The sun was beginning to set behind the horizon of shadowed birch trees, humbly, quietly. Crickets and far-off frogs joined in their natural duet and the air had grown lighter with the evening breeze. Most importantly, the long, languid river faded to black; now only the rushes near the shore ran with its olive green.
The marble-grey t-shirt under Applejack's washed flannel was more or less dry - and just in time, as the wind rolled through, catching her hair and pulling at it like an excited child. She set her pole in its tube and reached up to tie a ponytail as she listened to Dash's comfortable chatter.
"Well, anyway," Dash said. "She was just a trashy kind of person. Never saw her again, but every day on the way to class I got that pang in my chest, like, 'I hope she's not around to call me out.'" She glanced over, Applejack noticing out of the corner of her eye. "You know what I mean."
"You think I went to college?" she murmured back, draping her ponytail behind the white beach chair so it wouldn't pull.
"I mean..."
"Because I did," she continued, grinning as she grabbed her pole again.
"Oh. You don't talk about it," Dash replied. She had her feet up on the back wall of the little vessel, bright cyan flip-flops hanging dangerously over the darkening water.
"Not a lot to talk about."
"It's not like you've got no stories at all, AJ," Dash scoffed, tugging lazily on her line and starting to reel it in.
Applejack was tired of telling her to leave it out, and watched the little white speck of bobber bounce obediently back to the boat. "It's not like I was there to party. Just got certified in tree nursery. Granny made Mac get certified, too."
"Not even one story?" When Applejack didn't respond, Dash scoffed again. "Didn't really take you for an honor student." She flicked some river-water her way after re-baiting her hook. "Nerd."
It was getting about time to head back, but neither of them spoke. Applejack pushed the thought away consciously. Something about bringing attention to the day dying made her strangely uncomfortable in a hollow kind of way. She leaned back farther in her seat instead and let the quiet settle. After a few moments of tugging loosely on the line, she stepped over to the cramped, damp-smelling cabin and grabbed another cider out of the cooler, collapsing onto the padded wicker sittee.
"Hey!" Dash called back after a second. "Where'd you go?" She stepped into the room, kicking the cooler open and reaching down. She had on a steel-blue tank top and tiny swimming shorts - something Applejack did not consider wearing, since she didn't think she'd be entering the river at any point. She was wrong, of course, and should have foreseen such tomfoolery. "You satisfied with the haul?"
"Three is better than zero," Applejack admitted with a small smile. Just before lunch, Dash caught the first fish of the day, an eight-inch flounder. Applejack called it beginner's luck. Then Dash caught the second one, too, a seven-inch river trout. Applejack managed a six-inch flounder of her own before the day was out, as well as a sizable glob of kelp.
"And two is better than one," Dash returned, her grinning teeth glinting in the red sunlight. She cracked open the cider and looked out the window at the broad river. "This boat was your dad's?"
Applejack nodded as Dash turned back. "He left it to Mac, but Mac don't use it. He just likes to clean it. Hates swimming."
"Whole family of nerds. How long have we known each other?"
"Dunno. Two years? Little more?"
"How come I didn't know you had a boat?" She laughed and flicked more water at her, this time the sweat off her can of cider. "I love boats. Cars, planes, anything that moves. It's my jam."
"We can make this a thing if you want."
Dash chuckled and looked back out at the river. "It's a great view."
Applejack didn't respond and took a sip of her cider. It was lukewarm now. She stared for a moment at the ring the wet can marked on her jeans.
"Why'd you ask me?"
"Hm?" Applejack looked up. "I figured you'd say yes. Can you imagine Rarity out here?" She groaned theatrically. "Nah. If I want a day outside, I'm comin' to you." She glanced over at Dash, who was still looking through the window, her prismatic hair lit in angry red. "We're a lot alike."
"Nah," Dash said. "We're a little bit alike." She turned again to the window, but didn't linger. "You know I'm gay."
Applejack felt something misfire in her brain. "Woah." She put her hands up. "Where did this come from? And, no, I did not."
