Perfect Days, Revisited: Searching for Sunrise
by TwilightUCrazy
The skies were still starry with off-colored wisps of cloud, and only the faintest hints of navy blue had begun to creep onto the farthest outlines of the distant horizon as morning approached. Applejack's ear twitched to the sound of an early morning songbird. She stirred in the cradle of the tree roots relaxed back against the warm mass resting against her.
Neither pony's internal alarms were set to go off for another couple hours.
Rainbow Dash's hot and steamy breath on the back of her ear triggered a reflexs, and the pegasus grunted in disapproval at the firm flick across her nose. After wrapping her forelegs around her friend like a body pillow, she continued her rattling slumber.
A pair of sleep-dazed green eyes blinked open, and the earth pony yawned loudly, reaching up to rub the back of her itchy ear. She stretched out her legs and examined her strange and unfamiliar sleeping location. She tried to push herself up off the ground, only to find herself being pulled back down and grappled from behind by a cyan pair of hooves.
Oh yeah. That happened.
Applejack smiled and rolled her eyes. She was halfway tempted to just roughly shove Rainbow off of her and see how the confusion treated her that early.
Besides, Applejack figured Rainbow deserved it after her hat theft yesterday evening. The Stetson still sat perched at an angle atop her rainbow-colored mane. She could have nabbed it back right then if she wanted, but Rainbow probably wouldn't have looked upon that kindly – Applejack always had to earn her hat back every time it was taken from her. The game had always been that way.
Those were the rules. Why she always so willingly played, it she had no idea, but she figured it probably had something to do with life being more fun when elements of randomness were involved. Goodness knew that apple farming was a noble profession, but it left a lot to be desired in other, more personal aspects of her life...
Despite the temptation being there, Applejack didn't feel the wrongs against her warranted the cruelty of dislodging her friend from her by force. Her mood had improved with sleep since the night before, and even if she still felt just a bit sore at her Rainbow for having lost to her for the first time on her terms, it wasn't enough to disrupt a pony who seemed to be sleeping so contentedly.
None of that meant, however, that Applejack planned to lay there all day and wait for Rainbow to wake up of her own accord. That game could last all day long, and Applejack had work she could be doing in these wee hours of the morning.
She reached forward with her golden tail and began to waggle it softly underneath the feathered blanket of a wing still draped over her.
Rainbow stirred, her face morphing from the trance of a deeply involved droolathon to a humorous smirk as whatever dream she had been having switched gears to meet the stimuli. Rainbow's toughness was legendary for a pegasus, and her frequency of crashes lent to an unbelievably difficult-to-disturb sleep. Shaking her out of her slumber proved to be almost as difficult as breaking Twilight out of a particularly good book.
Twilight, however, had a few buttons that were easy to push.
Rainbow's only real “wake-up button” – short of slapping her in the face repeatedly – was the ticklish spot underneath her wings that she had easy access to.
Applejack smiled at Rainbow's growing grin, and gave another brush near the base of her wing.
The pegasus snorted a chuckle.
Applejack's subtle enjoyment evolved into wicked delight, and her tail fluttered rapidly underneath her friend's feathered appendage, provoking a sleep-bound giggle from her.
Rainbow rolled away from the offender, and lay on her back, spreading out in the nest of the apple tree's roots they had slept under. She wiggled around in the dirt for a moment, smiling that all-too-infectious smile of hers.
“Mmm... Wow, Big Mac...” Rainbow muttered in her sleep as she wriggled around.
Applejack's smile vanished instantaneously; her eyes lit up in horror.
“...you just know all the right spots, don't you?”
Applejack grit her teeth and shoved a hoof into her friend's belly, disrupting her breathing and jolting Dash out of her sleep a bit more quickly than what the pegasi was probably used to – outside of falling out of a tree anyway.
"Ouch!" grunted the pegasus moaned, clutching her stomach. "I was just kidding!"
Applejack smirked, her anger from before quickly dissipating as she watched her friend double over against the tree. She felt confident anyway that Rainbow had little to no actual interest in her task-oriented and non-competitive brother. She'd be bored out of her mind just trying to come up with something for them to do together... unless it involved...
The farmpony quickly banished those thoughts.
Rainbow pulled herself back up in a semblance of standing, wiping her sweaty brow. "Note to self, never joke about a farmgirl's family..."
Applejack gave her a hard-to-read look and narrowed her eyes, and bit her lower lip in amusement.
Rainbow groaned and leaned forward, thrusting her haunches into the air and stretching her back. Ruffling her wings, she rose to full height and shook all the sleep mess out of her mane.
“Where are you going?” Rainbow yawned.
Applejack looked up from further down the hillside. “Work.”
Her friend staggered and wobbled after her. “Work?! But it's not even light out yet! The stars are still out for Pete's sake!”
Applejack gave an annoyed backward glance at Rainbow as the pegasus trotted after her. “Well, somepony thought it'd be a good idea to go and drag me horsin' around with her in the orchards yesterday instead of gettin' in all mah harvest.”
“What? Who?”
Applejack narrowed her eyes and stared, all the amusement leaving her face.
Dash paused, and after a moment, she burst out into her broken-voiced laughter. “Oh. Yeah. Me. Hahahahaha! Yeah, that was fun.” Rainbow grinned. "Hey! It wasn't all my fault! You were the one who chased after me. Remember?"
Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed before heading off towards the western fields at a brisk trot. "Yeah." She muttered, "Don't remind me."
***
By Applejack's explanation, her portion of the western fields had only been halfway completed the previous day before Rainbow had swooped in and made off with her hat. She had talked about previous setbacks with Granny getting ornery without her meds and Applebloom receiving detention. Her chase all across Sweet Apple Acres had rendered her redoubled efforts of catching up pointless. From the looks of things she was even further behind than before, and would likely have to work late into the evening at top speed just to make up for lost time.
The bushels still laid on the ground where she'd left them the previous evening. She readjusted them slightly so that the apples would all fall right into place, when Rainbow spoke up from her spot on the ground nearby.
“So Applejack, I gotta ask...”
Applejack kicked against the trunk of a tree. Rainbow fished through the various bushels and plucked a particularly juicy-looking apple for herself.
“Do you ever get tired of being an earth pony?” she asked.
Applejack blinked and scowled at Rainbow and the big, fat and juicy Red 'n Delicious she'd taken for her breakfast. It was weird to watch when the pegasus had her Stetson parked on top her head.
“How ya mean?” she asked. "And stop eatin' my apples ya hat-stealin' freeloader!” Applejack scolded her with her with an annoyed glare. "For pony's sake..." she said with a sigh.
Rainbow Dash blinked and looked at her half-eaten apple, shrugged, and tossed it over her withers into the grass.
“Hey! Don't be wasteful! Go pick that one up and finish it!”
Rainbow Dash grinned, laying back and folding her hooves smugly behind her head. “I can't! Somepony told me to stop eating her apples...”
