Homesick

It was an absolutely perfect day – Work on the farm was done well before sundown for once, and there was now a peaceful serenity surrounding the farm-girl and she lie in the tall, unkempt grass of Sweet Apple Acres. Her arms were folded behind her head, her signature hat pulled forward so it would carefully shield her eyes from the sunlight, and she had her knees bent up, her right leg draped across the left. The skies were mostly clear, although an occasional cloud would roll by, temporarily lending the young apple farmer some shade, before drifting along. Applejack let out a soft sigh as she continued to chew a piece of hay. It wasn’t often she got this kind of peace and tranquility, no. Usually, work was hectic, not to mention the fact she had to chase a toddler around the farm on top of all that. But today no more work, no Applebloom, no nothing. Applejack could finally take a moment to just relax and unwind…Or, so she thought.

“Hey!” An unfamiliar voice broke the silence, causing Applejack to shift a bit. Must have just been a Pegasus flying overhead or something…

“Let me go you idiot! Don’t touch me!”

Applejack let out a heavy sigh, and finally sat up. She kept her legs crossed for a moment while she readjusted her hat, and rubbed her eyes, hoping that would help her become acclimated to the sunlight again. She finally stood up, and followed the voice through the orchard.

“Ahm just tryna help” The eldest apple farmer pleaded – “Y’seemed to have had a pretty nasty fall”. The young man’s hands were placed under the pegasus’ armpits, he was holding her up as if she were a wet cat – dangling away from him and struggling to get out of his grip. She stopped struggling when she heard some familiar voices call out – “Where did Rainbow Crash go?!”

“Just let me go!” The Pegasus finally managed to elbow the farm boy, prompting him to drop her. She fell to her knees, but was quick to get back up and start running.

‘What in tarnation is goin’ on with Big Mac down there?’ Applejack watched as the rainbow-haired Pegasus desperately escaped from his grip, and bolted.  She noticed the other girl was making a clean break in her direction, and decided to maneuver at just the right moment to cut her off. Luckily, the Pegasus had her head turned away, looking over her shoulder to see if the boy had been following her. Before she could react, the blonde girl had stepped in her way, and put her hands out to stop the impact of the sprinting Pegasus. Unfortunately, they were both knocked to the ground, the young Pegasus atop the farm girl - Applejack was quick to react though. As she saw the other girl turn and push off the ground, she wrapped her forearms around her stomach, as if to give her the Heimlich maneuver, and held her against her body.

“Wouldja quit strugglin’!” Applejack could barely keep her grip on the other girl; her wings were flapping and her entire body flailing against her. Luckily, the apple farmer had a few inches on the mysterious newcomer, so she was finally able to wrestle her down onto the ground and keep her still by sitting atop her. “Calm down! I ain’t gonna do anything to you, okay?”

She heard the girl below her mumble something incoherent. “Come again?” Applejack offered.

“I said get off of me! Jeez! You’re crushing my wings!”

“Ah’ll get off of you if you promise you won’t run off again.” She bargained. There was just silence for a moment, but she finally saw the Pegasus nod in defeat. Applejack slid off of the smaller girl, then extended her arm out.

Applejack helped the stranger up, and offered her a quick smile. The colorful Pegasus was avoiding eye contact; instead she just kept her eyes fixated at the ground. She finally lifted her gaze when she saw a hand extended in front of her.

“Name’s Applejack!”

The Pegasus crossed her arms for a moment, and then finally held out her hand to meet the eager grip of the girl adjacent to her. “Rainbow Dash”.

The young blonde chuckled, “Yer name suits ya well…” She pointed at Rainbow Dash’s hair. Her hair, amazingly enough, was a spectrum of colors. All colors of the rainbow, in fact. The farmer had never seen anything like it. It was pulled back in a tight ponytail, but a bit frazzled, considering what had just happened to the girl. The Pegasus simply responded by rolling her eyes. “Anyway…What brings ya to Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Well…” Rainbow Dash started, “I was in a race with some stupid boys from my flight school. After class today they were teasing me, calling me the usual names. ‘Try not to run into anything on your way home, RAINBOW CRASH!’ It ticked me off, so I challenged them to a race, just to the outside of your farm“ - The girl paused for a moment to wipe some of the dirt off of her shirt before continuing. “Anyway…I was pretty far ahead; I couldn’t believe that I was winning! I knew I was getting close to the finish line too, so I started pulling in closer to the ground. I turned my head to the guys, ready to flaunt my victory…But then…”

Applejack stared, eagerly waiting for the young flyer to finish the rest of her story “And…And then what?”

