A single seed

Applejack opened her eyes. Her surroundings were no longer the library. "Wow. Just wow."

"That's about what I thought when I first entered you, Applejack." Twilight appeared next to her.

"It looks... empty." She was right. They were in a giant hall, five hallways going out of it. A window in the ceiling let in some light, even though the sun wasn't anywhere to be seen. Nothing was in the room except for a statue of Rainbow Dash. None of the doors seemed to be an exit.

"At least we know you're not discorded any more. Yes, it seems Dash has some control over herself. No offense, but when I visited you, there was just so much more going on. There was this school house or something, and all around it were growing apple trees, and every single member of your family and friends was present..."

"Nice of you to tell me, but ta be honest, Ah kind of already know how Ah look on the inside. Aren't we here to fix RD or something?"

"Not fix, explore. I hate to use this spell, partially because it's unsafe by itself, but also because it'd technically allow to alter her mind. We could completely destroy her psyche or even kill her!"

"So we make sure not to do nothin' with her an' jus' find out what's keeping her back?"

"Yes. But why would she focus her mind like that? I mean, look around, almost all of her feelings are suppressed. That's not how a regular pony'd look like."

"You sure they're not just someplace else? Like, 'Emotions room?'" Applejack pointed towards the end of one hallway, where a wooden door had that written on it in golden letters.

"That's what I meant! There's a seal over the door! Unless she wants it, nothing gets out. But it's supposed to flow freely. Just why?"

"Maybe she's trying not to go crazy and do something stupid 'cause Ah rejected her? Just how will I get her to believe me that Ah've loved her all along and simply was too much of a little coward to admit it when she asked?"

A small hatch on the emotions door opened and two beings a little smaller than Spike came into the main room. One was a deep blue and tear-shaped, the other red and heart-shaped. They were joined together by multiple straps that seemed much out of place.

"Oh look, she can hear you. Here come... Sorrow and Love? And why are they forced together like that? Interesting..." Twilight investigated the creatures closer.

"Ah sure can think of why. How could Ah let myself hurt her like that?"

"Now, don't go releasing those blues yourself. It's done, you apologised and told the truth, now we have to find out why she won't accept the apology. Or you. These changes are too deep to have been formed how long ago now?"

"With today, it's four days ago."

"Exactly. First, she'd have overflowing emotions, then perhaps a little repressing, but this is a complete blockage. There must have been something years ago... something deep. Hey, can you hear him too?" She perked her ears up to listen.

Your friends need you. But do you need them? What have they ever given you other than pain?

"Shut up and get out of Dashie's mind! You're the reason she's hurtin' like that!" Applejack snapped at the bodyless voice.

"We will find a way to shut him out, I promise. Now, look for anything that could be of use. Memory section or something."

"There."

"How did you find that so quickly?"

"Always go south, Granny taught me that."

"But we don't even have any means of determining... Whatever. That actually looks right. Let's go!" As a parting gift, she undid the straps and allowed the creatures to run around freely. "That's not going to do anything, don't worry."

"Oh wow, that's a big lock."

"Worse even than the emotions room. Good thing I can pick this, physically and magically." Twilight's horn briefly lit up, then the lock clicked, granting them entrance.

"I didn't expect... That!"

"That's a standard structure. Most of the memory flows look like this. What did you expect, a library or something?"

They were on the border of a small river, barely big enough for two ponies to swim next to each other. Right behind them was the door they came in. The ceiling was about three ponies high here. A featureless wall stretched along the both sides of the river, including the sidewalk. It did not end it's pattern anywhere in sight.

"Erm, how are we supposed to access any memories? Ah don't see anything 'round here."

"I'll show you in a second. Now, reference time. Tuesday, one PM... Okay, I think we should be able to find our way back. Wanna go for a dip?"

"Erm, Ah..."

"Oh, yes, I forgot. Sorry for intruding your privacy like that, but I couldn't come around seeing that when I visited you. I promise, this is safe. Look, we can stand in it!"

Applejack walked into the waters towards Twilight. The slow stream tickled at her throat. "Now what?"

"This is the Flow of Eternity. Going up means past, going down future. There's no point in going down, it's just blank space there. So let's go upwards and calibrate our scale." Twilight took a small step forward, then left the stream again.

