This was far from the first time Rainbow Dash had been called to Sweet Apple Acres.
Granted, being called was unusual. Normally she just showed up, or anticipated that's where everypony was meeting when they weren't at one of the other usual spots, or she snuck there while trying not to disturb the other members of the family when she went to see Applejack at midnight.
But this time, she'd been asked to come. Specifically, purposely, and at this exact time. That was abnormal.
It wasn't a big deal, though. She was Rainbow Dash, after all - getting to Sweet Apple Acres was barely five minutes even if she kept at a leisurely pace, and more Applejack was always good.
Of course that thought led in very quick succession to thinking other thoughts about Applejack, which was why Dash plowed straight through a cloud. Fortunately, nopony saw it aside from the mailmare and Rainbow knew that Derpy would never hold a minor crash against her. They had an understanding.
Arriving at Sweet Apple Acres in just over five minutes (stupid cloud), Dash glided down to make a gentle landing next to the porch. She'd been lectured by Granny Smith previously that the next time she'd arrived by diving in through a window there would be a broom involved - that had just seemed like a challenge to Dash and she hadn't listened, which is why the floor of the Apple family barn was currently spotless. Granny said next time it would be the mop, and that was warning enough for the pegasus.
Before she could knock, the door swung wide - Applejack was waiting. "Now that's a surprise. Rainbow Dash, punctual." Of course, she grinned the entire time she spoke. Dash shot her own rakish smile right back before both expressions were crushed under a kiss.
"So, you wanted me?" Dash waggled her eyebrows as she pulled back - Applejack gave her a friendly punch to the shoulder.
The two moved inside laughing, going past a dour-faced Granny Smith. The Apple elder didn't say anything, instead opting to merely roll her eyes at the lack of seriousness between the pair. But it didn't bother either pony - they were used to Granny being a little tart.
Still merry, both Applejack and Rainbow Dash dropped into their usual seats at the Apple family dinner table - Applejack's long established, and Dash's fairly recently moved in beside her. Dash only had the table's corner to work with, but she'd refused to be shifted. After all that would mean moving away, and the narrow space gave her the excuse of being able to easily grab extras off of Applejack's plate at meals.
The air was rife with the smell of an impending meal, too - the stove was hot and nopony could deny the scent of warm cinnamon that permeated everything.
Rainbow Dash licked her lips. "So what's the deal, AJ? If you wanted me to come by for lunch all you had to do was ask. No need for this appointment stuff!"
And the cheer died on Applejack's lips. Instead her face set to a far more serious expression - mouth drawn thin and hard. "Sugarcube, we got to talk."
Those words were doom, but Rainbow Dash was not so easily deterred. "Yeah? I'm here, so... talk." She leaned forward, propping one hoof on the table.
Applejack hesitated. She took a deep breath. "So we're together."
"Duh," Dash noted with a roll of her eyes.
Applejack responded with a brief glare to silence the pegasus. "We're together. And Ah want us to stay together. Ah don't know about you, Dash, but what we've got, well. It's something special. Something Ah don't feel like giving up, not ever. And that's why this is important, and why Ah've asked you here."
Leaning close, Dash put a hoof on Applejack's lips to silence her. "Applejack, it's okay. I get it and I totally agree. So, uh, yeah. Wasn't expecting this, but the answer's yes."
An orange hoof batted away the cyan one. "Ah'm not asking you to marry me, ya idiot! You really think Ah'd do that here? In the kitchen?" Applejack waved wildly at the room around them. "Are you crazy?!"
Rainbow Dash - entirely missing the point - grinned. "But you're not saying you wouldn't."
Applejack tossed her hat on the ground. "For the love of Celestia, Dash! Be serious!"
Instantly, Dash's face fell. "..Sorry, Applejack. I didn't mean to..." She took a deep breath, swallowing down the excuses. Instead she set herself to her most serious tone - the same one she kept up when Spitfire was lecturing. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
The farmpony waited for a long moment to be sure there were no more shenanigans before she started again. "Ah've asked you here because, if you're gonna be part of this family like Ah want you to be? You gotta be able to handle some stuff. We've been good together," Applejack noted as a smile finally crept out from behind her dour expression, "And the last thing Ah want is for us to hit something we can't overcome. So - cards on the table, right?"
Eagerly, Rainbow Dash nodded. "Right. No, you're on target, Applejack. If we're going to make this work we gotta be honest with each other. We're a team, right?"
"Right." Which made that cautious smile widen. "So - bein' an Apple. First off, you live on the Acres, you work at the Acres. Ah know you've got Wonderbolts stuff to do and that's gotta be your priority, but this is a family farm so you gotta do your share too. Particularly when harvest season comes 'round and we need every hoof we can get."
