Dashing Dreams

Ponyville, 4:20 P.M., November 7th, 2012

Midnight flew through the dark cloudy sky. Heavy black clouds rolled in and the rain slowly began to pour. He landed down at the front door of the house he had shared with Rainbow Dash. He began to open the door and suddenly stopped. “Wait, what am I doing? I can’t go home. Dash will kill me if she finds me here now.” He shut the door and turned around. “*sigh* I guess I can go see if Twilight is home.” He flew off of the cloud and began heading to the center of Ponyville. He landed down in front of the tree library and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, Spike came and opened the door.

“Oh, hey Midnight. What brings you here?”

“Is Twilight here? I really need to talk to her.” Midnight did his best to hide his sorrow.

“Not right now. She’s at Rarity’s helping with some fashion nonsense.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll see you later then Spike.”

“See yah later, Midnight.” Spike shut the door and turned away.

“*sigh* I guess I could find somewhere else to spend the night.” He looked up in a clearing above the buildings to see Sweet Apple Acres on top of a hill in the distance. “I’m pretty sure Applejack would take me in. But I always feel like she’s trying to sleep with me. *sigh* It’s worth a shot.” He set down a way down the road from the entrance to the farm, deciding to walk the rest of the way. As he headed up the road, the sky above grew slightly darker and rain looked like it was on its way. Midnight’s thoughts were still on the Cloudiseum as he approached the entrance to the barn. “I don’t know if Rainbow Dash will ever get over this.”

“Is that you Midnight?” An orange head poked out of the door. Applejack waved a hoof, signaling him to come over.

“Oh, hey Applejack...”

“What’re y’all doing out here? The weather ponies have a storm scheduled for today, ya better get inside.” She opened the door further and let him in.

Midnight entered the barn and looked around. It was a fairly big space,  but as far as he could tell, he and Applejack were the only ponies inside. “So, ya gonna answer my question?”

“Huh?” Midnight was still feeling preoccupied with everything that had just happened between him and Rainbow Dash.

“What brings ya out to Sweet Apple Acres?”

“It’s a longer story than you’d really care to hear, I’m sure. I just need a place to stay for tonight. Something... happened between me and Rainbow Dash.”

“Well ah reckon you could stay here, you’re always welcome here anyway. As far as I can tell, we’ve got all night now. Ah’m sure we’ve got time for that story of yours. If you want to tell me, that is.”

“I think so. I’m sure you’ll hear it from Rainbow Dash soon enough anyway. I want someone to at least hear my side of the story.”

“Follow me, if this’ll be a while, we might as well get comfortable.” She led him off down the center of the barn and turned off to the side when they reached one of the stables. There were hay bails set up to sit on and after moving a few around, they both sat down.

“Well, it started a while ago, I’m sure you know how bad Rainbow Dash wants to get into the Wonderbolts.”

“Oh boy, do I. That was some routine she was workin’ on before, she sure was going at that last trick. She’s sure got the talent for ‘em.”

“The thing is, today she might have actually done it.”

“Well I’ll be, that’s great Midnight.” She looked genuinely happy for Rainbow Dash, but her expression changed after a moment, looking back at Midnight. “So why are you here and not celebratin’ with her?”

“That’s where it gets complicated. Spitfire... one of The Wonderbolts, has been... well, let’s just say Rainbow Dash and I aren’t the only ones to use our bed recently.”

Applejack seemed confused for several moments before what Midnight was saying dawned on her. A blush spread across her freckled face and she looked down quickly before meeting his eyes once again. She once again had that trademark resolve of hers on her face. She hopped over to the bail next to him and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Midnight, ah... ah don’t know what to say. She used you!”

“Yeah, she did. She said if I told Rainbow Dash about what we were doing, she’d make sure she’d never make it into The Wonderbolts. I couldn’t do that to her, Applejack, it’s her dream.”

The storm had picked up outside and rain was coming down on the roof of the barn. Nopony was going anywhere in this weather, so it would be just them here tonight.