“I…uh…Hit….thssiididbbbrrr” Rainbow Dash mumbled.

“Come again?”

“The side of your barn… I slammed right into the side of your barn!” The Pegasus blurted out. She frowned as she watched the apple famer struggle to keep a straight face. It was to no avail; Applejack lost control and burst out laughing. Dash glared for a few seconds, shaking a bit from embarrassment.

“Shut up! Jeez! You guys are a bunch of morons.” Dash quickly turned away and waved to the girl behind her “I’m going home!”

Applejack’s laughter quickly came to a halt, and she reached out to grab Dash’s upper arm. “Now hold on a second! Ahm sorry I laughed…Ah just couldn’t help myself. I ain’t ever heard of a person runnin’ into a barn before. Are you alright?”

Dash scoffed “I’m fine. The only thing hurt is my pride…”

There was an awkward silence for a moment, neither girl knowing what to say really. “Anyway…” Rainbow finally mumbled, ready to head home and hide herself away for the next year. Before she could continue, Applejack wrapped her arm around her shoulder and pulled her a little closer.

“Why dontchya stay for dinner, sugarcube? Sounds like you had yerself a mighty rough day, maybe a warm meal and some cider will put you in a good mood. Whaddya say?”

Dash looked up at the girl’s face; she had a genuine, warm smile. Her green eyes lit up, they were kind and inviting. It was hard to say no to that…

“I uh…Guess I could stay for dinner. If you wouldn’t mind having me that is…” Rainbow Dash finally let a small smile grace her lips. “Thanks...And…Sorry I called you a moron…”

“Don’t mention it partner. Now let’s go inside and get you cleaned up. Oh, Big Mac’s gonna get kick outta this! Wait ‘til he hears about what ya did!” Applejack began to lightly chuckle at the thought.

“H..HEY! Don’t you dare!”

Applejack began to laugh a bit harder now, and this time, Dash couldn’t help but to join in.

“Come on! I’ll race yuh down to the house. I ain’t ever raced a Pegasus before!”

Dash smiled back the farmer.

“You’re on!”

Seven years had passed since the two had met. Applejack stood quietly in the field, letting the memory play out in front of her for a few moments. She couldn’t help but smile a little bit as she thought about it. She thought back to this day pretty often, actually. Almost any time she was in this part of the orchard. The day she met her best friend was very sentimental to her, but today, she was feeling especially nostalgic, and a bit melancholy.  She let out a jagged sigh, trying to hold back tears. She had been crying most of the morning, pretty much until she had run out of tears and couldn’t take it anymore. She walked Applebloom off to school, and then headed back to the farm to do some work. She found herself too distracted to work though, and decided to start heading back to the house to see what Big Macintosh was up to. She found it difficult to be alone right now, too caught up in her own thoughts and feelings. One week ago, Granny Smith had passed, leaving the young Apple farmers to take over and pick up where she had left off. All of Applejack’s friends and family had come for the funeral, with one small exception…

…Rainbow Dash…Unfortunately, the newest addition to the Wonderbolts was on tour, and although Applejack sent a letter to her best friend, explaining what had happened, and how badly she needed her, she knew Dash was likely not going to make it back in time for the funeral.  No, the now famous flyer was worlds away. She knew it would take days for Dash to get back, and she wasn’t sure if Dash could get time of at all to come home.

Applejack snapped out of her thoughts when she caught Big Macintosh waving at her from afar. The young blonde forced a small smile, and waved back. Applejack had grown into quite a beautiful young lady, standing just a bit shy of six feet tall. She still kept her blonde locks well past her waist, always tied up neatly so it wouldn’t get in her way while working. She never outgrew her freckles either; in fact, they seemed to have multiplied over the years, if anything. Big Mac stood a good six inches taller than his sister, he had a broad body – He was by no means overweight, but he was a big guy – Broad shoulders, thick neck, and forearms the size of most folk’s thighs. Luckily he was as gentle as could be though, a soft spoken farm boy who mostly kept to himself.

