Pillow thoughts

by Will P. Sherman

Rating: teen
Tags: Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Comedy, Romance, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life
Length: 24201

A simple, yet awkward event, may change the way Rainbow Dash and Applejack look at eachother.

Slumber parties can be a blast... but they can also lead to awkward situations.

I know, it's "just another AppleDash fic"... you probably know how it's gonna end. What you never know is how you get there. That's what usually makes a fic interesting.

Let's explore some thoughts together.

-----

Thank you, TheShadow, Proofreader of Coolness, Awesomeness and Radicalness!!

Applejack image by Superstar4071

Published 2012-01-09 18:39:13 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-02 12:13:36 UTC

That Particular Night

Chapter 2
That Particular Night

"Pillow fiiiiight!!" yelled Applejack as she launched one of her pillows towards Rarity. To everypony's surprise, Rarity actually avoided the shot. She then grabbed the nearest pillow and counter-attacked her enemy.

A good pillow fight is probably required, as Twilight would say, at every slumber party. Not because it's written in the book, but just because they're fun. Even Fluttershy joined the girls as they screamed and giggled in the night. Soon, the entire floor was covered in feathers. It’s almost a miracle that their half-empty glasses of refreshing drinks were sparred.

Rainbow was under a pile of books, recovering from one of Pinkie's pillow-shots, when she heard Twilight calling out to them. "We should really get to our beds, girls. It's almost 3 AM and—" she giggled as she avoided a flying pillow. "—and Spike won't be able to sleep with us making such a racket. He's still a baby dragon, after all."

"Awww, but this is a sleepover party!" whined Pinkie. "Sleep...Over!"

"Nopony said we'll actually sleep, Pinkie," replied Twilight. "I just suggested we all get to our beds and continue talking and having fun, just a little quieter."

Pinkies eyes lit up again, with excitement. "Oh! We can tell ghost stories! I know a ghost story. It's about a ghost, that wasn't really a ghost! Oh, wait, I spoiled it. How about another ghost story? This one is not really a ghost story but it can be if you really use your imagination!" She continued rambling about her stories as they trotted up the stairs, towards the bedroom.

Twilight already set up three big beds for them. They barely entered the room as Pinkie immediately jumped on one of the beds. "This one's mine! It's so bouncy!"

"They're all identical, Pinkie" said the purple unicorn, watching her friend jump up and down and worrying a bit about the ceiling. Then again, she could easily repair whatever gets broken in here, so she just turned to the other four members of the gang. "Okay, so... who wants to join Pinkie?"

One of the things Twilight enjoyed most was actually organizing the parties. How many types of drinks, what kind of activities and exactly how long each activity should last... but one of the more difficult choices was distributing them in beds. It may sound silly…

"...but I just can't let Rarity and Applejack share a blanket. No offense girls."

"None taken,” replied Rarity, glancing at Applejack. "Friendship or not, you know I'm a bit... strict when it comes to a proper good night sleep and the necessary requirements for it," she added, quickly. "Rainbow is a lot less... strict than I am."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked the blue pegasus, not sure if that was an insult or not.

"Oh, it... ah, just means that you're a free spirit, darling! ...and also that you're probably used to sleeping without a blanket anyway. Or a pillow. Or a glass of warm milk before—oh, that reminds me... Twilight, dear, do you happen to have some milk?"

Twilight smiled and just rolled her eyes. Despite Rarity's confused stare, Applejack approved of the idea.

"Yeah, apples and warm milk don't mix. Ah'm fine with sharin’ mah blanket with Rainbow. That okay with you?" she asked her pegasus friend.

"Whatever," replied Rainbow, making a double flip in the air and landing directly on the bed. She sighed, relaxing her hooves and wings on the soft mattress. Suddenly, she realized something. "Uhhh, you guys?"

The ponies pricked up their ears. Something was definitely wrong. Everything was quiet. Too quiet.

"Where's Pinkie?" concluded Dash, looking towards the bed where, just a few moments ago, the pink pony was jumping up and down.

"Oh... oh my," squeaked Fluttershy, trying to hold herself from laughing. She just pointed at the window, when the bedroom door burst open. Pinkie stood in the doorway with a very puzzled look on her face.

"I have no idea what happened, but it was awesome!" she shouted, as the other ponies just looked at her, not knowing how to react.

"Darling,” started Rarity, "did you just throw yourself out the window?"

"I'm good at fixing broken glasses, not broken necks, Pinkie," said Twilight, in a rather nervous tone. "Um, Fluttershy, maybe you should... keep an eye on her. Since you can fly and all that." Fluttershy nodded and walked towards the bed. "Actually, let's not put Pinkie near the window... Rainbow, Applejack, you two should take that bed.”

After some strategic moves that would make even the best chess player jealous, all three pairings were happily sitting in their beds. Twilight loved talking to her friends, they were all so different and with so many stories to tell, she could've easily arranged 100 slumber parties, and they would still have stuff to talk about. They talked and talked, sharing thoughts and secrets, fears and desires... when, suddenly:

"Apple pie!"

The ponies stared at Applejack, whose fake smile could be distinguished even through the semi-darkness of the bedroom.

"Your biggest wish... is an apple pie?" asked Twilight."I understand Rainbow wanting to join the Wonderbolts and Rarity wanting to become the biggest fashion designer in Equestria, since they are both working on their dreams each day."
Applejack scratched her left ear with her hoof, feeling a little awkward. "But you buck apples everyday," continued Twilight, "is the thing you want most really an apple pie?"

"Well, ah... uh..." mumbled the cowpony, looking for a way out of this.

"If you don't want to tell us, that's okay," whispered Fluttershy.

"Ummm, it's not that Ah don't want to... it's just..."

Rainbow stood up, looking at her friend. Even Pinkie stopped counting her teeth (again) and turned towards the orange pony.

"Aw, shoot... it's stupid, okay?" said Applejack, lowering her eyes.

"I'm sure it's not stupid," replied Twilight. "Pinkie's dream of a mountain of chocolate... that is stupid.
“Hey!” shouted the pink furball. “My dream is practical! If you have a HUGE amount of chocolate, you can focus on doing something constructive with your life. You can’t focus on both!”
Twilight blinked once and decided not to open up a debate that she would have, somehow, lost. “What I’m trying to say is this: whatever it is, it can't be sillier than what we've all been through."

Applejack sighed and looked at her friends. They were all waiting to hear what she had to say.

"Well, why not? Ah suppose friends share secrets and... stuff. Just don't tell anypony else." She took a deep breath and tried explaining the best she could. "Ah like workin' on the farm and helping out mah family, but there are times when Ah wish Ah had, you know... somepony beside me. Like… you know..."

"Like a coltfriend?" asked Pinkie, smiling.

"Yeah, Ah guess. Don't y'all get me wrong now, Ah always put mah family first but, sometimes, at night, when Ah'm in mah room... it does get kind of lonely." She paused a bit, searching for the right words to say. "Y'all are mah best friends, but Ah could never be as good as y'all. Ah mean, Twilight, you know so many things and you can do magic. Rarity, you're so talented at making those dresses. RD can even get any stallion she'd wanted, impressin’ him with her flyin’ and all..."

Rainbow was taken by surprise by that statement. She never thought about it like that. Actually, she just never thought about it at all.

Applejack gave a crooked smile and continued. "Ah don't have any special talents... so mah chances are pretty weak at findin' somepony who'd like me like this."

"Applejack, you are one of the Elements of Harmony. You are the Element of Honesty," replied Twilight.

"That means Ah should know best that Ah'm tellin' the truth here. Mah only talent is puttin’ food on the table... and that don't make it good enough for some stallions. Not to mention there's nothin' impressive about that." She lowered her ears, not sure if she should've talked about this. It was not making her feel better, that's for sure.

"Ah think it would be nice to wake up to somepony beside me," she said while lowering her head on the pillow. "Sorry if Ah messed up the game."

"You didn't," intervened Rarity. "Your wish might be the best out of all our wishes... after all, one does want to share the success of one’s life. Besides, none of us has a coltfriend right now."

"I bet, when the time comes, you're gonna be the first to have one, Applejack," said Twilight, trying to make her feel better. "As magical as my horn is, I think a hard working pony is much more admired. At least, we admire you for that."

The cowpony smiled. "Ah know you do, girls. Thanks."

After that, nopony asked anything else. The game had ended and they soon started to fall asleep, one by one. Ponyville was quiet that night and the warm blankets sure felt cozy.

Even so, one of the mane six had trouble sleeping.

***

Rainbow tossed and turned.