Applejack's forehead twitched irritably. She loved having Rainbow around, even if she wouldn't admit it; and that gave her an excuse to be a screaming pain in the flank with near-impunity.
The worst part was that she knew it.
“I swear, yer gonna be the death of me..." she muttered. "Now pick it up and stick it in the right hole before I think of an even worse one to stick it in..."
Rainbow cleared her throat and wandered over to pick up the discarded fruit.
“What I mean is, isn't it kind of boring to just walk everywhere? Wouldn't you rather teleport or fly or... whatever it is Pinkie Pie can do? I'd just go crazy if I were you.”
“Well, sugarcube,” Applejack replied as she walked up to another tree, “when ya ain't got much ta compare it to, there really ain't much to make it feel any different from how you feel when ya fly I suppose.”
Applejack harvested another tree's prize.
“Well, don't you ever wanna try something else? Like, I dunno, what if you had a horn like Twilight's?”
Applejack considered. “If I had a horn like Twilight's, I'd probably never even be able to study enough to lift a spoon to feed myself with. I don't see teleportin' happenin'.”
“Well, what about wings?” Rainbow asked with a grin. She emphasized the appendages on her back, landing right next to her and flaring them. “Hay, then we could race all the way to Canterlot and back. The loser could treat the winner to lunch or something!”
Applejack smiled at her as she kicked another tree.
“Sounds like fun, but where would I go gettin' a pair of wings like that? I can't exactly grow a pair or buy 'em at the store, y'know.”
“Well how about Twilight?” Rainbow suggested hopefully. “She made Rarity some for the Junior Fliers Competition that one time.”
“Ya mean the wings that went and broke and sent her droppin' like a lead weight?” Applejack grinned.
Rainbow smirked at the memory. "Yeah. Good times."
The two shared a chuckle.
A pause.
Rainbow shook her head out of her trance. “Well, maybe now that she's a... an ali-thingy, she could make the wings stronger – or maybe she could make them permanent!”
Applejack's smile faltered. “Rainbow, I really ain't interested in a pair of wings. Just don't have a need or want for 'em, really.”
Rainbow pouted in that way she liked to do when she wanted to have her way, squaring her jaw and jutting out her lip.
“How would you know?" she huffed and trotted after Applejack. "I mean, it's not like you've ever flown before!" A pause. "Well... except in a balloon... But that doesn't count! There's nothing compared to how awesome it feels to have a pair of wings on your back. I mean, just imagine going as far as you want as high as you want wherever you want whenever you want.”
She crossed over in front of Applejack, cutting off the earth pony's retreat.
"Wouldn't that be way better than walking everywhere? No more stupid cloud-walking spells from Twilight. You could come with me and watch the Wonderbolts perform in Cloudsdale!"
Applejack didn't have anything to experience so-called "real flight" by – aside from the two's poison joke-addled flight that one time. Even then, the two had done more crashing than flying. The Wonderbolts, she knew, wouldn't entice Applejack much, but the thought of going anywhere anytime and more quickly sure had its perks for the hard-working earth pony.
Rainbow went in for the kill.
“I'm just saying; if you gave flying – real flying – a try, maybe you'd like it.”
Applejack sighed. “It sounds nice, darlin', but I don't even think Twilight's powerful enough to just change what a pony was born as. I don't know much about magic but it sounds like it'd take a heapin' big spell if ya ask me.”
Rainbow got lost in her own head while Applejack walked around her and resumed her work.
She thought about it. Even to her mind, giving an earth pony a pair of wings was probably a huge undertaking, and Twilight had struggled with just giving them to Rarity. Those wings couldn't keep up with Rainbow's, either. It was easy to see how Applejack could be so easily discouraged.
Her thoughts turned to Fluttershy. Fluttershy could fly, but she wouldn't know fast if her tail was on fire, and Twilight could still barely fly at all, much less competitively. There had been Lightning Dust from the Wonderbolts Academy, but just thinking about her set Rainbow's blood to boil. No, if she wanted somepony to fly around and have fun with in the air, it would have to be Applejack... somehow.
To her, all Applejack really needed was something special to wow her with the concept of flight. Then all they would need was a spell powerful enough to change Applejack into a pegasus. She glossed over how easy her brain made it sound, and how hard it might have really been – that kind of thinking could be handled by Twilight as far as she was concerned. And if Applejack would play along and try it out, she sure as hay wanted to figure out a way to make it happen.
The only problem seemed to be motivating Applejack.
Then an idea hit her. Her eyes flew open, and glittered the way they always did whenever she had a brilliant idea that surely, surely couldn't fail.
“Hey Applejack... I was thinking about something...”
“Did it hurt? You want an aspirin?” Applejack smirked.
“Oh, funny,” Rainbow countered with a roll of her eyes.
Applejack chuckled and kicked another tree, releasing its fruity cargo. "I thought so too."
“But seriously. Have you ever watched a sunrise? Like right as it's coming up?”
The farmgirl blinked and quirked her eyebrow at her. “Well sure I have. Lotsa times. It's one of mah favorite times of the day.”
Rainbow grinned.
“Well, have you ever seen one from the sky before?”
***
“I can't believe I'm lettin' you talk me into this!” Applejack nervously exclaimed. Terror had already seized her voice, and they hadn't even taken to the sky yet; overlooking the Acres from the highest hill, though, had somehow afflicted Applejack with premature anxiety. Not many apple trees grew nearby, and those that did wouldn't be difficult to avoid. The steepness of the hill would make getting a running start and picking up speed a whole lot easier than trying to go from a dead stop. Applejack could see why Rainbow had chosen it.
What had set Applejack's legs aquiver was that it hadn't been a bluff by Rainbow to see if she had the nerve to go through with it. And being any kind of self-respecting farmpony, there wasn't a challenge she wouldn't turn down from her friend.
Exceptions could be made, however...
The pegasus had her forelegs draped over her back and was standing on her hind legs to place herself up on top of her friend. Rainbow seemed to sense her tension and smiled, reaching with her hoof and softly stroking it up and down her back.
“Okay. Now what we're gonna do is, see this hill? I want you to run straight down it with all the speed you've got. The other hill over there is the one I want you to run towards. Now the second you hit the bottom of that slope–”
"Wait!"
Rainbow blinked. “Why, what's the matter?”
“Rainbow, I..." Applejack felt her voice trembling, and she gulped to try and steady her speech enough to be understandable. "I can't do this. I'm right-deathly scared. I-I just can't do it."
She saw Rainbow smile from the corner of her eye and felt her strike her flank with her hoof, presumably as a means of dispelling her fear. “Don't worry so much, AJ. Everypony's nervous the first time they fly. Even I was when I was a little filly – but after that, I couldn't get enough of it!”
“But yer a pegasus! A pegasus is supposed to wanna fly. We earth ponies are supposed to keep somethin' solid under our hooves!”
“What about swimming?”
“Don't be cute..."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Oh, what? Is it the huge amount of air or something that scares you?" Rainbow asked, gesturing to the sky.