Dash rolled her eyes. "AJ, we've been together for how long? You know all you gotta do is ask and I'll be there. I mean, yeah, I might complain a bit but you know I wouldn't leave you hanging. Not even if we weren't, well, us."
Applejack leaned close to nuzzle her marefriend. "Ah know. That's part of why Ah love you." She quickly pulled back and cleared her throat, trying to stay serious and on topic. "Next thing? Early mornings. Ah know you love your naps, but we get up before dawn here and that ain't gonna change." Dash opened her mouth to speak, and Applejack held up a hoof to silence her. "Do not make a joke about tying me to the bed or Ah will remind you in a very direct fashion that Ah know how to use a lasso and you don't."
Rainbow Dash pouted, but grudgingly nodded.
"...Ah ain't gonna force you on our schedule, particularly on days you're not helpin' out around the Acres, but that does mean Ah'm out of bed early and so is everypony else. If you come down at ten, don't expect breakfast to be waiting." Applejack paused, giving a chance for the pegasus to respond.
And Dash nodded again. "Yeah, I'm good with that. You're not asking me to reshape my schedule around yours so it wouldn't be fair for me to expect you to do it around mine. We've made it work so far - I'm not gonna be a jerk like that. Plus I don't sleep that late, you know that. Keeping in top shape isn't easy! I might not be up while it's still dark to buck trees, but I am up at dawn to start doing laps."
Rainbow Dash relaxed. If this was all the talk was about, she had it in the bag! Easy!
Applejack didn't relax, because she knew the hardest part was the next one. "Last thing. Ah don't know if you've noticed, but the Apple family? We eat a lot of apples." Both of them snickered, momentarily derailing before the earth pony got serious again. "That means if you're gonna be here, you gotta learn to like apple foods."
"AJ, how is that even a thing?" Dash rolled her eyes. "I mean, your cooking's awesome, Granny Smith's is even better and both of your siblings are pretty good too."
"All apple foods," came the dire statement.
Then it was there.
The sound reached Rainbow Dash first - the clatter of a full pan on the wood table.
Then it was the feel of the heat - radiating not just the warmth of the oven but also of the love and care put into making it.
Then came the scents - roasted apples and cinnamon and nutmeg and brown sugar.
Finally, the sight as Dash turned to look at it. At the perfect, beautiful apple pie sitting on the table in front of her.
And then her brain started to scream because the only sense left was taste and panic injected itself into her thoughts.
"Uh. Rainbow?" Applejack craned her neck over the table. "You alright?"
Rainbow Dash's highly tuned senses told her that she was on the floor. She wasn't entirely clear on how she got there as she was extremely certain that she'd been sitting in a chair before, but now she was definitively on the floor in what could generously be described as a panic pile. Also the chair was broken. Somehow.
"Fine! Just fine!" She laughed nervously, regaining her hooves. "Everything's great here, yep!"
Applejack raised an eyebrow, expression otherwise Maud-neutral.
"Tooootally fine," Dash insisted, blithely ignoring the wrecked chair she was standing on.
"Rainbow." Applejack's tone was pointedly unamused. "Ah know you don't like pie but aren't you bein' just a bit overdramatic?"
For a moment, Rainbow Dash frowned pensively. Sure it seemed like she was pouting, but Rainbow knew the truth. She was just gathering her wits to confront this, the latest challenge in their relationship! And she could overcome any obstacle. "I'm not. Pie is my mortal enemy, that's all."
Somehow, Applejack managed to become even less amused. "And why is that," she asked with a dryness that desiccated nearby plant life.
"Because..." Rainbow stumbled for a moment. But just a moment. "Because a pie killed my mother! That's why I hate them!"
"Ah've met your mother," Applejack pointed out. "We had lunch with her last week. She's a wonderfully patient mare to put up with ya, and very much alive."
Oh. Right. That was true. But Dash didn't let it stop her! "She got better?"
Applejack facehoofed.
"Why's this so important to you, anyway? It's just a pie! What's the big deal?" Rainbow tried to turn the subject back around, doggedly determined to get the conversation (for once) away from her eating something.
To her surprise, the response wasn't frustration and irritation. No - instead Applejack let out a long sigh and sat herself down at the table again. "As apple farmers, you know a pretty big chunk of our cookin' involves apples. Not all of it - since you embarrassed yourself on that count when Granny served up those dumplings an' you spent half an hour tryin' to guess what sorta apple a potato was."
Dash had the common sense to flush with embarrassment at that memory.
