Curveball

Chapters

Play Ball
Rainout
Barnstorm
Cleanup
Balk
Strike Zone
Charging the Mound
Curveball
Interference
Extra Innings

Play Ball

~Curveball~

Cover image by yours truly, Ezrienel

Play Ball

Unhappiness was like a toxic spill, like a contagious virus that hopped around between scornful sneers and snagged on the wandering thoughts of any who pondered some idea of prosperity. Melancholy was unbridled, it was an infection and dragged any who even spoke or wrote the word into a state of sullen depression. At least, that's the gist of my teacher must have been blabbering about last week. I was asleep half the time, so I couldn't really be sure. It sounded right to me, I was no picture of beaming happiness myself, in fact, I was just the opposite. I always acted so tremendously ambitious or content around my friends, but it was a facade. Sure, I knew my life could be so much worse, but right now I just hated it. I especially hated it when it felt like I was just talking to a wall.

"Are you even listening to me?!" I found myself screaming across the room at the girl ignoring me, who flinched and nearly stabbed herself in the thumb with the needle in her hand and swallowed the pins in her mouth. She managed to turn around and give me one devil of a glare, intensified by her sharp-ended mascara-coated eyelashes. I just made some grouchy scowl and sank back into the chair lazily, tucking my hands behind my multi-toned hair.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Yes I was listening, darling," she responded with half of her mouth, the other half still biting on the pins. "You were saying?"

"You'd know if you were listening!" I snapped again, but groaned as I slid my hands forward over my eyes instead, pressing them against my head and running them through my bangs, which were mostly red, orange, or yellow. Some stray stands of green sometimes made their way up there, but I couldn't care much less at the moment. "It's getting worse, Rarity, I can't even get control of myself."

"I don't know what makes you think I'm the one to discuss this with." Rarity shrugged as she cautiously put another pin into the hem of the dress on the mannequin, which would not have flinched if she had accidentally stabbed it.

"What do you mean? You're the only person I know who talks about romance as though it's a damn fashion trend, going on about who's the hottest guy in school or the most, the most— what's that world you use?" I blabbered on, moving my hands a bit through the air as I tried to iterate.

"Eligible, darling. But that's hardly the issue, my expertise is more suited for, well, those of us who are interested in," she paused as though saying it aloud might offend me or hurt my feelings or something, but my glare egged her on, "Men. You've been interested in women for as long as I can recall, what makes you think I can suddenly give you good advice now?"

"Not women, Rarity, just," I tried to correct, but as the object of my affection came to mind I had to draw in a breath as I slipped further into the drama department's most comfortable chair. "Her."

"Yes, well, she is a woman. I'm sure you have to start somewhere." She shrugged my daydreaming off and went back to working with her fabrics, which I think she was designing for the school's production a few weeks away. "Just because I'm the only one who happened to stumble onto this little secret of yours, that doesn't mean you can just barge in here and confide in me all the intimate little details." She looked back and saw me sulking, and her tone lightened considerably, "Not that I don't want to help you dear, as a good friend I would be more than happy to help. I just know that I can't."

"I just want her out of my head, already!" I groaned loudly as I tingled to even imagine her anywhere outside of my head. "I even joined every single sports team in school, filling up all my free time so I could work her out of my urges, but nothing works. Come on, Rare, what do you do if you've got a guy on the brain?"

"Well, usually I would be the one on—" she stopped herself short as that came to sound rather less than dignified, clearly she was only intending to say that guys usually were the ones to come after her. "Nevermind, I already told you about the sappy movies and ice cream, didn't I?"

"Yeah, that went over well," I grumbled sarcastically as I turned around in the chair like I was uncomfortable, the fabric squeaking around under me. "I was doing just that, blinds all pulled shut with a tub of Neapolitan, enjoying myself perfectly fine. But she ended up stopping by after school when she noticed I didn't show up. She thought I was sick, and she brought over this delicious home-made soup and sat there with me until I convinced her I was fine."

"Well you probably shouldn't have skipped school to wallow in self pity, for starters," Rarity muttered to the last pin as she removed another and pinched it into the clothing. "And the fact that she stayed behind with you shows that she cares, perhaps you're not the only one with the crush, hm?"

"Don't tease me Rarity." I felt the idea tug at my chest, filling me up with false hope. "We both know she doesn't even date. Besides, I'm pretty sure she's straight."

"Mhmm," she didn't say anything else for a second, but like usual I just wanted to stuff every moment with thinking and talking about her.

"It's just getting so bad, you know? Every time I see her I just want to jump on her, I just want to, to..." I held my hands out and gripped angrily at the air, just imagining what I could do to her. I just groaned loudly again and left the sentence hanging as it was.

"Listen, usually my advice would be to tell her how you feel, but honestly I don't feel that you should." Rarity was trying, at least, though it wasn't quite what I wanted to hear. "I know that if some girl, regardless of whether she was my friend or not, came up to me and started confessing even half of the things you've told me? Well, I would be utterly dumbstruck, devastated, I would feel just awful that I would have to deal with letting her down. It's rather rare to find a girl who would even consider that, um, lifestyle. I just don't want you to get hurt or rejected, and I certainly don't want to see you lose her as a friend over this, I mean you two are just darling as friends."

"I know, I know, it just doesn't feel like enough," I growled, hating the way Rarity was making it sound as if I would automatically be rejected. I probably would, but I didn't want to hear it. "We've been best friends for like, years, and it just sucks that I have to ruin it with all this. And yeah, sure, I've been asked out a couple of times, but I always have to say no, and do you know why?" I peeked up at her, watching her glance over and shake her head. I nearly whispered my confession, "Because they're not her. They're not Applejack."

Just saying her name forced me into a smile. It was ridiculous how just moving my mouth in such a manner and speaking could force a response so predictably irresistible. I closed my eyes and relaxed, letting my breath roll out of my nostrils in a slow and easy breeze, my heart racing into my fingers and toes. I felt her name hot on my lips again, and wished I could have more. But I was silent, and I could feel Rarity looking at me, observing me in this odd euphoric state I always got in when I could do it and no one could see. But despite the fact that the mere idea of Applejack could rattle me so deeply, not to mention the sight or the smell, I was still so unhappy.

"Why don't you try talking to someone else? I don't think I'm helping," Rarity spoke up, interrupting my thoughts and my misery. I stared blankly at her as she tried to think of anyone I would even want to tell, "Pinkie might not be your best choice, seeing as how she never discusses serious issues at length, but I imagine Twilight would have something to say, she always does. And how about Fluttershy? She's been your friend the longest, hasn't she?"

"I can't imagine Fluttershy having anything useful to say," I muttered as I imagined her nervously stuttering something about friendship and boundaries and, God forbid, sex. It was funny to imagine her trying to sort through it, but she'd probably just faint or avoid the subject if I actually brought it up. "Well anyway, I'm going to be late for baseball practice. As team captain I should probably at least try to be there on time. Thanks again for the chat, Rare."

"Uh, yes, you are certainly welcome, Rainbow Dash," she managed to say with grace, though my abrupt exit was clearly just as odd as my sudden entrance. I left her alone in the drama room, surrounded by those costumes and crap she seemed to love so much.

I ran through the halls faster than I needed to, because really I didn't care if I was late. But I felt like running, like pushing my body to do anything else rather than linger on Applejack again. The field was on the other side of the school from the arts department, but the building itself was kind of small so it didn't take many strides to clear it. School had ended a good half hour ago, which was more than long enough for me to get changed into my uniform and bother Rarity with my personal dilemmas. So there I was, running in the halls like I knew I shouldn't, wearing my black tank top and my uniform blue-striped white pants.

I never wore the uniform striped shirt when I played, mostly because I wasn't a big fan of wearing the number three on my back. Most schools assigned shirt numbers based on batting order, but it was a tradition here to have them assigned to positions instead. Saved us having to make new jackets, I guess. Number one suited me best because of how clearly awesome I am, but I was no pitcher and that jacket was reserved for our ace, which we had yet to find or train. Right now we had our second baseman and an outfielder switched between tossing the balls for us, but they were nothing special. Me, I was the captain so I got the number three, but I liked playing third base, that's where all the action was.

I made my way to the door by the gym, the fastest way to get to the field, I'd know. As I pushed the door open I squinted my eyes in the sunshine, but was not stalled long. I heard the door fall back into place noisily behind me as the scuffed floors beneath my feet turned to grass and dirt, a nice change. I could see the team already gathering at the dugout, stretching and organizing the bats and such like they always did to waste time before I arrived. I hurried across the field and was just about to grab the pole that bordered the fence and swing around it as usual, when someone stepped right in front of me.

"Howdy, Rainbow." She smiled that charming crooked grin of hers as the words came out. My face went red as I stopped myself just in time, her body a mere inch from mine, her lips, so close...

"Applejack! What are you, uh, what are you doing here?" I spoke as to distract myself, swallowing any impure thoughts and blaming my fluster on the brisk run. She wasn't on our team, so it was weird that she was standing here, and dressed in flattering sweats with her usual cowboy hat absent.

"I'm here to try out for your baseball team," Applejack told me with a presumptuous and eager smile, her eyes lighting up in the sunshine and at the sight of me. "I've been considerin' it mighty hard for some time, but I finally just decided to go ahead and do it." Go ahead and do it, she said. I bit at my lip a bit before I thought of an excuse to keep her away, I couldn't have her in such close vicinity to me when I was thinking about going ahead and... doing something.

"I can't let you play." Really, I couldn't, I joined my sports teams exactly to get away from her. It was her ever pestering image in my head that had me crazy, I needed my alone time. I had some reason to deny the request, so I went for it, "Everyone else came for the try outs, and I mean they did all the work practising and preparing. It'd be like I was playing favourites, is all."

"Well I sure don't want to put you in a bind, Rainbow." I wouldn't mind if she did, but I kept that idea to myself. "Your catcher already went and showed me some of you're signals, to boot." Applejack was graceful about my turning her away, but mentioning the catcher made me wonder.

"Catcher?" I curiously repeated, and devilishly glared at the player in question.

"How's about this then," her voice came back to me, and my eyes darted up to hers as if I didn't care how obvious they begged her to lean in towards me. She already had a baseball in her hand, and she tossed it in front of me and caught it without even glancing over at her movements, movements I couldn't help but stare at. "I'mma pitcher, see, and from what I hear you've got the most hits on the whole darn team. So I say, if I can strike you out at bat, you lemme on the team. Sound fair?"

"Well, we don't have much of a pitcher yet, I guess," I had to agree now, since she just issued a direct challenge to the most competitive girl in school. She definitely knew her way around me, that's for sure. It tickled me to imagine what else she might be good at making me do, but I bit the perverted smile back. The other girls on the team all started looking over here as if they knew what I was thinking by the light blush on my cheeks, but clearly they did not.

"So it's settled!" Applejack hit me in the shoulder with an open-palmed slap, and I could feel my body respond to her touch. She played with the baseball in her hand again, and I noticed that it wasn't one of ours, it was older and dirtier, but in fine condition. That ball was clearly Applejack's personal property, much like her sultry southern twang, "You'd better bring your A-game there sugar cube, 'cuz I ain't lookin' to lose."

"Just don't be too upset if that ball of yours gets lost on the woods over the fence." I played rough with her, snatching a bat from the line of them leaning against the fence and pointing across the field with the end of it. Applejack just smirked at my aggressive nature.

"I ain't worried. Body as slim as yours..." Applejack strode past me, her breath brushing my ear as she whispered low and close. I felt the heat of her so near to me, and noticed her eyes flickering up and down my form. "You ain't fit for sluggin'."

I watched her as she kept walking past me, my hungry gaze lingering barely hidden beneath a confident smirk. The rest of the team gathered up to watch, and our catcher finished getting into her gear before she came out to home plate. I swung the bat around a few times to get used to the weight of it again, though I knew I wouldn't really need to warm up. Applejack bent her glove over her fingers to limber it up, and I could already tell it was another unfamiliar piece of equipment. She kicked at the mound a bit before she decided where her feet liked to stand, and she did a couple good stretches of her own, which I tried to avoid leering at.

I stepped up to the plate eagerly as usual, I mean Applejack was right when she said I had the most hits. She was also right that I couldn't send them over the fence, but I could hit almost anything. I was quite slim, my body more suited to speed than power, so it was no surprise I didn't have much momentum behind the ball. Applejack just stood there looking at me for a moment, like she was sizing me up or waiting for me to sink into my stance. Finally, she leaned forward and hid her fingers, playing around with the ball a bit as her eyes dropped to the catcher's mitt. Right, she had been shown some of our signs. I glanced once or twice quickly, and that was enough due to our catcher's poor job of obstructing her signs from sight. I'd have to lecture her on that, later.

I had good eyes, see, so I could already tell what she was going to throw by what the catcher was blatantly signalling. My team had a habit of always thinking they could trip me up, but to this day it hadn't worked. I read the signs in the mitt below me, and Applejack seemed to understand them well enough. It called for a fastball, right down the middle. My specialty, this would end quickly. I could tell my team was trying to test either her or me, and I certainly was not about to fall short. I adjusted myself perfectly, daring a confrontational stare at the girl who stood opposite me. She had her pitching hand hidden in the old worn glove she had brought along, which seemed to match her ball.

Her body moved in the sunlight, her toned legs stretching straight in her wind-up, her arms positioned for what seemed to be any other throw. I watched the way her eyes caught me, her movements following close in their captivity. I didn't even get the chance to move by the time I heard the ball hit the mitt below me in a loud clasp. I hadn't even blinked, for Pete's sake! I looked down with wide eyes as my catcher stumbled a bit, her footing nearly falling out from under her. The ball was dead centred in the strike zone, but the catcher still had trouble grasping it. She shook her hand a bit as she grabbed the ball from her palm, and tossed it right back at Applejack.

"Strike!" the team called, and it was obviously unanimous. I couldn't argue with it, that was one hell of a fastball.

"Sorry 'bout that, guess I'm still a little stiff." Applejack chuckled as she rubbed her wrist, apparently thinking it was less than an adequate throw. I gaped to even imagine what she was like when she warmed up, all that farm work building her arm muscles in just the right way. She was by no means built or bulky, but what I could see of her body told me she was more than just athletic, she was strong.

She read the signs again as I glanced once or twice, but noticed that she shook the sign off with a gentle nudge of her head. The catcher had called for another fastball, and after the success of the first one I was surprised to see that she didn't lean on it again. The catcher didn't try for another sign before Applejack got into her wind-up, and I sank my feet into the ground to swing wildly. Her body was graceful, but her movements were precise and in quick succession, and before I knew it the ball was coming my way at a slightly slower speed. Clearly it was not her fastball, but the longer I debated what it was the faster I realized I didn't have any time left to swing. I had been trying to analyze her and trip her up, I had actually forgotten to move. That was weird for me, as I was a girl of action. It broke farther to the right, and my eyes widened as it slipped just barely out of the strike zone.

"Good eye, Rainbow!" Applejack praised me before she even waited to see if it was a ball or a strike, she already knew. She knew when she was throwing it that it was an intentional ball, she was either taunting me or testing my focus. There was no way I could have been able to decipher that her slider was a ball to begin with, but my hesitation turned out to be something of luck.

"Ball," I murmured in wonder as the others screamed the word aloud. I was surprised by her pitching, she must have thought that with my hot head I would swing at anything. And damn, she had been right, I would have swung if I had not been trying to be an egghead about beating her. Either that, or she was just playing around with me. The ball was in her hands again, and she felt the seams incessantly.

She watched the catcher closely as she made some hand signals, but Applejack shook off the sign again. She was really weird about that, normally pitchers didn't really care what they threw in this league, but Applejack was precise, thoughtful and careful, something rather unlike her. She seemed to like the second or third sign, and fell into her stance again, preparing for her wind-up. I sank low too, knowing that she would not try for another ball. The pitch flew out, and I reacted just as quickly with one hurricane of a swing. Fastball! I knew these— no wait, it was slower than I anticipated! It seemed to stay in the air forever as it broke slightly to the left, and finally landed perfectly within striking zone just after my bat had already passed through it. It was a changeup with an odd break, what I think I heard named as a circle changeup. It was weird to see such well performed pitches in succession, and I was actually beginning to believe she knew what she was doing.

"Strike two!" rang out around me, and I felt myself growing nervous. I barely ever let it get to the second strike, it was almost humiliating. The catcher tossed the ball back again, and I tried to breathe a calmer exhalation, roughly snatching the brim of the hard helmet they made us batters wear and adjusting it around.

I extended my arm out towards her to warn her I wasn't ready, and instead looked at my feet while I readjusted them from my last swing, stepping a bit in place. I swung my bat out straight towards her next, pointing right at her as my determined grin crept out. She returned it just as readily, folding her arms up closer to her face where both fleshy hands were hidden from me. Everyone knew how competitive the two of us were, and now was the perfect time to test that. I let my body fall back into the comfortable stance, keeping it loose as though I knew this next pitch was all mine. She didn't even wait for a sign from the catcher, like she knew she wouldn't get the right one or she couldn't wait to challenge me. Her wind-up was violent and fast, her throw fierce and precise. I smiled as I recognized the direction of the ball, and felt my movements falling into sync with it. She was trying to trip me up with such an easy toss, but she would not get away with it.

She must have been throwing me a curveball from what I could gauge, well, I could adjust to that. I grinned wider as I fell into my usual swing, assuring victory already. But the longer I looked out, the more I realized that I had swung too low, and that the ball was going to pass right over my bat. Besides the obvious, I noticed the position of Applejack's fingers were just now falling back into place, her index and middle fingers spread wider than your usual pitch. This was no normal curveball, this was something I had never even had the chance to practice hitting. I tried to adjust, but it was far too late for that.

"Strike three!" was called as I stood motionless, staring at the bat at the full extension of my arm. It had never even got a piece of the ball, and I was speechless as the team began to cheer. I wasn't particularly angry, though I did feel a little foolish as I stood there for another second longer.

I let the bat fall down to my side and swing a bit in my arm as Applejack blinked a few times before the ball was returned to her. She caught it and played with it in her hands again; she wasn't gloating or anything like I would have been, but she smiled a little and accepted the praise. She deserved it, I realized, as I felt my eyes lock on her again and fondle her body with my gaze. The rest of the team cheered and clapped for her, and while I would have been tagging all the bases and blowing proud kisses to no one, except the Applejack in my head, she just sort of kicked the dirt nervously and shrugged a bit. Modesty was more apparent in her than I noticed before, but that wasn't why I continued to gawk at her with an odd expression. I dropped the bat at the plate and approached her, tilting my head as the question seeped out.

"You-you just threw a forkball, didn't you? No, that was faster, like a splitter!" I felt myself stutter, surprised at such a pitch as I could call it. She seemed to like the attention from me, and she met my eyes with a crooked smile. I felt my body react to her look, though I made no physical indication of it.

"Yeah, a good pitcher's gotta have a few good aces in the hole, don't cha think?" Applejack winked at me. She actually just winked at me. I wanted to start giggling giddily or something, but I had to address the topic at hand, unfortunately.

"Since when could you pitch like that, A.J.?" I asked her as I felt my own smile creeping up through my words, extending my balled fist towards her until I was close enough that she could bump it with her own. I still felt pretty awful about being beat, but I had to put on a brave face in front of everyone.

"Well since just now I s'pose, gettin' better every toss I'd like to think," she replied as she wiped the nervous sweat from under her brilliant golden bangs. I wished that I could bring her close and show her just how proud I was, but clearly that would have been stepping over the line. Instead, I pulled the heavy helmet off my head and flipped my creatively dyed hair until it fell back around me coolly.

"Maybe I should have taken you seriously, then I could have even tried to hit one of those pitches." I toyed with the idea of acting aloof, pretending that I hadn't been serious with the whole competition. It would spare my ego, after all.

"I didn't peg you for a poor sport, Rainbow." Applejack grinned playfully as she inched closer and nudged me twice with her elbow, making me reluctantly step back to avoid being poked in the ribs.

"Come on, just a little newbie razzing," I replied subtly, letting her approach to me again. Damn, I really loved it when she was so close, when I could feel her presence near me and even smell her hair or clothes or something. That even sounded creepy to me, but I couldn't help it.

"So, does that mean I'm in?" She stepped even closer to me, her eyes gleaming with hope and anticipation. She forced my jestingly lying face to crack another wide smile.

"Pitch like that and you'll be our ace, babe," I let myself say, hoping the rasp of my voice would hide the infatuation. I loved calling her things like that, it felt so special thinking even for a moment that she was mine, I couldn't help but indulge myself.

"Y'mean that?" her normally low and sultry voice raised a bit with glee, and suddenly I felt her strong, warm arms come around me. The helmet dropped from my hands unintentionally as I returned the hug without rational or conscious consent. I almost fainted or kissed at her neck as she presented it to me in the embrace, the urge was overwhelming. "Oh, shucks Dash!"

"Now now, that's only if you can play more than just the pitcher," I told her even though I didn't even move to push her advances away. Hey, I'll take what I can get, right? I peered down as she pulled a bit farther away, her bright eyes gleaming towards me as I studied her body from such a close distance. My hands were already on her shoulders as I had returned the hug, and now my fingers drummed over them eagerly. "With those strong arms, I'd say you'd be a fine hitter. Care to prove me right?"

"You know it." Her lips curled up before me, such an enticing expression as it was. She bent down as she picked up the helmet from by my feet and I was still as I watched her lean down so close. I tore my eyes away and instead bit at my lip and scrunched up my face as I looked at the sky, as if it would help those yearning feelings go away.

It was really getting bad, I had not been lying about that. Applejack never seemed to notice, and though I spent all my free time on sports, she still always found a way to push into my life, which was just another thing I loved about her. She was my best friend, and as much as I thought that cutting contact may have been easier, there was no way I wanted to lose her as a friend. She was the best, and I just could not get enough of her. The fact she was joining the baseball team had me actually giddy, and I felt like I was floating just to think how much time I would get to spend with her. I just hoped I could keep up the secret, or else our whole friendship could crumble. I shook those thoughts away as Applejack approached the plate.

"Yo, ball me," I called to the dugout where all the equipment was, raising my hand beside my head. One of my team mates dipped her hand into this sack of baseballs we had and grabbed one, then tossed it out to me. Her throw was not great, but I hardly needed to move to snatch it out of the air. "Glove couldn't hurt, either."

I smirked as she turned back around into the dugout once more. This team needed a lot of work, but I was okay with it, as long as Applejack was there too, I couldn't care less. My team mate looked around for my glove, the white one I always wore, but she was slow at finding it. I tapped my foot a few more times and felt myself growing impatient, and I should have known Applejack could notice.

"Hey Dash!" I heard Applejack's voice and turned to look over at her, which caused me to flinch as I grabbed the projectile out of the air before it pegged me in the head. "Use mine."

I looked down at the beaten old baseball mitt, it was just as endearing as I imagined. It was clearly well used, but still in peak condition, and to top it all off, it was hers. It smelled like hers, it looked like hers, and as I slipped my fingers inside, I damn near screamed just wondering if it felt the same as hers. That was a horribly crude thought, but I couldn't help it, and it made me squirm. Applejack was at the plate now, and she flipped the bat clean through the air to gauge the weight.

"You sure?" I found myself asking her, as if it was an invasion of some privacy for me to wear it. I always hated whenever anyone touched mine, so it was kinda cool that she trusted me with one that seemed to have that much sentimental value.

"You ain't gonna bite it or somethin', are you?" Applejack joked as she raised an eyebrow and flashed me that suave southern smirk that was so totally hers. I had to swallow the butterflies in my stomach and focus on gripping the ball by the right seams.

I was no pitcher, but I did know the correct way to throw a fastball, though that was about the extent of my knowledge. I could never throw them very accurately, but they were pretty fast needless to say, I mean it was me who threw them. I played with it a bit in my hand as Applejack waited at the plate, settling into her own stance. Her eyes were sharp and piercing, determined and diligent. I loved standing out here, with her eyes right on me like I was the only person in the world. And I was making her wait. Here between the mound and the plate, the moment consisted of only us, and I was the one who decided when to make it end. It was almost as though I was in control of her, if only for a short time. Finally though, it had to end. I wound up slowly and pitched my fastball, though it was a bit high and had a funny arc. Applejack did not hesitate.

I ducked immediately, and just in the nick of time too, as the damn near flaming ball soared right over my head. I blinked with surprise, peering over my shoulder as it cleared most of the outfield before bouncing once or twice on the grass. I made a incredulous face as I turned my attention back to her, and she seemed to be wincing, like she was afraid for my health. As I stood back up to the stance that would have got me nailed in the abdomen had I held it while she hit, I glared at her. Applejack flashed me this wide, charming, innocent looking nervous grin that was just so adorable I had to forgive her, and try to keep my heart from jumping up into my throat.

"Uh, my bad," Applejack said sheepishly as she shrugged, trying to get a better grip of the bat for another try. "Toss me another."

Toss? Oh, it was on. Clearly that was a shot at my pride, or at least that's how I took it. She wasn't really one for antagonizing, the good sport that she was prevented that, but I needed some good old fashioned competitive motivation. My team threw me another baseball, which I caught without even trying of course. My fingers slipped over the seams again, finding that sweet spot. This time it was going to be fast, straight, and deadly. I didn't give much pause before I went to pitch again, and Applejack seemed just as prepared. This time it was much closer to dead centre of the strike zone, and the clean backspin was a reason to be proud. But my perfect pitch was snagged out of the air just as ruthlessly, and the echoing sound of ball on bat was striking. I saw the white object fly over me, and turned to watch it clear the entire outfield this time, landing somewhere just beyond the fence.

I looked back at Applejack again, seeing her holding the bat out and watching the hit. She did not seem all that pleased with it, but let down the bat and accepted it. After a moment of shock and awe, the rest of the team was on their feet at once, cheering and hollering obnoxiously. I had to admit, it was a hell of a clean hit, but I was not about to show weakness in front of the team. I swung my arms a bit as I whistled loudly, imitating the trajectory of her hit in the pitch of my whistle. I smirked a bit, and she could already tell I was going to say something condescending, she was just waiting for it.

"Lucky hit, our field's not even regulation length," I said slyly, trying not to seem as impressed as I was. She didn't seem offended by it though, she just took off the helmet and ran her hand through her bangs until they fell back into place, it was torture to watch. "So you can pitch, and you can hit. But can you run?" I grinned, that indeed was my specialty.

"Y'know I can," Applejack reminded me dully. In fact I did know, we had raced all the time when we were younger.

I happened to remember one autumn day when I was going over to her place for dinner, she suggested that we cut through the White Tail Woods, and of course it turned into a neck-and-neck race all the way to her family farm. We were laughing and joking the whole way, and I'd be willing to admit that was the day that solidified our friendship for the rest of our lives, and helped me realize just how strongly I felt about her. It was the most beautiful of evenings, the leaves changing colours, the spirit of competition, the haze of youth, and Applejack right beside me.

"Well how about a little race, then?" I asked eagerly as the rest of the team came near us. Everyone could tell that there was something strong between us, and if everyone at school didn't already know Applejack and I were best friends they might think we were more.

"Why am I not surprised?" She chuckled whole-heartedly as she nodded, accepting the conditions already. "All right Rainbow, your field, your rules."

"Duh." I stretched my back a bit as I glanced around, checking for any obstacles. I looked back at the patient Applejack, and decided to fill her in on my idea, "Three laps, top speed. And be prepared to eat my dust, farm girl. No one is faster than me. You game?"

I raised my hand towards my face and spat on it, drawing disgusted noises from my team. Applejack laughed again as she did the same, causing even louder resistance from the girls around us. We eagerly clapped our hands together in a forceful shake, our eyes flashing intently at each other. This little gesture was something that Applejack and I had been doing since we were young, it displayed equality and acceptance of any deal or challenge. We learned quickly that even if it had not been our own secret handshake, no one else would have ever considered joining in. Applejack had tried it on Rarity once, and she just started screaming and took like ten frantic steps backwards.

As we pulled back I felt her saliva on my hand, and I realized why we hadn't done it in so long. Besides the fact we didn't often have much to compete over that required a verbal agreement, the feeling of her moisture on my fingers drove me crazy. I rubbed my thumb over the tips of my fingers just to feel the slickness again and again. I wished that we could have mingled our saliva in a more intimate way, but right now, I had a race to win.

Baseball practice was never quite this exciting, but I already knew to accept that anything was exciting when Applejack was around. I hadn't spent nearly as much time with her lately as I wanted to, but now was as good of a time as any to make it up to her. We readied ourselves to start right in front of the dugout, using the invisible line drawn from the entrance fence as our finish line. We set up shortly after a quick stretch, and glanced once more at each other before the go was given.

I loved to run, the feeling of wind in my hair and heat in my blood was exhilarating. And everything I loved about running was doubled when I ran beside her, and I got to carefully observe the motions of her body from right up close, seeing as how she was keeping up with me step for step. I pushed myself harder, sprinting at the full extension of each leg. Now, Applejack was just a tiny bit taller than I was, so her legs were longer, but she was more suited to strength and endurance rather than speed. I pulled ahead without much resistance, my slim form perfectly suited to slip through the wind unrestricted. Applejack wasn't far behind though, she never was.

The second lap went by quickly, I was so eager to go on to the third I think my legs were numbed by the harsh wind and fast movements. Then again, it might not have been the best idea to have just sprinted across the school a mere few moments earlier, but I didn't make an excuse. Still, barely a heartbeat behind me was Applejack, and the gap between us was closing steadily. I was barely counting when I realized I had started the third and final lap, and I got unexpectedly uncertain as Applejack caught up to me in full sprint, and even passed me by just a hair. I looked back at my team and realized what a position I was actually in, this new player had just shown up and out batted me, out threw me, and was about to out run me. I could feel my throne as captain, as the fastest, as the best, all of that steadily slipping away as Applejack glanced over at me and captured my nervous gaze. If there was one weakness I had, it was the fear of losing, and often that got the better of me, as instead of focusing on my goal, I stumbled when I met her beautiful eyes.

I could see the finish line from here like a beacon in the night, calling to me and warning me of the consequences of losing. I pushed myself again and again, ignoring the complains of my legs as they slammed into the dirt time and time again, faster and faster each time. Still, Applejack was right beside me and watching me. With only a few meters, there was no way I was about to give up. This was it, the final stretch. I looked back towards Applejack to hold my usual intimidatory gaze, only to find her an inch or two behind me again, and slowly falling back farther. My foot hit the finish line two steps before hers, and my heart skipped around.

I threw my fists up and cheered loudly, spinning around a few more times as I took full advantage of the victory. My team let their applause loose, and I loved the way it sounded, how it sounded for me. My throne as captain and fastest was assured, I was not to be replaced. I grinned proudly back at Applejack and noticed the way that although she leaned forward and put her hands on her knees, her breathing was in no way laboured, nor was her face contorted in pain or discomfort.

My eyes grew wider as I noticed the simple smile on her face, admiration and what looked like friendly love in her eyes. She did not run out of steam at the end, she had pulled back. She had actually pulled back. I glanced at the rest of my team, who were cheering for me and shouting all kinds of praise as usual. This was what I wanted so badly, to be undefeated and victorious, but at what cost? Applejack graciously accepted the loss and nodded a firm bow of her head to me, but I felt bad about it.

I stormed up to her and grabbed her by the hand, boring my eyes into hers for a good long few seconds, before pulling her arm up into the air above us. The team seemed to like the gesture, and I looked over at my competitor to see an honest smile on her face, and something like grace in those gleaming, emerald green eyes. I couldn't help it any longer, I gave in to just the smallest temptation that my heart was whispering of me to do. I pulled her into a tight embrace, which seemed entirely friendly and platonic to the average onlooker. I loved it when her own hands touched the small of my back, slowly slipping over my shirt until she was comfortable. I nuzzled against her further, enjoying the contact as I reached up from behind her and moved her hair out of the way.

"Next time, I'll beat you fair and square," I whispered gently, resisting the urge to nibble at or suck on her ear.

"Lookin' forward to it," was her simple response, and my knees felt weak as her breath rolled down my neck. Applejack let me pull barely away and look her in the eyes, and it was though I fell in love with her all over again.

Author's Note

All right, so here is the first chapter of another humanized AppleDash fic. Unpopular, I realize, and I anticipate several dislikes despite trying my best to keep a quality to my writing. I have always been interested in baseball, so here it is. This story is entirely written from Rainbow Dash's POV, unlike Ranch Hands. Also, a new cover page is coming soon, as soon as I finish drawing it. So expect that too!
*coughcoughandexpectmaturescenesofsexualactionscoughcough*
I mean enjoy the reading, and please comment!
Also, to mention the chapter title: "Play Ball!" is what an umpire calls out to begin an inning in baseball.

Rainout

Rainout

As much as I tried to focus on the conversation of cruddy cafeteria food, I really couldn't. Applejack had this odd but cute way of sitting on her chairs, and it always distracted me. When we would go to sit down, she would always pull out the chair first and spin it around to the back was against the table, then she'd step right over the seat and sit down with it between her legs. It became more than just simply distracting for me, as she often sat beside me, and her knee would be pressed up against my thigh. Then she would inadvertently rub her denim clothed leg against me every time she leaned forward and crossed her arms over the back, or when she tipped the chair back and forth absent-mindedly. I couldn't help but steal glances when I was supposed to be eating my lunch, and every time my eyes would trail down her toned body and wonder what it felt like to be between her legs.