“It ain't the flyin' part that scares me, okay?!” Applejack snapped. She quickly scaled back on the volume and scuffed the ground with her hoof. “It's the fallin' and goin' 'ker-splat' part that does...”
She felt Rainbow's eyes examining her. Then she felt her dismount and step closer. Her cyan cheek brushed gently against hers. “Applejack, you don't actually think I'd let you fall, do you? Trust me, after twelve years of being your best friend–"
"Thirteen."
"What?"
"We met thirteen years ago back in June."
"Okay, thirteen years. Whatever. Point is, if you haven't driven me crazy enough to drop you from a thousand feet yet, you're probably never gonna.”
“It ain't exactly like ya'd mean to...” Applejack muttered. “What if we get up there, and then ya find out I'm too heavy fer ya ta hold onto?”
“Puh-lease! I wouldn't even try it if I thought there was even a chance I couldn't do it." She felt Rainbow drape a wing over her and pull her closer. "In case you forgot, I did carry three unconscious Wonderbolts and a kicking and screaming Rarity at that Junior Flier Competition. And I've only gotten better since then.”
“I ain't exactly as light as a Rarity or a Wonderbolt though...”
Rainbow paused and seemed to consider that for a moment.
“Fair point. I mean, you do weigh a lot more than any of them do.” Applejack saw the smirk forming on Rainbow's face from the corner of her eye. "Like, a lot more."
Applejack shot Rainbow an irritated look. “Are you callin' me fat?”
“'Course not!” She grinned. “For a walrus on stilts–!”
WHACK!
“Ouch! Ouchkiebibble!” Rainbow broke out into a pained laughing fit as she limped away in a wide circle, waiting for the pain of her freshly-kicked foreleg to subside.
“Next one's aimed at yer noggin, featherbrain!” she huffed. Despite Applejack's triumphant retaliation, she still held hesitation and fear in her eyes that shimmered just beneath the surface.
Dash wrapped a wing around her again, favoring her good leg.
“Tell ya what – if we crash, you'll have every excuse to say 'I told you so' every day for the rest of your life, as much as you want."
“Why don't that don't comfort me none?”
Rainbow didn't answer, and just stood there, staring at her with a comforting smile. Applejack couldn't find any trace of fear or hesitation in her expression – just cool, level confidence, and as ever, just a hint of cockiness.
"Come on," she said. "It'll be fun."
Famous last words... Applejack leveled a stare at her friend, before exhaling.
“Yer a real bad influence y'know...” she said, betraying the faintest of smiles. “I'm glad that Big Mac don't hang around with ya...”
Rainbow grinned, then blinked at the mention of Applejack's brother. “Big Mac? What's he got to do with–”
“Nothin',” the cowpony interrupted. “C'mon pardner. Saddle up.”
Rainbow wore a dirty expression. “Whoa, AJ! I move fast, but not that fast.” She winked.
Applejack glared at her with rosy cheeks and firmly grit teeth. “Y'know, I've always got work I could be doin' instead of playin' games all mornin'!”
“SORRYsorrysorrysorrysorrysorry! But, come on! You gift-wrapped that one for me.” Rainbow smirked as she made her way around. She had to hop a bit – she was about even in height with Applejack, if just slightly taller. She wrapped her forelegs around her chest and rear legs around her belly, causing the earth pony's blush to return.
Rainbow reached up to her head, and tossed the cowpony's hat onto the broken-off bough of a nearby tree. She then took the flying goggles she had retrieved from home and fastened them over Applejack's eyes.
“You'll need these more than I will. Trust me.”
“Tell me again how ya got me to agree to this...”
“My irresistible charm, that's how!”
Applejack betrayed the smallest of smiles and shook her head. “Yeah, no, that wasn't it...”
Rainbow ignored her, and narrowed her eyes in fiery determination, pressing herself against the earth pony's back. “Alright, cowpony. Giddyup!”
Applejack looked down at the small dip in the earth and gulped, taking a shuddering breath.
“Well... I guess I lived a good life...”
Applejack held her breath and charged down the hill with as much speed as she could carry onto the straight between the hills, trying to build more as she ran, but it was harder with Rainbow Dash on top of her. Rainbow's furiously beating wings pushed her along and helped her up to the speeds she needed.
“Push it, AJ!” Rainbow shouted, causing Applejack's body to flood with adrenaline. Part of her really didn't want to let the pegasus down and disappoint her.
The other part of her feared having to try again until Rainbow could get them airborne.
And still there remained a niggling voice in the back of her mind that wondered what would happen if it did actually work...
Please don't work... Applejack chanted mentally. Please don't work. Please don't work! Please don't work!
By the time she hit the curving slope of the opposite hill, she knew it was too late to change her mind. Rainbow Dash was screaming at her to jump over her the thunder of her hooves. Everything else told her that to try and come to a grinding halt could result in worse injuries than any attempt at flight might.
Applejack gulped and launched herself into the air. She was a distance jumper, not a height jumper, like she thought Rainbow might need. The earth pony squeezed her eyes shut, and said a quick prayer.
Faust have mercy!
Applejack's hooves kept galloping beneath her. She waited for the impact with the ground and inevitable crippling tumble that was taking longer than she thought it'd take.
Confused, she peeked and looked around... and down.
She shouted in surprise before wrapping herself up in the smallest shape she could make herself.
Helplessly, she watched Rainbow Dash carry her off, like a bird of prey that had captured a small mammal.
“YES!” Rainbow cheered victoriously. Her wings flared out to scoop as much air as she could with each beat of her wings. Every flap took the pair higher, to the point where they were just skimming over the oncoming trees.
Applejack saw the looming threat out of the twilight shadows, and her emerald eyes widened. A lump of dread formed in her gut.
“Rainbow?”
Rainbow Dash squeezed Applejack tighter made straight for the trees.
“Rainbow, don't! This ain't funny!” Applejack squealed in terror as she watched the hazards become imminent.
Rainbow laughed and beat her wings even harder.
Bracing for impact, Applejack shrieked and covered her eyes.
Rainbow skillfully pulled up at the last moment, skimming just over the treetops. The smell of apples permeated the air as they came within inches of the leaves. Applejack's dangling tail caught on a branch, pulling the band tying it together loose and causing Big Betty's upper branches to shudder.
Rainbow Dash extended her wings and leveled out into a powered glide.
Applejack could feel her friend's cackling through her back even if she couldn't hear it over the wind.
To an earthbound pony, the pair might not have been traveling at speeds worthy of note. To Applejack, however, they may as well have been going a million-billion miles an hour as they flapped over the orchards. She refused to look at anything, and held her eyes tightly shut. The wind-buffeting became deafening, so much so that she had to fold her ears back just so the noise didn't drive her insane.
“AJ, open your eyes!” Rainbow shouted into her ear. Even then, she could barely hear her friend over the wind. “You're gonna miss everything!”
Applejack whimpered pitifully in reply. Her vocal cords didn't have the capacity to form cogent words at the moment.
