My Heart Won't Let Go

by CommissarAJ

Rating: teen
Tags: Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Romance
Length: 22101

Applejack and Rainbow Dash are the best of friends. Together, they've shared dreams, joys, hardships, and more. But there's one thing Applejack hasn't shared...

Applejack has always been a patient pony; it came with being a farmer. So when the farmer found herself falling head over hooves in love with her best friend, she was content to wait for the right moment to tell Rainbow Dash how she felt.

But now time is running out, and Applejack is left scrambling not to find the perfect time, but any time at all.

An entry for the AppleDash Content

Published 2013-08-14 16:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-14 16:30:02 UTC

Chapter One

My Heart Won’t Let Go

by CommissarAJ

Chapter One

There’s a saying in the Apple family, and it’s one that I reckon most farmer ponies would be able to relate to: ‘good things take time, but great things happen all at once’. It’s the kind of lesson a pony learns after tending to an apple orchard for so many years. You can’t rush growing an apple; you’ve got to care and tend to it day after laborious day. However, the best things in life have a funny way of jumping on you when you least expect them. Perhaps that’s part of what made them so great. For me, like any farmer, routine and predictability were what I modeled my life after. Surprises had a way of throwing wrenches into my scheduling. Maybe if I was more flexible I wouldn’t have been in the mess that I was.

My name’s Applejack, and I’ve got a problem.

Now it ain’t a problem like I’ve got five acres of trees to harvest and only one afternoon to do it in; that’s a practical problem, and I’m a practical pony. In fact, if that had been my only problem then I wouldn’t have been as nervous as a filly at her first hoedown. And it also wasn’t a problem like ‘what is the airspeed velocity of a swallow?’ because that’s more of a scientific quandary, and that’s the kind of noodle-scratching that Twilight loved to tackle.

No, my problem was a far more personal matter - I was in love. Under normal circumstances, that might have been cause for celebration. Everyone knows that there are few things in Equestria quite as amazing and wonderful as love, except maybe for one of Granny Smith’s fresh-baked zap apple pies. At the heart of my problem, if you’ll pardon the pun, was not the simple fact that I was in love, but it was whom I had fallen for.

I was in love with my best friend, Rainbow Dash, and I couldn’t figure out what to do.

It’s funny, really, when you think about it. I had never once in my life thought that I would be the type to have a problem with love. I had always been an honest pony at heart, and whenever I found a pony that struck my fancy, I went for it. While I have had my ego and heart bruised a few times before, it was never anything that family, friends, and a couple of pints of cider couldn’t help me recover from. So how did it come to be that a pony who has never had a problem giving a straight answer to her friends, even when the truth was ugly, suddenly found herself unable to say three little words to her best friend?

Maybe if Rainbow Dash didn’t spend all her time admiring herself, she would have noticed all the times I had shot glances in her direction, or how I always aimed to spend time with her even for the silliest of reasons (because if I really needed help harvesting apples, there were a million better qualified ponies than Rainbow Dash to call upon). I wore my thoughts as plainly as I wore my hat, but Dash couldn’t take a hint if you delivered it to her gift-wrapped with a bow. Sadly, I can’t blame my problems on Rainbow Dash, even if she might have noticed were she not spending so much of her time with that pretty little head of hers in the clouds. I’ve only got myself to blame for this mess.

Love, like most great things, had a strange way of sneaking up on you when you weren’t looking. I had always pictured myself going for some tall, dark, muscular stallion with strong work ethics and a chest so rigid you could crush apples against it. That was the kind of pony that would have been ideal for having on the farm and raising a family with. So how did a lazy, self-centered pegasus enter the picture?

Somewhere between our crazy antics, ego-baiting dares, and long hours in the orchard, I had come to rely on the pegasus, but not just for her ability to kick clouds about or sweep up apples, but for the emotional comfort and familiarity. Even when she teased me by singing that silly ‘Who’s a Silly Pony?’ song brought a strange sense of solace with it. Rainbow Dash was my best friend, and there wasn’t a pony I trusted more than her, even if she was be a bit brash and reckless. She made me laugh and things were never boring with her around. I couldn’t point to the exact moment where my feelings for her shifted from friendship to puppy-love infatuation to head-over-hooves in love, but the first time I was consciously aware of how I felt was during the ‘Running of the Leaves’ a few years back.

Everypony knows that I’ve got a competitive streak that runs from here to Canterlot when it comes to sports, but I like to think that I can take defeat with dignity and grace. With Rainbow Dash, however, you weren’t worth her time if you couldn’t keep up. She went where she wanted to, and if you were too slow then you get left behind. Losing the ‘Running of the Leaves’ to any other pony wouldn’t have been an issue aside from a bruised ego, but losing to Rainbow meant, to me, that I was somehow unworthy of her. The idea that Rainbow might not want to spend time with a slowpoke pony was silly but terrifying nonetheless. By the time the race ended, I wasn’t trying to prove that I was better than her, but rather trying to prove that I was worth her time. It was that day that I realized that my feelings towards Rainbow Dash were a bit more than just friendliness and over-competitiveness.

I should have said something back then, back when I wasn’t weighed down by so many doubts. Now every time I want to tell her, I get so nervous I can barely squeak, let alone talk. She’s my best friend, after all; one wrong step and I could damage that friendship. That thought alone scared me more than windigoes making camp in my orchards. I thought about talking to Rainbow during the big wedding at Canterlot, but with the whole Changeling invasion, I got a little sidetracked. By the time I worked up the courage, Rainbow was dancing with that Wonderbolt fellow and I lost my nerve. I guess even Rainbow had trouble resisting a stallion in a uniform.

I wanted to just be able to walk up to Rainbow Dash’s home, knock on her door, and tell her flat-out how I felt, but how was an earth pony supposed to visit a pegasus’ house in the first place? Even if borrowed Twilight’s balloon, I know for a fact that I would just get tongue-tied again. I would lose my nerve and fall back into the comfort of our friendship. Our friendship was my greatest boon and my biggest obstacle. Trying to get beyond it was harder than getting out of a warm bed on a cold winter morning. It was a trap of my devising. I was neck deep in indecision, and I couldn’t get loose.

And that was why I was in Canterlot, sitting in the jam-packed Celestial Gardens Arena next to Rainbow Dash in a box seat that cost me close to a month’s worth of savings, watching a Wonderbolts show that I could barely follow.

“Oh, wow! Did you just see that Flying Anvil manoeuvre?” Rainbow squealed in girlish delight as her favourite fliers swept over our heads.

The box seats I had bought for the occasion brought us so close to the stadium floor that we could feel the heat radiating off of Spitfire’s contrail whenever she zoomed by. A younger version of myself would’ve chastised me without mercy for spending so much money on tickets when cheaper seats would have been just as good. Seeing Rainbow smile as she cheered on her heroes, however, was worth the price of admission. Besides, the seats were a lot more comfortable than the regular aisle chairs, which was important if you were going to be sitting on your butt for a few hours with your neck cranked up to the sky.

Another passover by the Wonderbolts got Rainbow so excited that one of her wings hit me in the face. “Ohmygosh! Did you just see that?”

“Eyup, that sure was impressive,” I lied as I pushed my absent-minded friend’s wing aside. Lucky for me, Rainbow was too busy staring skywards, otherwise she would have seen ‘liar’ written across my face, along with a faint fluster. Actually, if she had noticed then maybe it would’ve forced the issue out of me, but with Rainbow more captivated by the show, she wouldn’t have noticed if I wrote ‘I love you’ on a piece of paper and stapled it to her forehead.

“You gotta watch this, AJ! Spitfire’s about to do her famous ‘Rising Phoenix’. It’s so awesome!” Rainbow was close to lifting out of her seat, and would’ve too were her wings not rigid in excitement and anticipation.

To be honest, my knowledge of fancy flying came solely from Rainbow Dash. I didn’t mind listening to her talk about the sport, but as an earth pony who’s spent her entire life with at least one hoof on the ground, most of the lingo went over my head. I never complained, of course, because I just liked listening to Rainbow talk. For a lazy pegasus, she sure was passionate about flying. Just seeing the excitement in her eyes when she talked about it made me forget that I couldn’t tell the difference between a barrel roll and a barrel of cider. All those twists, turns, and loop-de-loops just made my head spin. I’d probably get airsick if I ever tried flying like that.

My curiosity about this particular stunt of Spitfire was not something I had to tolerate for long. The Wonderbolt Captain went into a steep dive, almost plummeting straight towards the earth, but then suddenly pulled up at the last second, creating giant waves of vibrant flames that flashed outwards from her wings. I may have not understood flying, but it was still mighty impressive to me.

Rainbow Dash cheered so loudly, I had to pull my hat down a bit just to keep my ears safe. I never got bored watching her jump out of her seat in joy. “Oh man, this is the best night ever!” she proclaimed at the top of her voice.

“Sure is, Dash; it sure is,” I agreed, though a cheer from the surrounding crowds drowned my voice out. Making tonight the best night ever for her had been a part of the plan. Spending time with my friend, laughing and joking about, made me feel a bit more relaxed, and I hoped that would be enough for me to work up the nerve to tell her the truth.

“Okay, you’ve got to see this next one; Soarin’ does an amazing reverse Barnstorm Twister!” Rainbow exclaimed, once again edging herself to the very boundaries of her seat.

“Come on, AJ! You can do this. Just like you practiced,” I silently reminded myself as I continued rallying what courage hadn’t yet fled. Too bad a bathroom mirror was no replacement for the real deal. “Say, Rainbow Dash, there’s...um, something I gotta ask you.” Not the best way to bring up the subject, I admit, but it was the best I could manage. Unfortunately, the very moment I even thought about what I wanted to say, I felt my stomach tighten faster than Granny’s girdle.

“If you want to go to the bathroom, AJ, you don’t need to ask me,” Rainbow replied without taking her eyes off the action above. “But could you maybe grab me a soda and some nachos on the way back?” I rolled my eyes and resisted the urge to make any snappy comebacks.

I was making the wrong approach, so I used the bathroom request as an excuse to get some air. Between the cheering crowds, the over-enthusiastic announcer on the loudspeakers, and Rainbow’s own play-by-play commentary, it was hard for me to think straight. A chance to step away from the noise would help me think clearly and come up with a new game plan.

I decided to stop by the bathroom to give myself a quick pep talk at the mirrors.

“Come on, Applejack. You gotta bring your A-game for this one.” Once again, my reflection helped to give me some sense of reassurance, but it felt like a poor comparison to the real challenge. “Remember, AJ, you run a great business, have a good sense of humour, you’re fit as a fiddle, and you’re pretty darn good-looking to boot. You ain’t got nothing to be scared of.” Thankfully, with the Wonderbolts doing all of their big stunts, everyone was too glued to their seats to make a trip to the little filly’s room so I had free reign to take all the time I needed. “Just go up there and tell her. No small talk! No distractions!”

I did allow myself the small distraction of checking myself over in the mirror. In hindsight, perhaps I should have asked Rarity for some advice on how to make myself more enticing to Rainbow, but I worried that if I was too upfront at the start then Rainbow might’ve freaked out a bit. She may freak out now but at least I gave our friendship one last hurrah before I potentially put it through the cider-press.

Once I was through with my pep talk, which included telling a confused bystander to mind their own business, I made a detour to the concession stand for drinks and snacks as Rainbow had asked. By the time I returned to my seat, I had all but convinced myself of my new approach.

“Rainbow, I need to talk to you,” I said, firm and steady.

Sadly, while my attention was focused on target, my friend’s priorities were a little different. “Oh, sweet! Nachos!” She didn’t waste any time in helping herself to the snack still balanced upon my back. “You’re the best, AJ.”

Not wanting to get covered in our snacks, I held off on trying to get Rainbow’s attention until I had everything unloaded and was back in my seat.

“Rainbow, I need to tell you something.”

Unfortunately, as I was halfway through my sentence, the Wonderbolts must have done something spectacular because the audience erupted into a thunderous cheer. I couldn’t even hear my own worlds, let alone get them across to my friend.

“What was that?” Rainbow hollered back. She tried to lean in to hear me better, but by refusing to take her eyes off the action above, only a portion of her attention was focused on the increasingly one-sided conversation. “You’re selling what now?”

I tried raising my voice even louder, but the cheering legions of ponies seemed intent on matching me for every decibel. “Rainbow, I like you!”

Rainbow shot a brief glance in my direction before sliding the box of nachos towards me. “Of course, help yourself!”

“No, what I’m trying to say is that I love you!”

“I know! These nachos are the best!” The imagined discussion about nachos prompted Rainbow to shovel another hoofful of the cheesy treat into her mouth. Now I loved nachos as much as the next pony, but I couldn’t wrap my head around how a pony could be so obtuse as to think I needed to proclaim my love for snack foods.

Realizing that, once again, I had taken the worst approach possible to the problem, I sank back into my seat and helped myself to some of the nachos. What was I thinking? An air show was too crowded, noisy, and impersonal for a heart-to-heart conversation. Trying to admit my feelings at such a venue would have been cheesier than the nachos I was nibbling away at.

