Blue Acres

Rainbow Dash glided through the rows of apple trees, happily taking in the pleasant scent of the orchard and enjoying the wind blowing across her fur. She circled around a hill on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres a few times before landing. It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of hoofsteps from another pony.

“You could have helped carry the basket,” said a mare in her typical farmer accent.

“Yeah, yeah, I showed up on time this time, so that should get me out of having to carry stuff. Right?”

“Nope,” responded the mare.

Rainbow heard the picnic basket being put down and then felt the muzzle of the farmer mare brushing against the back of her neck. Her wings rustled, her breathing quickened and a soft, pleasurable gasp escaped from her mouth. “I’ll carry the basket every time if you do that more often.” The mare laughed a bit as she stopped. “Cheater.”

“Learned from the best,” she said.

Dash turned around to see a red mare with an apple half for a cutie mark. She was much larger than the average mare and had more muscle than the average mare as well but still had a pretty face and a curvy flank. “So, did you bring the cider?” asked Dash.

“Eyup.”

The mare pulled out several different kinds of food and a couple bottles of cider, much to Rainbow Dash’s delight. They quickly made their way through the food and drink, and lay down on the grass afterwards, cuddled against each other. Dash stretched her wing out, laying it on the mare’s back and nuzzled against her neck. It had been years since she had a marefriend and now she was going to enjoy it for all its worth.

Dash closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them to find that she was staring up at the ceiling of her bed room and had a copy of, Daring Do and the Temple of 63 Runes, lying on her chest. “Stupid dreams,” she mumbled before getting up.

***

A little orange pegasus sat quietly in the crusader clubhouse. Her friends were discussing something but in her mind she was off flying with Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts. A hoof nudged her shoulder, snapping her back to reality. “Huh, wha?”

“Ah asked, what do you think Scootaloo?” asked Apple Bloom.

“About what?”

“You didn’t listen to a word we’ve been saying, have you?” Apple Bloom sighed and shook her head, “You dodo.”

“Hey, don’t call me a dodo.”

“What are you going to do about it, dodo?”

Scootaloo pounced on Apple Bloom, leading to the pair rolling around on the floor. It wasn’t long before Apple Bloom had her pinned down, with Scootaloo squirming around in vain to get out from under the earth pony filly.

Apple Bloom leaned down, to the point that her nose was almost touching Scootaloo’s. “Dodo, dodo, dodo,” she said with a big grin. “Now, Ah was trying to ask you, what you think ponies do on dates and if we could get a cutie mark for any of it.”

Apple Bloom has gotten really strong, thought Scootaloo. She could feel her wings begin to move outward from underneath her and Scootaloo’s cheeks reddened a little as she fought to keep them closed.

“Oh, oh, I know what we should do,” exclaimed Sweetie Belle, causing Apple Bloom to turn away, much to the relief of Scootaloo. “We should follow Big Macintosh and Rainbow Dash during one of their dates.”

“That’s a great idea Sweetie Belle. What do you think Scootaloo?”

“Sure, I’m in.”

***

Macintosh knocked on the door to the small house.

“Coming,” said a voice from inside. The door opened revealing the blue musical pony. “Hey Macintosh.” Blues motioned with his head for Big Mac to come in.

The living room was much cleaner than Macintosh would have expected. He never would have guessed that Blues would be this tidy. “Blues, are you free tonight?” he asked.

“Depends on how late you’re talking about. I got a gig this afternoon, but it should be ending around seven. We can meet up at the club after that. Cool?”

“Eyup.”

Blues leaned in towards him, most likely trying to nuzzle his cheek, but Macintosh, on instinct, turned away.

“Sorry,” Macintosh said.

“Whatever.” The annoyance in Blues’ voice was coming through loud and clear to Macintosh. “I’ll see you tonight.”

***

“This was a stupid idea,” complained Scootaloo. She was being squished between her friends inside of a box. A pair of eye holes had been cut out of the front, allowing Sweetie to look around and tell the others what was happening.

“My idea wasn’t stupid,” said Sweetie Belle.

“No, but hiding in this box was.” Scootaloo glared at her farmer friend.

“Hey, you didn’t come up with any better ideas for a disguise,” said Apple Bloom.

“Shush, Macintosh and Rainbow Dash are coming out of Sugar Cube Corner and now they’re… turning and going down the road. Guys, we need to follow them,” said Sweetie Belle.

The three of them lifted the box up and ran down the road after the loving couple, with Sweetie Belle guiding them around obstacles. They followed the pair all the way to the edge of town.

“Now where they hay could they be headed to?” asked Apple Bloom.

“They’re going to notice a box all the way out there,” said Scootaloo, as she lifted the box up and tossed it to the side. “Let’s use the bushes.” The other crusaders nodded in agreement.

