Rainbow Dash always thought that the road to Sweet Apple Acres deserved more of a prairie feel. A pale gravel strip running straight from horizon to horizon would have been perfect for it, especially on cloudless days. Maybe a row of short telephone poles stringing a single wire into the distance to break up the scenery, and nothing else but the fields rippling under the great blue sky. She didn’t usually miss roads like that, but riding on them had once made her feel like she was flying, and that surely counted for something. Totally a missed opportunity.
Instead what she got was a ribbon of faded asphalt winding through the foothills beneath her bike. It was enough to work with, at least there were some corners that were fun to negotiate even this close to town. And Applejack’s orchard would look wrong if it were flat. Besides, it was overcast today. Work had been incredibly dull, but a ride through the not-quite-forest wasn’t ruined by the thick clouds.
The road dropped into a long straight as she came alongside the wooden fence at the corner of the Apple’s land. Rainbow exaggerated her turn into the driveway, knowing that it was best to tighten up early and keep her maneuvering to a minimum for a second or two after the smooth pavement gave way to loose pebbles. She had spilled on that corner before—it iced over pretty badly in late winter—and she had no intention of doing it again.
Honestly, it hadn’t been that bad. She’d been bundled up, going slowly, and there’s no way in hell anyone could have made it without practically walking it in. Still, it would have been nice if Applejack hadn’t seen the whole thing.
Boy, was she pissed.
The fact that Dash had been riding shotgun with her the day before, when Applejack spun out in exactly that spot and jammed her rear tire in the snowbank, probably didn't help. Rainbow had done her best not to laugh as her friend became more and more frustrated with her brother’s new diesel, but she failed miserably and her squealing made Applejack’s composure even worse. Having to deal with a stuck tire, insensitive radio, wet snowstorm, and twerpy friend sent Applejack over the edge, and she drove up her driveway with the focus of a surgeon before forcing Rainbow to stay the night rather than give her the ride home she’d promised.
She rushed her to the airfield the next morning, and when Rainbow Dash fell she had been coming back to pick up her stuff.
Snow banks kinda hurt, it turned out, especially when the motorbike between your legs lodged itself in one. By the time Applejack had run up she was panting too heavily to yell, sweat probably soaking the wool lining of her canvas overalls. Rainbow Dash was already hobbling around, walking off the shock and trying to laugh away the embarrassment, but Applejack looked like she was ready to break her neck.
“How can anyone be as reckless as that, Rainbow? You see me do the same darn thing yesterday and—”
“You saw that, huh?”
“Yeah I saw it! Not everyone just ignores everything going on around ‘em.” Concern for her stiff little friend must have momentarily overpowered Applejack’s impulse to chide, and she eyed Dash for a second, still catching her breath. “You’re gonna hurt yourself if you don’t start paying attention, Rainb—whoa-ow!” Applejack’s lecture ended with a squawk as her feet shot out from under her.
Rainbow laughed then until it really did hurt, soreness from the crash just getting worse as mirth rocked her ribcage, but it was still worth it. Applejack had fallen hard, slipping right where their vehicles had and winding herself on the driveway. Dash slid over on her knees, helped her friend sit up, and pulled her to the snow. “Sorry Applejack, you were saying something about hurting myself if I don’t pay attention?” She thought Applejack was going to respond by breaking her nose with her forehead, but then the farmer grinned too and pushed her backwards into the snow, chuckling as she stood up to get the bike.
Rainbow was pulled from her chilly memories by her arrival at the Apple family doorstep, back on the cloudy day in early autumn. Applejack had once complained that the steps were too narrow and made her boot heels slide off, and after a little coaxing had revealed, with some guilt, that she thought her house was small. Maybe she was right, but it didn’t feel that way to Rainbow Dash. When she told her so, Applejack suggested that it obviously wouldn’t feel that way to someone as short as her. Rainbow had suggested that she be glad she wasn’t her brother.
Dash walked as quietly as possible inside the farmhouse, but she knew from experience that its residents were able to tell when, and where, and even who was moving around. But Mac’s shiny diesel wasn’t parked in its usual spot and Apple Bloom’s little red bike was missing, so she wasn't surprised when the squeak of the screen door didn't stop any movement inside. The signs today all said Applejack’s siblings weren’t here, so all she had to do was check the living room.
Good. Applejack’s grandmother was asleep. Applejack herself was probably still outside. They hadn’t really set a time and Rainbow had just come straight from work, so she was probably earlier than usual. Then again, Applejack had a habit of staying out somewhat longer than what Rainbow considered a full working day.
In the kitchen she emptied the kettle and filled it again before putting it back on the stove to boil. The window over the sink looked out over the Apple’s old barn and some of their newer purchases. Where the driveway went past the farmhouse there was a section that was better graded and wide enough to accommodate freight trucks. A big, new Quonset hut (new to the Apples at least) had been built further out for vehicles and equipment. Their old barn had been cramped for a while, and the need for a place to store the tractor, irrigation equipment, chemicals, and enough workshop space to do real repairs on everything had pushed Applejack to finally accept a loan.
It was funny to think how completely worked up she had been in the week or two leading up to the commitment, especially given how much she loved the new layout. A tickle of delight reminded Rainbow of the new building’s other big advantage, easily her favorite. AJ had called her over urgently a week or two after construction. She had managed to save a bit on the project, and the lender had been willing to approve another commercial purchase if she could find one. Her stress wasn’t all gone but she had been incredibly excited to show Rainbow something, swearing she would be surprised.
Dumbfounded was the only thing Rainbow had been when she realized that the giant, shiny new vats were for cider.
Right below the kitchen was the family’s garden, small by farm standards but bigger than anything that would fit on lot in town. Some fuel storage tanks were set apart from everything else, and Applejack’s car was parked nearby. It was totally wrong for Applejack—a little old four cylinder with chipped, silver paint, super uncool—but she insisted that the family only needed one truck and that she hardly used it for anything but a few errands. The thing got good gas mileage at least, even if AJ had to sit with the seat too low so she could keep her hat on.
The water boiled. Dash made a pot of the black tea that Granny Smith seemed most partial to, then poured herself a cup and stirred in some sugar. After burning her lips on her first sip, she carried the pot and an empty mug back to the family’s sitting room, poured one for Granny Smith, and sat down to wait. Soon the ancient matriarch was awake, smiling at Rainbow Dash and sipping away.
“What’s that granddaughter of mine up to?”
“Still working, I bet.”
Granny Smith shook her head sadly. “That girl. Won’t even greet a guest. No idea what you been hearing, but us Apples used to have a reputation for hospitality. If she’s making you make her grandma tea, that better be hot cider you’re drinking.”
Dash smirked. “It’s no problem. Nothing wrong with tea every now and then.”
“You like flappin’ gums with me about my granddaughter, you mean.” Granny Smith fixed her with a sharp eye. Her perceptiveness could get annoying. Applejack’s grandma had seemed weird at first, but Rainbow Dash was quick to find just how much dirt she could get on her friend by buddying up with her family and before long the pair were thick as thieves.
“Applejack needs to be teased a bit,” Rainbow started, doing her best to piece together a smart-sounding reason. “Otherwise she loses her sense of perspective.” Granny Smith kept smiling her little knowing smile. If there was one thing she possessed, it was a sense of perspective.
“Applejack’s lucky to have friends that get it. Although, you could probably use some teasing from time to time.”
Rainbow Dash snorted. “Have you seen my hair? Not everybody gets that.”