Not wanting to waste my evening, I tried to relax and just enjoy the show. I missed about half of it as I was more focused on Rainbow Dash and my own nerves, but even half of a Wonderbolts show was still a spectacle to behold. Watching those pegasi swooping and diving through the air reminded me of all the times I helped Rainbow Dash with her own routines, minus the inevitable ‘help get Rainbow Dash unstuck from the tree’.

Between the nachos and listening to Rainbow’s fangirl squeals, I soon forgot all about my prior woes and was enjoying the company of my best friend once more. I had almost forgotten about the whole reason I had blown half of my savings taking Rainbow Dash out to Canterlot until I felt the sudden warmth of Rainbow’s hoof around my own. I felt my heart do a double-take as my eyes met Rainbow’s. Those vibrant, magenta eyes of hers gave me an eager, expectant gaze. She grinned in the way she always did just when she was about to make a daring move or pull off her flashiest stunt.

I wanted to say something, but she had caught me so off-guard, my words had to fight through a layer of nacho cheese. “Rainbow, I—”

“Come on, AJ!” Rainbow didn’t even give me time to finish before I was hoisted from my seat. Along with her own, she threw my hoof upwards with another elated cheer, timing it in unison with the cascading wave of rising, cheering ponies that ran through the entire crowd. How in blazes did I not see that one coming? Rather than dwell on my embarrassment, I made sure I was more attentive during the wave’s next pass.

My renewed enthusiasm did not go unnoticed by my friend. “That’s more like it,” she said before giving me a playful punch in the shoulder. “For a second there, you looked like you were getting bored.”

“With you around? Not for a second,” I replied in a joking dismissal of Rainbow’s concerns. Perhaps I had been letting myself get too distracted. It would have been selfish of me to let my personal feelings ruin what should have been a fun outing between friends. As the Wonderbolts made their way around the arena for another pass, I got up on my hind legs and cheered until my voice went hoarse. I fell back into the warmth of our friendship; we were both happy, even if my heart did yearn for more.

*******************

By the time the show ended and we shuffled back out onto the Canterlot streets, the sun was already on its way down, but one could get the mistaken impression that the day was still in full swing given how my friend bounced down the streets. Most ponies got sluggish in the waning hours of the day, and yet Rainbow Dash was more energetic than ever.

“And did you see that finisher? What an athlete! Spitfire has got to be the second-best flier of all times!” Rainbow exclaimed while her excitement threatened to carry her off into the clouds. Earth ponies may have been known for their resiliency, but even I was having a hard time keeping pace with my friend.

“I know, Rainbow, I was there the whole time,” I said as I held back a small chuckle. Lucky for us, the streets of Canterlot weren’t as crowded during the evening, and once we got a few blocks away from the arena itself, I no longer had to worry about my friend carelessly flying into somepony.

“One day, I’m going to be up there with them.” Going into her boastful, day-dreaming mode, Rainbow Dash hooked her hooves around a nearby lamppost, performing a quick spin around it before hanging off the side like she was about to burst into song. “I’ll be the best Wonderbolt there ever was, and everypony will be cheering my name.”

“Just don’t you go forgetting about the ponies who’ve been cheering for you since the start,” I reminded my friend in the hopes that one day, she’d understand the concept of humility.

“Like I would ever forget my friends.” To no surprise, Dash dismissed the notion altogether. I refrained from reminding her how she behaved when she thought she was the greatest thing to grace Ponyville since Mr. Cake mastered his half-hour cupcake recipe. “Besides, you’d come to my shows, right?”

For a second, I thought I heard a hint of hesitancy laced through my friend’s voice. “Of course, I’d go. Wouldn’t miss them for the world.”

“Knew I could count on ya!” Whatever doubt may have crept up on my friend, it disappeared just as quickly. She hopped off from her perch, doing a small backflip through the air, and resumed her trot down the street alongside me. “After all, somepony’s got to show them how to do a proper Rainbow Dash cheer.”

“Heaven forbid we let that happen,” I joked, which prompted us both to fall into a chorus of laughter.

“So where are we going anyways?” Rainbow asked a few minutes later. I was wondering when curiosity would finally catch up to her given that we were walking in the opposite direction of the castle, where Princess Celestia had been so kind as to loan us a room for our stay.

“I thought a nice little drink at a tavern would be a good way to end the evening,” I elaborated. “I asked Shining Armour where the best watering holes were around town, and he said this place called ‘The Gilded Trough’ was a favourite for him and the rest of the Royal Guards.”

Rainbow raised a puzzled brow. “Sounds kinda fancy, and by fancy, I mean boring.”

“Hey, if Shining Armour says it’s a good place then I’m going to take his word on it,” I insisted. While there were plenty of places to get a drink that I would describe as ‘boring’ or ‘hoity-toity’, I figured a Royal Guard would prefer the kind of watering hole where a good drink was measured by how long it left you gasping for breath rather than how expensive the glass it came in was. Maybe after a pint or two, I’d be able to get all those doubting voices in my head to shut up for a few seconds.

Finding the Gilded Trough wasn’t as difficult as I had feared it would. Canterlot wasn’t the easiest place to navigate without Twilight or Rarity acting as a guide, but Shining provided decent enough directions that we were able to find the tiny little tavern tucked away beneath a bookstore called the ‘Twilight’s Sparkle’.

“We should totally take Twilight to this place,” Rainbow commented when we stopped for a brief moment outside the bookstore. We both thought it was rather curious that a bookstore would have blacked out windows, but we just figured it was some kind of specialty shop. A pity it was closed, otherwise I would’ve picked up a gift for Twilight. I made a mental note to swing by the place again tomorrow if I had the time.

As for the Gilded Trough, when I asked Shining for a place warm and intimate to have a drink with a friend, he seemed to take that to the extreme. The interior was not much bigger than Sugarcube Corner, and the bulk of it was dedicated to the bar itself, which was constructed in a fashion that honoured the tavern’s namesake. And despite there being fewer ponies present, it felt just as loud and intrusive as the air was thick with drunken revelry, body odour, and the faint aroma of fried pub fare. The fine layer of hay and sawdust on the ground kept my hooves dry, but it made me wonder, at first, what happened on such a regular basis as to necessitate the precaution. It took me four steps to discover first-hoof why that was the case.

“M-maybe we should find someplace else,” I suggested as I discretely wiped the mess off the bottom of my hoof. As much as I wanted a close environment, I could barely hear myself think, let alone talk. As much as I dreamed of shouting my love from the rooftops, I did not want to have to literally shout in order to make my feelings known. While I had my reservations, Rainbow’s eyes lit up upon her entrance.

“Are you kidding, AJ? This place looks awesome!” I should not have been surprised that Rainbow jumped at the chance for the party-like atmosphere. She didn’t even wait for my response before she swooped over to the bar, deftly weaving through the crowds of patrons, and waved the bartender down. “A bottle of your finest whiskey!”

The bartender was a gruff-looking stallion with a chin about the size of an anvil and covered in enough scruff to double as a cheese-grater. “I wouldn’t exactly describe any of my whiskeys as ‘fine’,” he replied in a voice that left little doubt as to his experience with whiskey.

“Then a bottle of your most expensive!”

“That’ll be a hundred bits up front.”

Rainbow was nearly floored as fast as if she had taken a shot of the aforementioned whiskey. She made the wise decision in changing her order. “Um...how about a bottle of the second-cheapest then?”

Despite my insistence, I couldn’t talk my friend out of buying the bottle, or even allowing me to share in the cost. She said it was ‘her treat to me’, though I would have preferred a cold pint.

“Try not to drink it too quickly,” the bartender warned as he poured out a couple of glasses for us then set the bottle aside.

Whether or not Dash heard the warning was irrelevant as she fell into her seat before her glass and eyed it like a cat hovering over a new toy. “Twenty bits says I can drink you under the table, cowgirl,” she said as she threw down the gauntlet with her gaze.

Downing drinks that were two steps away from being used a paint-thinner had not been my intention for bringing Rainbow here. However, once the challenge had been laid out, I couldn’t back down without the risk of losing face in front of Dash.

“Ha! You think a light-weight like you has a chance?” I knew I was going to regret this decision, but I couldn’t think of a reasonable excuse to back down, especially after Rainbow Dash had already paid for the whole bottle. I figured I may as well give it my all and hope for the best.

*******************

As far as bad decisions went, engaging in a whiskey drink-off with Rainbow Dash ranked somewhere between wrestling a mad bull and breaking a Pinkie promise. Within an hour, both of us had drank enough whiskey to stun a small elephant, and Rainbow had decided to start regaling the other patrons with how she saved Canterlot during the Changeling invasion. It was entertaining up until the point where she tried to reenact the climactic moments and wound up crashing into the jukebox.

“Ha! Who’s the silly pony now?” I teased.

“I’m okay!” Rainbow was quick to proclaim before she dusted herself off. “I’m still cool to fly.”

She glanced back to the inert jukebox behind her, which now sport a small dent in it thanks to her thick head. Fearing that she may have damaged it, Rainbow gave the jukebox a few shakes followed by a thump with her hoof. To everyone’s surprise, the jukebox sputtered back to life, belting out some classic rock songs.

“See? Good as new,” Rainbow reassured everyone.

“Are you kidding? I haven’t been able to get that blasted thing to work for a month now,” the bartender remarked.

“It just needed the ol’ Rainbow touch,” she said with a chuckle as though hitting the machine with her head had been her plan the entire time. The other patrons probably believed that more than they believed that she once took on ten changelings at once.

“Come on, Rainbow, sit down before you make a bigger mess,” I called out. The drinks hadn’t hit me as hard as they had hit my friend, but I had the advantage of still being in my seat. I reckoned that I would be stumbling a bit, too, if I tried to jump around the tavern.

Despite Rainbow’s crash, the evening hadn’t gone horribly, at least from an objective standpoint. I was still no closer to getting a decent conversation in with Rainbow, but my friend was having a good time, and that was just as important. I stayed at the bar, nursing a watered-down whiskey, and watched as my friend started doing a drunken dance in a small clearing near the jukebox. It was typical Rainbow Dash: giving everything she did her one-hundred-and-ten percent effort, even if it was a silly idea to begin with. There was just so much energy and life in her, and I wanted it for myself..

If I had her kind of fire, I wouldn’t have been sitting at a bar downing glass after glass of liquid courage. While courage may have been lacking, the whiskey was getting other parts of me heated, and I wasn’t just referring to my face, which was likely as red as Big Mac’s behind. Even in her drunken state, Rainbow was more graceful than I ever could be. As selfish as it sounded, a part of me hoped that Rainbow Dash never joined the Wonderbolts; that way I could enjoy her routines all the time without having to deal with crowded stadiums. Did wanting that make me a bad pony?

“Come on, AJ! You’re missing out on all the fun!” Rainbow’s sudden beckoning snapped me out of my train of thought. I had been so busy staring into my drink that I failed to notice my friend trotting over to me until she was already pulling me from my seat.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” I warned with a hint of hesitancy. Normally, dancing shouldn’t have given me pause, but I was worried that the whiskey may have left me with four left hooves.

“What’s the matter? Can’t hold your whiskey?”

I knew what Rainbow was trying to do. She was trying to goad me into going along because she knew my pride wouldn’t allow me to admit to such a weakness. Problem was, despite seeing straight through the least subtle ploy in history, it still worked like a charm.

“In your dreams, flygirl,” I scoffed.

It may not have been a proper hoedown, and I might not have been a ballroom dancer by any stretch of the definition, but when you had enough whiskey in your system, you just stopped caring about how silly you looked. And I had no doubt in my whiskey-addled mind that we looked like quite the pair of fools as we danced about the tavern. Part-way through our drunken reverie, Rainbow decided that she wanted a proper dance partner, and hooked her hoof around my mine.

“Shall we?” she asked rhetorically. I didn’t manage a reply before my friend spun me about until I was wrapped tightly in both of her hooves. Thank goodness the whiskey had already left me flustered, otherwise I might’ve burnt up right then and there. A part of me wondered if Rainbow pulled the move simply because the other patrons were now cheering us on, and she was just doing what she always did in front of an adoring crowd. Either way, I wasn’t going to complain since Rainbow didn’t give me much time to think before twirling me back out to hoof’s length.

“Pretty good hoofwork for a pony who couldn’t even walk to the lou,” I joked as the two of us started a quick shuffle across the dance floor. “I’m surprised you ain’t tripping over yourself.” I figured two ponies could play the goading game, and if I could get a nice dance with my friend, then where was the harm in a little teasing?

In a clear attempt to test my balance, Rainbow twirled me about in a very quick pirouette before swinging me across the floor. I managed to hold my own, however, though I was forced to keep a slightly tighter rein on my dance partner in order to keep my balance.