“Oh come on! We're not even that high yet! You're not even trying!” Rainbow encouraged her with a nuzzle to the back of her head. They still flew just high enough to make out the individual leaves and apples on the trees below them as stray gusts of wind gave Rainbow more staying power in the air.
Applejack had been in the air before in Twilight's balloon, and had even been all the way up to Cloudsdale once. Heights didn't scare her. Barely fifty feet separated them from the earth below. What unsettled Applejack was the lack of control and the mind-stretching pace it felt like they were traveling at.
Rainbow Dash chuckled and glided over the northern hills and past the higher treetops with her in tow. Applejack finally braved a peek and had her first real look around as they flew.
It surprised her how little Rainbow needed to flap her wings to keep the two of them aloft, even with her greater earth pony bulk weighing her down.
Rainbow apparently read her mind, or took one heck of a wild stab.
"Try to be a little lighter for me!" she shouted over the wind.
Applejack threw an annoyed glare up to Rainbow as she grinned that stupid grin of hers. She might have popped her on the muzzle under most circumstances, but that seemed counter-intuitive given her situation.
"Less of the heaviness would be nice!" Rainbow winked at her and squeezed her playfully.
Featherbrain, Applejack thought to herself.
It took awhile, but Applejack produced a smile, thanks to the feeling of security in Rainbow's tight grip. It certainly took some getting used to, but she had already started feeling a little dizzy from the excitement of the novel experience.
Rainbow's lips brushed past her ear, though, and drew her attention.
“I'm gonna take us higher.”
Applejack's eyes widened marginally. A cold not of the weather's making, but her body's own, flooded through her veins. Her nervous trembles began again...
“It gets a little chilly up there, so try to snuggle up, okay? And uh..." Rainbow paused, and squeezed her chest a couple times, "remember to keep breathing!”
It was only then that Applejack finally noticed that she had been holding her breath for several long moments. It had little to do with the impending temperature shift and had more to do with the thought of everything she could put her hooves on being left so far behind. She hadn't even factored in Rainbow's innumerable crashes.
She could probably tally all of them up with the number of feathers on the pegasi's wings...
Applejack winced.
“Hang on!” Rainbow shouted, squeezing her tighter and building up power and speed for ascent.
Applejack didn't know what to hang on to, so she simply braced herself.
Rainbow flexed her wings and curved upward into a rising rainbow-colored arc towards the still-dark and starry skies. Applejack could feel it becoming harder and harder just to keep her face from pulling back due to the wind forces at work. She pressed her lips closed as firmly as she could – anything to prevent those fancy aerodynamical thingies from making flying harder for Rainbow. Suddenly she felt the bitter chill of the open air meeting water as they passed through a cloud layer.
Even when her eyes instinctively clenched shut, Applejack was glad that Rainbow had been thoughtful enough to give her the goggles.
She could only imagine what Rainbow's face was having to endure.
The air felt lighter and colder the higher up they flew. Applejack couldn't keep track of how long they were ascending, but thought she felt herself go through a few more clouds – her coat felt quite damp as the wind sliced through it.
And the pair kept climbing and climbing and climbing and the temperature kept falling and falling and falling...
A shiver passed through her and she kind of wished she'd thought to bring a scarf at least.
Applejack's nervousness grew into fear of what she would see when she opened her eyes again. The way it felt, she thought they might be flying right up to touch Celestia's sunrise with their own hooves.
With how cold it had gotten, she felt like it wouldn't be such a bad idea at that point.
Rainbow Dash continued to climb, right up to where Applejack felt lightheaded and found a little trouble catching her breath. At last it felt to her like they were starting to take it easy and level out. It was bitter, bitter cold, though with Rainbow pressed against her back and her legs wrapped around her, the effect was dulled.
Rainbow remained strangely warm despite everything, and the farmgirl snuggled closer to take advantage of the sensation.
“Now, before you open your eyes,” the pegasus said softly and calmly, “I want you to promise me you'll be cool, okay? I've gotcha, and I'm not gonna let you fall or anything.”
Applejack hesitated as she mentally prepared herself, and gave a small nod in reply. She felt Rainbow exhale in relief.
“Well, this is it,” Rainbow said softly to Applejack, going into what felt like a glide. Either her ears had acclimated to the noise, or they had settled down at a speed where she could hear and speak with less difficulty. Judging the wind, it almost felt like the pegasus was hovering. She squeezed her reassuringly. “This is the best place to watch sunrises from,” she said with a smile. “I think you're gonna like it...”
Applejack hesitated to open her eyes. All of her thoughts remained back on the ground, being there, and being safe, away from whatever dizzying heights she had almost assuredly been brought to.
She'd kiss the dirt, assuming she ever got to touch it again...
Slowly, carefully, Applejack cracked open one eye, peering through her lashes.
The horizon was still there – so at least they weren't dancing in between the stars, thankfully. Out farther than the earth could reach were splotches of faint yellow, orange, red and pink, with a dim purple cocoon expanding outward across the sky as dawn approached.
So far so good...
“AJ, you can relax now. Promise,” Rainbow said. It was only then that Applejack realized how sore her muscles had grown from holding still with all her might.
The earth pony took as deep a breath as she could.
She'd come up all this way. May as well see what all the fuss was about.
As her goggled eyes slowly opened to have a look around, she noticed a complete lack of anything. A few mountainous clouds loomed off in the distance, but it seemed impossible to tell just how high they were...
… until she looked down.
Applejack's heart leapt into her throat and her coat paled several shades as her body stiffened again.
The ground was down there, so far away that she couldn't even make anything out. Buildings of villages were dots, and even the clouds were so far below that many looked like they could be held in one's hoof.
"So how's it feel to be ten thousand feet up?" Rainbow asked. Applejack could sense the giddy grin on her face. "Pretty cool, huh?"
Applejack didn't process the information, and instead began to flail about in her panic. Her body wouldn't listen to her mind's commands to calm down, that it was only making things worse.
She could feel Rainbow Dash behind her struggling to keep a hold of her.
“Whoa, whoa, hey...” the pegasus consoled softly into her ear. “It's okay. I've gotcha, remember?” she reassured her.
Applejack's chest heaved in numb terror, her heart bouncing off the walls of her ribcage. She took a few deep breaths, and managed to rein in the wriggling she'd been doing.
She knew it wasn't a ride she could just get off of, yet despite the yawning void between her and a gruesome death, she just couldn't tear her frightened gaze away from the ground miles below her. Something about it was hypnotizing.
“Applejack...” Rainbow whispered softly. Her name being called to her seemed to catch Applejack's attention and break the spell that terror had placed over her. “Chill. Okay?” she said firmly but gently to her friend. “I promise, I'm not gonna hurt ya, no matter what,” she said.
Rainbow Dash didn't receive anything but an affirmative whimper in return.
Several long moments passed, and Applejack squeezed her eyes shut.
“Rainbow, I'm scared. I wanna go down...” Applejack said through a strained voice.
“Come on AJ. Just... try to make out all the trees down there!” Rainbow nudged. “Make some noise – get excited! You're probably the highest-flying earth pony in history or something!”