"Rainbow Dash." I jerked away from the thought and pretended to have been listening to the conversation, shoving a forkful of pasta into my mouth as an excuse to not reply right away. Everyone was looking at me now, the group of us who always sat at this table despite our respective cliques. I think it was Rarity who had said my name, so I looked at her. "I had all first period with you and you didn't mention that Applejack had joined your baseball team!"

"Didn't I?" I teetered on my seat a bit, of course I didn't mention it. I was still daydreaming about it, well, more like actually dreaming about it since I was asleep most of the class. Rarity gave me this really irritable look, like she was angry at me for not giving her the scoop sooner. Just because I had a huge, overwhelming crush on Applejack didn't mean this would be some new development, right?

"It ain't no big deal or nothin'," Applejack fooled around with all those negative words as she tipped her chair back and forth, driving me mad with the way her leg rubbed against mine. I just wanted to grab it and pinch it, or run my hand along it, or something even worse I should not even begin to think about.

"No big deal?" I smiled at her natural modesty, but loved to tease her even more, "You're like the first pitcher to strike me out, be proud of that." I nudged her with my elbow, letting my palm subtly graze her thigh as it dropped back to myself. She didn't even notice, just blushed a bit at the compliment.

"Shucks Rainbow, you're embarrassin' me," she murmured as she shook her head and pulled her brown leather cowboy hat down over her eyes. Usually she didn't mind attention, but her humility was sometimes astounding.

"Well I say, congratulations!" Pinkie Pie's voice could probably be heard from here to the gym and beyond, it was shrill and nearly deafening when she got excited. "So, should I throw a welcome-to-the-baseball-team party? Can I even do that if I'm not on the team myself? Oh, oh! We can have a piñata the shape of a glove and hit it with bats, there could be jawbreakers the size of baseballs inside!"

"That sounds a bit dangerous, Pinkie Pie," Twilight Sparkle reminded her, always the voice of reason. "Besides, they haven't even played a game yet, shouldn't we save the party until then?"

"Or we could have two parties!" she responded in an even more jubilant tone, a gasp making its way through her wide mouth.

"Thanks anyway Pinkie," I cut in, knowing exactly where this was going. It was going to be like that time that she had a party for her creepy toothless lizard, and then had a party right afterwards, like seriously the very next day. She had spiked the punch both times, and Fluttershy had drank too much and ended up throwing up in the bushes behind Pinkie's place, twice. "But A.J. and I will be practising a lot in the next few weeks, so we wont have much free time."

"Is that so?" Rarity spoke slowly, and I could tell that she was trying to hint something to me about how I shouldn't indulge myself, but I didn't return any acknowledgement. After all, I was not looking to screw up my friendship with Applejack just for the potential to actually participate in my active fantasy life. No matter how tempting it was; no matter how tempting she was.

"That's, um, that's really good for you, Applejack," Fluttershy said in a hush, her hands folded up in her lap as usual and her eyes darting between the table and her friend.

"Thanks, Fluttershy, it sure is kind of you t'say," Applejack pleasantly responded, giving her a warm and friendly smile.

"So, since when did you play baseball, Applejack?" Twilight inquired with a tilt of her head. That was Twilight, always asking questions and stuff.

"Well my farm's plenty big enough for playin' around on, though we ain't got time to do it usually." Applejack chuckled a bit to think about it, and she worked so hard and so often I couldn't even imagine any time she would have to spare. "But when them reunions come 'round or just after harvest season, we of'en times celebrate with our favourite pastime." I didn't know any of that either, oddly enough. I was her best friend, and even I didn't know that she liked baseball so much.

"You play with your family?" I asked, and for some reason it kind of hurt me a bit that she had never asked me to join in. Granted her farm was a little ways out of town so I didn't visit much any more, and lately I had been avoiding spending too much time around her in case I slipped up and spilled the beans or something.

"Granny's always playin' umpire since she ain't too mobile any more, Applebloom's full'a energy so she's in the outfield, and Big Mac's a slugger if I ever saw one," she explained, though I don't know if the rest of the girls understood much of what she was saying. "You kinda gotta learn how to pitch right if you wanna avoid losin' balls in the orchard to his big ol' hits."

"So I guess you do really like baseball, huh A.J.?" I wondered as my eyes softened on her, I could tell from the way she smiled when she discussed it that it was special to her.

"O'course sugar cube, why else do you think I was at every one'a your games last year?" Applejack tilted her head at me, and I stiffened as I realized it had been true. "Even though y'all were only a softball team back then."

"You were at every game?" I found myself repeating, and in my head I could see her in every crowd around me, standing out even amongst the hordes of fans. "That's really cool of you."

"Shoot, I hardly ever saw you otherwise Ms. Big-Shot athlete, I was gettin' as much screen time as I could." She snickered as she elbowed me playfully again, knocking me a bit off my chair.

I felt my face contort into an unstoppable grin as I looked at her, and realized that though I had been brushing her off a bit too much, she was not about to let me slip away. I wanted to grab her and hug her again, but it was not good for my image to hug anyone. It wasn't cool. I felt Rarity's gaze on me, and met it easily. She tipped her head at Applejack and raised her eyebrows a bit, maybe reminding me of what she had said in the drama room, about how maybe I wasn't the only one with feelings. I didn't want to get my hopes up though, so I just slowly and subtly shook my head.

"Oh, my fingers are twitching!" Pinkie Pie said as she looked down at her left hand, which was twitching just as she said, something she referred to as the Pinkie Sense. "That means the bell is going to ring any second now!"

"Pinkie Pie, your fingers don't predict—" Twilight tried to argue, but the bell rang anyway, and everyone started to get up and go to class. "You can't honestly think that stuff is real. You're wearing a watch on your left hand, so clearly you just looked at it."

"My watch is broken, Twi." She grinned as she hopped up out of her seat and grabbed her bright pink shoulder bag. "It's only right at noon and midnight. The cupcake times!"

"The what?" Twilight followed her by taking her book bag, which was stuffed to the seams as usual, and following after her. The other girls were getting ready too, though Fluttershy always waited until everyone left the table before she did.

"The cupcake times! The times of day where I just absolutely have to, have to, have to eat a cupcake!" Pinkie Pie continued as she nearly skipped through the cafeteria, and her voice was fading away with distance.

"Okay I understand noon, but do you seriously eat a cupcake at midnight every night?" Rarity was the one who spoke up next as she hurried after the two, since their classes seemed to all be in the same direction. I grabbed my dufflebag and waited for Applejack.

"It's like a warm glass of milk to me, puts me right asleep!" she continued, and I shook my head at how ridiculous that sounded. That was probably one of the reasons she had gained a little bit of weight around her midsection, but that didn't bother any of us. It made her hugs a little more difficult to squeeze out of, though. "Milk with sprinkles and icing and sometimes even gummy bears!"

"Gummy bears? Look Pinkie, perhaps you've conditioned yourself to think that cupcakes help you sleep better, but all that sugar right before bed—" Twilight's voice faded out as she turned the corner through the door of the cafeteria.

"You don't hafta wait around for me, Rainbow," Applejack spoke somewhat quietly as she gathered her things and shoved them into her bag before hoisting it over her shoulder. "What class do you have, any who?"

"English, west wing," I said casually, even though I knew it was no where near where her class was. I had learned her schedule pretty quickly, faster than my own for that matter. I shrugged my bag uncomfortably as I watched her bend over the table and gather the garbage a bit, helping Fluttershy clear it up so it wasn't such a mess. It was nice of her to do, she didn't like to make anyone work more than they had to if she could help it, even just the lunch ladies.

"Well I'mmin the east wing next block, so I s'pose I'll see you after school at practice, won't I?" It didn't seem like much of a question, but she still looked over at me with those adorable green eyes, drawing a response out of me anyway.

"Yeah, looks like it might rain though," I tried to make conversation as I glanced towards the windows past two or three more tables.

"A little rain ain't nothin' to fret about," Applejack said politely as she finished up and waved goodbye to Fluittershy, who held her bag over her chest and scurried quietly away. She stood back up straight and looked over at me once more with a smile, going her separate way. "See ya."

I couldn't help but watch her as she left, those curve-hugging jeans too awesomely faded in the right places to look away from. Her hips had this alluring sway to them too, another component of her southern charm that roped me in like a damn lasso. I never understood why I liked it all so much, but it really worked for her and she really worked for me. I bit my lip as I groped her with my eyes, checking her out had become second nature to me by now. It was distracting, and I had to be careful about it too because if anyone noticed, my reputation might be at stake.

I turned abruptly on my heel once she was out of my sight and I lazily swaggered to my class. I really didn't care if I was late, my teachers already expected as much so really it would be rude of me to let them down. Soon enough, I was back in my baseball uniform and staring at the field.

"Nothing to fret about?" I found myself repeating with a condescending and otherwise stoic tone, standing in front of something that seemed like a wall of dripping water. I blinked blankly as Applejack took the last step to reach my side, peering out across the field and inspecting it. I glared back at her, already knowing just how easily it flooded out there. It would be stupidly muddy and cold, and the entire team would whine and complain about it all practice.

"What'cha waitin' for partner, an invitation?" Applejack laughed as she pushed me forward a step, nearly forcing me into the rain. I gawked incredulously at her as she swung around me and stepped backwards right into the downpour. I could feel my face heating up as I watched the water slide over her body, turning her white uniform shirt something more transparent. Her legs moved faster as she broke into something of a jog, commanding, "C'mon Dash, I'll race you to the dugout!"

I didn't move right away, too otherwise enticed by her movements. She really didn't mind the weather I guess, and I sure as hell was not about to complain. I felt myself smile as I broke into a sprint at the sound of the challenge. "You'll need that head start to compete with me!"

I heard her laugh even through the rain as our steps sloshed through the slippery puddles, splashing all about and dirtying the bottoms of our pants. I caught up to her and we must have both decided simply to run together instead of break ahead, because as we approached the dugout we slowed simultaneously. The brisk run certainly served to get my blood flowing and warm myself up, but we soon noticed that we were entirely alone. I looked around for the rest of the team, but they were no where to be found on the field. There wasn't even any equipment pulled out yet, which was odd because I was always later than the other girls.

"Rainbow Dash!" I heard a quiet shout under the raspy growling of the rain, and turned to look back at the school. There, standing under a protective overhang from the roof, was our catcher. She wasn't fully dressed up in her gear, and she sort of hesitated before going on, "Is practice cancelled today? Some of the girls didn't even bother showing up, and the rest of us don't want to catch a cold!"

"Of course not, we don't cancel our actual games for a little rain, do we? Now get your sissy asses out here already, we're losing daylight!" I called back loudly, angered that they would even think a little weather would mean not coming by at all. Sure, it made it difficult, but if they had so much of an issue with it I could have moved us into the gymnasium or something. Now that I was already out here and soaking wet though, the worst was over for me.

"Yes, captain!" she called back, though she didn't sound half as motivated as I would have liked.

"Well," I sighed as I put my hands to my already soaking hips, heavy due to the amount of rain water was was still absorbing into the fabric of my pants. "How about you show me how well you can do your wind-up in the rain?"

"You got it, boss." Applejack bowed her head in compliance, probably a habit she picked up that worked better when she wore her cowboy hat. I didn't know why the title of boss made me feel so good to hear from her lips, but I couldn't help bit enjoy it as I followed her to the mound. Like I thought, she had brought her own ball along.

The other girls didn't last long, but I guess I had to give them credit for coming along in the first place. Our catcher was very upset about having to kneel into a puddle that formed behind home plate, and once or twice balls and bats slipped out of shivering hands. The team waned out quickly at first, but sooner or later the rest of them came up with some excuses and left. I was expecting a little more from my team, it was kind of disappointing how little loyalty to the game and the group there was, but then again I couldn't blame them. I'd rather them not be there at all than have them staying there unwillingly. But all in all, I think it was a productive exercise in diligence and sportsmanship, even if it only served to show me how little the majority of my team could demonstrate those values.

After less than an hour the field was once again left only to Applejack and myself. It became a lot more difficult to practise a game like baseball when there was only two of us, so even we wouldn't last. Before the catcher left we were going over the signs and testing out her accuracy under certain weather conditions, which I had to admit was remarkable. Then we had tried to simulate circumstances for picking off runners on bases, seeing how quickly she could turn and toss before our fastest runner, me, could make it back to the safety of the base. Even I had trouble falling back safely, her precise movements and fast reaction time constantly getting the better of me. Of course, the slippery mud had something to do with delaying me, and I made a point of blaming that aspect one too many times. We didn't get much to the batting, but we certainly made some notable progress.

I was rather exhausted from hauling around extra weight in the form of soaking clothing, and my body was beginning to get numb and unresponsive from the cold. The weather blew harder around us, and I could even hear distant rumbles of thunder and flashes in the distance, warning me of what was to come. At this time of year it still got dark rather early, and I could see the signs of night edging eagerly closer. Applejack had quite a drive home still, so I knew that it would be cruel of me to make her drive home both in a storm and in the darkness. So, after only a few more simple exercises, I called it a day.

We ran back to the school and stopped in front of the rear door; they usually kept it open for us until a bit later than usual for the teams to make it back to the change rooms. They locked the doors past the change rooms though, so the rest of the school was quiet and vacant. We rung out our clothes under the slight overhang above the back door, hoping not to drip too much all over the change rooms and hall. Finally, I pulled the door open for her and stepped in right after.

It was just as difficult to keep from looking at her while she was sopping wet as it was to steer clear from lingering when she was wrapped up in those tight jeans, but still I made an effort. The light was off in the hall, but we could still find our way easily as the light from the change room shone out from under the door. The change room was reasonably large, with lockers on either wall and benches just beneath them, complete with a large vacant aisle between the walls leading to the front entrance and the showers. My stuff was shoved into the corner as usual, but I couldn't even touch it until I had pulled off the heavy uniform that clung to my body. Applejack was on the other side of the room from me, and the two of us kept our backs to each other as we did what needed to be done.

"Criminy Rainbow," Applejack's voice echoed around me, followed by a few aggravated grunts. "I reckon I'm carryin' half a gallon of water in my britches."

"Yeah, I know." I chuckled at her turn of phrase, it certainly was interesting. "And to think, I have to ride home in this."

Applejack knew that I rode a motorcycle, considering I was just bad-ass like that. Just kidding, it was cheaper than a car and cooler than the bus, besides, my parents had left me a good chunk of cash with my apartment when they died. It was a long time ago, so it didn't really bother me to cite any more.

"You what?" She perked up, and I could tell she looked over at me when she did. I felt a little nervous pulling my weighted tank top over my head with her eyes on me, but I also kind of felt invigorated. "No siree, you ain't ridin' home in this storm, 'les you like the idea of bein' pulled out of a burnin' wreckage."

"You worry too much, A.J." I snickered as I looked back over at her.

I met her eyes first, but couldn't pull myself away when I noticed she was standing there topless. Sure, her back was facing me and she was still wearing her bra, but it was enough to make me choke on my libido. Damn, she was even more attractive than I had imagined her in my head, and it drove me mad with excitement.

I stood there with my mouth open for a few seconds too long and hurriedly ran into my next sentence, "I've got home through hail and snow and worse, and hell, I've even crashed before. It's not nearly as bad as everyone worries about."

"That ain't the point," she argued, her voice sort of hoarse with irritation. She turned further away from me and began pulling her pants off, letting the water drip over her already bare feet and onto the tile floor. I bit back a fascinated and aroused whistle as she went on, "I'll drive y'home no problem, and even pick y'up tomorrow mornin' before school if that's what it'll take to convince you."

"You'd do that?" my voice came out quiet and shallow as I continued inspecting her while she wasn't looking, and I even felt a bit bad about it too.

She stood up straight and dropped the bundle of water and fabric that she once called her britches onto the bench before her. I turned away hastily before I heard her turn back and look at me, the silence filling up the space that parted us. I didn't move much as I finished bunching up my uniform shirt and shoving it into a plastic bag, leaving my terribly wet pants on for a moment longer. There was some rustling before I could hear some pitter-patter on the tile that sounded different than the fall of rain from our bodies, and bit at my lip nervously.

I suddenly felt her presence again, and it was close behind me. I blinked as she leaned her arm out on the lockers in front of me, stepping right up beside me and coming around to look me in the eyes. I didn't return the gaze right away in fear she might have seen the poorly hidden infatuation written all over every aspect of my face, but her lingering attention forced me to look at her. There she was, in nothing but her underwear and barely done up plaid blouse, which hung low enough to obscure any sight of that underwear.

"Rainbow I wouldn't be able to drive on home knowin' you could be out there in a storm with nothin' but a helmet 'tween you and the pavement," her words were odd but her expression and tone were sincere. She tilted her head as she watched me, her wet hair moving across her nearly bare shoulder and framing her. Man, it took every ounce of self control not to take her right then and there, but I managed somehow. "Now get dressed already, you're shiverin' somethin' fierce and you look like a drowned mouse."

She was right, my whole body was shaking, and I had to attribute at least some of it to the cold. In contrast, her tanned body seemed to ignore the cling of rain and she pushed off the locker, walking back across the room to the rest of her clothes. Her skin was even flushed after all the work we did, but still it looked so irresistibly warm and soft. I wanted to slam my head against the locker over and over until those horribly tainted thoughts went away, but I didn't want to worry her any more. The change room had never even been close to sexual for me before, in fact I was in and out without instance every time until now. Now I had to imagine all the loud, useless banter of those other girls who usually occupied the change room just to block out my primal urges.

Despite what most guys seem to think about women, it was a very rare occurrence for us to see each other in less than usual attire. I didn't know if that was just because I was something of a tomboy or what, but when I went over to my friends houses we never, like, changed in front of each other or walked around in our underwear or anything. Sorry to ruin the fantasy, but I honestly had never seen Applejack in such little clothing as I just did. Sure, when we were kids we used to spend a lot of time horsing around roughly, and things like hugs and tight clothing gave us an idea of how the other looked, but her skin was a new sight to me. And yet she did not seem all that weird about me seeing; I had pegged her as somewhat shy about that stuff, but maybe she didn't care what I thought about her.

I merely chewed on the thoughts as I continued getting changed, though it was difficult as my black shorts clung to my still damp skin while I pulled them on. Besides that, my bra was soaked through and it made my shirt wet to touch. By the time I had finished up, Applejack had her clothing all packed away and was just feeding her belt through the loops on her jeans, which were wet at the bottoms of the legs and at her knees. Her plaid shirt was soaking through in some areas too, but she didn't seem too bothered. Working on a farm, I was sure she's had to spend days out in the rain if it meant getting her chores all done right. She grabbed her bag and looked back at me, a smile spreading across her face as she noticed I was finished too.

"Well come on then." She turned around and walked towards the door, taking for granted that I would be following her. She was right, of course. "We'd best be gettin' you home."

It was already getting on to dusk by the time we made it outside, that or the clouds were so dark the sun seemed to disappear into a mere dull glow. Since she said she would be giving me a ride home tomorrow before school, I decided I might as well just leave my precious motorcycle here overnight. Applejack hurried us over to her truck and opened my door first; such an old model that she had to unlock each door manually. I pulled the door open and climbed inside, which took one hell of a step as it was quite a ways off the ground.

I knew the truck well, her brother used to pick her up in it after school when we were younger, before she could drive. Well, before she could legally drive. I knew for a fact that her brother had taught her how when she was just a kid so she could get around the farm easily. She didn't brag about it though, not even when I started getting a big head about how cool my motorcycle was. It was a small sporty old model, but ran well enough and made an awesome noise when I revved it up.

I reached over and unlocked her side before she had to waste time putting the key in it, I knew that the keyhole on that side could sometimes be a bit persnickety. Applejack had to yank her door open anyway, it had been sticky and rusted for a couple of years now. She claimed those little faults gave the old thing a certain allure, some kind of character as she put it. She grabbed the handle that hung just by the window and pulled herself up; I had known her to usually either just jump in or grab the roof of the truck instead, but since it was so wet and slippery that was probably a bad idea.

She closed the door and it all fell silent, the smacking of rain against the wind-shield much more calming than I anticipated. Perhaps it was not just the rain, it was the faint scents of dust, gasoline, and her. I never wished more that we could just remain parked in the truck, and the truck would only gently rock as we intertwined inside. Now that, that was a ravishing but crude thought.

"All right, fastest way is—" I began, but she just started laughing a bit and cut me off with the sound of the ignition turning on. It was loud and rough, and she loved it that way.

"Rainbow, I've been to your house plenty before, I know the way." Applejack smiled as she wrapped her arm around the back of my seat, leaning towards me and glancing over that shoulder as she reversed out of the parking spot. Though most of her scent was washed away by the rain, I still breathed her in quietly and relished in the familiarity. She had to turn the steering wheel around like five times to get the truck to turn adequately, and then proceeded to pull out of the school, saying, "The heat should kick in pretty soon here." Her eyes passed over me as she brought her outstretched hand back to the steering wheel and she must have noticed my continued shivering.

"Sounds good to me," I muttered as I leaned back against the aged seat, feeling it gracefully accept my weight.

The wind-shield wipers were darting back and forth in front of us, and even at their fastest speed the rain was nearly impossible to clear. We pulled out onto the main road and she turned in my direction, again her steering wheel shifting greatly. She grabbed again at the stick-shift without difficulty, moving between gears like it was second nature to her. I liked the manual transmission actually, each time we changed between the settings my body jerked lightly with the vehicle: like Applejack was physically pulling me along side her, like she was moving my body with her will, like the intense roughness of how I imagined lying in bed with her might have been. It was so mechanical and yet intimate, and each time she reached down to grab the stick again her fingers would brush against my leg so lightly it almost tickled.

"I can hardly see the lines on the road," breaking my affectionate thoughts, Applejack's voice came through above the sound of the heater, which I had just now realized was on. She was leaning forwards a bit in her seat, squinting to see through the rain. We were already a good portion of the way there, and I clearly had not been paying enough attention. "This sure is a mess."

"Hey, uh, Applejack? Looks to me like the storms getting worse. It's kind of dangerous to be out on the road, you know." I found myself fantasizing about an idea, and couldn't help but bring it up. I licked at my lips trying to put it eloquently, "So, well, driving back home on those dirt trails like you do, it probably isn't the best idea. So I mean, I wouldn't mind or anything, if you need to, you could like..." Here it was, the moment of truth. I tried to dull it down so I did not sound quite so much like I was pleading, "Stay over at my place?"

"I couldn't put you out like that Rainbow, besides, my family'd be worrying all night if I didn't come home," Applejack simply responded, polite and selfless as usual. But I would not let her win this one, not now that the possibilities flooded into my lust-stricken mind.

"You could call them from my place, no problem," I said too quickly and eagerly, but decided to pin it on something less embarrassing than desperation, try concern, "Look A.J., you didn't let me drive home in all this, so I won't let you do it either. Deal?" I reached out suddenly and put my hand over hers on the steeling wheel, feeling the way she twitched a bit at the touch but otherwise didn't move. Her hand was warm and smooth, and I wanted to hold it forever even though I was certainly clammy.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were worried about little ol' me?" Her eyes briefly flickered over to mine under the light of the recently illuminated passing street lamps, and even as she looked back to the road a pleasant smile sat on her lips.

"Whatever," I growled as I reluctantly pulled my hand off hers, keeping it trapped behind my head in case it wanted to wander and find its way back.

"Well, I just might take y'up on that," Applejack agreed as she ran a hand through her still damp hair, ruffling it a bit. I watched her intently beneath the shifting street lights, and from the way she kept on facing the road, I was not certain she noticed.

Author's Note

Sooooo this situation is not going to end well... or is it? It's trying to stick to the whole baseball/sports thing for the chapter titles, so... that's fun. Anyway, hope you're enjoying it: comments, concerns, queries, horrible bashing insults... always welcome.
Chapter title, you ask?: A "Rainout" is when a sports game is cancelled/delayed due to rain. Self explanatory.

Barnstorm

Barnstorm

It felt like an unusually romantic setting, I mean, who would have thought the inside of an old dirty work truck could be so charming? I couldn't really explain why, perhaps it was the mood lighting and the easy strumming of rain against the windows, the hum of the engine and the gentle shifting of gears between us. And here we were, two best friends alone together at last, and she still did not even know how strongly I felt for her. But still, while we sat in aged, torn seats and navigated along mostly desolate roads, my heart raced quickly and pounded against my chest. It was like magic.

She pulled up to the parking spots in front of my apartment complex, to the visitors section. I had my own personal space under the building, but it was only large enough for my bike. Besides, the visitor's section was almost always empty, so there was plenty of space. She turned the key and the truck fell asleep, the headlights against the bushes in front of us which were already shattered by falling droplets of rain finally burnt out, and the only sound left was the jingling of keys. We looked over at each other quickly before opening the doors, and I'd like to think that it was an anxious and anticipatory connection that we had, as if she knew why I wanted her there. But I doubt it.

We rushed up into the breezeway, the rain chasing our heels on every step until we got under the cover of the overhang. It wasn't obviously the most prestigious building, but I liked it just the same and Applejack was never the kind to complain even if she didn't like it. My fingers fumbled the keys a few times as the cold took them again, but I managed to fit the right key between my fingers and click it into the door, pushing it open at last.

It was always warm in my home, I didn't have to pay for heating so the whole complex felt naturally comfortable. I didn't even flick the light on until Applejack and I had already removed our shoes, and even then I merely turned on the standing lamp by the door. I tossed my things beside the shoes in the foyer, not really caring if my wet uniform was dripping through yet. Applejack did the same, though gentler, and hung up her hat before she proceeded to stride into my living room and take a good look around.

"I see you've been keepin' it cleaner these days," she commented as she stepped quietly around in her socks, leaning over the kitchen island counter to get a look in there.

"Home sweet home," I muttered sarcastically as I locked the door behind us, though it gave me an itching deviant feeling to do so. "You hungry, A.J.?"

"Not if you're cookin'." Applejack grinned this cute little cheeky grin and I shoved her a bit as I walked past her and into the kitchen. "I remember when I had you over a couple summers ago, Granny got us helpin' bake the pastries and you just about set the oven on fire."

"Your oven mitt had a damn hole in it!" I argued as I opened the fridge and snorted, "I should be blaming you for giving me this burn on my thumb." I showed her the slight scar that still remained on the tip of my thumb. "Dropping the baking sheet and mitt were the least of my worries at the time! If you ask me setting that burn-hazard on fire was a blessing in disguise."

"Granny made us a brand new mitt after that." Applejack moved around the counter top island and came up beside me, eyeing me up. "Sh'even stitched it in all them colours of the spectrum, just like you."

"I don't care if it's bright pink, so long as it keeps your fingers safe," I muttered as I grabbed the wrapped dish from the second shelf, inspecting it to be certain it was still good. "You think this smells okay?"

"If y'have to ask, it don't," she replied as she pushed it away from her nose, where I had directed it. She stepped right into my personal bubble and leaned into the refrigerator, taking a quick scan of my grocery stock. Even with the cool air on my face I could feel the heat rising to my skin, having her so near as she was. "I see you ain't eatin' much better: eggs, meat, cheese." She checked the dates on my products and made a face. "Nearly expired milk, rottin' vegies. Shoot Rainbow, half your dishes are sittin' here in the fridge keepin' who-knows-what outta the garbage."

"Well excuse me," I growled at her criticism, checking the cupboards instead. "I wasn't exactly expecting company, all right? It's not like I usually have people over or anything."

"Al'right, al'right, you go relax, will you?" She put her hands on me and pushed me somehow nicely out of my own kitchen. "I'll fix up somethin' edible."

"What do you— this is my house!" I complained as she leaned her hand against my wall, blocking my way back into the kitchen. She just looked at me with this serious and unamused expression, waiting for me to chill out.

"Exactly, as a favour for your hospitality, I'll whip us up somethin' real quick. Now quit your belly achin' and tell me where the flour is." Applejack raised her eyebrow. She really could be a no-excuses hard ass, so I finally grumbled and pointed to the pantry, where I hardly ever went. "And get me your phone so I can call Big Mac, he's probably worried sick."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." I turned around and grabbed the cordless phone, passing it her way. I remembered then that I still had her as first on my speed dial, but I wasn't about to tell her that and sound pathetic or something.

"Hey, lookie who's still number one?" I tensed up as she figured it out on her own, flipping through the directory like she owned the thing. I didn't respond or anything, instead I just went to slip into some clean and comfortable clothes.

I tossed on a pair of loose shorts and a baggy tee shirt, and looked at myself in the mirror. Now, usually I wouldn't so much as glance at myself, much less stare. Because I mean come on, I always look awesome. But something about having Applejack right there in my kitchen made me hesitate. I look the tee shirt off again and rifled around to find something a little more interesting. Trouble is, I didn't really have that many interesting clothes. But what I knew about Applejack was that she always wore shirts with a collar, so this made me think that she possibly had a thing for them. So, following that train of thought, I grabbed this short-sleeved, button-up shirt I had, pale blue in colour, and tossed it on. I mean, it didn't look bad or anything, but I did have to undo and do up the top few buttons a few times until I was happy with how much skin it showed. I came back into the living room area, which shared space with the kitchen and was only separated by that counter island in the middle and the switch between carpeted floors and linoleum.

"Quit your worryin' Granny an' put Big Mac on," Applejack said to the phone as she poured some kind of thick liquid into what looked like a cupcake pan. "Howdy Mac. Yeah I ain't comin' home tonight, I was tryna tell Granny but she can't hear too well, she just kept yammerin' about the storm like she wasn't even listenin'." She put the pan into the oven and closed it up, leaning against the counter as I pulled up a bar stool to the island. I didn't have a proper dining room table since I was always just me having meals, so that was where I sat to eat. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm with Rainbow Dash. Yeah. Mhmm, just the two of us. Of course, what kind of question is that? We're in her apartment, where the hay else would we be?"

"My bed," I muttered with a chuckle, finding it more than just funny. Applejack looked at me oddly when I said it but her smile told me she didn't take the comment seriously.

"No, no she was just—wait, what are you— Big Mac!" Applejack's face went bright red about something her brother had said, and I wondered if he might have heard my remark. Applejack hurriedly turned around to hide her embarrassment and went back to chatting on the phone, "Listen, storms blowin' hard out here, I didn't wanna risk the drive. That bad, huh? Don't worry, we'll be stayin' in all night. What was that? Hey, Mac? Big Mac, you there? Hello?" She pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it with an irritated expression. "Darn, the line must'a went down out there."

"At least you got through before that happened," I murmured dryly as I rubbed at my shoulder, still a little stiff after running around in the cold like that. I looked up at her again. "What are you making?"

"In spite'a your poorly stocked kitchen, I'm scroungin' up some skillet cooked steak and Yorkshire puddin'," she said as she grabbed the hand of a frying pan and moved around what looked like cooking oil on the bottom with the motion of her wrist.

"What the hell is Yorkshire Pudding? Is that a dessert?" I asked with an exaggerated tone, going for confused or disgusted, whatever bothered her more.

"Naw, it's kinda like a bun. My aunt an' uncle used t'have it for fancy dinners when I'd visit 'em. I'd usually make some baked potatoes as a side, but you ain't got any, and for that matter you ain't got many ingredients at all. Yorkshire puddin' is made of milk, flour and eggs, ain't nothin' simpler," she explained as she opened up the fridge again and frowned at the contents, leaning her free hand onto her hip. "Where're your trash bags?"

"Under the sink, what do you need them for?" I inquired as I sat up and leaned over the counter island to get a good look at her as she bent down and peeked in the designated location. She didn't reply, but grabbed one of the black bags and shook it until it opened, and then turned back to my fridge. My eyes went wide as she began grabbing almost anything in sight and scraping it into the trash.

"What do you think you're doing?!" I shouted as I watched it happen, all my half-eaten dinners that had clearly been sitting around for too long were tossed right out. I saw her grab an old piece of stale cheesecake and chuck it just the same. "Hey, I was saving that!"

"For when you're lookin' to come down sick and skip a Math test?" Applejack smiled a bit as she looked over at my grouchy expression, her hands kept on moving though. "Trust me Rainbow, I'm doin' you a favour."

"If you say so." I frowned deeper as I watched the bag fill up, just now realizing how much mouldy and gross food I had left sitting in there.

Having Applejack in my house served to remind me just how lonesome it was to live there all alone. Maybe she wasn't the only reason I put all my time and effort into sports and activities. I leaned on my elbow as I watched her move around my kitchen like it was her own, nagging and criticizing me the whole time. It was annoying, but damn, it was also cute. I really did miss hanging around with her, I mean we never really went our separate ways or anything, and we saw each other almost every single day, but this was different. Chatting in the halls and joking around was not like this, this was much more personal. Being alone with Applejack? I could do that forever, even if she was just scolding me.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by the meal she laid out in front of me, a still-sizzling, juicy steak and this oddball bun-type thing, as well as some steamed vegetables she managed to find somehow. At first I had been a little brat about it, complaining about how healthy and balanced it looked, but I dare say it was the most delicious meal I ate since the time I had thanksgiving at the Apple residence a few years ago. It made it all the more sweet to know that Applejack had cooked it just for me.

She usually seemed like such a stiff about traditional dinners, since that's how her Granny raised her, but when she sat across from me on the counter island she had me in stitches. She played around with her food and cracked jokes like she didn't care who was listening, and she was lucky it was only me because I knew her Granny would have smacked her upside the head if she knew. Still, my eyes shimmered as I looked at the girl of my dreams, sitting in my apartment, eating dinner alone with me. I wanted to do it every night until the day I died.