“Ha! That’s funny considering how you danced back during the wedding. You couldn’t dance to save your life,” Rainbow retorted as we did a few twirls about each other. It became apparent that our dance was just another contest between us; another test to see who could outperform and outlast the other. I could see the same fiery passion in her eyes; the glint in her eyes whenever a challenge was set before her. For me, it was just another test to show that I could match Rainbow step for step.

“I could dance rings around you!” Feeling embolden, I pulled back a bit and lunged at my dance partner. Without missing a beat, Rainbow caught me, holding me aloft as we spun in slow circles. Each rotation brought me closer to the ground, until I was being held low by my friend with our faces just mere inches apart.

Rainbow’s lips were curled into a smirk in the way that she always did when she felt triumphant. I froze in her hooves as she stared into my eyes. I could feel her breath against my face, hot and tinged from the whiskey. Those tender blue lips of hers were so close I could almost taste the drink on her breath. All I needed to do was just lean in and close that tiny gap. This was probably a crazy plan, but it was the best shot I had. Before doubt could creep in my mind, I closed my eyes and went for it.

“Hey! Somepony fixed the jukebox.”

The unfamiliar voice may not have caught my attention, but it did catch that of Rainbow, who let out a startled gasp before unceremoniously dropping me onto the floor.

“Ohmygosh, it’s Soarin’!” Rainbow blurted out. I didn’t need her to point that out as I could plainly see the famous Wonderbolt flier standing in the doorway of the tavern. To me, it was strange to see him without his usual flightsuit on, but between the wind-slicked mane and the goggles hanging from around his neck, it was hard to mistake him for anyone else.

“Salty, I thought you said the ol’ girl was dead for good this time,” Soarin’ continued as he turned his attention to the barkeep. The casual familiarity with which he addressed the bartender suggested that the Wonderbolt shared a similar taste in taverns as the Royal Guards.

“I thought so too, but then that one over there managed to give it the right thump,” the bartender answered as he motioned with a free hoof to Rainbow Dash. Soarin’s gaze shifted over to us, or at least to Rainbow since my butt was still on the ground.

If the Wonderbolt was surprised by my friend’s presence, he didn’t let it show. If anything, the other pegasus looked intrigued as he sauntered over. Given that Rainbow was too slack-jawed in awe to bother helping me up, I scampered out of the way before he trotted over my flank. With each closing step, it looked like Rainbow was about to break down into another bout of starstruck gushing.

“Well, well, well...Rainbow Dash,” the Wonderbolt mused upon reaching my friend. “First you save my life, then you save my pie, and now you’ve saved my favourite jukebox. It seems like good things keep happening whenever I run into you.”

“What can I say? I’m just that good,” Rainbow replied as she took the opportunity to strut her stuff like a young peacock with fresh tail feathers. “Maybe its fate trying to tell you that we should hang out more often.” She played it cool by not completely throwing herself at Soarin’, but I worried that Rainbow was trying to audition for more than just a spot on the Wonderbolts when it came to him. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit threatened by Soarin’s presence, but Ponyville politeness kept me from making a fuss over it. Besides, what was I going to do: tell him to buzz off? It was the Canterlot wedding all over again except with less of Pinkie’s tutti-frutti sherbet sugar punch.

Soarin’ chuckled at my friend’s bravado. “Who am I to argue against fate? Don’t suppose I could buy you a drink, maybe?”

Rainbow and Soarin’ having a drink? Needless to say, my mind jumped to the worst possible conclusions faster than Pinkie jumping on a black forest gateau. I didn’t want to be a stick in the mud, but I knew who was going to wind up being the third wheel in this wagon.

“I think Rainbow has had enough to drink for one night,” I said as I tried to place myself between the two pegasus. “Very kind of you to offer but,” I paused to fake a yawn as best I could, “it is getting mighty late, and we’ve got an early train to catch tomorrow.”

“Speak for yourself,” Rainbow scoffed before pushing me aside. “If you want to go back to the castle, go right ahead. This pegasus can fly all night long!” I should have known better than to try and use such a weak excuse. Rainbow would have walked across broken glass if it meant spending time with a Wonderbolt. And could one blame her? Soarin’ was a stallion in his prime with good looks, great physique, fame, and fortune all to his name. Heck, if I weren’t trying so hard to catch Rainbow’s attention, I would’ve enjoyed the extra company too.

Without a metaphorical leg to stand on, I fell silent as I watched Soarin’ lead Rainbow back to the bar.

“Were you in town to catch our show?” Soarin’ asked.

“Hay yeah! Best show of the season, too!”

As Soarin’ wound up taking my seat at the bar, I had to relocate to another chair, which kept me on the periphery of their conversation. I called upon a double-shot of whiskey to help me cope with the horrible sinking feeling that I was getting. I tried not to pay too much attention to their conversation; most of it was about famous fliers or aerobatic tricks so it was all nonsensical jargon to me. As the evening dragged on, the atmosphere inside the tavern became more manageable and peaceful. With fewer patrons, the noise levels died down to the point where one could hold a conversation without having to shout. I spent most of my time just staring at the amber pool at the bottom of my glass, watching how the light reflected off its surface as it swirled about its container with every motion. Now would have been the perfect setting to broach the dreaded subjected, but Rainbow’s attention was too fixated on the stallion next to her to notice a marching band if one passed by.

Another missed opportunity. Of all the taverns in this city, I had to to walk into the one that was frequented by one of Rainbow’s idols. Perhaps that was part of the whole reason that Shining suggested it in the first place. Why did he have to be such a thoughtful and considerate stallion?

The newfounded tranquility in the tavern came to an abrupt halt when another Wonderbolt walked through the door. Actually, it was less of a walk and more of a drunken stumble that almost resulted in the newcomer crashing into a nearby table. Despite wearing what appeared to be pieces of another team’s uniform and a necktie around her head, it was definitely Spitfire that floundered through the door. It looked like she did more than just a few victory laps around the bottle.

“Hey! Hey Soarin’!” the elated Spitfire called out as she scrambled back to her hooves. Judging by the lack of surprise from the other Wonderbolt or any of the patrons, this was not an uncommon occurrence. Spitfire stumbled a few more times, kicking sawdust and loose hay into the air each time, before making it over to her teammate. “Hey Soarin’! Guess how many rounds my drinking contest with Wind Waker went.”

Soarin’, while not looking too eager to play a guessing game, sniffed at the captain’s breath. “Six?” he said as his snout wrinkled in disgust. He did manage to keep a polite overtone, however.

The Wonderbolt Captain grinned from ear to ear, as if she had just won the biggest prize in stunt flying history. “Eleven!” she exclaimed while at the same time throwing up both hooves as if to signify the number with her limbs. Now a sober pegasus would have used their wings to keep upright after lifting half of their limbs, but Spitfire had enough alcohol in her to have her blood reclassified as a medical disinfectant. As a result, she crashed face-first into the sawdust.

“You okay, cap’n?” Soarin’ asked with only a slight pique of concern.

“Gravity is a harsh mistress, my friend,” Spitfire replied, “but she is also a warm and inviting one.” Despite its unsanitary nature, the pegasus seemed content with her new station and curled up on the floor.

Oddly enough, it was her behavior on the floor that seemed to trouble Soarin’ far more than her calamitous entrance or any of the subsequent crashes. He sighed under his breath and gave Rainbow an apologetic look. “I’m terribly sorry, but I think I’m going to have to cut this evening short,” he said. “Somepony needs to put the captain to bed before she does something to get herself in the tabloids again.”

“Hey! That last time was totally not my fault,” Spitfire insisted as she waved an unsteady hoof in the air. “That jerk totally deserved what he got.”

“That jerk was still the Princess’ nephew so it was still a bad idea to throw him into a fountain.” Soarin’s remarks were waved off by the drunken Wonderbolt who mumbled an incoherent slur before letting her hoof drop to the ground like a wet noodle. Soarin’ stepped over to the fallen captain and began tugging at her hoof to prompt her to get back up.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t happy to see that Soarin’ was being forced to leave. In fact, I felt kind of bad taking so much delight in seeing him compelled to do the gentlecolt thing and ensure that his friend and captain was returned home safely. But as I looked over to Dash, I could see the disappointment in her eyes. With any luck, it would be brief and I would be able to fill the void and bring a smile back to her face.

However, that smile came around a lot sooner than I had anticipated. That smile, in fact, made me worry more than anything else.

“Hey, you don’t have to go just yet,” Rainbow said as she hooked her hooves around one of Soarin’s. “Applejack could take her back.”

“She could?” Soarin’ quipped.

I could do what now? It took a considerable amount of willpower on my part to keep the surprise from showing as Soarin’ and Rainbow looked to me for my response. Rainbow Dash was even mouthing the word ‘please’ to me behind the Wonderbolt’s back. My mind scrambled to find a possible way to weasel out of the deal. How could I say no to Rainbow now? As even Spitfire’s droopy eyes gazed up at me, I realized that I had no choice but to do the right thing.

“Of course I could,” I answered with all the enthusiasm I could fake on short notice.

“Thanks! That really means a lot to me,” Soarin’ said with evident relief. “Here, let me write down the address for where the team is staying.”

As I hefted the semi-conscious Spitfire onto my back, her teammate scribbled down an address and some directions on a cocktail napkin for me. Thankfully, pegasus were never very heavy, so managing the extra load was hardly a concern for me.

Once upon my back with her hooves dangling by my sides, Spitfire started flapping her wings in a weak, tired fashion. “See? I’m still cool to fly,” she mumbled.

With my new passenger in tow, I marched a cautious path to the door, careful as to not upset her already impaired balance. With any luck, I’d be able to get the Wonderbolt back to her hotel safe and sound, and still have enough energy to head back to the tavern.

*******************

Fortunately for me, the walk back to the hotel, a Royal Canter Suites, was quiet and uneventful; Spitfire had tired herself trying to fly upon my back and drifted into a peaceful slumber for the majority of the trip. While this made my journey a bit easier, I did not appreciate the fact that the Wonderbolt Captain was something of a drooler when she slept. At the very least, the warm puddle collecting at the back of my neck was giving me ample motivation to finish my task in a prompt fashion.

The Royal Canter Suites was the kind of posh, upper-class hotel that I expected a Wonderbolt to stay in. Red velvet carpets and marble-lined walls greeted my arrival, along with a concierge who looked quite surprised to see a cowpony waltzing through the front door with an unconscious Wonderbolt on their back. He didn’t do anything to impede me, though, so he could think whatever crazy thoughts he wanted about the situation.

Spitfire was eventually roused from her slumber when I arrived at her suite. Now either the Wonderbolts shared rooms or being team captain offered her the perk of having one of the largest hotel rooms I had ever seen: sprawling tapestry, luxurious furniture, and even a complimentary basket filled with enough treats and drinks to make a full-course dinner for my family. It made even my lodgings at the Royal Castle seem quaint in comparison.

“Hey, cowpony girl!” Spitfire suddenly spoke up, which caught me by a bit of surprise as she barked it straight into my ear.

“First off, I have a name,” I replied back as politely as I could despite the auditory trauma. “It’s Applejack. Secondly, you don’t need to shout.”

“Sorry,” the Wonderbolt murmured in response. Her speech wasn’t quite as slurred as it had been before, so I took that as a sign that she had sobered up a little bit since her arrival at the Gilded Trough. “Rainbow Dash is your friend, right?”

I wagered it was rhetorical question from the tone of her voice. “Yes. What about it?”

“She’s not going to try and make any moves on Soarin’, is she? Cause he’s mine...sorta.” Spitfire’s words trailed off afterwards into an incoherent slur. It would seem that I was not alone in my concern over Rainbow Dash and Soarin’ spending the evening together.

“I didn’t know you two were together.” In truth, I wouldn’t have known if they had gotten married and raised kids for how little I paid attention to the aerobatic scene. However, given how much Rainbow knew and talked about them, if there had been something between the two Wonderbolts, it was a well-kept secret from the public.

Spitfire didn’t answer right away as we had arrived at her, and she opted to climb into bed instead. It was less of a climb and more of ‘rolled off my back’, which would have been more effective if she had chosen to roll to the side where the bed was at.

Laying on her back, the pegasus just stared aimlessly at the ceiling. “I wish, but that’ll never happen now. I should’ve taken my chance when the opportunity came, but I chickened out.” The pegasus let out a wistful sigh as I helped her back to her hooves and into her bed. “Maybe things would’ve been different if I had.”

I tried not to pay too much attention to her drunken ramblings. The effects that heavy drinking had on the tongues was ponies was something I was very familiar with thanks to my many years of experience selling cider. The warm, inviting bed soon distracted the pegasus’ train of thought. She smiled contently, if a bit bleary-eyed, before she crawled beneath the sheets until only her tail was visible.

“Should’ve said something when I had the chance,” a soft whimper emanated from beneath the sheets. “If only he...if only...”

