"Pick up the phone!" I yelled aloud to my phone. I panicked and felt my fragile heart sink as it continued to ring.
"Pick up the phone," I repeated, this time more gentle, pushing back the feeling of fear. My voice croaked and I thanked God that I was alone.
"PICK UP THE PHONE!" I screamed at the very top of my voice, tears breaking from my eyelids and racing down the coarse surface of my skin. I spoke like nobody could here me, but like everybody could see me. The line beeped. I thought back to how this all began:
Applejack and I ran side by side in a joyful, contest-free gallop down the maple tree road. We giggled at the near silence broken solely by the clattering of sneaker and boots upon a hard, dirt coated, beaten track. My chest rose and fell as I panted for breath. I turned my head to the left and saw Applejack looking back at me: smiling. I felt her heavy breath against my cheek, feeling light and merry as we ran side by side.
I constantly had to remind myself; this wasn't a race.
The leaves behind us fell softly. The caressed the ground as they touched it and the setting sun burnt the whole sky a gorgeous, thick orange colour. Puffs of dirt burst from beneath mine and Applejack's feet and surrounded our legs. Not a cloud, nor a fault in the sky. This scene, this feeling, it was almost picturesque. Of course I would never say that out loud because sounded so damn gay.
Then I turned and looked at her again. This time she was looking directly at me, with round apple green eyes and smiled with her lusciously slender lips. Something deep inside of my clicked. My heart began to melt and I felt my extremities all limp as a tried with all my might to keep up with the girl beside me. My weak knees could no longer withstand my weight and under the pressure of my sudden emotion; I fell.
I lead on the ground with a sore cut deep into my knees and hands on which I had fallen, yet the pain as numbed by the strong feeling that had risen to the surface of my skin by the single glance from a dear friend of mine.
I heard her heavy footsteps sprint towards me yet the many colours that fell before my eyes from atop my head blinded my vision. I lifted my left hand to wipe the air from my face and saw the blood gushing from my palms.
'Crap' I thought as I stared at my left hand. I hadn't realised that I had been cut that deep. It was weird for the pain to have to flow to my hand in slight intervals. I knew that Applejack wasn't my enemy yet in the very back of my mind I could not help but maintain this feeling that she was somebody that I was battling with. It pained my to allow her to see me in pain.
"Rainbow? What happened? Are ya okay?" She asked, offering out her hand to lift me up.
I stared at her hand with a slight hesitation, causing her expression to change from concern to confusion. I grabbed her lightly tanned hand and as she pulled me up, she looked directly into my eyes with a gentle glimmer and my hand suddenly released, causing me to stagger backwards. I clumsily fell into a bucket of collecting syrup, knocking it off the tree I stammered forward into a puddle of syrup and mud.
'Oh God,' I thought to myself, pulling my clammy hand up to my head and bushing the multi-coloured locks from in front of my crimson eyes. 'How much of a clutz am I gonna look to her now?'
I looked at her sideways smile and crossed arm and felt my pale skin begin to pinken. I pulled my body to my feet and brushed off the dust bunnies that had settled onto my clothing. My face still red with blushing, I narrowed my eyebrows as I looked at Applejack "that's not funny, Applejack!" I yelled.
She began to giggle as her force to control it gave way "Well, Rainbow Dash, I think 'tis mite. What ya gonna do?" She quipped.
Just like that, my devotion to AJ's devilishly good looks vanished. I smirked at her mischievously and leapt at her, causing her to quickly fall to the ground. I was on top of her and she tried to wrestle me away, but I put down as much force as I could muster after all the running to push her back. She used her knees to jab my tummy, my body jolted upwards allowing Applejack to roll on top. We spun and tussled our way into the trees and down a sudden drop. We continued to playfully scrap, giggling uncontrollably as we fought. We halted just before a river, with Applejack sat on my stomach and me with no energy left to fight.
"Look at that Rainbow Dash, looks like I win!" She giggled. I hated losing so much, but I had no energy left to fight or even argue against her statement. So I just led there panting for breath.
Applejack stood and walked away, yet it was just outside of my vision as to where she had walked to. I sat up and turned to see Applejack with her legs hovering over the short ledge that curved into a lake. She didn't look quite so happy as she was before. Just like that: the mood changed.
I crawled and sat beside her.
Grabbing a stone in my right hand, I firmly spun it and watched it bounce across the surface of the water. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!
