Applejack was ready to see the sky and nothing was going to stop her.
Halfway down the stairs she crouched and took a quick, suspicious glance around the farmhouse’s living room. Late afternoon sunbeams slanted across the floor. Winona laid curled on the rug in one of the sunny spots, but otherwise the room appeared empty.
Big Mac was nowhere to be seen. Applejack rolled her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. Finally.
All day she’d been in the farm’s office – a long, thin storage space tucked away in the upper part of the house that was stacked high with logbooks and scrolls. Not that she had a problem with taking care of all of the details that kept the farm running. After all, Sweet Apple Acres was more than just kicking trees. But by this point, after staring at ledgers for a good part of the day, she was in the mood to get out under a beautiful open sky and buck some apples. Or fix a broken cart harness or anything that got the blood flowing.
She tried several times throughout the day to get up and stretch her legs with some farm work. Every single time she attempted it, Big Mac stopped her and told her he’d take care of it. Didn’t matter what it was. Sometimes he’d stop by the office to let her know she didn’t need to worry about some regular chore. Sometimes he’d stop her as she was heading down the stairs. Once she almost reached the front door before Big Mac stuck his head in the window to ask her what needed doin’.
Applejack hadn’t the foggiest idea what put him in such a helpful mood. It was awful sweet and all, but at this point her were eyes tired, her jaw ached from gripping the pencil, and the faint taste of eraser was still on her tongue. If Big Macintosh made any further attempt to stop her from going outside, he wasn’t going to have much luck.
As she considered the best ways to get her stiff legs stretched out, her mind naturally went to her girlfriend. But she knew Dash wouldn’t be around the farm. She had told Rainbow awhile back that this would be the day she would be taking care of office work. But if anypony could provide some rut-breaking entertainment, it was Rainbow Dash. Hopefully she could find that silly blue pegasus before it got dark.
Eager to discover what trouble her girlfriend had gotten up to, Applejack trotted down the stairs and made for the door.
She only got halfway across the living room before the door burst open and a blur of blue with a rainbow trail crashed into her at full speed.
Once the room stopped spinning, Applejack found herself laying flat on her back and staring up at the ceiling. She blinked in surprise a couple times and craned her neck up. From her inverted position on the floor, Applejack could see one of Dash’s hind legs and that pretty rainbow tail sticking out from behind the couch.
The leg kicked a few times and Rainbow Dash groaned before pulling herself up to a sitting position. The moment she locked eyes with Applejack, Rainbow launched to her hooves in panic. “You haven’t been outside, have you?!”
Winona, woken by the commotion and happy to be involved, bounded across the living room and gave Applejack a lick on the cheek. Applejack carefully got to her hooves and took a couple seconds to dust herself off and give her pup a few tender scratches on the head. “No, I have not.”
Rainbow Dash let go a huge sigh of relief and collapsed back to the ground. She was breathing heavy, panting almost.
Applejack quickly moved to Rainbow’s side and ran a hoof through her mane. “Girl, you’re sweatin’ up a storm. What in Ponyville have you been doin’?”
“I… it… just gimme a sec.” Rainbow took a few more seconds to catch her breath before dragging herself to her hooves. She then produced a small piece of cloth and held it out to Applejack on a hoof. “Here, put this on.”
Applejack stared at the blindfold in silence. Then at Rainbow. Then at the blindfold. Then at Rainbow again. She gave Dash a flat stare.
“This isn’t a prank,” Rainbow said.
Applejack continued to stare at Rainbow.
“It’s a surprise,” Rainbow said, earnestly.
Applejack smiled and shook her head. “Ain’t about that, sugar. Funny as it would be, I can tell you ain’t gonna walk me into a lake. But the sun’s gonna be settin’ soon and I’d like to see it.”
Rainbow smiled, confident, with burgeoning excitement dancing just underneath the surface. “You will.”
After spending most of the day flipping through log books and tracking the whole of the year’s harvest one pen stroke at a time, Applejack was feeling a might bit impatient.
But she had to admit, her interest was piqued. She had gotten pretty good at telling when Dash was up to some high jink or other. That wasn’t the case here. Rainbow Dash was genuinely excited about something and, despite her apparent exhaustion, was about ready to burst with enthusiasm for whatever it was.