But the best was yet to come. I had been thinking about it since I first invited her into my home, and I was bouncing my leg up and down just anticipating it. I mean, we had to go to sleep, right? How could I resist offering her my bed, and just imagining her laying in my room, asleep under my covers, well, it had me beaming. Applejack cleaned up after dinner before going over to the living room window and checking on the storm again. It had hardly let up, the lightning had made its way over to us by now and the thunder was only partially masked by our conversation: which of course, I directed to the subject I had on my mind.

"I guess it was a good idea to have you stay over," I remarked as a flash or two of lightning flickered over the hills a few miles away. Applejack agreed with a nod, but I wasn't finished, "You want something to sleep in? I don't think jeans would be too comfortable."

"Actually, that'd be mighty kind of you." Applejack smiled as she closed the blinds up, following my gesture towards my bedroom. "So long as I ain't imposin'."

"Nonsense." I shrugged her worries off as I pushed my bedroom door open and let her go in first, getting a good look at how she stood out in my room. I closed the door a bit as I came in after her and went to my closet, rummaging around a bit. "Here, I have just the thing."

I did have a few good items that would suit her just fine: some loose sweat pants, a few pairs of shorts, some old tee shirts, sweaters, lots of stuff in fact. But what I chose tickled my fancy just right, a form-fitting tee shirt and a pair of flattering plaid pyjama bottoms. She hesitated a bit as she looked at them, but not wanting to be choosy she graciously accepted them.

"I'll set up the couch, go ahead and get changed." I passed her and went back through the door towards the linen closet.

I didn't even care that I would probably be waking up with a sore back, it was worth it. I grabbed an extra blanket I had laying around for when I cuddled up on the couch to watch those sappy movies Rarity had mentioned and found a spare pillow. The couch was rather small, just a loveseat, but it was big enough for me. I pushed some of the clutter off of my would-be bed and frowned at it. It sure didn't look very inviting. I bit my lip as another idea came into my head, but I was reluctant to give it a second thought at first. Sure, it sounded awesome and all, but Applejack would never go for it. Besides, we were too old for that to be innocent and acceptable. Still, as I saw her emerge from my bedroom clad in my very own clothes, I was just begging she would agree to let me slip into bed alongside her. Seeing her in my clothes gave me this overwhelming sense of ownership or intimacy, like she was all mine.

"What are you doing? Go back to the bedroom." I shooed her off, knowing it would spark that selfless nature of hers just the way I wanted. She frowned and leaned against the wall by the hallway to the bedroom.

"I ain't puttin' you out of a bed, Rainbow. Simple as that," Applejack argued grouchily, waiting for me to move out of the way so that she could get to the couch. She even turned off the light so the only source came from the bedroom, telling me the argument was over. I decided to go ahead and tease her, hoping to push her buttons just the right way.

"An' I ain't makin' m' guest sleep on th' couch," I mocked her endearing little accent, which seemed to tick her off a bit. I moved out of the way, but her own irritated expression kept her pinned against the wall with her arms crossed.

"You makin' fun'a me?" Applejack asked slowly, raising one eyebrow as she watched me walk around her. Her body reacted directly to mine, and she turned to continue facing me as I moved between her and the bedroom, luring her after me.

"What if I am?" I asked, leaning closer and trailing her chin with my index finger. I knew that she hated to be mocked, and my aggressive touching was sure to push her over the edge.

"Then you'd best get runnin'." A wicked grin spread across her face as she followed me step for step, when we suddenly both broke into a sprint and ran towards my bedroom.

I made it to the room first of course, but she was hardly a beat behind me. I touched the wall as I entered the room, but before I could move away she slung her arm around my neck, getting me in a forceful headlock. The struggle forced me to hit the lights off, though I was already planning on it. She laughed a bit as I struggled against her iron grip, only managing to shake her off once I reached back and started pinching at her sides. They were still her most ticklish spot, and she immediately fell apart and began begging me to stop. I tackled her onto my bed and continued incessantly, ignoring her guffawing and fractured callings of my name throughout the tussle. She reached up and grabbed my hands, pushing at me until she managed to hold me away from her.

I could see her grin beneath me even in such a dim light as the few visible twinkling stars beyond my window and the gentle flashing of lightning. She moved abruptly and knocked me off of her, flipping me onto my back and countering my avid protests. I felt her legs intertwining with my own and pushing harder against me in just the right places, and found it difficult to force laughter when I really felt like moaning in pleasure. Our bodies wove around each other in the darkness time and time again in difficult and trying positions, until I could feel my strength giving way. She was on top of me again by now, and her hands held mine so firmly her fingers aligned with my own. I felt the heat between us as she pressed closer and our laboured breathing filled the slivering gap between us. Our laughter began to fade just to heavy breathing and light struggles, and I wanted to scream at how aroused I was by it all.

We were always very physical, Applejack and myself. Ever since we were kids, you could never keep us off each other. And now seemed to be no different, even though it could be construed as something less innocent than simple wrestling, and had the potential to become quite awkward since our bodies had, well, matured in places. If Applejack even knew or cared that I was attracted to her, perhaps she would not have let me touch her the way I did, but it didn't seem to bother her. I knew that plenty of people in school thought that I was a lesbian, though every time I considered it I realized the word made me feel odd to say. Perhaps I still had some way to go about accepting myself. But Applejack either didn't notice what anyone else said or didn't hold it against me. Not the way she held her body against me, anyway.

I swallowed hard as I played with the idea of continuing our confrontation in a more telling manner, but still my conscience and fear dominated my actions the same way she did. By now my eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I could see her hovering above me, our eyes locked together and our bodies perfect reflections of each other; a near perfect physical reflection of my own secret desires, in fact. I noticed the way her eyes widened a bit as she got a better grip on the situation, and simultaneously her grip over me loosened. She pulled away slowly as she adjusted her hips against mine so it did not feel quite so sensual. Finally, she released me at once and gingerly rolled onto the bed beside me, laying on her back the way I was. We caught our breaths gradually as the thunder rolled through the room, and I felt her shift again.

"Why don't we hang out much any more, Rainbow?" Applejack's quizzical voice broke the silence as she looked over at me, that same honest gaze that had me reeling. "You're my best friend, and I feel like I ain't never get to see you."

"I guess we've just been busy," I came up with a reasonable response, though I paused for our heart beats to relax a bit more before finishing my statement, "You with the farm, me with my athletics."

"Yeah," her voice sounded disappointed. By then we had calmed down and merely laid close beside each other, our bodies still so near as to feel the emanating heat and some light touches. I could tell she swallowed something of her pride and went on, watching my reaction closely, "I guess I just..." She turned to face me, her hands curling up in front of her as she inched just a little bit closer. I could feel her nervousness, the hesitance in her confession, "I just miss you, is all."

"Well..." I was glad to hear it, to be honest. But instead of being the way I usually was and poking fun at her about it to show my dominance, I responded by turning to face her too. Our hands almost touched between us, and our faces were maybe an inch apart, a space which I gently nudged smaller. "I'm right here."

She didn't shy away like I thought she would, instead, she held my gaze no matter how uncomfortable it might have been for her. Our breathing was rhythmic and easy, and as I anxiously eased closer, I almost felt her doing the same. Her legs moved against mine until they were comfortable leaning against each other, but still we simply looked at each other as if trying to get an accurate reading. She looked a lot more afraid than I was, like she was uncertain how to react. It was now so dark with the lightning striking farther and farther apart, that the evening provided a blameless, guiltless veil over the two of us.

I was dying to touch her more, to entwine with her and fall asleep in her embrace, but she would not understand. I could not ask her to, either. Still, we cared not how much time passed between us and I began to ponder throwing caution to the wind. Her lips seemed so enticing, and I could even notice the faint shining of their moisture under the dim lights. Our eyes remained locked in the same struggle our bodies had just fought as the space between us waned and I felt myself focused on exactly where my body was in relation to hers.

It seemed so innocent at first, two friends simply lying near to one another. But the darker it grew and the steadier the rain fell against the window, the more I was pulled to do it. I felt an electricity as our mouths came together, but somehow I could not even classify it as a kiss. It was a simple brushing of the lips, a sweet and tender caressing, a contact so gentle and tame it seemed like any other touch we had shared. But still, she pulled back suddenly as it happened, and I didn't dare speak a word about it aloud. It was far too humiliating to comment upon, any fragment of potential rejection squeezing at my heart and choking it.

In unison, we both turned suddenly away from each other, leaving only our backs to face each other. I felt myself freaking out, and put both my hands to my lips to feel them still tingling and humming with excitement. I forced the concupiscence away, finding it in my best interest to ignore the feelings that arose. I slammed my eyes shut, just pleading that she would not want to talk about what just happened.

"Uh, g'night, Rainbow," was her reticent response, stifled by what sounded like the fabric of her pillow. She must have been too horrified to speak a word of it either, and instead pretended it never even happened, or pretended not to notice or care. Accepting the unspoken consent of ignorance and denial, I agreed to the conditions verbally.

"Yeah, night," I shakily spoke, trying to hide my discouraged whimper.

It was utterly terrifying to wonder what she must have thought of me, and I could not help but revel in the events of what just transpired. It was exactly how I thought it would be, Applejack's lips just as soft and succulent as in my dreams—no, more. I bit at my own lips as the moments carried on further, and hoped she would drift off to sleep and forget about it or something so I would not have to deal with the consequences. Time seemed to flutter by now until I was certain the awkward moment had passed on, and I could not help but let my unstoppable thoughts sneak back to her image. Was it so awful that I really, really just wanted to do it again? By now she must have been asleep, so if I were so bold or vulgar I could even have reached down and touched myself for the desired release. But I was not that desperate or disgusting, especially not while she lay mere inches away from me.

I closed my eyes and smiled, feeling the heat rush to my face just imagining wrapping my arms around her, nestling into the crook of her neck and smelling the sweet aroma of her smooth and speckled skin. My body tingled again as I imagined how it might feel if Applejack was the one who wrapped her arms around me, and my smile spread into this perverse grin to think of her wandering hands on my body. Her hands would feel so right as they slid around me, one would wrap under me and secure around my lower stomach, and the other would— wait a minute, that felt oddly real. Wait, wait, wait, I definitely felt her moving against me, I wasn't imagining it! It was actually happening! Her other arm gently ran over my body before moving under my arm and pressing between my—um, well, it crossed over my chest to my opposite shoulder. I blushed deeply as her hot body pressed against my back, I could even feel the supple rounds of her breasts! Oh, it was too much!

"Y'know I wasn't just blowin' smoke," her voice was somehow guilty, as if this was some apology for earlier. It didn't feel awkward any more, the tension seemed to simply lift. She nuzzled against me, her voice playing against my skin like a wind instrument, though it was innocent and sounded simply kind, "I really did miss you."

"I never actually left, Applejack," I reminded her coolly as I touched her arms which folded around me, returning something of an embrace.

"Sure felt like it." She huffed a laugh and I could even feel it on my body, the same way I felt her heart speed up against my back with every word she spoke, "I r'member when we were kids, Big Mac had to pull us off each other before we got hurt, we'd wrestle or compete or fight about everythin'. But now?" Her grip tightened, and her voice dropped into a husky hush, "It even kinda feels weird just to hug you."

"We never were much for hugs," I explained as I shuffled my legs around until they were comfortable with hers. Still, though my own lust was overwhelming, I could not help but think her actions were just merely friendly. And that drove me mad.

"Yeah, we were always too rough or cool for stuff like that," Applejack admitted with what felt like a smile as her voice dipped into something like a whisper. She let me go then, and the coldness left behind as her body moved away from mine was freezing and paralyzing.

"You're probably right," I agreed as I let her slip away, taking the easy way out as usual.

I mean sure, I could have grabbed her and told her exactly how I felt, about how that fraction of a kiss had meant the whole world to me, about how keeping away from her was the only means to ensure I did not ravish her with every ounce of will I had. She did not need to know any of that though, it would be cruel of me to tell her. Rarity had reminded me of that: the fact that not all women would even consider engaging in relations with another girl... well, sober anyway. How could I even think of putting that kind of pressure on Applejack, my Applejack? I would let these feelings tear me up inside before I would do something like that to my best friend, or at least, I would try. The closer she came to me, the harder it seemed to be to bottle myself back up again. And sooner than I wished, it seemed I was just itching to let it all spill out.

Author's Note

So things are heating up a mite. And don't worry, they will continue to...
Chapter title: A "Barnstorm" refers to sports teams or individuals that travel to various locations, usually small towns, to stage exhibition matches. I thought it kind of fit the whole location change in this chapter.

Cleanup

Cleanup

My feet hit the pavement roughly, still not used to jumping out of a truck rather than sliding off my motorcycle. I thanked Applejack again for the ride, and for the seraphic scent of pancakes, bacon and grits I had woken up to at dawn that morning. I had rolled myself out of bed in one tangled confused mess, forgetting that she had stayed the night, and staggered into the kitchen to find her smiling, laughing and shoving food into my hands. She had even pulled me out of my apartment with a folded heap of syrupy pancake fresh in my mouth and dragged me to school on time. I was there before the bell even rang, for Pete's sake.

I slouched a bit as I blinked the sunlight from my eyes, touching my still messy hair with my hands. I glanced over at Applejack for the hundredth time that morning, loving the way she filled out the chest of my Wondercolts letterman jacket. It even had my damn name on the back, so I could not even hope to stare at her enough. I had lent it to her for the morning, seeing as how it was still quite cool after the storm. I noticed Rarity walking past the front doors, and she looked out towards me. Something must have stopped her mid-step, because she just stood there with this puzzled look on her face as I approached the entrance.

I told Applejack some kind of joke I don't even remember, before reaching up and fixing her still somewhat knotted hair. She shoved me off and stuck her tongue out at my actions, which only made me laugh harder. She covered up her tousled hair with that same old cowboy hat she adorned so well, and we parted ways once we made it into school. She had told me she was supposed to meet Twilight and Fluttershy to go over some Math problems, and needless to say I was not interested in that garbage. It didn't seem to matter anyway, as just when I entered the school Rarity grabbed me by the arm and rudely pulled me into the stairwell, which luckily was empty but did faintly echo if you spoke too loudly.

"What are you doing?" Rarity asked me simply, though her tone seemed less than pleasant. I blinked a couple times and went to respond, but she cut me off, "Your motorcycle was here when I arrived, so why are you just getting here now?" I scratched at the back of my head and again went to respond, but she was faster, "Did you spend the night with Applejack? Did you try to seduce her?!"

"Rarity, one question at a time." I put up my hands to slow her down before checking the corner nervously and going on, "Look, the storm was really bad after baseball practice, so I asked Applejack if she wanted to stay over at my place, that's all."

"That's all?" she prodded again, knowing that something else was wrong considering my elevated mood and my evasive behaviour. "She's wearing your jacket, Rainbow. Whether you like it or not, people might talk. You don't want to hurt Applejack, now do you?"

"Relax Rare, no one is going to talk, okay, we're just friends and friends loan each other clothes, right?" I played around with her suspicions, but she was not buying it. She just kept glaring at me, waiting for me to spill the beans the way I always did. I loved to talk about Applejack, that certainly hadn't changed, "Well, I mean there was this one kiss."

"This—what?!" she shouted loudly and I cringed as it reverberated at a deafening decibel around the stairwell. I blinked as the ringing in my ears subsided slightly. "You kissed her?!"

"Quiet down, will you? Jeez," I gestured for her to keep her voice down, checking the entire stairwell once more to be sure we were still alone. "It wasn't really a kiss, I mean it was but it was like an accident, okay? We were lying in my bed, and—"

"She was in your bed?!" her whispers were sharp and shocked, and she nearly grabbed and shook me to get the answers out faster.

"It didn't mean anything! We were just screwing around and," I clamped my hand over her mouth as I saw that look in her eyes that told me she was about to scream again. "Not like that. It was friendly, good-natured screwing around, like wrestling and talking and stuff."

"Wrestling isn't exactly what I choose to do with my good friends," Rarity pointed out into the palm of my hand, which I removed and shook out like her voice on my skin was disgusting. "Back to the kissing!"

"It was not kissing, it was one kiss and even that was, well like I said it just sort of happened accidentally," I tried to convince her, my eyes darting around the stairwell and my voice falling into a hush again, "We were just lying there and our lips just, just like lightly brushed against each other, okay?"

"You can't just go around accidentally kissing your friends, Rainbow Dash," she explained in a scolding tone, waving her finger around at me. "What did she do?"

"That's just it! She pulled away and acted like it didn't even happen," I felt my voice faltering with disappointment and hurt, but shrugged it off and went on, "At first, anyway. Then she like, hugged me. It was kind of nice."

"I told you, she's trying to let you down easy!" Rarity touched her forehead and scrunched up her face just to imagine how awkward it had been. "You're not going to bring it up, are you?"

"Of course not," I scoffed, shoving my hands into my pockets and frowning. I hated talking about it, I mean when I had been lying there it was like the happiest moment of my life, but Rarity was making me think about how Applejack must have felt. It made me feel really guilty and selfish and horrible. "Applejack is my best friend, I'm not going to ruin that just because I'm in—" I stopped myself, chewing my words over carefully. If I actually said it out loud, that meant that it was true. Instead, I substituted the word for one that seemed less incriminating but equally true, "—considerate, inconsiderate."

"Well good," Rarity seemed to agree, and she began to leave but briefly paused. "Listen, I know this is hard for you, Rainbow Dash. I am truly sorry that it can't seem to work out the way you wish."

"You and me both," I growled as I acted aloof, flipping my multi-coloured hair like nothing could bothered me. I followed her out of the stairwell, but she seem to dislike the silence as much as I did.

"So," she continued on, looking around a bit as we entered the main hallway, though we were far enough away from anyone else that they could not have heard us. "How was it?"

"How was—?" I suddenly realized what she must have been asking about, and felt myself blushing a bit as the memory of the kiss came back to me. I let out a heavy sigh as an uncontrollable smile broke my attempt at subtly, "It was awesome."

Rarity laughed a bit at my response and shook her head, finding me somehow amusing. She continued walking with me until we found our way to the rest of the group. The bell for first period rang before I knew it, and I helped Applejack and Twilight clean up this mosaic of papers scribbled with Mathematics and strewn about on the floor. Once or twice I had accidentally touched Applejack's hand, and every time she nervously pulled away or averted her attention. Maybe Rarity was right, maybe I had put her in an awkward place, maybe she did feel like she had to let me down or something. I hadn't been expecting her to feel the same anyway, but it was still disappointing.

I didn't get to see much of Applejack for about a week, I was busy with some of my other teams and she had to study for this important Mathematics test. I would actually be willing to admit that I missed her. Sure, we hung out with the rest of our friends and still even managed to joke around like usual, but something had definitely changed. I even caught her looking at me a few times, like she was trying to figure me out or something.

I didn't tell anyone else about the kiss, and from what I could tell, Applejack didn't either. She was probably still trying to forget it even happened honestly, and I suppose that was fine. But still, somehow even just seeing her made me go nuts with not only that same lust, but with this aggravating anger or frustration too. Usually with me, if I saw something that I wanted, I did everything in my power to get it. But I couldn't do that with Applejack, I didn't want to screw us up or make her uncomfortable or whatever.

What made it worse what that even though she seemed different in a way, she had also gotten more physical with me: she would put her arm around me to mutter something funny, she would adjust the batting helmet on my head if it was crooked, she would grab my hand or link our arms if she ever told me to follow her, she even came up behind me and put her hands on me when she was showing me how to get more power behind my swing. Maybe I was just overreacting, I mean we had always been good friends, close friends. It was stupid, I mean come on, I had a million more important things to deal with than some silly crush, so why was I obsessing? Man, I was such a moron sometimes.

Before I knew it, we were playing our first real baseball game. We were the home team, which suited us best seeing as how this field was familiar and all. I wasn't worried of course, with Applejack on our team the opponents really didn't stand much of a chance. The team had learned a lot from her too, and I was confident that we would be on the top of our game when it counted. I slipped my white mitt onto my hand, feeling my fingers fill the holes perfectly. I leaned against the fence in our dugout as I sat on the bench, waiting for the rest of the team to show up. As captain, I had to come out here first and make certain the field was ready, the equipment was in good repair, all that boring crap. I grabbed a baseball that had been sitting on the bench beside me and began tossing it lightly into the air. Up and down, up and down, the seams spun around and blurred into the off white of the familiar object. I extended my fingers again to catch the ball, but nearly jumped as someone else snatched it from above me.

"Well howdy there, Rainbow." Applejack was leaning her shoulder against the fence, playing with my baseball. "I didn't expect you to be out here so early."

"Somebody's got to man up and be the captain, it's an important responsibility you know," I leisurely replied, watching her spin the object in her fingers. It made me wonder just how good she was with her hands after all, but instead of asking I decided to take it away from her. "Give me that back."

"What, the baseball?" she asked as she raised one eyebrow, noticing the way I pouted that she had taken my play thing from my grasp. That must have peaked her interest. She turned it again, tossed it quickly and caught it once more. "I reckon you'll hafta come and take it."

"A.J., come on." I tried to play it cool, gesturing for her to just toss it back.

"What? You can't expect me to just give you whatever you want just 'cause you're my captain, y'know." Applejack made some unconcerned face as she popped the ball up into the air and did some fancy handling. Her words made me shiver to hear, teasing me with what I really wanted.

She spun the ball over the back of her hand and flipped it into the air again, rolling it over her arms and sending it several feet above her. I didn't know how she learned such odd techniques, but I imagined it must have come from goofing around in the apple orchard. I was on my feet at once, finding her display some act to try and outdo me. With me you see, everything was a competition. I nearly tackled her as I tried to reach to grab the now plummeting ball, but her body moved against mine, turning us around in some twirl that gave her the advantage. She snatched the ball from the air above me again, taking it out of my clutches.

I struggled to try and get around her and take it back, but she merely chuckled and held it a few inches from my fingertips. Not one to be outdone, clearly, I grabbed onto her shoulders and pulled myself closer, but could not hold myself high and reach up at the same time. Instead, I wrapped my arm around her neck and jumped a bit, my thigh brushing against her hip until just the tip of my finger touched the ball. I was pretty much climbing right up her body, but she was strong enough to handle that. She pulled away a bit until we stepped out of the dugout and started laughing at the ridiculousness of our own antics.

"Uh, guys?" Applejack went still and let me down as she heard someone speak to us, and I used her moment of hesitation to jump up and grab the ball from her, landing squarely in front of her and sticking my tongue out in triumph. She looked back over at me and laughed a bit, shoving me for being such a cheat.

"Heya girls, sorry 'bout that, y'all know how this rascal can be." Applejack chuckled a little more as she adjusted herself and went to address the group of our friends which I had just now noticed had arrived.

"We came to say good luck, so good luck!" Pinkie Pie squealed in excitement as she bounded around a bit. Clearly this is why I didn't usually invite her to my games.

"Yes, we do wish you well." Rarity looked sternly at me as I clasped my newly recovered ball in my gloved hand and returned her dull expression. She was always getting into my business when it came to Applejack, making sure I didn't screw it up or whatever, even though she had claimed not to want a thing to do with it. "Though I hardly see what's so fun about running around in the dirt with a little ball and some sticks."

"Oh, Rarity, it's mighty kind of you to stop by when you ain't so much for sports." Applejack accepted her appearance as selfless and flashed her a genuine smile.

"It's not so much the sport, darling, as it is the running around, the throwing things, the hitting things," Rarity began to list off as Applejack and I shared knowing smirks, finding her explanation kind of hilarious. "Oh, and the unimaginative uniforms."

"Rarity even brought these cute little Wondercolt ears and tails to wear in the stands!" Pinkie Pie cheered as she shook her tail around and spun about randomly. "And Fluttershy was practising her cheering all the way here!"

"So I was reading over your batting order," Twilight spoke up with this piece of paper in her hands, and the words sounded foreign to her mouth as she spoke them. Leave it to Twilight to brush up on baseball statistics and stuff before a game. "Applejack's fourth in the line. Doesn't that make her the, the cleanup hitter?"

"Somethin' like that I s'pose." Applejack shuffled nervously as they talked about her. We had put her in that spot since she had the most physical strength out of any of us, she even hit harder than most of the guys on the boy's team. "Rainbow here bats second, so I reckon I won't be cleanin' up nothin' if she don't get on base."

"Count on that much." I pointed a thumb at myself as I gave out this cocky grin. Me with the most hits, there was no doubt I'd be early on in the batting order. "I would have been first, of course, but the girls like me to give a pep talk at the beginning of the game, so I can't spend all my time on the bases."

"I thought it was 'cause if you're the first batter you get this big ol' head and swing at anythin'?" Applejack teased me with a poke, and I frowned at the truthfulness of the statement.

"Whatever," I groaned as I stretched out my arms lazily. "You girls better go and find seats, stands are filling up pretty quick and the game's about to start."

"You're right. Good luck you two!" Twilight Sparkle smiled at us and she gave us two awkwardly formed thumbs-ups. "Score a lot of, um..." She thought for a second to remember the right word, which was, "Runs!"

"Plannin' on it." Applejack chuckled as she saw them off, walking them to the gate and waving at them until they had returned to the stairs towards the stands. By then, the rest of the team had begun to assemble, jogging over from the trail that lead to the change rooms. Applejack turned back to me and grinned, moving closer and she whispered, "Beg pardon."

"Hey!" I whined as she grabbed the ball again from my gloved hand. I could feel the way her hand moved around inside my own, though the leather of the glove made it difficult to feel correctly. I scrunched up an annoyed face as she showed me the ball in her hand, gripping it the way she did when she threw her forkball.

"Pitcher touches the ball first Dash," she reminded me of the truth as she grabbed her own glove and took me out onto the field to greet the rest of the team. "B'sides, we gotta warm up with a few catches 'fore the game starts."

The beginning of any game seems inconsequential. I learned that rather quickly as I spent so much of my time playing them. All anyone really cared about was the outcome, and like in any movie, show, book or what have you, all the important stuff goes down in the last few moments. Of course, maybe there was some truth to that. At the start, we had been diplomatic and flipped a coin, which ended up giving the first at bat to the guest, putting us on the field first. But soon enough it didn't even seem to matter.

Here we were, anyway, the game charging on like we had raced to the top of the ninth inning. The score was in their favour by one run, but the last inning was our chance to pull it back up. Applejack had been pitching one hell of a game, and managed to strike out almost all of their batters throughout their order. Still, we had let two runners hit home and this last hit gave them a third, leaving us behind with only two runs. But with a score like 2-3, in their favour, it should not have been hard to pick it up and take the win, right?

There was still a runner on third, but the other bases were empty and Applejack intended to keep it that way. I could see the exhaustion draining her, and if I had counted I knew she must have been going on towards a hundred pitches, which was kind of normal for a game where she pitched the whole time and threw around three balls to each hitter, three outs per inning. We didn't have a backup pitcher to help her out, and she was not the type to back down at the most crucial time in a game anyway. But as her last official pitch rolled off of her fingers, perhaps she did not feel so confident about leading us to victory.

The bat smacked it clean through the air, sending it soaring through the great blue sky like some sprinting cloud. The hitter dropped the bat and went running, but no one on the team gave one damn about her while there was a runner on third, who took off towards home. I was at my usual position on third base, and it really pissed me off to see the runner making their way home with a clear shot. I heard the ball bounce once before getting grabbed in the outfield, missing our chance at the third out. And now, the runner approached home to tag their forth run, and our outfielder had only just thrown it back, her arm not nearly what I wished it was. The ball was slow and the arc was high, and the more I watched it, the more I realized just how poor of a throw it was.

The ball was not going to make it. It would land several yards ahead of home plate and there was no way anyone could throw it fast enough to beat the runner, nor could the catcher run up and get it without losing the run to an empty plate. I was too far away myself, or else I would have gave it a shot, but not even the short stop was near enough to make it work. Besides, the amount of time it would take someone to catch the ball, take it out of their glove, turn around and toss it was way longer than the time it would take for the runner to clear the last several paces. If the runner made it in, we would be left with making up three runs in the last frame to claim victory, something that seemed nearly impossible at our level of exhaustion, and with another run down our morale would plummet so low we might as well just give right up.

But Applejack was no quitter, I knew that well about her. I remembered this one time when her brother had been injured, it was harvesting season and she vowed to finish the harvest all on her own. She worked and worked for hours, days even, until her body physically succumbed to the exhaustion. Even then, in this delirious state of subconsciousness, she continued to carry buckets and buckets of apples out of the orchard. She was just crazy like that, and that same determination and diligence that I knew her for shone out now in our time of need.

Applejack cleared the distance between the mound and where the ball would fall, a mere step or two forwards. In that same stride, she leap into the air. But she did not raise her glove to the ball, no, she did something much more daring and desperate. She raised her right hand, a risk no pitcher should take, and snatched that baseball with her bare hand, turning around in mid-air and actually full-on pitching the ball right to the catcher before her feet touched the ground. It broke through the air nearly the same speed as her fastball, and smacked into the catcher's perfectly positioned mitt barely an instant before the runner's feet hit the plate.

"Out!" the umpire shouted and gestured the call for the whole field to see.

Applejack blinked in surprise from her awkward position nearly on one knee, her right hand still extended at the end of her half-wind-up. She stood back up slowly as the crowd deafened us with their astounded shots and cheers. I could see the surprise present on her face, shocked either by the success of her ambitious and ridiculous move or by the way the entire populous in the stands rose to their feet and shouted out her name. She shook out her hand and winced, looking down at it like it bothered her. Before I knew it, I was running full sprint up to the mound, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her perhaps a bit too violently.

"Holy shit, A.J., are you okay?" I looked at her right in the eyes as she stiffened up in my hands. I shook my head back and forth as I raised my voice a bit and heard it crack in a few places, "You must be freaking crazy, bare-handing a ball like that! You have to take better care of your hand as a pitcher, you could have really hurt yourself!"

"I'm fine, Rainbow. It just stings a little is all," she nervously replied, trying to pry me off of her and avoid all the attention.

"Stings? Here let me see it." I leaned forward and grabbed her hand, pulling it close to me and inspecting the tenders of her palm. It was unusually soft despite the callouses that lined just below her fingers and traced her palm. They were definitely the hands of a hard worker, but all the same she yanked them from my grasp and blushed at the contact.

"Rainbow, you're embarrassin' me! You're gonna make everyone think I'm hurt or somethin'," her voice fell into a whisper as she tried to act like nothing was wrong. I didn't buy it, I mean that girl wouldn't ask for help if she had to run a marathon with one leg.

"Well are you?" I pryingly asked, asserting myself into her evasive gaze. "I shouldn't have to tell you that you can catch a ball much more easily with the glove, and it's one of the few protective pieces of gear you wear, now quit squirming and let me get a good look!"

I grouchily prod at her hand again, testing the sensitivity of her nerves. She still wouldn't look at me, and something told me she was ashamed or thought I was actually angry with her. I let loose a smile to tell her otherwise once I realized she was fine, and stepped forwards until our eyes met at last. I just held her hand then, feeling the heat and strength in them.

"I'm fine," she diligently repeated, moving her fingers in mine to show me.

My tone went into a more lively one, and I allowed myself to compliment her though it made me blush to speak aloud, "But damn it Applejack, that was one awesome play. You really are something."

"You ain't gonna kiss me again, are you?" A crooked grin graced her face, and I felt my heart jump up into my ears and my face go scarlet. It was such a simple question, but she had shattered our unspoken agreement never to address it. I don't even think she realized how terrified she made me, just bringing it up!

I could not have uttered a word if my life depended on it, I just stood there with my mouth hanging ajar and my cheeks bright red, gawking at her. She must have just thought I looked hilarious, because she just laughed and turned away, going back towards the dugout as our teams switched to at bat. There was this horribly sinking feeling in my stomach, like that she thought I was a joke or something. My feet numbly moved beneath me as I left the mound I had tended to her on, and it felt like I was about to pass out from the stress and worry. My ears were ringing and my palms were sweating like nothing else, I had never felt so scared and uncomfortable.

I could see her a few paces ahead of me, removing her glove and tossing it onto the bench. The other girls were hitting her on the shoulder and praising her, I could tell, but as usual she just smiled and brushed it off. We were back at the top of the batting order I realized, as the girl who batted before me slipped on the protective helmet and adjusted it to fit better. That meant that I was second to bat, and that just made it even worse. I was never a nervous person, especially not while I was in the middle of a game. Competitive sports were relaxing to me, they were where I really excelled. But I did not feel so confident today, not right now anyway.

As I reached the dugout and kept my anxiety to myself, as well as my words, I realized that despite Applejack's amazing play on the field, the team was still less than certain to win. I slipped my fingers into some of the holes on the fence and leaned against it, peeking through the spaces between the wires to see the scoreboard. Bottom of the ninth and we were still a run behind, which meant pulling two more out of our asses to assure victory. It was as though I could feel just how many eyes were tracing the scores, because everyone else fell quiet and the stands were hardly different.

"What's with all them sour faces?" I heard Applejack's southern dialect roll off her lips, and we all looked over at her. "One run ain't nothin' to worry about. Y'all just worry about getting' on base, leave the rest to me."

"Applejack's right," I found myself agreeing with her before I even thought about it. "The first game we play lays out exactly how the rest of the season will go. I sure as hell don't want to be the kind of team that quits in the last inning, and if any of you think differently you might as well just pack up and ditch." The rest of the team looked at each other a few times, but no one made to move. "Bottom of the ninth, one run behind. Just one damn run, guys. This game is ours." I said simply as I shoved off the fence, grabbing my own batting helmet and snatching up a bat, swinging it over my shoulder.

