It was the early morning of the next day and Paint was in the middle of a dream similar to the one he had last night. Again he was in his fictional paradise and again Rainbow Dash was there. Again they were about to kiss and again somepony woke him up just before that happened. He opened his eyes to see Applejack standing above him with a frown on her face for whatever reason. "Ah told ye to get up haven't Ah?" no wonder her voice was louder than it was yesterday morning, because right now she was right next to his mattress rather than outside of the room and behind a closed door. It took Paint a few moments to recover from the sleepiness one experienced upon waking up, and when he did he noticed that Applejack seemed quite angry. "Well, get up already, breakfast's ready." She looked angry and she sounded angry for whatever reason.
Paint looked at her, confused. Was she angry because of the fact Rarity was gone? No, it didn't make any sense. Rarity being gone might make her depressed or upset, but Paint couldn't see a reason for Applejack to be angry the way she was. Clearly there was something else making her upset. He got up and Applejack turned to leave the room. "Is everything alright Applejack?" he asked, only to have her look at him around her shoulder with a glare.
"That's none of yer business." With that, the orange earth pony left, leaving a completely confused Paint staring at the door. He couldn't remember doing anything that might make her mad at him, nor did he see a reason for her to nearly yell at him the way she just did. After all, he was only concerned about her and wanted to see whether there was anything he could do to help her with whatever it was that was making her behave like that.
The still confused Pegasus tidied his mattress and then headed up the stairs where he found the Apple Family already eating. The entire scene looked pretty awkward. Applejack looked upset and Big Macintosh also seemed angry if not angrier than his sister. Paint never thought he'd ever see a stallion as calm as Big Macintosh angry. Applebloom looked simply nervous, and was staring at her food without really eating it or doing anything else. Yesterday she heard everything that happened in Fluttershy's cottage when Applejack arrived, and the way her siblings were acting towards each other since then was obviously bothering her. As for Granny Smith, she was eating her food as if nothing was wrong. She has probably failed to notice the change in the behavior of her grandchildren. Finding the entire scene rather awkward, Paint went towards the table and slowly sat down.
At first he simply stared from one Apple sibling to the other, trying to somehow determine the source of their bad mood, but to no avail. Feeling slightly uneasy, he began to eat. The painful silence was interrupted by Granny Smith once everypony was done eating. "Alright now,-" Paint couldn't help but find himself slightly distracted from the false mood in the room and even slightly cheered up as she spoke. The old mare sounded quite joyful. He even smiled slightly when he saw Applebloom smile. As for Applejack and Big Macintosh, there was no difference in their facial appearance. "-we need te get back te sellin' them apples." She looked at her two older grandchildren, still not noticing that something was off. Paint figured that it was probably the weakened sense of seeing considering how old she was. "Who's takin' our little filly te school before ye three get a move on?"
Neither of the two seemed to be in a mood and Applebloom, who realized that the entire scene might turn into a loud argument, made a suggestion of her own. "Granny Smith, will it be alright if Paint takes me?" She was not in a mood to be around her siblings, lest they should suddenly find a reason to direct some of their anger at her. That was because she has never seen either of them so angry before. She feared of what might end up being Applejack's reaction once the orange earth pony figured out that the entire paring between Fluttershy and Big Macintosh was actually the work of Applebloom and her friends. In fact Applejack seemed simply angry with everypony around her, as if disregarding the fact that they had nothing to do with the whole thing. As for Big Macintosh, she doubted that he would be mad at her, but she just didn't want to take any chances. She didn't want to be more involved in this whole mess than she already was. Paint looked confused for a moment, but it didn't take him too long to realize that Applebloom was nervous to be around her brother and sister at the moment.
"Well, if that's what ye want, then Ah guess that it's fine." She said, looking at Paint who immediately nodded.
"I can take her ma'am, it's not a problem." He said, catching onto Applebloom's poorly-hidden relief. Also, this might give him a chance to try to find out what was going on exactly, because something made him feel that Applebloom might know what the entire mess was about.
