Author's Note: I just wanted to say I'm shocked so many people read this over one night. It's the most activity I've had on any story in awhile. Sure, two follows and two reviews may not be much to you but I really appreciate it after just one chapter Without further ado, I give you Chapter 2!

HAHA! THAT RHYMED!

Chapter 2: Alone in the World

"Hey Braeburn! Y'all meet up with us at The Salt Block later tonight?" Dusty Spirit asked. After he asked a bunch of other ponies started yelling and hooting.

Braeburn chuckled lightly and shook his head knowing the old gray pony couldn't handle his salt and often got bucked out without even being given a glass of water. "Sorry y'all, I think I'm just gonna hit the hay . . . it's been a heck of a long day!"

All of the other ponies around Dusty began to hoot and holler more with random calls of "C'mon! We never see you down there! You're ALWAYS tired!"

Braeburn chuckled again but nervously this time, kicking the ground with his dirty boots. "Alright, I reckon I could come out there fer awhile. Jist give me a little bit to git the mud off my boots. You know Dapple Song hates cleanin' up mud."

The other ponies cheered and Dusty laughed heavily as he led all of them to the Salt Block. Braeburn walked inside his home and kicked his boots off after shutting the door. He knew what he had told them was a lie. Today wasn't a very good anniversary for the Apple Family . . .

He glanced at a few pictures on the wall. One had the whole apple family gathered and smiling. He smiled seeing himself and Applejack up front, just as little foals and behind them were her and his parents and Big Macintosh as a little colt. Braeburn sighed and muttered to himself. "Poor Applejack and Apple Bloom, they must really be hurtin' today . . . maybe I oughta take the next train out to Ponyville and visit awhile. I haven't even seen 'em since the funeral . . ."

Braeburn sat in his rickety recliner that barely functioned anymore and kept looking at the pictures, reminiscing on the past. His parents came into mind; Aceymac and Cellini. They would have known what to do in this situation and how to handle it. They would have helped him with the work and greeting anyone who came into Appaloosa.

"Y'all told me you'd always be here . . . that you'd always be here when I felt lonesome . . . but where are y'all now? Y'all joined Applejack's folks . . . y'all left me in Ponyville alone . . . well . . . with the other members of the Apple family . . . but it wasn't the same." Braeburn thought.

He sighed putting his hands in his front hooves, accidentally knocking his cowboy hat off but he didn't care. He began to shed a few tears, feeling alone. He knew every pony in Appaloosa and yet he still felt lonely. He never really felt like any of them cared about him. None of them were family. Even the extended parts of the Apple Family in Ponyville cared more about him than the people around him. No one visited him, he was just that pony everyone knew, but anytime he attended a Wild West dance, he felt like no one talked to him.

Except Applejack . . .

Whenever Granny Smith and her grandchildren, his distant cousins came to visit him with his new life in Appaloosa, Applejack spent a lot of time with him . . . and they had a close bond with each other. They always challenged each other at bucking trees and roping and racing each other while her siblings watched or played by themselves to stay away from the rapid-fire. Even now, when they were older, if one could make a trip to either Appaloosa or Ponyville . . . they challenged each other like two school ponies.

They all even went to a Wild West dance in the middle of town. Even in her usual country attire, Applejack looked gorgeous. He didn't dare imagine what she would look like as "a city folk" because he was sure she would be beautiful. He remembered that night . . . where they both danced under the stars . . . fast and slow.

He sighed frustrated with himself after finding himself daydreaming about his cousin again. "It don't matter Braeburn . . . Applejack is your cousin. Distant cousin but cousin nonetheless and ya can't have 'er even if she's the only pony who cares. Y'all sound like a whimperin' little school filly. Buck up and be a man, you'll find that special some pony someday." He lied to himself knowing that deep inside he had feelings only for Applejack. That's one of the reasons he was so alone . . .

Honey Blossom and Dapple Song had flirted with him all the time . . . and were pleased as punch when he asked them for anything. They always hinted to get him to ask them to the Wild West dance but he never did. They were both pretty ponies . . . but he just couldn't look at them the way other ponies did.

He got up from his rickety easy chair and looked at a picture of Applejack he had hanging in a single frame alongside single frame pictures of Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom but kept his eyes solely on Applejack. He sighed, and picked up his hat and tossing it back on his head.

"Maybe I will go to the Salt Block for awhile . . . ta take my mind off everythin' and maybe decide if I wanna go visit Applejack . . ." he muttered to himself grabbing his muddy boots and took them outside to his well dropping them beside it and drawing up some water beginning to wash the fresh mud out of his boots in order to be polite . . . he saw this as a waste of water but didn't want to hear Dapple Song complain.

He quickly picked up his boots with the lightest trace of mud on them and wiped them off with a raggedy towel he had. He walked back inside, rubbed the dirt off his hooves and put on his boots, proceeding to head to The Salt Block.

