After the Rain

by MoreOrLess

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance
Length: 6456

When Rainbow Dash has a crisis of confidence, Applejack is there with just what she needs: some cider, a pep talk, a little belief, and an amorous confession.

Rainbow Dash has been trying forever, but she's still not a Wonderbolt. Secretly, she suspects that she's to blame, despite how much her friends believe in her. She ends up talking to one of the only ponies that can understand her: Applejack. But it turns out that Applejack has some hidden feelings of her own for the aspiring flier.

An ordinary bit of shipping.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-07 16:00:02 UTC

Chapter 1

Stall turn. Rise -- and -- Immelman into a rising sustained turn. Dive -- and -- loop -- loop -- loop -- into a rolling purple pegasus!?

Rainbow Dash swept her wings back, stretched her forelegs, and dove, blinking as the other mare’s silver tail wooshed over her face. Spreading her wings and sweeping them down, she braked, then banked and flapped back up to the other mare. “Cloudchaser!” she started, pointing a hoof, “What the hay are you doing in my practice space!? Shouldn’t you be off -- like -- chasing clouds or something?”

The purple pegasus crossed her forelegs and rolled her eyes. “Get your head out of the clouds! There’s a storm scheduled for this afternoon over all of Ponyville. Even if you’re off-duty today, you can’t just fly around wherever you want, miss Wonderbolt.”

“Yeah -- well,” Rainbow Dash whirled with a big frown and bucked a thick, black storm cloud, setting it flying up towards the sun, “Just leave me alone and go chase your clouds!”

“You...” Cloudchaser looked at the escaping, disintegrating inkblot, her eyes wide, her jaw unhinged. “You!” She glared at Dash. “I’m! Our supervisors are going to hear about this!” With a shake, she shot off after the cloud.

“Yeah, well, maybe you should get your head in the clouds!” Dash said, shaking a hoof at the retreating pegasus, “Y’know, so they don’t get away from you!”

“Dash...” The cyan pegasus turned to look at the voice. Flitter, Cloudchaser’s third wing of a twin sister, was looking at Dash with a little frown. “I don’t know what’s ruffling your feathers, but everything about that was way out of line. If that’s how you’re going to be, I think you should just get out of here.”

Dash covered her face with her hooves and shouted, “Come on! I just want to practice!” Beating her wings, she shot towards the ground. “Raaaaaggghhh!”

Green fields, dark under the coming storm, exploded, microscopic features like winding roads and confetti ponies blowing up to exquisite detail, until the ground started blurring. Her eyes were hot and stingy. The gale winds rushing past her face must be the reason, yeah. She was way too cool for it to be anything else.

She rubbed her eyes and mumbled, “Come on. You’re a champ, Rainbow Dash. You’ll be alright with an afternoon off. Just -- just find something else to do -- for a whole afternoon.”

She thought, not too hard, as she flew, buzzing the rooftops of Ponyville. The egghead’s probably reading about some magic mumbo-jumbo, or something. Like I want to just sit there for HOURS. Pinkie? Too exhausting. Rarity? I can’t take another makeover session. Fluttershy? Here she started rolling, trying to shake off a sudden bout of guilt. If I blew up at Fluttershy like I did Cloudchaser, I’d just die. It’d be totally uncool.

So that just leaves Applejack. Rainbow looked around and realized she had flown across the town and was approaching the edge of the Everfree Forest -- and Fluttershy’s cottage. Her stomach turned to a pit and she banked hard to the right.

Following the river, she quickly came to the ordered sprawl of the Apples’ orchards. The inky storm clouds were still thin here, but it wouldn’t be long until the trees were also covered in their shadow. Dash rose and circled around the rows of trees, looking for a flash of orange. Eventually, it occurred to her: it was the middle of apple-bucking. To find Applejack, she just had to find trees that still had apples on them.

A tree in the distance shook, dropping its shiny red fruit. Dash dove below the canopy and landed beside the orange mare. “Hey, Applejack,” she said, “Watcha up to?”

“Howdy, partner.” Applejack said as she walked to the next tree, “I’m just trying to finish this row ‘fore the storm hits. It’s always nicer to start on the end rather than the middle.”

“Think I could help?” Dash asked as she followed Applejack.

