Work Text:
The first rays of sunlight streaming through her window ran over her body, she brought herself to her senses quickly, working on the farm since she was nothing more than a foal had taught her how to get herself up and running in the shortest time possible, rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes and hopping out of bed she trotted towards the desk that sat at the edge of her room. It was covered was various farming books Twilight had lent her alongside some contracts she had been filling out between the apples and Filthy Rich. Last but never least to her, there were pictures of her family and loved ones framed on the table and hung around her walls, a reminder of who she did all this for. “Now lets see here...” She stared at the calendar that hung on her wall, filled with many important notices and events, between working on the farm, the events always being thrown around Ponyville, and the adventures her and the others always somehow ended up going on, there was always something to do... She hummed and reached out to the hook that she put her hat every night, only to find her hooves meeting the wall instead of the Stetson she expected. Surprise wiped away any of the remaining tiredness clinging to her mind. Where could I have put Tallulah? I'm not one to just misplace things like that. Looking around the room, she found that nothing seemed out of place, no evidence of it falling behind a dresser, or bed. Or even of being taken. Not in here, huh? where else could I have put it. She considered everything for a moment, trying to figure out where she was at the end of yesterday. A clear memory faded into Applejack's mind.
Applejack and Rarity stood at the exit to the Carousel Boutique. Rarity took Applejack's hoof in hers. “Thank you so much for helping me today." Applejack smiled at her marefriend's words. ”It was nothin, honestly, anything for you, Sugarcube.“ Applejack leaned in for a quick kiss and started trotting away, leaving a blush on Rarity's face. ”Tata, Darling!.” Rarity called out to her as she left. Neither of them noticing the distinct lack of Applejack's hat on her head.
Heading to the boutique and back to the farm shouldn't give me too much trouble. But I also have work to get done, and Big Mac and Granny will surely question me leaving so early. she sighed, putting a hoof to her head. But they do know how important that hat is to me... She trotted over to her bedroom door and took a moment to check herself over in the mirror that sat directly next to it. She felt oddly exposed without her hat on her head, looking around for some sort of accessory to wear in the meanwhile. She found a red bandana and wrapped it around her neck, smoothing it out the best she could. She made her way out of her room, smiling at Apple Bloom and Granny Smith who sat in the kitchen going over Apple Bloom's school work. Exiting the house and walking through the farm, she noticed the sun was blazing in the sky with not a cloud in its way, but the wind still was still cold against her fur. She came across Big Macintosh just as she reached the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. He hummed at her and raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering why she wasn't doing farm work. Sighing, she responded “I gotta find my hat, I left it behind at Rarity's Boutique yesterday.” Big Macintosh huffed a bit but left Applejack to her search, he did know how much that hat meant to her after all. She spun around and continued making her way out of the farm and into the heart of Ponyville. Ponies hustled and bustled around the town, everypony seemingly eager to get their days started. She kept an eye out for Rarity, it was possible she might not be in her boutique, joining in on getting the newest trinkets from the Ponyville market, but having no such luck spotting her or anypony else she knew. As she came across Carousel Boutique she noticed the lights shining inside, if Rarity was home than hopefully she could just grab her hat and get back to the farm in a timely manner. Knocking her hoof against the door, a bit of noise came from inside before the door swung open and Rarity appeared face to face with her.
“Oh,! What brings you here so early?” Rarity seemed to have a mix of confusion and happiness on her face at finding Applejack at her door so early. “Ah well, I'm pretty sure I left my hat here yesterday, any chance I could have it back?“ Rarity chuckled nervously in response. “Well id love to help but... I'm pretty sure Pinkie took it when she came over to grab some party banners i was making her. She said something about perfecting her cowboy themed cupcakes,“ Rarity let out a chuckle, ”But between you and me, i just think she wanted a piece of her marefriend around. I certainty didn't mind it yesterday...“ Her mood fell a bit at hearing that Rarity didn't have the hat, but she did have a lead. ”Thank you, Rarity.“ She planted kisses on both sides of Rarity's face, like a true gentlemare would, as Rarity had said to her one time. And ran off to her next potential hat location.
More ponies had gathered around Ponyville, especially around the outside of Sugarcube Corner, she noticed the many ponies with sweet treats chatting around and inside the shop as she opened the door with a ring sounding off from the bell above. The pink pony at the counter spun around at the sound of the door opening with a wide grin, that grew even wider once she spotted Applejack.
”Hiya Applejack, what do you need?“ She pulled out various sweet treats. ”Cakes? cupcakes? cookies? muffi-” She put a hoof against Pinkie's mouth, “I'm just lookin for my hat.” Pinkie's eyes lit up as she removed her hoof from the other ponies mouth for a response. “Well, at first I took the hat from Rarity to perfect my cowboy themed cupcakes,” Pinkie held out a vanilla cupcake with a mini cowboy hat and mini cactus planted on top, “-Its been a popular theme with the foals recently. but then! Fluttershy came to pick up a few treats for some of her animals, but she had mentioned that the sun was really bothering her on the way there, so i figured id give her the hat!” Pinkie put her hooves together and smiled at the end of her ramble. She sighed, at least its with Fluttershy now and aint with Pinkie while shes cooking... Celestia knows how much of a mess that mare makes. “Ill be heading off to Fluttershy's then. Thank you, Pinkie.” Pinkie somehow grinned even wider than before and then continued working on her baking.