Applejack let out a gentle, happy sigh and rolled her eyes. “Okay. Let’s go see this surprise of yours.”
~~~
Oats and apples, it was such a lovely evening. A soft, pleasant breeze caressed Applejack’s coat and carried with it the smell of rich earth and familiar trees. But she remained blindfolded to everything else as Rainbow continued to lead her on a criss-crossing, meandering path.
Applejack had chuckled the first few times that Rainbow turned her around, but it just kept going. As time passed, the light that trickled in at the edges of the blindfold was beginning to turn from white and blue to a soft orange.
“Dash, this is excitin’ and all…”
“We’re almost there,” Rainbow said. Her excitement had been growing with each assurance as they got closer to whatever it was.
Applejack purposefully raised an eyebrow under the blindfold, but was unsure if Dash got the message.
Finally they came to a stop. Applejack gave a relieved sigh. It was about dang time.
She listened intently, waiting for Rainbow to say something, but her girlfriend remained silent. It sounded like Dash had moved off to the side and was fumbling with something… an object of some sort?
Ready get on with it, Applejack decided to let Rainbow in on a surprise of her own. “Rainbow, what are we doing on the east hill overlooking the farm?” The ruffling sound from Dash’s feathers in reaction to her revelation drew a smirk from Applejack.
“How did you know that? I turned you around and changed directions, like, a hundred times,” Rainbow said with a surprised crack in her voice.
“I could walk this farm with my eyes closed.” With the blindfold still attached firmly over her eyes, Applejack raised a hoof and pointed. “Farmhouse and main barn is over yonder. Carrot farm and cider mill over there. There’s a cluster of five big apple trees and three saplings directly behind us. And thataway is the west orchard and behind it the sunset which I’m currently missing.”
Even if Applejack hadn’t been calculating their path as they turned thisaway and that, she still would have known exactly where she was the moment they began to ascend the hill. It was a familiar spot and her favorite to watch the sun dip below the horizon after a long day. She could picture the whole farm spread out before her, rows upon rows of beautiful trees slowly changing color as the day ended.
Applejack knew she was pointed straight at the sunset. The sun must have been right on the horizon. She could feel its soft glow. The white cloth over her eyes glowed a brilliant orange and faint flecks of light shined through the cotton.
Rainbow took a huge breath. “Okay… it’s time,” she said, her voice a bit shaky. “You can take off the blindfold.”
Applejack cocked up an ear at hearing Rainbow’s noticeably nervous inhale. Applejack knew that sound. It was the kind of breath Rainbow Dash would take right before diving headlong into a storm.
Applejack took a nervous breath of her own and slowly removed the cloth from her eyes. Her heart was not in the least bit prepared for what was before her.
The whole horizon, lit a dazzling array of reds, oranges, and purples by the setting sun, was painted with clouds. Wisps of clouds, pulled and stretched by some trick of pegasus magic to look like brush strokes, streaked around the sun, scattering the light into layer upon layer of meticulously painted sky. Each layer caught the light a different way, creating veils of color spread across Applejack’s vision.
At its center was a cloud sculpture that towered above the horizon, filled with the shapes of lightning bolts and apples and framed by a colossal heart the size of which staggered Applejack’s mind. Inside the sculpture there were hearts that looked like they were made from lassos. Apples with stripes cut into them. The prism of flaming reds and oranges created by the sun scattered across the cloud-sculpted apples, giving each stripe its own color as if they were zap apples. Immense, glowing zap apples. They framed the image of two ponies – one scraggly-maned and one with a cowpony hat – kissing at the center of this massive, three-dimensional diorama of light and color.
It was a sculpture inside of a painting, with layers of brushstrokes in the foreground, but somehow alive, moving, and changing.
And in front of it all, clouds spelled out words that made her heart pound in her chest.
Marry me Applejack.
Rainbow Dash had spelled out all three words in clouds across the beautiful, glowing horizon. Staggered by the sheer scope of the endeavor, Applejack couldn’t help but wonder if Dash could have saved some effort but just making an “A” and a “J,” but Rainbow had spelled her girlfriend’s whole name across the sky in clouds.