"Come on," Dash said, strangely casual as she turned. "You've known me how long?"
"I don't wanna assume stuff like that," Applejack began, and Dash interrupted her with a laugh. "What?"
"You don't have to lie. I'm not exactly subtle." Applejack took the opportunity to laugh as well, but it was guarded. It was a sudden statement and caught her unaware. "Anyway," Dash continued, "I just thought we ought to confirm that. Now that you've invited me on a day-long fishing trip. Just to make sure nothing's misconstrued."
"You know that ain't what I meant by invitin' you." She'd been relaxed against the back of the sittee, her legs folded, but the relaxed position suddenly felt stiff. "I hope you didn't take it that way."
"Nah," Dash replied with her average pep. "Dunno if anyone else took it that way, is all."
And yet, there was something strangely artificial to her words. Applejack stared as Dash looked away, down at her fingernails. Something compelled her to press, but something else warned against digging so deeply.
Dash did it for her. "How about you?"
"How about I what?"
"You know. Boys, girls. Neither. Both." She glanced up for a moment from her fingernails, a friendly but nonetheless strange smile on her face. Her rose eyes had stopped glimmering because the sun had set. In the darkness, they were refracting pools, each smiling in their own friendly but nonetheless strange ways.
Applejack's stomach knotted, or at least hinted at knotting. She wasn't sure. "I dated a guy in high school," she began, and as she did, Dash walked over and sat next to her on the sittee at a fair distance. "Obviously, it didn't work out. But it wasn't the worst thing. I dunno, I..."
She trailed off and Dash leaned back, sipping her cider and looking away.
The memories began to surface, crawling out of her mind as she spoke quietly. "I guess we lost contact. No, that's not true. I think he got bored of me. Dunno why." She looked down into her can, almost empty, and finished it off. Her mouth was dry. "Well, anyway. That was that."
"That was it? You a virgin?"
Applejack almost laughed. "Dunno why you wanna hear about that."
"Just chatter," she said with a laugh, and jabbed her side. "You embarrassed?"
"No," she replied, and reneged. "Not really. Well, 'cause next... in college, I had a couple nights. You know? Random guys. College was weird."
She scowled. "You said you didn't have any college stories."
"I didn't think it was notable. Honest. Weird line of questioning, all things considered."
"You still haven't answered my question anyway."
Applejack opened her mouth to continue, but paused, glancing over at her shadowed face and her small smile. "Why are you askin'?"
Her smile almost faltered. "Just chatter."
She considered fleetingly just starting to pack up, leaving, allowing that thread of thoughts and hypotheticals to dangle. But she swallowed the lump in her throat and continued. "First month of college, I had a girlfriend. For a little while."
Dash had looked away again, unresponsive. Her relaxed posture didn't seem stiff at all and it sat uncomfortably with Applejack. She couldn't put a finger on why. "... Did you like it?"
"I - well," she started. "It - not... yeah. I did." She remembered it with ethereal clarity even all these years in the future. A single kiss turned into several one drunken, hazy, hot night, and Applejack was enamored until Silver Strings dropped out right before midterms. That time felt unearthly even then, guided as she was by her soft touch and long white hair and brash, forceful will. "She left college pretty quick and I never saw her again."
"So I can mark you down for both?' Dash grinned and turned back to face her.
Applejack blanched, realizing suddenly where she was. "Maybe it was a phase," she murmured. "I dunno." She put her head in her hand for a second. "Why are you askin'?"
She shrugged. Applejack saw it out of the corner of her eye. "Chatting. You nervous wreck. Am I really that hot?"
"What are you talkin' about?"
Dash grinned and stood. "Help me clean up the fishing stuff."
Applejack watched her out the open door, watched her move casually without looking back. Her mouth was still dry for some reason, her abdomen tingling with warmth. It could have been nerve, embarrassment, something of the sort, but it wasn't. Not quite. This feeling was far more electric, far more dynamic. It moved around her as though visiting landmarks on her body - a rush down the spine, a chill across the arms.