I can't get any stallion I want, she thought to herself. Nopony can really keep up with me. It's not just about speed, or style... I'm just too... wild for everypony.

She looked around the room. Twilight and Rarity were sleeping in their bed, Fluttershy was asleep... even Pinkie was quiet, a rare state in which you don't usually find her. Rainbow turned to her side and put her head on the pillow, looking straight at Applejack.

Why would she want a coltfriend so badly? She's doing great on her own... Also, how can she know if I can find somepony... like that? Out of all of us, I would probably be the hardest pony to fall for. She paused her thoughts for a bit, making sure to add: Not that I'm not cool enough... but I get bored easily and I’ve yet to met anypony who is at least able to tackle my challenges. Well, except AJ. For an earthpony, she can hold her ground pretty well.

She smiled, remembering the Iron-Pony Competition and all their adventures. They've already been through a lot and Applejack was incredibly reliable. Rainbow did feel sorry for her, even if she didn't completely understand it. She never really fell for anypony herself. Sure, she had tiny crushes here and there... but nothing serious. Not to mention the fact that she lost interest everytime she could outrun said crushes in any type of competition.

Maybe that’s what was wrong in this picture. Both her and Applejack were more or less unapproachable.

Why wouldn’t anypony like her in...that way? the trail of thoughts continued in Rainbow's mind as she studied her friend, silently, guided only by traces of moonlight. I mean, look at her... she's awesome, her mane is beautiful, she looks so, uh, what’s the word… nice? Yeah, she looks nice when she sleeps peacefully like that. She's funny, she's smart... her accent can be really cute sometimes... I’m no expert, but I just don’t get it.

Rainbow leaned closer, like trying to inspect a valuable piece of art. From the outside, it could be seen as a funny (or very creepy) gesture, but in the blue pegasus' head things were clear and straightforward.

She doesn't have any imperfections, the freckles are cool... not to mention the color of her mane and coat; I love orange. She is honest, reliable, independent... what's there not to like?

She leaned even closer, trying to figure out... well, she didn't really know what she was looking for, but she did realize at one point that, for the past 10 minutes or so, she had been sitting very close to Applejack's muzzle. Suddenly, the so-called analysis turned into an awkward situation, making Rainbow back up a bit.

She blinked once or twice. Okay, enough about that. I should just get some sleep. I'm sure Applejack will find somepony, someday, waking up to her or whatever. As the element of Honesty, no, as a friend, she felt that Applejack truly deserved to have somepony by her side.

She stared at the bedroom's wall. Maybe I'll find somepony too. Someday.

She let her mind slowly part from the shores of consciousness, floating into colorless dreams as she drifted away, with one tiny question still hovering around: Really, who wouldn't like AJ? ...if only they stopped for a minute and actually look at her... just... look...

As the last thought broke loose, it ascended towards the stars, where all thoughts end up... and nopony would've ever guessed that the very same thought would come back from there in a most unexpected way for a certain blue pegasus.

***

Birds were chirping somewhere in the distance. Warmth... light... orange... orange light...

It was so cozy... so warm...

I'm not getting up today... no matter what, thought a very sleepy Rainbow.

The cloud was so warm and fluffy.

Lazily, she eventually managed to open up an eye and glance at the clouds and the sunlight. She couldn't see any clouds. Instead, she saw a wooden wall. Many wooden walls.

Oh yeah, I’m at Twilight’s. The sleepover party-thing, she thought, hugging the cloud tighter. Best. Cloud. Ever.

She closed her eye and smiled, enjoying the sunlight and the coziness of it all. She opened her eye again, looking out Twilight's window. The sunrays were so vibrant that morning, the weather was perfect for, well, not doing anything all day. Not even a rainbow could make this more beautiful. The wind slowly ruffled the leaves of the treehouse, singing its own tune and waking up sleepy squirrels with its unique chimes.

Sheepishly, the blue pegasus followed a golden ray with her glance... that golden light...

Wasn't it orange a few moments ago? she asked herself, not thinking too much about it. She felt too good to waste time thinking about stuff. She just giggled in her mind and kept following the playful sunray. It landed somewhere above her head.

It landed on the cloud, the fluffy cloud, making it golden. Oh and there's the orange she saw earlier. She snuggled the cloud once more, closing her eye, losing herself in the sensation and the smell.

"Apples," she mumbled.

Applejack would probably love this cloud.

Rainbow suddenly opened both her eyes, as if an entire bucket of cold water had just been emptied over her head. VERY slowly, she lifted her head, looking at the orange pony she was snuggling earlier. Applejack was still asleep.

Good... this is good, the pegasus thought to herself. Let's just...easily back away.

She looked at her hooves and realized that she was, basically, on top of the cowpony completely. She started to move one of her hooves from underneath the ‘Applejack-pillow’, slowly, so she didn't her wake up.

The earthpony let out a soft moan as Rainbow tried shifting back to her part of the bed. The back legs were easier to move, so she focused on them when, suddenly, she noticed another pair of eyes, watching her.

Twilight was cute when she had her big, curious eyes widely open. But not now. Rainbow actually found the whole situation rather scary, since she couldn't explain anything to Twilight without waking up Applejack. She put a hoof to her lips and mimicked "Be quiet" to the purple unicorn.

Twilight blinked, confused. Eventually she nodded, slowly. After what seemed like forever, Rainbow managed to get all her hooves back to her part of the bed. Just in time too. All that shifting and fussing made Applejack open her eyes.

Rainbow froze. She looked at her friend who yawned and stretched. Her mane was going in all directions and her coat clearly needed a brush right now. Not the regular morning-hair-brush.
Rainbow could feel her cheeks getting hotter as she didn’t quite dislike the way her friend looked at that moment, yet another problem kept filling her head with questions, making her ability to focus very difficult. Why is her mane like that? And her coat? And.. MY coat! What the hay did we do last night?!

"Mornin', everypony,” mumbled Applejack. She looked at Twilight, who still didn't know how to react, then at Rainbow. “Why are y’all staring like that? Am Ah interruptin’ somethin’?”
Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie were still sleeping. Not getting an answer from either of her friends, she shrugged and gently scratched her muzzle. "Ah guess Ah'll go first to the little fillies room, hehe."
She got out of bed and started walking towards the bathroom, trying to keep her ballance. "Gosh, what a night! If Ah didn’t know any better, I’d say we’ve all been drinkin’." She giggled as she shut the door behind her.

Rainbow started panicking a little. A little more actually. To be perfectly honest, she just started waving her hooves like crazy, hoping that Twilight might shed some light on the situation. She looked at her lavender friend, waiting for an advice of some sort. No good.

What will she think when she sees her mane like that?? Or her coat?! she thought to herself. Gotta think of something, fast! Ummm..the wind! Yeah, that's it... the wind was strong last night and Twilight forgot to close the window! Perfect!
The pegasus put on the most fake grin in the history of fake grins and started nodding to herself, as if she was trying to convince somepony that the wind explanation was perfect. Twilight blinked. She had no idea what was going on and why Rainbow looked like she just swallowed a coat hanger. For a moment, she seriously considered offering first-aid.

"What in the hay?!" shouted Applejack from the bathroom, breaking any chain of thought that the lavender mare might have started. She trotted back into the bedroom, looking at Twilight and then at Rainbow Dash. The blue pegasus was ready with the perfect explanation.

Applejack pointed at her neck and asked, confused, "Where did these bite-marks come from?"

Twilight's jaw dropped and Rainbow felt the blood rushing to her ears and cheeks. She did not expect that.

- End of Chapter 2 –

Clouds Don't Talk

Chapter 3
Clouds Don't Talk

"Well?"

The orange pony was just standing there, pointing at her neck. Rainbow was just... not quite fully processing the entire situation. Twilight finally managed to close her mouth but, before she could say anything, Rarity was already measuring Applejack from top to bottom.

"...and what exactly happened to you?" the white unicorn asked, not entirely sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"Ah have no idea," Applejack replied.

"You look even more... uh... in-need-of-a-brush than usual," continued Rarity.

"Forget that! Ah have bite-marks on mah neck! Look!" the orange pony explained, showing her marks to the unicorn.

"Did you fall from a window too?" Pinkie's voice was heard from across the bedroom. "Wait, are those bite-marks? You got bitten by the window?! Eek! Have I got bitten too?! Do I have bite-marks?” she yelled, starting to search her body.

Rainbow looked around, trying desperately to find some sort of weird explanation for all this. Even the truth was weird, but she had no idea what happened. Suddenly, the general confusion was interrupted by a shout:

"Bedbugs!"

The ponies turned to Twilight.