“Woah, nelly! You mean you got all your practicing and napping done for the day?”

“Ha ha, very funny, Applebutt. I can’t practice because the weather crew’s building the storm, and I’m too strung up to nap. I need to do something, and I figured I’d help you, if I could.”

“Well, shoot. Course you can! That is, if your scrawny pegasus legs can handle it. Start on the far end and we’ll meet in the middle.”

“Hey, these are an athlete’s legs! I’ll meet you back here in twenty seconds flat!”

“Running and flying don’t exactly build your applebucking skills.”

“Whatever!” Dash shot into the sky and took off. When she reached the end of the row, she landed, planted her forehooves, and launched her back hooves like a cannon. A resounding twip shivered up the tree and a few apples fell from the tree into the buckets waiting below.

“Come on!” Dash shouted as she bucked again. The rest of the apples fell. With a smirk, she cried, “Yeah! Who’s the mare!?” In answer, the tree dropped its last apple right on Dash’s head. “Gah! Stupid apple!” She cried, rubbing her scalp.

She fluttered to the next tree, then the next and the next, each taking at least two bucks to shake its apples free, and more than a few, Dash started to think, were gunning for her. After almost ten minutes and twenty three trees, she heard Applejack call out, “Hey there, partner. not so easy, is it?”

“Jeez! How do you do this for days at a time!?” Dash called out as she kicked another tree, “You must have some kind of freaky stallion legs! And these stupid trees keep hitting me with their stupid apples!”

“Sturdy cannons and strong flanks, Rainbow. And as for the apples,” the earth pony said as she filled another set of buckets with a single kick, “You just gotta know where to stand. Well, there’s only a couple more left; you wanna get’em? I’m plum tuckered out.”

“Sure, I’ll be with you in a dash! Oww!”

After a few more apple assaults, Dash joined Applejack as they walked back towards the Apple family house. “So, what now? Shouldn’t we, like, bring them in?”

“Nah; the critters know to steer clear by now, and the barrels have little holes in the bottom for the rain. You’d be surprised how often they have storms during apple-bucking season.”

Dash rolled her eyes. “You know I’m part of the weather crew around here, right?”

“Coulda fooled me.”

“Oh, shut up.” Dash jumped into the air and started flapping above Applejack.

“Shucks, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just kidding you, Rainbow.”

“Yeah -- yeah, I know, I’m just -- all wound up. It’s like -- I don’t know -- I’ve got ants under my coat, and if I don’t practice they get all mad and stingy.”

“You know, we got a few barrels of cider in the icehouse. Maybe that’d help you unwind. What d’ya say?”

“It’s not like I have anything else to do, and you never bring enough cider for me to get some! So, yeah, I’ll have a drink with you.”

“It’s settled, then. You head on out to the barn, I’ll be right there with a couple’a glasses.” The orange mare trotted off towards the house, leaving Dash to flutter over the darkening barnyard.

“The barn!?” Dash shouted, “Why out there?”

“Just do it, Rainbow. I’ll be out in a second.”

Dash wheeled around to the barn and pulled the doors open. The hay-strewn dirt floor looked as inviting as anything else. Dash laid down and looked at the sky, A small, faraway fringe of cyan bordered the rolling black of the storm clouds. The sky she loved was almost gone, replaced with this big, scary-looking ceiling of murk. Well, not scary -- she was way too cool be scared of a stupid storm -- but she wouldn’t want to fly in it.

The midday twilight was for an instant broken by a flash of lightning. Dash jumped with a little yell, wings fluttering, when the thunder followed it. She had barely settled down when Applejack arrived a moment later, a saddlebag with two mason jars on her back and a jug on a rope around her neck. Applejack turned as rain started pattering on the roof and the ground outside. “Looks like I got in just in time.” The earth pony sat on her rump, facing the door, and sat a jar down each in front of her and Dash. “Well, miss weather pony,” she started, pouring the gold cider for both of them, “It’s a real wagon-tipper out there. How long d’you reckon this storm’ll last?”

“Well, we don’t have much longer before Winter, so this’ll probably be the last rain we’ll get. Everything after’ll be snow, and you know how reliable that is. Since they’ll want to make sure there’s enough surface water for drinking and groundwater for crops in the Summer -- it might last all night, or maybe through tomorrow.”