Alas, whatever train of thought Spitfire might have been running had gone into the tunnel of sleep. All I heard from her from that point on was a muffled snore. Seemed like I wasn’t the only pony in the world that suffered from a case of the jitterbugs when it came to admitting how we felt. I was about two steps away from joining Spitfire, too. Not in the bed, mind you, but rather drunk and lamenting lost opportunities. Suffice to say, it was not a fate that I wanted.

*******************

I was too late.

When I got back to the Gilded Trough, there was no sign of either Rainbow Dash or Soarin’. According to the barkeep, the two of them left together about fifteen minutes before my arrival, which meant they could be anywhere in the whole dang city by then. Canterlot was way too big of a city to go searching by myself, and it was getting late.

Both emotionally and physically drained, I didn’t see any other option other than returning to the castle. During the lonesome walk back, I tried not to think about all the things that Soarin’ and Rainbow Dash might be doing now that they had their privacy. Unfortunately, my mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion and was soon flooded with a torrent of mental pictures of the two of them getting intimate. Entwined lips, caressing hooves, feathers everything - normally my fantasies about Rainbow Dash didn’t get me so sullen. By the time I reached my room, my brain managed to work through more more fantasies and positions than I had thought possible. How was it I could never get my imagination to be so vivid when I needed it to be?

Before I could slip away—ideally forever, but I would have to settle for just the night—I was spotted by the one pony whose presence I couldn’t ignore.

“Good evening, Applejack. Did you and your friend enjoy the show?” Seeing Princess Celestia shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, given that this was her home and all, but I was nonetheless startled when I heard her voice pop up behind me.

“Oh, Princess Celestia! I...uh, didn’t you see you there,” I replied once I settled down. “The show was, um, good. Yup, it sure was a mighty fine show with all...uh, flying and stuff. It was a good show and a good evening, all in all.”

Now, between Celestia’s centuries of experience and my inability to keep eye contact, it took the Princess exactly half a second to see that I wasn’t being forthcoming with the truth. When she saw this, she looked more disheartened than annoyed.

Celestia looked to me with a most sincere expression of concern. “Applejack, is something troubling you?”

As much as I trusted and respected the Princess, I didn’t feel right getting her involved with my personal issues. If I told her what was bothering me, she would no doubt feel a compulsion to assist. No doubt it was from Celestia that Twilight picked up the same tendency to help her friends whenever possible. I was not going to be a burden to the Princess of all ponies.

“It’s nothing, your Highness,” I insisted. I kept my gaze fixed on the Princess while I opened the door behind me. “It was a very good night; it just didn’t go quite how I planned it to.”

The Princess looked genuinely saddened to hear that. “I am sorry to hear that,” she said. For a moment, she just stared at me with those sympathetic eyes of hers. I felt like she was weighing me in to decide whether she should intervene further. There was no doubt in my mind that Celestia noticed the conspicuous absence of my friend, and she was smart enough to put two and two together. “If you ever need to talk, Applejack, my door is always open.”

The Princess bid me a good night and carried on her way. I thanked my lucky stars that she was astute enough to tell that I wasn’t keen for talking about it at the moment. A good night’s rest was what I needed; some time to clear my head and start fresh tomorrow.

*******************

At some point during the night, I was awoken by the sound of something, or someone, bumping into my bedroom door. I ignored it at first, grumbling only to myself about the inconsiderate nature of some ponies, before rolling over in the bed to a slightly cooler spot. There was nothing quite like a comfortable bed after a long day to help you forget your troubles. While I was never one to consider myself fanciful or drawn towards the luxuries of high society, I had to admit that the beds were an exception to that rule. Granted, I wasn’t too fond of how big the thing was—I could fit my entire family on it and still have room for guests—but, sweet Celestia, was it ever soft. Up until the sudden and rude awakening from the ruckus outside, I slept like a baby the second my head hit the pillow.

The racket outside my door was beginning to get irritating, but the warmth and comfort of the bed made it hard for me to find the motivation to do anything about it. I figured the noise would die down eventually. No doubt it was some guard or some other castle staffer having a bit of trouble navigating through the candle-lit corridors. My patience paid off a few moments later when the noise settled down, and I was once again able to rest easy.

That is, until my bedroom door slammed open. At first, I thought it was just some night cleaner who hadn’t been informed that the room was in use and would turn around the moment they saw the occupied bed. That did not turn out to be the case as I heard the familiar clattering as somebody stumbled about as if they were navigating by Braille. Just when my patience went up in smoke like every other hope I had for the day, I felt a very sudden shift in the mattress, as if somepony plopped their flanks down next to me.

“What in tarnation?” I growled as I rolled over to find myself staring at an unconscious Rainbow Dash. What in the name of Celestia’s golden throne was Rainbow doing in my bed, aside from being passed-out drunk? Somehow, the jackhammering of my heart didn’t disturb the pegasus. “Um, Rainbow?” I asked in a quiet whisper. She didn’t respond other than letting out a whiskey-soaked snore. Thankfully, she was on her back so I was spared the full brunt of the foul odour.

When I had fantasized about this evening ending with both us together in bed, this was not what I had envisioned. Rainbow must have been so drunk out of her mind that she couldn’t fly straight or remember that her room was on the other side of the hallway. I felt awkward; I had Rainbow Dash exactly where I wanted her, but she was out like a filly after a Hearth’s Warming dinner. I shuddered to think how Rainbow Dash might react in the morning if she woke up with me next to her in bed. She might think I had intended to get her drunk in the first place. Nothing good ever started with waking up hungover in another pony’s bed.

“Rainbow, you gotta wake up,” I said a bit more firmly as I reached out to give her a nudge. Even the gentle prod did not rouse her from her sleep, and instead she rolled over towards me, pinning my hoof underneath her. “Hey! Get off me!” Once again, my attempts to fix the situation only made things worse as the pegasus responded to my calls by curling up against me, burying her face into the crook of my neck.

If I was nervous before, I was now so tense that you could play musical notes off my hairs. I was half-expecting Rainbow to wake up on her own accord, followed by a panicked shriek and some flailing before falling out of bed. As minutes ticked by, however, Rainbow neither woke or stirred in her slumber. The warmth from her body eventually eased my anxieties until I felt strangely comfortable with her presence.

I soon resigned myself to my fate. Evicting her would require far more effort than I was willing to put up at this point. I decided to just go back to sleep and worrying about the inevitable mess in the morning.

“Sweet dreams,” I whispered before leaning in to plant a small peck on her forehead. I took a few breaths to further calm my nerves, and immediately regretted it as the smell of whiskey was still quite strong on her. Thankfully, though, I didn’t smell anything that suggested that she had been hot and heavy with a certain stallion. Maybe I had been worried over nothing.

She may have been asleep, but for the moment this was probably the closest thing to what I had wanted from tonight.

“And I love you, Dashie.”

Chapter Two

Part Two:

The next morning, I had awoken to a surprising sight: the complete absence of the pegasus who had passed out next to me. Had it all just been a crazy dream brought about by too much sulking and whiskey? I wouldn’t have put it past me, even if everything about the night before felt very real to me. What was more disconcerting, however, was that there was no sign of Rainbow Dash anywhere, including her own bedroom.

What if she had woken up and became so disturbed by seeing me asleep next to her that she ran out of the room? That seemed a bit unlike Rainbow Dash, and given her uncoordinated state last night, I doubt that Rainbow would have been able to pull that all off without waking me up in the process. Still, there was a good chance that Rainbow woke up before me and just left. If that was the case, then why? Why leave without waking me up? It didn’t make a lick of sense, and the possible reasons were worrisome. I needed to find answers.

Given the size of the castle, I figured if anypony knew if my friend had run off, it would be the Princess. The more time that passed, the more worst-case scenarios popped into my mind. It gave me motivation to pick up the pace, and by the time I arrived at the throne room, I had been galloping through the castle halls. Lucky for me, the Princess wasn’t in the middle of any important business when I arrived, so the guards let me in without any hassle.

“Good morning, Applejack,” Celestia greeted. I must have arrived at the same time as the royal breakfast, as a platter of assorted fruits and sandwiches sat before the Princess. She didn’t appear bothered by my appearance, though I imagine she could hide such emotion with practiced ease, but she did raise an eyebrow at the haste with which I arrived. “You seem to be in quite the hurry. Is something the matter?”

“Nothing terribly important, your Highness,” I answered after a quick bow. I tried not to let my concern show, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if Celestia saw through that facade with ease. “I’m just looking for Rainbow Dash. I haven’t seen her since last night, and she wasn’t in her room when I woke up.”

Celestia was halfway to floating a teacup to her lips when my words gave her pause. It was not surprise on her face, but rather a look of hesitation. I got the impression that my question was not unexpected. “I saw Rainbow Dash earlier this morning,” she explained before taking a slow sip. “She seemed very distracted when we spoke. I know it is not my business, but is everything okay between you two?”

“Of course!” I insisted at first. “Well, that is to say, I’m pretty sure we are.” That wasn’t entirely honest either, and I soon corrected myself. “I hope we are. Do you know where she is now?”

“I’m afraid I do not.” I feared for the worst when I heard those words. “She said she had some important business that she needed to take care of. She also asked me to tell you that she would not be joining you on the train ride back to Ponyville, and would be finding her own way back later.”

Whatever anxiety I might have been feeling was promptly crushed beneath the weight of the despair I now felt. Maybe Rainbow Dash wasn’t as asleep as I had thought she was. What if she heard what I said last night? I didn’t want to jump to conclusions but my mind seemed to be doing that all on its own. There was nothing more discouraging than having questions and no way to get answers to them. Right then I didn’t care about love or romance; I just wanted my friend back.

*******************

I don’t think I could’ve ever experienced a more lonesome train ride than I had that day. The train car may have been filled with other passengers, but it felt as empty as an old barn house to me. I spent the entire trip in the corner, watching the world go by and wondering where in blazes that darn pegasus could have flown off to. What was so important to her that she needed to leave without telling me?

The only thing that worried me more than the whereabouts of my friend was what I was going to tell everyone else when I got back to Ponyville. Twilight and the others were waiting at the platform when I stepped off the train. Their vibrant, hopeful smiles were shattered when I told them what Celestia had relayed to me. Pinkie Pie was understandably the most distraught about the news, though I think she was just overreacting a touch. It took Twilight and Rarity most of the walk back to town to reassure Pinkie Pie that Rainbow Dash hadn’t run off to join the circus or go on some Equestria-spanning trip of self-discovery. And I thought I had jumped to wild conclusions.

Pinkie Pie had a ‘welcome back’ party arranged for us back at Sugarcube Corner, but with only one of the guests of honour present, none of us felt like partying. Pinkie tried to jump-start the party a few times, but all she accomplished was covering Rarity in confetti, not that I didn’t find it amusing. My attitude didn’t help matters either, as I was too fraught with worry to even think about partying. We convinced ourselves that Rainbow would arrive soon and we could all party like we had planned, but as the hours passed, our party was still one pony short.

“Did she say when she would be coming back?” Twilight asked. I imagine for her, the whole situation felt a lot like my sudden departure after the Canterlot rodeo. I hoped that Rainbow Dash would know better given everything we had learned after my attempt to run away from Ponyville. Then again, this was the same pony who seemed to forget every other week that being a boastful show-off was not well-received by others.

“I get the feeling that Rainbow didn’t think that far ahead,” I remarked.

“I don’t get it; Rainbow Dash would never miss one of my parties,” Pinkie lamented from the far side of the room. I think she was talking to Fluttershy, but it was a one-sided conversation so she could have been talking to a sack of flour again.

“And you have no idea what caused this?” It wasn’t the first time that Rarity asked me about the events of the prior night, but for obvious reasons I left out the part about Rainbow passing out drunk in my bed. A small part of me was still trying to convince myself that, perhaps, it had all been a silly dream.

I gave Twilight an uncertain shrug. It was easier for me to lie through a simple gesture than with words. Plus, I wanted to hold onto the small hope that this wasn’t my fault and that I hadn’t ruined my chances with Dash.

“Well we can’t just sit here and wait!” Twilight announced as she rose from her seat. “We tracked down you after the Canterlot rodeo, we can track down Rainbow Dash!”

“You’re right!” Pinkie Pie chimed in next before she leapt onto the table with a suitcase in tow. “If Rainbow Dash won’t come to the party, then we’ll bring the party to her!” She then proceeded to stuff balloons and party decorations into the suitcase—somehow. “It’s time for an adventure, girls!”

I was thankful that my friends could muster up the motivation and enthusiasm that were faltering in me after an emotionally draining day.

“We can’t waste any time.” Taking the lead, Twilight motioned for the rest of us to follow before marching to the exit...only to see Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway.

“Found her! Shortest adventure ever!” Pinkie cheered. While the rest of us looked on, stunned, Pinkie popped open her suitcase, which caused the contents to burst out in a shower of balloons, confetti, and streamers right into Dash’s face.

“Hey, girls, did I miss the party?” Rainbow greeted with a cheerful grin despite a faceful of confetti and streamers that made it look like a rainbow just dropped on her head.