Applejack had to tip back her hat just to see the whole creation. So grand, so large, so many clouds. Where in Equestria did she get them all?
A raspy chuckle drew Applejack’s attention back to her pegasus. Rainbow kneeled down on her forelegs. Just in front of Rainbow’s nose was a small, simple box that sat open on ground, revealing an engagement ring attached to a gold chain.
Energy poured through Applejack’s veins. “Dash… this is amazing.”
“I know,” Dash said, a cocky grin on her face. That smug, beautiful, cocky grin Applejack had fallen in love with. Oh how she wanted to wipe that smirk off her face by kissing her again and again and again.
“How in Equestria did you pull it off?”
Rainbow lifted her chest and gave a proud flap of her wings. “It took a lot of precision flying.”
Applejack slowly shook her head. “I don’t just mean the flying…”
She turned to face the amazing sunset Dash had created. The colors changed as the sun pulled lower, lighting up intricate details of the sculpture she hadn’t even noticed before.
“How did you get authorization to do this?” Applejack looked down and started adding up the logistics. “The weather factory usually don’t produce that many clouds for Ponyville unless a storm needs brewin’ and there ain’t any rain scheduled any time soon, which means you borrowed clouds from all over. You must have run around filling out a hundred different forms in Ponyville, Canterlot, and Cloudsdale. Plus, with the stated preference for a natural lookin’ sky, changing a sunset requires princess-level authorization. Multiple princesses, given that this thing is tall enough you can probably see it from the dang Crystal Empire.”
Applejack took a deep breath and let out a contented sigh before turning back to her girlfriend. “You went through all of that?”
Dash was still grinning, but it wasn’t a cocky, confident grin anymore. It seemed like Rainbow was trying her level best to make it look confident, but her grin was steadily morphing into a slightly pained-looking grimace. Sweat began to form on her forehead. “Uh…”
“There she is!”
Applejack spun around to see several very official-looking ponies and a cadre of royal guards running up the hill. Adrenaline coursed through her as gold-armored ponies came bearing down on them. She glanced over her shoulder at Dash.
Rainbow stood in panicked silence for one second and then locked eyes with Applejack. “Run!”
~~~
Morning glow began to touch the east horizon as Applejack ascended the hill once more.
She stopped for a moment and stretched her legs, feeling a satisfying soreness run through her body. She grinned and chuckled to herself.
Those guards didn’t stand a chance.
Not against the best pair of athletes in Equestria. Not against her and Dash.
They had run through the trees at night, disappearing into Whitetail Woods down familiar paths that only she and Rainbow knew. They ducked under thicket and ran through hidden tracks, leaving the clank of armor and yelling officials behind in their dust.
The guards were long gone, but they kept running. As they ran, Rainbow gave Applejack a smirk and Applejack smiled back, reveling in the unspoken challenge as they raced under the stars in the newborn night.
The wind whipped through Applejack’s mane and tail. The earth felt solid and strong under her hooves. Tree branches flew past overhead as stars showed the way through. Rainbow ran with her, so beautiful, so free.
Adrenaline carried Applejack deep into the woods before they came to a stop at the edge of a small pond only they knew. It was their hidden spot. They’d come to it many times before to rest after a run or spend a night in private rendezvous, sleeping curled up together as fireflies danced along the top of the gently lapping water.
They stopped at the edge of the pond, both heaving from the sprint. They looked at each other for one moment before both falling against each other in laughter.
Eventually they went back to sort the whole mess out at Ponyville Town Hall, which they did the rest of the night.
Dash faced it like a champ. Rainbow was saddled with weeks of extra weather duty for her… how did the official report put it? Oh yeah. Admittedly breathtaking graffiti.
Rainbow’s first assignment was to take apart her sunset.
As Applejack continued to plod up the east hill, she could see Rainbow and a team of pegasi in the distance pulling apart the sculpture, returning the sky to its natural appearance.
Their work had just begun. The shapes of two kissing ponies in the center had already been disassembled, but most of Dash’s creation was still in place. The painting and sculpture took on a new look with the rising sun shining on it from the opposite side of the world. Applejack was glad she got a chance to see it.