"Heh, yeah, bedbugs! I had some problems some time ago, I thought I got rid of those pesky little... bugs... heh, failed magic experiment, who would've known?" She grinned, waving her hooves around. "I'm sorry for that, Applejack. I'm quite sure it's harmless, it will probably be gone by tonight."

"Uh-huh..." replied the orange pony. "What are bedbugs?"

"Oh, I heard of these too!" Rainbow quickly intervened. "They're like... small and they have, like, one tooth. Each. And they always bite in groups, so it looks like you were bitten by something bigger when, in fact, there were... more...tiny...things?" She gulped, then looked at Twilight. "Right?"

"Oh, yes... uh... again, sorry about that. Don't worry about it. Now, who wants breakfast? Spike is probably making one of his specialties right now!" she added quickly, hoping to distract her friends without looking suspicious.

Rainbow took this opportunity to hurry downstairs. "Good idea, I'm starving! We all are. Let's go!" Whoosh! Out the door she went, past a very confused Applejack. Pinkie jumped out of her bed, just as Fluttershy was waking up. Twilight let out a silent sigh as her hooves touched the floor. She'll probably have a little talk with Rainbow later to find out what happened.

She was just about to exit the bedroom, along with her friends, when she noticed something.

"Uh...Rarity?" she asked, turning towards the white unicorn who looked petrified.

"B-b-bedbugs? I-I slept in a bed full of...bugs?!" Rarity mumbled, in a semi-state of shock.

With a quick motion, Twilight lifted Rarity using her magic. "Come on, you're fine." The white unicorn didn't even react to being lifted off the ground. She was too busy trying to picture the one-tooth creatures who probably tried eating her beautiful, beautiful mane.

"Are they like...moths?" she mumbled, almost inaudibly, as Twilight carried her downstairs, towards the kitchen table, like some sort of porcelain figure that showed a 3D interpretation of “The Scream” by Hoofvard Munch.

***

Spike had already cleaned most of last night's party, and the breakfast, as delicious as it was, didn't last very long. Soon, everypony waved goodbye and started going on with their business.

Days passed, everything was normal, no big events, no strange interactions, then again, the mane six didn't really have much time to interact with each other since the slumber party. They were all busy preparing for the upcoming winter.

Fluttershy was guiding her animal friends into their tiny homes to prepare for the long sleep. Rarity was already planning a new design for the perfect ‘clothes for the upcoming cold days’, as she would call them. It seems this year she plans on making those ‘warmer and more flexible than ever’.

Pinkie was working now even more than usual on a new type of hot beverage to warm those ‘hoovsies’ in the winter. She called it ‘Hot Chocolate II’, but it still was not ready, so she spent most of her time mixing up ingredients to get that perfect taste. All in all, the ponies were busy.

"Rainbow, hang on!" Twilight shouted just as the blue pegasus was flying above her treehouse.

Rainbow froze in place and turned around. She saw Twilight on the balcony so, with an unnecessary but impressive backflip, she landed right near her. "What's up, Twilight?"

Twilight smiled, a bit embarrassed. "I know this may not be a good time... but remember the night we all had that sleepover party?"

Darn. Rainbow hoped that Twilight would've forgotten that incident by now.

"Listen," started Rainbow, "I have no idea what happened back there. I was sleeping and when I woke up... uh...yeah, I was...you know..." She started pacing the balcony, nervously. "I mean, all that talk the night before, I dunno... I ... and bite-marks?! How did I..."

"Rainbow, listen, I don't know what happened, but... that's not really what I wanted to talk to you about."

Hearing that, Rainbow pricked up her ears. She didn't really want to talk about that either, then again, it was still bugging her. "Oh... um... okay."

"I just need you to do something for me. Applejack needs a book, which I think I left at Carrot Top's place. I'd go there myself but I need to go around Ponyville and resupply my ingredients – experiment related stuff. I have no idea how long that could take and Applejack asked for that book during the slumber party. I kept forgetting... and she and Big Macintosh want to try planting a new type of apple tree and I would hate to mess up their plans just because I can't find the time to get that book back and I have no idea when the right time to plant those things might be and—"

Rainbow lifted her hoof and Twilight closed her mouth. "Twi, you're rambling."

"I know, sorry, I would've asked somepony else, but nopony was available today, and I already postponed this too much," replied the purple unicorn.

"Wait, why didn't you just tell Applejack to get it herself?"

"Honestly, Applejack and Carrot Top don't really see eye-to-eye, you know, since the whole ‘how-to-plant’ incident,” said Twilight, scratching the back of her head.

"Oh yeah," recalled Rainbow. Having two ponies, with two different farming backgrounds, working on the same field was not a good idea. "Sure, I'll... I'll do it."

Twilight wanted to say something else, but Rainbow was already high above the clouds. She looked after her friend, wondering if she should try to help out or just stay out of this altogether.

***

The pegasus spotted her friend a mile away. She almost forgot to grab Applejack's book. On her way home she quickly saw Carrot Top's house and remembered... now she was on her way to Sweet Apple Acres.

This is easy, focus, she said to herself. Carrot Top gave you the book immediately, no problem there... now all you have to do is give it to Applejack. The book! Give the book to Applejack, she corrected herself and didn't waste a single moment thinking about the possible misinterpretations of that thought.

She landed near the earth pony, who was surrounded by the usual apple trees.

"Hey AJ!" shouted Dash.

"Oh, hey."

Good, thought the pegasus. So far so good. She must've forgotten all about it, just... be cool. Like always. She looked at all the baskets full of apples surrounding them. Applejack really picked up the pace today.

"So, uh, AJ," said the Pegasus, leaning on one of the trees as cool as she could, "long time, no see... busy as always, huh?"

Applejack was looking at the surrounding trees, thinking about bucking the thinner ones so she can save her strength for the bigger ones towards the last minutes of daylight.

Yeah...sure, the orange pony thought to herself. Does she think Ah'm stupid or somethin'? Or that Ah forgot? Or that Ah was blind? I saw her face when Ah asked about those marks... She continued her thoughts, out loud: "Dash, Ah've been meanin’ to talk to ya."

The pegasus' eyes widened. That was it. She was in trouble.

"It's been three weeks... you seemed busy, Ah didn't say anythin'..." she continued, turning towards her friend. "Them bedbugs... Ah'm not stupid, ya know..."

Rainbow let her ears fall on the back of her head and looked down. She probably blushed too. It's been three weeks, why did she hang onto that tiny thing?!

"Ah know it was you."

"AJ, listen... I-I'm sorry. Please don't be mad.”

"Mad? Ah'm not mad... just disappointed. Ah thought you could be a little more sensitive, especially after Ah shared mah wish with y'all. Ya should've known it was hard for me to tell ya all that... wakin’ up with somepony beside me, and what do y'all do?" The orange pony frowned and looked directly at her friend.

Rainbow lowered her head a little. She felt really bad, especially since she couldn't explain her behavior. She was sleeping! She had no control over it... and now she's probably going to lose Applejack as her friend.

"And what do ya do?” repeated the earthpony. "Y'all go and put bedbugs on mah neck!"

Wait, what? Rainbow lifted her head. "I did what?"

"Don't ya lie to me, Rainbow Dash. It was a stupid joke and you'd best admit it or Ah swear Ah'm never speakin' to ya again," concluded the earth pony.

Dash thought about it for a second and then, trying to hide her smile, replied: "Oh, yes... I'm sorry, AJ. It was really stupid and I didn't think it through. I promise I won't do it again, I just went too far."

For Applejack, that was enough of an apology. She just nodded and turned towards her trees.

"I know your wish is very important to you and that you're sensitive about it. Really… I mean it... I really think you'll meet the perfect stallion one day, who will always be at your side," Rainbow continued, trying to make sure she patched up the situation completely. "And he'll be really cool and he'll love everything about you... from the hat you wear to the end of your tail... from your special talent to the apple perfume that you wear."

Nailed it, thought Dash, allowing herself to smile honestly, with a bit of pride for being so good at fixing stuff.

"Ah'm sorry, wha--?"

Applejack turned towards the blue pegasus. As irritating as this was... wait, she wasn't wearing any apple perfume.

Lately, Dash froze so many times, that she started to believe that the whole ‘20% cooler’ saying might have a different meaning now. Why did she mention that apple smell?! Not good... not good at all... She started looking around, trying her best to avoid Applejack's stare. She mumbled something about the apple trees, hoping that the earth pony would've misheard what she just said.

But the earth pony didn't.

Since Rainbow was so keen on changing the subject, the orange pony turned towards her apple trees again. She felt this was probably a bad time to talk about it. Rainbow said something about a book, to which Applejack just replied something about the kitchen table. She wanted to look busy but, actually, she was pretty confused.

