The cafeteria at Canterlot High had just begun to empty out as Applejack went to take her seat. She had been helping Granny Smith in the school's kitchen, and so was only now going to get to eat her lunch. By the time she arrived, she saw that only Rainbow Dash was left at their usual spot. The girl was resting her head on the table, her right arm lazily holding her phone in front of her face, with the only sign of movement coming from the occasional scroll of her thumb.
When Dash saw AJ out of the corner of her eye, she quickly sat upright. "Hey, you're finally done."
"I take it the rest of the wagon train's already on its way to Appleloosa?"
"Yeah, but it's fine because I've actually got something I wanna ask you."
Applejack nodded as she picked up her fork to start eating. "Well, I can't promise any o' the tools'll be sharp, but y'all can borrow whatever I got up in the ol' hay loft."
"So Soarin' and I have been tearing things up on the Track and Field team. And every time we talk, it's like we always have more in common. We like the same music, the same energy drink flavors, the same weird food combinations. So I wanna ask him out, but I don't know how to lead in to the conversation without it getting awkward. You got any advice?"
Applejack coughed on some food and, after she could breathe again, gently wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Me personally? I got nothin'. Never done that dance before, so I don't know what kinda music goes with it. But I can tell ya that Granny Smith always said 'if the fella don't bother ta knock, y'ain't got no reason ta open the door.'"
"So, just wait for him to ask me?" Rainbow scratched at her right temple. "Isn't that, you know, really old-fashioned?"
"Might be, but ya can't expect to pluck tomatoes from an apple tree just 'cause they're both red. I took my first steps in a barn. I was taught how to tie my shoelaces by a woman who lived through the Depression. Are y'all really surprised my advice is 'old-fashioned?'"
"Okay. Did Granny Smith tell you how to get the guy to start knockin'?"
AJ shook her head. "Listen Sugercube. I can only give y'all a spoonful o' suggestion. If y'all want a gallon o' guidance, that waterin' hole's gotta be Sunset Shimmer. She won the catch o' the day when she hooked ol' Flash Sentry. Y'd think that guy'd never just let any random so-and-so date 'em. I hear he's so on the straight and narrow, that he won't even let himself go up to bat, much less run the bases. And somehow Sunset, mean as a de-clawed wolverine facin' down a wildebeest, rustled him up. If anyone can guarantee you'll get your turn at the square dance, it's Sunset."
"Right." Rainbow Dash clapped her fist into her other hand. "Drinking water. Fish. Honey badger. Tango. Talk to Sunset."
Applejack began to raise a finger as she opened her mouth, but brought the one right back down and closed the other. She smiled and nodded as Dash leaped from the table.
Rainbow Dash had found Sunset Shimmer in the music room in thirty-nine seconds flat. It had taken three seconds to check that the two were alone. Then, Rainbow had immediately asked her question.
Sunset's glance went up to the ceiling as one eyebrow raised. "You want to know how I 'hogtied and branded' Flash?" She then looked Rainbow directly in the eye.
"Something like that. It was AJ's personification."
Sunset placed her index finger and thumb on either side of the bridge of her nose as she exhaled slowly. "Oh, Celestia's sunspots."
"So, how'd you do it?" Dash raised her left arm, took out a pen with her right, and rested the ballpoint against her skin.
Sunset, hands open, shook her arms toward the ceiling. "Rainbow, how do you think?! I lied, of course!"
"Lie." Rainbow's tongue stuck out slightly as she moved the pen across her arm.
"Rainbow, so help me if you dot that!"
Dash had only just completed the bottom half of the letter "ı" - she dropped the pen.
Raising an arm to her chest as she breathed in, Sunset guided it away as she breathed out. "Rainbow Dash, that's not good advice. The lies I told Flash were just awful! I said that I also do bi-annual humanitarian trips to the Fillyppines, am super passionate about the environment, and that I could play the guitar."
"Well, that last one's true." Rainbow pointed at the guitar Sunset held.
"The only reason I learned was to keep up the charade. And I wasn't even that good, but Flash said he 'knew what it was like to be a beginner' and spent hours helping me to get better." Sunset quickly strummed a scale. "Why do you think a being who's only had fingers for a few years can play a guitar?
"I also had to go with him three times a week to a soup kitchen and spend every other weekend picking up trash with him on the side of the highway."
Rainbow Dash scratched at her temple. "Flash does all that?"
"That's just the tip of the iceberg." Sunset then sat down on the desk behind her, held up ten fingers, kicked off both of her shoes, and sat cross-legged. With each statement, she lowered a toe on her left foot. "He also volunteers at the animal shelter, reads to kids at the library's monthly Kidz Day, donates blood whenever they'll let him, waits back five minutes just to hold the door open for elderly people, gives--"
"Okay! I get it! The guy's a saint!"
"Actually, he still needs to perform one more miracle to get canonized." Sunset slid off the desk and back into her shoes. "But, long story short, being his girlfriend took so much time that any gains in popularity I made by association were undermined by the time I had to devote to charity. So, when I asked him if we could cut back on the do-gooding to be seen together more at school, we got into a fight, and that was the end of the relationship."
"Yeah. I guess that makes sense..." Suddenly, Dash's mouth curled into a grin. "But! Who broke up with who?"
Sunset's face was made of stone. "It was mutual."