“Y’know, that makes me think about a question I’ve had. How does a cloud house do in the rain? Seems like rain would just come on through.”

Dash picked up her jar and took a swig of cider; it was as poppy and sweet as its bubbly, gold appearance had promised. “We build them above the rain layer. It’s not something we have to worry about.”

Applejack turned her jar up, almost draining it in one gulp. After a satisfied sigh, she said, “But what if you did?”

Dash looked at Applejack, then back out at the sheet of water. “Well -- I guess you might be able to freeze the water in the clouds. The rain would roll off, but you wouldn’t want to live there: it’d be really cold, and all the furniture would turn into snow. If you didn’t freeze it, the rain would just come through.”

Applejack finished her jar and poured another. “Huh. Guess that’s one thing you could give to us that live on the ground. We don’t have to build with clouds.”

“Nah. Clouds are good for building with; you just have to put them in the right place. I mean, it’s the same as on the ground. You couldn’t build in a -- what’s a bad place?” Dash stopped and took another swig, savoring the tangy cider before exclaiming, “A swamp! The ground would be all shifty, wouldn’t it? You couldn’t lay a foundation.”

“Well, cousins Sea Shimmer and Fiddlesticks live in a swamp. It’s been awhile since I visited them, but I guess their house is on posts.”

“Ah hah!” Dash thumped her jar against the dirt floor. “It’s just like keeping rain out of a cloud house!”

“Fair enough, though they don’t have to worry about their furniture freezing.”

“Eh, true. So why are you asking about that?”

Applejack stared into her cider and dragged her hoof in the dirt. “I dunno; looking at the clouds, I just remembered that the other day I was wondering what life was like for a pegasus, always zooming around through the air, going here and there as fast as you please. Seems awfully different from us ponies that live on the ground, especially you.”

Dash put her jar down and grinned, a little cider-moustache following the curve of her lips. “Me? That cause I’m the fastest, coolest pony with two wings?”

“Pretty much. Flying’s your bucket of apples ain’t it? Most pegasus ponies just use it to get around, but you dern near make an art of it.”

“Darn near!? Come on, I’m the -- uh -- Neighcasso of the sky!”

“Heh. I’ll admit, that sonic rainboom sure is a sight.”

“Heck yeah!” Dash whooped.

Applejack didn’t respond. The silence stretched out, first an expectant moment, then a confused minute, then five more, drawn out by the rain pounding on the wooden roof. The two ponies sat, looking at the dark silvery downpour, Dash sneaking glances over at Applejack every once in a while. She couldn’t place the orange mare’s expression.

Dash finished her cider and nudged the other pony. “Hey, AJ, you alright?”

Applejack shook her head and looked at Dash. “Huh? Yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking again.”

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Dash said with a grin.

“Ha ha. Very funny, miss feather brains.” For a second, a grin flashed across Applejack’s face, then she turned to look at the rain, her smile drooping. “So, how’s Tank doing? You taking care of him alright?”

“Duh!” Dash said with a hint of indignation, “I’d never leave my tortoise pal hanging; that wouldn’t be cool at all.”

“Nope, sure wouldn’t.” The corner of Applejack's mouth ticked. "Does he live in your cloud house too?"

“No!” Dash cried, fluttering her wings a bit. “Geez, I don’t even want to think about that! The little guy’s so clumsy he’d probably fall and crack his head open.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to upset you. That’s the reason I was wondering; I didn’t figure a turtle’d do too well in a pegasus house.”

“Tortoise,” Dash said, “And could I get some more cider? And what’s up with all these questions?”

“Well, I do a lot of thinking,” Applejack said as she poured Dash another jar, “I mean, I got a lot of time to think, out here working the orchards and such. So, lately, I been wondering about pegasus ponies; cities made of clouds; the kind of magic that lets y’all live in the sky; things like that. Lots of things. Then I thought about you, in particular. You nap on clouds all the time, so I can see your furniture being made of them, but what about other things, like them Daring Do books you borrow from Twi? Also, what do you do when you’re not flying, or napping, or hanging around with us? You live alone, right? So what’s your home life like? Do you cook up there? Bathe? Is it cold up there? Do -- well, like I said: a lot of questions.”