Finally, the pegasus took off leaving her alone with her thoughts. She just stood there for a while and laid down near a big apple tree. The sun was going down. She should probably go home now, but she couldn't understand this.

Yes, she was upset these days, thinking about Dash's prank and the fact that her friend reacted so stupidly to her intimate wish. She just felt that, after such a long time, she finally told somepony her secret ideals and one of her best friends made fun of her. Or did she?

Applejack never liked wearing perfume. Well, not that she didn't like it, she just found it useless. She wasn't aiming at impressing anypony, "But how did Rainbow know...?"

After working such a long time amongst apple trees, her coat and her hair caught that tiny hint of apples. It was really discreet, not even her family, her closest loved ones, ever noticed. You'd have to get really close to notice that special fragrance. Really close.

These past weeks her thoughts were a bit clouded but now she really didn't know what to think. She got up and started slowly walking towards the farm. Maybe she just understood this completely wrong.

Maybe Rainbow just noticed the apple smell when we slept in the same bed... but even so... why would she mention that, out of all things? she thought to herself. She felt a bit embarrassed. It was a tiny detail that nopony really knew about her. It was like a special secret of hers. Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned the whole coltfriend-thing.

If she couldn't talk about her wishes with her family, for various reasons... now she really couldn't mention this. To anypony. Not even Dash.

...even if the pegasus might’ve been the only one that already knew.

***

Rainbow was tossing and turning in her bed. She kept playing back in her mind the events from that evening and from three weeks ago. She tried sleeping in trees, on various clouds, she even tried sleeping on a bench in the Ponyville park. Nothing.

She knew what was missing but she didn't like admitting it. It was... weird! Applejack is one of her best friends! Is this even normal?

"Maybe there's something wrong with me," she whispered to herself.

All these thoughts were taking their toll. She felt tired. Soon, she fell in a dreamless state. It couldn’t be called ‘sleeping’ but it was better than nothing.

***

Some mornings in Ponyville were nicer than others. This one was rather gray. It was raining. The wind was howling, announcing the end of autumn and the beginning of winter.

When did it become so cold all of a sudden? With her teeth chattering, Applejack woke up from her bed and closed the window in her room.

"Dang, it's cold!" she shouted. "That's one nasty way to wake up.”

Good thing she finished bucking almost every apple tree yesterday. The remaining ones were Big Mac's share of the chore. She trotted down the stairs, wondering if there's still something left out of that apple pie that Granny Smith made last night. She sure knew how to make the apples taste better... somehow. Old family recipes were handed down from generation to generation, but nopony had ever been able to copy her way of cooking. Ever.

The orange pony reached the kitchen when she saw Twilight standing, right there, near the entrance.

"Oh, hey Twi. What are y'all doin' here?"

"Hi, Applejack, sorry for dropping by like this. I was out yesterday looking for some ingredients – spell thing, herbs and stuff- when I couldn't find one of them. I was hoping maybe you could come with me and help me look for it,” she said, confident in her great idea. "You know, like... a mini-adventure! Two friends going hiking, searching for—"

"Um, hate to break it to ya, Twi, but have ya been outside? It looks fierce out there!" said Applejack, pointing at the window.

"Ah, yes, well... my ingredient can be found in a cave, not too far from here. We'll be protected and dry the whole time we search for it. We'll just grab a big umbrella and make our way through."

"Ah don't know..." the mare hesitated. Anypony knew that going hiking on such weather is not such a bright idea.

"Pleaaaase, Applejack! If it gets colder or, even worse, if it snows, I'll be all out of Tristle-Tosser until spring!"

"Tristle-what now?"
"Tristle-Tosser,” explained the purple unicorn. "It's a plant that... well, I need it in my experiments."

Applejack took a slice of the pie that was still on the table and started eating. She offered a slice to Twilight as well, who refused.

"Well, why didn't you search for it sooner?" the earth pony asked.

"I didn't know that Ponyville would be fresh out! You know how I organize everything, this was not exactly according to my organized plans."

Applejack swallowed the last bite and walked towards the door.

"Alrighty, then... but we'd best get one more pony to join us, just in case," she said, opening the door with both front legs, since the wind was pretty strong and was holding the door shut.
“Oh, what a coincidence! I was just about to suggest the same thing!”

***

Rainbow heard a noise and opened her eyes slightly. She could hear the wind outside and what seemed to be... rain?

Oh yeah, she thought to herself, still sleepy, day off today...

She hugged her cloud pillow and looked up lazily. Oh, this was funny, the pillow looked orange... she's probably still dreaming. Well, after all these weeks of worries and messed up thoughts, what's the harm in a bit of fun? Even if it was all in her head.

"Hello, fluffy orange cloud..." she said, smiling to the earthpony. She had an idea... maybe if she grabbed a cloud and painted it orange, she could get some sleep again. After all, nopony had to know and she would like to get some rest.

Or maybe she could get one of those apple perfumes from Rarity, if she had one. There's no harm in that, right? That way, maybe things would get back to normal... Or maybe if she--

"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?" asked Applejack, slightly amused by the pegasus' reaction.

"ACK!" yelled Rainbow, jumping about two feet in the air. "Applejack, you...are you...wait, what are you doing here? In my house?" She gasped, offended. "In my bed?!"

- End of Chapter 3 -

Stuck In More Ways Than One

Chapter 4
Stuck In More Ways Than One

"Calm down, stripey!", getting up on all fours. "Twilight made that spell o' hers and asked me to go in and wake you up. We shouted, but ya didn't answer."

"I was asleep!", protested Rainbow.

"You're always asleep!", replied Applejack moving aside to reveal Twilight who was standing behind her.

"Sorry for the intrusion, Rainbow. I need this plant for my experiments and there's this cave in which I can easily find it... Applejack insisted that we bring along another pony to make sure we get there and back safely", explained the purple unicorn.

Rainbow landed softly on her bed, scratching her head. "So why didn't you get somepony else?"

"Everypony else is busy."

The pegasus let out an audible sigh and shook her head. "I can't even remember last time I had a good night sleep". Wait, actually...she could remember. She looked up at her friends and just nodded. "Alright, let's get this over with."

The blue pegasus climbed out of her bed and walked towards the door. Suddenly, she realized something. She turned towards the orange pony and blinked a few times, remembering the moment before. "Uh...wait... why were you in my bed?"

Applejack frowned. "Ah was not in yer bed. I tripped and fell over your bed, waking you up". She cleared her voice. "It's not like ah'm walking on clouds everyday."

"Tripped and fell?", Rainbow snickered. She looked at the orange pony, not knowing if that was a joke or not. Applejack started blushing a bit and turned her gaze towards the window as if something much more interesting was going on outside. Rainbow looked at Twilight for some clarification, but the unicorn just shrugged.

The pegasus thought it would be wiser to just go outside and get this done as quickly as possible so she can return to her warm, yet not-so-orange, bed. She shook that thought away, focusing on the task at hand.

It was freezing outside. The weather pegasi might have overdid it a bit today. She looked around but she didn't see anypony. Figures... who would go out on a stroll in the middle of this weather?

She stretched her wings and took in a few deep breaths. Suddenly, a blinding light engulfed her. She gasped and looked around nervously, when she found herself on the ground below.

"Twilight! I have wings, you know!", she shouted to the purple pony.

"Oops, sorry... I just wanted to make sure Applejack and I got on the ground safely", she replied, smiling.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and mumbled: "Lead the way..."

***

As the three ponies made their way across the fields, the weather didn't show any signs of changing. The rain was less... rainy... but it was still pouring. Twilight was wearing some sort of yellow raincoat and she was happily talking with Applejack about her latest experiments. The orange pony was satisfied with wearing only her hat and a rope around her neck ("just in case"). They were trotting along, with Rainbow following them from behind.

The pegasus was not in the mood for idle chit-chat, nor was she in the mood for anything else. She was feeling a bit dragged into all of this... or maybe she just wasn't really feeling ok lately. Also, waking up and seeing Applejack in her bed, was not helping. First of all, it's her bed. Nopony else allowed. Second, it's Applejack.... and it was just weird.

"... What was I thinking?", she asked herself. Rainbow looked at the two mares in front of her. She felt a bit grateful that Twilight didn't tell anypony about... what she saw. As for Applejack, well, maybe she'll just drop the subject. After all, stranger things have happened to the mane six. This was surely irrelevant to her. Hopefully. Hopefully irrelevant to her.