I stood a few yards from home plate on-deck, watching our first batter make her way there and settle in. She was a fine batter, which is why she was first, if I knew her she'd be able to get on base easy. I rested my folded hands on the top of the bat as I squatted down in front of it, trying to steady my breathing as best I could. The opposing team was still getting into formation and their pitcher made sure to check that damn scoreboard once more, smiling about it like a bitch. I glanced over my shoulder as I saw Applejack step up beside me, placing her hands on her hips and speaking in that low voice I loved to hear.

"Just get on base, Rainbow. Cloudchaser's battin' after you, and she ain't a bad batter. I bet she can gettcha to second no problem, and with no outs we're lookin' pretty good," she reminded me, and I absently nodded. She took another breath as she looked out towards the pitcher. "This pitcher's been throwing breaking balls all over the zone at my every at bat, I think she knows that I can hit." She huffed a laugh and shook her head, but ended up peering down and meeting my eyes, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I doubt I'll be able to get a home run, but I'm sending you home at least, got it?"

"How do you figure?" I responded as I watched our batter swing, missing the ball by a fraction of an inch. I rubbed my fingers against each other irritably.

"Just listen close. Pitcher's gonna try and make me pop it up for an out, but I ain't gonna let 'em off so easy." Applejack suddenly leaned down real close next to me and covered her mouth in case anyone was watching, keeping her lips barely inches from my ear. "If all goes well, you should be on second when I get up to bat, so get a good lead. I'm aiming to hit that first ball nice and hard, so right when he pitches it you take off, steal third, and you just keep on goin'."

"Keep going?" I turned sharply to face her, surprised at such a bold request.

"You heard me, their outfield shifts to third for defence when I'm up, so I'munna hit it straight past second. That means right after the pitch goes out, you keep your head down, y'hear? Unless you want a big ol' purple bruise to compliment that hair a'yours." She leaned against me for a second to tell me she was just joking, but this was serious.

"But that centre fielder can catch anything A.J.," I warned her, looking at the girl who they had positioned the farthest back.

"That don't matter Rainbow, she ain't half as fast as my hits and she throws like a girl, even if she does manage to catch it, she'll never be able to get it to home and I know your feet can outrun two or three passes back. Now, you in?" Applejack raised her eyebrow in question as our batter sent the ball flying, skipping across the ground a few times. I didn't watch the game though, I was too interested in that alluring sparkle in Applejack's eye, her confident smirk and her expectant gaze. I could never say no to her.

"Bet on it." I raised my hand between us and she readily clasped it with her own, an understanding closed between us. Our batter had made it to first as we expected, and it was my turn now.

"All right Rainbow, you're up. Make me proud." Applejack stood up with me and patted me on the back, watching me walk all the way to home before stepping back a few paces towards the dugout. After all, she was at bat soon herself.

I adjusted the helmet on my head by the small brim, feeling the weight. The bat was light to me though, and I easily twirled it around in my hand to psych myself up. As I crossed the plate to get to the right hand batting side, I looked down at the dusty thing, warning it with my gaze that I would be seeing it again soon. I extended my bat out a bit and got a good grip before I turned and gave their pitcher a blank and less than intimidated gaze, gesturing with my head for her to hurry up and toss the ball.

Just as I had silently asked, the pitch went off without much hesitation. These fastballs were nothing compared to what I had dealt with practising with Applejack, so hitting it felt almost like leisure. Still, the force of my hit sent it just past third base, and before they could even get a hold of the damn thing my feet were tapping first base. I looked ahead and saw that the other runner had made it to second rather easily too, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Cloudchaser was next, and I did not doubt her. We had some of our best batters at the beginning of the order, and she was good under pressure. I got a good lead as she swung, but ended up returning to the base as she missed the ball. The second pitch was called a ball, so by then I was just itching to move my legs. Finally, on the third pitch I heard that satisfying smack of the wooden bat against an airborne object. I made it to second and watched as my runner in front hit third, but due to the positioning of the hit, the pass to first had been too easy to pass up, and Cloudchaser was out.

If I was nervous about the run home before, all those feelings disappeared as Applejack took the plate. Her strong hands wrapped easily around the bat like she could choke the thing to death, and her advance to bat put us in perfect position to score. The stands called out to her, but she didn't listen. She was looking right at me, making sure I was ready. I slowly nodded and waited for her to get into her stance. Her feet shifted until they were correctly placed for optimal force, and her eyes drifted to the pitcher. The two of them looked at each other for a long few seconds, as if issuing a challenge to each other. My whole body trembled with adrenaline, and I bit at my lips in anticipation, watching Applejack's fingers play with the grip tape on the bat. The pitcher wound up, and my feet hit the dirt in full sprint.

I nearly jumped at the cracking sound that sprung from her bat as the ball flew off of it, and it was a good thing I had already started running or I might have been stuck by that goddamn rocket of a hit. She didn't even bother chargin full speed to first, we both knew it would not matter. Me on the other hand, I was the freaking wind. The crowd was loud, but I could still hear the splitting of the air around the ball, and could even hear as it tipped off the grass and bounced, unhindered by any outfielder's mitt. I barely had time to glance back to measure how far from the ball their centre fielder was, and I really shouldn't have looked, because she had already grabbed it.

The cheering woke me up to my advance as the runner in front of me tapped home and I rounded third in a full sprint. I heard the outfielder throw the ball, and by the time I was half way to home I heard a baseman catch it. My feet were lost to me as everything but the glowing light of home base went black.

I remembered running so hard when Applejack and I had been racing, when I was just as determined to win. Back then though, she had let me have my victory, something this team would not do. It was so very important to me to appear to be the fastest that I had not even complained, but now, now it was actually up to me. I did not want to just be known as the fastest, I wanted to prove it each and every day, to the crowd, to my team, to myself, and to her.

I could almost make out the sound of another toss as it happened, and knew the ball was not far behind me. But by then I was a mere few feet away, and knew the only thing faster than running was sliding, and with a catcher as flimsy as theirs I knew the plate was not well guarded. I closed my eyes as I slid across the dirt, bits of gravel or pebbles kicking up into my face and against my arms. It was quiet as my body stopped moving against the ground, and for a moment I was not certain what had happened. It had all gone by so fast.

Above me, I saw the catcher's mitt. And in her grasp, the baseball. It all came down to the call now.

"Safe!" The sound of the umpires voice was music to my ears and I nearly screamed at the top of my lungs, that is, if I could even do anything at all.

The catcher moved out of the way with a downtrodden and furious face, but I could not care less. We had won, we had actually won. That might have meant more to me if I could stand up and cheer like the rest of the team, but for some reason my shaking body was not responding well. I was smiling wildly, and managed to push myself up on my elbow, though it pained me to do so. Before I knew it she was standing over me, tossing her batting helmet off of her gorgeous blonde hair and putting her hands on me. I wanted to embrace her, to feel her around me even if it was awkward or uncomfortable or one-sided, but she did not look nearly as happy as I was, and it unsettled me.

"Don't try an' move Rainbow," Applejack's voice was quiet under the roar of the crowd, but her hands felt so good.

"We won, Applejack, didn't you hear?" I tried to tell her as I chased her worried gaze as she ran it all over my body. "Applejack?"

"Yeah, I heard. Here, hold on to me." She leaned forward and slipped her hand under my back, holding me up as she pulled me off of leaning on my elbow. In a fright I grabbed her with my other arm, holding myself against her as she pulled my arm over my shoulder and bent it at the elbow behind my head, taking a good look at the sore and dirty part of my arm.

"What do you think you're—" My eyes widened as I noticed what she was looking at. I could feel the blood tricking down my arm now that she had it propped like that, and I sat up better so she wouldn't have to hold me. "Shit, what happened?"

"You took that slide mighty hard." She cracked a smile as she inspected it. "But this here's just a scrape. Lemme have a look at your leg."

"My-my leg?" I looked down at my lower body and noticed now all the dirt, but worse, I noticed the blood seeping through my pants, which were pulled up by the slide nearly to my knee. "What the—?!" I stammered as I hurriedly scampered a foot away, though she grabbed my hysterical self and held me still.

"Relax, looks like you can move it just fine," Applejack told me gently as she had a better look, though the skin felt raw. By then, the umpire was leaning over me too and taking a look, and the cheering had slightly subsided. "Yeah, just a bad scrape, I think you'll be all right."

"Jeez, don't scare me like that," I sighed loudly and wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand, letting myself smile again at my accomplishment. "That was one crazy play, Applejack. How many of those do you have up your sleeve, anyway?"

"Seein' the toll that last one took on you, I'd reckon that's the last of them." Applejack laughed a bit and shook her head, noticing the way I was still beaming like a lunatic. "You did great, Rainbow."

She put her hand behind my head and leaned in, and for a second my heart stopped to imagine what she was thinking of doing. But as her head fell into the crook of my neck and she hugged me tightly, I relaxed and enjoyed what little affection she had for me. "T-Thanks, A.J."

She leaned back a bit and lingered in front of me, touching my forehead with her own and smiling softly. She glanced down at the mess I made of myself, reminding me, "But you always gotta be the centre of attention, don'tcha?"

"You said you were bringing me home!" I reminded her as she pulled back and laughed a bit, nodding at the truth of the statement.

"I guess I did, didn't I?" she agreed easily, keeping that lopsided smile held up by her cheekbones. "From the look'a you I might even hafta carry you home tonight." Before I knew it, she pulled back away and instead slipped her arm under mine, helping me to my feet. "C'mon you, let's getcha cleaned up. Give your fans a wave, will you?"

Author's Note

WARNING: The chapter after this is where things get a bit juicy, so be prepared.

Also, if you find any baseball-ish errors, feel free to point them out, as I am no expert.

Chapter title: The term "Cleanup" refers to usually the fourth hitter in a batting order who "cleans up" the bases with a heavy hit, hence why this is the title of the fourth chapter. It is also the position at bat that Applejack plays, and the position in the order at bat at the end of the ninth inning. So, yeah that's why I named this chapter that.

Balk

Balk

The sound of water flowing freely from the faucet echoed across the cold tiles of the bathroom. I felt uneasy sitting up on the counter by the sink all exposed and shit, especially since Applejack and I had barely even spoken since the game, but she didn't seem to mind. It still felt odd being alone with her, but I kind of liked it anyway, I always did. She squeezed out the cloth again before letting it absorb some more warm water, which she then held against the wound on my leg. She had pulled my pants up pretty high to do it, and her touch made me wish she would drift even higher.

It was a pretty nasty cut, I had to admit, and it stung like hell when she touched it but I let her continue. It had stopped bleeding by then, but Applejack was nothing if not vigilant. She wrapped some bandage around it and pulled my pants back down, moving on to the less severe wound on my elbow, which she could reach since I removed my uniform shirt and folded in into a bunch beside me, leaving just my black tank top on.

"You gonna make a habit of gettin' all scratched up like this, Rainbow?" Applejack asked, and her voice carried through the otherwise empty, echoing room.

"You going to make a habit of fixing me?" I responded with a question as I pulled my wrist behind my head, giving her a clearer view of the area. She just sort of smiled as I continued, "I'm prone to injury, A.J., you know that."

"It's that darn reckless spirit of yours, sugar cube," she reminded me as she cleaned the area, though I winced at the sensitivity of the still raw flesh.

"Pssh, that reckless spirit of mine just won us our first game, if you forgot." I flipped my hair and stared at her, begging her to return the gaze. She didn't though, she just kept cleaning the dirt out of my scrape, but opened her mouth to speak.

"I reckon I had nothin' to do with that myself, now did I?" she asked rhetorically, and I really couldn't deny it. She had been awesome, and I'm sure she knew it.

"Nah, you managed to pull your own weight out there." I played it cool, watching her laugh a bit as she finished up, washing the hand towel once more. I leaned a bit closer to her as I finally caught her attention the same as I reached up and touched the slightly parted collar of her uniform shirt. Her shirt displayed that same number one that she had clearly earned, and I did not want her to forget that. "I'd expect nothing less from our ace."

I noticed the way she looked at me; she was uncomfortable. So Rarity had been right, she did find things awkward between us after I had kissed her, and she was trying to find a way to let me down. That's also probably why she had tried to play it off as a joke during the last inning. I must have made her uneasy or anxious by touching her, because she pulled away and finished squeezing out the hand towel, turning off the tap with it.

I observed her carefully as she fumbled around with the rest of the medical supplies, packing most of them away. She took another bandage and grabbed my wounded arm somewhat forcefully, trying to finish up. I noticed her hurried and evasive behaviour though, and pulled my arm away from her. She looked up at me with a weird expression, like she was kind of frustrated. She tried to grab me again but I pulled away, tilting my head as if daring her to try again. She didn't really say anything about it, but that sour-apple face she made always meant she was either lying or keeping something from me.

"You're not telling me something," I said plainly, as it had become clear that was the case.

She didn't like being called on something like that, so she tried to grab me again, but once more I moved. Not one to be outdone, of course, she simply climbed up onto the counter beside me and grabbed me with both hands, glaring into my eyes until I let her finish bandaging me up.

"It ain't nothin' Dash. Now let me finish up here so we can head on home," Applejack's voice was kind of quiet and repressed, but I let her finish up anyway with little protest. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Her eyes only briefly moved up to mine before she pulled them away and made to climb back down. I stopped her though, putting my hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

"Sit down." I instructed, and though she hesitated, she eventually reluctantly obeyed, sitting down beside me with her back to the bathroom mirror. She looked down at her clasped hands, which she folded on her lap like they were holding some secret in them. "Is something bothering you, Applejack?"

"Well I— no, not exactly," she started but cut herself off, keeping it all inside. A smile graced her face and she chuckled a bit as she went on, "I was just thinkin' is all, something I ain't too suited for."

"About what?" I wouldn't let her brush it off, whatever it was. She still bit at her lip and scrunched up her face until I sighed loudly and spoke again, "Come on, A.J., talk to me here." She looked up at me when I said that, and the longing look in her eyes really freaked me out, like some mirror of my own. But they quickly switched back to thoughtful and nervous.

"Just thinkin', about you, and," Applejack smiled as she thought about whatever it was, but her face got all sullen after that, "About me." Oh Man, here it comes. This was what Rarity had warned me about in full force, she was about to tell me off, embarrass me, stomp on my heart and whatever else she had in store. I closed my eyes in disappointment and leaned against the mirror, letting her speak, "I like playin' ball you with Rainbow, I like hangin' out again, just you and me. Alone."

Her hand touched mine suddenly, and I could feel this great comforting warmth as her fingers slid under mine. My eyes darted back to hers and my heart jumped up so high it must have gone right through the ceiling. This didn't sound like any rejection, it sounded like a damn confession!

"What are you saying?" I asked cautiously, careful not to jump the gun and come to any conclusions that were not based on fact. I swallowed hard as I waited for the answer, my hand tingling at her very touch.

"I just—" she stopped as though she had bit her tongue quiet, her eyes blinking like she had just regained her right mind and senses. "Ah, never you mind sugar cube, c'mon now, I'm sure the others wanna congratulate us on our victory and all."

She released me at once and hopped down from the counter in one motion, turning her back to me and approaching the door. However, I would not let her leave so quickly. I jumped down after her and cleared the distance between us in three strides. She had grabbed the handle of the door and tried to open it, but I shoved it shut with an assertive slam of my hand against it. I left my hand on the door, my arm remaining close beside her. She didn't say anything at my boldness, and even I had to take a long breath in before I could speak in a way that my voice would not falter.

"They can wait," I murmured huskily as I moved closer, pressing my other hand on the door just passed her body. She stood there now, fenced in by my extended arms.

My whole body was shaking just having her between my arms, and for a moment I didn't care if she was afraid of me or what. I could smell her blonde hair closely now, so close I could feel it touching my lips as I leaned against her just a fraction more. It was silky smooth and scented like flowers or apples or something, I was never good with describing stuff like that. My hand found its way to the lock on the door, and I turned it without hesitation. Still, she just waited there with her back to me like she didn't know what to do. Well, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and no higher power above seemed able to stop me.

I grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around to face me, so roughly that her back hit the door with a thud. I was right to think she would be frightened, her eyes were wide as they stared at me, her cheeks flushing and her tongue moving around in her mouth as if to bite back some protests. My hand touched her cheek and she flinched a bit, but for some reason or another she let me slip my fingers further back until they combed into her golden hair. I moved ever closer, watching her take in a breath while her chest rose steadily and our breasts grazed each other.

"D-Don't you, don't you think we... should," Applejack's voice was soft and it drifted into a heavy breath as I drew nearer, her quivering lips just too tempting to pass over.

Applejack's eyelids began to fall slowly over her clearly hypnotized gaze, and I almost screamed in anticipation. She was actually submitting to me, she was actually going to let me kiss her!

I gladly obliged and drank in the heat from her lips with my own, pressing firmly into the kiss. I could hardly control myself, just thinking about how far I wanted to take it drove me mad with desire. She shivered against my touch, and she must have been uncertain whether or not to let it go on.

I barely broke away before I kissed her again, reliving the experience with as much fervency as the first time. I couldn't even explain how she tasted as I drove the kiss deeper, but it was so much better than I even anticipated. The connection was sweet and soft and perfect, but my whole being trembled and begged for more until my lips kissed her on the jawline, then the neck. She shifted a bit as her breath caught in her throat, I could feel it on my lips as I continued to trail down, kissing and licking and and nipping at her skin. Her lack of protest excited me, though I would have loved to force this on her just the same. I tasted her again, and enticed a moan from my Applejack at last, though it was quiet and stifled. I hummed in delight against her, feeling the goosebumps rising on her skin as I touched her anywhere I could.

I nearly froze as I felt her hand on the back of my head, but I was pleasantly surprised when instead of yanking me off she buried her fingers into my hair and pressed me against her again. Perhaps I was getting a bit ahead of myself as I chuckled lightly against her collar bone, leaning down a bit more to kiss the spot right above her highest holding button. She made another groan, just as repressed and earnest, just as quiet and pleading. My hands hurried up to her shirt, unbuttoning two metal restrains with one motion, letting her uniform black tank top underneath show at last. It too was in my way, and I touched her well toned stomach roughly in an attempt to un-tuck it from her pants. But like I said, perhaps I was getting ahead of myself.

I felt her fingers dig deeper and yank on my hair as she closed her fist behind my head, doing just what I hoped she wouldn't and getting enough hold to pull me back. She held me a few inches away from her in her firm and somewhat painful grasp, but her eyes told me an entirely different story. My lips were wet and beginning to swell, as maybe I had been kissing her a bit too hard. She pulled me farther back and untangled her hand from my hair, shoving me away by the shoulder with her other hand. I blinked at such a violent attack, feeling myself stumble a few paces backwards.

I was about to speak up and tell her off, but before I could her body came crashing into mine once more. Her lips pressed hard against mine this time, and I barely got the chance to gasp before she bent down abruptly and let her arms come around my backside, looping lower until they locked under my thighs. I yelped a bit as she picked me right up like it was no issue at all, but her passionate kisses silenced me once more. I felt a little vulnerable and uneasy when she teetered me back a bit with another two steps, but I didn't get the chance to come close to falling as I felt the bathroom counter under my rear. It was a low counter surely, I realized anew when she placed me down and easily reached my lips without even having to stretch out.

Her hands slipped back up from under me, tracing my ass without difficulty, seeing as how she had almost put me right into a sink, and stopped only to line the small of my back. I had never seen her so vicious and forthcoming, but I would be lying if I said it didn't turn me right the hell on. I put my hands on her strong shoulders, feeling the way her body moved with each kiss. She must not have liked that very much, as her kisses suddenly halted and she reached back to grab my wrists.

I stared at her in shock, her infatuating expression threatening to force me to beg for more. Her crooked smirk returned beneath her intoxicated-looking gaze, but instead of doing as I silently pleaded she shoved my hands against the bathroom mirror behind my head, pressing me against it just the same. Her honest green eyes always forced out the truth, and this time was no different. I swallowed hard as she pressed her body against mine, her thigh finding its way right between mine and pinning me still.

"Y'know, I see the way you look at me, Dash," Applejack's voice was stalwart, rugged and low, and the words alone made this uneasy twist in my stomach turn hard. I couldn't do much to defend myself, even from her lecherous gaze as she sized me up.

"I-I, I'm sorry," was all I could muster, in this squeaky and small voice. She tilted her head at such a response, and I couldn't really explain why I had said it either. After all, I wasn't really sorry.

"Sorry?" Her tone raised in question, but before she went on she pressed herself against me again, her mouth finding my neck too easily without the bother of a shirt collar.

She stopped restraining me with her hands and let them come around my waist again, teasing me with the play of her fingers on my spine. I closed my eyes as she kissed my jaw and neck so genuinely, her tongue even caressing my pale skin the way I only ever imagined it would.

"For lookin'?" Her voice tickled my skin as she moved down to where my neck met my shoulder and I exposed myself to her affections. "Or for lyin'?"

I was greeted with something less than pleasing at that, as she bit me hard on the tenders of my flesh, bringing me to cry out. I nearly jumped with surprise and I grabbed at the cold water tap instinctively, accidentally turning it on and spraying my pants.

"For lying!" I called louder than I intended, her teeth like some lie detector. I hurriedly and clumsily turned the water back off as she chuckled. She went back to being gentle, kissing the sore skin and licking it again. "I wanted to tell you, I really, really did," I admitted as my eyes rolled into the back of my head. "I was afraid."

"Of this?" she questioned into my chest as her hands moved under my shirt and I could feel every line on her palms against my back.

"Oh God no," I whimpered in a breath as my head tipped back against the mirror and I pressed myself against her, my desires utterly captivating my rational thought. "This is, this is..." My breathing grew heavier and faster as her hands moved to the front of my body, tickling me and taunting me. "Awesome."

"Glad y'think so, sugar cube," Applejack's voice was muffled, as her lips were otherwise occupied.

She pulled up my shirt and revealed my twitching midsection, which she eagerly moved down to and began ravishing with her kisses. I moaned as a smile took over my face, which only intensified as her hands slid up under my shirt and reached my breasts, though she kept from fondling them directly. Her fingers traced the bottom of my sports bra, and I could feel her palms slowly moving up. I noticed her own breasts pressing against my hips, and the warmth of her body was irresistible between my legs. I pressed my lowers closer to her, almost willing to stop this divine torture if it meant repositioning to get a better angle for release.

She could feel me bucking my hips up earnestly, grinding myself against any part of her body I could get near. She pulled back a bit and looked down at my lustful reaction, seeming somehow uncertain of what to do about it. It was clear that she didn't seem so confident about that part of my body, though kissing and touching the rest of me was somehow entirely within limits. I knew very well that she was a virgin like I was, and I didn't imagine she was the kind of person who often touched herself, so it was not surprising she would be nervous about touching me somewhere so private. Besides that, if she were to acknowledge me there, it would remind her of the fact that we were both women, and from her hesitance I suddenly realized she might not have been so sure she wanted to remember that. I had to find a way to relieve the pressure I was putting on her, to dissolve the uncertainty that was creeping up.

I didn't want to spoil it with words, since everyone knew how poor I was with them anyway. Instead, I leaned down and touched her chin with my finger, raising it back up so she could look at me face to face. I tipped her head back a bit more before I placed my lips on hers, that electric chemistry striking me just the same as the very first time. She was hesitant, but sooner or later I felt her kissing me back, her hands moving against my athletic body once more. I knew she must have been intrigued or interested, and she ventured all over me like she cared not if curiosity could actually kill.

I smiled against her lips, praising myself for keeping her enthralled. I playfully bit at her bottom lip, but when I paused to huff a laugh at the way she flinched, she took the control right back and slipped her tongue into my mouth. My eyes shot open to watch her, still somehow surprised that she would make such a bold advance. For someone raised with such good morals and intentions, she really loved to play dirty. Her tongue was agile and limber, roping around mine and twirling slow circles around it. I just let myself enjoy it at last, loving the tussle and wrestle she was giving me.

One of her hands was on the counter close to me, I could feel the tips of her fingers brush my thighs as she pressed against the cool surface, pushing herself hard against my body. Her other hand slid up higher under my shirt, fully groping at my breast until she summoned the much desired moan from my moist lips. Even from under my bra she must have been able to feel my nipple rise to her touch, and I felt her index finger and thumb pinch the sensitive skin.

Her kisses went lower again, and I eagerly pulled my shirt up more until I revealed my chest to her advances. She wasted no time following my lead and kissing the supple rounds on my chest that just slightly peeked out above my bra. There was no way I had enough coordination to pull the shirt over my head, so I settled for leaving it pulled up to my collar bone. I couldn't help myself as I ground against her hips again, my breath hot and loud. She grinned against my skin and sucked it a bit, though not quite hard enough to leave little red or purple stars speckling my chest with her attention.

"A.J.," I couldn't even say her whole name with what little control I had over myself, my voice even cracked at the height of my pitch range. "A.J.," came again and even higher and squeakier. I squeezed her between my legs again, my whimpering growing into groans until she pulled back a bit.

"I know," she hushed as she gazed intently into my eyes, her expression again filled with daring desire, and from what I could see, understanding.

She complied to my unspoken request slowly, her eyes dropping first down my chest as to examine me. Her hand followed closely, leaving my breast and trailing down the toned line of my stomach. I almost screamed out loud, if my heart hadn't skipped a beat with every blink of her eyes.

Her hand slipped bit by bit lower, an inch or two at a time with longer intervals between each movement. But she did not stop, in fact her eyes were keen on observing, her fingers nervously trembling as she approached the most tender and personal part of my body. I bit my lip as I watched her explore, the moisture and tingling of my loins proving impossible to ignore. Her fingers touched the hem of my pants, and she must have even been too nervous to look up and gauge my reaction. There was no doubt that she could feel the heat radiating from me on her palm, which was hovering a mere inch away from the perfect location.

The door rattled a bit and we both jolted, damn near jumping clean out of our skins before realizing we had locked it. Our eyes met in a clash of panic and ecstasy, the heat between us turning to a fearful chill. Neither of us said a word or moved at first, waiting to see what came next. As woefully anticipated, it was not silence and privacy.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Rainbow Dash? Applejack? Are you two in there?" a voice wormed between the door and its frame, and I cursed the familiarity we both recognized. It was Twilight's voice, concerned as ever for a friend who had been injured.

"Uh," Applejack's voice slipped out as her hand moved from my would-be pleasure up to her face, which she nervously touched before running her hand through her bangs to fix the apparent mess. "Y-yeah, just finishin' up."

She took a large step away from me, her expression blank and her eyes nearly watering with either fear or regret. She shook her head back and forth as she saw me sitting there, as if for the first time. I could see the realization in her eyes, and something similar to contempt. I wanted to reach out to her and comfort her, but she tousled her hair again and quickly avoided looking at me. My eyebrows dropped onto my gaze, glaring at her as if I was the one who could bring the truth out of her.

I had never known her to lie, but she was frantically pacing around like she was having some anxiety attack before she went to the door, and didn't even look back or say a word to me at all. She scrunched up her face and covered her eyes with her hands like she was scolding herself for doing something terribly, terribly wrong. Her pause at the lock gave me time to pull my shirt back down, but she didn't even give me any indication that she wanted to see me ever again. It was terrifying, the way she just turned her back to me and went on like she wanted to forget all of this, to take it all back so she would not have to deal with the consequences, even when we were still just alone together.

I was still sitting on the bathroom counter, and though I wanted to, I did not speak to ask her why she was acting this way. I was afraid to know. This was exactly why I shouldn't have brought it up, she didn't want me. She didn't. She must have just succumbed to my advances unwittingly, drunk with some lasciviousness, and now she was coming back to her senses. It killed me to watch her turn the lock back and grab at the handle of the bathroom door with those fingers she had just used to peruse my livelihood, fingers she had almost used on somewhere entirely intimate.

"How's she doing?" Twilight asked as she came into view from just beyond Applejack. I had a pretty good view of the rest of them from my place on the counter; I could see Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity there too. None of them seemed to have any idea what we had just been about to do.

"I reckon she'll be good as new in no time," Applejack replied easily, and I could even hear some false smile on her lips as she spoke, though I couldn't see it with her back to me. "Like nothin' even happened." Those words were coarse against my ears, I knew what she intended to say, what she really meant.

"What happened to your hair, Applejack?" Pinkie Pie's high voice breached the confines of the bathroom, and I blushed a bit to imagine what she could even say that would make sense. I remembered the sleek feeling of my fingers in her golden locks, and how quickly she had responded.

"Rainbow ain't so tough when it comes to pain." Applejack huffed a laugh, and I pouted at such a shot. She was blaming it on me, well, even though it was entirely my doing anyway. "I had t' hold her down while I fixed her up. Even locked the door so she couldn't run off." That was convenient reasoning.

"What can I say?" I forced a chuckle and rubbed the back of my neck nervously. Even from just the slight touch I felt the pain still present from the bite she gave me on the side of my neck, and if I felt just right I could even still trace the teeth marks. I let my hand fall a bit so that it would cover the spot in case anyone could see, still holding something of a fake snicker.

"Well, um, I'm glad you're all right, Rainbow," Fluttershy murmured as she played with her hands like the subject was sensitive. It hardly ever was, but this time whether she knew it or not, she was right.

"I should go get changed and head home," Applejack spoke up again and started off, avoiding every single person's eyes as if she knew they could see through them. "I'll see y'all tomorrow."

"See you, Applejack," I heard my own voice come out just as pathetic and wounded as I intended it not to, but hurriedly shook it off and hoped no one noticed. I shrugged a bit as I leaned against the mirror and crossed my ankles lazily. "You guys don't have to hang around, you know. Game's over."

"We just wanted to stop in and make sure you were okay," Twilight reassured me with a pleasant and naïve smile. "And congratulate you on a great game. You and Applejack work really well together."

"Yeah, I know," I said with a hint of sorrow, but tried to hide it behind the arrogant sounding words. "Anyway, thanks for stopping in guys, I'm fine though."

"Oh, um, well I guess I'll see you later then, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy discretely excused herself. "I have to, um, finish taking out the recycling and get home," her voice dropped into a whisper and she could barely look at me. She knew me very well since we'd been friends for so long, and if I didn't know better I'd say she could hear the sexual frustration dripping off my words.

"I suppose I should get home too, we have a test tomorrow I need to study for, don't forget Rarity," Twilight reminded her as she too waved me off and turned to leave.

"Indeed," Rarity's voice was unusually low and suspicious as she continued to stare at me, waiting for the others to leave already.

"Aww... well, you heard Dash, the game is over! Let's have a study party instead, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie chirped up and chased after the poor girl, spinning around the whole time.

"You're not even in our class, Pinkie," Twilight argued as she disappeared behind the door, with the flamboyant Pinkie Pie hot on her heels.

"Since when do you need an excuse to party?! If you're busy that's okay, I'll just make everyone cupcakes for tomorrow in celebration of your inevitable passing of your tests!" Pinkie's voice began to fade beyond the door and I let my own held breath out slowly. "Maybe Fluttershy needs help gathering all the bottles, I can take a few home and decorate them like little bottle people!"

"Rainbow Dash," Rarity called me by my full name, and I already knew she was about to scold me again. I frowned and crossed my arms, just waiting for it while the others made their way down the hall and well out of earshot. "What did you do?"

"Why do you assume I did something?" I asked loudly, shrugging and looking away. "I can control myself, I'll have you know."

"Really?" she asked with both eyebrows raised sarcastically. "Then what, may I ask, is that?" She pointed her finger towards her own neck, gesturing the same area on me.

I scooted forward on the counter and turned to look back into the mirror. My mouth fell open as I noticed it, this perfect line of teeth prints across my neck that had begun to swell a light pink.

"Fuck." I swore out loud, feeling the still tender skin around the temporary mark.

Author's Note

So, here's a taste of what will continue. Personally I don't like to make Applejack so defensive and rueful, but it moves the story along the way I need it to... so, yeah. It'll all pan out.

Now, the chapter title? Yes, right...
Balk: In baseball, a pitcher can commit a number of illegal motions or actions that constitute a balk. Most of these violations involve a pitcher pretending to pitch when he has no intention of doing so.

You can construe why I named this chapter so.

Strike Zone

Strike Zone

It made me angry when I arrived at school, late as usual, and Applejack's truck was not there. Her truck was always, always there before me, she was too responsible to be late like I was. So clearly, she hadn't even bothered to show up. What the hell was she so damn afraid of? Twilight told me that Applejack had called her early in the morning and apologized for having to miss their usual study session before school, and that she was feeling under the weather or some bullshit. I didn't believe a word of it, the liar.

The day was boring when she wasn't around, even Pinkie Pie's random escapades and Rarity's constant dramatic freak outs were no consolation when I had no one to enjoy them with. It was lunch by now, and I was too angry to even eat. When the rest of them were all gabbing about trivial matters, I took off for a bit to work out some steam. I got a soccer ball from the equipment room and headed to the gym.

Bang!

I kicked the ball hard against the gymnasium wall, sending it flying back to me to hit once more.

Bang!

I wanted to break it right through the wall, to kick the ball until it exploded. Again and again, the soccer ball smashed against my foot and ricocheted hard. I felt my fists clench up and my teeth grind together, the rage seeping from my body and crashing against the chequered ball. Anyone else who had once been in the gym with me moved far away or left, as I was clearly not holding back my anger and could have gone off screaming at anyone. Still, while my body sent the ball back to the wall time and again, my mind was still preoccupied.

