Flight, it’s nothn to joke about, y’know. Ah’m not sayin’ its bad, or that its not my cuppa tea. but that it’s just that takin’ my hoofs off the ground just doesnt feel right. Maybe its cuz Im an earth pony, maybe its just my thohts on flyers bein up there and me bein down here, but theres somethin about bei’ up there that just doesn’t sit right. Once in a wile RD says shes gonna take me up and itll be awesome. I dont think so thogh.
AJs Jurnal
Rainbow Dash coasted through the air over Applejack as the farm mare galloped around a racetrack, just enjoying the view from up above. “C’mon, Fritter, you can do better than that. I’ve seen you leave dust before, what’s the deal?!” she called out.
Applejack slowed from a gallop to a trot, then stopped and gulped air down her dry throat. “Ya call me ‘Fritter’ like it’s a good thing,” she looked at Rainbow as the cyan mare landed a few paces ahead, facing her.
“It is, because you’re all hot and nummy and,” she blinked and then looked around, “y’know, all that stuff,” she tossed her head to seem aloof. She gasped and stumbled back when she felt Applejack’s lips press to her coat under her jaw. “Hey?! What’re you doing?”
Applejack smirked. “Dash, Ah love ya, but ya gotta know you can be sappy with me.”
“Yeah, but I’ve gotta be awesome, too. I can’t just be, y’know...”
“Rainbow,” she turned her smirk to a playfully stern glare, “if ya don’t say it I’m just gonna hafta walk home,” she lifted her chin, “alone.”
“You can’t stop me from going with you, I’ll just fly over you.”
“But Ah don’t have to look’it you, or talk ‘t’ya,” she leaned a little closer and turner her ears to Rainbow.
Rainbow blushed slightly and averted her gaze from Applejacks. “B-but, you know it and I know it, so why do I have to say it?” Without another word, Applejack turned in a short arc and began making her way back to the farmhouse. “H-hey, AJ, where’re you going?”
Applejack stopped to retrieve her hat from a nearby tree branch and placed it on her head, then returned to a slow walk with Rainbow following on hoof.
“Fritter, hun, AJ… Where’re you going? Are you mad at me? You know what I feel, so why’d’ya have to hear it?” she followed Applejack into a short shelterbelt of trees and took flight.
She pouted and sighed, about to admit defeat when she angled her wings and took to the sky. Applejack glanced above her and her heart fell a little as she saw Rainbow leaving her, but she steeled her nerves and walked on, knowing that eventually Rainbow would return, probably with an apology and an apple from the orchard.
She looked at the ground, the bright green grass she trod over, and her shadow cast by the warm sun. It was a beautiful day to get a good run in, but she was hoping for more with her marefriend than-
She yelped as legs wrapped around her midsection and she was lifted suddenly into the air, only a few hooflengths from the ground, but enough to have her hat fly free from her head as she reacted by snapping her head back at whatever had grabbed her.
“Ha, I knew you’d do that,” Rainbow said just before she flapped her wings twice and took a sharp angle up into the sky with Applejack holding on to Rainbow’s forelegs for dear life itself. Rainbow held Applejack around her barrel and used her forelegs as a brace under Applejack’s to keep her held tight to her own body.
“R-rainbow?! L-let me down!” Applejack finally managed after three seconds of terror as she watched her farm shrink below her. “Ah don’t like this! Ah can’t fly like ya, please!”
Rainbow snapped her wings closed for a few seconds as Applejack pleaded, then she opened them with slight motions to hold their height and direction. She leaned her mouth close to Applejack’s ear. “I love you more than the sky itself,” she whispered just loud enough to be heard over the wind buffering them, chilling Applejack a bit more than she’d like.
Applejack quieted to a whimper and occasional while as they glided in a large arc around Ponyville. “Rainbow Dash,” Applejack finally managed, “can Ah trust you ta hold me up?”
“Psh, what the hay kinda question’s that? You know I’d never let you go,” she nuzzled Applejack’s neck.
With a deep inhale, Applejack relaxed her grip on Rainbow’s forelegs and let her own relax to her side, then with the wind in her mane and tail, she slowly extended her forelegs to the side and closed her eyes while Rainbow watched with curiosity. The silence of the flight, only wind flapping in her ears and across her body, the warm sun, the tightness of being held, the coolness on her skin, she felt everything for several moments before the first tear left her eyes.
“AJ? Are you okay? I didn’t mean to scare you, I’ll-”
Applejack’s eyes were closed and she took a steady breath. “No, Sugarcube, just keep goin’. Keep flyin’, please.”
Rainbow kept her flight path for nearly half an hour, with Applejack moving her arms in time with the turns as though she were guiding the flight. Finally Applejack opened her eyes and looked around to find a place to land and angled her forelegs with Rainbow copying her motions they aimed for a hill that ended in a sharp top.
Rainbow slowed and let Applejack touch down before she sat beside her and was wrapped in a gentle hug from the side with a nuzzle.