"But a whole lot of our family recipes use apples," Applejack continued. "Some of them're more traditional than others. Apple pie is something my family's had at every holiday far back as even Granny can remember, and it's for dessert most nights." She paused before fixing the pegasus with her gaze. "That is, before you came along."
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but Applejack raised her hoof again. "Ah'm not sayin' that this is some kind of family tradition you're breakin' or that somehow Ah'm hurt because of it. But look at it like this, Dash. Think of your favorite food - now imagine that Ah hate it. Can't stand it. And that near on every night, you're cookin' dinner." She paused. "You wouldn't make that food, right? And that's fine. But a couple of months along and you'd start to miss it." Applejack let out a sigh. "Ah know you don't like pie, Rainbow. Ah can shoulder that, but this affects the rest of the family, too. Ah don't know if Ah've ever seen you even try to eat one. Can you blame me for wantin' to challenge you on it? To be sure?"
The kitchen went quiet after that. Applejack shifted uneasily - Dash simply sat there, eyes downcast.
But in time the pegasus found words. "I never asked you to do that, Applejack. You don't have to skip something you like just because I don't."
"No. But we--Ah wanted to." She reached out, setting an orange hoof on Dash's shoulder. "You're as much a part of this family as Sugar Belle or Big Mac or Apple Bloom or... or me. We do things as a family. Ain't gonna make something knowin' that you'll be there, tapping your hooves while you watch us enjoy ourselves. That ain't right. That ain't our way."
Rainbow Dash touched her hoof to Applejack's outstretched fetlock. "And I don't want to deny you stuff you like just because I think it's gross. It's like I said before - You're not asking me to reshape my schedule around yours so it wouldn't be fair for me to expect you to do it around mine. So I'm not gonna ask you to reshape your meals around what I like. That's not fair to anypony."
A thin, wry smile came to Applejack's lips. "Ah'm doin' this whole thing stupid, aren't Ah."
"Kinda are," Dash confirmed with a grin.
They both shared a quiet laugh as the pie on the table beside them continued to fill the air with warmth and cinnamon. After a few moments, Applejack leaned in and kissed Dash's cheek. "Alright. A deal for ya, sugarcube. You eat one bite of this pie so Ah can have the peace of mind that you've given it a fair shake. If you don't like it, Ah'll never bring it up again."
"Only if you swear that you won't keep forcing your entire family to give up pie for me," Dash countered.
Applejack rolled her eyes - but she also nodded in agreement. A slice of pie was cut and laid out.
So Rainbow Dash did what she always did when she was given a challenge: she rose to the occasion. She stabbed her fork into the heart of the beast, tearing out a generous chunk. It dripped, thick with ichor and pale flesh. Taking a deep breath, she brought it to her lips - and paused. "You know," she noted, "This is the second time I'm eating a pie for friendship."
Applejack scoffed. "This is a bit more than friendship, featherhead."
And then Dash bit the bullet and her fork. The world - and her stomach - swam. But Rainbow Dash was no quitter, and she was eating the pie for love. So she swallowed.
A long, pregnant pause followed.
Rainbow Dash set the fork back down. "Sorry, AJ."
Leaning in once more, Applejack kissed Dash's cheek - and licked off a stray bit of apple near her mouth. "Thank you for trying, darlin'."
And that was the end of that.
Mostly.
Two weeks later, Rainbow flapped her wings to bring herself down to another soft landing beside the porch. Inside, the sounds of the Apple family at dinner echoed out, slightly indistinct and muffled from the intervening walls. Screwing up her courage, Dash clomped to the front door and knocked.
Applejack was (fortunately) the one to open it, pulling the door wide. She blinked in surprise. "Rainbow?"
Dash quirked a little smile and held out her contribution to the evening's meal. "Cloudberry," she noted about the pie in her hooves. "Made it myself."
Author's Note
Part of any real relationship are those little moments of disconnect between people, and part of keeping that relationship is learning to bridge the gaps.
Only rarely making a food you like that they don't.
Keeping the temperature a few degrees off your preference because they like it just a touch cooler or warmer than you do.
Putting up with how they set the clocks ten minutes ahead of the real time because they're sure it helps them get motivated and do things on time.
Stories of romance often forget those little disagreements, and they're some of the most important parts of a relationship. Because it's those tiny, seemingly meaningless sacrifices and adjustments that really show how much you care about someone. And how you don't set the clocks to the proper time even though it irritates the hell out of you because you love that damn adorable idiot.
Also, a special thanks to Damaged, who found the exact time and date of my first FIMFiction publish (August 28th, 00:00:01 UTC) so I could try and publish this one at the same timeslot.
