“Applejack?”

The farmer sighed at the tone in the other girl’s voice. “Yes?”

Rarity focused her attention on a wrinkle in her dress. She smoothed it out and looked back out at the crowd. “When you asked me to prom, I didn’t think we’d be spending the whole evening in the refreshment area.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “What is it you want, Rarity?”

The alabaster seamstress glared at her date. “I’d like to dance with my girlfriend, if that wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

“I ain’t yer girlfriend. We’ve been over this.”

Rarity threw her hands in the air. “Oh, here we go again. I forgot we aren’t girlfriends, darling. Pray tell, how would you define our relationship, then?” She began counting on her fingers. “We get jealous when someone makes eyes at each other, we spend all of our free time together, we are intimately familiar with each other’s bodies…”

“Will you keep it down!” Applejack hissed, looking around. “You tryin’ to let the whole school know?”

“I really could not care less at the moment.” Rarity glared at her. “You have been absolutely intolerable these last few weeks, do you know that? Not only did you wait until the very last minute to even ask me to prom, but you insisted on coming in that… that… thing.” She gestured at the ancient dress the farmer was wearing.

“This is a family heirloom!”

“No, darling, it’s curtains. It is literally curtains that someone tried sewing into a dress. It is an abomination to both fashion and good sense.”

Applejack folded her arms. “Great, great, great grandma Scarlet worked really hard on this dress.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “That’s all fine and good, but you could have at least let me spruce it up a bit. Not to mention your dogged insistence on wearing that hat of yours everywhere we go…”

Applejack looked away. “ I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“You can’t be serious.” Rarity gaped at her. “I have been obsessed with this night since the sixth grade. I’ve had every moment mapped out for the past year. I started working on this dress last Christmas. And despite all I’ve done, my girlfriend won’t even dance with me!”

“Will you stop callin’ me that!?” Applejack looked around again, sure that someone had heard this time. “We’re just friends.”

“Just fr…” Rarity trailed off, genuine hurt in her eyes. “But…”

“Listen good and close.” Applejack yanked her hat off her head and brandished it like a weapon. “I never asked you to prom. I assumed that we were comin’ together as friends, just like Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. I don’t need you spoutin’ off and sayin’ things that might get back to my brother.”

“That’s what this all comes down to, doesn’t it?” Rarity sniffled. “You’re afraid your family won’t be accepting of us.”

“Oh, for land’s sake! There is no us!” Applejack almost yelled. “We’re good friends that hang out and sometimes mess around with the girls at Pinkie’s house. We ain’t a couple, we ain’t girlfriends, and we ain’t high school sweethearts. Now, if you can’t grasp hold of that, then maybe you need to go find somebody else to dance with.”

Rarity’s lip was trembling, two small trails of tears flowing from her eyes. “But I don’t want to dance with anybody else.”

Applejack huffily returned her hat to her head. “Listen, if you can’t accept this as it is, then maybe…” She looked away. “Maybe we don’t need to be friends anymore.”

The impact of Rarity’s slap was swallowed by the noise of the crowd. She sniffled as she wiped her eyes. She glared at the farmer. “I hate you.” Before Applejack could respond, the fashionista was gone, making her way through the crowd towards the ladies room.

Applejack stared at the place where the girl had just been. She felt cold, save the hot spot of pain on her face. With a grunt of irritated anger, she turned back to the refreshment table and stared at the assembled array of snack foods. She concentrated on them, determined to focus on something, anything, that would keep her from thinking about the pale girl in the blue dress and her desire to run after her…

“Applejack? Are you okay?”

Applejack looked over to find Lyra and Bon Bon staring at her with concern on their faces. She grinned without humor and gestured around the room. “A’course everything’s fine. It’s prom, right? We’ve been waitin’ for this night since we were kids.” She reached for a strawberry. “What could possibly be wrong?”

“You mean besides Rarity running away from you? In tears?” Bon Bon deadpanned.

Applejack shook her head. “You just don’t understand. You can’t understand.”

Lyra took a bite of the finger sandwich she was holding. “I understand that if it was my girlfriend running off to the bathroom bawling her eyes out, I’d be right behind her…”

“Consarnit, she ain’t my girlfriend!” Applejack whirled with a snarl. “I ain’t gay!”