I was livid as I chewed on her name in my mouth, feeling it roll over my tongue and snag on my breath.

Bang!

I nearly started barking my frustrations out loud, but managed to hold them in, sending the fury to my feet instead. Finally I had been able to indulge in my fantasies, and she had even fully and willingly participated in them, but then it all fell apart. Big damn surprise. I should have listened to Rarity, I should have never kissed her, not the first or the second time. I should not have tempted fate or forced her hand, because now I was left here alone in the gym kicking a ball against the wall. I had lost my best friend, and taunted myself with what I could not have.

Bang!

The ball hit the wall once more, harder than usual, and had bounced high into the air above me instead. I moved forward and caught it in my hands, looking down at the poor abused thing. I continued to step forward and leaned against the wall with my forehead, clutching the ball in my arms as I closed my eyes. All this crap was just so stupid and frustrating, and, and— Goddamn it I couldn't even describe it! I groaned loudly and hit my forehead harder against the wall.

Bang...

I pulled away and dropped the ball, turning on my heel and shoving my hands into my pockets. Jeez, why did everything have to be so awful and dramatic and crap, all I should have been concerned with was athletics, my friends, and my future. But for years, everything had exclusively been about her. I was furious with Applejack, for leading me on or ignoring me or teasing me or whatever it all was. I don't know why I should have blamed her though, I mean she was only giving me exactly what I wanted.

As much as I thought it might have been easier to just drop the whole thing, like I said, I was not someone who gave up that easily. She'd have to come back to school, she was too responsible and honest not to, and when she did, I would be there.

I arrived at school early the next day, but did not park in my usual spot. I knew that if she saw my motorcycle she could be deterred, and I could not have that. Soon enough, I heard that rickety old muffler chuffing away as she pulled into her usual spot, followed by the sigh of relief as the truck was turned off. I didn't dare move from my place just behind a protruding structural pillar that hugged the exterior wall of the school, in case she might see me and think up a plan to walk around and not have to deal with me. I heard the squeaky door open and slam shut seconds later, followed by a jingling of keys and those boot steps I knew her by.

She drew ever closer to my spot, and it had me anxious just trying to keep myself patient enough to let her get so near. I was not exactly the patient type, you see. That became all the more clear as I darted out from around the pillar and found myself less than a foot in front of her, startling her stiff. She genuinely looked surprised by the action, and blinked once or twice. It was then I realized how odd her eyes looked, they were tired, bordered by bags, and slightly swollen.

"Rainbow! Y'darn near scared my boots off, what are you doin' sneakin' up on me like that?" Applejack forced an awkward laugh and took a slow and subtle step back, which I instantly followed. Though her voice told me that nothing was wrong, I knew better. She would not look at me in the eyes, and kept her hat low over her face like she was trying to hide.

"Why are you avoiding me?" I asked plainly, but did not give her enough time to even think of an answer. "You think just acting like nothing happened is going to make it go away?" I paused then, but her only response was a swift and rude evasion as her expression settled into irritation. Applejack strode past me, bumping her shoulder into mine and hurrying towards the main entrance to the school. I chased her to the heels though, and my voice only raised with frustration, "Hey, I'm talking here!"

"C'mon, it was just a mistake okay? We just weren't thinkin' straight, is all. Why you gotta push it like this...?" Applejack murmured quietly and solemnly, closing herself off to me by grabbing one elbow with her opposite arm.

"It was no mistake A.J., and the quicker you stop lying to yourself, the sooner you can admit that you liked it. You liked it a lot!" I nearly skipped in front of her, looking at her in the face though she refused to do the same. I noticed the way she bit back her initial tendency towards honesty for something safer.

"I dunno what you're talkin' about." She looked away and tried to act oblivious. That just sent me reeling, right over the edge.

"Damn it Applejack!" I grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her against the brick wall, not even hesitating to apologize when I saw her cringe from the pain I must have done to her. "Look your best friend in the eye and tell me that you didn't enjoy it. Tell me!"

Though she tried to keep up her ruse, she reluctantly found herself looking at me once again. Her gorgeous green eyes were shining in the morning sun like I had never seen them, moistened with troublesome worry. She struggled for words, and I just watched on, demanding some explanation. It killed me to see her like that, and what made it so much worse was that I didn't really care what she must have been going through, I still just wanted to grab her and kiss her and do horrible things to her. Her head fell and her lips moved slowly as words formed.

"I'm sorry, Rainbow." She really was, I could see it on her face. Applejack pushed past me again, keeping her head low as she walked towards the school. I ground my teeth together at her stubborn nature, but refused to accept defeat.

"This isn't over. If you won't admit it, I'm going to have to show you," I spoke aloud, and she must have heard me despite the fact she did not react. I balled up my fist and hit the brick wall, leaning against it as I watched her leave me.

Applejack was the last person I thought I would find lying to me, or lying to herself. I knew that as a good friend I would have to do that out of her. Whether she knew it or not, there was some reason that she had responded so completely to me after the game. It may have been a rebellion against her own inhibitions, or an attraction to me she did not want to acknowledge, or some psychological crap. All I knew was that she was hiding from it, and that was not Applejack.

I had my second class with her, and as usual I sat right beside her at our three person table. On my right side was Twilight's seat, though in class she might as well have not been there at all because all she ever did was stick her nose in the textbook or scribble notes instead of chatting. Applejack didn't make a fuss about trying to find another seat, instead she sat down on my left as usual and made herself look busy. When Twilight arrived she had cheerily greeted us and asked Applejack if she was feeling any better. She didn't even notice that when Applejack replied she made that face she makes when she lies, chewing the inside of her cheek and pursing her lips. I didn't bring it up.

Our teacher wasn't the most boring of my teachers. He was older, sure, and spoke like a learned professor, but he taught us Ancient Civilizations, and damn was there a lot of action back then. Wars, political struggles, murder, betrayal, sex, all the good stuff. I wasn't really paying such close attention until he got onto a topic that peaked my interest, something about the ancient world that I had not heard of before.

"Some theorize that the ancient Greeks used homosexuality as a means of birth control, giving the men a way to enjoy the physical pleasures while not creating mass numbers of offspring to provide for," he told us, and it intrigued me.

Why had it been entirely socially acceptable back then, well, for the men anyway, but it was still looked down upon now? I glanced over at Applejack as a sly smile cracked across my face, thinking up something to discuss.

"Everyone did always say that the Greeks were good at crossing swords," I murmured the vulgar remark into my hand as I smirked at Applejack, who shook her head with a huffed laugh as she continued jotting down the notes. I looked down at the pencil in her hand, moving about so rapidly in squiggles, and reached over towards it. My own pencil clashed with hears, and she paused in writing when she watched me carefully cross our implements together. "So, if this is okay," I continued in a whisper, and she would have known to what I was referring if she had been listening to my remark about crossing swords. "Why isn't this?" I scraped my pencil against hers until they crossed in a different way, so that the narrowing angle of the intersecting pencils looked something like a pair of—

"Rainbow! Don't be gross!" she hissed in a whisper as she seemed to get my reference and pulled her pencil away from mine.

"You didn't think it was so gross when—" She interrupted me by smacking my pencil with her own, knocking it out of my gasp and sending it rolling across the table towards Twilight.

Twilight actually looked up from what she was scribbling to watch the pencil roll its last few inches towards her, until it stopped against her left hand. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at it, and then over at us, lecturing us with, "Girls, quit fooling around." She tapped the pencil with her pinkie finger and sent it rolling back to me.

"Sorry, Twi," Applejack apologized quietly and gave a sheepish grin. I, on the other hand, just sort of shrugged and took my pencil back.

Applejack left me one last warning glare before she turned back to her notes, and that was probably the worst thing she could have done. I took it as a challenge, as I always do, and proceeded to watch her movements more carefully, waiting for an opportunity. I started off slowly, yawning a bit and gently knocking my left hand against her right one. She jerked her hand away a bit, unconcerned that it screwed up the word she was jotting down. Again, I brushed against her, and I heard her make an annoyed sigh before she moved further away. I waited for maybe thirty seconds before I went for it, scooting a bit closer as if I was looking over at her paper. My left hand dropped under the table though, and she didn't seem to notice at first.

My heart rate increased as I felt her body so near, and I smiled as I felt her twitch at my touch. She glared at me as she felt my fingers drum a bit over her knee, finding a perfect place to rest. She stared right at me with this intimidatory gaze, though it didn't affect me like she had hoped. I licked my lips and let my eyes trail up and down her body, which I knew would put her on edge. She just kept digging her eyes into mine, even after her freckles were shadowed by a hint of rosiness in her cheeks.

Without hesitation, I began to slide my hand up her thigh, creeping closer and closer to the goal. I considered it some kind of game of chicken, and for a moment she let it go on, but only until I could feel the rising warmth of her body reacting to my touch and vicinity. She pulled her legs together forcefully and halted my advance, before she reached down under the table and grabbed my wrist, prying it off of her. She held me there in this monstrous grip, though I feigned like it didn't hurt. Finally she released me, and I took it all in stride with a simple shrug, folding my arm up under my chin and lingering no longer on our obvious sexual tension. I had done enough for now, and it still had me holding back snickers as I watched her try desperately to get back to focusing on the lecture.

I was already at our usual lunch table with half a sandwich in my mouth by the time Applejack came around, she was walking alongside Rarity and talking to her about something I couldn't hear. She chuckled a bit as she came over to her usual seat beside me, grabbing the chair by the back and turning it around as usual. She suddenly stopped and looked down at me, as if just noticing I was there. By then she had already begun to sit down, so stopping now would have revealed her to the whole group. Instead, she swallowed her pride or her fear and sat down beside me, putting her tray on the table.

"Just in case, I think I should give him a call to make sure he's feeling better," Twilight continued her conversation with Fluttershy, and I had to admit that I really hadn't been listening. "Spike never stays home unless he's really sick."

"Spike is ill?" Rarity asked as she sat down across from me, looking over at Twilight.

"Just influenza I think, poor little guy called me this morning to confirm our study appointment at the library after school and he was coughing and sneezing all over the place," Twilight explained with a hint of worry. Spike was this little kid that Twilight had taken under her wing a few years back, he was chubby and awkward at the time but he was diligent and eager to learn. By now he had become something of a little brother to Twilight, though she treated him more like a mother would honestly.

"Oh my, do tell him that I hope he gets well," Rarity told her in a genuinely consoling tone.

"I'm sure it will mean a lot to him." Twilight smiled, and yeah, I'm sure it would too. Considering that boy has had the hots for Rarity since the day they met. It kind of reminded me of a sweet and innocent version of how I felt for Applejack. I sympathized with the kid, what can I say?

"Um, sorry to leave so soon," Fluttershy peeped up nervously. "I promised the Green Team that I would help with the sign up sheets for the clutter clearing project. We need volunteers, is all." The Green Team was the eco-friendly initiative launched by the school that participated in all kind of city-wide projects to save the planet, recycle, all that stuff. Sure, it was a good cause and all, I just wasn't much for it.

"No worries Fluttershy, the protected forests around here would choke on Scotch broom if not for you," Twilight agreed as she waved Fluttershy off. "Keep up the good work."

"T-Thanks." Fluttershy was never very good at taking compliments, so she just brushed it off and went her merry way.

"On that note, I should probably go give the little guy a call, before he thinks I forgot about him." Twilight picked up her tray and stood suddenly, fumbling around for her cell phone in her pocket.

As Twilight left, I realized that there were only three of us left sitting at the table: Rarity, Applejack, and myself. I could have sworn that Pinkie Pie had been there with us at one point, but as usual she disappeared without explanation. A sneaky smile spread across my face as I thought up a topic, knowing if I were to make something of a move on Applejack, having an audience just might push her over the edge. Besides, I didn't have to worry about spilling my own secret, seeing as how the spectator already knew about my feelings.

"So," I spoke up casually though somewhat louder than I intended, commanding the attention of both of my company. "You feeling any better, Applejack? That's why you weren't at school yesterday, right? You were sick?" I quirked an eyebrow and waited on her response.

"Uh, yeah," she replied as her eyes avoided either of our faces and she focused on the rafters instead. "I wasn't feelin' so hot, the game must've really tuckered me out or somethin'." She absently played with her food.

"I don't know much about baseball myself," Rarity admitted, though her cautious gaze was watching me, knowing that I was planning something. She turned to look at Applejack with a kinder expression. "But from what I can tell, you are quite skilled at it Applejack. I certainly could never even think to throw or hit a ball that far or fast."

"Ah, the game-winnin' run belongs to Rainbow." Applejack shifted the focus back to me as she leaned forwards over the back of the chair on her crossed arms. I moved my chair a little closer to hers and noticed as she twitched at the sound of the chair scraping across the floor. I extended my arm around her and pulled her closer to me, gripping her opposite shoulder and almost fondling it.

"We sure do make a good team, don't you think?" I leaned closer to her, so our cheeks almost touched. My tongue just barely emerged to wet my lips, and I could see her eyes watching it with confined desire. Her cheeks were flushing again and I could feel the heat of her skin from so close growing warmer as she tried to get a hold of herself again. "A.J.?"

"S'pose so." She pulled herself away from looking at me, checking on Rarity to make certain she didn't suspect anything. Certainly there was little to suspect when she already knew the truth.

"Applejack, are you all right, dear?" Rarity asked up, though I could tell she was subtly hinting to Applejack that she could tell her if I was bothering her. "You're looking a little red."

"Am I?" Applejack played coy as she pulled away from me again, unfurling her arms so that her wrists were crossed instead, leaning back as if she was just fine.

"Here." My breath was intentionally warm against her skin as I leaned towards her and pressed the back of my hand against her head. "Let me check." I pursed my lips a bit as I pretended to have been measuring her temperature.

"I-I-uh..." Applejack winced a bit as I entered her personal space, something she normally would not mind at all. Our usual physical interactions had become tense and heated, and surely those nearest to us would notice. She chewed at her lip again as our eyes met, like she was begging me to stop playing around with her in such a cruel way.

"Something bothering you?" I asked as innocently as I could muster, though the arrogant grin was creeping up close to the surface. I could tell Rarity was itching to say something, but she was too good of a friend to tell my secret or to make Applejack even more uncomfortable by revealing just how much she knew.

"I-I," she stammered again as she began to sweat, thinking up any excuse to get out of there. "I gotta see a man about a horse!" She stood abruptly and pulled away from me, turning on a dime and rushing out of the cafeteria, leaving only that odd euphemism in her wake.

"See you at practice after school!" I called after her with this big old grin on my face. I had really riled her up that time.

"What exactly was that?" Rarity asked in a harsh tone, and I cringed just remembering she was watching. She was almost as bad as Twilight with the whole voice of reason thing. "Rainbow Dash, you can't just go around pushing Applejack's buttons like that, just because you have feelings for the girl."

"Keep it down, would you? Jeez." I hushed her with wild gestures and a shushing. I sighed a bit as I realized no one had heard, and continued to explain myself, "And I am not pushing her buttons, I am trying to get her to admit that she likes me, didn't you see the way she reacted?"

"She looked rather terrified to me," Rarity replied dully as she took a drink from her can of diet cola, which she sipped with a straw of course.

"She's anything but! You should have seen her after the game, when I kissed her, she was all over me!" I was just so excited about even just remembering I almost forgot to keep my voice in a hush. Rarity just kept staring at me, waiting for me to tell her something more serious. "I don't know exactly how she feels or anything Rarity, but I really, really want to know. She won't talk to me about it or anything."

"Don't you think this might be a bit difficult for her, as well?" she reminded me, and I crossed my arms grouchily as I didn't want to hear it. "Do be careful, Rainbow. You don't want anyone to get hurt."

"The only one who can get hurt here is me." I pointed a thumb to myself with a nod. I didn't even try and censor myself before the words came tumbling out of my mouth, "I mean after all, I'm the one who's freaking in love with her."

"I knew it!" Rarity and I both jumped and nearly fell off of our chairs. The table shifted a bit with a bump before a pink-haired girl rolled out from underneath it and turned to face us, this determined, narrow-eyed glare present on her face.

"Pinkie?! What are you doing under the table?" Rarity squealed, though luckily the rest of the school was accustomed to our antics by now and hardly noticed it. She brought her hands to her mouth and let out a melodramatic gasp as she realized it, "I'm wearing a skirt!"

"I knew that something was up between you and Applejack!" Pinkie Pie ignored Rarity's protests and pointed a finger at me, and I hurriedly gestured for her to settle down. She seemed to get the message and leaned against the table with a hush in her voice, "You look at her the way I look at sweets!"

"I hope not." I smiled weirdly as I imagined such a thing, though I didn't really get too upset about Pinkie finding out about it. I mean, there was no use in hiding it after what she must have overheard. "You don't want to make out with sweets, do you?"

"Well not usually, jeez Rainbow Dash I can't taste them with just my lips, that's my tongue's job," Pinkie argued as she found a seat and continued with the conversation, "But then again, you probably use your tongue too, don't you?"

"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity cried incredulously, shocked at such a remark from our usually romantically oblivious friend.

"Only once, but I sure wouldn't mind doing it again." I grinned slyly and admitted to the charges.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity called my name this time, appalled at our topic of choice.

"You did that with Applejack?!" Pinkie Pie gasped at such a scandal, though her eyes lit up with an earnest desire to know more, "What did she taste like, like apple cider or apple fritter? Or maybe apple pie, or maybe—"

"Just like, like Applejack I guess." I sighed remembering it, remembering the way she had me pinned to the bathroom mirror and was exploring my body. I could not get the feeling out of my head no matter what I did, and finally I could discuss it openly. And I did just that, "It was awesome, like the sweetest, softest, most—"

"Okay that's enough." Rarity's hands slammed against the table, causing both of us to jolt back to reality. She glared at me sternly as her tone became dangerously serious, "Clearly whatever it was that happened between you and Applejack is troubling her. And yet here you are just joking around about it, what kind of a friend does that make you?"

"Hey, she's the one who—" And then it hit me. Rarity was right, and that sucked. Sure, Applejack had indulged just the same as I had, but in her mind it seemed like she thought it was almost like a horrible, disgraceful act, and for whatever reason, it tore her apart. Just knowing that crushed me, as it was all my fault for kissing her in the first place. I had already hurt Applejack, and now I was just torturing her further. "Damn it."

She wasn't at baseball practice. And somehow, though I had joined the team specifically so that I could have a reason to be away from her, it did not feel the same when she was gone. I sat on the bench in the dugout watching my backup pitchers tossing a few lousy balls in the bullpen for most of the practice. The rest of them were running some drills and playing a few games like hotbox or whatever, but I did not feel like playing. I felt guilty about it all, and watching those bright, new baseballs fly back and forth somehow seemed wrong. Those were not the pitches I relied on, those were not the balls that she cherished and learned to throw. All of this, without Applejack, was just some kids playing catch.

I picked up my baseball cap off my head and ran my hands through my hair, letting it fall back over my eyes and my sullen expression. I ended the whole charade sooner than usual, telling everyone to go ahead and get home while I gathered up all the equipment. I needed the time alone more than anything, and waited until everyone had already left the change room before I went in and pulled my own uniform off. I sat on the bench in the change room for a good long while, waiting to see if maybe she showed up especially late or something, but she never came in.

It was getting dark out again, but I did not have her comfortable old truck to fall into like before. I pulled my helmet on over my bangs, hardly bothering to adjust it despite how uncomfortable it felt. I buckled it under my chin and turned the vehicle on, that same eccentric roar of the engine seeming less exciting than it used to. I pulled out of the odd spot, one that was not my own, remember, since I had parked there so Applejack would not notice I was at school. I sped towards the exit to the parking lot, my hands gripping at the bars as if I wanted to break them off. I was near the exit when I looked back towards her vacant parking spot, but I was surprised to find that it was not vacant. In fact, her truck was still resting there just the same as it had been since this morning.

I quietly rolled the bike over to her truck and peered inside, as if she might have been hiding in there, but found nothing. I kicked the kickstand out and leaned my motorcycle against it, standing up so that I could get a better view. I could see that the doors were locked, and no one was inside. I turned the bike off and removed my helmet, shaking out my rainbow-coloured hair and looking around as if she would just be loitering or something. Still, in the coming evening, I saw nothing. I still stood upright for a moment, tucking my helmet under my elbow as I waited for any sign she might be hanging around.

There, a noise. It was distant and quiet, but it sounded something like an expulsion of air, a growl or a groan. I lifted my leg over the other side of my bike and put my helmet onto the seat before I moved towards the sound, as it came from a familiar area I knew as the school field. Another sound was heard, like a small object hitting the dirt from what I could tell. I came slowly around the side of the building towards the field, and at first I still didn't see anything. That must have been due to the poor visibility back there, as the lights that hung high above the field were still turned off.

My eyes adjusted soon enough, and I could see Applejack's body as a silhouette against the dimming horizon and the cascading, dull street lights beyond her. She was on her knees, adjusting something on the mound of the baseball field. I moved closer still, entwining my fingers into the diamond shaped holes in the fence. What was it she was setting up? I tilted my head to try and get a better look, but as she squatted her knee was obscuring it, not to mention the dim of light. Finally, she stood, and reached into the little satchel she had waiting beside the mound.

A wooden block? Applejack had placed this little one foot long block onto the mound, it was maybe half a foot tall and half a foot wide, from my estimate. She returned to it before I could make a good calculation, and I could even make out the outline of her favourite Stetson, that old cowboy hat she adorned so well. She tipped it back a bit as she placed one foot onto the block, raising her other knee almost up to her chest. She reached up farther, captivating me entirely, as she placed something on top of her hat. Even from my distance, I could see the gleaming red shimmer and the trademark shape of an Apple family red delicious apple. She was still, and I watched her stern face contort as she tried to reach focus, wobbling a bit on the balancing block with the apple teetering on her head.

I could not believe it, was this how she practised when she was alone? Down towards the plate I noticed a fabric net set up, framed by these clearly home-made wooden borders, marked with several sections of a strike zone. Though she tried to breathe and calm herself, even I could tell that something was eating her up and keeping her from balancing the way she must have been accustomed. And that made her angry.

Applejack fell into her wind-up unprepared, lashing out against the imaginary batter with a vicious and furious pitch. Half way through the throw she lost her balance, and her footing gave out from under her as the apple fell from her head. Though the throw had tremendous power and speed, the baseball flew out and missed the target entirely, ricocheting off the rear fence and bouncing several times across the dirt. She hit the ground on her knees hard as the block she stood on tumbled away, and from what I could see, her uniform was already dirtied from prior attempts. The apple bruised against the dirt and rolled about a foot away, only to flinch with the force of her fist pounding against the ground. She snatched the fruit from beside her and chucked it towards the strike zone with an aggravated shout. I blinked in shock as it hit the net dead-centre and shattered against the force of the throw, splintering and dripping over the fabric as the corpse of the apple fell limp to home plate below.

I moved from the fence at last, approaching the hunched over girl, who was holding herself and choking back something of cries. The closer I drew the more I could make out the awful balling, the shaking of her body as she tried to contain her sorrow from leaking out of her eyes. I had no idea how to deal with something like this, but I walked on anyway until I was merely a yard or two behind her. I tried to clear my throat, but found speaking did more to get her attention.

"So, this is how you became such a great pitcher?" I managed, though the words felt fake and forced. I really wanted to bend down and hold her, but she was too fragile for something like that. She jerked at the sound of my voice and hurriedly pulled herself together as best as she could.

"Shoot, Dash, I-I thought you'd gone on home by now," she managed to sound out below the erratic snivelling. She got to her feet, but did not turn to face me and kept her hat pulled down over her eyes. "S-Sorry, when my pitchin' ain't so dandy I guess I start to get a mite sour, is all."

"Do you start to lie, too?" I spoke softly, though the words were coarse and true. She forced the tears and huffing away for a light-hearted laugh instead.

"Nah, it's stress that brings that out," Applejack spoke as she wiped her face again like she was clearing sweat or dirt. I didn't know much else what to say, so I slipped my hands into my pockets and watched her, though her tone went bitter again, "Dash, what are you doin' here? Go home."

"Well, as captain of the baseball team, I took an active interest in discovering why my starting pitcher was not at practice today. Instead of playing with her team mates, she decided to wait until dusk to throw balls at a net. So tell me..." I was best at discussing sports rather than feelings, so I did just that. Sure, it may have sounded somewhat insensitive, but Applejack had known to expect that from me. "Tell me why I shouldn't cut you from the team?"

"C'mon, you know as well as I do how awkward it'd be if I were there," she said in a hush as she managed to pull herself together, pretending to fool around with her glove like she was still breaking it in.

"What I know is that it looks like you trained really hard to be here, A.J., and nothing should come between you and what you want," I said as I approached her, noticing the way she kept turning farther away and hiding herself from me. I wanted to touch her shoulder or something, but after everything I had put her through earlier it did not seem right. "The stuff between us? Yeah, it's hard, it's distracting, it's complicated and yeah, maybe one-sided. But does that mean two friends can't play a game of ball together?"

"I just don't wanna make things worse 'tween us. I'm still just real confused, okay?" Applejack admitted as she summoned the courage to face me, her eyes flickering up to mine and catching me breathless. She seemed to speak in a timid and careful manner, something unlike her, "You know I'm a team player, Rainbow. I just ain't sure what team I wanna play for."

I noticed the double meaning of those words and furrowed my brows as I watched her. She let her eyes fall back down to her mitt as she toyed around with it on her hand. I shrugged at first like I didn't really care, but soon enough I found enough good sounding words to put together something that sounded nice in my head.

"Well..." I took in a breath as I began, still sorting the words into the right places, "Sometimes the team you end up picking isn't the best in the league, or the most popular, and hey, maybe they don't even have the coolest uniforms," I gabbed on for a bit, trying to make it as easy to understand as it was for me. She gradually opened back up, looking into my eyes even through the blanket of dusk. "Sometimes the team you pick is that team you grew up beside, the team you were always cheering for and spent your time with. Sometimes the team you pick is just the one you fell in love with. Sounds pretty simple to me."

Applejack smiled faintly, and it seemed to illuminate the whole field and warm me up inside despite the chill. She opened her mouth and let her reply drift out easily, "When'd you get so fancy with words?"

I returned the friendly gesture of a smirk. "Just now, I suppose. Getting better every time, I'd like to think," I reminded her of her own words when we had first played ball together, and she seemed to remember it perfectly as she slowly nodded.

"Well, if it's all the same to you," Applejack spoke as she turned back around and adjusted her hat. "I think I might just like to be alone for a spell."

I didn't say anything to her then, I just turned around and left. Whatever it was that she needed to work out, it was apparent that I could not help her right now. Her tone had told me she was still angry at me for earlier, and I knew her temper was something that no one wanted to evoke, but here I was at the business end of it. And rightly so.

Author's Note

So there you have it, a little more dramatic tension and shit. A little character development, some cutesie moments, blah blah. Next couple chapters will get back to, um, the good stuff.
The chapter title:
Strike Zone: The area on the batter roughly between the elbow and the knee, (The top of the strike zone is defined in the official rules as a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the batter's shoulders and the top of the uniform pants. The bottom of the strike zone is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. To be specific.) Also, the areas defined on Applejack's practise net, and the areas rainbow seemed to... focus on. Ahem.

Charging the Mound

Charging the Mound

I was more than sick of this shit by now. Again, she had not shown up for school, and our friends were beginning to take notice. Applejack never missed school unless something was very wrong, everyone knew that. And though I had assumed Pinkie might go squealing about everything to Twilight and Fluttershy, she managed to keep her mouth shut. She knew how important keeping friends' secrets were in maintaining a friendship, I guess. She did, however, continue to nag me about the details, and though normally I could not shut up about Applejack, today I was not feeling quite so talkative.

I had gone out to sit on the stoop that overlooked the field, hoping to get some time alone. Unfortunately, that was not how it turned out. I was followed by that loud-mouthed, nosy young lady who just loved to pick at things she shouldn't.

"When did you know how you felt? How did you tell her? Wait! Does she even know? How far have you gone with her, first base, second base, oh my gosh, third? I can't imagine Applejack letting anyone that far, but I'm sure if she did it would be you. Does she even date? Does she even like girls? Do you think she—" I could not stand Pinkie's babbling any longer.

"Pinkie! Look, I don't know if Applejack likes me, or girls, or any of it. I don't really want to talk about it, okay?" I murmured the last bit into my hand as I slipped into a lazy slouch. "Not with you, anyway." I added almost inaudibly.

"Then do you want to talk about it with Applejack?" she inquired loudly and I winced, glaring over at her.

"She's not at school, you idiot," I growled, knowing that Pinkie would never take such an insult personally. I sighed again as she gave me this weird look, like I was the one who was the idiot.

"What's stopping you from going over to her house? It's not that far, Rainbow." Pinkie's big bulging eyes blinked blankly as she spoke, and maybe she was right. I sat up a bit as I thought about it, and it became more and more realistic to imagine just going over there. "She goes over to your house when you're not feeling well. I would know, whenever you're sick she gets this funny little worry wrinkle up here on her forehead." Pinkie pointed to the place on her own face. "And she barely talks all day until she goes and checks up on you! She can be really mopey when you're not around."

"Really?" I asked as I raised my eyebrow, a small smile finally coming across my face.

"I hope it ain't nothin' serious, that Dash has gotta start takin' better care of herself, tell you that much," Pinkie Pie imitated the southern twang of Applejack's voice, and it only drew my smile wider. "That's what she says!"

"Sure sounds like her," I agreed with a nod as I paused, just thinking about how much she always cared about me when no one else did.

Everyone else thought I was just being me, and that was that, but Applejack was not fooled. She knew me better than anyone, and she was always right by my side when I needed her. Why was I never so good to her? I had been acting for such a long time like I wasn't obsessed with her that I forgot to even act like a friend.

"You're right." I finally realized.

"I am?" Pinkie raised her voice in surprise; no one ever agreed with her, you see.

"Yeah." I sat up straighter and nodded surely, suddenly more impatient than ever for the last bell to ring. "I'll go to her house after school."

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie agreed readily, throwing her hands up into the air.

"I'll apologize for everything," I went on, nodding as I picked myself up from my concrete seat.

"Yeah!" Pinkie repeated as she followed me to my feet.

"I'll talk to her, let her yell at me or complain, whatever she needs. And I'll tell her exactly how I feel." I clenched up my fists with resolve, understanding that this was exactly what needed to be done.

"Well that sounds kind of boring, but give me the highlights afterwards!" Pinkie grinned with a shrug. I should have known that talking about serious stuff would not be too interesting for her. "Good luck, Rainbow Dash!" she cheered again before twitching suddenly and looking down at her left hand. The bell rang seconds later, and I had to get back to class.

The final bell could not ring fast enough, and I raced out of the classroom right as it did. I barely had time to say goodbye to Fluttershy, who had been in my class in the last block. My motorcycle was on the road before most anyone else even got to their cars, and I sped recklessly towards home. I had to drop everything there and get changed, somehow my appearance suddenly mattered to me and this outfit did not seem like enough. I wanted to impress her, show her that I was not just casually stopping by to bother her. I had to dress the part.

But then, what exactly does "the part" look like? I barely had any idea how to dress for a normal day, that's what Rarity told me anyway, so how was I supposed to dress to show up at Applejack's house for an apology? I tried on several outfits: ripped jeans and a tee shirt, too casual and lazy looking; a dress, well, looks like I'm on my way to a damn wedding; my underwear, too presumptuous; my baseball uniform, clearly a joke. It was obvious I had no idea how to go about doing this, so I ended up picking up my phone and calling Rarity.

"Oh darling, that's fabulous news!" she squealed into my ear and the phone vibrated in my hand. I cringed a bit, annoyed at the volume. I sighed as she went on, "But whatever do you need my help for? I thought I made it quite clear that I was not the woman to talk to about, uh, these matters."

"Clothes," I said simply, in a low growl so she could tell just how upset I was about the subject.

"Clothing? For what?" Rarity asked, genuinely uncertain.

"For what would look best on Applejack's bedroom floor," I joked sarcastically, but she did not find it very amusing. "Come on Rarity, I'm going over to her house and I don't want to look like I don't care or something, but I don't want to come on too strong or whatever, you know?"

"Rainbow Dash, darling, you are way over-thinking this," she told me dully, adding a pitiful sigh. "Put on a pair of your nicest jeans and a clean shirt. Applejack won't care any more about what you wear than I used to think you did."

"That's it?" I asked as I bent down and picked up a pair of jeans that seemed to fit the bill. "That seems stupidly simple."

"Not stupid, casual. And do remember to brush your hair, that shaggy look certainly grows tiresome." Rarity assured me as I rolled my eyes, tossing the pants onto my bed and rummaging around for a nice top. "I suppose I should leave you to it, then."

"Wait, Rarity?" I heard my own voice come out somewhat nervous and pleading, and made a face at myself in the mirror to show how disappointed I was with myself. She mused some noise to show me she was still there, and I fumbled for the question, "What should I say?"

"Anything, darling, and everything," she told me, and I found myself nodding and accepting the advice. "But do let her do some of the talking, you might be surprised by what she has to say."

"Thanks Rare," I replied as I tried to sound aloof, even though I could see my own uncertainty in the mirror. "Later." I hung up the phone and placed it on my dresser, which was right under the mirror, watching my own eyes the whole while.