“Teasing ain’t the same as bullying. And my granddaughter may burn mighty quick, but I ain’t so sure she’s the only one to blame when you two tangle.” Granny Smith always managed to extract as much from Dash as she gave up about Applejack in their little chats. “You’d better not even think of riding off if you have any cider, you hear?”
“I know, I won’t.” Being threatened by Granny Smith was scary, but Rainbow Dash knew that her anger would be nothing compared to Applejack’s if she tried anything that stupid. She could handle herself after a few drinks, but when she had told the same to Applejack in an effort to convince the farmer she could drive, she made it halfway to her vehicle before ending up hogtied. Applejack could get pretty worked up if she had a couple, but she rarely got that angry for any reason. Dash had decided to stay the night.
“That what you’re here for? Cider?”
“Maybe. Applejack said something about pie.”
“You’ll need to go huntin’ then, still a while before most of the crop is ready.”
“That’s what Applejack said too.” Dash tried to reorient the conversation. Gossiping about her friend was one thing, shop talk another. If one of the Apples got talking about apples, the only solution she knew was to start talking about planes. Granny Smith set down her empty mug on the unfinished table and made no move to fill it. Dash took another sip of her own tea, conscious that she was still on her first cup.
“Your other friends coming?”
“Dunno. Applejack just called me earlier. Everyone else was busy or something. She said we’d do something next week, but I already agreed so we decided, neither of us had plans...”
“It’s the weekend. Other two are out seeing their friends too. Guess since your friends are busy you’d just be having a quiet night? No plans?”
“Might have gone down to the bar.” Ponyville wasn’t known for its nightlife.
“Long time since I’ve been down there. Probably where I’d be right now if I were your age.” She moved to sip her tea, but stopped short. “Applejack seems fond of it too.”
A grin tore across Rainbow’s lips before she could stop it, and a few stories threatened to spill from them before she collected herself. “You could say that.”
“I know you do already, but you two keep an eye on each other, you hear? We appreciate your giving Applejack a place to stay in town there. I know it ain’t far but it’s still mighty generous.”
“No problem,” Rainbow Dash started, coughing when the hesitation in her own voice made the remark sound less offhand than she wanted it to. “Anyone would do the same. Besides, you let all of us stay here whenever you have your parties.”
“Just being good hosts. Wouldn’t do to force our guests out when we’re the ones invited them.” The wind toyed gently with the old house, the trees outside swayed. Rainbow Dash wanted to say something, but never got the chance. “Appreciate the tea, that was a friendly gesture. Why don’t you pour me one more cup, then go off and find your friend. I’m ready for a nap, and I reckon she’s just finishing up.”
Applejack was just finishing up.
It may not have been a busy day, but before long she would be back to working twelve or thirteen hours. She’d need to swap her shirt for something lined, too: even working as hard as she could wouldn’t be enough to keep her warm. Anticipating the most stressful part of the year kept her from really relaxing or enjoying herself when things were slow.
Like always, she gave her hands a scrub with Big Mac's industrial soap. It was one of the few things that she’d ever seen her stoic brother truly excited over. He’d marveled for days at how easily it removed anything, encouraging Applejack to try it after offering her a handshake coated in grease and tree sap. Despite the odd memory that was destined to pollute her hand-washing routine forever, the feeling of warmth returning to her numb fingers was delightful. Might need to start wearing lined gloves too, she thought. She grabbed a thin towel to dry her hands before the moisture had a chance to sap their warmth again and walked over to the little square window letting in the grey light against the white fluorescence inside.
A motorcycle caught her eye.
“Dang it,” she muttered. “Thought for sure I’d be done before she got here.” Rainbow Dash had a habit of treating speed limits as suggestions, but this was ridiculous. Although... She turned to look at the tiny clock on the workbench that was six minutes fast.
“...” Applejack swallowed the curse forming on her lips, instead throwing her towel at the sink. Thought I’d be able to repair that gate faster, too. She smacked the switch for the main lights and strode out briskly, grabbing her hat from the hook and slamming the door behind her. By the time she made it to the house she had fixed her hat over her hair, snapped the loose cuffs at her sleeves, and jammed her hands in her pockets. Putting on a fresh shirt was out of the question unfortunately, but at least this one wasn't very messy. Following the sound of running water, Applejack found Rainbow Dash rinsing a mug in the kitchen and made a mental note to check that it was properly cleaned later. The other girl must have heard her come in because she spoke without looking.
“Sorry if I made you rush, AJ,” Dash started, letting a touch of arrogance slip into her voice and keeping focused on her task.
“Yeah, yeah.” Applejack leaned back on the counter and stretched her shoulders out, hoisting herself up to sit facing Dash’s skinny profile. “Didn’t hear you drive up. You walk here or something?”
A smile tugged at the corner of Rainbow’s mouth. “I know you’re just fishing for excuses, so I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“That’s mighty expansive of you, Sugarcube.” Applejack wasn’t usually conscious of the way she spoke, but when they got going she tended to lay it on a little. A ‘yonder’ here and a ‘howdy’ there seemed capable of disarming most people in most situations. It didn’t make sense to do it with Dash really—that girl was a little beyond ‘figuring her out’—but their habitual banter had a way of making her slip back into argumentative cowgirl, daring her friend to mock.
Applejack grabbed an apple.
Rainbow Dash set the mug down on the rack, barely letting it make a sound.
And then she was right in front of her, leaning on the counter with her hands either side of the farmer’s thighs and craning her neck back to meet her gaze straight on. Applejack didn’t let her expression change, she stared right back into the rose eyes before her and pretended not to be shaken. The two had wound up like this before—it had sometimes meant they were about to come to blows—but this time Rainbow Dash shattered the frozen atmosphere prematurely.
“It was expansive of me, wasn’t it?” Rainbow Dash’s decision to let Applejack get away with her unusual word choice surprised the farmer enough for Dash to snatch the apple out of her hand, spring away, and take a giant, unwieldy bite.
Applejack’s jaw dropped at first and she reached for the fruit and missed, but watching Rainbow try to chew through the massive chunk of flesh in her mouth like a little kid, juice running down her chin from the corners of her lips, made her smile. “You thieving...” she began, then noticed Rainbow’s sunglasses, slung from one stem in the collar of her shirt, and her smile turned into a smirk. Dash took another, even bigger bite, a few white chunks not quite managing to stay in her mouth, but she stopped chewing a moment later when she noticed that Applejack wasn't coming after her. She was just sitting there, looking down, smiling with unsettling patience.
“Wuh?” She asked over a dripping mouthful of apple flesh.
“Glasses, Sugarcube.” Rainbow looked down. Her eyes went wide, and Applejack broke out laughing.
“Ah yu!” Dash began, then swallowed the uncomfortably large amount of fruit in her mouth. “Are you kidding me!” She looked around frantically before fixing Applejack with an unimpressed stare, whipping out the juice-covered glasses. “Stop laughing.” Applejack laughed harder. “I mean it! This isn’t funny!
Applejack nodded. “Nah, it’s pretty funny.”
“These were a gift!”
Applejack was still smiling. Rainbow Dash looked deadly serious. Applejack shook her head and reached for a cloth in the drawer below her. It was snatched from her fingers the second she’d picked it up. Rainbow Dash dabbed up the droplets, delicately, before dampening the other end and wiping off the sugary streaks, finally using the untainted middle to dry them.