She made her way out to help Dash and shake the feeling off.
"I should have brought a squirt gun," Dash was saying. "But I would have kept it a secret and filled it with gross fish water." She chuckled and secured her hook to one of the rod's rungs. In the dark, she was barely a silhouette. "I got you out of the boat, at least."
Applejack turned the low-wattage decklight on and it flickered before bathing the both of them in dull yellow light. Moths fluttered to it almost immediately and Applejack batted them away halfheartedly. "You pushed me out of the boat."
"Yeah, it was funny," Dash said, grabbing what was left of the worms. "Let's not forget you dragged me down with you." She paused in the low doorway, turning to face her. "You okay?"
Applejack let out a sigh she didn't know she was holding and turned, putting the rod down. She had maybe an inch on Dash and had a fuller frame, even if Dash usually dwarfed her energy. "Look... don't - don't press me, okay?" She paused, and they met to face one another in the doorway. "Sorry. I just ain't great at pickin' out the right message in stuff sometimes. Be a bit more forwards is all."
"I was," Dash said, raising an eyebrow and offering a bright, amused smile. "Are you blushing?"
"Maybe flushed a little," Applejack murmured. Her eyes in the dim light had regained their glimmer, and it was quiet now, hidden behind a smile that had grown soft. She felt gravity shift as Dash leaned forwards and stood on her toes.
Dash's kiss was sudden. The warmth rushed to her head as she felt Dash take her hand and ran back down her when she registered her tender, careful lips on her own. Their conversation melted away. The boat melted away. She almost melted away but then everything came rushing back and she put her hands up and stepped away and went "Dash."
When she looked up, Dash's smirk was gone. Instead, she just met her gaze with expectation and hints of that same electric nerve. She stepped back, just as cautious. "Sorry."
Applejack put a hand on her own forehead. For a moment, she couldn’t look into her eyes. If she did, she would just be captured and start all over again with fewer answers. "I have to think about it," she said, barely a whisper.
Dash leaned against the opposite side of the doorframe and the S. S. Almanac bobbed in response. "... What's there to think about?"
"Oh, come on, Dash," Applejack replied, her hand still gravitating to her face in not-quite-nerve. "I know you. We're friends. Best friends, even. Can we really... make more work?"
She sulked, her naked, tan shoulders falling, her eyes looking anywhere else. "I thought so."
"Look, I - I kinda think so, too, but..." She took her hat off and began to play with the rim. "You with the Wonderbolts thing and me with the farm..."
She met Applejack's stare again, incredulous. "What does that have to do with us right now? Here?"
"Just thinkin' ahead, is all," Applejack said, and swallowed the lump in her throat again. The truth was right there, half-buried, beckoning. "I don't... I'm..."
"AJ. If you don't like my face or the way I dress or something, just say it and it'll be done." She crossed her arms. "I'll - I'll leave it alone."
"No, that's not what... well, I - I like girly girls." She chuckled nervously. "You know? Even the guys I like are that kinda quiet-like, thoughtful..." Dash stayed silent for a moment, so Applejack continued, if wholly out of anxiety. "The heart is what gets me. The imagination of some of these folks. Cryin' over nothin'." She let herself a little smile at the memories it raised.
"I have a quiet side," Dash said, her voice low but charged. She was hiding behind her bangs now. "You don't see it, but I do." She looked up, her eyes wide under taut eyebrows. "Give me a chance."
Applejack sighed heavily, interrupting her. "I - alright," she said, putting a hand on her forehead. "I'm makin' excuse is. Truth is... I don't want you to get bored of me." Her voice rose suddenly and her chest tightened. "Honest. I don't know what I'd do. Loyalty is all well and good, but I don't... want you to be unhappy -"
"Oh, shut up," Dash replied, stepping towards her again, standing chest-to-chest and gazing up at her. "That's not even..."
Applejack stepped back. "I'm serious. Sometimes it's hard for you care about the stuff I care about. I get it. But I don't know if that'll play out well in somethin' like this."