I rested my palms on the wood of my dresser, letting some of my weight push down on it. I found myself cracking a smile, feeling my heart racing against my chest the same way I remembered it beating when I was running back to her house through White Tail Woods, to that same old farm house where I had burned up her oven mitt and wrestled her to the ground, or where I was wrestled to the ground. The same old farm house I had stayed over at when she had led me into the barn and up to the loft, where she had shown me this hatched window she built over a broken part of the roof that let in the evening stars. She never even showed her brother that place, he had sent her up there to fix the leaky roof one autumn and she had put together something of a skylight, so on warm summer evenings she could lay up there, with me at her side, and look into the vastness we knew so little about.

I bounced on my toes a bit as I anticipated it all, finally coming clean with her and ending these silly games. I knew the possibility of rejection was great, overwhelming in fact, but the potential beyond that was enough to push me off the dresser and send me driving to her house half-dressed. I didn't though, I put on my cleanest, best looking casual attire and completed the look with my black leather jacket, gloves and goggles, which I wore to protect myself when I drove my motorcycle.

The drive was long but nostalgic, down this winding old trail near the woods that had me kicking up dust for a mile behind me. Well, maybe not quite that far, but you get the idea. I drove under that same old Sweet Apple Acres sign that was mounted on a tall arch, though I could tell they had cleaned it up and stained the wood since the last time I had visited. I wondered just how long it had been, and found myself disliking the thought. I pulled up next to her work truck, which as usual was parked nonchalantly crooked in front of the old farm house, on the gravel driveway that laid out all the way in front of the house in case they needed the space. I even remember helping her unload that truck once when they had parked it horizontally against the house for hauling in firewood. I was a lot smaller then, so I was not nearly as much help as Applejack, who for being the same size as me was remarkably strong.

I stood up off of my bike as it teetered onto the kick stand, removing the helmet, goggles and gloves and placing them onto the seat. I usually brought my stuff in with me when I was at home, but out here there was no one who was going to come out and steal it, especially my helmet. Well, except maybe Applejack's little sister Apple Bloom, who might just put it on her head, let it fall over her eyes and walk around acting goofy. I approached the door and suddenly felt my nerves coming back to me. What if it was Applejack who answered the door? Would I know what to say right away? What if it was her grandmother, how could I even hope to explain this to her? Or what if it was Apple Bloom, who would begin shouting for her sister and ruin to mood? The one person I had yet to anticipate answering the door was—

"Eeyup?" Big Mac pulled the door open before I even knocked, and I gave him a sheepish grin as I tried to think up an excuse.

"Oh, heya Big Mac, how'd you know I was here?" I stalled for time as I peeked behind him to see if Applejack was hiding from me or sneaking out the back.

"That there motorbike o'yours roars mighty loud," he explained with a straight face, but did not move out of the way to let me in right away.

"I guess so." I chuckled a bit as I rubbed my fingers against my thumbs anxiously. "So, is Applejack around? She wasn't at school, so I just thought I'd stop by."

"That sure is kind of you," his low and sonorous drawl was familiar and somehow welcoming. He looked back over his shoulder and up the stairs, but responded anyway, "I reckon she's still in the tub. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you went up and waited in her room or somethin'. C'mon in, it'll be dark before y'know it."

"Thanks." I nodded as I hurried into the doorway, smelling the fresh and lulling scent of apple treats and home cooking. Damn, everything about this place was just so warm and inviting, I never wanted to leave.

"Haven't seen y'round these parts much, Miss Dash," Big Mac continued as he closed the door behind me and took my jacket to hang up on the coat rack, which was also holding several jackets I knew to be Applejack's. "Sure is quiet though."

"Yeah, I can imagine." I removed my shoes and shuffled around nervously as I forced a laugh. Big Mac was not one for small talk either, so he excused himself to the kitchen once more and left me by the stairs in the foyer. "I'll, uh, just head on up there." I felt like I needed to explain as I approached the old creaky stairs, swallowing what little saliva could be found in my dry mouth.

It was very quiet upstairs, and all the doors were pulled shut. I crept across the floor, though it was warm on my toes as there was a rug that stretched along the hallway. I looked once more down the stairs to see if I was being followed, but found it still empty. I moved slowly towards the bathroom, since I still remembered which room it was. Being back in this house, well, it felt like I never left, everything was still placed in its correct spot and everything. I came upon the door and took in a breath, raising my hand and balling it up.

Knock, knock.

"I'll be out in'a bit, Mac, I swear." It was Applejack's voice, so soft and nice to my ears. I almost wanted to stop there, she sounded so peaceful and sweet that it seemed mean to go in there and ruin her relaxation. But this could not wait any longer.

"It's me," I told her, and waited for a response for a good few seconds. I wondered for a moment if she recognized my voice or not, and opened my mouth to speak again.

"I didn't hear you drive up," she stopped me as she replied suddenly and I heard her shuffle in the water a bit. Her voice got somewhat harsher, "Go on home, I ain't in the mood right now."

"No," was all I said, and I leaned my forehead against the door lovingly, just to hear her voice that little bit better. I put my hand up to the door and felt the old, worn wood, before letting it trail down to the door knob.

"Rainbow, go away. I ain't lettin' you in," her voice breached the door again, defiant as ever. I smiled at the remark, as I hardly needed her permission. I played a bit with the door knob as I resolved myself on whether or not I should enter.

"I've been your best friend for years, A.J.," I spoke against the door, bracing myself against it as I took a firmer hold of the knob. "I happen to know there's no lock on your bathroom door." She didn't say anything, but I heard her moving around in the bath a bit. I breathed in and let my will be known, "I'm coming in, Applejack."

"I know," she murmured as I turned the doorknob. I guess my intentions really weren't very difficult to decipher.

Steam breached the door frame and caught on the light from the bathroom, pulling it out in this beautiful erotic dance. I slipped into the enveloping warmth of the bathroom and leaned the door closed behind me, my eyes finding their way to her form. Her hair was down and damp, falling around her naked shoulders and into the visibly hot water. She didn't look at me right away, so I took the chance to observe her. Most of her body was covered in bubbles that floated across the surface of the bath water, except for her arms, which were resting on the sides of the tub almost so high out of the water to permit view of her chest. The heat and the knowledge that below mere spheres of soap she was completely nude, those things were enough to drive my internal temperature to boil and my heart rate to increase substantially. I guess it really didn't matter what I wore, I was overdressed.

"Why're you here?" Applejack asked coolly, her voice merely drifting over the sea that obscured her.

"To talk," I replied with a shrug, letting my hands fall into my pockets and my gaze shift elsewhere: to the folded set of clothes she had placed nearby for when she was finished, to be specific. Since she didn't reply right away, I glanced up at her face again, and still she was just staring at the bubbles. "I didn't really peg you for a bubble bath kind of girl."

"I normally ain't," she agreed, forcing a smile with one side of her mouth, which fell apart seconds later. "G'head, talk to me," Applejack told me as she leaned her head back and rolled it to the side, looking at me with tired and calm eyes.

"I kind of came to, like," I fidgeted a bit, feeling quite awkward in my skin suddenly. She didn't press me for it or anything, she just waited patiently as ever. "To apologize." She looked surprised by that, so I drew in another steamy breath and went on, "It wasn't very cool of me to do all that stuff to you, like, the touching or whatever. I mean, I know that we do that kind of thing anyway, but I made it, I don't know, a different kind of touching. You know?"

"Yeah, I know," Applejack agreed kindly, nodding her head slowly and watching my poorly put together spectacle.

"And maybe I haven't been all that clear about stuff," I added in a quieter tone, avoiding her eyes and chewing on the inside of my cheek the way she herself did. "Like, why I did it. I don't want you to think that I did it because I was just horny and— okay, bad start." I noticed the somewhat confused and uncomfortable look on her face, and hurriedly tried to rectify the situation, "I never actually meant to do any of that stuff but, but, I couldn't help it!"

"You couldn't help it?" Applejack repeated with a raised eyebrow, and yeah, it even sounded flimsy to me.

"No, well, okay maybe I could have tried harder but..." I bit at my lip and scratched my head, trying to remember where I was going with that. "I just need to tell you something, okay?" She nodded when I paused for some response. "You'll listen?"

"Shoot." She nodded again, raising her hand with an open palm and giving me a gesture that told me to go ahead.

"Okay." I moved a little closer to the tub, but stopped myself, thinking that getting too near might distract me. "So we've been best friends for a long time. But see it's not like my feelings suddenly changed or anything, I mean it's like they were always—" I paused, feeling rather vulnerable even though she was the one who was naked.

"Go on," she quietly urged me, an expectant stare accompanying her short words.

"Applejack. The thing is, is that I just, well, I..." I groaned loudly and grabbed at my head in frustration. "Ugh, why is this so damn difficult?!"

"You never were much for words, Rainbow," Applejack reminded me with a smile as she watched me stop pacing, which I hadn't noticed myself start to do.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I admitted with a sigh, sitting down onto the edge of the bath tub. Applejack didn't move or anything, she just kept watching me like she was waiting so me to finish.

I make the mistake of looking right into those amazingly gorgeous eyes, which gleamed beyond the suspended steam and reminded me of life: of growing apple trees, of rolling hills of grass and sweet, sweet vegetation, of evergreen Christmas trees and fresh leaves in spring. I turned more towards her, entirely captivated by her honey-tanned skin and her speckled, freckled cheeks, by her strong shoulders and gentle lips. I pulled myself to my feet and moved closer, feeling the steam move out of my way as I breathed a heavy and haunted breath.

Applejack blinked in surprise and blushed with either the heat of the water or the nearing vicinity as I stepped right into the burning hot water, ignoring the protests of my tender, pale skin beneath my pant-legs. The suds rose up to my shin as I raise my other leg over the side of the tub, climbing in and kneeling over her. She moved backwards a bit until her back was against the end of the tub and her eyes grew wider. I knelt further into the bath water, which was saturated with her scent and clear beneath the parting bubbles. One of my legs moved up beside her, and the other found its way between her own extended legs, pressing up perhaps a bit too high as I got close enough to lean in. I felt the bubbles on my shirt and the water soaking into my jeans as I strangled the distance.

She watched me silently as I braced myself against the side of the tub with one hand, touching her damp and cool cheek with my other. I tipped her head back and watched as her lips parted to mine, drawing in her hot exhale as I let our lips meet once more. Though the water had washed most of her taste away, there was still a hint of her sweetness that lingered as I continued to take it. Her lips moved against mine hesitantly and anxiously, and that made me press even deeper against her until I felt the bubbles touch my chest. I slowly pulled away, though not far, and opened my eyes to show her quite how serious I was. She was quiet for a moment, as if I had taken any reasonable words right out of her mouth.

An admiring smile came across her face and surprised me, her eyes softening as she looked at me sitting there in the bath with her, fully clothed like some lunatic. Somehow she seemed almost grateful or profound, and she reached up to fold her fingers over mine as my hand rested on her cheek. Her voice was gentle and pleasant, albeit somewhat raspy as she huffed a small laugh.

"You're crazy as a hog in heat, Rainbow," Applejack told me as she shook her head, finding my actions cute or charming in some way. "Look at cha, you're soakin' wet and covered in suds!" We both laughed lightly as we looked down at me, truly an odd sight. "Go dry off, you can throw on some of my duds while you wait for me to get out. G'head and wait in my room, we can talk. I promise."

And I had no reason not to believe her. She sounded so very sincere and her eyes cradled mine delicately, though she released my hand to let me gather myself. I slowly stood up, finding the chuckling hard to hide, but not quite as hard to hide as her body beneath the disappearing bubbles. I tried to avert my gaze as she rearranged the bubbles, though they seemed rather keen on sticking to my clothes and revealing her to me. I smiled when I looked up at her embarrassed expression, and nearly bent back down to kiss it away.

I shook each leg as I climbed out of the bath, leaving this dripping trail along behind me. There was loud pitter-patter of falling water across the wooden floor, and I hurriedly opened the door to get over to the rug. I froze as I pulled the door all the way open and noticed the young girl standing right in front of me, clad in her hand-me-down overalls. She looked at me up and down and scrunched her face a bit.

"Howdy, Rainbow, why're y'all wet?" Apple Bloom asked as she tilted her head in wonder.

"Your sister splashed me," I blurted out with an accusing finger pointing at Applejack, who grunted a bit but otherwise did not respond. Apple Bloom still looked somewhat concerned, lingering on just how completely soaked I was. I sealed the excuse with two words, "A lot."

"She don't take too kindly to people int'ruptin' her bath," Apple Bloom told me with a definite nod. "Sure we can toss your clothes in the dryer though."

"Thanks, kid." I smirked as I ruffled her hair up a bit, knocking her cute little pink bow off centre. She frowned at me and puffed out her bottom lip while she adjusted it, and I snickered a bit.

"Big Mac told me that one'a your friends was over," Apple Bloom said as I moved towards Applejack's bedroom door. "He told me to ask if y'all were stayin' for dinner? He made extras just in case."

"Yeah, I think I'll hang around for a bit," I replied as I creaked the door open and slid inside, waving to Applejack from half a hallway away.

"Thanks for closin' the bathroom door, Rainbow!" Applejack sarcastically called after me and I mouthed an oops. Apple Bloom would surely take care of that for me, while I tried desperately to keep control of myself as I stood alone in a room that smelled just like my Applejack.

I didn't want to get the hardwood floors in here all warped, so I removed my clothes right there behind her door. The jeans were tight enough already, it was like warfare trying to negotiate them off of me. Finally, I pried them off my rapidly cooling body and left them in a heap at the door, where I threw my shirt as well. It seemed kind of funny now, that I had spent so long deciding what to wear. I quietly stepped across her room in my underwear, something I never imagined would be quite like this. I ran my hand along her bed as I passed it, feeling the covers that she slept with over her body on the tips of my fingers. I spun around as I felt the rug that she laid under her bed on my bare feet, facing her closet and cocking my head at it.

Now, if I had been totally perverted or creepy, I might have rifled through her dresser to find, well, personal belongings. But I had some control over myself, so instead I pulled open her closet door and pushed each individual hanger across the wooden bar that held up her clothing. She sure kept it all neat, my clothes were usually just shoved into a pile anywhere I could find room. I found something particularly interesting at the back of her closet, and fondled around the chest area. It was too big for me, I could already tell, but the ensemble seemed loose and quirky, so I pulled it out of the closet. I paused and swivelled back a bit, nabbing a short sleeved shirt from another hangar and roughly pulling it over the metal frame, which shook about and nearly fell off the bar with my force.

I yanked the shirt over my head and adjusted it against my body, looking at the fitting dark blue colour. I approached the garment I was so interested in, as I had laid it on her bed. I pulled the straps off of the hangar and held it up before me, imaging it on Applejack's body. With her breathtaking curves, she would certainly fill it out better than I would, but I stepped into it regardless.

Applejack's wooden framed mirror was tilted off balance, so I cocked my head to get an accurate view of my reflection. I looked kind of cute, if I had to say so, with the way the outfit was so loose and bunched up at my feet. I noticed what was hanging on a corner of the mirror that had put it off balance, and picked it up. It was Applejack's hat, rough around the brim and worn well inside. I glanced back up at the mirror and locked eyes with myself, slowly bringing the hat up over my eyes and onto my head. I ran my index finger and thumb over the brim the way Applejack did and knocked it kind of crooked, smirking at how goofy I looked with my rainbow-coloured hair peeking out from under the Stetson.

"What in the hay are you wearin'?" I jumped as Applejack's voice breached the room, and I just now realized I could see her in the mirror, in her plaid button-up shirt with her hands on her tipped hips, smiling playfully at me. I watched as she approached me in the reflection, coming up right beside me and looking me up and down carefully.

"I wondered who could be cool enough to pull off overalls," I tried to sound twice as confident as I really was, and it still came out shaky with her gaze fondling me so seemingly suggestively. "Apparently, me."

"Yeah, I'll say." Applejack grinned and reached up, flicking the rear brim of the hat and knocking it over my eyes. I pushed it back up as she chuckled lightly before she grabbed the towel she had draped over her shoulders and began ruffling her hair. "C'mere, Rainbow," she told me as she turned around and I eyed her athletic body. I was watching intently as her arms reached up and tousled her hair more with the towel.

"Huh?" I grunted in wonder, finding myself following her once I hung her hat back up where it belonged.

"Sit down." Applejack laughed at my resistance, sitting down on the edge of her bed and tapping the space next to her.

"On your bed?" I asked as I stared at the spot, possibilities filling my head.

"Where else? You've sat on my bed a thousand times, don't tell me you're gettin' shy on me now." Applejack furrowed her brows and made a face, moving another foot over to provide me with any room I might need.

"Right, right, you're right," I repeated obviously, hurrying over and jumping onto the old, firm mattress.

I played with the sheets a bit as I tried for the words to get back into serious conversation, but she did not seem like she was in any rush. She just absently kept running her pinkish fingers through her damp hair and shaking it lightly. It made me want to bury my fingers into the crook between her mattress and boxspring, just to keep them still and out of wanderings way.

"Sorry, it's just, ever since we—" I felt the room grow warmer as she squeezed her hair with the towel. "Nevermind. Listen, I need to know." I moved closer to her, shifting my weight on the bed as I drew nearer, commanding her attention. "Do I make you uncomfortable?"

"Not usually," Applejack responded simply as she let the towel fall around her shoulders once again, hearing the seriousness in my tone. "I just don't rightly know what you're thinkin' sometimes. I used to think that our friendship was just playful and physical by nature, but now," she sucked on the words like hard candy, shifting them around her mouth. "Now I dunno."

"That's my fault," I admitted as I touched my head, running my fingers over the ends of my hair. "I liked our friendship the way it was, it was stupid to want anything more."

"I dunno about stupid," Applejack murmured as she leaned back onto her hands, kicking her feet out a bit over the bed. "Rash? Yea' maybe. You rarely think about consequences, do you sugar? But then again, that's one thing I kinda admire about you. I sure ain't much like that."

"I'm trying really hard to find the compliment there." I snorted as she broke into a laugh, and I loved the way it sounded, all cute and bashful.

"Sorry, I guess I ain't too good at this whole feelings thing neither," Applejack admitted as she chewed at her cheek again. "I'm especially outta my element with romantic stuff."

"Preaching to the choir." I nodded, letting the silence stuff up the room as I tried to get back on topic. I sighed out loud and bowed my head a bit. "All right, I probably owe you an explanation. I've been keeping it to myself for a long time now, afraid that something exactly like this would happen. But as you can probably tell, I'm not so great at holding back my urges. The truth is, Applejack, that I—"

"Supper!" I fell right off the bed when Apple Bloom's shrill little voice bounced up the stairs and shattered our cocoon of honesty.

"Oh, come on!" I groaned audibly as I rolled over onto my back pressing my palms against my eyes. Applejack laughed a bit and leaned over me, grabbing my hands and helping me to my feet once more.

"C'mon sugar cube, there'll still be time for talkin' after we eat," Applejack reminded me as she brushed me off and led me through her bedroom door and down the stairs.

She had grabbed my heap of wet clothing and handed it off to her little sister to throw in the dryer on the way. The further down the steps we drew, however, the more I realized how very uncertain I was. I mean, Applejack and I would have to deal with an Apple family dinner, with all this hanging above our heads. No heavens above were very merciful to me lately.

Author's Note

So here's a little more buildup. Poor Rainbow, can't seem to get her emotions out no matter how she tries.
Oh, the chapter title?
Charging the Mound: In baseball, charging the mound is assault by a batter against the pitcher, usually the result of being hit by a pitch or nearly being hit by a pitch, such as a brushback.
ALSO:
Next chapter is the chapter you have all been waiting patiently for. You will see why soon!

Curveball

Curveball

I tied the straps of the overalls around my waist, bothered by the looseness on my shoulders. I had grumbled the whole way down the stairs of course, upset that my anticipated moment had been ruined, but pushed all those disappointments behind me as I walked into her dining room. I remembered that room well, I had been over to her house for dinner plenty of times before, especially right after my parents died. Her Granny wouldn't have me starving or anything. I nervously fidgeted as we entered the room, finding it somewhat strange to be there when I had so much on my mind, even more strange when I realized I hadn't seen her family in what must have been at least year. Applejack directed me over to the table and pulled up one of the spare chairs they had for when family was over. She put the chair right next to her own and gestured for me to come and sit down.

"Well, if ma ol' eyes ain't deceivin' me," Granny Smith's old shaky voice had hardly changed, and I looked over at her as she pushed her walker into the room, moseying slowly due to her bad hip. "I'd know that Rainbow-noggin in the dead of night. Rainbow Dash, come over here an' give Granny a hug!"

"Heya Granny," I politely replied and did as I was told. I hadn't hugged the old coot in a good long time, and while I had grown she had seemed to shrink into this bony, shaking old woman. She did not let her age or size deter her though, as she went right ahead and smacked me on the back of the head. "Ouch!"

"Why ain't cha been visitin', y'forgetful whipper-snapper? My grandbaby's been cooped up all lonesome for—" Granny began to babble in that heavy accent of hers until she was stopped.

"Granny!" Applejack interrupted her with embarrassment on her face, as she went around the table and pulled out the chair for her elder. "Rainbow Dash is the captain of nearly every sports team in school, I told you that. She's real busy."

"I reckon y'did, but that don't mean y'can't stop in for a visit now n'then." Granny Smith pulled herself over to the chair and wobbly sat herself down, pushing her walker to the side of the table. "Siddown already, Mac's made one fine stew up."

"I can smell it," Applejack replied as she returned to her seat, watching me grumble and follow after.

"She hit me," I murmured as I rubbed the still sore spot on my head, and Applejack just chuckled at my childishness.

Apple Bloom came running into the room next, skipping about until Granny told her she was going to break something. She had started talking right away about her friends at school, and damn could that girl talk. I could hardly keep up, she was going on about some career day thing and how she and her friends were going around trying everything to see what they were good at. I think I even heard something about zip lining.

Big Mac came in with this huge, tall pot of stew and put it in the middle of the table. It was bubbling and steaming and smelled awesome, but I knew better than to jump up and grab some; there were rules in this house. Applejack stood up and served everyone their share, starting with Granny and Apple Bloom, then coming around to me. I almost forgot just how warm and tasty the Apple family home-made dinners were. By the time I realized that I was just about finished the stew, I had almost completely forgotten what had brought me there in the first place, all that serious crap. I glanced at Applejack again, noticing the simple smile that played with her lips and shifted her freckles as she listened to her sister go on.

"—And Scootaloo jus'got this mot'rized scooter, it's the coolest!" I tuned back in to the conversation as I brought another spoonful of stew to my mouth. "She's been wantin' one ever since she saw Rainbow Dash ride up on her motorcycle, oh Mac did you see it?"

"Eeyup," Big Mac replied simply as he took a sip of water, smiling at the way Apple Bloom got when she was excited.

"A motor-m'cycle? What in the hay is that?" Granny Smith asked as her spoon-holding hand shook against her bowl. "Sounds like'a death trap."

"Don't worry Granny, Rainbow rides real safe." Applejack confirmed with a nod, glancing over at me to be certain she was right on that. "Not that I've ever been on it myself."

"Really?" I thought about it for a second, sipping at my spoonful as I tried to remember if I had taken her on it with me. Truth was, I only ever once gave someone a lift, and that was Fluttershy, and she was screaming the whole time and crying for me to let her off even if it meant she'd be late for her shift at the animal shelter. "You're right."

"Maybe you'll have to take me for a ride sometime," Applejack said, and it sounded completely innocent, but her movements contradicted that.

I felt her foot touch mine, and at first I thought it was just a mistake, until she started running it up my leg. I nearly choked when I realized she was flirting with me, and I hurriedly tried to drown my blush by drinking a mouthful of water. She smirked at me, I saw it from the corner of my eye. Damn it, she was messing with me, the way I had done in front of all our friends. She could be a devil when she wanted to.

"You two sure are growin' up fast, I'll tell y'that much," Granny Smith spoke up again, and we both looked over at her. "I r'member when you two were youngin's, 'bout th'same age as Apple Bloom, y'all came in for supper all covered in mud and arguin'. Mac and I had to hose y'down before we'd letcha in the house, y'all were shiverin' and shakin' and your clothes were all soakin' wet, you kids were always tryin' my patience."

"I remember." Applejack laughed lightly, but that story did not stop the under-the-table advances as she looped to the inside of my leg and rubbed my ankle and above, teasing me silly. "Big Mac gave Rainbow this big ol' shirt to wear, went right down to her knees."

"Uh, yeah," I spoke up in agreement despite my mind being entirely elsewhere.

"It's hard t'believe that ma sister was ever ir'isponsible!" Apple Bloom called out with a big grin, sitting up in her chair.

"Oh, she was a handful." Big Mac chuckled lowly, his voice quite a contrast to the feminine voice of Apple Bloom. Applejack seemed to nestle right in between their tones nicely, it was funny. "Her and Miss Rainbow were always gettin' into trouble and foolin' around."

"That certainly hasn't changed," I muttered quietly, and Applejack shot me a silencing glare as she noticed the innuendo between the lines.

"Apple Bloom, you mind clearin' the dishes tonight?" Big Mac asked as he stood up and reached for the large pot, which was far too big for the little girl to have carried.

"It's always ma turn," she pouted but obliged, hopping off the wooden chair and gathering some dishes from around the table somewhat clumsily.

Applejack took my finished bowl and handed it to the young girl, who leaned well over the table on her tip-toes to reach it. My clothes were probably almost dry by now, since they were the only things in the dryer and all, but I didn't care to check. I watched Applejack finish cleaning the table while her younger sister started doing the dishes, waiting for her to be mine again. My heart was pounding as I watched her lean over the table with a wash cloth, and even though Big Mac was around I could not restrain myself from leering at her. If he did notice he didn't say anything about it, he was a man of few words anyway.

Applejack glanced up at me from leaning over the wooden table and paused in her circular scrubbing, meeting my eyes. There was something curious about them, something intriguing and pulling, and she stood back up. She must have remembered that we had more to discuss, and she bunched up the rag she was carrying. She barely dipped into the kitchen as she tossed the rag towards the sink, before she came back around and gestured for me to follow her.

I tried to seem casual as I stuck my hands into the pockets of the overalls I was wearing, feeling the fabric that had once hugged her so tightly. My eyes flickered up to her as I followed her up the stairs, and swayed with her hips as she stepped up the creaky wooden stairs. Damn, I was so awfully perverted, but even realizing that did not stop me from looking. She stepped onto the second floor and let her fingers slide along the support bar, making her way to her own bedroom door and tapping it open farther.

"All right, Rainbow." She held the door open as I walked past her, and she closed it up tight right behind me. "I'm all yours." Those words were just what I wanted to hear.

"Perfect. Look, Applejack, I'm just going to jump right into it," I started as I cleared my throat, letting the mood settle in. "I keep trying to tell you something really important, the reason for all my stupid and thoughtless behaviour. But something always seems to—"

"Applejack, dear, don't f'rget the clothes in the dryer!" Granny Smith's voice carried up the stairs and I almost screamed in frustration.

"Okay, seriously? Did that really just...?" I groaned loudly as I dug my hands into my scalp, trailing off in my infuriated statement as Applejack called back down to her grandmother.

"I won't Granny!" Applejack shouted as I let out a slow breath, calming myself. She put her hands on her hips and stared at me, ready to listen. "You were sayin'?"

I growled and felt myself lash out a bit, clearing the distance between us with aggressive strides. "I've been trying to put this as, as pleasant and wordy and special as I could, but it's just not working. So you know what? Screw all that bullshit. You want to know how I feel?" I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked at her, right in those beautiful emerald eyes that watched me in surprise. "Fuck it. Applejack, I love you."

It was quiet for a moment after I said that, and Applejack didn't even blink at first. Maybe I had been a bit too forward, maybe I had said it too loud or too rough or whatever, but it was said now. Applejack just stood there in my hands staring at me like she hadn't heard me right. Her lips moved though, and unexpectedly calm words emerged.

"You love me. That's what you said, ain't it? You love me," Applejack repeated the words again with a faint nod, though she didn't really seem to comprehend it. "Well, that's... I, I mean I thought maybe you had a little crush, or maybe you were just curious or, or I had given you mixed signals, or..." she trailed off slowly as her breath caught in her throat. I nearly fell over when she spoke again, her voice so loud it could not have gone unheard, "You love me?!"

"Well, yeah, I—" I tried to reason with her, but she did not even let me speak before she screamed at me again.

"And when the hell were you gonna tell me?!" a curse slipped from her mouth as she shoved me a bit, but kept right close to me like she was going to strangle me, gesturing wildly with her hands. "Here I am just moseying around, all oblivious like, all blind as a big dumb bumpkin!"

"I don't think you're a bumpkin, A.J., whatever that is," I murmured as I tried to cool her down, looking over my shoulder at her thin door as if it would betray me.

"No, that's exactly what I am, a simpleton who ain't got no wits about her when it comes to her own best friend, shoot, Rainbow!" Applejack groaned as she put her hands over her face, like this was some awful tragedy. "Yeah, sure I had my share'a fantasies, and yeah, after everything that happened lately I had myself a couple'a dirty dreams—"

"Dirty dreams?" I interrupted as my ears perked up, but she was not finished yet.

"But I never thought that any of what you did to me was because you..." She pulled in a deep breath like she was going to scream, but the words were soft, "You love me." Her eyes were so focused, and almost seemed hurt or worried. She backed up and fell onto her bed, laying right down onto her back and burying her face in her hands. "Ah, shoot, Rainbow."

"Why are you getting all upset? You know this doesn't really change anything, I've felt this way for as long as I can remember and we've gotten along just fine." I crawled up onto the bed beside her to console her, thinking my words over as they came out of my mouth, "Well, maybe not just fine. But we've gotten along!"

"It changes things, Rainbow," Applejack murmured, though she did not move her hands to look at me. I saw the rosiness appearing on her cheeks that she was trying to hide as she went on, even softer than before, "Because I kinda got all warm and fuzzy inside when you said that."

"What?" I blinked in question. What exactly did that mean?

"Listen, I'm sorry about what happened after the ball game. I got way ahead of myself. I really didn't mean to lead you on like that, I swear it. But when y'kissed me, well, it felt so damn good." Applejack was not the type to swear, but something had compelled her to with substantial verve, and her hands fell around her at the extent of her arms. She was feeling vulnerable as she told me everything, and her pose mirrored that. "It ain't like I never thought about it before, I always wanted to be around you, I admired you. But that was it, just a thought or two, I never let it get much further than that. I couldn't risk anythin' more. I know people these days are much more acceptin' of that lifestyle, but my family was raised on traditional values and beliefs. It just ain't somethin' we address, y'know?" Applejack met my eyes with her own troubled gaze, like she felt guilty about everything.

"Yeah," I nearly whispered in a downtrodden and understanding voice.

"But when I went over to your house again after all that time apart, and it was so much fun and all, I felt real good. And then, well then you kissed me." She smiled as the memory came back, and she seemed genuinely content. "It scared me s'much because it didn't feel wrong, or weird or nothin', in fact, it excited me."

"Well clearly you realized that it did the same for me," I reminded her, moving a bit closer and laying down beside her.

"Sure, but 'sides the fact that I ain't got squat for knowledge about how to deal with romantic stuff, I was afraid that you were just screwin' around, playin' a game or somethin'. Or that you'd get bored of me, I couldn't risk our bond over silly games, Rainbow. You mean a lot to me," she told me honestly, and it sounded good to hear.

"But it's not a game to me, Applejack!" I defended myself vigilantly, making certain she was looking at me so she would know I was not playing around. "Ever since we were kids, it's always been you. Always, always."

Applejack smiled again, this simple, crooked smile that I knew her by, exposing a sweet dimple that was usually unnoticeable under her freckles. It was comfortable with her, even if the moment was tense and the subject was awkward and potentially devastating. Her eyes flickered up to mine like sparks, and I could feel her energy and love in them, embracing me as she spoke.

"I dunno much about romantic love, Rainbow. But I know that I like it when you're 'round, you get me all hot and bothered and happy and stuff. And when you kiss me, it drives me right wild." Applejack's smile broke into a grin as she confessed, and she reached over to tuck my unruly hair behind my ear. "I dunno much how to say it any better than you did, but shoot Rainbow, I think I have feelin's for you too."

"You better not just be saying that." I made assurance double sure, looking right into her eyes to search for any lies. I could feel my heart in my throat, and almost felt like crying, for Pete's sake.

"I ain't." Applejack turned to fully face me, and if I did not believe her already, her gaze made it impossible to doubt her.

She moved just that few inches closer and pressed her lips on mine, a simple and honest kiss that was so completely her. I returned it readily, feeling the excitement building up in my entire body. Her hand touched my waist and pulled me closer, encircling my form and holding me still. I couldn't help it, and I broke the kiss suddenly.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," I squealed like a damn girly girl while I grinned and nearly did a back flip, though Applejack's expression was not quite so stoked.

"What? I ain't doin' it wrong, am I?" she asked curiously, sitting up on her elbow as she watched me, but the question sent me into a fit of giggles. She blinked and made a concerned face, clearly self-conscious about everything.

"No, no, you're great." I affirmed her with nods, but could not bite back the grinning. She continued to watch me as I sprawled out onto my back and sighed in contentment. "It's just, this doesn't even feel real. It's like I'm floating or flying or some shit."

"Be still my beatin' heart, you sure are a charmer, ain't cha?" Applejack chuckled sarcastically at my unimaginative choice of words, but I did not care. She seemed to though, as she fell quiet for a few seconds before speaking in a softer tone, "Dash, d'you think this is okay? I mean, should we be doin' this?"