Feeling an urge to leave the house upon seeing a short glare exchanged between Big Macintosh and Applejack, Applebloom got up and ran outside. Paint took his saddlebag which he always carried with him and followed her outside. The way she left the kitchen as soon as she got her grandmother's approval only proved that her siblings were the source of her down mood. Applebloom said nothing to him and simply walked alongside him as they made their way towards Cherliee's school. After he was sure that they were some safe distance away from the farm just in case Applejack or Big Macintosh would suddenly decide to join in on the walk, Paint went ahead and attempted to start a conversation. "So… What's with the bad mood all of a sudden?" he hoped to get some sort of an answer, one that might clear things up even just a bit.
Applebloom looked at him as they walked. While Paint was nice and all, the little filly didn't like the idea of telling him something so personal since she had barely been around him for a few days. "Well, it's…" she started, not knowing what to say exactly.
"If you don't want to tell me, then I'm okay with it." He knew better than to push other ponies to discuss something they didn't want to discuss. "It's just that I'm concerned about the three of you, you're like family to me now." They were technically the family he never had. "I would really like to try and help, and I think that talking about it will make you feel better."
"It's… quite complicated…" concluded the little filly with a sigh. She couldn't help but feel guilty for the whole thing, since the idea of getting Fluttershy and Big Macintosh together was her idea. She couldn't remember ever seeing either Big Macintosh or Applejack so angry before, and the way Fluttershy ran upstairs crying was heartbreaking. On the other hoof, she knew that Paint was right and that talking about it will make her feel at least somewhat better. "You ain't gonna tell everypony right?" she doubted he would, but she had to make sure.
"Of course not." replied the blue Pegasus with a reassuring smile.
Applebloom hesitated for a few more moments, but then began talking. "Well, it all started like two weeks ago… Mah big brother was takin' me and mah friend Scootaloo home after we were hangin' out with Sweetie Belle at Rarity's place… Well, it's not too important for what's goin' on right now, so I'll just skip te the part were Scootaloo and I ended up and Fluttershy's cottage. We ran off te mess with Big Macintosh a little, and after passing by her cottage we saw that he wasn't chasing us anymore. So we headed back and saw him standin' there like an idiot while starin' at Fluttershy, so… Mah friends and Ah helped get them together. We promised not te tell anypony since they insisted te be the ones te do it, and…" here she paused for a moment. "You remember that yesterday Scootaloo and Ah went with Sweetie Belle te Fluttershy's cottage te help her get her things organized, and that Big Macintosh came with us so that he could take us home afterwards?"
Paint nodded and she continued, "Well, so there we were, me and mah friends in Sweetie Belle's new room and Big Macintosh and Fluttershy in the livin' room. Ah don't know what went on, Ah'm guessin' he was tryin' to comfort her or somethin' and then Applejack suddenly came in. She saw them and she became furious, she couldn't believe that her brother and one of her best friends have been datin' fer over two weeks without tellin' her about it. Trust me, the last thing on earth you want to do is lie te Applejack or keepin' things hidden from her… She just lost it back then… I've never seen her so angry before in mah entire life… She yelled at Fluttershy so loudly and Big Macintosh lost his temper as well."
Paint said nothing for a few moments. He couldn't imagine anypony even raising his voice at an adorable mare like Fluttershy, which only emphasized the fact that Applejack was very, very angry. No wonder the two have been acting like that. "I can see why you're upset…" he said after a short silence, "You don't have to blame yourself for this though, you were only trying to help your brother and Fluttershy, I'm sure that they're both grateful for that."
"Ah know that… But…" she sighed and was silent for a few moments, "Ah'm scared of how Applejack will react once she finds out that I knew about this as well… She'll get mad at me for also keepin' it a secret, Ah just know she will…"
"Look, from what you've told me it seems like Applejack is simply overreacting, she'll calm down eventually…" he tried to somewhat reassure her, but it didn't seem to be working.
"Ah don't know, Ah've never seen her so angry before…" said Applebloom with yet another sigh.
"Try to think in a positive way, nopony stays mad forever." Just then they both noticed that they've already arrived at school. "Look, don't worry; if it makes you feel any better, I'll see if there's anything I can do to calm your sister down a little." Applebloom looked at him and nodded with a slight smile and then went into the school.