“Huh.” Dash took a swallow and swished it around in her mouth. “Since when did you turn into some kind of philosopher?”

Applejack smiled and stood, stepping towards the sheet of water draped across the doorway. “Ain’t no philosophizing, Rainbow, just a mind with a lot of time to wonder about practicalities. Well, you care to answer any of those questions? Or maybe just tell me a story about yourself, miss Rainbow Dash?”

Dash stood. “Alright,” she said, nudging the other pony with her wing joint, “So you want a little peek into the day-to-day awesomeness of the coolest pony in Equestria huh? I can do that.”

The pegasus jumped into the air and threw her forelegs over her head. “First thing in the morning -- or the afternoon, whatever -- I jump out of bed and do my stretches. Then, I get in the shower. Then...”

“Hold it.” Applejack said, “Shower? What do you mean by that?”

“Showers. You know, like rain? Spring showers? You take a rain cloud and buck it a little,” she pantomimed, kicking the air above her, “Then it rains on you: it’s a really quick way to get clean.”

“Sounds nifty. I sure could use something like that.”

“Yeah! Clouds are seriously cool! So, yeah. anyway. Shower, then I get to work practicing! Or I just get to work.” Dash stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes, making Applejack grin. “Oh wait, breakfast. Normally, I just eat an apple or something, but -- sometimes -- I like to fix oatmeal! Lots of sugar, lots of butter -- cleaning the pot after stinks, but it’s totally worth it! And it has protein, so it’s great for a day of really intense practice.”

“Alright, hold up again,” Applejack said, waving a hoof at Dash, “Where do you keep all these things, what with the house being made of clouds?”

Dash raised an eyebrow. “Come on. Cabinets? Cupboards? The icebox?”

“But, they’re clouds, right? How do they stay up there?”

Dash cocked her head. “Huh. I dunno. You can make clouds -- thicker -- kinda bunch’em together,” she paused and smooshed the air in front of her with her forehooves, “And they’ll hold stuff, if it’s light enough.”

“Then why can’t us earthbound ponies walk on’em up in Cloudsdale? Couldn’t you just make the ground a whole lot thicker?”

“No. Twilight said something about it once, but I might not have been listening. I think she said it had to do with the magic that different kinds of ponies have in their bodies -- disrupting -- the clouds... I don’t know.”

“Huh. What about that time you had your house on the ground, you know, after the gremlins? Floor didn’t collapse on me then.”

“Maybe ‘cause it was on the ground? I don’t know! You’ll have to go to Twilight for that.”

“Alright, sorry for interrupting. Go on.”

“I don’t know; that’s kind of it.” Dash shrugged as she landed. “Really, flying is my thing. Whenever I’m not working or with you guys, I’m flying, or, you know, hanging out.”

“Huh.” Applejack continued staring out at the rain for a second, then turned. “Want some more cider? I was going to have some.”

Dash joined Applejack. “Sure, pour me some.”

As Applejack tilted the jug over her jar then moved to the other pony’s, she asked, “Real focused, huh?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s only my dream on the line. I -- I’m going to be a Wonderbolt.”

When Rainbow Dash stuttered, Applejack looked up at her. Dash was looking out at the dark sky and falling water with a steely gaze. She looked down at Applejack and for the space of a breath it seemed like there were tears in her eyes like raindrops pooling in the bare bottom of a rain barrel. Then she cried out and jumped to her hooves and backed off. Applejack looked down. Cider, pooling black on the shadowed dirt floor, had escaped from Dash’s jar and washed over her hooves. “Shoot!” the orange pony said, putting the jug down, “Ah. Let me... Uh.” She murmured as she looked around with wide eyes, casting about for something to clean Dash’s hooves with.

“Don’t worry, I got it.” Dash flapped to the open door and held her hooves out in the falling water, one after the other, then shook them dry just inside the sill.

“I’m so sorry about that, sugarcube. I guess I got distracted.”

“Don’t worry.” Dash jabbed Applejack’s shoulder with her hoof. “I can take a little cider on my hooves if it means the rest is free.”

“Heh heh, I’m with you there!” Applejack said, nudging Dash with her shoulder. “So, you seemed a little tense there; bad news on the Wonderbolt front?”

