Why is Romance So Hard?

Seventy-two hours, three days, three out of four days out of the long week that was continued, whatever you wanted to call it, it was three days after the aftermath that had happened with Fluttershy and Rarity. Rainbow Dash hung her head down from over a cloud while her rainbow tail flicked timidly, and her magenta eyes were closed underneath her lids. Her eyes lashes were short and hardly even reached for her cheek, but she could feel them tickling her fur lightly, toying with her. She always despised long eyelashes, even on other ponies. She would often times wonder why ponies from Manehattan and fashionista (like no in praticular pony she knew...) would wear cosmetic appliances or false eyelashes to lengthen them.

That may have just been her though, normally boring, but terribly awesome Rainbow Dash. The best flier in all of Ponyville, perhaps even Equesteria, a close friend of one of the few princesses that ruled over her homeland, and the Element of Loyatly. What else could a pegasus want? Her eyes slowly fluttered open as she stared down near the farmhouse. It was early morning, still quite dark outside and the pegasus had come here early on this specific morning to watch her best friend approach from her ancient house and take on her early morning chores. It wasn't harvesting season, and none of the trees were in bloom until a few weeks, so Applejack would busy herself with working around the farm, wrestling with the animals or feeding them, and helping her little sister with her own chores. She had to admit that even though Applejack was an independent pony, she did have a knack for being able to center herself around the Apple family before her own needs.

The orange pony trotted out of her house, her normal brown worn hat on her head as the edges bounced up and down with the movement of her athletic form, her eyes glowed with a sense of pride as she halted and drew in a deep breath at the fresh air that surrounded the farm, her jade eyes turned around to keep a glance at the farm, making sure that every tree that she could see within eyesight was well prepared for harvesting season just a few weeks away. To maintain the reputation as the best apple making family, they needed the best trees to do it for. Even the weakest of trees could make this years harvest a failure, and bring a terrible blow into the income of the four ponies that lived together.  Rainbow Dash swelled with pride while she watched Applejack glance left and then right, before galloping around the barn at a mind blowing pace, perhaps beginning to burn her anxieties that were weighing her down.

When she was finished, she drew in a deep breath and slouched down on her haunches, stretching out her front hooves in several different positions, even burying the tips of her hooves in the ground a few times while she stretched far and wide. Her blonde mane was messed up now, and Rainbow Dash was rather surprised to see how long and flowing it was since the ponytail that usually held it in place was now gone, at least for now. Even with her hair down and frizzed, even the sight of her was breath taking as the sun was beginning to peak over the the two hills that neighboured nearby. The glow was warm and would be at a full rise by mid afternoon, where Rainbow Dash knew that Applejack would be caring for her chores of preparing for the harvest with Big Mac.

Drawing in a deep breath, she decided to take her chances and slyly dove down behind a tree, dodging her way and weaving in and out of the trees, attempting to stick to the shadows for now. At last, she was at the tree nearest to Applejack, and cleared her throat, fluffed up her mane a bit and messed it up to appear a bit more laid back than usual, and walked forward."Hey Applejack," she said in a light whisper, but when Applejack turned to glance at her, she was beginning to snicker. She covered her mouth with her hoof and turned away, her body heaving in spits of laughter.

"AJ? What's so funny?" The impatience rose in the cyan ponies voice, and she stamped her hoof in the ground out of irritation. When she was younger the sound of other people laughing always felt as if they were mocking her, but this time when it came from Applejack, it stung as if the Cockatrice was pecking at her head. Applejack turned back towards her and drew in a few deep breaths, but had now fallen to her haunches once more as she closed her eyes, attempting to relax herself.

"Oh nelly, ah wouldn't of saw that if yah hadn't stepped out of them there shadows Dash. Yah-yah kind of have somethin' in your mane.." She pointed at her own mane now, indicating it near her bangs. Rainbow Dash raised her hoof and began sliding a bit in her bangs and up more, until her hoof caught onto something rather disgustingly gooey. When she pulled her hoof away, she stared down at a brown and white substance, and her eyes narrowed. Applejack was now staring at her with a very bad poker face.

"Right... thanks AJ. Do you think I could go wash up in the house?" Rainbow glanced at her hopefully but her body was beginning to quiver in anger. Since when did Sweet Apple Acres ever have avians that would poop on the Rainbow Dash. Every animal that could fly she be warned of who she was and what power she held, but now that she thought about it, that sounded a bit greedy and power hungry. The exact opposite of what Applejack ever wanted in a special somepony, and she knew that without a doubt.