Applejack gave pause, but Rainbow's good moods had always been contagious for the most part, and feeling the accomplishment of flying so high renewed Applejack's spirits somewhat. Her nervousness slowly yielded as she felt a shaky chuckle run through her. Or maybe that was a chill. Gradually, she allowed her rubbery legs to dangle beneath her, just to get a feel of how far away from the ground she was.
Soaring so high overhead while she was normally so much farther down was an intoxicating prospect.
Applejack's breath left her all at once in a nervous and halfhearted laugh as her eyes widened towards the dizzingly distant earth.
Slowly a full smile formed on her lips, and she felt the exhilaration of being up so high. So much so, that she was unconsciously trying to reach out towards the ground and clouds far below.
She could hear Rainbow Dash's attempts to not laugh, but frankly she didn't care.
Applejack took to a half-gallop on the empty air. But the sudden distraction of all of Applejack's movement caused Rainbow to abandon her sense of humor. Applejack could feel the pegasus's struggles to keep her from slipping out of her grip.
“AJ, you're kinda moving around a lot,” Rainbow said in an annoyed tone.
“S-sorry,” Applejack apologized as she snapped her legs back into position underneath her.
Her friend gave her a comforting nuzzle to the back of her head and nudged her to turn her eyes toward the horizon ahead.
Applejack looked up.
“Check it out,” Rainbow said softly, calling her friend's attention to the sun starting to stir from its slumber.
Applejack gazed out to the west. She'd never seen a sunrise so bright and vivid and clear before. The sky was so clean and uninterrupted by trees or hills or mountains that she felt like she could see clear to the end of the world.
“This is my favorite part,” Rainbow said.
As dawn broke, the sun's golden rays began to trace the far horizon, almost like it was painting a picture. There was a bright pink flash as the day began, and then things gradually began to brighten to the point where it was hard for Applejack to look at it directly.
Even so, she had a hard time looking at anything else.
“Wow... That's mighty pretty...” she said out in amazement.
“Uh-uh.” Rainbow shook her head. “You ain't seen nothin' yet.”
Applejack peered up to her friend and blinked.
Rainbow leaned in and whispered to her, “Just watch. The show's not over yet.”
It still didn't make sense to her, but the farmgirl did as instructed.
She watched. She waited.
It took a short while, but at last she saw what Rainbow had been on about, and her emerald eyes widened.
The sun's light quietly and gracefully raced along over the land below. Shadows drowned in it, and were replaced by a murky twilight. It looked to Applejack like the world had opened its eyes from sleep. The sunshine rolled over tired hills and weary meadows, penetrated shady forests, spilled into the glistening waters of sleepy lakes, and embraced far-off towns in the promise of a new day.
The sight took Applejack's breath away for the umpteenth time that morning.
She finally understood why dawn was so special to a pegasus on the wing. She knew why Rainbow had gone so far to give it to her.
And she had to admit it to herself... she was jealous.
"Wow..."
Applejack was so mesmerized by the sun's performance that she hadn't noticed Rainbow drifting with her over towards a massive white field below them, even as the light stretched like like the tide across the land. A warm rush raced through her, despite the cold air. If only they could have brought the other girls along.
Applejack wished she had a way with poetry so she could capture the moment for the less fortunate ground-bound ponies who would never know what a pegasus took for granted.
She had started trying to figure out a way to work such imagery into that book she had wanted to write when Rainbow nudged her with her leg, drawing her attention.
“Hey, Applejack? Would you mind if I tried something? I mean, you trust me, right?”
Applejack's emerald eyes widened marginally.
She already didn't like the question. She would've given anything to lie at that moment. She wanted to say no. She wanted to say that Rainbow was the last pony in the world she would ever trust, and to put whatever crazy idea she was having right out of that thick pegasus headbone of hers.
But she was the Element of Honesty...
“Y-yes?” she answered nervously, her voice breaking.
Rainbow looked at her with a disturbingly-bright smile on her face.
"You do? For serious?"
Applejack gulped. "Yes..."
"You're cool?"
Applejack felt her stomach roll, and she bit her lip before nodding again.
“Awesome!" Rainbow squealed loudly. "This is gonna be sooo sweet!”
Uh oh. "Sweet" didn't sound like a good thing to hear right then. "Sweet" things, given the circumstance, sounded ominous. Wasn't what they were doing right then just the right flavor? What did her soft sugar-minded friend have in mind all of a sudden?
Applejack's brow creased, and she wished she'd thought to make out a will before their departure.
Rainbow squeezed her around her chest tightly, calling her eyes back up to meet her friend's.
The pegasus's gaze didn't have the same overabundant enthusiasm from before, but they still betrayed an urgent eagerness. A want. A fire.
A need.
“AJ?” Rainbow asked her once again, “Do you, like, really trust me? You totally know that I'd never hurt you. Right?”
Applejack shared her gaze with Rainbow for a moment, looking into those painfully-genuine eyes. Her fear didn't subside with Rainbow's promise, and despite her confidence in Rainbow's ability, she wasn't sure if the pegasus knew her limits with a passenger.
She had looked so excited though, like Applebloom on Hearth's Warming Eve ready to open her presents. It was endearing, though not exactly confidence-inspiring.
Applejack had never been one to disappoint a friend though.
In spite of her fears, Applejack resigned and nodded hesitantly.
Rainbow's face lit up, and Applejack could see her mind switch gears from curious apprehension into a mode of her far more typical and all-consuming gusto.
Applejack felt the heaviness in her stomach continue to grow.
Rainbow gripped her tightly, barely holding back her jubilation. Suddenly, the pegasus gave her wings a mighty flap, increasing the pair's speed dramatically all over again. Rainbow flexed her primaries and entered an almost vertical climb.
Applejack groaned uncomfortably and wondered what Rainbow Dash could possibly be up to when all of a sudden, a feeling of weightlessness descended upon her. For a brief moment, she felt confused by the sensation – it felt an awful lot like when Rainbow Dash was decelerating with her before...
Then she looked down and the realization hit her, along with an empty feeling she had never known before.
Rainbow Dash had released her into thin-air.
She dropped me, Applejack thought in disbelief.
It wasn't mind-numbing panic that seized her first – that came later, after her thinker had come unstuck from all the ice that had built up in her head. First came confusion. Then as realization took hold, she felt the soreness of shock, bewilderment and a sense of betrayal seize her deep in her throat.
She no longer flew with Rainbow Dash. She was free-falling. Alone.
As her body rolled out of the last bit of its momentum-driven climb, her head pointed back towards the ground ten thousand feet below. At last, mindless fear seized her by the brain stem and send an icy chill of terror down her spine. She winced as the air began to rush up at her and all around her, the cold stabbing and slicing through her coat like knives. The remaining hairband in her mane tore itself free from the speeds she was falling at.
Like a blonde meteor, Applejack plummeted face-first towards the merciless earth below.