Dash turned away. Her feathers bristled, then lay flat as she flexed her wings. She looked at the rain again, seeming to rummage through it for her thoughts. “No. It’s worse. Not bad news: no news.” This time, definite tears started brimming over her eyelids, streaking her cyan cheeks. “After everything I’ve done, after all those academy records, how can Spitfire not be impressed? I mean, I  made top marks in the academy, saved her and all of you more than once, even threatened to quit for my principles; how am I not a Wonderbolt!?”

Applejack put a foreleg over Rainbow Dash’s shoulders. “Maybe it just takes some time.”

“But -- but I’ve been at it for years! Ever since I got out of Junior Speedsters, I’ve been trying to get into the Wonderbolts. I thought it was finally coming after the academy, but -- but nothing’s changed.” She turned, walked to her cider, and laid down, facing away from the other pony with her head on her hooves. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up.”

Applejack joined her, putting a hoof on her shoulder and whispering, “What do you mean, sugarcube?”

Dash’s voice quivered. “Just -- helping everyone else -- making sure they can reach their dreams, you know? -- that’s easy. But -- but, for me -- I don’t know...”

Applejack gulped down her jar of cider and burped. “Now, Dashie, I don’t mean-”

“Dashie?” The pegasus cocked her head. “Since when do you call me that?”

“Oh, I dunno.” Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. “Guess I picked it up from Pinkie. Anyhoo, as I was saying -- I don’t mean to pry, but does this have to do with what happened ‘tween you and Fluttershy?”

“What!?” Dash looked up at Applejack through slits, her voice falling to a small, low growl. “How’d you find out about that!?”

Applejack took a step back, then frowned down at Rainbow Dash. “I was taking a load of apples to town when I met her wandering the road all aquiver. I asked her what was wrong, and she just about broke down. I eventually got it out of her that y’all’d had a fight, or something to that effect. I was just about to come give you a right scolding when she stopped me. Said you were more hurt than she was. She kept saying how sorry she was that she hadn’t thought of your feelings.”

For a second, they were both a pair of statues, caught like a basilisk and its prey. Then, Dash’s wings flared and swept around to cover her eyes, quaking in little hurricane spasms as she let out a broken wail. “I don’t know,” she said between sobs, “I don’t know! I DON’T KNOW!”

Applejack only hesitated for a second before dropping to her rump and wrapping her forelegs around Dash’s neck and wings and resting her muzzle in Dash’s mane, just behind her ears. “Shh. What do you mean, ‘You don’t know’? What’s wrong, sugarcube? Talk to me.”

“A-alright,” Dash hiccuped out, “M-man, this isn’t cool at all. I can’t c-cry like this, especially not in front of you.”

“What do you mean, ‘In front of me’? Ain’t nothing to worry about; you just let out whatever you need to, Dashie.”

“But -- but you’re the toughest pony I know; I don’t want you to think I’m a l-loser.”

Applejack pressed tighter and said, barely audible over the drumming rain,. “Do you honestly think I’ll think less of you for crying? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with letting your feelings out, darlin’.” The orange pony raised a hoof to her head and pulled her stetson off. “Here,” she said as she pressed it onto Dash’s forelock, letting its brim rest on the other pony’s muzzle, “Always made me feel better when my daddy let me wear his hat. Why don’t you give it a try?”

As Dash pulled her wings back and pushed the hat up, Applejack took her head off of the other pony’s. A hiccuping laugh pierced her tears as she turned and looked up at Applejack. “Jeez. This things smells.”

“Like an honest day’s work in the orchard.” Applejack smiled down at the other pony. “But, yeah, sorry about that. Haven’t had a chance to wash it today.”

“It’s okay; I don’t mind.”

Applejack punched Dash’s shoulder lightly. “It looks handsome on you, girl. Not as good as on me, but still. Now then, you wanna start on what happened ‘tween you and Shy?”

“Alright -- alright.” Dash looked at the ground, letting the hat slide down to shadow her eyes. “A few days ago, I was just napping, somewhere near the east side of Ponyville. I -- I guess it must have took her a while, but she woke me up. She was just kind of hovering next to my cloud. She did her normal Fluttershy thing, you know, ‘Um, could I ask you a few questions, if it’s not too much trouble?’ that kind of thing.”