Her outburst was hidden from all but the three beside the table thanks to a particularly loud riff from Flash up on stage.

Bon Bon stared at Applejack, genuinely confused. “You… aren’t?”

“A’course I ain’t.” Applejack munched another strawberry with intensity. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Besides the fact that you’ve never had a boyfriend? Like, ever?”

“There’s more important things than canoodlin.’ I‘ve got a farm to help run.”

“And there’s the fact that you’re always hanging out with Rarity.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “We’re best friends. Just like you two.”

Lyra’s jaw dropped.

“Holy shit.” Bon Bon’s expression mirrored Lyra’s. “You’re actually being serious right now.”

“Sure I’m being serious.” Applejack chuckled. “Me and Rares are just as close as you two are. Maybe even closer.”

“Yeah, that’s what we figured.” Lyra glanced at Bon Bon before raising an eyebrow at the farmer. “AJ, did it seriously never cross your mind that maybe Bonnie and I were too close to just be friends? Haven’t you ever thought it was kinda weird how we held hands in the hallway?”

“And have you not seen the way we look at each other, like, all the time?”

Applejack blinked. “I’m not sure where you’re goin’ with this.”

Bon Bon started to snap but Lyra beat her to it. “Applejack, we’re gay. We’ve been out and about with it for two years now.”

Applejack raised her eyebrows in genuine shock. “What?! No way! Ya’ll ain’t gay. Ya can’t be.”

Bon Bon smirked at her girlfriend. “Trust me on this. We are both really into girls.”

Lyra returned the smirk and kissed the cream colored girl’s cheek. “And really into each other.”

Applejack rubbed her forehead as she tried to process this new (to her, anyway) information. “But ya’ll never talk about it. Nobody talks about it.”

“One, what goes on between us is our business and nobody else’s.” Bon Bon held out a second finger to match the first. “And two, it’s not a big deal. Everybody knows and nobody cares.”

Lyra narrowed her eyes at Applejack’s continued confusion. “You don’t have a problem with any of this, do you?”

“No, of course not!” Applejack replied quickly. “It’s just… but I thought… Rarity and I…” Applejack’s arms dropped to her sides as the pieces finally fell into place. “Rarity actually likes girls, doesn’t she?”

“Well, she likes you.” Bon Bon reached over and put a hand on Applejack’s shoulder. “Applejack, we’re just as confused as you are right now. Maybe you could help us out.”

Applejack pursed her lips for a moment, warring on the inside about what she ought to do, then finally decided that honesty would be the best thing. “Not here. Come on.” She motioned for the two to follow her to a darkened corner of the gym.

She told them (almost) everything.

When she was finished, Lyra and Bon Bon just stared at her in complete shock.

“Well?”

“So, to summarize; you and your friends occasionally meet up at Pinkie Pie’s house and engage in crazy wild, partner swapping, full on girl-on-girl orgies?” When Applejack nodded, Bon Bon broke into a wild smile. “I hate to break this to you, Applejack, but that’s super gay.”

Lyra’s grin matched her girlfriend’s. “Yeah, that’s some next level shit right there.”

Applejack waved her hands frantically in a warding off gesture. “It ain’t gay! It’s just a way to blow off some steam.”

“Yeah, it sounds pretty steamy.” Lyra fanned herself. She cut eyes at Bon Bon. “Should we crash the next one, or…?”

“Not on your life.” Bon Bon growled.

“Spoil sport.”

Bon Bon focused back on Applejack. “Look, when you and the girls have these sleepovers, you spend most of your time with Rarity, right?”

“Well, yeah. Her and Dash, to be honest, but that’s more of a competition kinda thing…”

“And how do you feel when someone else starts getting a little too friendly with Rarity? Jealous? Possessive?”

Applejack’s silence was all the confirmation she needed.

“AJ, its okay to admit it. No one’s gonna judge you.”

Applejack looked down. “You don’t know my family.”

“I know Mac. And I know Apple Bloom. I really doubt either of them would have a problem with your liking girls. And I hear that your Granny is a real sweet…”

“No, listen to me. I’m not attracted to girls.” Applejack looked utterly defeated. “I don’t stare at girls when we’re out in public and I don’t get all hot and bothered when I see Countess Coloratura on TV. Even when me and the others are getting together, I’m appreciating them for being them, not for their gender. I… I don’t like girls.”