"Six bounces!" I exclaimed "that's pretty good, even for me!" My attempt to liven the mood was hopeless. Applejack remained silent. "You wanna go? I'll warn you, you won't get as good as m-"
I halted mid sentence as Applejack turned and looked at me, like she did when we were running. Her gorgeous eyes blossoming delicious, green apples. Her lips rosy and tender. Her freckles perfect and unsubtle. Her hair was a delectable collection of golden strands. Her heavy breath glistened in mid-air and I felt it caress my exposed neck.
I gave an awkward smile and stroked the back of my neck with my hand.
But she didn't stop looking at me. Her pupils got wider and wider the longer I stared. Her face got slowly closer and what was realistically about 30 seconds felt like forever. My chest tightened until my lungs felt so constricted I could scarcely breath. Her hand touched mine and I could do nothing but intertwine my fingers in hers.
"Girls!" Yelled a familiar voice, abruptly. Applejack stood up with a smooth, simple glide whereas I simply remained seated. My face was the brightest shade of red there could be and I felt my forehead burning at, like, thousand degrees.
"We're down here Twilight!" Applejack called back. I turned to look at her; as soon as our eyes met her cheeks turned pink and she looked away.
Twilight's head appeared from the sweet brown leaves of he maple trees. She looked at me, then at Applejack with a very confused face "what in Equestria are you doing down here, girls?"
"Skimming stones..." I responded before Applejack could say anything. She went even pinker.
"Oh. Well the girls and I are going to Sugar Cube corner, are you coming?" She asked us.
I wanted to say no.
I so wanted to say no.
But I knew that they'd know something was up. If I went home early, they would definitely know something was up. "I'd love to, Twilight." I replied, barely gasping for breath as a swallower hard and loud.
"Yeah, that's mighty nice of y'all to offer..." Applejack responded. We shared a single, worried glance when we knew Twilight wasn't looking. Sugar cube corner it is...
It had actually been an awesome time. Applejack and I laughed and talked as though nothing was up. It didn't at all seem awkward. Finally I felt like I could just leave this whole business with Applejack behind me and look ahead to the future in being the strongest, most daring girl that has ever lived!
"Good heavens I'm tiered. I think after running today I've gotten some blisters on my feet... Maybe me and Spike should head home..." Twilight announced.
"I'm kind of tiered too, actually, I think Angel bunny must be waiting for me, he gets oh so restless if I leave him alone. So... I think, perhaps, I should leave too, if that's okay, Pinkie?" Said Fluttershy.
"Nah, maybe we should all go to bed. I think I should go to sleep too! The Cakes said I can look after Pound and Pumpkin tomorrow and you know how much of a handful they are!" Giggled Pinkie.
"In that case, farewell everybody." Uttered Rarity as she stood and strutted to the door.
"Her Rainbow," Applejack whispered to me "y'all mind walkin' me home?" Her lips curved gently at the end with a smile.
It was a strange request, but I didn't want to make things feel too awkward "what, you afraid of walking home by yourself?" I laughed.
"Maybe..." She replied, her smile widening.
"Fine," I stood up bidding Pinkie Pie good night and left Sugar Cube bakery.
"Ah shoot! Rainbow, looks like it's about to rain..." Applejack said, looking up to the large, heavy, black clouds hovering above there heads.
"I'm not afraid of some silly rain, Applejack, I'm a weather pony!" I taunted.
Suddenly a clap of lightning and a gigantic roar of thunder caused me to flinch.
Applejack began to laugh.
"That's not funny, Applejack! I just don't wanna get hit by lightning is all! I do have my whole life of training with the Wonderbolts..."
"Well, you're not a Wonderbolt yet, missy!" Applejack hissed.
"Not yet, but I will be soon. I have incredible skill, as soon as they see that they'll be begging me to join!"
"Oh, is that a fact?"
Suddenly the rain poured down on them.
"Quick, into the barn!" The two sprinted as fast as they could into the dry coverage of the barn.
"Great, now I'm stuck in here! With you!" I yelled, immediately regretting it.
"You got a problem with me?"
I blushed "No! I just meant..."
"You meant what? You wanna go home to boast to yourself about what amazin' talent you have?"
"What!? NO!" I snapped "I don't do that!"
"Oh, please, you're s arrogant as they come. You think that everybody has to be obsessed with you, and you're a cheat!"
"This again? I'm not a cheat!"
"You are too a cheat!" She said, moving closer to me.
"I am not, I never cheat. Applejack you are clearly just jealous because I am t-" I was interrupted by her tender lips on mine. They were so soft and warm. I felt like my knees were going to give way as soon as my lips touched hers. It was everything that I imagined it to be and so much more.