"What kind of a question is that?" I asked as I flipped onto my side, mirroring her own position and leaning on my elbow. I pouted my lips a bit. "We aren't doing anything."

"No, I s'pose not." Applejack chewed on her cheek again as she looked at me, letting herself inspect that which had become hers. "Guess I'm just a little nervous 'bout all this. I mean, what if Big Mac were t'walk in on us talkin' or kissin' and find out? Shoot, what would any of my family say? Are we just foolin' ourselves here try'na make all this work?"

"You worry too much, A.J." I snickered a bit as I reached over and let my hand fall on her firm hips.

She had the sexiest hips I had ever seen, wide and round that gave her the perfect hourglass shape and an especially nice rear, and they swayed hypnotically when she walked in that alluring down-home-country swagger that was all her own. I got an idea suddenly, and pushed myself upright before landing on my feet and yanking her after me.

"Come here, let me show you something," I commanded, never waiting for any obedience.

"Beg pardon? If I ain't mistaken, I reckon this is my house, what could you possibly—" I pulled her off the bed into a full sprint, knocking open her door and sprinting down the stairs. She could barely catch her breath, much less find a word, and I guided her all the way to the front door, nearly throwing it open. "Rainbow! Where are you takin' me? It's dark out!"

"I know, it's perfect!" I called back as I dragged her faster, though she resisted me long enough to close the front door behind her.

We weren't wearing any shoes, and the gravel kind of hurt my feet, but Applejack didn't complain. When we were kids we used to run barefoot everywhere, and it never bothered us back then when our feet were accustomed to it. We touched dried grass and hay soon enough as we came upon the old barn, which didn't look like it was used for much more than storage. Still she followed me with this inquisitive, uncertain look, as I fumbled around in the darkness for the ladder that led to the loft above.

"Keep up, will you?" I winked at her as I started up the ladder, and she followed me only one step behind.

The ladder was dusty on my hands from lack of use, but I did not hesitate until I reached the top, only pausing once I climbed onto the wooden floor and wiped my hands on those overalls. It looked exactly the same as ever, complete with one folded up blanket and one pillow placed near the edge. The slivers of light from the moon caught the particles of dust that were suspended in the air from my intrusion, shining down in breaks and cracks of the walls and roof. I moved out of the way as Applejack reached the top of the ladder and peered around, taking in the dark scene just as I did. I helped her to her feet and watched as she patted her dirtied hands on the rear of her jeans, huffing a laugh as she recognized the loft.

"I can't believe you remember this place, Rainbow." Applejack shook her head as she stepped forwards, almost too tall to stand upright under the sloping roof. "What's it been? Must be years since we've been up here."

"How could I forget? It was early autumn, if I remember right. I was over one evening, and you woke me up in the middle of the night and yanked me out of bed to see a harvest moon, even though I had no idea what that was," I reminded her coolly as I spun around on the creaking floorboards, looking for the particular spot of the roof I had in mind. "You said the view from your window wasn't good enough, and—"

"You asked me how the inside of a barn could be much better," Applejack finished for me, a smile creeping up on her as she realized why I was reaching up to the rafters and poking around.

"And what's this? Practical Applejack never repaired the leaky old barn roof, now did she? She opted for a skylight instead, something she never told even her family." I found the hatch and unlatched it, pulling it down into the barn to reveal the clear night sky above us. I smirked as I put my hands on my hips under the glowing light and watched her walk right up beside me to see the stars. "Miss truth and honesty, keeping a secret all to herself."

"I told you, didn't I?" Applejack countered as she glanced over at me, quirking a brow under the moonlight.

"Exactly!" I extended my arms out to either side, and watched her smug expression fall a bit in confusion. "Before you even knew about how I felt, before I kissed you, before any of that, you had shared something so personal and special with me." I stepped towards her and put my arms around her waist, holding her near. "I'd like to think you've had feelings for me for a long time."

"You're full'a somethin', Dash." She chuckled that cute little Applejack laugh and bowed her head a bit, but she did not have her cowboy had to hide her eyes this time.

"Maybe I am." I shrugged as I leaned lower to catch her eyes, before putting my finger under her chin and raising it so she would look at me. "But I really don't give a shit. All I care about is you, me..." I broke away from her for an instant grabbing the blanket and shaking it out before laying it down below the open hatch in the roof. "And a little nostalgia."

"Shucks, honey, who'da thunk you could be so sickly sweet?" Applejack titled me endearingly and followed me willingly, brushing the blanket flat as she sat below the falling starlight, while I grabbed that pillow and brought it over.

I placed the pillow behind her back and crawled up beside her, watching intently as she laid back against the plush fabric. I could not stop my erratic heart beat, my spinning mind and awfully impure thoughts as she moved around until she got comfortable. I laid right next to her, but instead of looking up through the hatch at the night sky, I was looking right at Applejack.

For the time being I didn't really care how strong I was coming on. I was tucked up real close to her and was focused on watching her, despite the twinkling sky above. She shuffled around as if it made her uncomfortable, but that just made her all the more adorable to watch. I still couldn't believe it, here I was laying beside the woman I loved, and she was not pushing me away. The pressures of all the naughty things I had thought about doing to her over the years seemed to lift, leaving me with peace and serenity. So of course, I had to push the limits of that.

I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, feeling her turn and take notice of the action. I didn't hesitate to move along, playing with the collar of her shirt in my hand and nibbling at her ear. She was tense and uncertain about letting me doing these things, but she seemed to reservedly enjoy the attention. I moved closer until my leg slipped in between hers, noticing the nervous grunt she made as I played around with her boundaries. My lips found hers in the darkness and I could feel her kissing me back, but she was still so very tense. I would have to do that out of her, you see, so I ran my hand along her body, moving back to her chest and inching up to her breasts. I didn't even get to touch one by the time she pulled back, sitting upright and shielding herself.

"You okay?" I asked as I sat up beside her, alarmed by her defensiveness. She didn't look at me in the eyes, but I could tell she wanted to. "Applejack, relax, all right? It's just me, just Rainbow Dash, your best friend, remember?"

She sighed slowly as she looked at the wrinkled in the blanket beneath us. "Sorry," Applejack murmured to the floor in a low tone, nervously fidgeting under my attention.

"Don't be, we don't have to do anything you don't want to, you know," I told her with my eyes and my words, holding the eye contact long past when she broke it.

"It's not like I don't like it. It's just, I just dunno what to do, or what to let you do," she implied something subtly as she breathed an easier breath, bringing her head back up as the topic was addressed.

I smiled, knowing enough about her to have seen her initial resistance coming. She was too responsible and cautious for her own good sometimes. I pulled myself up and moved in front of her, kneeling one knee in between her legs as I did.

"I'll make it easy for you, Applejack. If you don't like what's going on..." I was considerate with her then, easing her onto her back once more and looking deep into her eyes. "Just tell me to stop."

I leaned over her, holding my weight on my right arm that pressed into the blanket beside her. I moved up a bit until our faces were near, and I watched her regard me anxiously. She didn't move away this time though, she watched as I moved my free hand up her body and paused over her chest, which was pounding hard and rising with each heavy breath. Her hands reached up and clasped my own in both of hers, cold and shaky and uncertain. This contact was different than our usual touching, it was not rough or playful or friendly, it was a touch that we both knew was gentle and comforting and intimate. My usual brimming lust was suddenly not as important as just being with her, just touching her and looking at her the same as I always did. There was a strong pull between us and I leaned in, pressing our lips together in a tender and telling embrace.

I always imagined my first mutual interaction with Applejack would be forceful and heated, the way it was when we had fooled ourselves into each other's arms after the baseball game, the way we always were with each other. But this felt so much more real, so genuine and honest. And I was pleased to let to go on slowly. I pulled barely away and touched my forehead to hers, our eyes still closed and our lips still humming. God, this must have been the best moment of my life.

I let my body rest against hers at our hips, my thigh delicately laid between hers. She leaned up and kissed me again, gripping my hand once tightly before releasing it to peruse the falling strands of my hair. She pushed it back as she got a feel of it, her fingers tracing my neck and shoulders. I felt myself suddenly heat up at the attention, overindulging in her body the way I always wished I could. Our kissing grew more and more fervent, and I could feel her hands all over me the way mine seemed to find her. It was quiet at first, but before I knew it the blood pounding in my ears and the growing weight of our warm breaths filled the space around us well.

My hand set to work loosening the buttons on her shirt, feeling the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest beneath. Her mouth opened against mine as she groaned a bit in frustration, rising up against my touch. We both moved against each other in little refined squirms, trying to get even closer as if it were possible. She squeezed her legs around mine lightly, trying to keep from grinding against me like I knew she wanted to do.

Our legs entwined below us, pressing each other in just the right areas as if it was second nature. I bit lovingly at her lower lip until she complied to my unspoken command, allowing my tongue to breach the barrier of her mouth. My breasts rubbed against hers unintentionally, a hazard of such close quarters and laboured breathing, but it was more than all right. I barely pulled away to get a full reading on just how wet our mouths were, the saliva thick and reminiscent of how I might have interpreted my lower region was becoming.

I pulled the last few buttons of her blouse apart, feeling her well-defined stomach under my palm as I grasped it, wrapping around her as I pushed the kiss deeper. Her hands were on my back by now, playing with the hem of my shirt as she pulled it up. Our bare stomachs touched each other at once and I noticed just how warm her skin was. She must have felt exposed lying there beneath me with her bra the only hindrance between my invasive eyes and her skin, as she pulled again at my shirt until I broke the kiss, allowing her the space to pull it over my head. I pushed her own shirt over her rock hard shoulders as I leaned back down, trailing kisses down her neck until I met her collar bone.

I worked a moan from her lips, which resounded with perfect acoustics as it swelled to the rafters above. I sucked at her skin, finding the extensive number of freckles across it rather enticing. I loved tracing her, feeling the form of her body the way only my gaze could imagine before, and she eagerly moved with my every advance. I pressed my lips against the hot skin of her chest, pleading that she might let me continue. I pulled back and took her with me in my hands, drawing her onto her elbows as I slipped her shirt further off of her body.

Her fingers touched my cheek as she directed me back up to her mouth, which danced divinely with my own as I tried desperately to focus on removing her blouse from beneath her. She sat up further so that I could reach the clasp of her bra, and after a few frantic fumbles I managed to unhook it. I felt the weight of her breasts distribute from her shoulders to her chest, released from the confines of convention. She let her bra fall down her arm and readied to remove it entirely. Applejack peeled the fabric off of her body and let it fall a few feet away, allowing me a moment or two to catch my breath at the sight.

She was even more gorgeous than I had seen her in my dreams, her plump and ample breasts eloquently shaped and rounded, softer than flower petals on my fingers and soon, my lips. I licked at them as I found my way to her rising nipples, groping her all the while. She leaned her head back and enjoyed the fondling, the pleasures that rolled off of my tongue and onto her body. I bit so carefully around the hardness of her nipples, adoring the way she squirmed and jerked in response. I squeezed her breasts harder in my hands and felt her rocking against my leg, rubbing so slowly she must have thought I would not notice.

I grunted in surprise as the back of my sports bra fell limp around me, the straps slipping a bit down my arms. Applejack's hands moved it more, and I had not even realized what she had done by the time she threw it somewhere near hers. Now, I was not shy about my body, but I was a little nervous that she would not like it. I was not quite as well endowed as Applejack was, and sat up a bit to reveal myself to her. I glanced up into her eyes for affirmation and approval, but found a loving and admiring smile strung across every one of her features. She didn't touch me right away, but continued to look without reservation. I took her less than invasive hand and pressed it against myself, holding it there until she moved against me, running her rough thumb along the top of my pale breast.

Her eyes were hungry and she licked at her lips as she indulged, playing with me in an oddly endearing yet clumsy manner. I got off just watching the act, though I wanted to be more of a participant myself. I leaned down again until our chests brushed against each other without the barrier of clothing or inhibitions. It kind of tickled as our smooth bodies mingled, and I found myself kissing her again and again as my hands explored elsewhere.

Applejack raised her hips and rubbed hard against my leg, giving me just enough room to run my hands along her backside. I slipped my fingers in and out of her pockets, fooling around with the tight denim of her jeans as she responded physically to the groping. Her hip bones were raised and defined, and I could see them peeking out of the top of her jeans in a tempting way. Knowing what lay so near, I decided to reach down and undo the big red apple belt she had wrapped around her, pulling it easily through the loops and removing it in one slick movement.

I pulled barely away as I commenced a quarrel with the button and fly of her jeans, watching the way her body moved to make it easier for me and hearing a content hum escape her lips as if she was in an ecstasy induced trance. My kissing went lower again as I managed to open her jeans, drumming my fingers against that little bit of extra skin I had found. I lapped and licked at her breasts as I passed them, pressing my lips against the toned muscles of her stomach and feeling their strength. Despite such hardened muscles, she quivered against my touch and succumbed to my tantalising advances, her hands tangling into my hair as if she was losing the battle to protect her innocence. My fingers gripped the top of her jeans from behind as I pulled them off, bit by bit exposing the simple dark underwear that further hid her from me.

I lifted my leg out of the way while I removed her clothing, and in my absence she seemed to pout, kicking off her pants and spreading her legs for more. I greedily regarded her as I pulled the loose overalls off of myself, letting them fall just behind me in a wrinkled mess. Pushing up against her once more, I brought out a long held, husky groan from her throat and returned my leg to the space between her own, pressing on the thin, moistening fabric that remained. I was surprised and ecstatic to feel such a telling reaction, the warmth between her legs second in arousing me only to the growing wetness. I moved my other leg to the outside of hers, pressing myself against her and heaving an erotic sigh of my own.

Her body was trembling against mine, either overwhelmed with feeling or afraid in some way. Either reason reminded me to take it slowly with her, despite my desire to just lunge forward. Our hot skin touched again at our stomachs as I moved up her body and kissed her, feeling the now barely damp hair that fell around her face like sunbeams. Applejack tried to control her heavy and frequent breaths, but I loved the way her body rose and fell beneath me, and showed her so with my fingers. I touched at her waist and ran my twitching fingers up her responsive body, groping her breasts once more before pressing my own against her. Feeling particularly naughty and daring, I ground my hips against hers and grabbed at her rear, shoving her harder against me until she called out loudly.

I rubbed at her thighs with forceful hands, spreading her legs a bit more so I had a better angle of the one that was up against my most intimate area. I kissed at her neck, letting her roll her head to the side to permit my invasion. Grinning against her skin, I drew lower, nearer and nearer to her own most seductive secret.

"Rainbow?" she called out my name, and I paused to glance up at her.

"Is, is this s'posed to happen?" Applejack seemed to ask naively, but I didn't know to what she was referring.

At my lack of response, she reached down and slipped her own hand under her panties, shocking me with her forwardness. I could see her fingers moving around and bit back my urge to follow her down there. Her hand emerged again, and on her fingers was such clear, shining viscous liquid I had never seen. I watched as she moved her thumb against the tips of her fingers, drawing out thin lines of slick, smooth wetness between her parting fingers. She was killing me, she was really killing me here.

"Uh-huh." I nodded furiously, dying to get a taste of those fluids for myself. "Trust me."

"So, then you're..." her voice drifted off as she stopped herself from continuing the bluntness of her original question, breathing out slowly as she looked down at my own personal region. "You're like that, too?"

"Oh yeah." I nodded again as I bit my lip, begging to go on as I moved and pressed eagerly against her leg with my tenders. I was certain she should be able to feel the heat and the wetness seeping through my own underwear, but she made no indication that she did.

I placed my hands on her thigh close to my own undergarments, feeling the heat exchanging between our skin. My hands slid up her leg, closing in on her only form of clothing readily as she writhed beneath me in desire. I could feel her silently urging me to go on, urging me to violate her and to show her just what was supposed to happen. But I was cruel, and I had always dreamed of teasing her just like this.

My fingers avoided her most sensitive areas by mere imagined inklings of space, drawing out more frustrated grunts and irritable expressions. I grinned at her responses, and proceeded to trace her body once more with my fingers and my lips, crawling over her further until I reached her mouth. While I kissed her, my hand played with the top hem of her underwear, barely slipping tips underneath. She moved against my hand, but finding that I was still testing the waters she broke the kiss suddenly.

"Quit screwin' around," she growled in a raspy tone, her eyes serious and longing for me to go on. I blinked in shock at such a bold statement, but found I kind of liked the command.

"Well since you asked so nicely." I smirked at her as my fingers moved against the damp fabric, making her groan and sigh with anticipation. I could even feel her fingers on my body, squeezing whenever I touched a sensitive spot.

It was clear to me now that she was losing control of her senses, her actions were primal and lust-driven, but she seemed to enjoy it so I said nothing about it. Through her panties I could feel the outline of her most private part, but I wanted to feel the real thing. Too earnest to wait until she removed her underwear, I moved my finger right next to her thigh and dipped it under the side of that dark fabric, moving it out of the way in an insanely slow manner. I watched like it was the most beautiful sight, my eyes glistening beneath the dull moon lighting to scope out just what little I could see in the darkness. She still seemed somewhat shy, as her hand was gripping around my wrist as if she would make me release her at any moment, and I could feel her trembling and avoiding my eyes.

I licked my lips hungrily as my fingers did their will, slipping over her slit lightly and provoking another repressed groan that urged me on. I moved a bit deeper, feeling the ridiculous amount of wetness that I had caused to her. I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised, I mean it was freaking sopping wet down there, and it drove me mad. Her hands gripped at my wrist in learned protest, but her body responded so inherently it was as though we had done this all before. I hummed in delight as I felt each smooth and malleable curve that was hidden from the rest of the world, every turn and touch that was all hers, and all mine.

My grin beamed almost as clearly as her groan as I slipped my fingers inside of her, two of them to be precise. They fit perfectly, though I could feel her body clenching against me and getting accustomed to the new invasion. I let myself get in deep, though I was cautious not to give her everything at once so that she might experience every centimetre with accurate conception.

It felt remarkable, actually, and I was focused on studying every ridge and curve. I had felt similar areas on myself, but in doing so I had become too focused on the pleasure I was receiving not the fact that I was giving it to myself, so I had not been so acutely focused on the, um, architecture. But I really, really wanted to know hers: the various rigid lines along the top, the spongy surface that lay beyond, and the curved convex oddity near the back. And every bit of it was just as warm and accepting as I knew my Applejack to be. Her constant moans were melodic to my ears, and I played each tune creatively with my squeezed fingers.

I moved my thumb over what I knew as her clitoris, easily found as I knew the location on myself. Her face contorted a bit in anxiety and confusion as I pressed against it ever so slightly harder, drawing circles around it and calling it out to my every touch. I felt her twitch each time I stroked it anew, and as I grew accustomed to multitasking with the same hand, I heard compliance and reverence in her throaty gasps.

She grabbed at her underwear then, desperately I could tell, and began to remove it from her body. Now clearly I was not one to complain, but I did find it rather sexy the way I had naughtily slipped past her conceived defences. I had to move out of her for her to remove her underwear fully, and with such a drastic move she sighed loudly, before returning to pleasured gasps as I reinserted myself into her.

I watched Applejack's serene face as it expressed all that I wished to see, each reaction and pleasure, each response and plead. Goddamn it I was in love with her, fuck, I really was. I reached up and moved her hair out of her face, stoking her gently on that speckled and moonlit skin as if I was consoling her for my ravishing assault. She looked up at me with such loving and grateful eyes, entirely taken with me in their emerald glory. She reached up and touched my hand as it ran over her cheek, and nuzzled it a bit until I commanded her attention elsewhere. At first it was merely a kiss, merely an expression so pure and telling of all my feminine and weak emotions, but then it became something more. My kissing on her body became nibbling and biting, licking and sucking, edging further down until I passed the rise and fall of her alarmed and anticipatory breaths.

I took my fingers back for myself and rubbed the insides of her thighs, feeling the round and toned muscle of her legs. It was hot, the closer I drew to her most intimate of areas, but it was pulling and commanding and damn it I could not have stopped myself if her little sister had climbed up into the loft and seen it all. It was no surprise to me that she was a natural blonde, and no different story was told by the short hair that lay beneath the friendly lines of belts and buttons. I spread my fingers and ran them through the soft, curly hair, finding the patch arousing as it reminded me of her maturity. I leaned ever closer until I could feel the humidity of her loins, feel the poisonous heat and the toxic attraction that forced us together. I opened my mouth slightly as I prepared, breathing an overly heated breath against her already tender skin.

"Heya, honey?" Applejack called me that word again, and it made me smile to hear such a cute term of endearment that so seldom she spoke. It even made me stop before I violated her so entirely. "H-Have y'ever done this b'fore?"

"Well, no," I admitted as I stroked her again, soothing her with my genuine honesty. I blushed a bit as I felt another confession, and avoided looking at any part of her at all as I let it slip out, "I mean, don't think I'm lame or anything. But I was kind of, like, saving it for you and stuff."

"That's sweet." She didn't laugh at me or mock me or anything, even though she would have been hardly one to do so considering it was clearer than ever that she was a virgin too. But still, it was nice to have her understand and accept it all. "But if you ain't done it before, how are you s'posed to... know what you're doin'?"

I chuckled lightly and kissed her on the lowest part of her stomach, my eyes flashing up to hers and a sly smile slipping over my features. "A.J., in my head, you and I have done this a thousand times."

Applejack swallowed slowly before faintly nodding as her head fell back against the pillow a bit. I could feel her uneasy hands close by me, waiting in case they needed to grab and halt me. "What're..." her voice came again, and it was breathy as I twirled a finger around her short hair. "What're you gonna do?"

"Anything you want," I replied suggestively as my fingers moved to spread her open just a little more. Without waiting any longer I leaned down and pressed my lips against her, hearing her hum and muse her pleasures.

I didn't bother warning her before my tongue emerged from my mouth, and finally I received a taste of heaven. Her entranced moan was just icing, the act itself so deliciously taboo it was like devil's food cake. Applejack gladly accepted my every move, spreading her legs as I rubbed her thighs with my now free hands. Apparently she was enjoying it, as I felt her raise her hips for more, and gladly obliged by looping my arm underneath her and lifting her off the blanket. My other hand set to work, my thumb touching her near to my tongue and moistening on her juices before pressing against her clitoris once more. The response was immediate, as she yelped in surprise and dug her hands into my hair, pressing me harder against her.

I was surprised how good it tasted, and I kept dipping my tongue in deeper just to get more of it. I had been convinced that it would be salty or thick or something, but it was just slippery and succulent and sweet, and must have been that was due to all the fruit she ate. Her moaning grew louder as I experimented with manoeuvres of my tongue, playing with her labia and lapping each fold, sucking where I could. I was tempted to be rough with the girl, knowing she responded to that kind of play when we wrestled or competed, but I did not want to hurt her or scare her off so soon.

I moved my thumb from its place rubbing deep circles and licked at my own index and middle fingers again, around and between them, moistening them with my saliva and her still constantly excreting juices. I had to keep from viciously shoving my fingers back into her, reliving the experience being so exciting I could hardly stop myself. She called out again and released her hold on my head, instead running her hands through her own hair and gripping it as she groaned and sucked in harsh and excited breaths. I turned my palm upwards and rubbed inside of her furiously, watching her expression shift with each movement. My lips encircled her clitoris in the same instant and I sucked at it lightly, licking the very tip of it from within the confines of my lips.

Her intoxicated eyes met mine between her rising and dropping breasts, and we barely needed words at all to express or mutual arousal and enjoyment. Her cheeks were bright and flushed, her lips were swollen from her biting back of vocal pleadings, and her hair was messy from her fingers digging through it, but she was just so damn beautiful, especially when she raped my body with her gaze. She squeezed her eyes shut for a second as she pulled back on the blanket, nearly sitting completely upright against the pillow. I was about to complain but she grabbed my arms and yanked me after her, nearly knocking me off balance. Our mouths were almost together again, though my lips were still soaked with her taste and hers contorted into a word.

"Off," Applejack demanded, and at first I thought she was telling me to stop, but I could feel her fingers tugging assertively at my underwear, and knew better. I removed the stubborn bit of clothing and watched as she regarded me hungrily, finally taking in my entire form. She grinned devilishly and her hands ran down my trim body, finding the cushions of my rear with ease from her upright position. "Better."

"Yeah?" I smirked as I pressed my body against hers, slowly moving my moistened and freed loins up her leg. My fingers easily found their way back to her and teased at her most tender of places.

"Yeah," Applejack affirmed and huffed loudly as I stoked her again, but her eyes did not roll back nor did she lay down, she was intent on watching me do it all. Her lecherous gaze viewed my body viciously, and her words were just as taken with me, "Shoot, Rainbow, you're really damn sexy."

"You think so?" I grinned widely, slowly leaning back down and slipping my arms under her thighs. Hearing her words had boosted my confidence, as if that could happen, and drove me to do something a little more garish and ostentatious than I thought I should, it being our first time and all. "How's this?"

I pulled her back down onto her upper back, hoisting her rear off the ground and balancing her knees over my shoulders. She yelped out loud and grabbed at the blanket as I did, pulling it after her as I moved her over the smooth ground.

I shoved my tongue deep inside of her, loving the way she tensed up and actually shouted, hitting her fists against the ground. My teeth touched her sensitive tenders as I grinned against it, lapping and sucking all over, playing with the octaves of her cries. Applejack didn't seem able to control herself as she bucked her hips against me, squirming in my arms and kicking over my shoulders. Finding it rather difficult to keep my actions steady with such an unpredictable subject, I lifted one of her legs off my shoulder and lowered it back to the ground, lowering myself down after it. I kept myself barely above the ground, allowing her to relax as I worked on her.

This was it, this was our night, one of the most memorable moments of our lives. I just had to make it count, and so I focused on attending to her needs. I slipped my fingers back inside of her and brought forth a gratified groan, feeling her relax at my now familiar touch. I was trying my best not to think of her in some dirty and perverted way, but I was rather blunt about stuff like this. Still, she was no slut to be objectified, and the more I looked at her the more I realized how beautiful she was, and how important it seemed to respect her body best. At least, for now. There was always time to get raunchy and dirty later.

"What...?" Applejack let out a heavy breath, and I could hear whimpers in it. "Rainbow, what're you... Rainbow, that feels real funny."

"Good," I confirmed as I continued to stimulate the area barely an inch or so inside of her, applying constant pressure and friction while my tongue worked on doodling circles around her clitoris. Her face seemed worried, but she still did not tell me to stop.

Her breathing quickened substantially as I rubbed against the perfect spot, falling into sync with my own steady heartbeats and motions. She gripped at the blanket again and her head rolled back, her chest heaving between us all the while. I hummed against her skin and felt her go wild, fighting back her instinctual cries and shouts. Even though my fingers and tongue were growing cramped and tired, I could not have stopped myself for anything. Not when I was so close, not when she was so close. And damn, she clearly didn't even know it!

Now, contrary to popular belief, a female orgasm is rather difficult to achieve, especially during your first time. It's not like every woman just knows how to do it or whatever, it's completely different than the simple jerking that seems to get guys off. At least, from what I've heard and what little I know about that kind of thing. It took me a long time to be able to do it myself, but even that did not feel nearly as good as any of this, with Applejack. However, due to my personal practice, I had some idea of how to stimulate a women into it. All I needed was a good grip, some rhythmic and constant force, and my willing victim; time would do the rest.

"Mother o' Heavens," Applejack whined in a raspy, breathy voice, and I could feel her body convulsing to my will and whims, tensing around my fingers and eagerly hanging on my lips. "D-Damn, Rainbow, don' stop, I don', I don'," she was hardly making coherent sense nor was she even finishing her contracted words, but it just spurred me on the way she might have if she was wearing those boots with the sharp things on the heels.

I actually flinched when she screamed, it scared me half to freaking death. I pulled my lips away to watch her shouting and balling up her fists, and I was pretty glad I did. It was so amazing to watch her like that, so utterly vulnerable and dominated, so unlike her and yet so real and honest. I felt myself smiling this big wide smile as I panted in exhaustion, an expression that lingered even as I felt my chest wet with juices. I blinked as it dawned on me, and looked down in awe.

"Holy shit, A.J.!" I could barely hear myself under her incessant and overwhelmed screams, which filled the barn and echoed in the otherwise vacant structure. I continued playing around inside of her long after she seemed to have had enough, so aroused and shocked by her display I just had to tell and show her. "Do you see this? Holy shit, you're a freaking squirter!"

"Huh, w-what?" Applejack managed as she looked down at me deliriously, her body still not her own quite yet.

"A squirter! I mean look at this, I can't even believe it!" I called, showing her as she sprayed her juices past her still twitching toes. There must have been a freaking bucket full, coming out in gobs and spurts and covering the blanket she laid on. "I sure as hell can't do that! And from what I've heard it's pretty rare, you're like, like a unicorn or something!"

"That, that ain't funny," was her weak response, and it came out in a moan as I slowed down to keep her from having a heart attack. "Is it a bad thing?"

"No, no, no." I hurriedly waved my free hand, calming her worries with a shake of my head and another loving smile. "It's really hot."

"Well, I ain't never done that before," she admitted timidly as she closed her eyes, her body responding to the way I carefully pulled out of her and rubbed her own moisture along the outside of her now more sensitive region.

I watched her as her breathing uneasily steadied to a more natural rate, and her body relaxed once more after such an excursion. I bit my lip as I looked her over once more, admiring her fully now that my eyes had adjusted completely to the dull lighting and I had just made her my own. I was more aware now of my own frustrations and arousal, and could feel myself tingling just looking her over. I climbed up, crawling over her body until I reached her height, only pausing to kiss her on the nose. I would have kissed her lips, but I imagined I must have tasted like her and she was still breathing very heavily in near gasps.

"Hey, A.J.?" I almost whispered as I straddled her, keeping my lowers hovering an inch above her still hot body. "Could I try something?"

"Mhmm." Applejack smiled and nodded, finding a hum easier than words, but those came soon after, "Though that there already, that sure was somethin'."

I didn't reply that time, I was too apprehensive for what I wanted to try. I knelt onto my knees and slipped my ankles under her thighs as I straddled her waist, locking my feet near her knees. She opened her eyes and looked right at me, with a longing and loving expression that told me she knew exactly what I was doing, and she wanted it too. I put my weight onto my hands, which were now pressed into the pillow on either side of her head, and moved my legs apart. Using my trained flexibility, I moved her own legs farther apart until I could feel the heat of her own still thankful loins beneath my own. I reached down between my legs and felt how wet I was, spreading myself apart enough to satisfy my desires.

Applejack's hands were on my hips now, pushing me down as I lowered myself against her. It felt surprisingly good as we pressed our most intimate of areas against each other, the heat and moisture dancing in an embrace that felt just as passionate as our kisses. It probably felt so particularly good because of just how wrong and naughty it was, just how unpopular and unfavourable it was. But to us, it was bliss. I heard a satisfied moan escape my own lips then, and Applejack seemed pleased to hear it.

I had to try really, really hard to contain myself from grinding right up against her as I wanted to. I wasn't sure how heavy I was or how uncomfortable it might have been for her, but damn it felt so good. I could feel her clitoris as I rubbed against her, and surely she could feel my own. Her hands played along my thighs like a piano, something I seemed to remember her telling me her grandmother had tried to force her to play when she was a kid. I pressed my lips hard together, stifling the lascivious lullaby of my moaning and musing and holding back my most primal and violent desires.

"Harder," Must mave come from my own lips, as the word repeated in my head over and over, but the voice was deeper and raspy. It had come from Applejack, and I looked back down to see her own tortured and frustrated expression. "You can go harder," did not sound as much like permission as it did a command.

I did as she told me, and our mutual groans entwined between us the way our bodies did below. My hands grasped hers on my legs, and I squeezed them like I could show her my satisfaction in such a grip. I ground myself harder against her, feeling waves of odd sensations washing over my entire body, rattling me to the core. Sure I had played around with myself before, but nothing like this, nothing felt so terribly taboo and amazing as this. I found myself captivated by the motion, and though my body grew more and more tired and tense I just kept at it, loving the way she felt so soft against my own softest of skin.

I heard myself moaning, though Applejack herself was not silent. Her hands moved up my body as she lay beneath me, groping and squeezing at my breasts once more in a much more confident and controlled way. Everything felt just so damn good, I didn't even realize it until my vision felt like it was going black. I was screaming and forcing myself against her, calling out profanities and her name and everything on the end of my tongue, climaxing in a much louder yet less telling way than she had.

It was very quiet then, the only sound of life being our intense and heaved breathing, which steamed and heated up the barn and made me rather glad I was naked. Applejack's hands reversed my hold and pulled me down, putting my weight onto my hands and knees again as she leaned up and grabbed me roughly. One of her hands wrapped behind my head and dug into my hair, the other played coy and calm on my cheek as she drew me in for a much desired kiss. I felt so close to her, so accepted and loved, it was everything I thought it would be. It was just too bad that the world outside of the barn was so cold.

I embraced her warmly and continued to kiss her, showing her just how much all of this meant to me with each peck and slip of my tongue. She was so very gentle as she helped me off of her, laying me beside her instead in a more relaxing manner. I didn't leave her side though, I nestled right in close despite the fact that I was sweating profusely. Applejack didn't seem to mind, she held me there near to her like she would never let me go. Her fingers brushed loose strands of hair out of my face and she looked me right in the eyes, seeming just as infatuated as I was.

"Y'okay?" Applejack's voice was hoarse and hushed, but all I could really do was nod and smile. "For an athlete, you sure run outta breath pretty quick," she teased playfully as she inched closer, her feet touching mine.