The rain was still pouring, making everything muddy. Their hooves were covered in mud, but Rainbow didn't mind. Neither did Applejack... that's something she liked about her. She had none of that frou-frou stuff Rarity was babbling about all the time. Come to think of it, Applejack was the pony that Rainbow could relate to the easiest.

"She's a good friend... and good friends should remain... good friends", Rainbow thought to herself, looking up at the gray, cloudy sky. The wind rumpled her mane, and brightened her mood a bit. "We were best friend even before we knew each other... my Sonic Rainboom guided her home... she got her cutie mark that way". Dash smiled, remembering how amazed and thrilled she was when she first found that out. That was one of those good stories that you have to live through to believe.

They could see the cave somewhere in the distance. At least they didn't have to climb any mountain to reach it. Dash knew about it but she never went in there... she just hoped Twilight would quickly find that silly plant of hers so they can all go home.

"Where was I... cutie mark, right", the pegasus continued her thoughts, ignoring the conversation her friends were having. "Yeah, few cutie-mark stories are that impressive. Hay, it even impressed me. That's something". She lifted her gaze to look at her orange friend.

Despite wearing a hat, her golden mane was wet, sliding down the side of her neck. She was carrying that rope just like she'd done hundreds of times before. Her walk was unmistakably... hers. Firm, yet there was something harmonious in the way she was placing one leg in front of the other. Dash never really noticed this before... well, she knew that's how the cowpony walked... but she never stood to look at her this way.

Also, there's the orange coat. It was wet but, even so, it was the nicest wet-orange Dash has ever seen. The pegasus' daydreaming took the best of her as she set her eyes on Applejack's cutie mark. Three red apples, so... nice. So fitting. If she would've chosen a cutie mark for her, she couldn't find a better one. And that cutie mark was there because of Dash. She smiled again, letting memories gently invade her thoughts. Like... shiny drops of rain that fall from the silvery sky. Like...

"Like, why are y'all lookin' at mah flank?", Applejack rightly asked.

"Wha--?", jumped Rainbow. "No, I wasn't... I'm not... Nonono, I was looking beyond your flank. I mean, I wasn't even looking in that direction", she started pointing towards a tree, somewhere in the distance.

"All...right", continued the orange mare. "We're... here. At the cave. Are ya sure you're awake?"

"Huh? Yeah, of course I'm awake! Never been more...awake—y---er in my life!", replied the pegasus, holding her ground.

Twilight was just watching, with one of her typical perplexed looks on her face. She was about to ask what was going on... but she found it wiser to just shut up and enter the cave.

"Be sure to light up the way, Twilight", Applejack shouted, "otherwise Rainbow won't be able to see my flank in the dark."

"I was not looking at your flank!", replied Rainbow, through her teeth.

It was eerie to walk into this cave and see nothing else around you. It was pitch black. Twilight shook her head once and a lightsource made from a thousand tiny-tiny stars started forming from her horn and lifted itself above her head. The cave walls reflected the blue light, making the path a lot more accessible now.

They all walked through a narrow passage which led into a massive chamber, filled with blue crystals and gems. Everywhere you looked... on the ground, on the walls, embedded on the ceiling, tiny blue sparkles lit up the room. The ponies' lightsource glittered throughout the hundreds of shiny precious stones, revealing even more of the depth and immensity of the cave.

"Wooow", exclaimed Rainbow. "I've never been here before... so this is where Rarity gets all her gems from."

"The blue ones, yes", replied Twilight. "She told me about this place a long time ago. We explored it together and here, I noticed, a lot of Tristle-Tosser grows. We just need to find some and we're off", she added, looking around.

The ponies kept walking through the silver-blue diamonds. It seemed like this cave was bigger than they expected. It was very quiet, except for the sound of their hooves on the rocky ground which echoed in the distance. Applejack was walking in front of Rainbow, who was still looking around with her jaw dropped.

"Enjoying the view, sugarcube?", the orange pony asked.

"Oh, yeah...", replied Rainbow. "It's awesome!"

Applejack couldn't help letting out a giggle as she kept following Twilight. Rainbow stopped, confused, then snapped at her: "I meant the crystals!"

"Ah didn't say you meant anything else", replied the mare, smirking at the blue pegasus.

"Well, at least I don't pretend to fall into ponies' beds!", continued Rainbow, returning the smirk.

"Ah said ah tripped and fell!"

"Who trips on clouds?!"

"Girls!", whispered Twilight. "This is not really the best place to shout. Also, Rainbow, I think tripping on clouds is a lot more plausible than... other unexpected things. Don't you agree?"

It's a good thing the surrounding light was blue, otherwise the blush on Rainbow's face would've been more than obvious. She just smiled nervously as Twilight went further on, looking for her plant.

"What does she mean?", asked Applejack, with suspicion in her eyes.

"Oh, heh, long story... I'll tell you some other time", replied Rainbow, while trotting towards Twilight. "So, ah, Twi... what does this plant look like? Let's find it, grab it and ...you know, leave!"

"It's... hm... complicated. I'll just let you know when I've found it", the purple unicorn replied, while moving some rocks with her magic.

"Complicated?", Rainbow repeated in her mind. "What's so complicated about a plant... and for that matter, why do I get the feeling that Applejack was dragged into this as well? Something is not right here..."

They kept walking, silently, as Twilight kept looking for her Tristle-Tosser. She left no stone unturned, literally. She took the time to explain that this type of plant likes moist places and that, usually, it could be found under rocks. The other two followed her around. They started feeling like ponyguards as the cave took them deeper underground, through wide rooms and narrow passages. Very narrow passages.

"I... don't... believe it", mumbled Twilight looking at the pair of ponies who, unavoidably, got themselves stuck in a tight entrance.

"Rainbow! Move!!"

"I'm trying, AJ! If you would've let me through, we wouldn't be in this situation"

"Ah'm in front, Ah stay in front", replied the stubborn mare, crossing her front legs.

"Well now we're both in front!", concluded Rainbow, crossing her front legs as well. Sort of... since one of them was caught in her friend's rope.

"It's not mah fault that y'all have a big flank", protested Applejack, giving Rainbow a small kick with one of her hind legs.

"Ack! Excuuuse me, but your flank is clearly bigger than mine", the pegasus snapped.

"Stop lookin' at mah flank!", shouted Applejack, annoyed.

Twilight was just sitting there.
Yup. No point in doing something about it.
She just continued walking deeper into the cave. They would probably get tired of arguing at some point.

"Horseapples", mumbled Rainbow.

"What did you say? Apples... again!?", asked Applejack, honestly concerned that Rainbow might have a super-sensitive nose that can pick up her "secret" fragrance.

"I said !"

"Oh, alright...", the orange pony replied, turning her head away.

"What? What did you think I said?"

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing... nothing at all."

Rainbow blinked. That was... unusual. "You're lying."

"Ah'm not lying! Ah'm--"

CRASH!!

The stuck ponies lifted their heads.

"Twilight?? Twilight are you okay??", shouted Applejack.

No answer.

Rainbow backed up a bit to let Applejack cross through the opening. "Ok, we're free, go!". The ponies hurried into the next room, looking around for their friend. The dust was settling and the lightsource was still working... that meant she was okay.

"Twilight!!", shouted Dash, trying to make her way through the rubble.

"I'm here, I'm okay!", said Twilight, getting up from the ground, a bit dizzy from all the commotion. "I think a rock knocked me out a bit."

The ponies checked her... she was okay.

"A rock?", asked Applejack. "More like a boulder, look at that!", she pointed towards the big pile of rubble that fell from the ceiling, covering the passage towards the deeper parts of the cave.

"It's that storm outside, the wind can make entire boulders shift. A tiny one is all it takes to make a mess down here", said Dash, slightly annoyed by the fact that, out of all the days, Twilight chose this one to go hunting for fake plants.

"Yes, yes, I know... rumbled-vibrations... through the ground...", the unicorn mumbled, holding her head.

"Does this plant even exist?", Dash asked her purple friend.

"What? Of course it does", replied Twilight, enhancing the lightsource a little more. "Why would you think we came here in the first place?"

Rainbow looked at her, then at Applejack, then back at Twi. A thought did cross her mind, but that's just silly. Even so, before she could say anything, Applejack intervened: "Ah don't know about that plant of yours, but all three of us are going home right now."

Twilight wanted to protest but an even louder rumble, complete with the sound of crashing rocks, made the ceiling collapse right in front of their eyes, blocking their exit path. Applejack blinked, confused. Rainbow just smirked: "Well, at least this didn't happen because we shouted or anything."

Suddenly, the entire ground started shaking. This was either a small earthquake or a mighty big boulder tumbling down a hill. The three ponies instantly grabbed each other in fear and backed up to the nearest wall.