Dash snorted. "You got dumped by the nicest guy on the planet! That's rich! How did you ever get over that?"
Sunset frowned, facepalmed, and furrowed her brow. Within three seconds, her face relaxed and a light chuckle left her lips. "Well, you were there, right? To get over Flash, I stole a magical artifact from another universe, brainwashed the entire school, including him, and attempted to use the students as a zombie army to overrun said other universe."
"Oh. Right. Uh... no offense...?"
"Noted."
Dash put her arms across her chest, pointed her eyes to a spot on the wall to her right, and bobbed back and forth on the heels of her feet. "So, I take it that's a 'no' on the 'asking-out advice' thing."
Sunset tapped at her chin with a finger. "Here's my one and only piece of advice:" Immediately, Dash's attention went back to Sunset as the girl pointed the finger directly at Rainbow's chest. "If you want your relationship to last longer than mine, don't base it on lies. Got it?"
Dash nodded. Then there were about seven seconds of silence. "Well, I definitely think that is some very useful advice. So thank you, Sunset Shimmer. Good talk. Now, if you excuse me, I have to get going." Dash gave a single wave of her arm, pivoted on her right leg, and brought out her left to leave. But was stopped on the second step.
"Rainbow Dash."
Dash slowly turned her head without moving the rest of her body one bit.
"It was mutual."
"Hey, Soarin'!" Rainbow gently jogged down the hall toward her teammate.
When Soarin' heard her, he immediately smiled and gave a light wave of his hand. "Oh, hey Dash. Glad I bumped into you. What's up?"
Stopping in front of him, Rainbow Dash planted her feet firmly onto the ground. "I'm just gonna say it outright: I was wondering if you wanted to go to the mall together on Friday night? Meet at the food court, have some dinner, and then catch a movie."
One of Soarin's eyebrows rose. "You mean like a date?"
Dash shook her head. "No. Not 'like a date.' A full-on date date."
Soarin' let out a light laugh. "No kidding? Uh, sure. I'd love to! What brought this on?"
Rainbow shrugged. "Well, when you think about it, where else am I gonna find a guy who also likes a peanut butter and onion sandwich with a glass of cheese doodles in milk?"
"Fair enough." Soarin' scratched at the back of his neck. "I guess I'll just say that I'm glad you wanna be honest with me from the start. That's pretty refreshing."
"No problem, Soar'." Dash was turning to leave, but then ended up turning 360 degrees to face Soarin' again. "Wait. Why were you glad you bumped into me? Did you need to tell me something?"
Soarin' blushed. "Oh, yeah." The young man bit his lower lip, but then gave a light nod of his head. "Hey, you were honest with me, so I'll do likewise: I was actually gonna finally ask you to go to dinner with me on Friday."
Rainbow Dash grinned and raised her hand for a high-five, which Soarin' gladly returned.
"You know what they say: Great minds think alike."
Dash laughed. "Yeah, and apparently us too!"
Several hours later, Rainbow left the school for the day, smiling from ear to ear. But she stopped when she happened to notice Flash Sentry across the soccer pitch. He was there, by himself, practicing dribbling. At first, Rainbow shook her head and started walking away from the doors again. But a nagging question quickly wore away at her mind.
A question that only Flash would honestly answer.
And sure, she had no plan, but if she was ever going to know the truth, now was as good a time as any.
Then again, what was it Dash's parents had told her? Something something "you can't just ask those kinds of questions" something something "consequences" something something "uncomfortable?"
Meh...
"Hey, Flash!" Rainbow raised an arm and ran toward the maybe-soon-to-be saint.
Flash turned to face the approaching girl. "Hey, Rainbow Dash! What's up?" His white smile was framed by a strong jaw as his hair flowed in the breeze, just lightly enough to show off its fullness, without being distracting.
"Um, I was just curious... with Sunset... who broke up with who?"
Flash's face perfectly softened as his smile shrank from one of happiness to one of humility. "I should've guessed you'd ask that after you became friends with Sunset. And, first off, thank you for that, by the way. You've been such a consistently good friend to her. And it's been so encouraging to see how your loyalty and determination has rubbed off so positively onto her. You really are great, Rainbow Dash."
"Wow. Thanks."
Reaching out his arm, Flash gently rested his hand on Dash's shoulder. "To come over to someone you hardly know and question their personal life with such reckless abandon is clearly the product of a deep and pervasive sense of curiosity. That's a great asset. It's rare to meet someone else who has such a raw appreciation for the mysteries of the world around us. And I'd hate to do anything to discourage that. I want you to know that I don't think this kind of question in any way reflects negatively on your character." Flash gently squeezed her shoulder.
Dash's eyes went down to Flash's lightly calloused, lightly amber hand, then back to his piercing, cornflower blue eyes. "Alright."
Flash's hand left Dash's shoulder as it grasped at his lighting bolt shirt over his own heart. His other hand came to rest with its back on his forehead as he tilted backwards slightly and closed his eyes. "I'd like to say that it was mutual, but that's probably my own pride standing in the way of the truth. Even after all this time, the memory is still hard for me to bare." Flash's eyes flew open, now made of steel as his arms came to rest at his sides. "But I am an honest man, and as much as it pains me to admit the truth, I'll be honest with you now Rainbow:
"I dumped that lying, selfish bitch."