After that, Paint headed towards the place where he, Applejack and Big Macintosh had set up their stall yesterday. When he got there he saw that Big Macintosh had already brought the cart over and had already set up their selling stall. He could also see that the two were obviously still angry at each other, since both of them carried a frown on their faces and since they weren't talking to each other or even looking at each other. "Hey guys." said Paint, trying to sound as cheerful as he could now that he knew the reason for their bad mood. Big Macintosh looked at him with a slight smile and gave a short nod of greeting, since he knew better than to direct his anger at somepony who didn't deserve it. As for Applejack, she was simply too angry right now in order to pay attention to anything around her. In fact if they didn't have to sell today she would be as far as she could from Big Macintosh and / or Fluttershy. Actually, she would be away from everypony if she could help it. She didn't feel like seeing anypony at the moment, but her wishes were disregarded considering the fact that she was going to have to spend the entire day seeing more and more ponies who were going come over in order to buy their products.
She said nothing and after maybe another minute of preparations they opened their stall and started the day. Everything went pretty similar to the way it did yesterday, only that this time aside from talking to the customers, there wasn't any conversation going around. Big Macintosh again appeared friendly to other ponies as did Paint obviously, Applejack though… It was easy to tell that she was not in a mood to be there. At first it wasn't much of a problem, but Applejack grew grumpier and grumpier as the day went on. Whenever Paint had to leave and go back to the Apple Family's house in order to get more products for the stall he was afraid that he would find a raging argument between the two siblings once he came back. To his relief though, that didn't happen, despite Applejack's noticeable and growing annoyance. When Paint left and came back again sometime around the afternoon, after a few hours have already passed by, he arrived back just in time to see Applejack lose her temper at the level of actually yelling at a costumer, at which point Big Macintosh had already had enough of her behavior.
"AJ, enough is enough." said the crimson stallion, causing Paint to gulp. This was just what the blue Pegasus was afraid of. Big Macintosh was not easy to anger, but he too had a limit to his patience. He might have been speaking in his usual calm tone, but Paint could tell that he was angry as well.
"Oh, look who's suddenly talkin'!" Applejack, whose temper was lost a long time ago, did not both to keep her voice down like he did.
"Ye might be mad at me, but that ain't any reason to be so mean to other ponies." said he, still calmly.
"Tell ye what, why don't ye go back to that backstabber so that ye can carry on with yer filthy lies?"
At this point Big Macintosh too lost it. He could stay calm just until the point where she said those things about the mare he cared about so dearly and was starting to love more than himself. "Ye will not say those things about her!" Paint noticed that more and more ponies were starting to crowd around them.
"Why, does the truth burn yer ears or somethin'?" Applejack carried on, not caring if everypony in town heard what she had to say (or yell in this case). "Pah! Ah thought so! Ah wouldn't expect anything else from a liar like ye! No wonder ye two fit each so perfectly, a liar and another liar!"
"Um… guys?" came Paint's nervous voice. He doubted he'll be able to calm them down though.
Applejack carried on with her shouting, "Why don't ye go over there where ye truly belong?"
"Ye know what, maybe Ah will! Some sister ye are!"
"Right back at ye!" concluded Applejack.
The two siblings glared at each other and then left heading in different directions, leaving Paint standing alone by the stall. At first the crowd around him talked to each other in confusion but soon enough all of their attention was directed at him, causing him to feel rather nervous. "Um…" he began, not knowing what to do, "As you can see everypony, there are some, uh, technical difficulties… uh… I'm afraid we're going to have to close for today…" Why did he say today? From how angry Applejack and Big Macintosh seemed, it could be for a much longer time. Everypony around him simply stared for a few moments and then began to scatter. Paint looked at the cart-stall and sighed as he realized that he was going to have to carry that heavy-looking wagon all the way back to the farm on his own.