"I do care," Dash returned. "I care because I care about you." The crickets and frogs happily filled the sudden silence, accented by the sloshing of the boat. Dash hadn't uncrossed her arms and hadn't really come out from hiding behind her bangs. "What can I do to prove it?"
Applejack turned away, putting a hand on her head and setting her hat gently on the table. "You don't... need to prove it." She glanced out of the window as she passed it and a sigh moved through her. "... Maybe... kiss me again."
"What?"
"To see if I feel it. If I can put everything together." She sat down on the wide seats under the window and put her head in her hands. "If I don't... don't be upset. We're friends," she repeated, as though pleading. "I don't want to mess that up."
Dash looked over from her spot in the doorway. In the light, Applejack read her body language. Tense, apprehensive. "You sure?"
"If you are."
Dash walked over and sat next to her, looking for a moment into her eyes. Applejack felt that sudden magnetization and was drawn in once again.
Her lips moved smoothly, warm and gentle against her own, her breathing far steadier than Applejack's. Yet again, Applejack allowed herself tentatively to melt into it. Some sort of lost passion flared in her chest, and she was thrown into a familiar haze - one she'd dearly missed. Then, she felt careful but confident fingers glide up her forearm and a thumb draw along her cheek.
She pulled back a little, refusing to open her eyes. "That's cheatin'."
Dash's laugh was scratchy and melodic. Her voice broke a little. "It's how you kiss someone, AJ," she replied quietly, and leaned in again for a brief, sealing kiss. "I guess you feel something, huh?"
"Dash..." she began, opening her eyes, and the words ran away from her as she met that piercing, beautiful rose stare. She reached up and put a hand on her jaw, then leaned in again, suddenly pressurized. Her head pounded along with her pulse.
She felt Dash's hand move from her forearm suddenly to the waistband of her jeans, running around her side. She stopped and Dash retracted her hand. "You're bold."
"Point me to the guy who said I wasn't," Dash replied lowly with a mischievous smirk.
Applejack leaned forwards, propelled by some force she wasn't aware of, boxing Dash in by slamming her hand against the wall to the left of the seats. "I don't do one-night stands," she murmured, inches from Dash's face. "Or friends with benefits. I won't. Not with you."
Dash's smirk grew into a chuckle grew into a laugh and she drew Applejack in for another kiss. Applejack lost her balance suddenly as the boat slumped and she fell over Dash, who only held her closer.
"I mean it," Applejack managed.
"I know," Dash whispered.
The boat floated undisturbed, anchored in place, its dim decklight glowing until morning.
Applejack woke sometime after dawn as Dash moved from under her. The seats weren't particularly comfortable for two people to sleep on, but that night, she was exhausted and made do. She sat up groggily, grabbing her shirt from the hardwood floor and pulling it on. Then her vision focused.
Dash sat mostly naked staring through the window, her head resting on her folded arms. Through the window, the morning sun winked off the rough glass of the far river.
Applejack stood, taking her time, and walked over to Dash, wrapping her arms around her, pressing her face into the back of her neck. She still smelled like strawberry shampoo. "Morning," she murmured.
"You wanna go get breakfast somewhere?"
"In a bit."
She moved her hands a bit, revelling as long as she could in the sensation of Dash's invisible smile, revelling in the quiet side she would get to see. Moments like this one, as the S. S. Almanac danced slow and smooth over the morning current and they watched the winking sun together.
"I'm not gonna get bored of you, AJ," Dash murmured.
"Who can say?" Applejack replied half-consciously, pressing her lips to the base of her neck.
"I can," Dash said, turning and interrupting her embrace. "I won't. I promise. When you asked me out for something like this, I... I was going out of my mind all week wondering." She reached an arm around her back, her lip hanging open. "I dunno. I've always kind of..."
"Yeah," Applejack replied in inexpressible understanding. She suppressed the sudden impulse to tell her she loved her and simply drew her into another kiss. Dash smiled against it.