" 'Fraid not sugarcube, ah still got Granny Smith an' Apple Bloom sleepin' in there. It'd be mighty unkind of ya to wake 'em up. Granny Smith hasn't been feelin' ta good lately, ah'm hopin' that our visit to the doctor a few weeks ago is goin' to help her." She looked down at the ground now, and drew down her hat from her head, holding it tightly against her chest. It was always a sign of when Applejack was apologetic or upset about something.  Rainbow Dash slowly stepped forward and opened her mouth to speak, but Applejack continued, her voice was quivering now out of worry."But ah suppose ya can go use the house to wash up.." She turned around and point her hat in the direction of the long house wound up neatly against the barn, dripping a bit with fresh water.

Rainbow Dash gave a small, fake smile and moved her way over to the house. Being a pegasus often times meant that farming equipment wasn't used on the residents of Cloudsdale and that included hoses. As she spun the wheel as she saw Applejack due several times, she waited. Only a small trickle of water drained out, and the pegasus's eyes narrowed with determentation. She retried another three times with the same results, and out of impatience, she turned it on full blast and held it to her face. Instead of a small trickle, an entire fountains worth of water sprouted out and drenched the pegasus from head to hoof. Her mane was dripping wet, and her wings shone with the droplets of water. Applejack ran over to her friend, and appeared rather concerned."Are you alright Dashie, nothing hurt ya right?"

"Yeah I'm alrig-" Her words were cut off as her eyes widened in surprise. She stared at awe at AJ, had she just referred to her as Dashie? Dashie was a special name that was usually referred to her by Pinkie Pie, her pranking buddy and her third closest friend after Fluttershy, not that she liked picking favorites with her friends, but AJ had just called her that. Why Dashie? The name sounded like honey running from the mares lips, and Dash's ears perked up with a bit of anticipation. It sounded like a smooth melody to her, and her knees threatened to buckle under her weight, but Applejack waved a hoof in her face, staring at her with concern,"I'm alright." She finally managed to gulp down her words, and stretched out wings, shaking off the remaining water.. but it drenched Applejack now.

Her orange cut was wet, her beautiful golden mane was now sticking to it, and her jade eyes shone with that fire that every last one of her friends adored. The stuborn streak was back, but she reared up and smacked her hooves down in front of Rainbow Dash,"You stubborn pegasus, what was that for?" Her voice was surprassing an attempt to laugh though, and Dash caught onto this quickly. As she slicked back her mane and struck a pose, she spread her wings out and did a flip in the air.

"Because I can.. and I will." Her voice was sincere but playful at the same time, a confusing trait that only Rainbow Dash could honestly pull off out of the other five of her friends, no matter how hard they attempted to mimic it. Applejack stared at her with the same passionate glow as before and growled through her teeth, her eyes narrowing.

"Why ah have half a mind tah..." She was cut off as Rainbow Dash flew a few circles around her and took off into the direction of the sunset, hovering just a few feet above the ground. She wiggled her rear end at Applejack, taunting her. With that, the cyan pegasus waited as the bait was caught by the orange pony, and she came charging after her."Oh, you're so on yah vermin!" She shot after the flying pony, and continued to follow in the direction of the hills and rising sun.

The sunlight washed over the two as they were now side by side, Rainbow Dash running right beside her as the two bumped into one another several times, and Rainbow Dash even nipped a bit at Applejack's mane before launching herself once more into the air. Apple Jack pulled onto her multicolored tail and found a rock to hold it for a few seconds, getting a small amount of distance ahead of the fast flier, but not for long. Within seconds, Rainbow Dash pushed the rock off and bolted ahead, her wings opened as she directed the air currents away from her.

The two appeared almost as phantoms in the early morning light, running like spirits across the fields and in between the orchards of apple trees. The sun was breaking through the tops of them, and melted into a warm glow that surrounded the two best friends as they laughed and mocked one another. Applejack was beginning to run out of breath right when they reached the top of the smaller of the two hills, and slouched down onto her haunches, breathing heavily. Rainbow Dash swooped down next to her and stared at the beautiful earth pony at the sunlight bathed her. They were both completely dry now of the water, but AJ was covered in a new forming lair of sweat. Rainbow stared at her with a tomboy-like smile and canted her head in the direction of the sunset.

Applejack drew in a deep breath and then let out a long whistle while pullling off her hat and shaking out her golden mane."Wooh-wee! What a beautiful view!" Her voice showed excitement, but Rainbow Dash was already too busy waiting for the right moment. She watched Applejack and all her natural beauty, the way she moved and smiled at the beauties of nature, and Rainbow Dash raised her head to the sky, the one she spent all her spare time in but never seemed to notice how beautiful it truly was until now with AJ.  She turned her head and slowly leaned over next to the earth pony, draping her wing over her for comfort.