He went over to the harness Big Macintosh always used in order to carry the cart and somehow managed to place it on him. It took a few adjustments considering that Big Macintosh was bigger than he, but that little problem was soon out of the way. Taking in a deep breath, the blue Pegasus began to carry the cart slowly, for it looked even heavier than it looked. How was Big Macintosh carrying it with such ease he had no idea, but he guessed that it was probably the result of working at the farm so much. The effort became harder and harder the longer Paint pulled, causing the stallion to groan in annoyance. It went on for about a minute or two until he heard a familiar voice call for him. Before he realized it, Rainbow Dash was right next to him, causing him to nearly jump back in surprise.
Rainbow Dash of course nearly broke into laughter at his reaction. "Is it time for that flying lesson already?" he asked, looking at her. It's not that he wasn't happy to see her though.
Rainbow shrugged, "No, it's still early, but I couldn't wai-" here she paused. "I had nothing better to do, so I thought I might come early or something." Why was she about to say that she couldn't wait?
"Oh, I see." Said Paint after a short silence. "Well, we finished up early so…" he began again to slowly pull the wagon.
Rainbow Dash was about to ask why did he, Applejack and Big Macintosh were finished so early, but was soon distracted by how slow Paint went on with the cart. Again she laughed, "Wow, I really do have a lot of work to do with you huh?" She took the one small step it took in order to catch up with him. "Step aside." Paint at first looked confused, but before he realized it Rainbow has already removed the harness from him and placed it on her instead. "I'll race you to the farm!" with that she broke into a run, laughing as she left Paint behind. After a moment or two of staring there with astonishment at how fast Rainbow was pulling that cart, Paint began to chase her. No matter how fast he ran, Rainbow Dash was still faster, even with the extra-extra weight of the wagon.
When he arrived at the barn, he found Rainbow Dash already waiting there with a triumphant grin spread across her face. Paint took a few moments to catch his breath, "How… did you… do that?"
"It comes with my awesome." said she with a grin, "Beside I told you that there's room for work with you. Maybe when I'm done with you you'll be 10 percent of what I am, if you're lucky." Paint couldn't help but chuckle. He never felt annoyed whenever she decided to show-off and boast. She was about to suggest that they started the lesson, because she already had an entire work-out schedule for the afternoon, but instead her mind suddenly went back to what she was about to ask just a minute ago. "Oh, I almost forgot, why did you guys finish early?" She knew that Applejack was not the lazy type, which was why she found the entire situation rather strange.
"It's…" Paint didn't know how to explain it exactly, since it seemed as if Rainbow Dash still didn't know of everything that has happened, "Applejack and her brother really lost it towards each other… I mean, like really lost it…"
"That's odd." said Rainbow, "I mean they argue sometimes, but when you say it like that…"
"It's because of the fight AJ had with Fluttershy yesterday… From what Applebloom told me Applejack yelled at her rather harshly…" Paint doubted he should tell Rainbow Dash the cause to that fight, since he did promise to Applebloom that he will not tell.
This made Rainbow Dash look very upset. "She yelled at Fluttershy?" she asked as if in an attempt at confirming what she had just heard, an attempt she hoped would fail.
"From what I understood, yes…" said Paint, not knowing what else to say other than that.
"I…" Rainbow untied the wagon's harness form herself. "I have to go… We'll… We'll do this tomorrow instead okay?" without really waiting for an answer from the blue Pegasus in front of her she took off, looking troubled. How could anypony yell at Fluttershy? How could Applejack yell at Fluttershy? Something must have happened to cause all of this, obviously.
Knowing that there wasn't anything he could do about the mess at the moment and wanting to get his mind distracted from the entire thing, Paint decided to head to the library. A good book was always a source of relaxation. Well, that and drawing. But Paint was in no mood to draw anything at the moment, since the only thing that was in his head right now was the way Applejack and Big Macintosh screamed at each other. He headed to the library where he found Twilight reading. "Oh, hey Paint." She said joyfully, closing the door behind him with her magic once he was inside. It was clear to Paint that she too was unaware of yesterday's incident at Fluttershy's cottage.
"Hey Twilight…" he didn't want to upset her as well by telling her of it though.