When Applejack reached the top of the hill she sat down heavily in satisfied exhaustion in the exact spot where the evening before she had taken off the blindfold and seen the sky.
The spot where Rainbow Dash had got down on her forelegs and asked Applejack to marry her, presenting her with an absolutely gorgeous gold band and necklace.
At this abrupt realization, Applejack got back on her hooves and started to search the hilltop. She walked around the whole crest of the hill, checking around trees and under stone, but to no avail.
The ring was gone.
Maybe it had been kicked aside by her or Dash in their sprint or it could have been collected by the guards during the pursuit or taken by some curious critter to be the shiny centerpiece in its nest.
But even without the ring, the question still stood.
Applejack raised her eyes from the ground and looked again at the horizon where the words still hung in the air, steadily glowing brighter in the dawn light as pegasi finished pulling away the veils of clouds that surrounded the letters, clearing away brushstroke after brushstroke.
Marry me Applejack.
A dark gray pegasus began to pull at the top corner of the M in Marry before being shooed away by a Rainbow streak and directed elsewhere. The team of cloud workers instead began to cut into the rest of the sculpture, leaving the marriage proposal intact. For now.
Applejack felt her heart pound in her chest once more. The dang thing was she couldn’t tell what the source of the feeling was.
She had been so elated to see Dash’s creation and the question – the question – painted across the sky. But was the adrenaline a result of remembering armored guards running up the very hill she was standing on and Dash yelling run?
Try as she may, she couldn’t seem to parse her excitement at what Dash created from the excitement caused by the fallout from what Dash created.
Applejack slowly sat back down, took a deep breath, and looked up at the sky, watching Rainbow clear chunks away from the sculpture. A lasso here, a zap apple there, each slowly evaporated into the blue sky. As she watched her pegasus work, Applejack let the curiously familiar feelings run their course.
The sound of heavy hooves working their way up the hill brought her out of her musing. Big Mac arrived at the top of the hill wearing a couple of saddle bags.
For a moment he said nothing. Then he smiled and gave a curt nod. “Mornin’.”
Applejack snorted and smirked. “Figured you had a hoof in all this,” she said, vaguely waving a hoof at the slowly disappearing sculpture. “So that’s why you were so dang helpful yesterday.”
He smiled and shrugged before opening the saddle bags and setting out some breakfast and apple juice for the two of them. He sat down next to her and they sat together eating and watching Rainbow and her team continue their work. The sculpture had been disassembled and the team of pegasi finally began to cut into the words Marry me.
The meal was a big one. Big Mac must have anticipated how hungry she was going to be. Oh, it felt good to finally have some grub in her stomach.
It helped calm her a bit. But the feelings mixing up her heart were still there.
They felt good. Joyous, even. But powerful. And… peaceful, too. Was that possible? Something stirred up in her that she recognized but couldn’t place.
In the distance, Rainbow continued steadily with her work. The words Marry and me came apart, one tuft of cloud at a time. Rainbow was clearly leaving the giant heart and the name Applejack for last.
Munching into an apple spice muffin, Applejack glanced over at Big Mac. “I’m tryin’ to figure something.”
He gave one patient nod and waited for her to continue.
Applejack smiled, thankful to have the best listener in all of Equestria for a brother, before furrowing her brow and bringing her eyes back to the sky. “Last night, during all the aftermath of Dash creating... that amazing thing,” Applejack tipped her head toward the remainder of Rainbow’s sky-written proposal, “somethin’ was roused in me. Somethin’ strong. But when I try to put words to it...” Applejack shook her head.
Big Mac took a swig of apple juice and ran a hoof under his chin. “Well, what words ya got?”
Applejack looked to the sky and ruminated for a few moments, letting whatever was rolling itself around in her heart come to the surface. She closed her eyes and let the strongest words come.
“I love you, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said firmly, confidently. She opened her eyes. She nodded once, emphatically. “That’s what I keep hearing from my heart, the truest words I got. I love you, Rainbow. I’ve said them a thousand times before. But saying those words right now, it fires up something… familiar. It’s like…” She took a deep breath and searched the horizon for an answer.
Much to Applejack’s surprise, she found one.