Bon Bon cupped Applejack’s chin and tilted her face upwards. She smiled. “But you like Rarity, don’t you?”

Applejack closed her eyes and nodded.

“If you really feel about Rarity the way she obviously feels about you, then you need to do something about it.” Lyra noticed that Flash’s band was telling the crowd they were taking a short break and that anyone who wanted to was more than welcome to get on stage and sing a song or two. “It’s not fair to Rarity that you’ve dragged her along all this time. You need to tell her how you feel or let her go. Tonight.”

Bon Bon nodded as she pulled away and returned to Lyra’s side. “So… what are you gonna do?”

Applejack sighed. “I… I just don’t know.”

“Well, if I were you, I’d figure it out quick.” Lyra turned and started away, Bon Bon trailing not far behind. “The night’s not gonna last forever, ya know?”

Applejack slumped against the wall, her brain buzzing. She was confused and she was scared, more scared than she’d ever felt before. She mentally punched herself for not realizing sooner how Rarity felt about her, about them. Had she really been so dumb to not notice the little things Rarity would say sometimes? Hadn’t those statements been coming more and more frequently as time went on?

“Don't worry about it, my dear. Applejack gets a trifle possessive of me when we’re in flagrante delicto.”

“You’ll have to forgive Applejack. She’s only come to truly understand her urges and desires because of moi.”

If that cowgirl has any plans of going steady with me then she had better hurry and do something about it."

"How about it, Applejack? Are you ready to come out just yet?"

Consarnit, she was sure they had just been jokes. None of the other girls seemed to take their get-togethers so seriously. If Rarity had actually felt that way, then why hadn’t she…?

And then it all came together at once.

Everything made sense all of a sudden. Rarity’s insistent belief that they were a couple, her belief that they were more than friends with benefits… all of it.

It had begun with the five of them, plus Maud on occasion. What happened at Pinkie’s stayed at Pinkie’s. Sunset and Fluttershy were the exception, the first to realize they preferred the company of one over the rest of the group. As far as any of the once and future Rainbooms believed, they were the first and only couple to sleep with each other outside of a Pinkie party.

But that wasn’t the case at all.

A brief reverb filled the gym and all eyes, including Applejack’s, looked to the stage. Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting side by side on the seat of the school’s piano, something no one had seen them do since the ill-fated Battle of the Bands. As they all watched, Bon Bon began to play a familiar, lilting melody. She nodded to Lyra who, at the sign, leaned towards the microphone and began to sing;

“I know there's something in the wake of your smile.

I get a notion from the look in your eyes, yea.

You've built a love but that love falls apart.

Your little piece of heaven turns too dark.

Listen to your heart when she's calling for you.

Listen to your heart there's nothing else you can do.

I don't know where you're going and I don't know why,

But listen to your heart… before you tell her goodbye.”

The words of the song carried Applejack back to a night that seemed so long ago now, to not long before Pinkie’s first life-changing sleepover. To that dark and stormy night when her truck had broken down and she’d knocked on a familiar door, hoping for help, but finding…

“Applejack?! What’s happened, darling? You look like a soaked muskrat.”

Applejack rolled her eyes as she hugged her old leather jacket closer against her. “Rarity, can I come inside, or would you rather explain my drowned corpse to the police in the morning?”

Rarity, a gossamer robe tied over her simple sleeping gown and her vibrant purple hair not yet tied up in its normal sleeping bun, quickly stepped aside as the young farmer stomped in. “Ahem.” Her eyes flashed downwards.

Applejack looked down at her muddy boots and quickly kicked them off before she reached the house’s carpet. “Sorry.”

“No worries, darling. Your truck broke down, I take it?”

Applejack nodded. “A couple miles back. Do ya have a phone? I could get Mac out here and…”

“Firstly, who doesn’t have a phone? Where are you from, the eighteenth century?” Rarity cut off the girl’s reply with a single finger. “Secondly, it’s down.”

“Storm?”

“Indeed.”

“Wonderful.” Applejack slouched. She looked up. “Your parents…?”

“Out of town with Sweetie Belle. Only moi, stranded in the storm of the century until at least morning.”