***

True to his word, Macintosh got to the entrance of The Solar Flare about a half hour after seven with Rainbow Dash a few steps behind him.

“So, you going to go in or waiting outside for you coltfriend or whatever you want to call him?”

“Ah’m gonna wait outside,” he replied, getting a shrugged shoulder for a response.

It wasn’t long before he spotted Blues came walking up the road. “Hey,” the musician said as he approached. His tone seemed much more subdued than normal. “Let’s go to the same spot as before.”

Macintosh nodded and followed Blues to the same hill they’ve been going to. Along the way he thought he heard a twig snapping in a nearby bush, but chose to ignore it, figuring that it was just some critter wondering around.

“There’s something we need to talk about,” said Blues.

“About what?”

“About how long you plan on keeping this going on.”

“Oh,” replied Macintosh as he lowered his head. “Ah… Ah don’t know.”

“You have to tell your family eventually.”

“Ah know.”

Blues walked up beside him and sat down. “Listen Macintosh, I like you, a lot, but I just can’t do this anymore. Sneaking around was fun at first but now it just brings up a bunch of bad memories. I can’t be your dirty little secret.”

Silence followed Blues’ statement, as it sunk into Macintosh’s mind. He didn’t want to give up his dates with Blues but every time he even considered telling Granny Smith or his sisters, his body clenched up in fear.

“Hey Macintosh, I need to ask something.” Macintosh turned his head and the stallions looked into each other’s eyes. “Is it really that you’re worried about your family or are you ashamed of this?”

“Ah ain’t ashamed,” quickly answered Macintosh.

Blues looked away, obviously not fully convinced. As he waited for the blue stallion to look back at him, Macintosh worked up courage. When Blues turned back towards him, Macintosh leaned in and kissed the smaller stallion, pushing his tongue into Blues’ mouth, wrestling with Blues’ own tongue. Eventually he pulled away, a small string of saliva clung to both tongues for a while, shining in the setting sun’s light, before snapping.

“Wow. Didn’t see that coming,” said Blues as he leaned against Macintosh. “Ok, I… I believe you. But you still got to tell your family.”

“Ah know,” Macintosh conceded.

“Though before that… want to head back to my place?”

“…eyup.”

They walked off from the hill, shoulder to shoulder and giving each other little kisses along the way.

***

Three wide eyed, shocked little fillies watched the stallions walk off from their hiding place. Scootaloo’s own experiences raced when they kissed.

“What just happened?” asked Apple Blooms.

“Macintosh is cheating on Rainbow Dash,” said Scootaloo.

“My big brother ain’t no cheater.”

“He was kissing somepony else. That’s cheating. And… and it was with stallion.”

“Apple Bloom, why didn’t you tell us that your big brother is a coltcuddler?” asked Sweetie.

“A what, now?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Coltcuddler. Those are stallions that date other stallions. Rarity told me about them.”

“Yeah, well, my big brother ain’t one. He’s dating Rainbow Dash.”

“But he made out with Blues. Looks pretty coltcuddlerish to me,” said Scootaloo.

“Listen girls, please don’t anyone about this,” said Apple blooms.

“Fine, let’s just go,” said Scootaloo.

***

A few hours had passed since her so called date with Big Macintosh ended and Rainbow Dash was flying home. As she approached her cloud mansion, she spotted a little orange filly sitting in front of her door. “Squirt, what are you doing here?”

The filly kept her eyes turned away from Rainbow as she answered, “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Can’t this wait until morning?” she asked with a yawn.

“No, I want to do this now… if that’s ok with you Rainbow Dash.”

“Fine, let’s get this over with so I can sleep.” She unlocked her door and led Scootaloo into her living room. “So squirt, what did you need?”

The filly fidgeted around before saying, “Sorry.”

Rainbow facehooved as she felt frustration build up inside of her. “You kinda have to also say what you’re sorry for.”

“Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and I followed you and Big Mac around on your date.”

“And what, exactly, did you three see?” Despite trying otherwise, her words came out louder and angrier than she had wanted.

“You went into some building I’ve never seen before. Macintosh walked off with Blues and they… made out. Dash, is Big Mac cheating on you?”

“No.” Scootaloo looked up her with a confused expression. “Listen squirt, I need you to promise to keep this a secret.”

“Anything for you Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow groaned at the answer. That seemed to what the filly always said when Dash asked something. “Look, Macintosh and I aren’t really dating. He’s actually with Blues. He’s trying to keep it a secret”

“Um, is… is there something wrong with stallion liking another stallion?”

“No,” said Dash. “There’s nothing wrong with a stallion liking a stallion or a mare liking a mare.”

Even Dash could tell that the filly was growing more nervous as the talk continued. “So… if a filly started getting weird feelings around her friends… that’d be ok, right?”

“Squirt, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Scootaloo nodded her head.

“Yeah, it’s ok.”