"Twi'? We didn't move at all, you know that?"

"Sure we did! Repeat my movement and you'll see."

Applejack took a step, then moved out directly towards Twilight.

"See? The door's still here, right in front of us."

"It always is. Look, I've marked it's position in the dirt." The unicorn pointed towards a line on the ground, which was not entirely in front of the door.

"So the door's moving. Awesome, we don't need ta worry 'bout getting out then."

"It's doing more than that. We've moved up the stream, and thus backwards in time. Why don't you take a look?"

Applejack walked through the door. Instead of the hall she expected, however, she saw the sky. Around her were rooftops, below there was white mass.

"That should be about half an hour ago. Do you understand now? When one step is half an hour back, then we should get back four days in..."

"A hun'red an' ninety-two? That's a bit of a distance."

"Aw, don't worry, logarithmic scale. When one hour from where we started is two steps, two hours are only three steps, and so on."

"Wow, mathematics. So how far now?"

"Seven."

"That was easy. Wait, do you really want to visit that memory?"

"It's our only lead. Come on, we have to. For her good."

"It's just, we've known each other for quite some time now, and I... I feel like I want more from you. Applejack, I want to be forever together with you."

"Uh... Sugar, that's sweet and all, but... Ah'm sorry, Ah can't do this. Sorry..."

"'T was bad enough from my perspective, why did I have to see it like Rainbow too? I feel even worse for ditching her now." The real Applejack shifted around. She wanted nothing but to leave this uncomfortable memory.

"Love as a construct of time divided by distance squared." Twilight said drily. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to say that. Now, when learning new things, you link them to old ones you already know. That's how you remember stuff. Point is, we are inside Rainbow right now, so whatever is holding her back should be linked to this memory."

"Should?"

"Yes, should. If we're very unlucky, it's got no connection and we have to search all of her foalhood - I assume it's something back then - for the incident. Must have been something tragic. So when you denied her, it ripped open the seal she put over it, and everything flowed back out."

"Or Discord did it. He's still roaming 'round."

"He probably did, but, not to blame you, of course, something must have weakened her defenses. Like something that feels very close to it. A ha!" A door appeared close to them.

"That's the linked memory?"

"It's a linked one. But I think it should be the one, yes." Twilight went back into her usual personality, which had been distorted a bit from her focus on finding the link.

"Then let's go!"

"Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, I'm much less... close to her, emotionally. I could take a look on my own and save you the trouble she's going through."

"Are ya kidding? Ah want to find out what's wrong with Dashie, now!"

"If you say so. After you, lady."

They found themselves in a cloud environment. The big hall they were in had been decorated. The sun was long below the horizon, making the sky a clear night blue.

"Where are we?"

"Prom night."

"How do you know that?"

"It says that, right up there! Now, where's Dash?"

"Over there, right?"

A young Rainbow Dash slipped out of the doors. She wore matchingly colored braids in her mane. Her dress made Applejack desire her much more than usually. She was so beautiful.

"Follow her!"

"It's just, we've known each other for quite some time now, and I... I feel like I want more from you. Rainbow, I want to be forever together with you." A steel gray pegasus with golden mane and tail stood nervously in front of Dash when they found her.

"Uh, I... Glimmer, that's... I'm sorry, I can't do this. I... Sorry." Rainbow Dash turned her head away from the filly.

"O... Okay, Dash. I'm sorry to have said such a silly thing. I'll just..." Glimmer couldn't finish her sentence as tears overtook her. She stormed away and took flight shortly after.

"If only you knew..."

"Oh. My. Gosh. Can you feel this?"

"We've stirred her emotions, now they're soaking into us. She lied in the confrontation, away from making herself and her crush happy. She didn't have the courage... Just like you, hm? But look at this. I can't find any memories with Glimmer in them after this one. I suppose they lost contact. So much pain..."

"And now Ah idiot have brought all of that up again. Stupid stupid stupid stupid..."

"And now you can help her come over this, and achieve what both of you were too shy for. Don't you want to do that?"

"Get us out of her, and we'll talk. And Ah promise to whatever ya want, Ah will not let her go 'till she lives with her feelings, and me."