Applejack reached up and pulled off her dripping Stetson. “Now, I don’t wanna impose…”

“Please shut up if you are even remotely entertaining the notion that I would kick you back out into this mess. Of course you’re more than welcome to stay the night.”

Applejack smiled. “Thank ya kindly, Rarity.”

Rarity gestured at Applejack’s dripping ensemble. “Just give me those so I can toss them in the dryer and run upstairs. You can use my shower and I’m sure you can find some pajamas in my closet.”

Applejack blanched. “I can’t just strip in front of you!”

“Oh, please. Like you have something I haven’t seen already?” Rarity rolled her eyes. “I will turn my back if that makes you more comfortable.”

Applejack considered but shook her head. “Nah. You could just sneak a peek anyway when I streaked through your house afterwards. If you were lookin’ to peep, there’s really nothin’ I could do about it.”

“Splendidly put. It’s just us girls, after all.” Rarity winked as the farmer began undressing.

Later, after Applejack’s shower and fruitless search to find normal, non-glittery pajamas in Rarity’s closet, they relaxed on the living room’s sofa. Each sipped hot chocolate Rarity had whipped up as they chatted about the events of the day.

“This is nice.” Applejack admitted. “Thank you.”

“What are friends for?” Rarity nodded towards the mug. “How is it?”

“Fine.”

“I wasn’t sure how much marshmallow you wanted.”

“Shucks, I can’t get enough marshmallows. They’re my favorite.”

Rarity smirked into her mug. “I’m rather partial to apples, myself.”

Applejack blinked. “In… in yer hot chocolate?”

Rarity choked on her beverage and pounded her chest as she coughed. Applejack was by her side in an instant, patting her back. When she’d recovered, she glared at her guest playfully. “I wonder if there’s such a thing as too much common sense.”

“Now what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never mind.” A blast of thunder shook the house and she squealed, taking advantage of that and Applejack’s arm placement to snuggle into the girl’s side. “Sorry. Do you mind?”

Applejack shook her head and wrapped her arm fully around the pale girl’s back. “Shoot Rares, you really saved my hide tonight. The least I can do is snuggle with ya a little.”

Rarity said nothing, simply enjoying the other girl’s warmth.

They remained that way for awhile, the storm raging around them. Before too long, the driving rain on the roof and the warmth of the girl beside her began to lull Applejack into a state of perfect relaxation. She began to dip forward, her nose finding Rarity’s hair and breathing in the smell. “Is that jasmine?”

“My favorite shampoo.” Rarity replied. She looked up into the farmer’s face. “Applejack?”

“Yes?” The orange girl suddenly found it very difficult to look away from the beautiful young woman’s quite piercing eyes.

“Forgive me, but given our current situation I fear I must be a bit forward with you. I doubt another opportunity like this will come along anytime soon.”

“How’s that?”

“May I kiss you?”

Under normal circumstances, a woman asking Applejack that question would’ve caused her to stammer and pull away, or maybe to laugh along at a joke she wasn’t getting. But whatever the reason, be it the rain, the comfort, or the company, she simply puckered her lips and leaned in.

The first kiss was short. The second was longer.

By the end of the third, Rarity was on her back with Applejack using one arm to support herself while the other cupped the back of the other girl’s neck. They stared at each other, panting from the sudden outburst of inexplicable passion.

“I’ve pictured this moment for quite some time now.” Rarity murmured.

“Not gonna lie… it might’ve crossed my mind once or twice.” Applejack admitted. “There’s just somethin’ about you.”

“I feel the same.” Rarity fingered the hem of Applejack’s pajama shirt. “I just never imagined you would fall right into my lap like this.”

“I’m so confused.” Applejack looked down at the barely covered body beneath her. “I mean, does this mean that I’m…?”

Rarity laughed lowly and shook her head. “That’s neither here nor there, darling. What matters is that you and I are right here, right now. And I want you. Right here… right now.” She closed her eyes and tilted her chin up in obvious invitation. “What are you going to do about it?”

All thoughts of questioning her feelings vanished when Applejack claimed those perfect lips once again. Such things as deciding one’s orientation seemed distant as she and the fashionista stripped the clothes from one another. There was no room for uncertainty or fear of the future while tongues tasted and fingers explored and passions flared and crescendoed, rising and falling in tune with the rage of the thunderclaps outside. Lightning flashed and the room was plunged into darkness, but they paid it no mind as they, with fingers twirling and slippery bodies sliding, cried out in release, the sound swallowed by their still united mouths.