The morning sun had risen into the eastern sky and lit up Sweet Apple Acres bright and clear. Hills rolled along the horizon, dipping up and down as Applejack’s eyes traced along them left to right. Except in one spot. On the far end of the farm, the hills briefly flattened into a straight line before returning to their rolling shape.
“That.” Applejack lifted a hoof and pointed with absolute certainty at the brief flat line on the horizon. “Rainbow Crater.”
Big Mac chuckled quietly and Applejack felt a small smile form on her lips, remembering exactly why one of the hills on Sweet Apple Acres had been flattened in a single explosion of color.
“I think Rainbow, doin’ things the way she does ‘em, looks a bit vexing to some ponies,” Applejack said. “Boy howdy, it certainly did to Twilight that day. She saw Rainbow smashing and tearing at that old barn and thought we must be having a big ol’ knock down, drag out fight. But the truth was there wasn’t a moment in that process that I didn’t have a big grin on my face – from hunting down Rainbow because Celestia knows where she’s gonna be at any point in time, to asking her for help with the project, to watching her… exuberant style of demolition. I even brought a helmet for the occasion and positioned myself in a nearby irrigation gully because I knew exactly what I was getting into.” At hearing herself say those words, Applejack sat up a little straighter. A realization washed over her as several emotions clicked into place. “Loving what I was getting into.”
Her smile grew to her cheeks as she experienced again the tickling joy she felt when Rainbow had called her ‘Boss.’ She felt again the thrilling anticipation as Rainbow had launched herself skyward in preparation for a hilariously unnecessary ground-level sonic rainboom just to disassemble an old barn.
At the time, Applejack had been so shocked at how much she loved Rainbow’s wildness. Her freedom. And she remembered that shock came with the stark realization that she was falling in love with Rainbow Dash.
She heard a rustling sound and glanced over at her brother, who had his face shoved into one of the saddle bags. After a moment of searching he removed his head from the bag with something in his mouth.
A small black box.
Applejack’s heart pounded in her ears. It hadn’t been lost. He must have picked up the ring for safekeeping after the chaos of the evening before.
Big Mac set the box on the ground in the same spot where Dash had left it.
The excitement came back stronger. The feeling she got when she saw the question. The feeling she got when Dash yelled run.
The one, singular, feeling.
The western horizon was clear. The sculpture, painting, and question were all gone. Multi-colored dots of pegasi moved off in different directions, their work complete.
One of the dots approached the hill that Applejack sat on. Sky-blue with a rainbow tail. But it did not approach quickly, as Applejack expected. It was slow, meandering, as if cautious.
Applejack stood and crossed to Mac, enveloping as much of his massive form as she could manage in a hug. “Thanks, Mac. For everything.”
She felt him nod against her and whisper a small “eeyup.” After the long hug, Big Macintosh cleared the remains of their breakfast, packed up the bags, and headed off. The only item he left was the small black box sitting on the ground.
With the sun continuing to rise into the morning sky, Applejack moved under the cluster of apple trees at the top of the hill and waited in the shade for Rainbow to arrive.
Slowly, with each flap of her wings labored, Rainbow arrived and softly settled on the ground a ways back from Applejack.
She was a mess. Rainbow looked like something Winona had dragged in and proudly deposited on the doormat. Dash’s mane, typically coiffed with intention and care to look perfectly messy, was genuinely messy. Her coat was matted and rough. Her wings drooped at her sides in exhaustion.
The blue sky was clear behind her. There was no more sculpture or intricate painting. Just Rainbow against an open sky.
“Hey,” Rainbow squeaked out. Her eyes, her beautiful rose eyes, were heavily lidded. The faintest glimmer of a tear laced the edge of each eye. Rainbow’s muzzle scrunched slightly and she sniffed.
Applejack sat on the ground and opened both hooves wide, welcoming her girlfriend to embrace her under the broad branches of the apple tree.
For a moment Rainbow looked surprised, as if she didn’t quite believe it. Rainbow tentatively closed the distance between them, one step at a time. When Rainbow finally reached Applejack, she collapsed into the farm pony.
Applejack held Rainbow close and gently stroked her mane. Dash’s exhausted, labored breaths slowly smoothed out as she snuggled into Applejack. Rainbow shivered once and buried her head in Applejack’s mane, hiding her eyes.