“Better wipe your face too, Rainbow. And your chest.” Applejack finally got off the counter and took a few steps towards to her frantic guest, stopping when she was close enough to look down at her. The farm girl wasn’t giant, but she was taller than most women and a lot taller than Rainbow Dash, especially with her boot heels and hat adding to her height. Rainbow Dash probably liked to think she would never back down from a confrontation due to a height difference, but somewhere along the line she must have stopped seeing the draw to full height as confrontational coming from Applejack. The farmer wasn’t big, in fact she sort of hoped her figure would fill out a bit more. Physical labour kept her strong—especially her legs—but she wasn’t as curvy as some of their friends. Nonetheless, her jeans still fit snugly in the right places.
Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, could wear skinny-cut jeans that were loose at the knee. The sinewy girl was stronger than anyone would guess and she did cut an enviable figure for her body type, but she was still all muscle and metabolism and attention-grabbing hair, and in baggy clothes she could pass for a boy. Once she was finished with her glasses, Rainbow Dash looked outside.
“Can I leave these in your room?” She asked.
“Sure. Don’t make much sense carrying them around today.” Not if she was so afraid of doing anything to them, anyway.
Rainbow returned a minute later, having doffed her windbreaker and helped herself to one of Applejack’s loose wool tops. It looked presentable if fit long, but she had had to twist the cuffs up to keep her hands free. Obviously happy with her appearance, she struck pose for the cowgirl.
“I pull this off pretty well,” she said, waiting for Applejack to confirm her assertion.
“You’ve never worn plaid before, have you?”
“Sure I have! I used to have a tartan skirt. It’s kind of like a weird rainbow, when you think about it.” Dash began looking at her reflection in the window, trying a different pose. Applejack conjured up the image of a plaid arch in the sky.
“You ever even seen a rainbow, Rainbow? Why’re you wearing my clothes?”
“Because we’re farming, duh. Your outfits are usually a bit uncool for me, but not today!”
“Picking apples for one pie ain’t farming.” Applejack’s eyes narrowed, and she let her gaze bore into Rainbow, who actually backed down. A little. “Put on your little cloth sneakers and let’s get going, Sugarcube.” Applejack coaxed as much noise as she could from her heels on her way out the door, feeling Rainbow’s eyes on her leather boots with each heavy click.
As soon as Applejack hoisted the doors high enough to dive under Rainbow Dash sprang onto the seat of nearest ATV. “I’m driving!”
“Sure, no problem.”
Dash went still. She had expected to be denied. Something was up.“Really? Can we race too?”
“Sure. Of course that one’s mine, so all you’ve gotta do is walk one of them out, fuel it up, and get it to start. It’s been awhile since we took these out last.” Applejack lazily swung herself over the little vehicle as though Rainbow Dash wasn’t there. “I could be there and back before you do all that, though.”
Applejack’s mount had forced her friend back, but the motion still basically served to put her straight in Rainbow’s lap. The other girl clasped her hands together around Applejack’s torso and leaned into her back unexpectedly. Applejack was ready for a fight, and when she turned her head to investigate she knocked Rainbow in the face with the stiff brim of her hat.
“Ow!”
“Ah, sorry Sugarcube.” Applejack responded to the frustrated squeal. Then she felt her hat disappear. “Hey!”
“I can’t see without this hitting my face.” Dash complained, lying back and stretching her arm as far as possible from Applejack’s reach.
“So lean back!” Applejack should have been able to reach, but from her position behind her (well, below her now) Rainbow had the upper hand. They both tried squirming further, but Applejack was almost there. A little further...
“Just go, Applejack!” Rainbow slipped the hat between Applejack’s struggling hands and jammed it over her unkempt hair. “No one’s gonna know you let me wear your hat to make me a tiny bit more comfortable.”
Applejack stopped struggling and sat up, still looking over her shoulder. Dash stared back calmly, but the farmer could feel the tension in the hands on her waist, still bracing for action. Eventually she reached behind her head and pulled the red elastic in her hair higher, making a proper ponytail, then reached out and grabbed her hat at the pinch in the top. Something kept Rainbow from defending herself despite the instinct sending adrenaline back through her veins, but Applejack only tilted it sideways a little and pulled it down further over her brow, pinning her bangs to her forehead. Dash pushed them out of the way and Applejack nodded in approval.
The engine started and shattered the silence, echoing off the walls until they pulled out. They tore through the rows of trees, following the muddy track left by the deep treads of the Apple's tractor. Winona chased them for a bit before they pulled off on a well-worn shortcut. After cutting through to the edge of the planting she briefly took them out of the trees, leaning forward to negotiate a short slope and feeling Rainbow Dash pull herself against her back, joining her in pushing their weight forward to try to help the struggling vehicle. Once they crested the slope and reached the neat rows of trees in the next field they stopped.
When Applejack killed the engine Rainbow leaned back and swung her leg over to sit side-saddle. The curvy slope they had just climbed maintained a pretty constant decline into the distance, where it met with the field below. The main route for the tractor and the wagons to this side of the orchard went all the way around, matching the natural switchback that made it seem like one end of the field had dropped. They hadn’t come very high—they were just higher than the treetops in the grove below—but a heavy farm vehicle could never make that climb without making a mess of the hillside.
“Ain’t you gettin’ off?” Applejack asked, though she remained seated as well. Her bare hands were a little cold and she rubbed them together quickly, blowing on them and winning a moment of fleeting warmth as she leaned back into Rainbow’s arm. Taking her suggestion, Rainbow Dash jumped off the back, jammed her hands in her pockets, and started walking along the edge. “Where you going? There’s apples right here.”
Dash grinned back over her shoulder, tipping the brim of Applejack’s hat. “You pick ‘em. I’ll be over here, let me know when you’re done.”
Applejack was stunned for a moment before her mind registered anger as the appropriate response. “What? Get back here!” She caught up and started walking alongside her friend. “This ain’t no tour, RD.”
“I know.” Applejack could swear her companion was letting her voice sound a more raspy than usual, less mediated. “AJ, remember what you said last time? ‘Best leave the pickin’ t’ me, Ah reckon. Ain’t none o’ these fit fer’ bakin.’”
Hearing her words repeated made Applejack lose her step briefly, but she caught it and (unfortunately) said the first thing that came to mind. “None of them were!” Dash shot her the look a teacher gives to a student that’s just been tricked into learning something. “Well look... All these are Granny Smiths, real good for baking. We’ll need five or six for the pie, and a couple more just in case.” A little remorse entered Applejack’s voice as she continued. “I was probably a mite harsh last time Rainbow. I’m sorry.”
Rainbow Dash looked back over her shoulders like she was trying to decide whether to believe her. Eventually she smiled. “About time you recognized my talents.”
A couple minutes later they were riding back with their cargo. Applejack had forgotten to bring a bucket and was forced to let Rainbow use her shirt as a container, leaving her in a short-sleeved tee. It may have been a short ride, but Applejack was still chilled from the wind that cut through the thin cotton and pulled the heat away from her bare arms by the time they arrived back at the garage. She kept herself from shivering (Rainbow kept her back warm) but she couldn’t hide the goose bumps on her arms or the rosy color rising to her cheeks. Dash didn’t say anything, but smiled annoyingly when Applejack snatched her shirt back and rolled the apples into a basket.
As usual, Applejack had already made the dough, so they just had to take the empty shell out of the fridge when the filling was ready. Rainbow Dash hadn’t picked up on crust-making and had become over enthusiastic when Applejack revealed cider as an ingredient in her crust recipe (‘Applejack, I swear you didn’t say tablespoons’). She seemed to have fun making the filling, though, and had become pretty good at it, though she was a bit messy.
Cleaning up was a different story. At first Rainbow tried to get out of it, but Applejack knew how to deal with her. “Sure thing, RD. It’ll probably go faster if you leave it to me.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Rainbow Dash said, walking out of the kitchen.