"Sheesh." I reached out and hit her lightly, faking a pout. "You trying to pick a fight?"

"Maybe," Applejack whispered as she leaned in and kissed me again, something so intimate and precious disguised as something so simple. It had become quite apparent that she seemed to enjoy kissing me, and hey, I was not about to complain.

I laid onto my back and sighed, feeling all the stress and trouble exit my body in one joyous motion. The stars above me gratefully took all my worries away, replacing them with bright little specks of lights so beautiful I hardly noticed the darkness at all. I felt Applejack move closer and snuggle against me, placing her head on my shoulder and letting me put my arm around her. Lying there naked with the woman I loved beneath the wonderful night sky, it was heaven, heaven in an old barn loft. We were both comfortable in the silence, our bodies pieced together and our aggressions finally worked out.

"I almost kinda wish I had made the hatch a mite bigger," Applejack spoke up, and her voice was so small I wasn't sure it even carried to the rafters. "It's still pretty hot in here and the roof ain't much to look at." It was true, outside of the barn would have been much crisper and breezier, but though the stars would be so beautiful, they would pale in comparison to what I just experienced.

"Say, Applejack..." An idea emerged in the looming darkness, and looked down at the girl in my arms. "Were you just kidding about wanting to ride with me earlier?"

"Beg pardon?" she inquired as her eyebrows furrowed, and I noticed that little wrinkle that Pinkie had spoken of.

"On my motorcycle, I have an extra helmet you know. I could take you out," I told her, growing to like the idea more with each word. Especially when she gave me that uncertain but hopeful expression. "The lights of the city are fantastic at night, you'd love it."

"I dunno Rainbow, my legs are still all tingly like." Applejack chuckled as she addressed such a thing, but I consoled her easily.

"You don't have to do anything but wrap them around me, babe." I grinned and nudged her with a playful wink, drawing her chuckle out into a full laugh. She nudged me back and nodded slowly.

"Well, in that case, I reckon I might have to take you up on that. If y'don't think it'll be too sappy or romantic or somethin'." Applejack's eyes jumped up into my own and I watched the rosiness in her cheeks darken to try and imitate the lush crimson of her lips.

"I think it'll be the perfect amount." I kissed her lightly before I squirmed out of her comforting embrace and pushed her a bit onto her side. "Now, get up." I grinned deviantly and smacked her ass twice to get her moving.

"Hey!" she complained as she rolled onto her stomach, lifting herself onto her hands and knees with an irritable expression. I laughed at her embarrassment and helped gather our clothes back up.

I tossed her jeans her way, and though she groaned to have to get back up, which was very unlike her since she was always such a workaholic and never one to whine, she got dressed and tried to straighten herself back up nice. I was quicker about it, excited for our little adventure. I took her hands in my own and led her to the edge of the loft in something of a goofy dance, causing her to giggle and shake her head at my ridiculous antics. I stepped back suddenly despite her shocked expression and landed on the first step down the ladder, making her roll her eyes and push me to keep going down. She folded up the now wet blanket and stored it away once more and shut the hatch before finally coming down after me.

While she climbed back down I crept into her house again, knowing riding a motorcycle in loose fitting overalls was not the smartest idea. I got back into my own clothes, which were still warm from the dryer despite having sat in there for a good while after it had finished tumbling around. I grabbed my leather jacket from the rack and put my shoes on as quietly as I could, not trying to attract attention to myself from her family. When I opened her front door again I found her sitting on the wooden steps with her own jacket on, adjusting her cowboy boots on her feet and extending her legs to have a look at them.

"I guess it's not weird now if I tell you that you look really sexy in those," I told her bluntly as I closed her front door behind her, admiring her as she pulled herself onto those raised heels once more.

"Do you ever quit?" Applejack asked as she leaned in and flicked my nose lightly, causing me to twitch it about and make a face.

"We wouldn't be here now if I did," I reminded her with a smirk.

We went over to my parked motorcycle and she waited patiently as I popped open the under seat storage and revealed my second helmet, which I brought along just in case I ever needed it. I passed it into her waiting hands before I pulled on my gloves, wriggling my fingers out the open ends of each hole. I turned back and looked at her, watching the way she tucked her hair under the helmet and buckled it under her chin.

"A helmet doesn't really suit you as well as your Stetson, A.J.," I teased with a playful wink.

"Oh hush." She stuck out her tongue as she grabbed my own helmet and roughly shoved it into my hands, gesturing for me to hurry up.

I slipped the helmet over my bangs and adjusted it to fit just right, tilting my head to either side leisurely as if testing her patience. She said nothing as I pulled the goggles over the back of the helmet and placed them just above my eyes, leaving them off while I slipped one leg over the vehicle. I kicked backwards and knocked it off the kickstand with ease, stepping backwards slowly as I reversed it out of its position so it would be easier for Applejack to jump on behind me. I turned it to face the driveway and roughly revved it up, turning it on with a great vicious and fierce roar that must have been heard all over the farm.

"Hop on, cowgirl." I grinned as I looked back at her, finding her expression a daring mirror of my own. She stepped wide and slung her leg over the motorcycle, straddling the mechanical contraption right behind me, nestling up close until I fit perfectly between her legs. "Maybe we can head on over to my place and continue where we left off?" I jested as she smacked my shoulder lightly and moved against me, her hands fondling my fitting jacket.

"Just drive, hot stuff," Applejack said into my ear as her arms wrapped close around me, and I could feel her chest pressing up against my back. Her arms were just below my breasts, and I was sure she did that on purpose.

I did as I was told, hitting sixty in ten seconds flat and racing down her old dirt road. She squeezed on tight due to her initial fear and shock, but I was a good driver so I wouldn't let anything happen to her. The wind that was grinding against my body and suspending us in motion was flawless, though deafening. As we drove on, her hands eased up a bit and she even leaned back off of me, getting a good look around while we road across the countryside.

The city lights were gorgeous as we came over the last hill, the skyline shimmering like a painting despite the lack of stand-off high rises. It was no Manehattan, or at least no Manehattan from what I had seen in pictures or what Applejack told me from the once or twice she had visited her aunt and uncle there. But still, the roads were mostly empty and it seemed we had the whole night to ourselves, all the views and lights twirling around us like a dream.

I was by no means reckless, especially at night with such precious cargo, but I did tease her with speed once or twice to make her grip back on. Her hands played with my still aroused body the whole while, but the distraction was not too much for me to handle. As I took off along the straight, vacant streets, I could see the lights for a mile light up green and illuminate our path. Everything seemed so much more exciting and lively when she was there with me, and I could not hide this great big smile I had plastered on my face the whole time.

I loved the way she felt wrapped all around me, so much that I barely even registered the blinding lights that raced towards us, or the crushing impact that threw us off the motorcycle.

Author's Note

Curveball: A pitch that starts off in a high arc, then plummets down towards the plate near the end.

Interference

Interference

Beep.

There was a space between each horribly annoying shrill, digital noise. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it didn't sound a thing like my alarm clock. My eyes cracked open barely, but they were still so very tired. I wanted to roll over and hit the snooze button, but my body was not reacting the way it usually did. Everything felt backwards or slow or heavy, and the more I reached about beside me the more I realized I couldn't find that damn alarm clock to hit it off. Something was pulling at my arm and hurting as I reached around, restraining me and everything, and then the alarm clock got louder and more annoying.

Beep, Beep!

Beep Beep Beep!

"Rainbow Dash, calm down, you have to calm down!" there was a distant voice, but I could not make it out or put a face to it. I listened to it anyway, and slowly the beeping became just background noise.

"What the..." My eyes opened and closed, and everything was way too bright to look at. I blinked again as I touched my face, trying to get my vision clear. "Applejack..." her name was on my lips as always, and I muttered it in and out of consciousness. "Where's Applejack?"

"Rainbow Dash, it's me, it's Twilight. Fluttershy is here too." I was glad she introduced herself, because I could not have placed the voice through the ringing of my ears and the pathetic groaning I made as I tried to adjust to this uncomfortable thing I was laying on.

"What are you doing here?" I groaned out as I finally got to see some of what was going on. I was laying on this long, white bed, and everything around me was so freaking bright and white. I squinted to see their faces as they came into view, but theirs were not the faces I wanted to see. "Where's Applejack? She getting a soda or something? That's so like her, being gone when I wake up." There was just silence as I tried to piece together the circumstances, when I realized that I did not know what exactly I was waking up from. Twilight and Fluttershy glanced nervously at each other but still said nothing. "Wait, where am I? Why's it so damn bright?"

"You're, um, you're in the hospital, Rainbow," Fluttershy squeaked out as she bit at her lip and played with her long bangs, wincing as it I was going to lash out at her or something.

"What am I doing in the..." I trailed off as it came back to me, the bath, the barn, the moonlight, the stars, the green lights, the blinding headlights. "Goddamn it!" I swore as I cringed at the familiar brightness of the fluorescent lights above me, remembering how quickly lights had come at me before.

"Please, just..." Fluttershy's meek voice didn't even come close to reaching me, but I jerked in pain and turned towards the two of them seriously.

"Where's Applejack? She was right behind me, she was..." I remembered the feeling of her warm arms around my waist, the sound of her laughter, the taste of her lips. "Where is she?! Applejack! Applejack, where the fuck are you!" I shouted until Twilight and Fluttershy calmed me down with gestures and shushing.

"Rainbow, you have to stay still," Twilight told me matter-of-factly like she was trying to keep objective, but I shrugged off her advice and kept on prying.

"You're avoiding the subject, so what is it? How bad is it? Is she—?" I couldn't even say it, my throat contracted and I nearly choked on the idea, my eyes desperately grasping at my friends for answers.

"It's okay, Rainbow, she... well, she's alive," Twilight told me, but there was something else. I could hear it in her voice, I could see it on her face, something was troubling her. "You're both lucky to be alive."

"Don't fuck with me, Sparkle," I glowered, moving the blankets as if to try and get up, but I found the needle and tube in my arm rather bothersome. I ripped it out and moved the blankets again, realizing I was sitting there in a hospital gown. "I was on my motorcycle, I remember that. I crashed, didn't I? Come on, what are you not telling me?"

"You're right. Listen," Twilight's voice fell low as she began to speak, and her face was serious like she was giving some presentation or something. Her words were scientific and distant, "You were in a collision with another vehicle. It was bad, it was really bad. You went into cardiac arrest, due to the blood loss, the trauma of the accident, and significant physical damage."

"What does that mean?" I furrowed my brow as I tried to decipher her smart talk, finding her honesty and straight-to-the-point attitude refreshing.

"It means that your heart was not pumping blood through you." Her eyes were on mine seriously, and I realized entirely what that entailed. "For a moment, you were pretty much dead, Rainbow."

"I was—" My voice was caught in my throat again as I came to terms with it. I cringed as I sat up abruptly, grasping my chest where it hurt. I could feel that something was not right, and it hurt to move and breathe, I realized. "Ugh, what happened to me?"

"You lost a lot of blood, hit your head pretty hard, and I was told there was, was little bits of metal, actually inside of you." Well that sure freaked me out to hear. "The doctors think that most of your injuries were from the accident. Except a couple cracked ribs."

"Cracked ribs?" I repeated, and I felt the pain in my chest as I spoke.

Twilights mouth turned sharply down but she fought back the frown, and fought back the shakiness in her voice, "That was the result of Applejack's incessant CPR. She knelt over you for several minutes, administering CPR long enough for the ambulance to arrive in time to revive you. But you should know that emergency CPR is usually quite ineffective. The chances of you surviving were, well, basically none."

"None?" I blinked stupidly. I didn't remember any of that, and that terrified me. I didn't know much about medical stuff, but Twilight seemed to, and something had her really torn up while she explained everything to me. "Where is Applejack?"

Twilight tried to hold eye contact, but she found it hard to keep from breaking down entirely, I could tell. Still, I kept staring at her, needing to hear the answer. However, she was not finished with her story.

"She passed out from blood loss on the way to the hospital. Besides the pool of it that had formed around you as she worked to keep you alive, the first responders found her blood all over the motorcycle, in weird places." I gaped at the sound of that, it seemed so awful. And Applejack had endured it all while I had been laying around passed out like dead weight, almost quite literally. But hold on, it got worse, and Twilight's expression fell and crumbled into near tears. "They surmised that you had been pinned under it after the accident, and Applejack..." Her face contorted into this grotesque and pained expression as she described it with her trembling hands and wavering voice, "The doctor told me she broke her arm in the crash, but she, she—she set the bone back into place, so that she could summon enough strength to p-pull the bike off of you. S-She actually broke the bone into a better place so, so that she—"

"Where is she?" I tried to stop her, though her breath was quick as she tried to hold off the whimpers and cries, her voice getting loud and upset with each new word. I had never seen this side of Twilight before.

"A-And she was pounding o-on your chest hundreds of times, with that broken arm, bleeding all over—!" Twilight shouted as tears poured down her face, clenching her fists in her lap and hitting her knees with them.

"Twilight! Where is she? Please, tell me where she is!" I desperately called out to get through to her, my own voice faltering, I could not stand to listen to this torture any more. It was all one big, horrible nightmare, it had to be.

"She's down the hall, I-I don't know if she's conscious. She kept, kept refusing the morphine and sedation until you came out of surgery and she knew you were okay. She wanted to be awake for it," she told me as Fluttershy tried to console her, though she herself was falling to bits to hear it told again. "But they wouldn't even let her come and sit by your bedside, she's really broken up, Rainbow."

"I have to go." I stumbled as I tried to get out of the bed, and Twilight and Fluttershy stood suddenly to attempt to stop me. "I have to see her!"

"Rainbow Dash, slow down, you have lost a lot of blood, you're going to—!" Twilight tried to tell me, but as I stood I realized my legs were pretty numb and unresponsive. I fell right to the floor and landed ungracefully on my side, cringing at the way my ribs pained me. "Fluttershy, get a wheelchair, will you?"

"I don't need no damn wheelchair," I groaned loudly as I tried to get myself back up, but the pain in my chest was unbearable. Twilight helped me back up to the bed and I leaned over in in a hunch, holding my side. "I'm not a freaking cripple."

"It's procedure, Rainbow Dash," Twilight tried to tell me as Fluttershy returned with the pathetic contraption, and I refused to even look at it. "The hospital staff won't let you just walk around in your condition. You could rip out your stitches or something. It's just policy, and it's safe."

"Yeah, safe really helped me out last time, didn't it?" I snorted as I reluctantly let Fluttershy help me to the chair. "I wore my damn helmet and everything."

"Come on, you know that a helmet is no guarantee," Twilight told me as she avoided my gaze, shuffling around as Fluttershy turned the chair around and pushed me through the door.

"Just take me to her already," I commanded, and I could even hear the pleading in my voice. My chest felt tight as I thought about what she might look like, what I had done to her by taking her out for some wild ride. I even clenched up my eyes in humiliation, feeling utterly guilty and horrible. I gripped at the wheelchair and wanted to start pushing it myself, but it hurt to do much anything with my arms while my ribs were so tender. "Hurry up."

"Um, y-yes, it's not much farther now," Fluttershy told me as she quickened in her step. I continued to grind my teeth, finding the distance still too far to calm my nerves. I reached one arm out and pushed the wheel myself, though it still hurt and had Fluttershy stuttering something nervously.

"Rainbow Dash?" I heard Rarity's voice as she called my name and stood up, I could see her and Pinkie Pie by some lounge, getting to their feet as they watched me rush by.

"Faster, Fluttershy, faster!" I nearly yelled at the girl, wanting to be there immediately. Doctors and nurses moved out of the way as we dashed through the hallway, with the rest of our friends hot on our trail.

"I'm trying!" she called out, and I swear she was actually crying as she said it.

Finally she turned suddenly, and the wheelchair screeched to a halt in the narrow doorway of some room, some room that seemed like any other. That is, until I saw her lying there. I said nothing at first, my eyes racing over her bandaged and restrained body worriedly and anxiously. She seemed so weak, so small as she laid there all wrapped up and completely still. Her family sat and stood around her, watching her limp form as she let breaths in and out slowly. Before I said anything, Applejack turned her head and looked at me, and I swear her glistening eyes reflected every light in the whole damn room they were so watery and sad. Her lips though, they curved into a relieved smile as she saw me.

"Hey you," Applejack spoke, her voice so gentle and adoring I nearly burst into tears right then and there. She broke the contact to address the other few in the room, her family to be specific, "Y'all wanna give us a minute, here?"

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed as he helped Granny Smith to her feet, directing Applebloom away from her older sister's bedside and towards the door. Fluttershy pushed me into the room so the Apple family could get past, and though they all glanced over at me as left, I could not meet a single one of their gazes.

I pushed my own wheels as I approached her, though Fluttershy tried to help me along. I pulled up right next to her bedside and traced her once over, that fit and attractive body I had once taken for myself now broken and wounded. I was on her right side, and looked down at the hardened exterior of a cast that the doctors had wrapped around her arm. She was looking at it too, lovingly but with such, such sorrow. Our friends had caught up by now, but they did not come into the room. They just stood at the door and watched, letting Fluttershy duck out nervously to join them without uttering a word to Applejack.

"Y'look like hell," Applejack said to me as her eyes met mine, and her weak but cheerful smile hurt me to look at. I avoided her attention and tried to bite back my pitiful whimpering and regret.

"I'm glad you're okay," was all I could manage, and it even sounded forced to my ears. Applejack watched me for a moment before taking in this long and slow breath.

"Rainbow, honey," Applejack addressed me personally as she tilted her head, hoping to get my attention. "Look at me, will you? Everyone's sayin' that it'll be fine. Thing is, it don't feel fine." She moved her arm a bit and cringed, the whole thing taped up and held set and still. I felt so awful for putting her through that, but I had to answer her when she asked me, "Tell me the truth, Rainbow. How does it look?"

I swallowed the dryness of my mouth, taking another good look at the injury, "It doesn't look good, A.J."

"Right. I know." Applejack nodded vacantly, looking up at the roof without any resentment or anger in her voice, though surely there should have been. "I keep wantin' to ask the doc if he thinks I'll be able to pitch again, kinda silly thing to worry about, don't cha think?"

"Not at all," I disagreed, wanting to reach out and console her. But it was not my place, after all, I had been the one to do this to her, to ruin her arm and nearly get her killed.

"I woke up a little while ago after they forced me the meds, I was kickin' and screamin' something fierce," Applejack laughed and shook her head, but regret did eventually come back into her voice, though it was not directed at my actions at all. "Fluttershy was by my side, but I didn't care who it was at the time. I grabbed her by the shirt and yanked her closer, hollerin' at her and askin' if you were okay." Her eyes ran over me fondly the way we both wished her hands could. "She was cryin' when she said you were still out, and I lost it for a bit until the others ran in and held me down long enough to explain. I didn't get to apologize to her. Will you do that for me, Rainbow?"

"Jeez, A.J., you make it sound like you're dying on me," I muttered lowly as I fidgeted nervously in the wheelchair.

"I almost did, didn't I?" Applejack asked, but I would not respond. I couldn't. She sighed loudly and leaned over in the bed, reaching over with her good hand and touching my chin, raising it so that I was facing her again. "Look at me, will ya?" She smiled warmly at my troubled expression, and went on easily, "This ain't your fault you know. Twilight said the other guy, he ran a red passin' a hundred. We're lucky to be alive, Rainbow."

((Fanart courtesy of asdf314159265 on Deviantart))

"From what I hear, I'm only alive because of you," I responded, watching the way she blushed a bit and as usual, shrugged off any praise.

"I dunno about that. I was a mess out there, cryin' and shoutin', I was a wreck if I ever called it," Applejack admitted, rubbing the back of her neck with her good arm sheepishly. She kept watching me though, and I could hear the thankfulness in her tone, "I'm just so grateful you're okay. I don't know what I would'a done without you."

"I, I just can't believe I did this." My head fell into my hands and I slammed my eyes shut to keep the tears at bay, feeling so totally horrible and guilty and shit. How could I ever hope to make this up to her? "I mean, everything was so great, and then I wanted to take you out on some stupid, reckless thrill ride, and—"

"Don't you even start with me missy," Applejack snapped at me, and I jerked back out of my pathetic, self-loathing whining to listen to her. "Accidents happen, our luck with comin' back outta it, that ain't nothin' to shake a stick at. And just think, if it wasn't us, that guy might'a hit a couple'a other girls who weren't quite so tough, y'know?" She fake-punched my shoulder, though it was abnormally weak, and she struggled to do it right, gripping at the side of the bed to regain her balance.

I smiled despite my watering eyes, loving just everything about her. "You are weirdly optimistic sometimes."

Applejack chuckled a bit as she readjusted herself to lay back more comfortably. Her eyes went soft again, and her voice was nice and easy, "I see it kinda like this, Rainbow." She turned her head to look at me, her glorious green eyes still capturing mine and shimmering like life itself despite their vicinity to death. "Say I toss ya a curveball."

"A curveball?" I perked up at the familiar baseball term, a kind of pitch I knew well.

"Yeah, say I throw you one doozy of a curveball." Applejack nodded, her eyes still fixing on mine as she took in a slow and shaky breath. "At first, it's flyin' hot, and you're thinkin', yeah, ain't no problem for me to snag this one. So you fall into your swing, and for a while you're thinkin' it's just right, just perfect. But y'see, as the ball approaches the plate you realize that it's dippin' quite low, hell so low it's hardly even in the strike zone. But you're already in your swing, see, so you can't do nothin' but adjust it a mite deeper. Now, that there is a good analogy, and it ain't no Southernism either, y'hear?"

She laughed lightly and stifled a bit of a cough, picking on herself the way the rest of us usually do about her odd sayings. It really broke me up to see her like that, but she didn't stop speaking to me, consoling me with some weird baseball metaphor. Applejack sat up a bit as she went on, and I was utterly enthralled by her every word and pause.

"Sometimes you're tossed a pitch that seems mighty fine, till it drops down right at the plate. Thing is Rainbow, is that there ain't nobody on the team who's got a hit count like yours. I reckon a curveball ain't nothin' you can't knock right out." Her usual sultry grin melted across her face, and that adorable dimple dipped into her cheek. "So here we are, Rainbow. And you and I both know how fast you are, and hell, we both know you've rounded home already. So then, what's with all them tears? We still got the rest of the whole game to get through, me and you." She pulled herself up a bit more and spat right onto her palm, causing me to huff this painful laugh and pull this great big smile across my face. "You game?"

I wasn't sure if I was laughing or crying as I did it, but I leaned forward and spat into my own palm, smiling all the while. I reached out, but noticed that she only had her left hand available, making our usual handshake rather awkward. Still, I wrapped my arm around hers, pulling myself closer despite the fact it hurt my ribs to get up so near. I clapped and clasped my hand with hers, our grips strong as ever and our eyes locked in a determined embrace we both knew too well.

"Bet on it," I agreed adamantly.

I pulled myself up even closer despite the way my body cried out in protest, and I relinquished the supportive hold on my side for a loving caress of Applejack's cheek. I leaned my elbow onto her bed to relax my stomach muscles and managed to get close enough to touch her more intimately. My lips greeted hers warmly, kissing her just as freely and passionately as I wanted to. She responded promptly and eagerly, leaning up to return the kiss with just as much fervency as I displayed. We broke sooner than I would have liked, my injuries preventing me from exploring her mouth again. I groaned a bit as I nearly fell onto her bed, and she laughed whole-heartedly as she held me close, letting me rest there for a moment.

"Am I missing something?!" Twilight's shrill voice peeped in at the top of her vocal range, and I had almost forgotten she was there. I didn't bother getting up or trying to explain, I just groaned a bit and listened to the rest of them chuckle.

"Oh darling, allow me to explain," Rarity began to speak and cleared her throat, though I could tell she felt rather overwhelmed by everything herself. I felt Applejack shift from beneath me and her own voice chimed in.

"Wait, y'all knew about this?" Applejack asked as she tried to move me, maybe so that she could see the nervous and sheepish grin on my face.

"Just Pinkie and myself, dear," Rarity tried to correct the situation. "I found out a while ago that Rainbow Dash was infatuated with you, and let me say, that is putting it lightly. Pinkie Pie only overheard us talking about it a few days ago."

"Um, I figured it out, too," Fluttershy's meek and timid voice squeaked in, and I had expected as much from her. She knew me well enough to have seen that something was up.

"So everyone knew about this, except for me?!" Twilight was utterly dumbfounded, for once. Though it was no surprise, I mean she was always far too interested in studies to pay attention to interpersonal relationships.

"Well if it's all the same I reckon I didn't know much about it 'til I joined the baseball team." Applejack tried to calm her down, but I heard her expel a great frustrated sigh. Applejack lowered her head a bit, her voice drifting somewhat lower, "You, you don't think it's wrong or somethin', do you?"

"What? No!" Twilight hurriedly defended herself, coming over to us in a rushed pace. "I just wish you had told me. I mean..." She kind of smiled a bit, though I could tell she was clearly a little uncomfortable with the sudden change. Twilight was no good with change. "I can kind of see it. You two always were really close."

"You have no idea." I snickered with a devilish grin, causing Applejack to shove me somewhat roughly back into my wheelchair despite my hiss of pain. "Ouch, it was just a joke, A.J.!"

"Remarkable, even while bedridden you two still bicker and rough-house," Rarity spoke up in a rather bemused tone, crossing her arms and shaking her head as she watched us carry on.

"Hey, I'm not bedridden, note the wheelchair?" I corrected her as I pointed to the contraption below me. Grinning, I turned back to Applejack. "Can't say the same for ol' freckle-face over here."

"I outta wallop you with this here cast." She made a face, threatening me with her heavy hand as best she could. "But I don't wanna rip out any stitches."

"That reminds me." I picked up the bottom of my shirt and looked around at my midsection, finding exactly what I was looking for nearly right away. I was all bruised up really badly, and I could see all these little scrapes along with this big stitched up wound that seemed to stretch to my back. "Jeez, look at me, I'm hardly in one piece."

"I reckon I don't look much better." Applejack curiously looked down at herself, still covered in the blanket.

"Well, when we're all healed up, one day we're going to look at these scars and say, hey..." I admired the wound before looking up at Applejack fondly. "I got that on the best night of my life." She looked surprised to hear such a thing, but returned the smile readily.

"Shucks, Rainbow." Applejack could not help from smiling and, though she tried to hide it, blushing. The others all made some cutesy musing sounds, which only made Applejack all the more self conscious and embarrassed. I found that adorable though.

I reached up and put my hand on hers, though it was pinned still by the cast and everything. Her fingers moved against mine and accepted my support, holding my hand as best she could manage. My body still hurt all over and I was unusually cold, but I did not want to leave her side again. We stared at each other silently, our connection much stronger than any fickle words could express.

"Did you guys have sex?" I almost fell over as Pinkie's words hit me, and Applejack just gaped in shock. Fluttershy nearly passed out and Twilight and Rarity both stared at her incredulously. "What? It's just a question!" Everyone heard the heart rate monitor hooked onto Applejack suddenly speed up faster and faster, and Pinkie Pie gasped loudly. "You totally did!"

"I'll take that morphine now." Applejack groaned as she pulled the blanket up over her face and sunk down a bit in her bed, the furious flushing on her face intensifying. I snickered a bit and tried to contain my amusement, which was quickly slashed by the sharp pain in my side due to the force of my laughter.

Author's Note

Interference: In baseball, interference occurs in situations in which a person illegally changes the course of play from what is expected. Interference might be committed by players on the offense, players not currently in the game, catchers, umpires, or spectators.

Also, this will not be the last chapter. I was expecting to stop this story at 9 chapters, one for each inning, but I decided to plop in one extra inning as an epilogue. So... Comments thusfar?

Extra Innings

Epilogue: Extra Innings

It took several, several months before I could finally convince Applejack to get back out on the mound. Not that she didn't want to, the two of us went to watch every single one of our team's games together, no matter how hard it was to watch them lose. Finally though, her arm seemed to have healed up well enough to use and her cast had been off for a while as she built up the strength again.

It was crisp in the early morning, stuffed up with fog that seeped down the road and clung to the trees. Anything in the distance was obscured by the still rolling mist and the air was moistened with the sweet scent of precipitation. The clouds hung low above us and no sun seemed to squeak through, if it had even risen yet. I crouched down over the makeshift home plate, hell everything here at the Apple family farm was makeshift if you ask me. Applejack stood out on the hand-made mound, playing around with her glove on her hand like it didn't fit quite right. Finally she fingered the baseball, feeling the seams around until she got a good grip.

"Come on Applejack, toss it right here. Go ahead," I directed her eagerly, punching my glove right in the palm to show her where to aim. She didn't do as I asked though, she sort of kicked at the dirt a bit and looked around.

"I dunno about this, it still don't feel right," she replied nervously, looking around and trying to stall. I wouldn't bite, though.

"Since when did you become such a wuss?" I shouted with a laugh, watching the way she got all huffy about what I called her. "The doctor said it's all healed up, now give it a shot already before I get bored and start drawing nudes of you in the dirt!"

"You're lucky my arm ain't at its best or I'd knock you right off your feet," Applejack warned me from her distant position, but seemed to submit to my demands like she usually did. She planted her feet a bit and watched them settle into the dirt before looking back up at me, ball hidden in her glove. "All right, here goes."

Her wind up was slow and overly careful, I could tell just how little of her muscle she used when she tossed. And I could even tell just how little she expected of herself, how little confidence she had left. I had to stand up and step to the left to catch the ball, and found it rather easy to read. It was nothing like the fastball I had seen when she had stepped up the challenge me so long ago. I tossed the ball up in the air and caught it again, frowning at her.

"Now I know you can do better than that," I told her as I threw it back, my own toss faster and more accurate than her own. She nodded faintly as she caught the ball, looking down at her still weak arm.

"Sorry, I just don't wanna rush it," an excuse was presented, but I did not take it. She got back into her stance as I crouched once more, waving at her to go on. "Here, lemme try it again." Again, the ball flew out, and while it was a bit more accurate, it was slow as all hell. I snatched it out of the air with an aggravated groan.

"What are you, made of glass? You throw like a girl," I shouted at her as I viciously threw the ball back at her, making her reach to catch it.

"Badgerin' me ain't gonna help," Applejack reminded me as she chewed on more excuses, finally deciding to give up on it. I noticed her expression settle into a familiar determined one, and I bent my knees again. "Once more."

She was much more confident and controlled this time, and it seemed like for an instant she did not care if it might hurt her if it meant showing me what was what. The pitch landed perfectly in my glove this time, and even snapped against the worn leather and echoed across the desolate field. I grinned from behind the catch and ripped the ball from my glove, standing abruptly and hurrying up to her with a great big smile on my face.

"Much better, but you're going to have to build up that speed if you want to keep Mac from slugging your ball out into the orchard at the reunion next month," I prodded once more as I slowed, reaching her quickly. She was looking down at her arm and moving it around. "How do you feel?"

"Well, I reckon I'm still standin', and everythin's still movin' okay," Applejack responded as she twisted her wrist around, measuring any pain carefully. She smiled though, pleased at the progress.

"What'd I tell you? You worry too much, A.J." I put my arm around her and patted her on the shoulder twice, holding her close to me.

"And you don't worry enough," came the retort, but she wanted to push my buttons just the same. "I seem to recall a certain someone who thought she was invincible, thought she could shave a few weeks off with some physical exercise."

"I don't know if I'd call that exercise. Leisure, or play, maybe," I reminded her as my eyes went up and down her body, followed shortly after by my curious and infatuated fingers.

"I think I'd call that one rainbow-headed moron clingin' to my half-naked body and shoutin' about how I play too rough." Applejack chuckled as she messed up my hair a bit, my expression turning to irritable behind my bangs. "You weren't too happy when y'had to explain all that to the emergency room on-call doctor, now were you?"

"Whatever, you loved it." I knew she did, she loved anything that I did to her.

A light pink blush graced her features and she nudged me a bit. "You're crazy."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." I smirked as I pulled her in close, holding her body against mine tightly as I kissed her. It felt better every time I did it, I swear, I could not get enough of her. She chuckled and pushed me away, grabbing the baseball from my mitt and shooing me off.

"Yeah, yeah, get your rear back to the plate, will you?" Applejack told me as she gave me a light smack on my ass, which made me want to turn around and grab her rather than run several yards away, but I did as I was told.

"Looks to me like you may be able to pitch again yet," I told her as I jogged back to the plate, giving her a little show with my body all the while. She rolled her eyes but said nothing. "If spirit counts for anything."

"I dunno if you could cram enough spirit into that trim little body of yours to manage a hit off'a me if I do get pitchin' again, honey," she retorted and I stuck my tongue out at her, finding our playful banter very flirtatious and fun.

"Keep taking big, A.J., once I get my old swing back I'll show you a force to reckon with," I reminded her as I pointed out towards her with my glove, bending down into a squat again. "All right, so your fastball needs a bit of work. We know that," I said with a nod, letting the devious smirk run across my face as I asked something particular of her, "Now, throw me a curveball."

"Curveball, huh?" Applejack returned my smile and let her body become as familiar with her wind up as ever she was before the accident. The fog began to settle around her as a few beams of sunlight stretched out from behind the clouds and trees. I could see her better now, that brilliant blonde hair and those loving eyes gleaming out at me as the mist at her feet parted, preparing to be dispersed as my Applejack moved once more. "I think I can do that."

**~End~**

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted! And yes I realize this chapter is short, it's just an epilogue.

Thank you all for reading to the very end!