They lay together after, and just before she’d fallen asleep, Applejack had heard Rarity utter a single sentence. “I think I’ve fallen for you.”

And Applejack had yawned and responded sleepily…

“…Me too.” Applejack whispered.

She was moving before the applause for Lyra and Bon Bon’s completed song had faded completely. She moved through the crowd, desperately looking for Rarity. Surely she couldn’t still be in the restroom. Surely by now she’d emerged to seek comfort from one of the others. She looked frantically but could find no sign of her. In desperation, she climbed the stage and looked out.

There she was, moving towards the exit.

She’d never reach her in time. There was only one option.

She reached the edge of the stage, grabbed the microphone stand, and held it to her lips. “Rarity!”

Rarity stopped and looked back at her, as did every single person at the prom.

“Oh boy.” Applejack looked around nervously before focusing back on Rarity. “Please don’t leave. I’m… I’m sorry. I was a fool. I was a damned fool.”

Rarity put a hand to her lips and listened.

“Rarity, I haven’t been fair to you. I know that now. I’m sorry I was too dumb to see how you really felt. And, well, I guess I was lyin’ to myself about feeling that way too.” She pulled off her hat and held it to her chest. “Yer the most wonderful person I ever met. Yer sophisticated, but ya ain’t snobby. Yer kind and generous to a fault. And yer so beautiful that my eyes start to hurt if I stare at you too long.”

There were several audible ‘Awwwws’ from the crowd but Applejack couldn’t hear them.

“I want to be what you’ve always wanted me to be. Because I lo…” She stopped when she watched one of the side doors open. Macintosh strolled in with Fluttershy, Sunset, and Twilight following closely behind. They all wore small smiles and looked ruffled, like they’d gotten dressed in a hurry.

Her brother looked up at her and she began to feel the fear returning.

She thought of Rarity’s eyes and the feel of her heartbeat in the dark.

She stood tall and focused her gaze on the purple haired girl. “I love you, Rarity. Hell, I guess I have for a while now.” She looked back to her brother and swallowed hard. “There it is. I guess… I guess that means I’m… I’m gay.” She waited for the condemnation, the glare that would soon cross her brother’s gaze.

Mac looked at her for what felt like a long, long time. Finally he looked her dead in the eye and said, “…Duh.”

Applejack’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Literally everybody knows you and Rarity are a thing.” Sandalwood looked around. “Everyone raise your hand if you knew that AJ and Rarity had something going on.”

Every hand in the gym went up, including those of the chaperones in the back.

Applejack looked down. “Well… don’t I feel like a horse’s ass?”

“That’s just how love feels sometimes. You get used to it.” Lyra came up behind her and gave her a shove.

Applejack felt a brief rush of fear as she fell from the stage that dissipated when the crowd caught her. She laughed as they crowd-surfed her all the way back to Rarity who was waiting for her with tears in her eyes, different ones than those she’d shed before. “Hi.” She said when her feet were back on the ground.

“Hi.” She sniffled. “Did you mean it?”

“I only wish that I’d said something a lot earlier. I love you, Rares. Yer the only girl for me.” She held out her Stetson. “Do whatever you want with it.”

Rarity took it, considered it carefully, and then pulled it snug onto her head. “There. How do I look?”

“Like the most beautiful girl in the world.” She pulled her close and kissed her as the crowd cheered both at the display of affection and Vinyl Scratch getting ready to play more music. They parted their lips as a new beat began to play. “Would you like to dance?”

Rarity giggled. “Oh, darling; I thought you’d never ask.”

Lyra and Bon Bon looked on approvingly as Applejack began to spin her now official girlfriend into the thick of the dance floor. “We did good.”

Lyra smiled. “I told you that would work.”

Bon Bon kissed her girlfriend’s cheek and grabbed hand. “Yes you did.”

Lyra waited a few seconds. “So about the whole crashing the sleepover thing…”

Bon Bon rolled her eyes and yanked the other girl into the crowd. “Just shut up and dance with me.”

Author's Note