“Yeah, y’all probably couldn’t keep up.” Despite a token effort, she couldn’t keep the smugness from her voice. Rainbow Dash froze.
“...I know what you’re doing.”
“Cleaning?”
“I’m going, Applejack.”
“You just said that. No problem Dashie, be done before you know it. I reckon I’m faster at this than you.”
Rainbow Dash turned fully and glared at the farmer, who couldn’t stop smiling. “What?”
Applejack shrugged. “Said I reckon I’m faster at this than you think.”
“No you didn’t Applejack!” Rainbow Dash was on the balls of her feet now, teeth clenched and hands formed into tiny fists at her side until she had regained the patience to speak. “You did not say than I think.”
“You sure? Sorry Rainbow, must’ve misspoke. Think too fast sometimes, you know?”
“That is it! I know I’ll be finished before you!” The shorter girl started washing in earnest, doing an okay if somewhat sloppy job. Applejack kept an eye out for things that needed extra scrubbing or drying as they worked. Usually such half-assing would annoy her, but she had too much fun watching the worked-up Rainbow Dash angrily cleaning to care. Even when she started trying to sabotage her and they escalated to actually fighting with the remaining sticky residue from the filling to keep each other from getting at their little hordes of dirty dishes, she still only found herself laughing.
Eventually the counters were clean and the kitchenware was drying by the sink, though the girls were messier than when they had started. “See? I win.” Rainbow crossed her arms and smiled smugly, a white cloud of flour dislodging from her bangs when she nodded sharply.
“Win what?”
“Applejack...” Dash growled. Applejack moved to dust her head, her smile still refusing to cooperate, but her hand was swatted away before it got there. It was getting harder not to laugh every time she prodded the girl. She should probably stop soon. “I finished before you.”
A little more, though...
“We were cleaning the same stuff. That means we finished at the same time.”
Anger crossed Dash’s face. “I did more, Applejack.”
“Wasn’t really paying attention.” The face of the kitchen timer caught the corner of Applejack’s eye, and she grabbed it theatrically, staring at it completely dumbfounded. “What! Rainbow, only with you could it take me so long to clean a kitchen.”
Rainbow Dash looked like she was trying not to explode. “I’m going to wash up.”
“We only even made one pie!” Applejack was already washing herself off at the sink. Dash didn’t respond this time, she was probably in the washroom by now. She might have pushed a bit far there.
By the time she was done the timer was buzzing, so Applejack pulled out the pie and considered the color of the crust under the warm light of the kitchen. Judging it ready, she set on a cooling rack, and had an open bottle of cider waiting for Rainbow when she returned. Dash probably wanted to stay angry, but she usually got over these little spats as fast as she sunk into them. The cider lubricated her amiability and reminded her whose kitchen she was in and whose food she would soon be eating. Before long she was relaxing again, and the two went back to joking around about nothing in particular.
Applejack was adamant about letting her baking cool properly, so in the meantime Rainbow dragged her out to the hayloft of the old barn, grabbing a couple more bottles on the way. Unlike the metal and concrete of the new Quonset hut the wood and hay didn’t sap the heat, and it was actually quite comfortable in there if you were okay with the dust. The loft glowed orange in the dim light of a couple bulbs that were too small for it, and it felt much more welcoming than the grey outdoors. When Applejack came up the ladder Rainbow Dash was already sitting on the tire swing hanging above the neatly stacked bales in the middle, laying back in a very comfortable-looking stretch. Applejack found a nice niche where she’d be able to face her friend and get comfortable, took her weight off of her tired legs, leaned back, and pulled her hat down. Relaxation came more quickly than she had expected.
She smiled, and brought the glass neck of the bottle to her mouth.
Rainbow Dash emptied the last few drops of delicious, sweet cider out of her bottle and jammed it upright between two bales, licking her lips. Applejack hadn’t said anything since they’d arrived, and neither had she.
“Applejack?”
“Yeah Sugarcube?” She replied, her face hidden below her hat.
Rainbow Dash leaned back again. Despite her best efforts to sound uninterested, she heard the humor slip out of her voice. Her question died on her lips and she drew a shaky breath to calm herself, but in the dusty atmosphere of the loft she only found the familiar, comfortingly stale scent of hay throwing the memory that threatened to overpower her into even sharper focus. Eyes squeezed shut, she finally spoke. “Why did you change that day?”
Applejack took the green stem of grass she was chewing out of her mouth to answer (she must have got it outside, but Rainbow Dash hadn’t noticed). “I was cold.” Her voice was quiet enough to dull her accent, but still clear and sharp over the noise of the wind outside. It could have been miles away, muffled as it was.
“Applejack?”
“Yeah Sugarcube?”
“Are you still in love with me?”
Only the creaky sound of the rafters flexing as Rainbow gently swayed broke the soft, distant sound of the wind.
“Yeah, I am.”
The Apples opened up their homestead to visitors occasionally, and while most guests only stayed for the day their closer friends and relatives would usually set up a few tents and make an event of it. For some reason Granny Smith was fond of the awkwardness that sprouted when she planted her extended family in the midst of their community, so she made sure her grandkids had plenty of places set up to make camp.
They sold preserves, mostly, with a bit of baking, but in any event the trading was a sideshow. The townspeople came for the cider and a lush orchard to drink it in. Big Mac would volunteer to give those who insisted on leaving early a ride home, and Dash had trouble deciding whether it was out of generosity, invulnerability to his family’s potentates, or the fact that with this fall-back in place more Cider tended to sell. It probably wasn’t the latter given that the price tended to drop this close to the start of the next batch.
Last season's party had been so hot Rainbow Dash thought she was going to die. Well, Rarity did, or at least she had complained so, but no one bothered to take issue with her whining. The driveway was lined with cars and everyone was being incredibly familiar, setting up barbecues and lawn chairs while their children ran around inventing games that went with the unfamiliar landscape. It had all the hallmarks of a rowdy crowd in the making.
By early afternoon the heat had pushed a few families, but mostly the older kids and a few of the younger adults, to try for a swim. A short hike through the forest from Sweet Apple Acres there was a bend in a broad creek with a bed of silty mud that made for a reasonable swimming hole. Rainbow Dash had shown up, said hi to a few people, and been told her friends were there.
They were. Drenched and dirty, gleaming in the harsh glare of the high sun and chatting along with a dozen or so others, standing around or floating here and there in their much underused bathing suits. Everyone was laughing and squealing, even the adults, and Dash could see the empty bottles piling up that Applejack must have snuck to encourage them. The happy sounds were almost too real in her memory.
The well-proportioned-if-slightly-fleshy Pinkie Pie was a mess, muddier than the children and already their best friend. The flawless Rarity was, surprisingly, calf-deep in the sludge in a surrealist one-piece. That puzzling sight made a little more sense when Dash recognized those cute foreign twins who ran the spa, both on their knees and taking part in a mud fight with Pinkie and some kids. It was hard to tell who was doing the most to keep it going, the kids or the women. Twilight Sparkle, the lightest of lightweights even though she was taller and bigger than Rainbow, was arranging the bottles in the stream to keep them cool without getting lost. The marks on her skin and the towel wrapped around her said that she had only recently left the fight as well. Fluttershy sat nearby in a sundress, Winona pretending to doze in her lap as her ears were scratched.