When he had reached The Salt Block, he recognized the all-too familiar noise from outside. The ragtime piano music filled the air along with mindless chatter as several ponies had their Salt blocks and water. Braeburn walked into the saloon and the music stopped as if a gunslinger had just trotted in.

Braeburn frowned and approached the counter, getting Dapple Song's attention. The strawberry pink pony with the orange mane turned around to face him and her eyes widened.

"Dapple Song . . . why in Equestria is every pony so quiet when I walked in?" he asked after the music and chatter started up.

Dapple Song looked away and toward the phone, biting her lip and finally spoke when Braeburn was about to lose his patience. "You need to call Sweet Apple Acres . . . it's important."

Braeburn's eyes widened and he walked over to one of the only phones in Appaloosa and looked at the phone book for Ponyville and found Sweet Apple Acres, dialing the number.

There were a few short rings and a shaky old voice picked answered the phone.

"Hello?" Granny Smith answered.

"Hi Granny Smith . . . um . . . the people here at the Salt Block said y'all called me . . . is somethin' the matter? Or are y'all comin' up for a visit?" Braeburn asked.

Granny Smith began to laugh and hoot and holler over the phone. Braeburn was a little concerned and confused by this behavior. "Granny Smith!" He exclaimed over the phone.

She finally answered him. "We're not comin' up for a visit unless that's where y'all want the weddin'!"

"Weddin'? What weddin'? Who's gettin' married?" Braeburn immediately asked.

"Why, you an' Applejack o' course!"

Braeburn felt as if his heart was going to climb up through his throat and out his mouth when he heard this news.

"Applejack is my cousin, Granny Smith! I can't marry her!" Braeburn nearly shouted.

Granny Smith giggled. "You sound jist like Applejack. Y'all are betrothed! Yer parents betrothed y'all when y'all was jist little foals! An' now you gonna be fixin' ta get married! That's why I was a-callin' y'all. No ifs', ans', or buts' about it! Y'all are gittin' married right after harvest season is over!"

Braeburn shook where he stood trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together about what he had just been told. He and Applejack were betrothed. Even thought he always had feelings for Applejack, how could he marry her?! Where would they live? What would life be like with her? And most importantly . . . did she even WANT to marry him?

"Granny Smith . . . are you sure you have your glasses on?" Braeburn asked.

Granny Smith grumbled a little, muttering to herself about how people were always doubting her. "YES I HAVE MY GLASSES ON! AN' I KNOW I AIN'T SEEIN' THINGS!"

Braeburn sighed. "Does Applejack even want to go through with this?"

"Well I assume so! She hasn't complained about it! So, you hop on the next train over to Ponyville an' we'll start planning this weddin'!" Granny Smith

Braeburn sighed again. "Alright, Granny Smith, if you say so."

The two ponies hung up and Braeburn headed out of The Salt Block and headed home to pack himself a bag. He ran home as quickly as possible so no pony would see him go, and packed a traveler's bag and went to the train station, buying a ticket to Ponyville and boarding the train, sitting alone in a bunk cabin.

He lay in a bunk bed that was attached to the walls of the car and began to think of him marrying Applejack. He imagined their wedding taking place in Ponyville where a respected minister would marry them. He would be wearing his best suit and would be nice and clean for a change . . . and she would be . . . breathtaking. He imagined Applejack in a beautiful plain white gown with long sleeves and lace cuffs. He also imagined her wearing her hair in a different fashion and carrying a flowery bouquet.

At first he imagined how beautiful a ceremony it would be and how Applejack would be glad they married and would move in with him in Appaloosa. Then he began to let his imagination take him a different route, the negative route. The worst thing could happen where she shows up to get married . . . and then runs away at the last second. Braeburn sighed heavily, choking back some tears, fearing heartbreak and fearing being alone even longer. He rolled over in his bunk and pulled the covers over himself and was whisked off into sleep.

Applejack lay in her bed with a pouty angry expression on her face. She couldn't believe that her Granny Smith was going to make her go through with this wedding just because of a piece of paper that she found. What even shocked her more is that Braeburn didn't fight against her very much to try and stop the wedding. It's almost like he wanted to marry her. She kept considering marrying him over and over in her head and after a little while, it didn't sound so bad. After all, she had had a crush on him at one point . . .

She sighed and sat up in bed, petting the sleeping Winona who barely flinched at her touch and lay back down, curling up, staring at the wall thinking about what the next day would bring.

"What in tarnation will my friends say? . . . What will they think?" Applejack thought to herself more and more.

With that thought, she tossed and turned until she finally fell into an exhausted sleep.

So Braeburn and Applejack have kinda had a thing for each other eh? What's gonna happen when he gets to Ponyville? Stay tuned for Chapter 3!