She wanted to freak out. Every part of her wanted to scream. She wanted to feel like she could run on the air down all the way to the safety of the ground below, and give Rainbow Dash a good, stern talking to when this whole ordeal was over and done with.
No, no, NO! Applejack insisted to herself as she looked away from the earth. You told Rainbow you trusted 'er. So trust 'er fer Pete's sake! She ain't gonna let ya fall. She ain't gonna letcha fall...
Applejack had only herself to reassure her at the moment. Rainbow was nowhere to be seen.
She knew it was ridiculous – but for the briefest of moments, she entertained the thought that her doubt had caused Rainbow to magically evaporate like a wisp of cloud, leaving her to fall to her doom alone. In her frantic state, though, rational thought began to fail her, and in the seconds after, she could think only of the goodbyes to friends and family that she feared she would never get to say.
Those few seconds felt like a lifetime. Applejack felt the pit of dread expanding in her chest, squeezing out the trust her heart had held so tightly to, and she covered her goggled eyes behind her hooves.
All that came out of her was the smallest of puppy-dog whines.
She fell and fell and fell and could only wait for the inevitable.
It wasn't for another moment or two that Applejack had the nerve to look again.
And there, like some strange blue angel sent from Heaven itself was the completely crazy Rainbow Dash, rainbow-colored mane flapping wildly in the wind. She wasn't far – maybe ten feet or so away. Her wings were folded at her side, in a free-fall, much like she was at the moment. Applejack was confused.
Was something wrong? Was Dash hurt? Couldn't she fly?
That simple smile from Rainbow Dash, and the shimmering of her magenta eyes reflecting off the sunrise somewhere behind Applejack put those fears to bed. Her all-too-fast breathing eased somewhat, and she stared through tear-soaked goggles at her friend.
Applejack flailed, reaching out as far as her legs could stretch for Dash to catch her, to take her hoof – anything! She needed to feel Rainbow's embrace again. She needed to feel her blue angel's hooves wrap around her and carry her safely back to the ground. Her pounding heart couldn't take the torment anymore.
Rainbow reached out and took her hoof gently into hers, guiding her into her waiting grasp. Emotions of every color of the rainbow flooded through Applejack's mind. She felt different shades of anger and relief all at once. But most of all, what she had yearned for above all else was warmth.
Applejack squeezed her eyes tight, and wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow as firmly as she could without hurting her, burying her face against the pegasi's neck.
Rainbow leaned forward and said into Applejack's ear, "Sorry I'm late. It took me a second to catch up."
Applejack didn't reply. She didn't need to know what had taken Rainbow so long to catch up to her, or why she hadn't warned her of what had been coming. She found her contentment in the safe and warm envelop of her blue angel, feeling Rainbow's soft fluffy coat against her cheek, her strong legs holding her closely, her hooves cradling her and caressing her back and assuring her that all was well.
Rainbow flared her wings, and gave the pair some semblance of stability as they continued their plunge.
She wouldn't let anything happen to them. They'd be okay. Applejack was sure of it then. Their dive would end and they would land safely.
Then she could rail on Rainbow for all she was worth.
"You know," Applejack heard her friend speak gently into her ear, "I must be without a doubt the craziest pony in all of Equestria to want to ruin something like this..." She felt Rainbow's hoof softly stroke up along her back and neck and over her cheek. Applejack felt her goggles catch, and she looked up to Rainbow in confusion. Her cyan face had turned a vivid scarlet, and there lurked something in that mischievous expression of hers. What it possibly could have been though, Applejack didn't have the time to place before the flight goggles she had been wearing ripped away from her face against the violent wind resistance.
Applejack forced her blurry eyes shut, confused by Rainbow's sudden and peculiar behavior. The harsh wind and cold temperatures far outclassed an earth pony's tolerances, and the tears she had collected in the vision device trickled up and away along her cheeks.
Applejack felt blinded and helpless. She could only hold tightly, and hoped that Rainbow hadn't lost her mind.
The kiss came suddenly and without any warning at all.
Applejack couldn't feel sure what had happened at first as her eyes forced themselves open. Rainbow's warm lips lingered upon Applejack's own and pressed firmly into place. She had thought it some kind of strange joke at first, until Rainbow wrapped her wings and hooves around her, and pulled herself flush against her.
Applejack's sparkling green eyes flew wide open, despite the whipping air making it unbearable to do so. Rainbow Dash had begun kissing her in the middle of a deadly free-fall at over a hundred miles per hour.
She didn't know how long they'd been falling, but she felt sure they couldn't be too far from the ground.
Thoughts of such things faded out of her focus, though, as Applejack's realization zeroed in entirely on the fact that she was being kissed by Rainbow Dash. A surge of heat emanated from the pegasus's body, and molten adrenaline flooded Applejack's veins, negating the chill brought on by her fear and the biting air.
There was no word to describe the awe she felt at that moment. Surprise, amazement, wonder, anger, confusion, all were too weak to describe the emotions she found herself swimming in. Time seemed to blur and lose meaning. For her, the ground could have been a thousand miles away as easily as a few inches.
It grew harder to breathe as Rainbow squeezed her tighter and tighter. Applejack's already-tried lungs ceded oxygen, forcing her to take a deep breath through her nose. She couldn't move her legs to push Rainbow away and free her lips to breathe. Rainbow's wings pinned her limbs, and rendered her immobile.
Then something strange happened. Every feeling that had consumed Applejack in those few moments began to subside and be replaced by something else – something novel.
It didn't feel quite like excitement, though it seemed similar. It felt like excitement, but set to a symphony of music. It felt richer, stronger, louder, and more compelling and consuming than ever before.
This "new" excitement swelled to a crescendo and hung on a long, loud, harmonic note that sent chills through her entire being.
A host of other emotions rode in on the same wave, confusion chief among them, but different from before. The sentiments swamping Applejack, so many hitting her at once, blocked out any one of them from reaching the surface. All that happened, all that Applejack would remember afterward, was that in that one, tense, uncontrolled, unthinking and perfectly honest point in Infinity, she made one uncontrolled, unthinking, and perfectly honest decision, and wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow's neck, and entered into the same bewildering bliss Rainbow must have assuredly felt.
Those few seconds seemed to last far longer than any amount of time they could have possibly occupied.
***
I'm kissing her.
Holy cow! I'm kissing her!
Rainbow herself couldn't place exactly where the sudden urge had come from. She remembered looping up and away from Applejack after releasing her from her grip. The two had angled away from each other in a slanted heart-shaped maneuver. Earth ponies had a higher terminal velocity than Rainbow figured though, and she had actually had to catch up to her with some amount of effort.
There had been something there when her and Applejack's eyes met again. She saw something in how Applejack had looked at her so longingly – how she had needed her so badly. She had felt her heart skip when she saw the way Applejack had reached out for her, and the despair in her own heart when she saw that desperation to be close to and held by her again.
But most of all, what she would remember most had to be the warmth she felt, as Applejack had hugged her so fiercely, so needfully and so close, like she would never let go of her ever again.