Rainbow Dash fell silent for a few seconds. Applejack put a hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Dash said quietly, “I’m just thinking of how to say it. Alright -- so -- it was kinda weird. She asked me if I could teach her to be more like me -- you know, cool, awesome, and radical instead of being shy and afraid of everything. When I asked her why, she said she wanted to impress somepony: somepony she liked, I guess. I told her that I couldn’t teach her, cause I was just born that way. She kept begging. Then I tried to tell her she could have anypony she wanted. She was more than good enough: kind, thoughtful, beautiful -- you know, all that stuff.”

“Beautiful?” Applejack said in a tight, muted voice.

“Yeah. I mean, like when she did that whole modeling thing. She’s so graceful, and that little smile she has...” Dash’s wings shivered.

Applejack looked at the rain and scuffed a hoof on the floor. “Well, I guess I could see it. She’s not really my type.”

“Alright. Well, she said she still wanted to be more like me: sure of what she wanted and cool enough to do whatever she wanted. I -- I guess that’s what set me off. Lately, I haven’t been feeling so cool. Sometimes -- sometimes I even feel like maybe I’m a fake. Like, maybe I’ve just been lucky ‘til now, and I won’t be able to keep it up. So, all of that -- all that hit me, right there. I couldn’t even look her in the eyes. I told her to go away, ‘cause I couldn’t help her, but she really ponied up. It was like that time with the dragon up on that mountain. She said I was the coolest pony she knew, and she kept asking me to teach her. After a while, I just yelled at her to stop it, to leave me alone. I -- I still remember the last thing I said to her. I said -- I said...” Dash put her forehooves under the hat’s brim, covering her eyes. When she started again, it was with the reedy conviction of an old, scratched record. “I yelled, ‘You’re such a d-dweeb! There’s no way you could ever be as cool as me. W-why don’t you just flutter off already!?’” She shouted the last, hitting off another set of wracking sobs, louder than the pounding rain.

As Applejack reached to hold her again, Dash said, “Oh Celestia, how could I say that, especially to Fluttershy!? What’s wrong with me!?”

“It ain’t you, Dashie,” Applejack whispered in her ear, “It never could be; promise.”

Dash slammed her hooves on the ground and yelled, “But I said it! I said it!”

Applejack pressed her muzzle into the other pony’s cheek. “But it ain’t you. Please. It’s just something you’re going through. Please.”

“I don’t know, Applejack.” Dash said, her voice a thin, inconstant drip, “Am I a bad pony?”

“No. No way, pony! You may have messed up, but that’s not who you are. It’s like the storm outside; it’ll pass.”

“What if it doesn’t? What if it’s like the gremlins, but worse? What if I’m over?”

“Well, listen. The problem is that you’re having some trouble believing in yourself, right?”

Dash sniffled, then whispered, “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Let me ask then: do you believe in me?”

“Y-yeah. Like I said, you’re the toughest pony I know, and the most honest and hardworking.”

Applejack stood and stepped back. “Well, let me -- let me -- let me get a bit more cider. I have something to say to you, but it scares me. No dragon or changeling or gremlin ever scared me so much as what I want to say.” With Rainbow Dash staring at her with bleary eyes, Applejack picked up the other pony’s jar of cider and upended it, gulping it down.

Setting the jar back on the floor, Applejack turned with a heaving chest, her wide eyes focused on Rainbow Dash. “Alright. Okay. First -- I believe in you, Rainbow. I know everypony else does too, but at least know: I believe in you. You aren’t a bad pony; you care about your friends more than most ponies I’ve ever seen. On top of that, you’re amazing. You got drive like nopony’s business; you’re a pony with a one-way ticket to the top, ‘cause you’re the one pulling the train up on those wings of yours. And -- and you’re beautiful, in ways no other pony ever could be. That spirit of yours, that ambition, that loyalty: it’s one-of-a-kind. That’s why I love you, Rainbow Dash, and that’s why I could never stop believing in you.”