The filly rushed towards Dash, wrapping her forelegs around Dash’s shoulders. “Thank you Rainbow Dash. You really are the best.”

As if there was any doubt, thought Rainbow. “Listen squirt, I’ve been in your shoes and it sucks, but it’ll get better.”

The two sat together in Rainbow’s living room, without saying much of anything for a while. Rainbow playfully nudged the filly and asked, “So, when did you start liking fillies?”

“Dash,” Scootaloo whined with a blush.

“Oh come on, you can tell me.”

Scootaloo sighed and said, “There was a CMC sleep over at Rarity’s house and during the night I got up to go to the bathroom. When I opened the bathroom door, I saw Rarity in the shower.”

“A wet Rarity huh? Yep, that’ll do it,” she said with a chuckle.

***

Night and morning had passed and the afternoon had come. Macintosh paced back and forth in the barn, growing more nervous with each passing second. He had decided that today he was going to tell AJ the truth. He had talked it over with both Blues and Rainbow Dash in the morning and they both told him to just be direct. He agreed, and told AJ to meet him in the barn to talk about something.

He looked up as the door opened and saw his sister came in. “Howdy, so what’s up? You look more nervous than a jackrabbit in a snake pit,” she said.

He took a deep breath, looked her in the eye, and began to tell Applejack the truth; how he had been hiding the secret from AJ and Granny, about how Dash figured it out and that their relationship was fake. Though he did leave out the part of Dash being a fillyfooler, deciding that it wasn’t his place to tell her that.

“Stop!” yelled Applejack. “Just stop. Ah’m going to go before I say something that Ah’ll regret. We’ll talk about this later.” She slammed the door shut as she left.

He sat there in silence, listening to her walk off. “Ah’m sorry,” he whispered.

***

Dash had been watching the old barn from her cloud over the farm. She winced a bit as she saw AJ slammed the door on her way out. The farmer mare walked off into the orchard, bucking one of the trees along the way. Dash could have sworn that the tree leaned a bit afterwards and wondered if it was going to fall over.

Not liking to see her friend in this mood, Dash flew down into the orchard. “Um… Hey Applejack. What’s up?”

“Not now Dash.” Applejack growled a bit during her response.

“So, are you angry at me too?”

“Ah… no, Ah ain’t angry at you for going along with Macintosh’s idea. You were just trying to help.”

“His idea? That idiot,” said Dash with an eye roll. “AJ, it was my idea to pretend to be his marefriend and I was the one that showed him where he could meet other stallions like him. Did he also tell you that I’m the same way?”

AJ spun around and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Does it really bother you this much?” asked Dash.

“You’re damn right it bothers me that you and Big Mac would lie to me like this.”

Rainbow backed up a bit, having never heard Applejack this angry at her before.

“You’re my best friend and he’s my big brother. There ain’t anything Ah wouldn’t do for the two of ya’ll and there ain’t any pony Ah trust more than ya’ll. But Ah guess you two don’t think the same about me.” She turned and started walking away.

“AJ, wait.”

“What?”

“I get it, we messed up. Just… promise you won’t tell anyone what I’m going to say?” AJ glared back at her, again. “Right, right, trust. Look, I’ll admit it; I was scared of telling you.”

“Dash, why in tarnation would you be afraid of telling me?”

Dash pawed at the ground for a bit, before saying, “Think about the stuff we do together. How often do we wrestle or end up lying on the ground next to each other. If… if you knew I liked mares, maybe you wouldn’t want me being that close to you.”

Dash heard a set off hoofsteps getting closer to her and then felt Applejack’s hoof on her shoulder. “Dash, you’re my friend and Ah won’t ever treat you differently. Unless you keep lying to me, that is.”

“Right… sorry. Listen; don’t be too mad at Big Mac.”

“Fine, Ah’ll try to not to. Well… Ah should probably go back and work things out with him, and Dash, again, no more lying to me.”

***

Macintosh looked up as the barn door opened once again to see his sister coming back in. “Applejack… Ah’m sorry.”

“Listen Big Macintosh, before you get the wrong idea, Ah ain’t angry at you for liking stallions. Ah’ll admit, thinking of my big brother dating another stallion is weird. Actually, it’s really weird. But what Ah’m angry at you for lying to me. We’re family; we ain’t supposed to lie to each other. Especially about who you are dating.”

Macintosh lowered his head and said another apology.

“Stop it. No more apologizing, just don’t do it again. Now then do you have a…” AJ paused for a bit, clearly the topic was still a bit awkward for her to talk about, “Do you have a coltfriend?”

“Eyup. Ah’ve… Ah’ve had some dates with Blues.”

“Ok, then this is what we’re going to do, right now you and Ah going to tell Granny Smith and then Apple Bloom about all this. Then, you are going to talk to Blues and have him come over for dinner with the family. Alright?”

“Eyup. And sis… thanks.”