“Everything alright, sis?” Mac asked, wiping his brow as his sister approached him.

“Ah guess…I just can’t concentrate on my work right now. I thought maybe you’d wanna take a break and cool off? Have a few drinks?”

Big Macintosh placed his hands on his hips and looked around for a moment, taking in the amount of work he’d gotten done for the morning. He seemed satisfied by it, and nodded. “Eeyup”

A few hours had passed, and Big Mac decided he ought to head back out and finish up some work before nightfall. He assured his sister it was just fine if she wanted to stay in and relax a bit – It had been a very stressful week, after all. She decided to retire to the front porch and watch the sun set; it was a good way to clear her mind. She meandered in her own thoughts for a while, silently staring down at her feet while gripping a beer with both hands. After several minutes she was pulled away from her thoughts when she heard feet shuffling towards her, and suddenly, a shadow was just touching the tip of her feet.

“Done with work already, Big Mac?” Applejack asked softly, not breaking her concentration from the ground.

“AJ?”

Her heart skipped a beat. Applejack’s head shot up, and there she was, wearing an apologetic smile on her face. She looked almost ashamed to be there, but tried to seem somewhat upbeat for her friend.

“Rainbow?”

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words seemed to fall short between both of them after that brief exchange. Rainbow Dash’s rose-colored eyes locked with Applejack’s emerald irises for a moment, before Dash attempted to break the awkward silence again.

“So…” The Pegasus was never good with words. It was one of her shortcomings, she was bold enough to take on any physical challenge, do any dangerous stunt, but when it came time to say something meaningful to her closest friend, she just drew a blank.

Luckily Applejack butted in, taking the reins of the conversation.

“What’re you doin’ here?” The cowgirl’s tone was a fair mix of confusion, and irritation.

Rainbow frowned back at her friend, not really sure how to respond to that. “What…Do you mean? I came here for you…I got your letter…” She began to dig into the messenger bag attached at her shoulder, as if her friend had forgotten she had written it.

“That’s not what ah mean, Dash. Ah mean…I’m glad to see ya, but…How did you manage to get time off to come home? I figured I wouldn’t be seein’ the likes of you ‘til you were retired.” Applejack meant that somewhat jokingly, but there was also some sincerity in that thought.

Dash looked somewhat hurt by the comment, but figured it wasn’t the time to get snippy or argue with her friend. It was time for her to set aside any negative feelings, and stay positive – For Applejack. Besides, she expected some snide comments like that when she returned. She had been gone for almost a year, only to be heard from through letters, or occasionally her friends got the pleasure of reading a quick article about her in the papers.

It took Dash a moment to gather her thoughts, and she tried to force a smile back on her face before responding. “Well…Uh…” Nothing came to mind… ‘Oh screw it!’ Dash couldn’t keep the comments to herself, she was gonna let AJ have it.  “Seriously, AJ? You didn’t think I’d come home when my best friend needed me?”

“Well ah…”

“I was worried sick. The moment I got your letter I went straight to Spitfire and told her I had to get home. She wasn’t happy, no, but she understood. I even missed the last show of the season, but I didn’t care.” She stopped for a moment to grab the letter from her bag, and waved it in front of her best friend’s face. “You said you needed me, and I came home. Now that I’m home, you’re acting like you don’t want me around? You know – “

“Dash” Applejack finally interrupted. The Pegasus continued her rant for a few more seconds, before the blonde got fed up and finally stood up. That shut her up for a second – Applejack could definitely be intimidating. She was a good few inches taller than her winged friend, and when she was furrowing her brows like that…

“I…”

“Shut up.” Applejack snapped “I didn’t mean tah hurt your feelings, you bird brain…I just…”

Rainbow’s heart suddenly sank into her stomach. She watched as tears started to well up in the cowgirl’s eyes – Applejack pulled her Stetson over her face, hoping to hide the inventible from her friend. She lowered her hat to her side when she felt Rainbow pull her into an embrace. At first, she hesitated to return the gesture, but a few moments later couldn’t take it anymore. She gripped her friend, so hard she heard the air expel from Dash’s lungs, as if she’d had the wind knocked out of her for a second. Then, she buried her head into Dash’s shoulders, and sobbed.