Like everyone else’s, the usually hardworking and over-worried Applejack’s cares had somehow been dissolved by that stream and carried away. In a way, at least. She was still as ready as ever to slip into the big-sister role she cherished: Dash arrived as she was scolding Apple Bloom and her friends for trying to sneak off with a bottle of cider. Apple Bloom had doubtlessly had a taste before, but she was still too young to be sneaking drinks. Rainbow Dash greeted Applejack with a heavy palm on one shoulder and a quick spin around the opposite, snatching the bottle Applejack had just confiscated right out of her hands before offering a cheery greeting to the kids.
“Sorry for the delay everybody! I’m here now, this party can officially get started.”
Applejack had her little speech cut short. Being tricked had undermining her cool, older-sibling demeanor, and she found herself facing the muffled laughter of her sister’s little clique. The farmer gave Rainbow Dash a menacing look before her lip twitched and she turned sharply, and a ball of cold mud burst across Rainbow’s cheek.
“Was wondering when you would show up.”
The children inhaled sharply, curious about who would win the fight (and happy, in any event, that their delinquency had been forgotten). Now Rainbow Dash was surprised, the sudden chilliness dripping down her face leaving her lost for words. Reflex took over and she threw herself at Applejack, but the farmer stepped aside and just let her fall face-first into the slimy creek bed.
It was quiet underwater. The loud voices disappeared as her ears filled with the hiss of submergence, eerily similar to empty static backed by the whine of a jet. Her muscles tensed at being so suddenly frozen by the glacial runoff. A distant thought told her that her clothes were soaked—she could feel the water seeping through them as they pulled her down. Her hands sank into the cool mud when she tried to push herself up and she accidentally inhaled when she didn’t surface as soon as she should have. When she finally broke out she was choking and fuming, the return to bright reality blurring her senses.
A familiar sense of adrenaline charged through her, energy with nowhere to go. When Applejack’s face appeared, grinning but slightly worried, Rainbow Dash exploded towards it. The return to the cold, gritty sludge didn’t shake her senses this time as she had a heavy, firm body beneath her to keep steady against. They fought for the upper hand in a quick struggle, but Dash couldn’t get a hold on Applejack’s slick skin and her own shirt gave the other girl enough purchase to dominate her if she tried. She was flipped and only barely managed to keep her friend from balancing before forcing her down again, both of them connecting with the water in a huge splash. Celestia, Applejack is strong… Dash realized that if she were caught at a disadvantage, and had her friend weighing her down in the water, she would almost certainly have to give up. If they were on land she could think, but she was underwater. She needed to breathe to get out of this.
An instant later they were being held apart and heaving, even that brief fight leaving them drained. Rarity and Twilight were holding Rainbow Dash up by her armpits which made her annoyingly aware of the height advantage they both had over her, while Pinkie Pie restrained Applejack from behind with an inescapable bear hug. Fluttershy was staring in frustration at her dress, which was crisscrossed with streaks of black droplets. Everyone else was looking at her too until she decided to pull it off and discard it, and stood before everyone in a reserved, mismatched two-piece which still couldn’t hide the fact that she was easily the best endowed of all of them.
Rainbow Dash saw everything through a few dripping locks of red, yellow, and blue, and she smiled. She could think again. Her attention turned back to Applejack. She was in a pair of denim cutoffs and a red-checked bikini top, the matching bottoms’ knots visible at her hips above the waist of her shorts. She couldn’t be sure of the colors, though, as she more or less just looked dirty. Rainbow Dash hadn’t noticed the hidden bottoms before.
“I win.” Rainbow Dash said. It wasn’t often she got to use her favourite greeting. Even if she hadn’t, it still felt that way.
“Oh, this ain’t over!” Applejack found she was slippery enough to escape from Pinkie’s hold And Dash tensed to meet her, but the girl recovered it quickly and yanked her back with impressive strength.
“Oh yes it is!” Rarity looked deadly serious as she let go of Rainbow Dash, but she could still hear Twilight giggling. Dash grinned back at Twilight, who was as unperturbed by the mud as an archaeologist in a thriller might be, then looked at Applejack. “We were just saying hello, Rarity. Besides, she started it.”
“Pick your excuses beforehand next time, Sugarcube. They might sound more convincing.” Applejack slipped free of Pinkie’s arms and stood straight up, taking as much of an advantage as her height would give her. She tapped Rainbow on the cheek as she walked by twice, lightly, with her palm. “Besides, who cares who started it? I finished it.”
Rainbow Dash stepped out of the creek and picked up the bottle she’d dropped before, twisting off the top. Her clothes were tight and heavy and dragging her down, but a little more mud came unstuck with every step and when she was out of them she felt as light and free as ever. “We’ll see about that,” she muttered before following her friend to strike up a conversation that might lower her guard.
Sometime in the stream she had started dreaming. That was the only explanation for how she felt now, awake but not really, someplace imperfect but still too idyllic to believe. In the heat of that moment when Dash realized she was on the verge of being totally overcome her restraint had died. Far from trying to stop it, Applejack encouraged it just as much. Their friends—everyone, really—appeared willing to tolerate their boisterousness to an unusual degree that day. Maybe they were too lazy to stop it, more likely it fit with the mood more than it usually would… it definitely helped them beat the heat.
Whatever the case, their antics escalated and never really seemed to be checked by anything either of them did. The adrenaline never died, their consciences never denied them an attack. The cider egged them on. Restraint seemed curiously unimportant as long as they didn’t get caught, and the more the cider flowed the easier that became. Dash spent the afternoon in her rainbow bikini, and as long as it stayed hot out Applejack kept her makeshift swimwear on too. They both got burned.
Evening brought a chill and Rainbow Dash was forced to struggle back into her gritty clothes while balancing on the narrow bank of the stream, not yet dry, shivering and clumsy. There was no way she looked as ridiculous as she felt afterwards, sitting in the Apple’s dim barn, more than a little drunk and being driven mad by the trapped, wet grime against her skin. If there were any less food or company to share it with, she would have been incredibly irate.
Applejack disappeared for a while. When she came back, dressed in fresh, clean clothes that were as fancy as her wardrobe would allow, Rainbow Dash felt cheated. The farmer had obviously showered, and her new outfit was way cleaner than her work clothes. She looked like a country singer about to go on stage.
Everything was annoying her now. The barn smelled like hay and bourbon and vodka and the sickly-sweet cider that was starting to make her thirsty. Her friends and their friends and their friends had somehow jammed themselves in all around her in a bizarrely well-coordinated effort to make a huge mess, yelling and eating sloppy, saucy food from the barbecues outside, laughing and shouting with, at, and over each other. It was deliciously chaotic, and Rainbow Dash was yelling too before she knew it, basically a complete mess.
And Applejack was back, sitting down across from her. She looked too clean. Her clothes looked too new. Her hair looked too straight. If it hadn’t been her home, she might have looked out of place. The only thing right was her hat.
Applejack flashed a poisonously happy smile. It set Rainbow on edge and forced her struggling mind back under the surface. A sudden instinct seized her and she went quiet, walked behind Applejack, and snatched the red elastic from her hair without breaking her step, keeping her balance through the singular sense of purpose that her muddled mind had given her. She didn’t need to look to know she was being followed. A few steps later, someone grabbed her hand.
They both looked down. The band was on her wrist. She pulled away but Applejack was after her, and they left the warm light of the barn after a moment of struggling through the jostling crowd. It was much darker outside, and the raucous sound of music quickly dulled as Rainbow Dash led her quarry away from the open door where the warm light and energy was spilling out to be swallowed up in the dusk. The grass, glistening with dew, was slippery under her soles.