“Thank you.”
Rainbow patted Applejack’s foreleg that was crossing her front. “Uhm, your welcome? What was up with all that?”
Applejack released her from the hug and sat up, facing the town far below and beyond them, overlooking her farmland as the sun shone above them with nearly afternoon light warming her again. She sat in silence again, eyes open scanning the area before her.
“Hey, AJ?”
“Mah parents would’a loved to meet you, Rainbow.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened and her wings fluttered anxiously. “Huh?”
“Yer an angel, and thanks t’you, Ah know what it’s like to feel the way they always seemed,” she looked at Rainbow and gazed into her ruby eyes, “do ya really love me more than the sky?”
Rainbow turned her gaze up and looked around. Clouds, cool air, the feel and rush of everything related to speed and falling, control of her own life with a single action on the cusp of her mind with every wing flap. She shook her head and sighed.
“I’d give up my wings to see you smile, AJ.”
She didn’t need to look to see the expression on Applejack, the sniffle and motion out of the corner of her eye was enough to know she was going to be hugged.
“Rainbow, Ah’d give up every apple in the orchard and acre of land to get you your wings back if ya did that.”
Rainbow laughed an empty laugh. “I’d never take them back if that happened, AJ,” she looked ahead at the Apple farm. “AJ, I know I’m not always the way you want me to be. I know how I feel, and so do you. But, there’s no way I’d make you give up the farm.”
“You wouldn’t make me do anything.”
“No!” Applejack startled slightly at Rainbow’s declaration. “You won’t give up what you love for me. I’ll never take it from you, your farm is more important than anything to you, everypony knows that,” she sighed and looked at her hooves on the ground, “everypony.”
Applejack moved Rainbow’s chin with her forehoof to look at her. “Sugarcube, let’s leave then. You’n me, we’ll go on the road to a new town and start over.”
Rainbow blinked three times quickly and shook her head. “Wait, what?!”
“You’n me. Let’s ferget about the life we know. Ah’ll write home, you can get a new job in the weather wherever we end up. Just us,” she gestured out at the horizon, “and the world.”
Rainbow smiled and it turned into a grin. “AJ, you’re awesome, but I’m not leaving. We have a life here, and I wanna be here when we get married and have a family of our... own.”
She blushed and tried to look away, but Applejack held her cheeks in her hooves. “What was that?”
Rainbow frowned and huffed. “I, ugh! Do I have to say it?! Fine, I love you and wanna be with you forever, happy?”
Applejack puckered her lips and moved toward Rainbow, who met her lips with her own. The next three minutes held the most passionate kiss they’d had in weeks, but even it had to end. Breathing heavily, Applejack swallowed and giggled. “Ah’d love fer that ta happen, someday.”
“Yeah, someday,” Rainbow leaned back and rested on her elbows while Applejack leaned over and placed her head on Rainbow’s chest, her forehoof tracing lines in Rainbow’s belly. “Is it about lunch time?”
Applejack hummed and nuzzled Rainbow’s chest fluff. “Yeah, but let’s just have a few more minutes here. It’s so nice, and soft, and warm,” she said as her voice drifted off and Rainbow exhaled with a little frustration as she felt Applejack dozing. She looked at the sky and moved her wings a little so they’d support her and free her forelegs. One wrapped around Applejack’s side while the other gently swirled through her mane.
…
Applejack snorted awake and blinked her eyes open, scrambling from the edge of the cliff she’d been sitting on with Rainbow as her memory started again. She looked at Rainbow, who was just woken up as well and they shared a smile. “So, Sugarcube, how bout we get that lunch?”
Rainbow smirked and pointed to the horizon. “Supper?”
They shared a chuckle and got up. “Sounds like a date, just get me down in one piece,” Applejack teased as Rainbow took to the air. She was picked up again and with a short motion she was carried to her where she’d lost her hat earlier in the day. With her hooves on the solid ground, Applejack had to admit she felt more comfortable. “C’mon, let’s get you yer food and maybe Ah’ll snuggle ya when we get upstairs.”
Rainbow nickered. “Hey, I don’t snuggle.”
“Okay, then I’ll just sleep by the window and-”
“No! Uh, I mean, maybe something’ll happen, but I dunno,” Rainbow shrugged as she hovered beside Applejack.
“Sure thing, race ya?”
Maybe flyin once in a while aint such a bad thing. Ah mean I felt closer to my parents and my Rainbow than I have in a while. We shared a moment that Ah cant discribe today that reminded me of wat could be and how much the little thangs matter. Sure a couple big things were said but the meening was all that mattered. Like mama said “If you have love than nothing else matters.”
I have love. the love of my life. and thats all that matters. More than the farm. more than every apple in Equestria. RDs family that I cant imagine not having as much as Granny. Big Mac. and Apple Bloom.
I love ya, RD.
Applejacks Jurnal.