Applejack looked worried. The rumble was getting louder and louder.

"Well, in case we don't get out of here alive... Ah'm just glad ah'm with friends. Good friends. And that we managed to get over the whole biting-thing, Rainbow. Wouldn't wanna die upset with friends", she laughed, nervously.

"Applejack, we're not gonna die", replied Dash, raising her voice.

Twilight pricked up her ears, forgetting for half a second about the entire stuck-in-a-cave situation.

"Wait", she started shouting to Rainbow, to cover up the rumble noise. "You TOLD her?? Are you crazy?!"

Despite the increasing noise and Rainbow's desperate hoof-waving, Twilight continued: "Who, in their right mind, would just tell somepony , really, who does that?!"

She wasn't able to add anything else... or if she did, nopony heard her because the cave started to shake pretty badly. The ponies just sat there, looking for a way out. Well, one of them was.

Applejack was just staring at Rainbow, as bits and pieces of the ceiling started falling around them. Rainbow just stared back with a stupid, awkward grin on her face. You couldn't hear a thing, but you needed no expert to understand the words that were coming out of Applejack's mouth.

"YOU bit me??! ....You... BIT me?!?!"

A loud crash shook the place and the wall behind the ponies gave in, making them fall into the darkness below.

Bite-Marks and Twilight's Plan

Chapter 5
Bite-marks and Twilight’s Plan

“Ow... ow ow ow”

Dash couldn’t see anything in the darkness. She could feel stuff though. She felt pain in her right shoulder... “that’s gonna leave a bruise.” Also, she felt something rather furry underneath her.

“Oh no”, she thought to herself. “Not again!”

“Ah’d appreciate it if y’all would get off me”, Applejack’s voice came from underneath, with a surprisingly calm tone.

Dash was on her feet the next second. “Sorry! I can explain! Actually, I can’t, but I can try—“

“Dash, shut up”, the earth pony said, without a hint of anger in her voice. That scared Rainbow even more. She’d rather have Applejack yell at her... at least that way she could anticipate what’s coming next. “Twilight, y’alright?”

“Yeah, I think so... that was quite a fall. Oh, horsefeathers... my head hurts.”

The purple unicorn tried standing up but collapsed to the wet ground. “I’m really dizzy, maybe I should just... wait a few moments”.

“Can ya make that light thingy again?”, asked Applejack, slowly getting up from the floor.

“I can try... Ow... better make that: I can’t even try. It makes my head spin. The spell is too complicated.”

“Make something simpler... like... a fire or something”, suggested the pegasus.

“Dash, there’s nothing here to burn. Besides, we’d all choke to death”, replied Applejack. Rainbow knew she was upset... usually, when she called her “Dash” a lot, that meant that the pegasus messed up something.

Even so, her point of view was valid... and getting them all to see was the most important thing right now. “Listen, AJ, we wouldn’t choke. Look up, see that faint ray of light? Air is coming from up there. And since we just tumbled down here, I would say there’s plenty of space for the smoke to let us breathe.”

“She’s right”, mumbled Twilight as her horn started to glow. One, two... three logs were created out of thin air, the last one being lit just a few moments later. “Believe it or not, but this was one of the first spells I learned as a filly. I think I can cast this one with my horn tied behind my back... well, so to speak.”

Soon, tiny sparks started flying in the air as the fire grew and grew. It wasn’t very big, but just enough to keep them warm and to help them see their environment. Fortunately, there were no bats in this part of the cave. There were no crystals either which meant that the fire would soon become their only, and most important, source of light for quite some time.

***

It appeared that they landed in a small opening... which is awkward considering the fact that all exits were either too high or too narrow to be usable. As Rainbow said, somewhere high up there was a big hole through which they could see the sky. It was getting dark but, at least, the rain stopped a while ago.

The ground started drying up thanks to the fire. They won’t die of cold, that was for sure. To their surprise, Twilight revealed she was carrying a bag with 3 sandwiches, one for each. They ate and now they were just sitting, trying to recover from the shock.

Or the shocks, plural.

Rainbow looked at Twilight. She was still in pain, so teleportation was excluded. “Unless you want to risk spending the rest of your life without those blue wings of yours”, she politely explained. Of course, Rainbow flew towards the hole in the ceiling and found out that there were several holes up there... but none of them big enough for her to crawl through.

The way through which they fell was covered in heavy boulders... and there didn’t seem to be any exit around.

The ponies were quiet, sitting near the fire. The crackling of the burning wood echoed slightly as the wind was howling somewhere far, far away. Applejack was staring at the fire, concentrating on her own thoughts... Rainbow looked at her, remembering her face when she found out that there were no “bedbugs” responsible for her marks.

Rainbow knew she had to talk about this with her... but how? Twilight didn’t exactly give them a good start on the subject. She looked at the ground...and then at her again. The orange flames gently played with their own reflections in her eyes. She was concerned and Rainbow hated seeing her like that. Especially if she was the cause for the cowpony’s troubled thoughts.

“Um... maybe now is not a good time to talk about this...”, started Rainbow, looking down at her own hooves.

“Consarn it, it'll never be, so we might as well just do it now...”, replied the mare, without looking at her. “What... really happened?”

“I don’t know. I just went to bed, normally, on my side of the bed... and when I woke up... I was...”, she started blushing furiously. She gesticulated with her hooves, trying to find the right words. “ I was, somehow, on... top... of... you...”

Applejack looked at her friend and noticed that she was blushing. This was uncomfortable for both of them and she didn’t want to make it even harder. “And the biting?”, she asked.

Dash was still looking down. “I don’t know.”

“What, did ya...uh...dreamed I was a big apple or somethin’?”, continued Applejack, with a crooked smile, trying to lighten up the mood a bit. Sure, it was embarrassing but why should they make it even gloomier?

“No, AJ... I... I just didn’t realize what I was doing. I was sleeping, honestly”. Rainbow crossed her front legs as she continued: “I don’t know what’s going on lately... but I cannot sleep well since, well, that night.”

“Hm... and what was that thing with ?”

The pegasus’ ears dropped on the back of her head and she blushed even more. “I, uh... when I woke up that morning... I thought you were a cloud. Yeah, I know... silly, right? ....and, well...”, she started looking anywhere but directly at Applejack. Finally she fixed her gaze upon the flames... the orange flames. “You know how I love clouds and... I started hugging my... cloud. Warm, fuzzy... orange... my little orange cloud that smelled like freshly picked apples”. She gave a fake grin. “Pretty funny, huh?”

Twilight never saw Applejack blush before. At least, not as much as she was blushing now. The earth pony was staring at Rainbow and couldn’t really believe that the pegasus had such... nice thoughts... such gentle and sensitive thoughts about her. Even if she confused her with a cloud... those attributes were hers. Every. Single. One. Wait, these thoughts only emerged because the pegasus just woke up back then. “Snap out of it, AJ”, she told herself. “This is Rainbow we’re talking to... she’s just being... silly”.

“Of course, you realize that I had no idea it was you... and I’ve just woken up--”, continued Dash, lifting her gaze upon the cowpony, only to stop mid-sentence. “Uh... AJ?”

“Yeah, I know, of course... go... go on”, the earth pony mumbled. She knew it was pointless to try and hide it... She probably would’ve denied it, but Applejack knew better than anypony else that Dash’s words hit her fully. It was the nicest thing anypony ever said to her... and the best part, it wasn’t so much what Dash said... it was what the pegasus felt when she was hugging Applejack.

“Uh...so...yeah”, Dash continued, trying to ignore that, “I immediately tried to get my hooves back where they belonged and I managed to do that just in time. I had no idea about the bite-marks until you mentioned them later... and Twilight lied for me because, well, we just didn’t know what happened.”

“Yes”, the purple pony intervened. “Rainbow was really confused and we didn’t want to make the situation worse at that moment. At least, not in front of the other girls. At some point after that, an idea did cross my mind but...”

Rainbow pricked up her ears. “But what?”, she asked.

“Nothing... no, nevermind”, replied Twilight, looking down at the dry floor.

Dash didn’t like where this was going... she did suspect it before.

“Well, if we don’t know what happened that night or why did it happen, then we’re back where we started... sort of”, said the orange pony, adjusting her hat. “Ya said you cannot sleep since then. Any ideas, Twi?”

Rainbow looked at her friends and then back at the ground, frowning. She knew why she couldn’t sleep... but that was too much to admit. It could wait for when this entire mess was over.

“I do have a hunch...but...”, she looked at Rainbow and figured out that maybe her hunch was...actually quite true. “I don’t know... my head hurts, I’d rather think about this when we get out of here.”

