CONFLICTING EMOTIONS

Applebloom walked into her bedroom to see Babs already under the covers, seemingly fast asleep. “Well, that saves me the trouble of beatin’ her off with a stick ‘till mornin’”, the farm pony thought to herself with a sigh as she crawled under the covers herself and got comfortable.

However, just as the filly was nearly asleep, she felt a hoof reach over and around her shoulder so that it rested on her upper chest, and could feel her cousin’s breathing against the back of her neck. “Mmm... smells like apples”, Babs remarked aloud in her sleep, followed by a content sigh.

Applebloom, however, simply blushed as she lay there. She didn't really know what to make of this. It wasn't uncomfortable and yet feeling a body so close to her own kept her feeling as wired as a Christmas tree.

“It's just the weekend, Applebloom”, she thought to herself, “ya can give her that as long as she don't make any moves on ya. Once she heads back to Manehattan, I'll write her a letter tellin’ her the truth.” She hoped this would be enough to put her conscience at ease.

Regardless of this decision, she found it very hard to fall asleep, but somehow managed to doze off sometime later.

THAT MORNING...

Applebloom's eyes fluttered open drowsily, only to snap open as a wide blush flooded her cheeks. She had somehow managed to turn in her sleep and was facing her cousin directly, who still looked as if she was fast asleep.

The filly lay in place for a time, just looking at her cousin. She smiled.

“Guess Ah don't have to worry bout her makin’ a--!”, the filly began thinking, only for her thoughts to be brought to a screeching halt. Her eyes snapped wide with a crimson red blush as Babs’ hoof trailed down and began to rub sensually against the base of her tail.

WHACK!

“What were you sayin’ last night ‘bout not makin’ a move unless Ah was okay with it?!”, Applebloom shouted angrily with a crimson red blush on her face, shaking an accusing hoof at her cousin.

“Geez, I'm sorry!”, Babs replied nasally, holding her snout with both hooves.

“Give her the weekend Applebloom, it's just the weekend!”, Applebloom thought to herself as she crossed her arms and glared at the city filly. She sighed.

“Lets just go and do our mornin’ cleanin’”, the farm pony said aloud, but was sent for a guilt trip as Babs removed her hooves, revealing a bloody snout. “Horsefeathers! Ah didn't mean to hit ya THAT HARD!”, she exclaimed guiltily, with an expression to match it.

“No, it's fine, I deserved that for makin’ a move on ya without askin’ first”, Babs replied, driving the proverbial guilt knife deeper in and twisting it.

“No, it's not, here, let me get the first aid kit from the bathroom!”

Applebloom jumped off the bed, ran to the bathroom, grabbed the handle of first aid kit out of the cabinet with her mouth, and rushed back to her bedroom. The filly then opened the first aid kit up, grabbed the sanitized towelettes and began to wipe her cousin’s nose clean of blood.

“Thanks cuz, though I could have done this myself”, Babs replied nasally with a grin.

“It's alright. Ah shouldn't have hit ya to begin with anyways. You were just tryin’ to show me some affection and Ah went overboard”, Applebloom replied softly as she continued to wipe one nostril clean and moved to the next. “Looks like the bleedin’ has stopped already, so we don't have to worry ‘bout puttin’ any cotton balls in your nose. Kind of glad ‘bout that, they would make ya look mighty silly. ‘Course ya already do, so Ah suppose the cotton balls wouldn't do much anyways”, she remarked with a smirk, only to get a playful swat to the side of the head from her cousin.

“That was mean, cuz”, Babs replied, smirking back at her.

“So was makin’ me skip two meals in a row by makin’ me nervous enough to leave the table twice”, the farm pony countered.

“Hey, I didn't do anything during dinner, you left on your own”, the city filly remarked with annoyance.

“Only ‘cause you tried to seduce me in the apple orchard, or did ya already forget?”, Applebloom countered once again.

“Oh yeah, I did do that, didn't I?”, Babs replied sheepishly.

“Anyways, the past is the past, so let's go have some fun like we always do, sounds good?”, Applebloom suggested with a warm smile, finishing cleaning up her cousin's left nostril.

“Yeah”, the city filly replied, returning her warm smile with one of her own.

* * *

The morning came and went, and the cousins spent the afternoon hours playing like they always did, until Scootaloo and Sweetie soon showed up around two in the afternoon.