As for me, I was just overwhelmed with emotion to the point where I wanted to crash-tackle that silly pegasus to the ground. Whether it was to hug her in relief or crush her for all the worry she put me through was debatable, but either way I stood my ground and kept my emotions in check.

Having concluded the shortest quest in Equestria’s history, our happy gang trotted back over to the nearby table. Despite Pinkie’s insistence on getting the party started, there were far too many questions to ask. I had a million and one questions on my mind, but I refrained from saying anything right away and allowed Twilight to voice her concerns first. I wanted to keep a calm composure so it wasn’t too obvious how Rainbow’s absence had affected me.

“Where have you been?” she asked with the obvious question first. “Applejack said you had some sort of important business to attend to.”

“Yeah, sorry about bailing on you like that, AJ,” Rainbow apologized as we took our seats. I bet she hadn’t the slightest clue how much duress she put the rest of us through, especially me. If I did any more worrying, my mane would’ve gone as gray as Granny Smith’s.

“No harm done, but you did have me a might bit worried,” I replied. Whether or not I fooled anyone with trying to downplay my concern was a mystery to me. Thankfully, everyone else was too busy pressing on the obvious question to call my bluff.

With everypony trying to ask at once, Rainbow silenced the crowd by raising a hoof into the air. “I have an announcement, girls, I—pause for dramatic effect,” she began as she rose from her seat. Leave it to Rainbow to always make a spectacle out of everything. Everyone was holding their breath in anticipation, while I was ready to have a mental breakdown as the worst-case scenarios ploughed through my brain like a runaway train.

“She’s pregnant! No, she’s getting married. Wait! She’s wanted by the police! She’s joined a coventry and has taken a vow of celibacy! She’s been diagnosed with fatal apple syndrome!”

I may have made up the last one, but Rainbow’s dramatic pause was only serving to put my nerves through a full-force rodeo. The others had a look of restrained concern, save for Pinkie Pie who was probably hoping for something that she could use as reason to throw another party.

“—am joining the Equestrian Royal Guard!”

“Oh, thank goodness!” I had been a bit quick on the expression of relief, which caused understandable confusion amongst the others. I would’ve felt sheepish about my nonsense response had my mind not registered what Rainbow had actually said. “Wait, you did what?!”

“You heard me,” Rainbow confirmed, “I’ve enlisted!”

Everyone at the table just stared at Rainbow with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Rainbow Dash wanted to be a Royal Guard? Suddenly, the coventry seemed like a more palatable outcome. While I didn’t have a hard time picturing her in the fancy gold-plated armour, the idea of Rainbow ‘Mandatory Afternoon Naps’ Dash being prime guard material eluded me. I was about to ask what in the world could have possessed Rainbow Dash to enlist, but someone else beat me to the draw.

“Why in Equestria would you want to be a guard?” Rarity asked. Her voice echoed the same concern that I felt, which meant that for once we agreed on something. “It is very hard work from what I’ve heard.”

“And dangerous,” I added.

“And you have to be up early every day,” Fluttershy chipped in.

“And you have to stand around and be all guardy!” Pinkie Pie intruded as she hopped onto the table in a half-panic. “Can you imagine having to stand around for hours doing nothing at all? You’re not even allowed to talk unless something bad is happening.”

“Pinkie Pie, there’s more to being a guard than standing around,” Twilight corrected before tugging on the pony’s tail to bring Pinkie back to her seat. Out of everyone present, Twilight appeared to be the only one who seemed unconcerned by the news. “It’s about a commitment to Equestria to serve and protect its citizens.”

“Exactly,” Rainbow Dash insisted, “I wanna do it for all that stuff that Twilight said. I mean, sure it’ll be hard work, but just because I don’t like hard work doesn’t mean I can’t do it when I need to!”

I was not convinced of this. Rainbow Dash could work hard when asked to by her friends, but to do so everyday without question? No, there had to be an ulterior motive to this sudden change. I suspected Soarin’ had a hoof in helping Rainbow make her decision. He was wearing a military uniform back during the wedding. Maybe he moonlighted as a recruiter between air shows. While we were rattling off the reasons against this idea, I saw the flickers of hesitation in Rainbow’s eyes. The others may have missed it, but I didn’t. She didn’t like the idea of early mornings and constant parade drills anymore than I liked the idea of her stepping out of my life like this.

“But why? This ain’t like you at all,” I asked.

“You think I want to be stuck as a weather pony forever? I need something more to get the Wonderbolts to notice me, and a few rounds in the guard is just the ticket.” Rainbow shot back. “Besides, high-flying danger and excitement sounds right up my alley, and I think I would look totally awesome in the armour.”

“Danger is not supposed to be exciting!” I snapped. We already led dangerous enough lives, and we didn’t have jobs that involved us going out and looking for that danger. I didn’t want to imagine the kind of dangers that a guardpony might have to deal with.

Unsurprisingly, Rainbow Dash all but dismissed the idea of danger with a roll of her eyes. “Oh, come on, AJ, this is me we’re talking about. If something wants to hurt me, it’s got to be able to catch me first.”

I don’t know what it was, but the idea of Rainbow being so careless with her own well-being just rubbed me the wrong way. I cared about her too much just to see her be so reckless. I was about to unleash a verbal stampede on her, but Twilight intervened. She must have seen my temper flaring and put herself between us before things got out of hoof.

“Girls, I think we’re forgetting that this is Rainbow Dash’s decision to make,” Twilight said in her usual calm and poised manner that calmed everyone down. I had no idea how she could stay calm at a time like this. “And I, for one, whole-heartedly supports Rainbow Dash on this decision, and am very proud of her.”

Oddly enough, the only pony surprised by Twilight’s position was Rainbow Dash. “You are?” she said before correcting herself. “I mean, of course! This is my choice to make, remember? But, um, you’re actually proud of me, Twi?”

“Well of course,” Twilight explained. “No offense, Dash, but you can be a bit—”

“Lazy?” I interrupted.

“I was going to say ‘unmotivated’,” she corrected before giving me a brief stink eye. “As I was saying, I think this would be a great experience for Rainbow Dash, and would really help give her some guidance and direction in life.”

Fluttershy, who remained her typically quiet self during most of the conversation, spoke up once more with another poignant observation. “But that means you have to leave, doesn’t it?”

During all the objections about danger and how this might’ve been a poor choice for Rainbow, we had all forgotten the most obvious thing about this decision: Rainbow Dash would have to leave us for Canterlot. We were going to be losing our dear friend, possibly even forever. As this realization settled in, a dreary silence fell across the table. In a way, Rainbow Dash was one of the main reasons we all became friends, and it was hard for any of us to picture our life without her presence.

Fluttershy was, once again, the first to speak up. “I’m really going to miss you.”

“Leaving? You can’t leave!” Pinkie blurted out whilst flailing of her limbs. “Who am I going to pull pranks with? Who am I going to have as my super-duper ultimate pony friend?”

“I thought Fluttershy was your super-duper ultimate pony friend,” Twilight remarked. That struck me as a bit weird since I thought I was Pinkie Pie’s super-duper ultimate pony friend—or was it ultra-deluxe compadre? It was hard to keep track.

“No, silly, she’s my ultra-riffic gal pal,” Pinkie corrected with a giggle as though our confusion was an amusement to her.

“We’re all going to miss you,” Twilight added as she rested a hoof upon Rainbow’s shoulder. “But the important thing is that we support you in this decision, and that we make use of the time we still have together.”

“I’m leaving tomorrow, Twi.”

There was a chorus of ‘what’ from around the table, though Twilight wound up shouting it right into Rainbow’s ear, making the pegasus recoil for a moment. Now even the fatal apple syndrome seemed like a preferable alternative.

“Sorry to have to cut it so short, but the next training camp starts tomorrow, so its either now or I wait four months,” Rainbow Dash explained. “And, you know, I kind of want to get the whole training camp thing over with so I start doing the actual guardpony stuff.”

I was willing to bet that she wanted to get it done with so that she couldn’t get cold hooves and drop out. In fact, I’d bet the whole barn that Rainbow would change her mind if she had even a week to think this decision over.

“Well, um, on the bright side,” Twilight struggled to find some good news to this development, “at least we’ve already got a party set up. We’ll just have to call it a ‘going away’ party instead of a ‘welcome home’ party.”

Twilight’s calm, rational approach was having trouble coping with the emotional turmoil; the strain was evident in her forced smile. Couldn’t say that I blamed her, as even I was having trouble keeping a level-head in light of the news. I was torn between whether to shed a tear at the loss of a friend, support her as one, or panic and cling to her so that she’d never leave. I didn’t want to lose her; not when I was so close to being able to tell her how I felt.

“Yeah, good thing we’ve got a party all set up already,” Rainbow agreed with a hint of bittersweetness to her voice.

“Oh, nonononono!” Pinkie Pie suddenly blurted out as she turned to Dash. “We can’t have a party like this; this is a ‘welcome home’ party! Just look at the banner!” She didn’t even give Dash a choice over the matter as she pulled the overhanging banner and shoved it into the pegasus’ face. “Oh, this won’t do at all. A ‘going away’ party is completely different. It needs a bigger cake, and more balloons, and streamers!”

Taking a casual glance at the party decor already in place, which consisted of numerous balloons, banners, and streamers, Twilight quipped, “I think we have enough balloons already, Pinkie.”

“Enough balloons?” Pinkie gasped in shock. “No such thing!”

“But Pinkie, we used all of your balloons preparing for this party,” Rarity informed us.

Pinkie Pie then let out a horrified gasp before freezing momentarily on the tabletop. I got the impression that for her mind, the words ‘no balloons’ was akin to dividing by zero. “No...balloons?” she murmured under her breath as her unfocused gaze drifted away from us.

“Um, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked with a cautious nudge of her hoof.

“Emergency reserve!” Pinkie shouted all of a sudden. She bolted off of the table and raced over to behind a nearby counter. She slid open a panel on the wall to reveal a lever with the words ‘in case of party emergency’ written above it. Upon pulling said lever, a hatch above us swung open, dumping what could be best describe as a mountain of deflated balloons upon our heads. I hadn’t seen ponies react that badly to rubber since that time as a filly and we had the school lecture on the facts of life.

By the time we had managed to dig our way free of Mount Balloon, we found that Pinkie Pie was already hard at work inflating them. “Pinkie, what are you doing?” I asked despite knowing that the sensible answer was plain to see. One should not, however, presume sensibility when it came to Pinkie Pie.

“Don’t you girls worry,” Pinkie replied between heavy breaths. “I’ll have these balloons ready in a jiffy, and then we’re going to have the biggest, bestest ‘going away’ party in Equestrian history!” Were it any other pony, I would’ve pegged that statement as full of hot air as the balloons, but this was Pinkie Pie we were dealing with. She’d have those balloons inflated or die trying.

“We should probably help before she passes out,” Twilight suggested. We all nodded in agreement. “Rarity, maybe you could get some supplies from your boutique to help decorate.”

“I’ll have Sugarcube Corner looking magnifique within the hour,” Rarity said with great confidence. Her first step towards improving the party was by removing the now-inaccurate ‘welcome home’ banner. With a quick ‘adieu’, she headed on her way back to the boutique to get to work.

“Fluttershy and I will handle things here,” Twilight continued as she motioned for Fluttershy to help with balloon duty. “And Pinkie Pie, you go spread the word; Rainbow Dash was a part of Ponyville, and its only fair that everypony gets a chance to say good-bye.”

When Twilight turned to me, I felt a sudden surge in hesitation. If this was going to be Rainbow Dash’s last day in Ponyville, I didn’t want to spend it huffing into balloons and hanging banners; I wanted to spend every second of it with her. If I could get Rainbow alone, maybe I could find a way to convince her to stay. I wasn’t so egotistical as to think she’d stay just for my sake, but if I told her how I felt, and what she meant to me and the others, maybe I could change her mind. That hope became forlorn when pitted against Twilight asking for help.

“Applejack, could you see about baking some more treats for the party?” Twilight asked.

How could I say no to a request like that? Anything other than an enthusiastic ‘yes’ would paint me as uncaring or unsupportive. Everyone else would want to spend as much time with Rainbow Dash as possible, too, so how could I, in good conscience, try to horde all of her time for myself? As much as I didn’t want to be stuck in a kitchen, my hooves were tied.

“Sure thing! One humdinger of a banquet coming up.”

*******************

Since watching ponies ready a party was ‘super boring’ according to Rainbow Dash, she opted to use her last day in Ponyville to get her affairs in order and visit a few ponies just in case they couldn’t make the party. She also mentioned something about finding Tank a temporary place to stay during her training period. As much as I would have liked Rainbow to stay, I couldn’t find a reasonable excuse to use to keep her from leaving. I had promised to bake for the new party, and I couldn’t let everyone down in order to chase after her. It felt like the worst decision of my life even if I had made it for all the right reasons.

