”

“Oh my, I wonder how Applejack is doing in the box,” said Fluttershy.

Applejack’s head whipped around to see a wide pair of magenta eyes, eyes she had seen tons of times before, directly in front of her. Instantly, memories of the Iron Pony competition, the running of the leaves, and various smaller memories forced their way to the forefront of her mind. Who would’ve thought a pony she had spent so much time around would be her true love. Applejack felt as though a veil had been lifted from over her eyes. That sexy, sporty, cyan pegasus was hers! She wasn’t going to wait any longer. She raised her head up high and kicked the door to the box open, not even registering the changeling transforming back behind her.

“Applejack!” exclaimed Pinkie, drawing the attention of everypony else.

Twilight was the first one to walk up to the orange farm pony. “What was it like AJ? Who was your true love?”

“’Scuse me Twilight,” said Applejack as she pushed her way past Twilight, walked straight up to Rainbow, and planted a huge kiss on her lips. Rainbow jolted for only a moment before she melted into the kiss, a deep blush forming on her face. The kiss lasted for several minutes, prompting everypony else to clear their throats to no avail. Eventually, Cadence decided to address everypony.

“Seeing as everypony in this room has found their true love, shall we return to the throne room and give these two mares some privacy?” Everypony could not agree fast enough.

A half-hour later, Applejack and Rainbow Dash joined everypony in the throne room. Both of them looked like they had a hundred laps at the Cloudsdale Wonderbolt track. As soon as everypony was settled, Cadence spoke.

“Thank you again everypony for coming, I’m thrilled that my experiment was a huge success, I’ve arranged for a train to carry you back to Ponyville shortly.”

“Thank you Princess, it was good to see you again,” said Twilight.

Everypony said their goodbyes to Cadence and Shining Armor and made their way to the train. Once on the train, everyone started to settle in for the overnight trip home.

“Ugh!” exclaimed Rarity, “can we please get a separate train car from Applejack and Rainbow for the night?”

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry and Applejack shot her a glare, but they made their way to their own train car.

“Goodnight, everypony,” said Twilight as she blew out the last candle and settled down to rest during the long ride home.