“So, how'd last night go? She slept in the guest bedroom, right?”, Scootaloo asked curiously, sitting in front of Applebloom as Babs played with Sweetie Belle some distance away.

“Not really...”, Applebloom replied nervously. “See, the guest bedroom got a right big hole put into it, complements of mah big brother.”

“Yikes, so did you manage to tell her it was all a big misunderstanding before you went to bed with her, then?”

“Not exactly...”, the farm pony replied nervously once again.

“Wait, so you two actually--”

“No, no, no! Nothin’ happened, Ah swear!”, Applebloom denied defensively, making a panicked gesture with her front hooves.

“I feel like I'm missing something. You said she had the hots for you and was planning on doing it with you that night, but she didn't?”, Scootaloo said, visibly confused.

The farm pony then proceeded to explain the whole situation to her friend.

“And so Ah decided to play along with it for the weekend and tell her by letter after she goes back to Manehattan tomorrow”, Applebloom finished and sighed, looking over at Babs as she played with Sweetie Belle. “Ah just couldn't bare to see her crushed and depressed the whole weekend.”

“Wow. And here I thought she just wanted to buck you”, Scootaloo remarked candidly, earning a glare from the farm pony.

“Do ya kiss your momma with that dirty mouth?”, Applebloom remarked, looking annoyed.

“I would, If I had a momma”, Scootaloo replied with an eye-roll.

“Oh, sorry!”

“Don't worry about it. Besides, this isn't about me. This is about you and your little love-buddy over there--OW!”, the pegasus jeered, only to get a swift hoof to the side of the head, to which she held and smirked sheepishly. “Guess I deserved that one.”

“That ya did”, Applebloom replied with a smirk of her own.

“Hey cuz, how about we do that crusadin’ thing you three always do?”, Babs shouted from afar as she rushed over to Scootaloo and the farm pony.

“Sounds like a plan to me! So what ideas do we have, fellow crusaders?”, Applebloom asked and looked at the three, who now seemed deep in thought.

* * *

“Brilliant plan as usual, Sweetie Belle!”, Scootaloo exclaimed sarcastically with a glare, as the three held on for dear life on a single rope off the edge of the cliff, with the unicorn filly being at the top of the rope, and with Babs and Applebloom near the very bottom.

“Oh, put a hoof in it! How was I supposed to know we lacked the velocity to properly take off using a hang-glider!?”

“What are you? A dictionary?!”, Scootaloo shot back, giving a glance down to see the hang-glider hanging on the end of the rope.

“Good thing Spike found us when he did or who knows how long we'd be hangin’ here!”, Babs chimed in.

“Makes me glad Ah made sure to tie the rope around each of us, or we'd all be stains on the ground below by now”, Applebloom remarked, proud of her wisdom to properly secure each of the fillies, along with making sure to tie the rope securely around a tree before they attempted this.

“Thanks for that wonderful image, Applebloom!”, Scootaloo exclaimed sarcastically with an eye-roll, which was unseen by the other fillies.

“Hey, at least Ah used mah head, unlike you who was ready to take off without bein’ prepared!”, Applebloom shot back.

As the three fillies continued to bicker amongst each other, Babs gave a startled gasp when she felt herself suddenly drop an inch. She looked up, and went wide-eyed as the knot Applebloom had tied herself was quickly unraveling itself.

“Uh, Applebloom, about that knot you tied, I think it's comin’ loose!”, Babs pointed out in fear and gave yet another startled gasp when her body dropped another inch.

“It's WHAT?!”, Applebloom cried in shock upon hearing this, and all three fillies snapped their gaze down to Bab's knot, which sure enough was quickly unraveling itself.

Babs gave yet another startled gasp as she dropped two inches this time, the knot almost completely unraveled now.

“I-I'm scared!”, she squealed and wrapped her front legs around the rope, tears streaming from her eyes.

“Quick, bite onto mah tail!”, Applebloom ordered, lowering her hindquarters as low as they could go.

The city filly bit down on it, mere moments before the knot unraveled completely. Babs gave a terrified muffled gasp as she clung to Applebloom's tail for her life. Though the pain was excruciating for the farm pony, she gritted her teeth and looked down at her cousin, whose eyes were flooding with tears at this point.

“Whatever ya do, don't open your mouth!”, she commanded.

“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!”, Scootaloo kept saying frantically over and over as she looked at Babs, barely stopping to take a breath.