Her senses were dulled but Rainbow Dash was still aware of what was happening, especially since it involved much less stimulus than the party inside. She turned to face Applejack, but beside the barn the only light was from the stars and the sliver of moon, and all she could see clearly were her big, green eyes. She was only a foot or two away. Dash hadn’t counted on that.
Applejack looked like she didn’t know what to expect. If her state of mind was anything similar to Rainbow Dash’s, the cider had done more for her euphoria than her guile in the moments following her successful theft. Around this time Dash had expected a plan to present itself, but it had failed to show up. They were too close, and the din on the other side of the wooden planks kept them from realizing it until a moment before they should have moved.
Rainbow eyed the gaps in the fence, but before she could move a hand was on her wrist. Her flight instinct kicked in and she did her best to pull away. She could probably have resisted if she knew what she was resisting. As it stood, however, a plan had still not presented itself, and her efforts just pulled her in opposing directions. Applejack soon had her pinned against the barn.
They were stuck now. Rainbow Dash was squashed between the dry planks and Applejack, and since her eyes only came up to her friend’s chin she had to crane her neck back. Applejack’s hand struggled to grasp her wrist, which kept shifting as far away as possible. With every move to free her hand, Rainbow felt Applejack put more of her weight into the task of holding her still, and since the end of her arm was higher she kept pushing down and not just in, perpendicular to Rainbow’s torso.
It was so much cooler than in the barn. Applejack felt so warm.
Eyes locked, they felt Applejack’s hand grasp Rainbow Dash’s wrist, and the farmer smiled when her fingers slid under the elastic, binding them together. She lifted it and let go, hearing the tiny snap and feeling the trapped girl’s arm tense. Applejack’s fingers tugged repeatedly, and Dash could feel her arm getting pulled a bit every time. The farmer was close now, breathing wet, sweet, cidery hot air on her face.
“Going after my hair, now, are you?”
“Making up rules when you’re losing, now, are you?”
“No rules, just common courtesy.”
“Oh yeah,” she said, squirming all of a sudden. Applejack pressed against her even more firmly, as expected. “Just like how you’re pinning me to a building?”
“That’s completely different, you thief.”
“I don’t know about ‘thief’, Applejack.” At any rate the farmer had stopped trying to get her hair band back. “You don’t seem that upset about it. So why are you still holding me?”
“I’m just curious why you took this,” She snapped the band again. “And not my hat.”
Rainbow Dash blinked. Why had she? The hat was the obvious target, Applejack hated having it messed with. In fact, hadn’t she thought of the hat at first?
No answer came. Dash was left staring at her friend’s face, framed for once in her thick, blonde hair. The last thing she wanted to do was give Applejack back the band. Her vulnerability led one realization to rise in Rainbow’s mind, bursting through the surface with incredible buoyancy.
She’s about to kiss me, she thought. She threw me off so she could kiss me.
And before she had a chance to discover whether she was right she stuck her own neck out and their lips touched, and Applejack suddenly got way heavier but somehow she felt way lighter, and her nerves tried to slog through the sticky, cidery kiss but only had sticky, cidery blood to do it with and so nothing changed at all about what she was feeling except that everything, even her wet, dirty clothes and that maddening itching felt welcome.
Applejack broke it almost as soon as it started, but her smile hadn’t changed from before. Neither of them had closed their eyes. Her thumb rubbed the little red elastic one more time before letting it snap gently back onto her friends’ skinny wrist, before she peeled herself off the other girl and stepped back. Rainbow straightened up too, leaning against the wall, but neither of them moved to leave.
She had been wrong. Applejack hadn’t showered. She still smelled like the creek.
A couple people caught sight of them and came over to chat, oblivious to the atmosphere they were dissolving. Rainbow Dash forgot what the conversation was about even as it was happening, but by the time they were back in the barn they had found each other’s eyes again and two things were clear to both of them: they had a new game, and the night was young.
They sat down across from each other and Rainbow Dash found the room spinning, just slightly. Applejack looked a little dizzy too, if not only for that reason. Man, she should always keep her hair down. Dash decided to slow down. There could have been no better arena than this. The party might as well have paused for them when it let them have that moment, because no one seemed capable of perceiving any change at all in either of them. Maybe they were too far gone to expose it. Whatever the case, her mind was racing with ideas as her friends jostled for each other’s attention, and her usual restraint was absent.
Luckily Applejack appeared unable to muster any either. Without wasting a second the farmer’s boot found Dash’s legs under the table and did their best to trip her up in the midst of the conversation. While distracting, Rainbow Dash found she could bear it, and Applejack soon noticed that it was her lips the little aviator kept glancing at whenever she spoke. The smile that crossed those lips when she realized it was enough to make Rainbow Dash clench the table and leave, committing to a plan of extracting herself via other conversations until they found a place to hide.
At first they went back to the same spot and Rainbow Dash would watch the sky until it was taken over by that worn hat brim—reliving the memory of that first time was enough to make it feel like it was happening all over again with her mind so mired. Still, as they went on they got bolder. Applejack knew every secluded nook in the piles of stores that had been rearranged for the party and she was amazing at not getting caught. Rainbow Dash would have been hopeless with anyone else, she realized, but around the third or fourth time, when she found Applejack’s hands ruffling her hair and her leg pinned between her own in a sliver of space that should barely have fit two people, she knew there was no chance that Applejack was going to stop. No matter how daring they got, no one noticed. No matter how flushed or distracted they became, no one suspected anything more than the cider. She didn’t go for Applejack’s hair again. She didn’t need to, it surprised even her how forward Applejack was. It never got old. They never got bored. Like that of the party, the thrill refused to die. Every new moment fuelled it, every conversation a few seconds later with someone who suspected nothing made her want it even more.
The party did eventually wind down, though, which meant their game was going to end. Dash was still playful but she felt her spirits sinking as Applejack made sure all her friends had a place to sleep before excusing herself. She looked back, assuming Dash would follow.
She did. She left Dash in her room and came back with two tall glasses of water.
“Drink,” she said, and she started on her own.
Rainbow Dash had to eye the glass for a second before she started, getting a steady enough bead on it to bring it to her lips without missing. It should have been strange to be so disoriented, she realized, but she was so detached from herself that the observation elicited no emotional response from her. While outside it had been loud and warm and fast, in the cozy farmhouse it was dark. Everything sounded far away, except the swallowing in her head. The noise would carry if they made any, she realized.
And there was no one else, so this wasn’t a game.
Her glass was empty. Applejack took it, and the feeling of her fingers ripped away her detachment. Rainbow Dash was here. All here. The second it took for her brain to catch up to her was luckily long enough for Applejack to set down the glass and start turning, because she only just had a glimpse of the blur throwing itself at her before it hit.
She was sturdy as well as soft, Dash realized. She could lean on Applejack with almost her whole weight, hang from her shoulders or pull herself up by her collar, and Applejack didn’t falter. Good. Balance was getting hard, and the fact that she’d just found her friend’s tongue made it impossible.
Applejack was holding her too. One of her hands was deep in her pocket so any pretense at modesty was gone now, but she still kept the other on Rainbow’s back. The smaller girl was quick to find out why: Applejack could barely control her muscles when Rainbow arched herself into her, her hands clenched and her arms just went still as if trying to keep Rainbow from moving again by destroying the rhythm.
Dash pulled back. She was wrapped around Applejack’s neck and she was watching her lips. A quick glance up at Applejack’s big, green eyes said the same was true of her. Dash kissed her again, and again, a few seconds at a time, savouring the temptation that started to pool every time she broke off. Before long, she didn’t. They were kissing for a long time. Dash didn’t know how long when she realized it, her memory was slipping but she could tell that time was still passing if she exerted herself.