"What can I help you with?" asked the purple mare, not taking her eyes off her book.
"I was wondering if I could maybe just sit around and read something… If that's okay…" said the blue Pegasus.
Twilight chuckled, "Of course you can. I mean, this is a library after all." Plus, she wouldn't mind having somepony around the library for a change.
"Thanks."
Twilight helped him find the book he wanted and he sat down to read, leaving his saddlebag open on the floor next to him. Twilight at some point decided to get her guest some water and headed towards the kitchen. As she passed by Paint however she saw that his saddlebag was filled with sheets of paper. She looked at the bag for a moment and then realized what was on the papers. "Oh, did you draw these?"
At first Paint didn't realize what she was talking about, but then he saw her looking at his saddlebag. He gulped as he saw her horn began to glow, "No wait! These are-"
He didn't manage to finish and one of the paintings was already floating in front of Twilight's face. "Wow, it's amazing, it's…" suddenly she paused and moved the painting aside a bit so that she could look at Paint, "It's Rainbow Dash."
Paint could feel it as the sweat began to appear on his face. "Uh…"
Before he could say anything else Twilight brought over another drawing. "This one's of Rainbow Dash too." She brought over another and then another and then another. "And this one, and this one, and this one…" at some point she stopped and simply stared at the stallion, whose face carried a furious blush.
"Look, uh… Can I tell you something?" he asked, nervously and she nodded. He went ahead and walked closer to her lest anypony should hear what he was about to say, despite the fact that there were no other ponies in the library but them. "I have a crush on Rainbow Dash…"
Twilight simply stared at him for a short moment. "You don't say."
Paint felt his face turn even redder. "You can't tell anypony! Promise me you won't tell!"
"Don't worry, I won't. Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way-"
Before she could even complete the sentence, Pinkie Pie was suddenly in the middle of the room, causing both Paint and Twilight to jump in surprise. "Forever!" She disappeared as quickly as she had arrived.
"What was that?" asked Paint, confused.
"That was Pinkie Pie…" said Twilight, sounding slightly embarrassed as a result of her friend's behavior, "You know, you might as well not carry those paintings with you if you want to keep this a secret…" she brought up the rest of the paintings out of the saddlebag with her magic and then noticed two certain drawings which were not of Rainbow Dash, "Hey, what are these?" she brought them over and looked at them. The first one was of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and the second one was of Luna and Blaze.
"Uh… I drew these after being at the royal wedding two months ago…" said Paint, feeling glad that they were no longer discussing his drawings of Rainbow Dash.
"You were at the wedding? Princess Celestia invited me and my friends, but it was just too far…" said Twilight.
"Well, the town was the place where I've been staying back then."
"Wow, you really weren't kidding when you said that you've been traveling a lot. I would have certainly came if it wasn't that far."
"Oh, but that's where Blaze is originally from." said Paint, "Having the ceremony take place there meant a lot for him."
"I've never seen another Alicorn aside from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna before."
"As far as I know," explained the Pegasus, "He was found as a foal and was raised there…"
"He is younger than Luna then." said Twilight.
"I guess he is, but it doesn't really matter…"
"Oh yeah, living forever and all of that…" chuckled Twilight, before turning her attention back to the two drawings, "I understand why you carry the paintings of Rainbow with you, but why do you have these two?"
"Well…" Paint didn't know how to explain this exactly. "When Luna returned from the moon, I thought she will never be able to adjust to Equestria again… But then I saw her there after all this time had passed."
"I don't get it." said Twilight, sounding confused.
"Look at her for a moment." Twilight did as she was told and looked at the two paintings. Luna seemed very happy in both of them. Paint sure did a great job catching every single detail. "I honestly thought she will never be happy, not to mention that it seemed impossible for her to ever find a special somepony… Whenever I look at these two drawings I immediately feel better. It shows me that if Luna was able to achieve happiness then anypony else can achieve it too."
Twilight was silent for a few moments but then she smiled. "Wow, I never thought about it like that, but you're right."
A/N: Took me longer than with previous chapters this time, I hope it's alright… Reviews are welcome as always! =)