“Ah know ya couldn’t, Midnight. You’re too good a pony to do that. So if you didn’t tell her, how’d she find out?”

“That’s the worst part of all, at her tryout Spitfire made it seem like I was the one doing it to her. She jumped on me right in front of Rainbow Dash. I had to tell her it was me. If I didn’t, I would have killed any chance of her getting in.” Applejack was now leaning on him a bit, this time it was actually a little comforting. “She told me to leave. I couldn’t go back, I have no idea how to fix this.”

“Midnight, I know how hard it must be without Rainbow Dash, you must be feeling mighty lonely. Ah’m here if ya need me.” She was resting her head on his shoulder now, her big green eyes looking up at him. It actually didn’t bother him, Applejack really was a nice filly, and he was glad to have somepony to talk to.

He sat there for several moments, just running through the whole situation again in his head. Then he turned his head to look down to her.

“Thanks, Applejack, I just-” She pushed upwards and met his lips fully. Her eyes closed and she pressed into him, sending them both falling over on the hay. Applejack continued for a second before Midnight stopped her and lifted her off of him. “I’m sorry, Applejack. After all that has happened. I don’t think moving my emotions to another pony is going to help in the long run.”

“I know. I’m sorry, Midnight. Can yah forgive me?” Silently, she thought, “I jes’ knew I shouldn’t have done that. Now he’s probably going to hate me.”

“Yeah, I forgive you. It’s alright. I think I’ll go talk to Twilight in the morning. Do you mind if I sleep here in the barn?”

“I’d love for y’all to stay here, Midnight. I reckon I’ll jes’ head out over to the house and leave ya be for the night...” She was making her way to the end of the barn as she spoke, head low.

Midnight stood and spoke up. “No, why not stay here? I could use some company. I just can’t stop thinking about how I could possibly fix this. Come on, sit down with me.”

Applejack’s eyes lit up at his response. By now she was almost to the door, but she trotted back with him to the stable. They rearranged the hay bails to cover the ground evenly and then jumped down onto them.

They lay facing each other for a moment without saying anything before Applejack shifted a bit and jumped slightly. “Ah!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Something in the hay, a stick or somethin’ probably, stuck me right in the side.” She turned over to look for the offending object and began to rustle around with the bail she was laying on. Midnight hadn’t really spent much time with Applejack before this, but she really was not a bad looking pony by any account. And now he couldn’t help but notice her toned back and flanks from his view. From all her hard work bucking apples and such, no doubt. Her coat was a soft, warm orange that he had trouble not looking at. While gazing, he realized he had never seen her hat leave her head, and tonight was no exception. Apparently it was her trademark look or something. While she continued to fiddle with the hay, he reached out with a hoof and flicked the back of the hat up, knocking it playfully off her head. She immediately turned around, looking at him accusingly with those large green eyes again. Applejack reached down and retrieved the hat, setting it beside her.

“Now what did y’all do that for?”

“I don’t know, just curious is all. I’ve never seen you without it.”

Her expression softened a bit. “Like what ya see?”

“Applejack, I didn’t mean...”

“I know I know. But you do owe me a little for knockin’ my hat off, don’t ya think?”

“Um... I guess I do.”

“It’s a might cold out tonight, mind if I stay in this stable with you for the night?” she said, replacing the hat on her head finally.

“I suppose, it’s your barn after all. They both relaxed after that, and soon after, Applejack fell asleep. Midnight remained awake, still troubled by what happened between him, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash. After another hour, he too nodded off to the sound of the rain.

Midnight awoke to see the sun shining through the cracks around the door and the high window. The second thing he noticed was that his hooves were wrapped around Applejack, who was still asleep next to him. She was holding him as well. “Did that just happen while we were asleep?” he wondered. It didn’t matter, really. He didn’t want to wake her up by moving, she had been so hospitable after all. So he continued to lie in the hay, allowing Applejack to hold him. He felt like her holding him helped lessen his pain, but he knew it didn’t completely solve the problem. He wasn’t sure anything could solve the problem at this point.