“Ah…Just…Was hurt…And…” Applejack could barely gasp out the words she had been longing to say to her best friend. She took in a deep breath, and tried at it again. “When you didn’t show up to the funeral…”

“AJ…” Dash tried to interrupt, knowing exactly what was coming. It wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Ah just wanted you to be there so bad, Rainbow. Ah needed my best friend there. Ah…Ah know I had my family, and all the girls…But” She stopped again to take a breath, and wipe some of the tears away from her eyes.  “All ah wanted was this! Ah wanted ya’ll to hug me and tell me it’d be alright and…And…I dunno!” At this point, Applejack had her face buried into her friend’s sternum, and she was pounding her fists against her slender shoulders. Dash kept her hands gently placed on her hands hips, waiting for the tantrum to end.

“I would have given anything to be there, Applejack” the young flyer reassured her friend, and pulled her into a hug again. “You know that. You know I was halfway across the world. I wish more than anything I had been right here, not sitting on a train for days worrying about you.”

“Ah know that…” Applejack sniffled, she felt herself calming down, now that it was all coming out. All of her frustration, all of that excess emotion, everything that had been lingering in the back of her mind for days. “But…It doesn’t make me miss ya any less…Fer years I was so used to you being right here, Rainbow. Always here when I needed ya, and for the first time, you weren’t…And…”

Rainbow was starting to break down, it took a lot to break down the pegasus’ rough exterior, but Applejack had a special way of doing it. Any time she saw her like this…

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, AJ. I’m sorry about Granny Smith, I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I’m never here, I’m sorry about everything. Celestia, I’m terrible friend…”

And with that, AJ lowered her head back into Dash’s sternum, and started crying.

‘Oh jeez…’

The friends didn’t say anything for several minutes. Rainbow Dash simply held her friend, and occasionally stroked her back or hair. Dash honestly preferred this over talking, for a few reasons. When AJ’s sobs became nothing but small hiccups and a few tears, she finally pulled away from her friend’s shoulder. Their eyes met for a second, and as if perfectly timed, both of them smiled softly, and said “Sorry”. They laughed nervously before silence fell between them again.

“You have nothing to be sorry about, AJ” The Pegasus raised her hand to the farm girl’s now pinkish face, and wiped the few remaining tears from her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy and red, and still glazed over with a few tears. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m here now. For as long as you need me.”

“Dash…”

“It’s alright. Our season break was coming up in a week anyway. Like I said, we only had one show left…”

Applejack frowned at her friend, and then playfully hit her on the arm. “Ya missed yer last show? Dash! This is yer first year as a Wonderbolt, ya gotta make a good impression!”

Rainbow Dash was genuinely confused. It was nothing new, though. Applejack had a way of making her feel guilty, no matter the situation.

“Jeez…I can’t win! Don’t come home to be with your friend, you get in trouble. Leave your job to be with your friend, get in trouble!”

For the first time in days, Applejack let out a chuckle. It made Dash’s heart flutter for a moment, then smile a toothy grin at her friend. “Hehe… Anyway, it’s no big deal. I’m not in trouble or anything. I’ll just have to work twice as hard when I get back to show Spitfire I’m still as serious as ever. But that’s not for another month…So…”

“Ah appreciate you offerin’, sugarcube.” Applejack pulled away from the embrace they had been in, and instead just gently rested her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “But ah can’t ask you to drop everything just fer my sake…It was real nice of you to come down here, to be honest….Ah didn’t think you’d be comin’ at all.” She felt guilty saying it, but she was the element of honesty after all. Of course, this made AJ consider that her best friend *was* the element of loyalty, and she should have known better than to think her friend would simply put her on the back burner.

“I won’t take no for an answer, AJ. I’m staying here with you; I don’t care how long it’s for. I mean it.” Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and gave her friend a stern look. AJ chuckled again, and gave a gentle nod. She slipped her Stetson back on, then pulled her smaller friend into another quick embrace.

“Ah wouldn’t expect anything less from the most loyal girl in all of Equestria…”

Rainbow Dash gave the girl a quick squeeze, “You’re darn right!” she mused for a second, then pulled away from the hug.

“C’mon” Applejack was motioning Rainbow towards the house. The cowgirl had grabbed the messenger bag, which had slipped off of the Pegasus and onto the ground without either really noticing. “Let’s getchya set up inside.”