“Yeah, you’re right... get some rest, Twi”, replied the cowpony.

Silence fell, bit by bit, interrupted only by the howling wind in the distance.

***

Sleeping on a hard surface was not pleasant, and as the night laid its dark, shredded cape over Equestria, the ponies still shifted in the belly of the cave.

“This ain’t so bad”, thought Applejack to herself. “If ah had mah guitar, it would be just like campin’”. She looked at Twilight who was really trying her best to sleep. Maybe the purple pony did fall asleep, either way she was calm, probably because the pain might’ve decreased.

Applejack tuned her gaze towards Rainbow. The pegasus was lying on the ground, near the fire... her eyes were closed but the orange mare knew she wasn’t sleeping. She saw her sleeping so many times, it was easy to make the difference.

She had a question in the back of her head... but by this point, it was irrelevant. Or maybe she cared less about it. Another question kept emerging in her mind... and she hesitated a lot until she gathered up the courage to ask it.

“Rainbow?”, she whispered. “Can ah ask you somethin’?”

Dash didn’t respond, but after a few seconds, she opened her eyes and looked directly at the earth pony.

“Ah don’t know how to ask this... but it can’t be worse than all mah other questions.”

She paused... thinking how to put it in words.

Rainbow kept looking at her and quietly whispered: “What is it?”

A tiny gust of wind caressed the pegasus’ mane, as the flames trembled. Her colors were so beautiful. Applejack always found them to be a bit funny... but not now. They were just... beautiful. She looked at the only pony who ever approached her in an intimate way, the only pony who came close to her. She had to ask... or else she would probably regret missing this chance of knowing... if...

“Rainbow... this is silly but... ah’ve been a bit scared that mah... mah ... you know, that I smell like... apples... that maybe when I meet somepony... somepony special for me... that, you know... maybe it’s not a pretty smell... or maybe... ah mean... is it a nice smell?”

Rainbow closed her eyes then opened them again and lifted her head off the ground, changing to a more comfortable position.

“AJ... “, she started, softly, but then stopped... not knowing how much to say. Then again, she had nothing more to lose. “Initially as I was waking up and realizing where I was, a part of me probably knew what was going on at that moment. A tiny-tiny part of me probably knew that I wasn’t on a cloud... and that I was holding you...”, she paused... it was still hard to talk about this, but slowly... it was getting a bit easier. Just a bit.

“Yeah?”, asked Applejack, preparing for the worst.

“Applejack, I didn’t like the smell of apples.”, the pegasus replied.

She didn’t like it... it wasn’t...nice. The earth pony had prepared for the worst response but... it still hurt. A little. It was something special for her, it meant something... special.

“Maybe it’s not so special after all”, she thought. “Heh, silly me and mah silly ideas... nopony ever noticed it anyway”

She looked at Dash: “Oh... ah... ah see... Well, thanks fer—“

“...because now I realize... that was not the smell of apples.”

Applejack could feel her heart skipping a beat in her chest. Why was she so nervous about this? ...it’s just an opinion, right? Just one of many opinions... many...

“That was the smell of Applejack.... it was your smell. It was you.”

Just an opinion... It’s not so important.
It’s just an opinion...

“And I like it.”

For the first time that day, Applejack really felt like smiling with all her heart. So what if it was a silly thought? Somepony liked it. No...somepony still liked it.

...no...

Rainbow liked it.

“And I’m sure the colt you’ll find someday will like it too.”, the pegasus added, half-heartedly.

Silence.

After a few moments, Applejack nodded and readjusted her hat. She kept staring at the floor, not being able to look at Rainbow for some reason... Maybe that question in the back of her mind was really pointless. After all, everypony knows how things must be. She has a farm and a family to think about and a colt will be the perfect companion.

“Companion?”, she found herself repeating her thoughts in her mind. “No, ah mean, partner, yeah. Husband!”

“Ah mean, that’s any mare’s dream, right?”, she continued thinking. “Somepony to be beside her and with whom she can form a team. A team of two, based on love, respect and loyalty.”

Well, basically loyalty represents the other two aspects of the “triangle” that forms a solid relationship.

Not that she thought about it, nono, but just for fun... everypony knows Dash doesn’t really show a ton of respect, well, maybe she does...to her friends... and who knows if she was ever actually capable of loving somepony! Not to mention the entire loyalty-part... does she really have what—

Applejack halted her thoughts. “Right”, she thought. “Elements...”.

“Even so, what are the chances...”

“What are the chances of what?”, asked Twilight who carefully was stretching her legs. Her pain hasn’t disappeared completely yet.

“What?”, asked Applejack, confused.

“You just said , didn’t you?”, the purple pony repeated what she just heard a few seconds ago.

“Ah did? Ah don’t know... just, farm stuff, thinking out loud.”

“There it is again, you lied! That’s twice today!”, said Rainbow, pointing at her orange friend.

“Well ah don’t see y’all being the element of Loyalty all day and all night long!”, snapped Applejack, leaving her friends confused.

“Where did that come from?”, asked the pegasus.

“Yeah, what do the elements of harmony have to do with... wait, what are we talking about?”, asked Twilight, trying to make sense of it all through her headache.

“Nothin’... just drop it.”, replied the orange mare, crossing her front hooves against her chest, while leaning on the cave’s wall.

Rainbow looked at Twilight who returned the puzzled look. Maybe this entire caved-in situation is taking a toll on everypony.

***

“How are you feeling, Twilight?”, Rainbow asked the pony, with a concerned look on her face.

“A bit better... but I wouldn’t risk any teleportation spells yet. I think we’re safe if we wait until morning.”

Applejack just returned from her second walk along the cave’s walls. She was trying to find weak spots that she could buck...or, at least, push over to find an exit of some sort. The area they were in was not small, but it was like the perfect prison. It was frustrating since they each found various holes in the walls that just turned out to be too tiny or too solid to break through them.

“Anything?”, Rainbow asked the earth pony.

Applejack just leaned against the cave’s wall and placed her hat on her eyes. “Nope.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait for the other half of our team to find us”, said Rainbow after a while. “It’s a good thing you went to them first and told them where you were going... otherwise, they’d have no idea where we are. They’ll probably start searching for us first thing in the morning.”

Twilight flinched a bit at those words. “Umm... yes, about that... I kind of went straight to you two.”

Quiet. Again.

“Wait, so... you asked me first? But ah was the one who suggested we go grab Dash!”, said Applejack.

“Yeah... heh I was expecting you to say that. I wanted to go with just the two of you from the start”, replied Twilight, scratching the back of her neck. “Sorry.”

“Why?”, snapped Rainbow. “Out of all the silly—ugh! Couldn’t you just let it go, Twi?”

“Let go of what?”, asked the purple pony.

“No, really, stop it. It’s a bad idea and I really don’t think you should play dumb, giving the situation we’re in.”, the pegasus continued, waving her hooves nervously. “Right now, thanks to you, nopony knows where we are... and you almost made a whole mess out of my friendship with Applejack.”

“Woah there, don’t ya go accusing Twi of the stuff you did!”, said Applejack, jumping on all fours.

“The stuff that I did? Think about it, AJ... she wanted to go with us from the start... you just happen to trip right into my bed – really, Twi, did you really think that was smart? Magic should be used... in other ways – and she was the only pony who was awake when I woke up... like that...then... so maybe she set me up!”

“Are ya sayin’ what ah think you’re sayin’?”, asked the orange pony, a bit scared to hear the answer, looking at Twilight and then back at Dash.

“Was this the plan Twilight? You actually tried to hook us up?”, asked Rainbow, trying to hold back on her frustration.

Twilight widened her eyes and she started blushing hard. She let her ears drop to the back of her head and started smiling awkwardly. “Heh... I uh...”

Applejack and Rainbow shared glances and then looked back at the purple pony. Why would she do that? Even as a joke, if it was a joke, it was stupid and inconsiderate. Didn’t she care for their feelings? She could’ve broken their friendship.

“I mean, yeah...now it kind of makes sense why you two were acting so weird this whole time. I mean, I have nothing against that... but, girls...”, the unicorn said, rubbing her hooves together in an uncomfortable gesture.

She looked back up at them, with an honest expression of bewilderment on her face.

“I had nothing to do with you two hooking up.”

End of Chapter 5 -

Bales of hay

Chapter 6
Bales of hay

Rainbow blinked a few times. A few more.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really,” replied Twilight.

“Then why did you want us both to come with you?” she asked, feeling more and more, well, stupid.