I was stuck in the kitchen, and the hope of spending time alone with Rainbow was looking bleaker by the hour. The Cakes were out so I had free reign of Sugarcube Corner’s facilities, which were a lot better than what I had at the farm. I had two pies in the oven within an hour, along with a pan of apple crumble, and was working on getting a new cake prepared. I admit that my progress could have been better, but needless to say, I was distracted.

As I toiled away at a giant mixing bowl of flour, water, and eggs, I could hear Twilight and the others chatting in the other room. They were talking about Rainbow, of course, sharing memories and funny stories.

“Do you remember the time when Rainbow Dash...”

“Wasn’t it hilarious when Rainbow...”

“I’ll never forget the time that she...”

I could’ve gone into the other room and joined in on the laughter and joy. There was plenty of time to get the cake ready, and if I wound up pressed for time, I could take some things from the Cakes’ stock and pay out of my own pocket. There was time to join the others, and I even stared at the door swinging doors separating the two rooms, but I couldn’t bring myself to step through them. I had my own memories of Rainbow Dash, and I didn’t need the others reminding me of everything that I was soon to lose.

“Hey, you girls remember the time when Rarity made that Daring Do costume for Rainbow?”

I found it funny that Twilight was bringing that old story up considering that Rainbow’s antics nearly led to a stampede through the library. I chuckled to myself as I reminisced about that day; Rainbow was happy as a pig in mud when she got the gift from Rarity. No sooner did Rainbow dress herself up as Daring Do did she insist on dragging me along for some ‘harrowing adventure’ through the Everfree Forest.

“Hey AJ, look at this! I think it’s some kind of ancient relic!”

“No, that’s just one of Zecora’s guano jugs.”

“What’s guano?”

“Bat poop.”

“Ew! Gross!”

I could still picture the look on Rainbow’s face when we visited Zecora later that day and she offered my friend something to drink from a familiar-looking jug. We never did manage to find any ancient treasures despite our repeated excursions into the Everfree forest. I think it just became an excuse to go looking for something exciting to do, even if that ‘something’ was falling into the occasional patch of poison joke.

Unfortunately, all my daydreaming accomplished was giving me a sinking feeling in my heart. My nostalgic chuckles subsided into a drawn-out sigh as the realization set in: I was losing my best friend in the whole, wide world. There would be no more Daring Do-themed adventures into the unknown; my friend was going to be wearing a new kind of get-up from here on, and facing new challenges. I don’t know why, but there was something very depressing about the idea of Rainbow Dash going off on an adventure without me. Rainbow had been a constant factor in my life for so long, it was hard for me to imagine life without her cheerful, cocksure grin. I had gotten so used to her presence that I kind of got used to the idea of her always being around.

Why would she want to leave us all? Rainbow may have claimed that it was because she didn’t want to be a weatherpony, and to make herself look better for the Wonderbolts, but I had a hard time swallowing it. She had done crazy things to get the Wonderbolt’s attention before, but that was exactly the point: they were crazy, over-the-top stunts that were meant to bypass all that ‘hard work’ stuff that normally got a pony’s attention. Hard work and dedication just sounded too mundane for Rainbow’s normal way of thinking. Was this because of that Soarin’ fellow? Maybe she was trying to impress him...or worse, get closer to him! Or maybe waking up next to me in bed freaked her out and now she was trying to get as far away as possible. There were so many horrifying possibilities, and every one just felt worse than the last.

“Applejack?” Twilight’s voice snapped me out of my train of thought. I had become so engrossed in my own contemplation that I hadn’t even noticed the tears forming in the corner of my eyes.

“Oh, hey Twi,” I hastily replied before wiping the tears away, “how goes the preparations? I’ve almost got the first set of treats ready.”

“I can tell; they smell delicious,” she complimented. “But I actually came to check on you.”

“Me? Well that’s mighty kind of you Twi, but it ain’t needed,” I insisted with the hopes that the wet stains around my eyes wouldn’t betray me. “I’m fine, really.”

As I had feared, but expected, Twilight was as unconvinced as if I had just told her to sky was green. “You don’t have to hide your feelings from me, Applejack,” she said with a sympathetic tone. “I know you always try to put a brave face on everything, but you don’t have to hide it from your friends. We all know how close you and Dash are.”

“Oh? Y-you do, huh?” A sudden pang of nervousness ran up my spine. Had Twilight and the others deduced my feelings for Rainbow? Twilight was perceptive enough for it, but I had figured that somepony would have brought it up if my secret had been discovered. Spike’s crush on Rarity was certainly no secret, and it came up in conversation from time to time.

“Well of course,” Twilight continued, which only made me more jittery. “I mean, I know you’d never say it openly, but its pretty obvious to anypony who knows the two of you.”

It took all my willpower not to let the anxiety show on my face. If Twilight and the others already knew, then it stood to reason that even Rainbow knew, or at the very least suspected. A part of me wanted to just come clean, but it was just like she said - I had trouble saying it out loud.

Twilight gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It’s okay, we all understand, and I promise you, none of us think any of less of you because of it.”

“Gosh, now I feel kinda silly thinking I could keep it from you and the others,” I admitted with great reluctance. I didn’t want to get Twilight involved, but trying to avoid the issue would only coax her to press the issue more.

She laughed; it wasn’t a laugh at my expense but rather a disarming, light-hearted chuckle that put me at ease. “Oh Applejack, there’s nothing wrong with admitting that Rainbow Dash is your best friend. It’s not like it’s a competition.”

Was that what she had been going on about? Were it not for some quick-thinking on my part, I would have blurted out a ‘what’ right away, and made it obvious that we were on separate pages. “Oh, well...you know, I didn’t want to make it seem like I was playing favourites,” I hastily replied.

“Like I said, we understand,” Twilight reassured me. “It’s not like we can all be your best friend; otherwise, it wouldn’t have any meaning. Well, unless you’re Pinkie Pie, in which case then everybody is your super-duper best friend forever.”

Still feeling a bit awkward about my near-confession, I steered the conversation in a new direction. Twilight was right about one thing - I wasn’t as fine as I insisted. “How did you do it, Twi? How’d you handle things when your brother joined the Royal Guard?” I knew it was unlikely that I was going to get some kind of solution in a single, succinctly-phrased sentence, but I needed to know the truth from somepony who had been down this road before.

Twilight sighed as she drew upon her own memories. From what she had told me before, Shining was the only friend she had growing up; his departure for the Royal Guard must have changed things for their relationship. The fact that, by Twilight’s own admission, she grew apart from Shining over the years left me worried about what her answer might be.

“It was....hard, at first,” Twilight answered after a few pensive moments. “I had a lot more time to mentally prepare for his departure, but that still didn’t make seeing him leave any easier. I kind of buried myself in my schoolwork after that.”

“How did the two of you stay close?”

“Well, it was easy since I was studying with Princess Celestia at the castle, and that’s where a lot of the guards are,” she continued to explain. “Occasionally, Princess Celestia would get Shining assigned to guard the hallways outside my room, but she only did it occasionally since she didn’t want the rest of the guards to think she was playing favourites with my brother.”

“Guess you kinda lucked out then, huh?” I said with a quiet sigh of resignation. To no surprise, Twilight’s situation had been a lot different, and ‘burying myself in work’ wasn’t going be the best solution for me. It was tempting, but the others would probably not appreciate it. “I just...I just don’t want her to go. Being a Guardpony ain’t like watching over the weather; it’s dangerous work! We’re talking rogue gryphons and wandering dragons and marauding minotaurs! What if those giant cockathingies attack Canterlot again?”

“They’re called cockatrices, and that was a once-in-a-millennium kind of event,” Twilight tried to reassure me. “Besides, Princess Celestia will be there to watch over her. You think she would let anything happen to the Element of Loyalty?”

“No...no, she wouldn’t,” I replied just as an idea came to mind. Princess Celestia was in charge of the Royal Guard, and after everything I have done to help protect Equestria, I figured that I was owed some kind of favour. It was a long-shot, to be sure, but maybe Celestia would understand and put a stop to Rainbow Dash’s crazy plan. “Hey, Twilight, could you do me a favour and just watch the oven for a bit? I just remembered there’s something I gotta do.”

“Sure, I can do that.” Lucky for me, Twilight was more than willing to help a friend in need without asking too many questions.

“Just take the things out of the oven when the egg timer goes off, and then put those two trays on the counter into the oven,” I explained as I pointed out the next batch of food ready for cooking. “Reset the egg timer for an hour, and I should be back well before it goes off. Got all that?”

As was her nature, Twilight had taken out some parchment and was making a checklist of my instructions. Where she got the pen and paper, I hadn’t the slightest clue, but I was in too much of a hurry to ask—I had an invitation to send out.

*******************

The atmosphere at the party was so upbeat that one could be forgiven for not realizing that this was not one of Pinkie Pie’s usual parties, but rather a farewell gathering to one of Ponyville’s most iconic pegasi. Granted, it was hard not to be in good spirits when you were at one of Pinkie’s Parties; it was against the rules, along with ‘no buckets of turnips allowed’ (apparently he and Pinkie weren't on speaking terms anymore).

As a longshot, I brought along a couple of barrels of cider with the hopes that it might make Rainbow a bit more reluctant to leave Ponyville. At this late hour of the day, I was one-step short of outright begging her to stay, but I hadn’t reached that level of desperation just yet.

I was arguably the most dour pony at the party. Between not getting any response from my message to Celestia and not once seeing Rainbow Dash during the day, I was feeling a bit neglected. It was her last day in Ponyville and Rainbow Dash didn’t think once to spend some time with me? Despite knowing full well that I shouldn’t, I couldn’t help but feel angry about it. I thought we were best friends! In fact, a small nagging voice in the back of my head was pondering the idea that she was avoiding me because of what happened back in the hotel. The idea that all of this was just an overreaction or means to avoid me sounded paranoid, but it wasn’t something I could just ignore.

Alas, confronting Rainbow Dash about her choices was close to impossible. Even though we were both at the party, so was almost everyone else in Equestria, and everybody wanted to have a moment to tell Rainbow Dash how awesome she was and how they were going to miss her. To no surprise, Rainbow Dash was lapping up every second of it like it was a fresh mug of cider.

And speaking of cider, guess who got stuck watching over the barrels during the party? I had intended on just leaving it as a ‘help yourself’ sort of night, but Twilight didn’t want any fillies getting the wrong idea. Since she asked for a ‘responsible adult’ to watch over the barrels, that pretty much left just me, and I was cursed with my usual inability to turn down a reasonable request. Thus, I spent the majority of the party off to the side, watching over the barrels of cider and pouring out mugs for everyone else. Soon I was watching over all of the beverages including Pinkie’s tutti-frutti sherbet sugar punch. It was strange to feel so alone in a building full of ponies, but that was the situation I was stuck in.

I didn’t complain about my predicament. The party mood just wasn’t working for me, so it was for the best that I kept off to the side where my dour mood wouldn’t infect others. Burying myself in work—just like what Twilight did. The only difference was I wasn’t waiting until after Rainbow left to get started on it; that was just like me to start work early.

I think I was on my third lap through the five stages of grief when Rarity stopped by to say hello.

“Is everything okay, Applejack?” Rarity asked, quick to pick up on my none-too-subtle mood. “You look more sullen than the time when you had to help your sister try to get a seamstress cutie mark.”

“What? No, I’m fine. Really!” Once again, my attempts at avoiding making my problems an issue had the opposite effect.

“Then why are you over here watching over a couple of barrels when you should be out there, spending time with your closest friend?” she asked as she gestured a hoof out towards Rainbow. The pegasus was, as she had been for the past few hours, surrounded by a swarm of party guests. Judging by the way that Dash was swooping in the air, she was telling them about how she saved the Wonderbolts with a sonic rainboom. She never did get tired of telling that one.

“Can’t. Twilight asked me to watch over the barrels, and I don’t trust anypony else my family’s cider.” I could’ve asked Rarity to watch the barrels for me for a little while, but I was at the point where I felt so insulted for having been snubbed by Rainbow Dash all day that I was torn between wanting to hug her and wanting to strangle her.

“Very well then, I shall simply have to bring her to you,” Rarity concluded. She trotted off before I could say anything to stop her. All of a sudden I felt an overwhelming urge to find the nearest window to fling myself out of. I was a tumbling cider barrel of mixed emotions and if confronted by Rainbow, I didn’t know what would come pouring out the spigot.

The brief flicker of hope I had was that Rainbow Dash would find a reason not to heed Rarity’s advice, or that a well-timed interruption on somepony else’s part would stop her, but that was a short-lived hope as I soon spotted the pair making their way over to me. Where was one of Pinkie Pie’s impromptu song and dances when you needed it? I had no choice but to try and keep my emotions in check.

“Hey AJ! Enjoying the party?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’d rather be wrestling a cactus.”

“Having a blast,” I replied with a horribly insincere smile.

“Haven’t had much of a chance to see you all day,” she continued while Rarity shuffled off to leave us to our conversation. “Who knew finding a tortoise a place to stay would be so hard? And then I had to go to the weather factory to let my boss know I’d need a replacement. When I reached Ponyville, everyone had heard and I was getting stopped every five feet by another fan. Time sorta just flew by, you know?”