No pony but Applejack ever got to see Rainbow like this. Gentle, honest, open, and raw. The pony that pretended to not care but really did care so darn much about everything she did and all of her loved ones. Rainbow Dash the sweetheart. The real Rainbow Dash. Her Rainbow Dash.
She pulled Rainbow close, lifted her head, and brought Dash in for a kiss. Applejack breathed in the smell and taste of Rainbow Dash. The sweat of a competitor laced with the fine mist of fresh clouds. It was like tasting the sky. Rainbow made a soft, shapeless, and happy murmuring sound into the kiss.
Her eyes still closed, Applejack pulled back just a hair’s breadth and whispered, “Yes.”
Dash pulled back and looked sleepily into Applejack’s eyes. “Wha… yes, what?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Rainbow’s eyes flew open. For a split second she was frozen still before leaping into the air, shivering with excitement and renewed energy, wings and hooves splayed in jubilation. “You will?! I thought I’d screwed everything up!”
Applejack chuckled at seeing all of the exhaustion disappear from her fiance in a wave of renewed energy. “What, you mean all that buckin’ the rules and running through the woods nonsense?”
“Well, yeah.” Rainbow swooped over to the ring and scooped it up. While still hovering in mid-air she happily fumbled with the box, removed the ring, opened the chain’s magnetic clasp, and placed it around Applejack’s neck. “You mean you’ll marry me despite that?”
“I want to marry you because of that.” Applejack lifted both of her forehooves off the ground, wrapped them around the hovering pegasus, and brought her in for another kiss. She felt Dash lower back to the ground and press deeper into the kiss. Applejack pulled back and looked earnestly into Rainbow’s eyes. “Rainbow, when you looked at me and yelled run, all I felt was my love of competition, my love of a challenge… my love for you. Celestia knows you don’t do things the way I’d do ‘em, but I love it. You ignite a fire in me that no pony else can. I love the excitement you bring to every darn day. I love you, Rainbow Dash.”
“Of course you do.” Rainbow puffed up and flashed a grin, lifting a foreleg and flaring her wings into a dramatic, dashing pose.
Applejack gave her a knowing smile.
Rainbow slowly brought her wings and hoof back down. Her big grin drifted into a gentle, soft smile. “And I love you too, Applejack. Now and forever.”
Applejack leaned in and placed her forehead against Rainbow’s. Rainbow eyes opened a bit in surprise for just a moment before they drifted closed. Applejack closed hers.
For a while they just stayed in stillness, neither moving. Applejack listened to Rainbow’s breaths steadily even out. She felt her own do the same. Peace spread through Applejack’s tired body and she finally felt rest coming upon her.
She drifted down to the ground and Rainbow came with her. Applejack laid back into a comfy crook at the base of the apple tree and Rainbow curled up into her forelegs.
She was so tired. So satisfied. Just so… dang… happy.
Applejack could feel the weight of the last two days melting off Rainbow. Her wings gave subtle twitches and flutters at her side that pleasantly caressed Applejack’s flank. The soft morning wind, cool and crisp, wisped through the green leaves above, carrying Applejack off to the sleep that had eluded her for a day and then some.
As consciousness began to slip away, Rainbow’s voice brought Applejack back from the depths of sleep.
“So you’ll really marry me?”
Applejack’s eyes fluttered open to find a beautiful pair of rose-colored eyes looking at her in earnestness. She chuckled. “Yes, Rainbow. I’ll really marry you.”
“Like, really really.”
The anticipation, the hope, in Rainbow’s voice was just about the most adorable thing Applejack had ever heard. She smiled, feeling joy stretch her tired cheeks. “Really really.”
Rainbow’s wings gave one last happy flutter and she snuggled her head into Applejack’s chest. Rainbow let out a happy, gentle sigh.
Applejack’s heart was so full, so content. After the whirlwind of the last day, she cherished this moment of stillness. For a few more breaths she efforted to stay awake, to extend this wonderful moment just a bit more. But her body and her heart knew it was time to rest. After all, this was not simply a moment but the beginning of a path, one that she truly understood now she’d always wanted.
Applejack held her fiance close, her own piece of the sky, and let sleep come.