“Scootaloo, SHUT THE BUCK UP!”, Applebloom roared after about one minute's worth of the pegasus filly repeating the same thing over and over.

Sweetie Belle's face was ten times more white than usual as she looked at Babs, seemingly unable to say a single word.

“Mmph!”, Babs tried to cry as her mouth slowly and continually slid down the tail, tears still flowing from her eyes.

“DON’T LET GO!”, Applebloom shouted, seeing that her cousin noticed this herself.

“Somepony, anypony, HEEEEELP!!!”, Sweetie Belle finally managed to shriek at the top of her lungs, realizing the same thing as Applebloom had, with Babs continuing to slowly slide down.

Just as the situation was starting to look hopeless, Applebloom looked up and couldn’t contain her relief when she noticed Applejack’s friendly face at the top of the cliff. The farm pony just arrived at the scene and gasped in horror.

“Hang on, Spike went to get Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, they should be on their way to y'all real soon!”, Applejack shouted, at which point all four fillies looked up.

“Hurry Applejack! Babs is slippin’ off mah tail mighty fast!”

“Come on Spike, hurry it up!”, Applejack said to herself in panic as she looked around the skies for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

* * *

“Spike? What are you doing--?!”

“Applebloom-Scootaloo-Sweetie Belle-Babs-cliff-trouble-Rainbow Dash-come quick!”, Spike exclaimed between pants, having been running as fast as his short legs could carry him and being unable to make a clear sentence. But it was enough for the yellow Pegasus to know there was trouble and quickly went off from the ground to get the cyan blue Pegasus.

* * *

Several tense moments had now passed and Babs continued to slip down Applebloom's tail, her mouth clinging for dear life at the very tip of it now.

Applejack gave a horrified gasp when Babs’ mouth slipped off of it; the young filly let out an ear-piercing scream as she plummeted down, only to cling to the hang-glider below, much to Applebloom's and Applejack's relief.

Their relief, however, only lasted a mere second, as the rope gave a mighty snapping sound from the sudden force and weight of the filly, at which point she let out yet another ear-piercing scream, taking the hang-glider with her.

Without even thinking, Applebloom yanked at the her knot, effectively undoing it while she kicked off the cliff-side from an angle to give herself a boost of speed, and dove down to catch up with her cousin.

“APPLEBLOOM, BABS, NOOO!”, Applejack shrieked as she watched her little sister and cousin plummet down.

When Applebloom neared her cousin, who had one front leg clinging to the handlebar of the hang-glider, she frantically attempted to wrap her front legs around the handle, and managed to catch it mid-air.

“Babs, listen to me! Put your other leg around the handle!”, Applebloom ordered, her heart racing at what felt like a million miles per minute, while the wind whipped against her mercilessly.

Despite her panicked state, Babs did as she was told; it took her a few tries, but she was eventually holding onto the handlebar the same way her cousin was.

“Wh-What's the plan?!”, Babs shouted, doing her best not to panic any more than she already was. Although she was far from being out of danger, the presence of Applebloom at least allowed her to keep a semi-leveled head.

“R-Right now Ah'm t-tryin not to get us k-killed! Uh, t-try p-pullin up!”, Applebloom stuttered, her fear and panic creeping up on her while she was doing her best to keep it at bay.

“H-How do I do that?!”

“Uh, uh, uh, let's swing our bodies back! Maybe they will level us out!”, the farm pony stuttered.

The two did their best to thrust their bodies back, but were completely unsuccessful. The ground was now growing dangerously closer to the fillies by the second, and despite Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash arriving on the scene and diving to their rescue, there would be no way they would make it in time - there simply was too much distance between them and the fillies.

“It didn't work!”, Babs shrieked, panic and fear taking nearly complete hold over her senses now.

“Try again!”, Applebloom cried back.

The two fillies gave it their all as they tried to swing their bodies back. With a mighty jarring, which nearly caused both fillies to lose their grips on the handlebar entirely, the hang-glider leveled itself and began to glide along the wind-current. Thanks to this, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were able to catch up to the two fillies and safely guide them to the ground.

“Y-You saved my life, Applebloom...”, Babs remarked in astonishment once her breathing returned to a semi-normal pace. She was staring at her cousin, who still looked like she was trying to catch her breath.

“What the horseapples were ya two thinkin’?!”, Applejack shrieked as she ran over to the two fillies. She hugged them both so tightly that it nearly suffocated them, only to let them go moments later and look at them with a glare.