Something had hijacked Rainbow's instincts at that point and overpowered her with a hunger. A primal passion. Something raw and beautiful at the same time.
It honestly hadn't even felt like she had been the one coordinating her body for half a second. Rainbow had been conscious of the fact she had done it, but it hadn't felt like it had been her at the stick.
After it happened, she only wanted it to never end. Everything clicked into place. The Universe was aligned in perfect synchronization. A wave of calm swept over the entire world. Good and Evil themselves took pause in their eternal struggle in silent respect and admiration for what had transpired. The stars and sun shone a bit brighter, and the air smelled a bit sweeter. Everything felt absolutely perfect.
Then everything was on fire. Every part of Rainbow seemed to become inflamed by the blaze that rushed through her like a raging hurricane. In those few seconds, Rainbow felt a thousand times higher than she had ever flown in her entire life. Her legs devoured Applejack into her embrace. She had never felt what it was like to hold somepony so closely, so dearly, so gently, yet so firmly.
Never in her life had she felt such a mind-numbing urge for possession.
Nothing, nopony could steal this from her right now. It stirred every bit of her into motion and welded her and Applejack together like they had been grazed by a bolt of lightning.
Then the kiss continued, even as Rainbow flared her wings and caught the air like a kite.
Even the multiple-G deceleration wasn't enough to tear the two ponies apart in the middle of their amorous maneuver.
Rainbow leveled out over the white field. Their lips remained locked together, even as she skimmed mere inches over the ground.
Even as the flowers tickled along Applejack's back.
Even as untold numbers of petals were pulled from their blossoms and into the pegasus's wake.
Even as Rainbow looped up and over in a gentle arc.
She glided softly in a corkscrew into the most delicate, controlled, and undramatic landing she had ever managed to achieve, all amidst a floral snowfall. All four of Rainbow's hooves met the earth at once. Applejack's legs were still crushingly-tight around her torso, their lips still merged in a blissful mingling. Gradually, the heat of the moment began to subside, tempered by the coolness of reason.
Rainbow was the first to break lip contact. "AJ–"
Applejack, however, hadn't gained her reputation for persistence without reason. Rainbow's eyes widened as Applejack yanked her back in, her ears pricking in surprise, and her wings bristling out in a rather embarrassing manner.
Far be it from Rainbow to turn down something she had already been enjoying.
The pegasus knelt and lay herself on top of the farmgirl, pressing her head down into the waving field with her lips. Her hoof stroked over her ear and through her yellow mane as the sun bore curious, lone witness upon them from the east.
Applejack's heart still beat out of control. Rainbow Dash's did too, but for an entirely different reason.
Rainbow was contented for quite awhile. She couldn't count the number of seconds or minutes or whatever they shared before she nuzzled herself out of the kiss again and had a breathy, nervous chuckle.
"A-AJ, we're on the ground now. You can let go anytime." She paused. "And I'd kinda like to breathe soon?"
Applejack stared up at Rainbow, and finally seemed to come back to her senses. She released her painful squeeze and retracted her legs. Rainbow shot to her hooves and finally caught the deep breath that she had so badly needed.
"Hoo!" she exclaimed and took a few large gulps of air. She grinned elatedly and looked around at the little piece of Paradise she'd stumbled across. Not many trees grew for shade; the ground was largely flat with gentle hills and the field just went on forever. From the ground, the edge of the flower meadow couldn't be seen, and likely extended for miles in all directions – not like she'd been paying much attention during landing. A small, clear brook cut a small watery path through the wilderness, leaving them with a gentle splashing backdrop of noise. As if on-cue, the wind began to pick up and join in the orchestra, kissing her senses with the sweet smell of the fields.
"Huh... Not a bad place." Rainbow's eyes finally came around to meet Applejack's.
Rainbow gulped, and her normally-blue face was accented by a heavy shading of red as memories of the recent event surged back into focus. Her lips still tingled from the long-held affections.
"Umm..." she started lamely.
Do something! Think already, airhead, think! she demanded of herself. Her brain was still asleep at the controls.
A few, silent heartbeats went by. If she'd left her mouth hanging much longer, she could have caught a fly or two.
"...H-Hi?" was all she managed to squeak out.
I'm dead to me now...
Applejack shakily laughed, her eyes darting side to side. "Yeah... hi," she replied.
An awkward silence settled over the both of them. Neither really noticed the sun glancing off all the drifting petals blowing around them on the breeze and clinging to their coats.
"We, uh..."
"... should talk?"
Rainbow nodded softly and smiled awkwardly. "Uh-huh."
There was an instant in time where it felt like the world had hit Pause.
"Okay..." Applejack agreed. She came across as defensive and as vulnerable as Rainbow Dash had ever seen her before. The heat started creeping back into her cheeks again, and the urge to kiss Applejack once more had to be marehandled back into her mind's back closet.
"So, uhh..." Rainbow Dash hesitated. "How about we start with–"
"–what the hay that was about?" Applejack finished for her. It didn't come across as an angry tone, but it did feel like a tone that demanded clarification.
"Yeah! Sure. Sounds like as good a place to start as any..."
The two remained together, silent again for what felt like hours to Rainbow. Neither pony really wanted to make the first play. Neither wanted to say the first words, fearing that they could be the wrong ones to utter, and end everything in one spectacular disaster.
"S-so..." Applejack stammered.
"S-so...?" Rainbow echoed unintentionally.
"Umm... what the hay was that about?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow gulped.
Oh boy... Rainbow thought fearfully. The ball had landed in her court...
"Uhh..." Several long beats went by, with nothing but the gusts of wind to highlight the long absence of sound coming out of Rainbow's mouth.
Smooth... her more critical half thought accusingly.
Shut up! she thought back.
"I... I guess..." Rainbow fumbled nervously, "I guess I dunno. I dunno why I did it. All I know is that I just wanted to do it all of a sudden... and it felt like something cool to do. It felt, like, right, or something..." She paused and smiled as charmingly as she could manage. She reached up to scratch behind her head, trying to think up anything she could say or do to disarm the fury Applejack would surely unleash. She hadn't exactly lied – it had felt like the right thing to do at the time. Regardless, though, dropping such a thing on somepony all at once had been a bad idea. Applejack would likely chew her out and demand to be taken home.
But it never happened. None of the fury, anger, frustration, or even disappointment she had expected to receive ever came from Applejack as she lay beneath her. She just fidgeted a little, averted her gaze and avoided looking her in the eye as her cheeks turned a rosy color. It almost looked like she felt... worried, or something, the way she knocked her hooves together.
"O-oh. Alrighty then..."
Well, wait. That sounded like disappointment. Rainbow blinked and one of her ears drooped. Her brow began to crease.
Applejack gulped anxiously. "Uhh... th-think ya could let me up now?"
"Hey, waitaminute!" Rainbow's voice broke as she leaned forward and pushed Applejack back to the ground. "What about you?" she demanded. Her frown evolved into a rather telling smirk, and her tail lashed back and forth as the energy of the situation shifted suddenly. "You were kissing me there just a few seconds ago! What do you have to say for yourself?"
