"Ah honestly don't know why I'm talking to ya. You're nothing but trouble!", Applejack exclaimed as she dodged Discord who had just popped in front of her.
"Me? Trouble?", Discord asked. "I have no idea what in Equestria you're talking about."
Applejack huffed and turned 'round again. "Stealing our elements, taking away our magic, almost ruining Fluttershy..."
"Okay.", Discord admitted. "Maybe I did some things that were a bit troublesome."
Applejack continued. "Tried to take over Equestria multiple times, picked Tirek over Fluttershy..."
"Okay," Discord said shrugging his shoulders and actually looking a little guilty. "I admit I am a troublemaker," he said, summoning a leather jacket and biker gloves onto his mismatched body. He smirked.
"Hardy har har," Applejack laughed dryly, and turning back around to walk away.
Discord should've taken his leave by now if he picked up on social clues. But he didn't. Because why would he? There was plenty of chaos right here!
"Besides, you have a problem of your own.", he said, pointing skyward.
Rainbow Dash was flying overhead.
"Yep, that's Rainbow Dash, what about her?", Applejack said nonchalantly, still walking.
"Oh Applejack, when will you stop lying to yourself and come out to her?", Discord asked.
Applejack's ears turned red.
"Ah, it seems I've struck a nerve. It's seems we've hit a how do you say, impasse."
"You're not funny Discord," Applejack said, stopping and staring resolutely in the other direction from where he was.
"What are you talking about dear Applejack, I'm hiss- sterical!", he said, transforming into a snake.
"Ya turned into a snake didn't ya?", Applejack asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes," Discord said proudly.
"No," Applejack said and continued walking the other way.
"Don't you want to know if she feels the same?", Discord asked, now being serious, genuinely concerned.
"She don't. She don't even like mares.", Applejack said in a firm tone.
"What?!", Discord said laughing.
Applejack's face steamed and she continued walking.
"Sorry!", Discord called out, this time in a more caring tone. "It's just, her mane and tail are rainbow! Of course she likes mares!"
"Color don't mean anything!", Applejack said, huffing to pick up a crate of apples.
"Yeah but she's Rainbow Dash! She feels the same way!", Discord called from behind her.
Applejack had had enough. "So what? She ain't ever gonna feel the same way!", she said, stomping her hooves and turning around.
Discord shrinked back. Quite literally actually, growing smaller until he was only one inch tall.
-----------Later...
Applejack was going to come out one way or another. It wasn't healthy for her to hide her feelings. At least that was what Fluttershy had told him. However, she had also told him that manipulating Applejack wasn't a good idea, so Fluttershy was probably wrong. Nevertheless, he told Rainbow to come to Sweet Apple Acres at 4:00 so that he could have Applejack admit her feelings, and everything would be fine.
----------------Even Later
At 3:00 Rainbow had gotten the message from Derpy saying that Discord had wanted to meet her at Sweet Apple Acres along with Applejack at 4:00. At 3:15 she had napped. At 3:45 she was still napping. And, at 4:00 she was awake. Late, but awake.
As she soared through the air, she wondered if AJ would be ticked that she was late. I mean, Discord wouldn't care, but AJ? She might be the slightest bit perturbed.
When she got there however, she touched down to find a sight that disturbed her. Discord was holding Applejack by the scruff of her neck, up in the air.
"Let me go you bucket a 'turds!", Applejack shouted, thrashing.
"Language, language dear Applejack.", Discord replied, drawing forth some thing from behind his back. It was glinting and shiny, and-
It was a metallic picture frame of Rainbow.
'Huh?', Rainbow thought mentally as she observe the object that was in fact harmless. Well, harmless so far...
"No, don't do that!", Applejack said as Discord began to open his mouth.
And he swallowed it. This is why it's labeled under random, folks.
And then he pulled a beautiful red diary out of his throat.
Applejack let out a muffled groan from her mouth, which was blocked by her hooves.
Discord made a throat clearing noise.
"Wait!", Applejack said. "Don't read that!"
"Why not?", Discord asked.
Rainbow was now intrigued. It was really wrong of her to side with Discord, but she really wanted to know what was in that diary, and...
She shook her head, no matter what would happen, she would stand by Applejack.
"I'll tell her everything!", Applejack said.
Discord considered, but just to be sure, put a lying spell on her.
"Now, let's start with the basics.", Discord said, grinning.
"Discord stop!", Rainbow shouted. She was so sick of Discord ruining everything!
"I don't think you'll want me to stop once you hear the truth.", Discord said, grinning like a cat.
"Now. Let's start from the beginning. Applejack, do you like mares?"
"What? No! I hate them! Going out with one would be just plain gross!", Applejack said, sweating profusely. "We done yet?", she whispered.