A pang of regret struck her when she realized that she might not remember this, and it made her squeeze Applejack even tighter. Almost desperately. Whether her feelings crossed she couldn’t tell, but Applejack pushed them down on her bed and pressed Dash deep into the mattress (hardly meant for two adults) with all her weight, and Dash forgot again. The only things in the world were Appejack’s body pinning her down, her hands slipping under the waist of her jeans, and the overarching sense that, however powerfully she was affected by what was going to happen once Applejack had her clothes off, she had to be completely, totally quiet. It would take all her focus if Applejack was any warmer than this naked.
She was.
A split second had passed to Dash but she knew it had been more than that in reality. Her shirt was gone and she was kissing Applejack’s collarbone, following her fingertips down her chest. They were on the edge of Applejack’s shirt, slowly pulling it open snap by snap. She was now on top, too: down had suddenly reversed for her. The startling lucidity and her awareness that her memory was failing her made her pause and look at Applejack’s face, and for a second she wasn’t sure if she was any better, but her eyes opened at the interruption and seeing each other broke their focus and they were kissing again like it might be the last kiss they ever remembered. Having Applejack’s body underneath her, firm and burning up and twitching with desire, felt even better than being under it, and Rainbow Dash found the hand that wasn’t pinned to Applejack’s chest running over the fly of her jeans and all the way down between her legs. It made Applejack jerk so violently that Dash melted in place, taking in the feeling of skin that she hadn't felt since the creek, and the only thought in her mind before it left her again was to do everything she could to take away her friend’s control of those toned muscles.
Another split second went by and they were both sitting, Dash with her legs over the farmer’s thighs and her fingers anchored to her shoulders, breathing heavily as she leaned into Applejack’s chest, her eyes fixed on the smooth skin over her breastbone. She wanted so badly to regret how much she’d drank, but all she felt was gratitude to whatever fortune made her conscious of this moment. One of Applejack’s hands was in her bathing suit, burning up in her groin and leaving a sticky, dull ache every time it moved. Even if her mind had been too muddled to tell from the feeling, she could tell by the size of the farmer's hand compared to her own. The other one was holding her head against Applejack’s chest.
She knew, somehow, even though she hadn’t learned it, that Applejack slowed down if she got too loud, so her entire mind was already dedicated to doing everything it could to keep her breathing steady. It didn’t have to for long. Regaining consciousness brought her right to the edge and it was only a few moments before her body shook through a powerful, unstoppable release, her knees coming together even though her feet were held apart by Applejack’s body. Her teeth were still clenched when she realized her breathing was smooth again and Applejack was pulling her down on top of her.
She was worn out. Whatever else they’d done, it must have felt great. Applejack pulled a blanket up over them and fell asleep stroking her hair, and the last thing Dash noticed before she succumbed to her own fatigue was the remnants of a clingy bond between a couple of her own fingers, now almost dry.
Dash woke up surprised. Surprised that she wasn’t that badly hungover, and that she remembered. A little. Enough.
No one else was in the room. With only some stumbling she put on her clothes, just as dirty as before but now cold too. The door opened as she was doing up her pants, And Applejack poked her head in.
Sober and tired and dressed like it was laundry day, with bags under her eyes and her hair a mess, Applejack looked stunning. She smiled, then slipped in and closed the door behind her. “Morning,” she whispered.
“Morning.” Dash had to get used to looking at her before she kept doing up her pants. “You feel alright?”
Applejack nodded. “You?”
“Better than I should.” She was dressed now and she had nothing to do with her hands, so she gestured to the empty glass on the dresser. “Thanks to you, I guess. Though I kinda need to go now.”
Applejack blushed and looked away for some reason, and put her hand behind her neck before speaking. “Oh yeah, right. You probably do…” She gestured at the door, a little reluctantly, like she was offering her a way out of this entire thing and not just a chance at some privacy.
“Yeah.” Dash moved towards the door, and found herself a little reluctant to step out too. “Hey, I don’t—”
“I want—”
They stopped when they realized they were cutting each other off, and neither had the composure to break the ensuing silence until Applejack sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. An immense impulse to do the same to her while she still had it loose came over Dash as well, and she started talking to stifle it.
“Look, I was trying not to make this awkward, but I don’t think it’s gonna work.”
“Nope,” Applejack agreed. “But you’re welcome to try.”
It sounded a little to Dash like Applejack was bragging about her party, but she didn’t say so. “And if we leave it at this I’m not gonna be able to think about anything else, so you should just say what you think. I get it if—”
“I don’t think we should stop,” said Applejack. It stopped Dash dead. “That’s what I wanted to say.”
Dash blinked. “It is?”
Applejack nodded, unable to keep herself from smiling. She stepped forward and put her thumbs through Rainbow’s belt loops. “Now, if you really wanna make it less awkward, maybe we can come up with something...”
Applejack’s voice was steady and calm. Rainbow looked at her hat, before jumping from the swing at the peak of its arc and landing face down a bale or two away from her friend. “I think we need to talk.”
“You might be right.”
It was quiet for a beat, and then they both exhaled sharply. Hearing the same sound from each other they smiled a little, but they looked at each other with tired eyes. The subject had been broached, hopefully that proved to be the hard part.
“Actually,” Applejack started, the volume returning to her voice. “You are right. I wasn’t gonna bring this up until later, but we need to talk.” Talking was about the only thing they hadn’t done. Well, not the only thing, Rainbow thought. But it was true that neither of them had ever made this a matter of discussion, they had both let it play out in the chaotic way it had started. Dash knew from experience that trying to quell the memories from that day was futile once they started snowballing. Now that she had really brought it up though, she was at a loss for words.
Applejack lifted her hat from her head so that she could see Rainbow’s eyes. “We might not have done this right, Rainbow.”
“Is there a right way to do something like this?”
“There could be a wrong way.”
“So we’re doing it wrong?” Her eyes narrowed.
“No, it’s just… look, all this back-and-forth is fun—it keeps me awake at night, really. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't want something like that to happen that night. But all we’re really doing is letting things fall and then escalating them again.”
“I thought that’s what you wanted. If we go further, someone will find out. If we keep going, someone will find out.”
“Find out what?”
“That we’re—“
“What? There ain’t no word for what we’re doing. What are we doing?”
“We’re just hanging out, but we let things go further.” It sounded weak to both of them
“That’s all? We—"
“That’s all!” Rainbow lifted her head now, her fingers digging into the rough hay beneath her, fury in her eyes. "It means enough to me to try to keep it alive, Applejack! You sound like you don't even—"
“Apple Bloom knows, Rainbow.”
The words winded Dash when she heard them and she was laser-focused on Applejack, who was unreasonably calm. Without knowing it she squeezed the hay in her hand tighter, but the color left her face. “How?”
Applejack took of her hat and started playing with the brim. “She asked me.”
“And you told?”
“Wasn’t like she asked whether there was a boy in my life or nothing. She just came up and said, ‘Sis, you in love with Rainbow Dash?’”
Her stomach fell. She, at least, had thought they’d covered their tracks. “She did?”
“Well, she said ‘in like’. Her friends came up with it or something.” They were both more than capable of imagining some bizarre conversation between Apple Bloom’s little clique leading to the uptake of that turn of phrase. “She didn’t even catch us, just worked it out Rainbow. Well, she worked out I like you.”
“Right.” Rainbow nodded. “Not that we’ve…”
“Didn’t say. Maybe. She had to leave before she gave anything away.”