“Bet you were just lapping up all the attention from the townsfolk.”

“So where is Tank going to hunker down?”

“Scootaloo’s promised to look after him.” No surprise there; Scootaloo would’ve joined the Royal Guard right alongside Rainbow Dash if she weren’t still a filly. If Scootaloo went, then Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle would be only a few steps behind her. That thought alone would be enough to drive me to drink, and I dreaded what would happen when those three inevitably attempted for a guardpony cutie mark. “Pretty much all that’s left is to catch my train tomorrow, which is first thing in the morning so I guess it’ll help get me used to the idea of waking up early. Can you believe ponies actually do that?”

“I wake up every morning at five,” I informed my friend.

“There’s a five in the morning?”

“Eyup.”

“Oh sweet Celestia, this is going to be harder than I thought,” Rainbow said with a disheartened groan.

I recognized that groan from every time I had ever asked for her help in the orchard. It was the sound she made when she really, really didn’t want to do something, but was going to go ahead with it anyways. It was a brief flicker of doubt, visible only to somepony who knew her as well as I did. What I saw was a crack in her otherwise ironclad shell of certainty, and an opportunity to drive a stake through it.

“Being a guardpony is a hay of a lot of hard work,” I said as I tried to keep the smile off my face. “It’s discipline, and training, and a lotta drills day after day. Then the actual guard duty with you standing one spot for hours at time, and if you so much as flinch, your commander is going to make you do even more work.”

Rainbow swallowed hard at the thought of being immobile under the penalty of hard labor. How she managed to sign up for the Royal Guard without knowing this already was beyond me, but foresight had never been her forte. I saw her eyes dart from side to side, her certainty shaking for just a second before she puffed her chest in defiance. “I can handle that,” she insisted. “It can’t be any worse than the kind of work you’ve made me do.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got cider,” I teased as I patted the nearby barrel. “They ain’t gonna let you drink while you’re training, and you certainly can’t have a cool, refreshing pint when you’re on duty.”

“No...cider?” Rainbow murmured in a half-stunned daze. Did she somehow not realize that point as well? The foolishness of this pegasus made me want to dunk her in one of the cider barrels and roll her down a hill.

“Could I interest you in a pint?” The saying went that the quickest way to a stallion’s heart was through his stomach, but a mare could be just as easily swayed. Rainbow held an almost hypnotic gaze as she watched me fill a mug with the golden amber brew. Her tongue began to slither across her lips in anticipation.

“I...I shouldn’t,” Rainbow murmured in a strange defiance. She loved my family’s cider, so why was she holding back? “I have a train to catch tomorrow; I don’t want to be late.”

The train, of course! If Rainbow drank too much, which she almost always did, then there would be no way she’d make it in time to catch an early morning train, and even if she did, she would be in such bad shape that no self-respecting Royal Guard would take her in.

“Come on, Rainbow, one drink won’t do you any harm,” I said as I held the enticing mug before her.

With an uncertain groan, the pegasus pondered her options while the strain of temptation weighed her down. “I guess one mug won’t hurt if I pace myself,” she finally answered.

“No problem, here you—oh my gosh, is that Spitfire over there?” It wasn’t, but my remark was enough to get Rainbow to turn about face in an attempt to spot the famed pegasus. That gave me enough time to spike the cider with a little something extra: a helping from Pinkie’s tutti-frutti sherbet sugar punch. The last time Rainbow had that stuff was at the Canterlot wedding and she still couldn’t remember what happened that night. A bit more of the sugar-ladened concoction, masked by the strength of my cider, should be more than enough to tip Rainbow over the edge. She’d lose all sense of judgement by the end of the mug, at which point it would be easier to coax her into another mug until she was tipsier than a ship in stormy weather.

Thankfully, I had with me a bunch of the ingredients to make Pinkie Pie’s special brew so it was easy to slip in the stuff that packed the punch without distorting the cider’s taste too much. A more careful pony would probably notice the change in taste, but I had a way of dealing with that.

“Sorry, I guess I was mistaken,” I apologized when Dash gave up trying to spot any Wonderbolts. “Here you go, buddy.”

“Thanks, AJ!”

Rainbow was just about to take a swig when I reached out and grabbed her hoof. “Hold on a second,” I insisted. “This is an important moment. We can’t have you just taking little sips like some nancy little filly.” I grabbed a second mug and topped it up for myself. “Why don’t you show me how a real guardpony drinks?” I challenged as I held my mug up to hers.

“Oh, I’ll show you all right!” Rainbow Dash responded exactly as I had predicted.

We both raised our mugs to our lips, but I held back just enough so I could watch Rainbow over the brim of my mug. The spiked brew teased at the very edges of her lips like waves on the beach. Just a little bit more...

“Princess Celestia!”

Twilight’s shout from the other side of the room brought the entire party grinding to a halt so fast I almost got whiplash. More importantly, Rainbow stopped what she was doing to see what the commotion was all about. She didn’t have to look very hard since Princess Celestia, strolling in through the front door, stood head and shoulders above the bowing masses.

“Please, everyone, there is no need for such formalities,” the Princess insisted as she gestured to everyone to rise back up. “And I believe this is a party, so please do not let my presence halt the festivities.”

“I beg your pardon, your Highness,” Twilight began as she tried to keep her surprise from impeding her manners, “but you never mentioned any visits in your last letter. Is something wrong?”

The last time that Celestia visited, Twilight had the whole town scrubbed from top to bottom, even the dirt roads had to be spotless. The fact that Celestia had dropped in while ponies were partying probably played on Twilight’s nerves like a cat with a ball of yarn. I, however, knew exactly what brought Celestia in and I felt a huge sense of relief.

“A little bird told me about what was happening,” Celestia explained with her usual grace and politeness. She never did seem to talk so much as words fluttered from her lips like a flock of butterflies. It had a way of putting everypony at ease, and given everything I have been going through over the past few hours, I really needed that sense of calm right now. “Is it true that Rainbow Dash wishes to join the Royal Guard?”

“Maybe you should speak with Rainbow yourself,” Twilight said as she motioned for Rainbow Dash to come hither.

Abandoning her drink on the counter, Rainbow flew over to the Princess and took a quick, polite bow. “That’s right, your Highness. You’re looking at your newest recruit!”

The Princess must’ve been impressed with Rainbow’s enthusiasm because she responded with a warm, hearty chuckle. “And I would honoured to have you counted among the ranks of the Royal Guard,” she said. “With your flying skills, and your embodiment of the Element of Loyalty, I have no doubt that there is a bright and shining future for you in the Royal Guard.”

“Awesome!”

Once again, Princess Celestia only chuckled at Rainbow’s general disregard for proper etiquette, not that I wouldn’t have done similar in her shoes. It seemed like even the Princess was happy for Rainbow’s decision. Why in Ponyville was I the only one in the whole dang party that’s upset about Rainbow leaving?

“Hey, do you wanna have a drink, Princess?” Rainbow offered as she orbited around her future boss.

“A drink? Oh, I shouldn’t.”

“Come on, Princess! Like you said, it’s a party!”

Rainbow’s encouragement on its own might not have been enough to sway the Princess, but a lot of expectant and curious eyes were upon her, with the exception of Twilight, who was giving Rainbow a ‘I want to set your mane on fire’ kind of stare.

“I suppose a small drink wouldn’t hurt,” Celestia agreed. I imagine she would have asked for tea or a soda or maybe even the sugar sherbet punch, but Rainbow flew back over to me, grabbed her own drink, and gave it over to the Princess.

Nothing good was going to come from Celestia drinking a cup full of Pinkie’s tutti-frutti sherbet sugar punch. If I was lucky, the Princess would take one sip and decline any more.

Slowly, the Princess brought the mug to her lips. She sniffed at the frothing concoction before taking a careful sip. When she smiled, I wasn’t sure whether to feel pride or dread. I don’t think I had ever seen the Princess drink anything other than tea, but when she took in that cider, her eyes lit up. Given her age, I hadn’t doubt that this was her first time sampling the old family recipe, but she was soon taking big, hearty swigs from the mug.

“Look at that, Twi, the Princess can drink like a champ!” Rainbow exclaimed to the chorus of cheers from the rest of the ponies.

“Well, I wasn’t always a Princess, remember?” Celestia reminded the young pegasus. It was hard for me to picture the Princess as anything other than the wise and regal leader that she was known to be, but once upon a time, she would’ve been a young mare just like Rainbow Dash or myself.

The two conversed for a while, and as the party returned to its former pacing, my ability to eavesdrop on them was drowned in a sea of idle chatter. After about a half-hour or so, Twilight ushered the Princess off to a more private and less rowdy part of Sugarcube Corner, and Rainbow Dash made her way back to me.

“Did you hear that, AJ?” Dash exclaimed. “The Princess is looking forward to having me as one of her Royal Guards. Even she wants a piece of my awesomeness!” Well, if Rainbow Dash had any lingering doubts about enlisting, the little pep talk with Princess Celestia had all but put them to rest. Either Celestia didn’t read my letter or she decided that she knew best. I should have known better than to think that Celestia could have just swooped in and fixed everything like a kind of magical miracle cure.

“Yeah, go figure,” I muttered. In a momentary lapse of focus, I let my bitterness slip out, and, sadly, Rainbow Dash picked up on it.

“Ooo, sounds like somepony’s got sour apples,” she teased before flicking my hat. “You’re just jealous because Celestia is looking forward to me. It’s not like the Element of Honesty makes for a good guard.”

That was a bit of a low blow, but Rainbow never was the type to pass up an opportunity to showboat. “Am I the only pony in this dang town that thinks you joining the Royal Guard is a royal mistake?”

“What do you mean a mistake? I can totally handle it!”

“Like hay you could,” I snapped back while rolling my eyes so hard they almost popped out. “You’d hate waking up early, you’d hate working hard, you’d hate taking orders, you’d hate standing still, and you would most certainly hate the very idea of being expected to always put someone else’s interests before your own!”

“What’s your problem, AJ?” Rainbow inquired as she attempted to deflect my criticism by focusing the conversation back on me. “Everyone else in town is happy for me. I thought you, of all ponies, would like the idea of me trying to be more responsible.”

She had me there. I should have been happy to see Rainbow Dash taking more responsibility like a mature pony, but I had trouble believing that responsibility had anything to do with her decision. “My problem is that you never think things through! You’ve already got responsibilities here in Ponyville,” I replied, “and you can barely keep up with those. Being a guard is about serving and protecting others, not making yourself look fancier on a resume!”

“It’s my life, AJ, I can make my own choices,” Rainbow reminded me.

It was a valid point, but it wasn’t one I hadn’t been prepared to meet. “But your choices affect the rest of us! Did you
even stop to think about what this will do to m—I mean, to us?”

Rainbow’s face just twisted in annoyance. For the life of me, I couldn’t say why I was so intent on arguing with Rainbow Dash. I guess I was just finally fed up with pretending to be supportive and giving her a piece of my mind.

“You’re just jealous!” Rainbow was falling back on her previous arguments, which was always a good sign that she was running out of ammunition.

However, before I could say anything further, the sudden arrival of a certain Princess took us both by surprise. “Oh, she’s definitely jealous, but not in the way that you expect,” Celestia said with a playful smirk. Judging by the crooked angle her crown sat and the fluster that crept through her pearly white fur, our shining Princess had been hit pretty hard by the tutti-frutti cider. Either she was a light-weight, or I had spiked that drink with more tutti-frutti sugar than I thought.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow inquired. I had a bad feeling about the whole situation, and I was willing to be bet the entire farm that Celestia suspected what my true motives were. The spiked cider must have already knocked out all of Celestia’s sense of judgment, which meant she was a loose cannon now.

“Come on, isn’t it obvious? Applejack is—”

I had to stop Celestia from finishing that sentence, and in order to do that, I did what could only be described as the single craziest that I had ever conceived of: I interrupted the Princess.

“Good heavens, Princess Celestia, are you drunk?” I said with feigned shock and alarm.

“I am not!” Celestia hastily defended. As she spoke, she swung her mug about, splashing Rainbow and I with the remnants. “Okay, maybe just a little, but it’s only because this drink of yours is simply marvelous, Applejack.”

“Why thank you, your Highness.” I wasn’t just grateful for the compliment, but also for switching the subject.

“I don’t suppose I could trouble you for another one?” A rhetorical question if there ever was one given that Celestia floated the mug into my hoof no sooner did she finish the sentence. While I was certain that Twilight would give me grief for aiding in Celestia’s fall into inebriation, I figured if anypony could use a break, it was the Princess. “And don’t forget to add the tutti-frutti sugar.”

I was so startled by the mentioning the tutti-frutti sugar that I spilt half the mug’s content in my jumbled attempt to keep from dropping it entirely. “Wh-what are you talking about?”