Rainbow Dash looked up at Applejack from under the brim of the other pony’s hat, sniveling, her eyes swimming in hot, dark tears. Applejack, her speech finished, was looking down, her face shadowed, turned a bit away. She looked somehow naked without her hat, the way her bare forelock fell over her eyes like a veil of straw, the way her mane cloaked her near shoulder like a golden waterfall, the way her ears slanted under the burden of her confession. It was a shockingly fragile view of the rugged pony. Dash spoke quietly, suddenly afraid of shattering the orange pony. “Love me? What do you mean?”

Applejack raised her head and looked into Dash’s eyes with her mouth set in a line. “Exactly what I said. I love you, Rainbow Dash. When I see you up in the sky, my heart flies right up there with you. When you flash that Tartaros-may-care grin, it sets me right on fire. And when you talk about how you may be a fake, about how you may never reach your dreams, I want nothing more than to make you see that for the lie it is. That’s what I mean.”

Dash sniffed, then asked, “So, you think I’m cool, huh?”

Applejack grinned and looked down, shuffling her forehooves. “Cooler than polar bear in an ice cube on the north pole, sugarcube.”

“And you,” Dash paused, swallowing, “Don’t think I’m a bad pony?”

Applejack stepped forward and put a hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “Think now, darlin’, if you were bad, you wouldn’t be worrying about Fluttershy, now would you?”

“I -- I guess not.”

“Well, I won’t tell you what to do, but if it were me, I’d go visit her and tell her about why I did what I did, how I was feeling. If there’s any pony that’d understand, it’s her. Maybe bring her a little gift, if I wanted to ease things along; something tasty to share, like some daisies.”

Dash smiled. “Yeah, that -- that sounds like a good idea. Thanks, AJ.”

Applejack leaned in, putting her face to Dash’s. “So, you okay now, sugar? You cool, radical, awesome, and an otherwise affable pony?”

“Yeah,” Dash said with a little laugh, “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks again, AJ. Did -- did you bring me out here just so you could talk to me about this?”

Applejack took a step back and turned to look at the rain. “Yep. After talking with Fluttershy, I figured something was wrong and maybe you’d need help sorting your feelings. With you coming out here and all, it just seemed like too good a chance to let past.”

Dash sniffed. “And what about the, uh, love thing? You weren’t just saying that to make me feel better, were you?”

Applejack’s head remained at an even cant, directly out the door. “You think I’d lie, especially about something so important?”

When Dash responded, the orange pony barely heard her. “No.”

Applejack’s head drooped. “Listen: you don’t have to tell me right now how you feel about me. Or you can tell me you don’t feel the same, if you don’t; I’d be fine with it. The only thing I couldn't bear to hear is that we couldn’t be -- friends -- no more.”

“What? Why wouldn’t we be friends?”

“Well, it’s kind of a big thing, ain’t it? A break in the status quo, Twi might say. Like maybe you wouldn’t feel comfortable around me.” Applejack took a breath. “Sounds like you might have feelings for Fluttershy, too. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of that.”

Reedy laughter sounded from behind her, growing slowly stronger. “Fluttershy!? Me and her!? I don’t -- I don’t think there could be anything between us, AJ. I mean, she’s so shy -- and timid -- and just -- kind of -- not awesome.”

Applejack looked over her shoulder, a little frown on her face. “But -- but I thought... You said she was beautiful. You even did that little thing with your wings when you were talking about her.”

Dash met her gaze. “Just ‘cause I like how she looks doesn’t mean I want to get with her. I mean, seriously, what would we even do together? Aerobatic bunny shows?”

Applejack scraped a hoof on the floor. “Well -- I mean -- the kind of things two ponies in love do, maybe?”

“What? Like moonlit strolls and candlelight dinners and stuff?”

“Sure,” Applejack said hesitantly, “Sure, things like that.”

Dash shrugged. “Eh. Not really my thing.”

Applejack chuckled. “What is your thing then, miss Rainbow Dash?”

“I don’t know. Something more physical. Like, remember the Running of the Leaves three years ago? Racing you was the most fun I had the whole season. And then when Twilight beat us!?” Dash started snickering.

“Yeah, I remember. That was a whole barrel of fun, though I still feel bad about all them dirty tricks we pulled.”

Dash rubbed a hoof on the back of her head. “Yeah, me too.”