AJ's head turned and her jade eyes flashed at Rainbow Dash, but she leaned into the mare's side. Her body relaxed, and a lazy smile played on her face. Rainbow Dash's raspy voice played into her mind while she whispered into AJ's ear and slightly nipped at it between her teeth,"However, it's not as beautiful as the pony right here next to me." With that, she leaned over and turned her head to catch a brief kiss from AJ who stared up at her in quiet shock... she leaned in for the kiss and...

WHACK!

Rainbow Dash jumped as she rubbed her head, glancing around in a daze. Instead of finding her wing wrapped around her best friend, it was wrapped around a lone boulder. Applejack was still standing and looking at the sky, and didn't seem to have notice what had happened. Rainbow Dash's mind had played the entire scene out in her head so beautifully, and sighed as she rested her chin on her hoof, clearly displeased with reality. Why couldn't she have AJ? Stupid dumb rock. Maybe she got Rarity's destiny instead, instead of her being a flier, maybe she was supposed to spend the rest of her awesome life living with a big dumb rock named Tom.

Applejack turned around and smiled at her friend, before trotting over to her and dusting off the pegasus's muzzle with her long tail. She then cleared her throat to speak, and pointed once more to the farm."Ah suppose ah should be headin' back.." She began, but before she could speak Rainbow Dash was now next to her, trotting in place with excitement as an idea entered her head. Oh dear Celestia.

"I know a way to get you there really fast AJ, so that nopony knows you're gone! I could -fly- you there!" The exictement danced like a fire in her eyes, and Applejack stared at her as if she had gone insane, her jaw slightly dropped open. She scuffed her hoof into a small patch of dirt, clearly debating this. She would hate to let her friend down, but the truth was she was uncomfortable off the ground itself. It's where she thrived, literally.

"Ah suppose ah could let ya gimme a ride this -one- time.." She let out a sighed as Rainbow Dash cheered in happiness, and bent down for AJ to get on her back, which the pegasus did with a very nervous smile. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and readied herself, slowly moving into the air to make sure that AJ wouldn't be scared and to be sure she could handle the extra weight of the farm pony. Right when she felt AJ relax a bit, she took off in a flash of light towards the farm house at top speed. Applejack let out a holler and a few words that were lost with the wind roaring in Dash's ear, as her wings spread in and out, directing the air currents past her. Applejack's hooves were wrapped around Dash's neck now, as she squeezed her eyes closed, afraid to look.

In less then thirty seconds that had perched down at the farm house, safe and sound. Applejack shakily got off of Rainbow Dash's back, thanked her under her breath, and said nothing. The other members of the house were beginning to wake up from the sound of pots and pans clanking inside. Applejack sighed, and walked down the road, Rainbow Dash following, to retrieve the mail she knew would be coming. They were greeted by a gray pegasus with bubbles as her Cutie Mark and yellow eyes that went in different directions. Her face lit up as she saw Rainbow Dash, and she waved franticlly.

"Hi Rainbow Dash!" Ditzy Doo continued to wave her hoof as she flew in the air, but landed down on the ground and handed a carefully sealed letter to Applejack who eyed her and the letter nevously.

Rainbow Dash waved in response, and smiled. While she knew that Ditzy-Doo,or as people now called her Derpy, could be rather reckless, she enjoyed the very airheaded pegasus. She had a wonderful personality and adorable voice, she was just a bit too clumsy for Rainbow Dash's tastes."Hi Derpy, how are Dinky-Doo and Whooves?" Ditzy was the adoptive mother to a small filly that went to school with her own adoptive sister and biggest fan Scootaloo, and Dr.Whooves was the romantic interest of Ditzy.

Ditzy blushed and kicked a rock on the ground, smiling to herself."We're all doing just fine, thank you. How are the tricks coming along?" As the two conversed back and forth with a light conversation, Applejack opened the letter, trembling. At the sight of the words she never wanted to see, she froze and gasped, before collapsing to the ground. Ditzy took this has the time to leave and flew away, swerving all over in the air, a few letters falling out of her mailbag.

"Applejack, what's wrong?" The concern flooded RD's voice, but she was cut short of air when Applejack said nothing. The letter flew in front of Rainbow Dash's hooves, and as she picked it up with her mouth, she read in her head.

Dear Ms.Apple,

I am Doctor Redhoof and I have been the one analyzing the tests we took on your grandmother, Faylla Smith, from the past two weeks. We are sincerely afraid to tell you that we have found a virus, of which we call cancer, that appears to be in it's middle stages. We are afraid that with your grandmother's age there would be no way that we could pull off an entie surgery of attempt treatment without knowing if it may take her life as it is. We apologize in advance, and range she may have another two months to live.

My apologies,

Dr.Redhoof

Granny Smith had cancer. She only had two months to live.