"Not even close," Discord rumbled into her ear.
"And do you like one particular mare?", Discord asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"What? Noooooo.", Applejack said, eyes darting back and forth.
Applejack was lying! Rainbow understood now. And Discord was right, she did not want him to stop. This would be interesting...
"Applejack do you like Rainbow Dash?", Discord asked, holding back a chuckle.
"What? No! I hate her! And I'm most certainly not in love with the mare!", Applejack said, her words coming fast and nervous.
"I just asked if you liked her.", Discord deadpanned.
"Well I don't like her either!", Applejack shouted.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
Discord whispered something in Applejack's ear, and it made her cringe.
"What! I most certainly do not want to tie her to my bedpost and-", she said cutting herself off to listen to Discord's warped questions more. "-have ma way with her!? That's just disgusting!"
Rainbow's face grew bright red. In hope and embarrassment.
Applejack's eyes darted back and forth as she listened to Discord's questions.
"No! I would never do that to Rainbow! I would definitely do it on Granny Smith's bed! You're not warping my words at all, why I never!"
Applejack groaned.
"Y'all haven't had your fun! Are you not ready?"
Discord saw how much this was aggravating Applejack, and released her from the spell.
After he let her go, and dropped her gently on the ground, she made eye contact with Rainbow, and took off running.
Because in Rainbow's eyes she had not seen hope or desire, she had seen shock and dismay, and she thought she had seen a little rage, too.
But in A.J's eyes, Rainbow had seen desperation. She needed the pegasus and the pegasus needed her.
But Applejack ran away.
Away from her selfish dirty lesmare desires, and away from the pony she wanted.
She galloped toward the barn, tail shining like spun gold behind her. And when Rainbow chased her, she looked behind and saw something she had always wanted, the mare of her dreams chasing after her, not the other way around.
So she slowed down, and just ran to the barn rather than her room in the house. If Rainbow wanted to talk, she would come to her, and talk the through the barrier for the mare she wanted.
So she slammed the door, and listened to the quiet. It strangled sound. The animals were silent. The wind wouldn't aid in the threat of noise.
More silence.
Even more silence.
Then, all of a sudden, panting came from the other side of the door.
Followed by a voice so raspy yet feminine that it had to be who she wanted.
And who wanted her.
But rather than follow her heart, the farm pony sat inside the barn, wet rivulets silently streaming down her cheeks.
"Applejack.", the voice on the other side said, as not so much a question, but a statement. She wanted confirmation she was doing this for a reason. That the earth pony she had wanted for such a long time was in there. Waiting.
Applejack gave that to her in the form of a wet sniffle, trying to dry her nose from the snot that was pouting down it, and stifled a laugh at the situation she was was in. Here she was, hiding in a barn from the the pony she wanted, and the pony that she knew wanted her, yet she couldn't even bring her self to open up the barn door? She was a silly pony. A silly, silly pony.
But she forced herself to get serious. She couldn't tell if Rainbow had left or not. Then she felt a brief flash of panic, of Rainbow giving up on her.
'Ridiculous,' she told herself. 'The element of loyalty wouldn't abandon any of her friends.'
But what if she had made a mistake? What if Rainbow had gotten spooked and had run off?
Then again, this was Rainbow.
She listened for her desired's breath, her heart pounding beneath her chest.
Lungs pumping, she gathered courage, then closed her eyes and listened closely.
Outside she could hear Rainbow doing the same, listening through the door, hoping against hope, breathing nice and slowly.
They both panicked, sure the other had made a run for it, scared by the prospect of softening up and taking on love and each other in more than just a competition for once.
"Are you still there?", Rainbow asked Applejack in a voice that was barely a whisper. Shaky but hearable.
When Applejack took a minute to respond, Rainbow was about to turn her head from the door, but nonetheless end up waiting for the pony she loved to come out.
She was just about to settle down and work up the courage to lay beside the barn door until Applejack called her.
But then, in the faintest of whispers, a voice that was equally as shaky replied back.
"I'm here Sugarcube."
"Good.", Rainbow said.
Then there was silence.
There seemed to be an abundance of silence lately. Maybe too much.
A minute passed.
Applejack's mouth dried up, and her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Words swirled around in her head. Romantic words, touchy feely words. But it just felt so wrong. She was Applejack, and the other pony was R.D, and they had never had to talk like that before. So why should they now?
But she knew the answer.
It was because it was what they felt in their hearts. It was cliche she knew, and it was all the things they'd both promised were frou frou, and to never do them.
But, if they did it with each other, would it mean the same thing? Would it just be frou frou, or would it be worthwhile?
But she wasn't going to be able to take that chance on the path she was going, and she would never know if she never even tried to take the pegasus on the other side of the door.