“I assume it was tutti-frutti sugar you added to give that cider so much kick,” Celestia answered. I realized then that I had underestimated the Princess’ ability to recognize what was in a drink. Not wanting to disappoint her, I filled out her order as instructed all while Rainbow Dash gave me a very scrutinizing glare.

Rainbow could be a bit oblivious at times, but she wasn’t so dense as to not put two-and-two together. “AJ, did you spike my drink?”

“She most certainly did,” Celestia said after having already taken a large swig from her mug. “If you had drank that mug, you would’ve been crashing into the walls within an hour.”

Having my not-so-nefarious plot revealed by a half-drunk Princess, I found myself really hating the fact that I had parked myself in a corner. “Err, I—I can explain!” I stammered in half-desperate attempt to defend myself.

“I can’t believe you would stoop this low, AJ!” Rainbow Dash shouted. She was beginning to raise her voice to the level where it was attracting the attention of those around us, not that either of us were paying much attention to our surroundings. “I know you had a problem with my joining, but now you’re trying to sabotage it?”

“She also asked me if I could annul your application,” Celestia chimed in.

“You asked Celestia to stop me?” In hindsight, asking Princess Celestia to get involved was a very bad move on my part, but I was rather desperate. “I had thought maybe Pinkie Pie or Twilight would be against this, but you, my best friend! What’s next? Are you going to blow up the train before I can board it? Are you going to get Twilight to teleport you back in time so you can stop me?”

“Well maybe I should if it’ll get you to stop this craziness,” I snapped back. A more reasonable pony might have tried to apologize, but I was not only too pig-headed stubborn to admit my mistakes, I wasn’t going to just sit back and let Rainbow yell at me.

“You’re calling me crazy?” Something I said must have ticked Rainbow off something fierce because she knocked the table that stood between the two of us, toppling over both barrels of cider and the punch bowl. If the other ponies in the party didn’t know we were arguing, they certainly did now; heck, even the ponies across the street knew by that point. “I’m not the one trying to ruin my best friend’s life!”

“Ruin your life? I’m trying to save it, dangit!” The knocked-over table didn’t intimidate me in the slightest as I stepped up to meet Rainbow’s ire. “You’re so blindly running off for your own glory, you haven’t even taken a second to consider what that decision would do to everyone, especially me! Did you even think for a second how I might feel about this?”

“I thought you’d be supportive like the rest of my friends, but I guess I was mistaken when I thought you were one!”

“I am your friend!” I was more than her friend, I was her best friend, or at least that’s what I had thought. Was I being too selfish? Was I being so unreasonable? For a brief moment, I wondered if perhaps I did not mean as much to her as she did to me. As I saw the way Rainbow stared me down, that possibility was about to become a reality.

“Well you certainly have a funny way of showing it,” Rainbow said as she took a menacing step closer. I was starting to feel more and more like a rat backed into a corner. “You have a funny way of showing it. None of my real friends are trying to ruin this for me!”

“I...I just don’t want you to leave.” Everyone’s eyes were fixed on me, judging me. It almost felt like the walls were closing in all around me. I was torn between bolting out the nearest door like a scared filly or standing my ground like a stubborn fool.

“Neither does Twilight, and you don’t see her spiking my drinks!”

“Well, you see it’s just that—”

“What is your problem, AJ?”

Rainbow Dash almost shouting in my face at this point. I was turning into a powder keg of emotions; I was scared that I was about to lose my best friend, angry that she would turn on me so quickly, and tired of all the half-truths and deceptions and frustrations that I had been feeling over the past few days.

“I’m in love with you!”

Yup, I just confessed my feelings in front of about four dozen ponies including my closest friends and a drunken Princess of Equestria. Out of all the scenarios I had envisioned for this moment, doing it in front of everybody had not been on the list. A very uncomfortable silence fell over the entire room with everypony staring at the Rainbow and I with a mixed look of surprise and confusion. I felt even worse now that I had just put Rainbow Dash into a very uncomfortable position, and that discomfort was written all across her flustering face. I knew I needed to say before the situation got worse.

“I love you, Rainbow Dash,” I said in a softer tone. No point in trying to deny things now that the cat was out of the bag. “Head over hooves, butterflies in the stomach, on my mind night and day, and all that other mushy stuff that I never thought in a million years I’d be falling for.” Despite the old saying that the truth would set you free, telling the truth felt like getting buried underneath a mountain of shame and guilt.

“AJ, I...I had no idea.”

“I was going to tell you back in Canterlot, but then you ran off with that Soarin’ fellow, and I figured there was no way I could compare to a guy like him,” I continued while fighting back a rising urge to weep. “Then when you said you were joining the guard, I thought maybe it was because of him, or maybe even because of me.” I hung my head in shame, not daring to make eye contact with Rainbow as I felt wholly undeserving of even that small of a gesture. I waited for the inevitable tirade against me, either from Rainbow or even one of the numerous onlookers who probably all thought I was a horrible pony for what I had done.

“He laughed at me,” Rainbow spoke after an agonizing silence.

“He...what?” Confusion didn’t even begin to describe what I now felt, and that feeling intensified when I glanced up and saw that Rainbow was slouched over in shame as well.

“Soarin’. It might have been because of all the drinking, but when I said I was going to be a Wonderbolt, he just laughed,” Rainbow explained as she moved to sit down beside me. “He said I was too reckless and undisciplined to make it in the Wonderbolts.”

“And so you enlisted in the Royal Guards to prove him wrong.” My assumption was confirmed by a silent nod.

“Actually, I think he might be right,” Rainbow added. Considering how she always went to great lengths to show how good she was, I knew how hard it had to be for her to sit down and humble herself. “I’ve always just expected I would have what it took to be a Wonderbolt, but I never really pushed myself to work at it. What if I fell short because I was always being lazy. I’d only ever have one shot, so I want to make sure that when the time comes, I am at my absolute best.” I felt a wing drape over my shoulder as my friend gave me a comforting smile. “I don’t want to leave you either, but I need to do this if I want to really impress the Wonderbolts.”

“I’m so sorry, Rainbow,” I whimpered as I rested my head against her shoulder. “I just got so scared when you said you were going to leave. The thought of you leaving before I ever got a chance to tell you how I felt just made me panic. I didn’t want to wind up like Spitfire.”

“Like Spitfire?”

I nodded and wiped a tear that was trying to bust free out of the corner of my eye. “Spitfire told me how she always regretted never telling Soarin’ how she felt. I didn’t want to grow up to be drunk and miserable like that.”

All of a sudden, Rainbow just laughed; more of a snicker, in fact.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

It took a second for her to calm down, but she just smirked back at me and said, “I’m not really Soarin’s type, if you know what I mean.”

I didn’t. “Come again?”

“He prefers ponies of a different persuasion.”

Once again, I shot her a blank stare.

“AJ, he plays for the other team.”

“Wait, when did sports get involved?”

“AJ, he’s gay.”

“Oh!” I said in a sudden realization. It took another second for the implications to actually sink in. “Oooohhhh. So you and he never actually—”

When Rainbow shook her head, I felt like I had just been smacked by the idiot hammer. I had just spent an entire day and a half fretting over a stallion who wouldn’t have touched Rainbow with a ten-foot pole. If the past several minutes had made me feel like the biggest fool in Equestria already, I now wanted to bury my head in the dirt.

“I’m such an idiot,” I groaned.

Despite my desire to shrink into an invisible speck, Rainbow Dash stayed close by and even reassured me with a mischievous grin. “Soooo...who’s a silly pony?”

I couldn’t help but snicker back, managing a faint smile. “I am.”

I felt her hoof tuck under my chin, guiding my gaze back up to hers. “And there’s no other pony I’d rather have than you,” she whispered to me before drawing me in close for a sweet and tender embrace. All my worries and shame seemed to melt away under the warmth of her lips. I think I even heard an ‘aww’ from the other ponies present, but I wasn’t paying much attention to them for obvious reasons. I may have still felt like a fool, but I felt like the luckiest fool in Equestria.

Even though I could hold onto those enticing lips forever, I eventually had to pull back and deal with the real world. “I guess it’d be too much to ask if you’d still consider staying here,” I said with a disappointed sigh.

“We’ll find a way to make this work, AJ,” Rainbow reassured me.

“Actually, if I may,” Princess Celestia’s voice suddenly cut as the inebriated ruler stepped towards us, “I have a proposal that might work out for both of you. The Royal Guard sometimes maintains postings in the towns and cities across Equestria. With Canterlot so close, there has never been a major need for Ponyville to have such an outpost. But with everything that has happened these past few months, with Discord and dragons and Changelings, we have been planning on opening such an outpost here. Such a position would require a guard of integrity, dependable, and self-reliance.”

After an emotionally draining day like today, I was hesitant to get my hopes up about anything. Rainbow, on the other hoof, looked to Celestia as if she had just handed down a miracle from heaven, which all things considered was not too far from the truth.

“If you are interested, Rainbow Dash, I can have your name added to the list of candidates,” Celestia continued. “However, I am having those position filled soon, so if you want to be considered a candidate, you will have to undertake a shorter, more intense training program.”

“Hey, if it means I get to stay in Ponyville, I say bring it on!” Rainbow declared in her usual response to any sort of challenge.

“Excellent,” Celestia said, looking quite pleased with herself, “because I have just the right pony in mind for the job.”

*******************

When morning broke, I was half-tempted to just roll over and ignore the sunlight that broke through my window. The bed was warm and soft, but the company in it was even more so. As I stirred awake, pulling back the covers so I could get a clear view of my alarm clock, I felt a hoof tugging at my side.

“C’mon, AJ, the apples can wait,” Rainbow murmured from beneath the sheets. Her pleas were very tempting, especially when her bedridden head poked out from under the covers. It was incredible what a few weeks could do to a couple of ponies. The time we had together was always short, but we always knew how to make the most of what little we had. “Just five more minutes, please?”

Five more minutes; it sounded so meagre in the grand scheme of things, but sharing that time with Dash made it feel like a lifetime. Yet I knew that even if I did want to forget my responsibilities and indulge in such dalliances, I was not the only one with a schedule to keep. I was just about to remind Rainbow of her own commitments when the sudden blare of whistle gave Rainbow such a fright that she fell out of bed in a half-panicked mess. Standing in the nearby doorway to my bedroom was a very displeased looking Soarin’ with a whistle around his neck. One would think after a dozen times, Rainbow would’ve gotten used to the wake-up calls.

“When I said I wanted you out in the field at zero-five-hundred hours, I did not mean five minutes past zero-five-hundred!” he shouted at Rainbow.

“Y-yes, Soarin’!” Rainbow stammered as she tried to simultaneously untangle herself from the bedding and properly address the pegasus.

“I’m sorry, what was that recruit?” the pegasus barked back.

The follow-up shout refocused Rainbow’s priorities. She immediately went rigid, whilst wrapped in linen, and snapped a crisp salute. “I mean, yes, Drill Sergeant, sir!”

One would think after a while, Rainbow would’ve learned to get up on time, but I suppose it was my fault for making it so hard to climb out of bed. I was usually more prompt in waking her up, but I overslept by a few minutes. As Rainbow continued her struggle against the entangled bedding, Soarin’ glanced over to me and gave me a polite nod.

“G’morning, Miss Applejack,” he said in a courteous tone that was a stark contrast to how he had been addressing Rainbow a second ago.

“Good morning,” I replied. “Don’t suppose you could bring Rainbow back in one piece today, hm?”

“I’ll try, but that all depends on her.” Soarin’ was an awfully good sport for taking on a one-on-one training job with Rainbow. Between the personal request from Princess Celestia and the unlimited supply of fresh apple pies, he had all the reason in the world to take on the task. “Okay, you worthless sack of feathers!” Soarin’ shouted as he fell back in drill sergeant mode. “I want a hundred laps around Ponyville, on your hooves! Let’s go!”

Another blare of the whistle encouraged Rainbow Dash into motion. She hurried for the door, pausing just for a second to cast a backwards glance to me before Soarin’ blasted his whistle once again.

“Come on you lazy pigeon, move out!” A third blare of the whistle echoed through my house, ensuring that everyone save for Granny Smith was awake. Following Rainbow out the door, Soarin’ began to sing, “I don’t know what I’ve been told, Celestia’s flank is shining gold!”

I chuckled to myself as I listened to their hoofsteps descend down the stairs and out the door. By the time I trotted over to the nearby window, I could see Rainbow and Soarin’ jogging off into the distance towards town. I had to admit, Rainbow was doing a pretty darn good job at training with the exception of not waking up on time almost every other day. I would have thought for certain that the alternating weeks of training between here and Canterlot would’ve worn Rainbow Dash down in a heartbeat, but she wasn’t just keeping pace with the other recruits, she was leaving them in the dust. Soarin’ told me that she was already the best of the new recruits, not that we would tell Rainbow out of fear of bolstering her ego further. It would be a while before things would settle down for the two of us, but as the saying went, ‘good things take time.’

END