She pulled away, her arms still either side of me, as she stared at me, silently smiling. She began to blush and as she did I felt myself doing to. I looked down at my feet and kicked at the dirt, nervously with one foot.
"I-" She began to talk.
This time I moved in to kiss her. I didn't want to ruin he moment by getting into yet another blood-curdling, spine shivering screaming match. I snaked my arms around her waist and pulled her closer to me. She pushed me further against the wall and her hand began to wander up my shirt, Her hands were icy cold and my skin cooled as they touched, which made me tremble.
The rain came to a stop and the sky cleared. It didn't matter anymore. I wasn't here for the safety of the indoors, I was here for Applejack. For all of Applejack.
"Pick up the phone!" I repeated after my seventh time of trying to contact her. "Answer your texts!" I slipped my body down onto the floor and allowed the phone to dangle there, not caring who heard me sob.
I knocked my head on the wall so hard it began to hurt. "Well I apologise about last night I really didn't mean to disrespect... YOU!"
Author's Note
I got bored of writing all the other kind of stuff I write.
I was in the mood for writing a romance.
Slipped through my fingers
That night, in my bed, I tossed and turned. Hot flushes consumed by body as I desperately flipped from left to right. Every minute I found myself looking up at my phone to see if anyone had texted or rung... To see if Applejack had texted...
All I could think about was Applejack. I closed my eyes and her face appeared, with those glowing, gleaming eyes staring back at mine. She was always there. Whenever I thought about her I felt a powerful synapse of happiness coupled with a feeling of emptiness. My brain spun uncontrollably, my palms turned clammy and damp, my chest tightened and I involuntarily bit my lip. So many girls had been interested me and I had rejected them. Never before had I felt so attracted to another female. Sure I'd liked guys and girls, but not like this.
I thought I had an idea of what... Love is. It was a stupid feeling that suckers felt and that held you back from everything that you needed to to but this. This was different, this was an amazing feeling that made my determined, like I could excel at anything I tried as long as Applejack was by my side.
… But Applejack wasn't by my side...
This was ridiculous. She was my friend, a fellow element of harmony, there is no way that I could ruin that with this kind of feeling.
Maybe, I could just ignore it and it would go away. Like a cold.
Suddenly there was a knock on my door. I immediately cleared my head of any expectation that it might be Applejack, because I knew it wouldn't be. I slipped out of my bed and opened the door to reveal... Applejack.
“Rainbow.” She said, stepping into my home without invitation.
“What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night!”
“I need to talk to you... About at the barn...” She stroked her hair and I felt myself begin to plush. Clammy hands. Spinning head. Tight chest. All the symptoms were there, all right.
“Yeah... I figured that you would...” I scratched the back of my neck with my hand and nervously glanced back at the girl that was staring at me with wide eyes. Her pupils were dilated, her face was sweaty and her eyebrows narrowed towards the centre; no doubt whatever she had to say was bad news.
“I don't want it to mean anything to you.”
The words cut through my heart like a knife. Like a thousand knives piercing at the exact same moment. I could barely gasp for breath my lungs had compressed that much. My stomach tossed and turned so much I felt the vomit build up and try to jump out my mouth. I tried to suppress it.
“You d-” The words wouldn't properly come out and I sounded like I had a sore throat. I coughed and tried again “You don't? Why not?”
She stared at me as though she was in pain, which angered me. Why does she have to look as though she is the one in pain? I'm the one with a broken heart. I'm the one with my whole life, my whole everything laying broken on the ground. I felt like I could scream and cry at the same time, right there and then. In fact, I could feel it beginning. I suppressed it again. No matter what Applejack could not see my weakness. I wasn't weak, I'm strong and athletic, nothing can change that. Not even this.
“I'm sorry, there's so much-”
“You came onto me, Applejack.” The voice came out to quick, with too much rage. She was immediately taken aback and I felt my whole body give way in that one move.
“I know. I shouldn't have. We're friends.”
“Yes, we're friends. I know, but you came onto me.” I halted and turned away with a harrumph “not that it even meant anything to me anyway...”
“It didn't mean anythin'?”
“Nope. Not a thing.” I covered up my lie with a confident voice. Applejack couldn't sense it, she scarcely knew what lying sounded like.
“Well it meant something to me, and it really hurts that it meant nothing to you!”
“Of course it meant nothing, look at you. You're just a farm pony. You're nothing special...” I felt her hand move and hit me straight across the face in a quick pain. It didn't hurt that much but the gesture hurt me hugely.