Her body rolled itself onto its back, and Rainbow Dash released the hay she was clutching. The barn’s peak was to her side. It felt weird to lie facing up somewhere off center. Somehow it made her feel unbalanced, like she was going to roll off of something. “When?”
“This morning.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes closed and she took a deep breath, first through her nose and then through her mouth. “So what are you gonna do?”
“That’s what we need to talk about.”
“I understand if… you know...” Rainbow’s hands tried to grip the bale below her again, but she couldn’t get as much purchase this time and had to squeeze her eyes shut. “Your family, and everything. I mean, it was bound to happen, so… I understand—“
“Rainbow Dash!” The words the other girl was trying to say caught up with Applejack, and Dash recoiled, surprised by the intensity in the farmer’s voice. “I swear, you start going and deciding everything yourself you’re gonna get us both in a mess. If my sister knows, it’s a fair bet my brother does too, maybe more, and if you think you’ve snuck anything by my grandma you’d better guess again.” Applejack grabbed another bottle and fiddled with the opener, failing on her first couple tries before finally getting it open and bringing the bottle to her lips. “Y’all can do whatever you want but it won’t make things less complicated, it’ll just make ‘em less complicated for you.”
Rainbow Dash should have felt happy at having her unspeakable suggestion so aggressively denied, but it still did nothing to quell her argumentative instinct. “So you’re family’s okay with this?”
“Probably not.” Applejack took a long draw from the bottle in her hand. The cider had warmed a bit, and looking at the unmarked bottle she suddenly wanted a beer. “No idea really. Don’t reckon they ever thought about it.”
Dash watched her friend stare at the bottle. “If she doesn’t approve, your grandma sure hides it well. If she knows, that is.”
“She likes you. Doesn’t need to be okay with everything about you for that.” Applejack started pulling stalks of hay from the bale beside her and tossing them at her feet like little spears. “Mac shouldn’t worry us much. Gets in your head, that one. Don’t think he’ll blame us if he can’t understand.” Despite what she said, Applejack didn’t sound convinced. She wasn’t sure she could meet her brother’s eyes if she had to be honest about this. Rainbow would, though. If she was there, Rainbow would stare him down with a deadly intensity.
“And your sister?” Dash watched Applejack nod her head in thought. “AJ?”
“They’ll both be worried about her, and truth is so am I. She only overthinks things or underthinks ‘em, and if we stand to benefit from some calm and patience she ain’t gonna be responsible for any of it.”
“We could try to explain, she might understand. Kids are kind of smart, sometimes…” Applejack’s sudden, frustrated smile made Rainbow Dash stop. “What?”
“You go try explaining it to her the way you’ve been explaining it to me. We can’t even explain it to each other!”
Sitting up, Rainbow Dash leaned in over the farmer, taking advantage of their uneven standing to gain height. “Stop throwing out everything I say. You think I’m not trying to help? Didn’t you say she figured it out on her own? Nobody needed to explain anything to her for that, not even us.” This made Applejack’s eyes turn up in consideration, so Rainbow Dash went on. “You think I’m overthinking this? Maybe you are too! It seems like your sister’s the only one who actually isn’t letting her feelings into it. What did she seem like this morning?”
“I never… well… normal, I guess. I never thought of that.” She had a drink. “I’m sorry, Rainbow, that’s true.”
“Think about it, what did she say?”
“She just asked. I asked why, and she didn’t really say, just said she thought it for a while. When I told her she didn’t seem surprised, anyway.” Calm had returned to Applejack’s voice. “Still, not looking forward to whatever this means I’m gonna have to explain to her.” She stopped, but another thought suddenly occurred to her. “And our friends?”
“I know.”
“That’s gonna be… I don’t even know how that’s gonna be. Can’t imagine they’d be ashamed.” But they would definitely be surprised.
“Of course they won’t be ashamed. It’s the ‘We’ve been doing it for months for fun, and now we’re serious’ part that’ll get ‘em.” Rainbow still had the bottle in her hand although she hadn’t really been drinking the cider since she’d brought this up, and her thumb kept searching in futility for a label to peel while she spoke. “Sooo… You want to go through with it then?”
“Things will change either way.” Though she tried not to show it, this answer made Rainbow Dash’s face tense up, and Applejack saw. “I don’t mean it that way, Rainbow. Yeah, I do. I still do, I mean. Do you?” Applejack was surprised by the amount of anxiety just asking brought up, even though she knew the answer. Well, probably… hopefully…
Rainbow Dash nodded once, smirked, and gave a definite “Yes.” Applejack smiled. She had a strong sense that if the circumstances had been lighter, the other girl’s answer would have been a furious nod brimming with enthusiasm. When it came to things she felt certain about, Dash only operated at two extremes of the expressive spectrum. “How, AJ? What do we say?”
“No idea. Who do we say it to?”
Rainbow let her legs stretch out, bridging over the gap that Applejack was sitting in, and leaned forward to stretch. The action led the skinny ankles of her jeans to slip up, exposing her rainbow-striped socks. “Let’s not do anything.”
“What?”
“You know, just keep going. Don’t point anything out, but stop hiding. We’re not obligated to tell anybody anything, and they’ll either ask or they’ll work it out. Or they won’t, no skin off our backs.”
“You ever been to Ponyville? Pretty slow town, except when it comes to gossip?”
“Even better then.”
Applejack didn’t share the sentiment, but it had an obvious appeal if she was forced to consider it. The subject had been on her mind all day, letting go would be such a relief. “Don’t think that’s gonna work on my family, and I kind of think I do have an obligation to tell them.”
“You don’t—”
“To tell them, Rainbow. And what do we say when our friends ask why we never said nothing?”
Dash had to think about this. “Uhh… we… thought they all knew?” After passing the suggestion she turned her hopeful gaze on the narrowed eyes of the farmer who, despite herself, couldn’t contain a chuckle.
“They might expect that from you.” Applejack said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Huh, thought that was pretty clear.” Rainbow Dash threw some hay at her, but most of it started fluttering back down as soon as it left her hand and Applejack brushed off the rest. Finished with her drink she lifted Dash’s legs, rolled off the side, and landed on her feet, then stretched and turned on Rainbow Dash. “Better get back in. I want some pie before it gets too cold, don’t you?” Dash nodded and followed her out.
They had to pass the spot where Applejack pinned her on the way in. As they went by they shared a glance, and Rainbow Dash had a strange feeling. Applejack looked just as good, but very different. Thoughtful and self-assured in the late gray dusk, her eyes falling on her trees whenever they came into view. As wild and unapologetically aggressive as she could be, Dash was glad that it was Applejack who had come to the conclusion that she had. If something was important and needed her attention, Applejack could focus. She’d proven it, keeping her family afloat running a dozen harvests herself. Dash grabbed her hand and Applejack squeezed it back, and they both held on until they were at the door.
Author's Note
Hello everybody! I hope you enjoyed it. This is another one I let sit for ages without finishing. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are drawn to each other, but before their passion ripens they hook up under circumstances that defeat their better judgement and kind of make them feel like cads afterwards. Since their intentions aren’t clear they need to work their way back to the relationship they would probably prefer to begin with, because even though they keep doing it with each other, things just stay awkward. That’s the kind of feeling I was going for. Not really sure if this counts as M, but I decided to play it safe.
If you did like it I would be more grateful than anything to hear from you, so please review and take a look at my other stories as well. Notes of any kind are always appreciated, as is sharing with your friends if you feel it merits the attention.
Just say "Hi!" is what I'm saying, I promise you'll make my day.
Before long, I hope,
Arbutus