The path to Fluttershy's cottage was unsurprisingly much less crowded, easily finding her way towards the edge of Everfree Forest. Finally, she ended up spotting Fluttershy, she was sitting outside the front of her house, feeding a few small critters., seeming calm and content. The sun shone brightly around her but she sat just under the shade of a large tree that was moving in the wind. Her long pink hair did the same as the tree, curling itself around her face and body gently in the breeze. She's quite beautiful when in her element... Before Applejack's thoughts could trail off any further, a whoosh almost pushed her off her hooves, with Rainbow Dash ending up standing directly next to her. The less than quiet entrance of Rainbow Dash getting the notice of Fluttershy.
“Oh, hi you two, what brings you here?” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak first but she coughed over Dash before she could get a word out “Pinkie said you might have my hat?” She pointed a hoof at her unadorned hair. Rainbow Dash butted in again, this time speaking to her.
“I did have it, but when i went to return one of Twilight's Daring Do books, she took it from me! Saying something about how Applejack would need that and how she didn't want me to lose it while flying.” Rainbow Dash huffed. “Isn't that stupid?” She just raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash, causing her to remember exactly who she was talking to and let out a nervous chuckle. Twilight's intentions seems kind, but I still didn't end up with my hat. “Alright then. Ill see y'all later.” She nodded her head and left as Rainbow Dash started to ramble about some crazy new stunts she needed advice on to Fluttershy.
Anxiety ran through her as she wandered through Ponyville once again, towards Twilight's castle. She didn't seem extremely far behind on her farm work, judging by how the sun was in the sky, but getting even slightly behind on any of the farm work is a frustrating affair to her. Coming upon the large door of the castle she knocked her hoof against it, a young dragon responding to her knocking.
“Hi, Applejack! Whats up?” Spike moved out of the way so she could enter the wide entrance room. “I need to speak to Twilight for a moment, do you happen to know where she is?” Spike nodded his head and motioned her to follow, walking through the large castle halls for a moment before he pointed her towards an otherwise unremarkable door. She thanked Spike on for his help and made her way into the room quietly. finding Twilight hunched over a desk, seemingly writing something important, but more importantly to her, Twilight had Tallulah sitting right atop her head. Twilight glanced up at the sound of the door opening before blushing in embarrassment at the sight of Applejack.
“Hey, Applejack, do you need something?” She chuckled nervously and pushed up the edge of the hat she had on, clearly having a solid guess at what Applejack was here for. “Rainbow Dash said you were gonna give me my hat back, but I clearly never did get it back, did I?” Applejack kicked her hoof at the ground, her annoyance at the whole situation getting the better of her. Twilight frowned and went to stand in front of Applejack. “I'm so sorry Applejack, I knew how important your hat was to you, and i really did want to get it back to you but...” She stared back at the desk and rubbed her hoof at the back of her head. “...I got a little distracted.“ Applejack tried to cool off a bit at hearing Twilight's apology, she didn't really want to get mad at any of them. ”And it was just nice having a part of you here with me." Twilight took the hat off her head and offered it back to Applejack, who took it and placed it back on top of her own head. ”It's alright sugarcube. I know we don't get the chance to hang out much, with how busy you and I both are..." An idea sprung to her mind, "Here, how about this.“ She untied the Bandana she had put around her neck at the start of the day and tied it around Twilight's neck instead. ”I know its not quite as special as my hat, but, I hope you appreciate it anyways," she smiled lightly at her marefriend, "and you can trade it around all you want.“ she chuckled. Twilight looked joyfully at Applejack and put a hoof against the bandana she had been given. ”Oh, its perfect Applejack, thank you so much.“ Twilight pulled her into a tight hug. ”Awh, its nothin sugarcube, really.“ They pulled apart before Twilight leaned back in to give Applejack a small kiss on the snout. ”Ah w-well- I gotta get back to the farm. -Although we should really have a talk later about y'all taking my clothes” Applejack exclaimed, stuttering over her words slightly from the unexpected affection. Both of them said their goodbyes before Applejack headed back off, finally having acquired Tallulah once again.
As she entered Sweet Apple Acres, a confused Big Mac stood in front of her, clearly wondering why she had ended up being gone so long. ”Look, lets just say I'm gonna need to have a talk with a certain five ponies about not trading my hat around the whole of Ponyville later today.“ Big Mac chuckled at her answer, finding it satisfactory enough for now. and both of them wandered off to continue - or for certain ponies - start their farm work for the day.