“How dare you!” She screeched, with tears swelling in her eyes.
The fact that she could break my heart and then hit me as well made the rage begin to burn in my blood. “How dare I?” I asked, immediately realising she didn't know how much she had hurt me. I shook off everything and swung my fist to punch her back.
It hit her cheek hard. Too hard. Blood squirted from her mouth and she fell backwards as the impact hit her head. She lead on the floor and stoked her cheek. As she pulled her hand away she saw the blood and stared at me with anger and fear.
“What's happened to you Rainbow? The old you would never have hit me!”
“The old me wouldn't have kissed you either!”
“I thought it meant nothing to you!”
“It didn't! It doesn't!” I crossed my arms and glared at Applejack “but that doesn't give you the right to kiss me and then just tell me that it means no-”
“I have a girlfriend!” Applejack finally yelled, her eyes tightly shut and tears streaming down her face.
“a...” The news hit me so hard. I needed to sit down, but I just couldn't. Especially not whilst she was here. “Then why did you...?”
“Because... We had a weird connection and I'm too darn stupid to ignore it...” She stood up and opened the front door “I thought we could be something one day Rainbow Dash, but now I know what kind of girl you really are!”
Just like that she was gone. I let her slip right through my fingers and now she would never come back...
The second she left I leant back onto the wall and slipped to the ground. Hugging me legs close to my body I began to cry. Tears stained my pants but I didn't care. Not only had I lost a friend. I'd lost possibly my only chance at happiness too.
The next day, I was wondering through town. I was feeling so down, like anything could happen and it still wouldn't cheer me up. It was like the whole weight of the world was pushing down on my shoulders.
Despite my depression, I knew that I still had to get out of the house. It wasn't like me to sit around crying about everything, I had to just get out into the world and pretend like nothing was up. That's the Rainbow Dash way!
I decided to stop by at Twilight's library. I just needed to take my mind of Applejack and some of Twilight's boring stories about books could really help me to get on with my life. I swooped in and saw Twilight wearing reading glasses, completely amerced in a book.
“Twilight...” I said as I shut the large wooden door behind me. She looked up at me suddenly as though I had yelled it. “Sorry.” I chortled, trying to push back my laughter.
Her cheeks flushed as she put the book down onto a desk beside her then stood up and brushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?”
I shrugged “I don't know, just kinda bored, you know?”
“Well...” She began “I have loads of books if that's what you're after.” She gestured to the large shelves filled to the brim with hundreds, even thousands of books each arranged alphabetically to satisfy Twilight's ridiculous need for organisation.
I shook my hands “no, no, no, Rainbow Dash doesn't read!”
“Clearly she does since you've read all the Daring Do books.”
My eyebrows narrowed “that's different.”
Twilight sighed. She knew better than most that arguing with me about something so unimportant would be a complete waste of time. “Well what do you want from me?”
I slumped down on the sofa and picked at my teeth with my finger nail “I don't know. I've just got nothing else to do. It's weird because normally my life is so thrilling, you know?”
Twilight narrowed her eyebrows in an expression that could only be described as a scowl. Suddenly, it changed to a more curious face, a face known well as Twilight's 'question face'. “Who are you taking to the Ponyville Sun Celebration Ball?”
'Oh my God,' I thought, my body shivered 'how could I have forgotten? If I go alone then everybody will think I'm some kind of loser!' I stood up and wordlessly exited the library leaving behind a very confused looking Twilight.
'If AJ sees me alone, I'm gonna look like such a loser...' I paced down the street, looking at everyone that passed by me.
“Have you heard about Applejack?” The voice hit my ear like a knife and, like the nosy neighbour I was, I couldn't help but advance upon it. I walked by the stall where the two girls were talking and hid behind a wall, just within earshot.
“No, what about her?” The second voice asked, just as shrill as the first.
“Well, you know her girlfriend, Fritter? Apparently they broke up-” I felt my heart rate begin to elevate.
Was it me? Did they break up over me?
“-Lyra told me that Fritter told her that Applejack told Fritter that 'something had come up' and Applejack needed to 'rethink their relationship'” I ran down the empty alley at the speed of light.
'It was me. Applejack dumped her girlfriend because of me!' I screamed to myself. I felt like my heart was going to beat its way out of my chest. My body could barely take all the excitement. 'But, she's still mad at me. I need to bring somebody else to the ball, then when she sees me there she'll get super jealous. I just know it!'