Those gem-like eyes of Applejack's widened and looked for an explanation floating by on the breeze that never came.
"Y-you kissed me first!" she protested louder than she probably meant. Her muzzle darkened to a color similar to Big Mac's coat. "I was... I just... I didn't want ya ta feel bad... is all..."
The radiance of Rainbow's grin right at that moment could have made Celestia's sun blush.
"You are such a terrible liar! You were totally into me, weren't you?" Rainbow Dash had felt positively giddy a few times in her life: when she'd won her first Junior Fliers' Competition, when she'd gotten to meet the Wonderbolts at the Gala, and when she'd finally gotten to have a mug of Applejack's famous family cider for the very first time.
The morning they had just shared had the honor of joining that elite corps.
"I-I was not!" challenged Applejack. Her voice broke though, and came out as a squeak, ruining any effect her protests might have had. Her blush spread all over her face, and she turned her head to try and avoid Rainbow Dash's vexatious expression.
Instead of arguing, Rainbow Dash leaned forward, and nuzzled into Applejack's muzzle softly, prompting another adorably-embarrassing squeak from her. Applejack seemed hesitant for a moment, but after a soft kiss to her freckled cheek, she eventually gave back to the snuggle. Silence hung in the air for a time, with only the breath of the world and the trickle of the stream nearby to keep them company.
"So... what does this mean?" Rainbow Dash asked as she momentarily discontinued her nuzzling.
"Wh–" Applejack blinked and looked up to Rainbow demurely. "What do ya mean?"
"I mean, what does... this mean?" Rainbow shrugged to her friend. "Everything that just happened, y'know?"
Applejack seemed to consider for a moment, her eyes having trouble meeting her gaze as she seemed to shrink a bit beneath her. There wasn't much else she could look at, aside from all the flowers she was up to her cheeks in, of course.
"R-Reckon I... I dunno. What do you it means?"
Rainbow Dash thought for a moment.
"I dunno... I mean, I guess it could mean whatever we want it to mean."
Applejack looked down to Rainbow's chest.
"And... what do we want it to mean?"
Rainbow thought. "Well... I guess it means maybe we should... stick around here maybe, and figure it out?"
Rainbow couldn't come up with the word "date" like she had wanted, so scattered were her thoughts. All she could think of was how pleasantly warm Applejack's coat was on that brisk morning, and how much she would like to just stay where they were, snuggling all morning, munching on the readily-available flowers, and sipping from the stream.
Applejack peered up to her best friend. "We... should?"
"Yeah! Totally!" Rainbow exclaimed. A smile crossed her face.
Applejack paused, and let out a shriek when she realized what she thought she knew what Rainbow Dash meant. She punched a hoof roughly against Rainbow's chest. "R-Rainbow! We... we just kissed barely a few minutes ago!" she protested, covering her igniting face with her forelegs.
Rainbow winced painfully and rubbed the sore spot where Applejack had struck her.
"So what?" she asked, confused.
It took a moment for the old hamster wheel got to rolling again, and Rainbow's expression morphed into one of questionable scrupulousness when she realized what Applejack had thought up.
Huh... and here I thought she'd be a prude...
"That's not exactly what I meant..." She paused. "I mean, so what if we kinda did that old pegasus courting ritual thing?” Rainbow said, scratching her chin.
“The what-now?” Applejack asked, acting a bit worried, and perhaps a bit miffed by the wordage.
Rainbow coughed. “Uhh... w-well... uhh... see, back in the old days, when Equestria was still new, pegasus ponies had an old tradition. A stallion would steal something valuable from a mare he liked and get her to chase him. And they'd usually sort of do that a few times until they started talking and stuff. Then they'd fly together way up as high as they could right before they blacked out and then go into a free-fall and meet in mid-air. They'd kiss, and snuggle and stuff, and right before they hit the ground, the guy would open his wings and glide the girl he wanted as close to the ground as possible while she hung onto him. If she was impressed... well, then they'd hit the nest and... make really strong, cool babies or something...”
Applejack gaped at her.
Rainbow bit her lip and averted her eyes. "I-I read it in one of Twilight's books."
The farmgirl stared at Rainbow hesitantly as her green eyes started to shimmer, and despite her most valiant efforts, her lip quivered in the most adorable way imaginable.
“So that's what ya think?” Applejack asked with a forced huff. “Ya think ya can just be mah best friend for twelve years–"
"Thirteen years?"
"–then ya suddenly start stealin' mah hat from me, freeload much as ya please, drag me into the sky, show me some pretty sight, do some crazy stunt, scare the livin' bejeepers outta me," Applejack paused to catch her breath, trying to hide the fact that she was on the verge of crying. "And then after all that, ya think ya can just sweep me offa mah hooves, drag me off ta bed to make me sing like a canary?” she asked, even as tears began to pour in great waterfalls down that red-stricken orange face.
Rainbow Dash's smile came naturally to her. It didn't feel perverted or lascivious to her; it felt real.
“Well... how about dinner instead? And maybe we could run through Whitetail Woods. I know this great hill in a clearing not far from where we do the Running of the Leaves. Great view of the stars at night, and nopony even knows about it but me.”
Applejack was silent for a long time, her eyes clenching shut until Rainbow's muzzle softly met with Applejack's again, her nose brushing ever-so-gently against hers.
Rainbow bit her lip.
"But y'know... I wouldn't mind all that much if you said you had been impressed, or said I was the most amazing flier ever, or that I was super-stupendously-outstandamazing in every way imaginable." Rainbow snorted an uneasy laugh at herself. "So, here we are, me and you, and I'm reeeeeally hoping I haven't scared away the most amazingly, awesomely second-most-perfect pony I've ever known in my entire life and... well, ever will know," Rainbow admitted, smiling nervously. "And what scares me the most is that I might have made her hate me because of some stupid trick I pulled..."
Never once in her life had Rainbow felt so exposed. She may as well have been chained to the wall with a spear held at her throat. Anything would have been better than the suspense she had to endure.
Had she gone too far in her teasing to label Applejack as the second-most perfect pony? Maybe she should have given up her title just for that one time...
Mercifully, she didn't have to wait for her answer that long.
“Land sakes, fine! Shut up already! Ya won yer girl ya overgrown feather duster!” Applejack's voice quivered happily. “Now shut yer stupid yap and kiss me already!”
Rainbow may as well have flown over the moon. Her eagerness to comply startled even herself.
Neither pony gave any thought, after that moment, to how they would get home, or what time it was, or whether anypony knew where they had gone. Neither pony felt afraid of what "it" meant, or the labels to come with it – or at least, they didn't express such fears. Neither thought about the future, or the other ponies in their lives and what they would say or how they would react, or how it might change things – because none of that mattered. Nothing else mattered.
To them, there was only that perfect moment, the warmth of each other, and the sun rising over something new.
Author's Note
End of Perfect Days part 2.