Rainbow meanwhile was thinking the same thing. How would she know if it was worthwhile if she had never tried it, or never bucked up and just asked. Or maybe, maybe she could just do?
How easy would it be to open up the door and act instead, to show her how she really felt through her lips rather than her words?
Incredibly.
Words were not either pony's strength.
Applejack's thoughts were mirroring Rainbow's thoughts.
'Why don't I just act? Why don't I just open the door?', Applejack thought to herself.
'Why don't I just show her in five seconds how much I want this?', Rainbow thought.
'What's stopping me?', Applejack asked herself.
'Why can't I just do this?', Rainbow asked herself.
'Please help me Celestia. I need ya.', Applejack thought.
When both ponies had reached the end of their train of thought, they sat down with a sigh and resigned themselves to their plan of action.
Then of course they got back onto their hooves, because their plan of action required quite a bit of effort.
"One," Rainbow said aloud to herself as she steeled herself to make contact with the mare she loved and possibly fail, fracturing their friendship forever.
"Two," Applejack whispered to herself as she reached for the door handle, thoughts swirling around in her head like a runaway tornado.
"Three.", Rainbow said, ready to sweep the mare she wanted off of her feet.
"Four," Applejack whispered, grasping the door handle in her hoof, and getting ready to pull and kiss.
"Five," Rainbow said, her hoof reaching the door.
Then they pulled.
But since they were both pulling the door didn't budge.
Each grunted and groaned.
Each cursed the stupid barn door, sure that it was stuck.
Until one let go in frustration, and the other toppled into a hay bale.
The barn door flew open, and Rainbow stumbled inside, glad that the stupid door had stopped being stuck.
Applejack meanwhile, fell into a haybale.
Mumbling, she spat out a mouthful of hay.
"Horse feathers! You are going to the horses!", she said, threatening the hay bales.
"Uh, Applejack?", Rainbow said, looking around for the earth pony.
Applejack had flew back quite a few feet from the force of the door when it had been let go of.
She considered pointing herself out to Rainbow, but then rethought her plan of action.
What if it would ruin their friendship forever?
She cowered in the hay bale, whimpering, and unknowingly drawing the attention of the prismatic pegasus.
It was silent again. Silence was becoming like an old friend to the farm pony.
Then, footsteps.
"Applejack?"
The name was called out again.
Footsteps got closer, but A.J couldn't tell.
Time was only a relative factor to her now. As she curled up in the hay bale, she let her thoughts and worries consume her.
Rainbow was trotting quietly on the barn floor. Obviously AJ hadn't wanted to be found. But she was going to find her. It was her job. She never left her friends. And if that pony was more than a friend, if they were somepony she loved, then you could bet that she'd never let them go.
She heard a whimper coming from one of the hay bales.
Applejack lay surrounded by the oddly comforting hay, shaking as silent tears strayed down her face, betraying her toughness.
Rainbow held her tears back though, because if this was gonna work, she was gonna have to be the strong one.
She walked toward the noise quietly.
'This is it,' Applejack said to herself internally. 'She doesn't find me, my family finds out that I am not like them for nothing, and I'll have to go back to my room with the stench of filth on me. Not of the dirt. Of the guilt. I had to tell them. I had to be honest and now they know. I am untraditional.'
Applejack's mane blended in with the hay pretty impressively. The only thing that made the pony stick out, were her two orange ears perking up. She was so cute that way, Rainbow thought as she made her way silently toward the distraught orange mare.
Once she got closer, she could see that the hay bale was shaking quite considerably.
It was a weeping, shaking hay bale, and it would have been humorous if not for the reason behind the sobbing and the shaking.
The orange ears shook along with it.
'She doesn't want me. Wouldn't she have found me by now if she wanted me?', Applejack asked herself internally.
The sound of a throat clearing roused her from the hay. She cautiously peeked upwards, and was greeted by the sight of nothing. So, curiouser than before, she continued to lift her head out of the hay.
Until her whole head was out of the yellow material, and Rainbow had sprung.
Rainbow had been crouching below, so that Applejack would have to have her whole head out of the hay bale.
But when A.J had lifted her head, Rainbow playfully pounced.
Seeing the pegasus pop out from beneath her had caused the farm pony to let out a small "eep!"
But Rainbow still sprang, tackling the farm pony's lips in a passionate way.
Caressing Applejack's lips with her own, Rainbow ran a hoof through the other pony's hair.
They both went down on the ground.
Applejack made a sound of shock. But Rainbow kept at it, embracing Applejack's mouth with the most love inspiring kiss of all time.
And when Rainbow stopped, Applejack was breathless and so was she.
Laying side by side, they both silently agreed was way better than lying separated by a barn door...
Author's Note
If you guys want an epilogue let me know!