An awkward silence grew. Applejack was the first to speak. “Well, you can have the rest of my cider, seeing as I drank yours.”

“Nah, I’m good. I don’t think I could hold any more.”

The two ponies avoided looking at each other, letting the constant drumming of the rain fill the silence. Without looking at the other pony, Rainbow Dash asked, “So, how long have you felt this way?”

“A while. I only realized it something like six months ago, but it must have been longer than that. At least a year or so.”

Finally, Dash looked at Applejack. The orange pony was looking right back. “So, around the time I left for the academy.”

Applejack nodded. “Yeah.”

“So -- what was it like?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, how did you find out?”

Applejack cast about with her eyes. “Well, I was hanging around when Pinkie was waiting by the mailbox, that first day you left for the academy. I kept telling her that you’d be fine, but she got it in her head you might not make the cut if she missed some of your letters. For some reason, that bothered me. A lot. So I left to do some work over here and let it stew while I figured out what was wrong. First I realized that I was mad that she thought something like that might stop you.” Applejack put on an awful, twangy imitation of Dash’s  reedy, high-pitched voice as she stood on her hind legs and pretended to swoon. “Oh, heavens! I sent Pinkie a letter yesterday, and she still ain’t responded. Whatever will I do?” Dash grinned and snickered as Applejack fell to her forehooves “So, yeah. I knew you were strong enough to make it on your own up there, but something was still bothering me. After a couple of days, Pinkie had the idea to send you that care package. I thought it was a great idea, but I realized something. I was jealous! Everything Pinkie was doing, I wanted to do, only better, ‘cause you deserve only the best, and -- I wanted that care package to be from me. That’s when I figured it out, that I loved you, the way I do.”

Dash stood, walked over to Applejack, and prodded the orange pony with her wing. “Man, turns out you’re just a big softie.”

Applejack smiled wanly and looked away. “I guess I can’t say otherwise.”

“You know -- it’s kinda nice, the way you’ve -- y’know, this whole thing.” Applejack looked up to find Dash had looked away too, and was scuffing her hoof on the floor as she spoke. “And -- I mean -- I wouldn’t mind getting this kind of treatment more often.”

“You, uh, saying you might want to try some kind of relationship?”

“Well -- I guess, yeah.” Dash looked up. “I don’t know much about, like, romance and stuff.”

“Just promise you’ll keep flying, talk to Fluttershy, and maybe drop by every so often. I wouldn’t mind giving you this treatment a bit more often.”

“But, shouldn’t we, like, go on a date or something? Or at least plan to? It seems too selfish to just let you, like, support me without giving anything back.”

Applejack grinned and wagged her eyebrow. “Well, I’m sure there’s plenty of things you could give.”

For a second, Dash just raised an eyebrow. Then, her eyes grew slowly wider. “You mean -- like kissing and stuff!? Jeez, you horndog!”

Applejack slowly approached the other pony and nuzzled one of her wings briefly and gently. “Truth be told,” Applejack started, looking up with a grin, “Your spirit ain’t the only thing I find beautiful.”

“Jeez.” Rainbow Dash looked away with a little smile, her cheeks purple in the twilight. “M-maybe, some time.”

Applejack sidled up to Dash and dipped to peck her cheek. “Whenever you get curious about moonlit walks and candlelight dinners, let me know; I’d be happy to show you. ‘Til then, let’s just enjoy the rain.” She sat.

An insuperable grin took over Dash’s face as she too sat and spread a wing over Applejack. “Alright. And, hey -- thanks, AJ. I -- you’re the best.”

Applejack’s lips found Dash’s cheek once more, then curved upwards as she looked out at the shifting gray curtain of water. “Well, according to my personal weather pony, this storm’ll probably last through the night, at least, so I don’t know if we’d want to go out tonight, but you think maybe after, maybe tomorrow evening, you’d like to get together for a nice dinner?”

“Yeah -- I guess -- that’d be nice.” Dash turned her head, her face hovering just next to Applejack’s ear. She took a breath with something like a small frown. Finally, she closed her eyes, puckered her lips, and pressed them against the other pony’s mane. “How about I take you somewhere? You choose the place -- I’ll pay. Alright, AJ?”

“That’s a deal, Dashie, that’s a deal. How do you feel about Bitalian?”