“Ah wasn't”, Applebloom replied honestly. She was, however, referring to undoing the knot and diving for her cousin, rather than what her sister was referring to, which was them trying to hang-glide off the side of a cliff.

“Darn tootin’ y'all weren't thinkin’! And Applebloom, what ya did was reckless and stupid!”

“But Applejack, if she didn't do what she did, Babs would have died!”, Rainbow Dash pointed out, defending the filly.

“Ah know that! But it doesn't make it any less reckless and stupid!”, Applejack responded, flashing the cyan blue Pegasus a glare. “Now, why won't ya get the other two, who are still hangin’ by the rope up there, ‘fore they go fallin as well!”

* * *

“What y'all did was reckless and down right stupid, but Ah think it’s mah lucky stars you two are alive”, Granny Smith remarked and sighed upon having heard the full story from Applejack, once the three arrived safely back on the Apple family farm. “Now then, Ah reckon that's enough excitement for one day. Ah want you two to go upstairs and get some rest.”

Upon hearing this, the two fillies walked upstairs with their tails between their legs, leaving Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and Applejack in the room.

“Ya ain't gonna punish them, Granny?”, Applejack asked curiously.

“Ah reckon a near-death experience is punishment enough. ‘Sides, those two won't be tryin’ anymore stunts like that for a long time after this, Ah guarantee ya”, the elder mare replied and sighed once again. “Though Ah have to admit, Ah was sorely tempted to praise Applebloom for what she did, but Ah reckoned it might give her the wrong idea.”

* * *

Applebloom and Babs both lay on the bed now silently, neither one saying a word for sometime. Finally, Babs spoke up:

“Some day, huh?”, she remarked softly, looking at Applebloom.

“Yeah... some day...”, the farm filly replied and let out a sigh.

“This makes the second time you saved my life, ya know?”, Babs pointed out after a few more minutes of silence.

“The second? Oh yeah, the float incident. But that was a fault of me, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo though. This time we all screwed up”, Applebloom replied, at which point both fillies let out a sigh nearly simultaneously.

“Yeah, but this time it was just you savin’ my life. Why the hay did you do that anyways?”

“Ah couldn't tell ya if Ah tried. It was like mah body acted on its own and by the time mah head had caught up with mah body, I was staring straight at ya in the air, being there along with the hang-glider.”

Applebloom gave a slight blush when Babs placed a hoof on hers and smiled at her.

“Well, anyways. Thanks for savin’ my life”, Babs said softly, looking at her cousin.

“It-It was nothin’, really. Ah'm sure you would do the same for me.”

Applebloom didn't recoil or pull away from her cousin when Babs curled up next to her, placed her head on her shoulder while wrapping her front right leg around her, and held her close. For some reason, she honestly didn’t mind that at all. Perhaps it was just the excitement of a near-death experience messing with her judgment, but at this moment, she actually felt comfort in Babs’ embrace.

“I love you, cuz”, Babs said softly as she nuzzled her affectionately.

“Ah love you too, Babs”, Applebloom replied... only to reflect in confusion on what she just said.

“Wait, did Ah just say what Ah think Ah said? Bah, Ah'm overthinkin’ it. Ah just meant Ah love her as a cousin, not as mah lover”, the farm pony thought to herself with an audible chuckle.

“Somethin funny, cuz?”, Babs asked curiously, though her voice sounded sleepy now.

“It's nothin’, Babs. Here, let meh tuck ya in”, Applebloom replied, gently helping the filly under the covers and pulling them over her.

As the filly stared at her cousin, she began to admire how cute Babs looks when she sleeps soundly... until she abruptly shook her head, jumped off the bed, went to the bathroom, and splashed water over her face.

“Bla,bla,bla,blah!”, the farm pony babbled, running her wet hooves over her face vigorously. “Get a grip Applebloom! She's your cousin, just ‘cuz you said ya love her doesn't mean ya’re fallin’ for her... right?”, Applebloom said into the mirror, the reflection of an unsure filly staring back at her.

“That's right! It's just the effects of a near-death experience causin’ ya to feel like this! One good night's sleep and everythin’ will be back to normal!”, Applebloom said to her reflection with a confident smile, before she jumped down off the stool, walked back into her bedroom, and curled under the blankets next to her cousin.

Author's Note

Proofread by: ZuTheSkunk