“Tristle-Tosser has a very thick root, duh, it grows in a cave. I needed Applejack’s strength... Also, I wanted to make sure I searched everywhere, including in high places. That’s why I thought I needed your wings. Turns out, this cave just has very tall areas, nothing grows on the walls. Well, except diamonds and gems”, she explained. “I’ve never been so far down into the cave, I just wanted to be prepared. Sorry for, uh, omitting the entire truth?”

Rainbow sat dawn. The answer was... logical. And simple. No conspiracy behind it.

“Wait, ah’m confused”, mumbled AJ.

“Join the club”, replied Rainbow, scratching her head. “So, you really did trip, didn’t you?”

“Ah told you, I tripped on the cloud”

“Well, actually”, intervened Twilight, “you might have tripped over the brown bag that Rainbow left in the middle of the room”.

The unicorn and the earth pony turned to the pegasus, as if expecting some sort of explanation. Rainbow just looked at them, confused and troubled. Maybe it was all in her head... but why was it there in the first place?

“Why would ya think that somepony would try to hook us up in the first place, Rainbow?” asked Applejack, measuring her words carefully. She noticed the look on the blue pony’s face and she knew something was... not quite right, besides the entire confusion.

“Just... back off, AJ, please... just... I’m tired”, replied Rainbow, softly, and started walking a bit further from her friends. She slowly sat down with her back towards them, placing her head on her hooves and closing her eyes.

She didn’t say another word all night.

Silent, the other two returned to their initial places. Despite the somewhat uncomfortable ground, Twilight soon fell asleep. Applejack kept looking at her pegasus friend, while thoughts kept dancing in her mind.

“Rainbow doesn’t really like being wrong”, she thought to herself, “but there’s somethin’ more that bothered her this time. It’s like... she was disappointed that she was wrong”.

Applejack drew her hat over her eyes.

“Ah may not understand her all the time... but ah’m quite sure she doesn’t get it herself right now. It’s all one big mess”

Why would she think somepony was trying to hook them up? Who would do that... and why? These were all just a bunch of awkward and uncomfortable coincidences. Still, Dash seemed to be quite affected by all of them.

Applejack rose her head and looked at the blue pony again. Rainbow was sleeping.

“Maybe all these thoughts stirred up somethin’. Ah can’t say I wasn’t shaken these past weeks mahself... not to mention now”, she continued her thoughts. “Thinkin’ doesn’t help... Talkin’ doesn’t help... what else can we do?”

She blushed at the next thought that came to mind. “That’s just silly...”, she concluded, turning to her side and closing her eyes.

“That could make things even worse...”

***

The wind was furious that morning, as Rainbow opened her eyes. It was cold, again. The fire burnt out a long time ago and she was surrounded by darkness. She looked up and saw the light coming through those small holes in the ceiling.

After a while, her eyes got used to the darkness and she vaguely started seeing where her friends were. She walked over to Applejack and started poking her with her hoof.

“AJ... hey, AJ, wake up... it’s morning”

“Hm, wha--?”

Applejack yawned hard and opened her eyes. Rainbow then woke up Twilight and gave them both a couple of minutes to stretch and become fully aware of their surroundings.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Better”, replied Twilight. “I’d like to try out the spell once or twice before all three of us get out of here”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash stepped back to give Twilight some room. Her horn lit up and one second later she appeared a few feet away. She repeated the process until she was satisfied with her accuracy.

“Okay, I think I’m ready...” she said. “Teleporting three ponies will be difficult but I think I can handle it. My head doesn’t hurt anymore...but I am a bit dizzy—“

“—and weakened from lack of food”, completed Rainbow. “Either way, we have to try or else we’ll be stuck here forever”.

Twilight nodded and all three ponies gathered in the middle of the area. She looked at the ceiling, then back at her friends. She closed her eyes and her horn started to glow... a quick flash of light and the ponies ended up hanging for their lives.

***

“Twilight!!” shouted Applejack, trying to locate her friends. “Where are we?? What did ya do!?”

“Applejack!! Rainbow!!” the purple unicorn shouted, sitting on her belly in the cold snow.

The wind was blowing furiously, almost knocking the ponies off the mountain edge. The snow storm was not making things easier.

“Ah’m slippin’!!”, cried AJ, as she was desperately trying to find something to hold on to. “Rainbow!! Where are you!?”

“Here!!” yelled Rainbow Dash who was crawling towards her friends. “The wind is too strong!”

“Twilight, teleport us somewhere else! Now!”

Twilight let out a grunt, “I’m too weak!” yelled the unicorn in frustration. “We could end up in mid-air!”

“We won’t last a minute here!”, Applejack replied, looking around. “Rainbow, you’ll have to fly us out of here, one by one! Do a fly-around and look for a safe spot!”

“I can’t!!”, shouted the blue pegasus, sinking her hooves as deep as she could in the snow. “The wind is too strong! I don’t think I can handle it!”

“Rainbow, now is not the time to—WHOAH!”, Applejack lost her grip and went flying into the nearest boulder, on the edge of what seemed to be a huge gap as her hat flew off into the white blizzard.

Dash didn’t know what to do. It was too dangerous... but they could slip at any moment and fall to their deaths.

“Rainbow!!” shouted Applejack, trying to get up on all fours again.

The snow was not deep enough to provide any grip for Twilight either, so she started slipping as well, uncontrollably.

“Rainbow, please!!” she shouted.

Dash looked at her friends and closed her eyes. “I can’t!! ...I’m... I’m scared!! I don’t know if I can handle it!”

“You CAN! You’re the best flyer!!” Applejack yelled, trying to cover Twilight’s scream as she was slowly sliding towards the edge of the cliff.

Rainbow was just unable to move, paralyzed by fear. She couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her, the blizzard was too unpredictable... she couldn’t just take off into the air and hope for the best. Applejack had to do something.

“Come on, AJ! Think, think, think!” she kept saying to herself.

Then it hit her. She knew what to do. It was a long shot... a very long shot... and if it didn’t work, it might just be the stupidest thing she ever did. It could also save their lives.

Slowly but surely, she started crawling on her belly, towards Rainbow. The pegasus’ hooves were starting to slide as well and she looked terrified.

“Rainbow”, started Applejack, “You are the best flyer in Equestria. Ah’ve seen you fly, ah know what you can do!”.

She approached her, step by step as Twilight reached the boulder that AJ was holding on to a few seconds ago. Applejack kept going.

“Rainbow.... save us!”, she reached the pegasus, who opened her eyes. “Rainbow... save me!”, and with that, Applejack gave Dash a quick lick on the cheek.

SCHWOMPF! Rainbow’s wings expanded and the next thing she knew, the wind blasted her away like a parachute. It took only half a second for her to gain control over the flight, and a few more seconds to adjust to the speed and dynamics the blizzard was throwing at her.

From up there she could see a clearing not far away underneath.

She dashed back toward Applejack.

“No, get Twilight first!! I’m good for a few more minutes!”

Rainbow grabbed Twilight and told her to hold on. She then quickly glided towards the clearing. The wind was still blowing hard, but at least there were no gaps here. Once the purple pony was safe, Dash flew back towards Applejack. She reached her just in time.

“Hold on to me”

AJ wrapped her front hooves around Rainbow’s neck and her legs around the pegasus’ waist. When Dash was certain AJ had a good grip, she glided towards safety with the orange pony.

They both landed near Twilight and all three ponies took a few seconds to recover.

“Thanks, Rainbow... Thanks Twi...”, said Applejack, after catching her breath.

“What are you thanking me for?!”, asked the purple unicorn. “I almost killed us. Twice!”

“Hey, ya got us out of that cave... by the way, what happened?”

“I lost control over the spell... I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”, Twilight replied.

“Hey, it’s okay, sugarcube. We’re safe now. We’re all safe”, said Applejack, stomping the ground with a hoof to prove her point.

“Yeah, it’s important that we’re out of that cave. That was the real danger, Twi...” continued RD, trying to make her feel better. “Besides, if this was indeed your plan to get AJ and me together, I must say, you seriously need to re-think your strategy!”

Despite what they’ve been through and the fact that they were cold and hungry, the ponies started laughing. It’s been a while and they needed it.

After Dash scouted their surroundings and located Ponyville in the distance, the trio started their not-so-long, not-short-either journey home.

***

“Are ya sure you’ll be alright?”

“Yes, Applejack... relax, both of you! You’re worse than my parents!”, replied Twilight, giggling. “I’ll just take it easy for a few days... too bad for the Tristle-Tosser—“

“If you ever mention that plant again, I’ll burn down your library”, interrupted Rainbow, making her friends laugh. “Why are you laughing? I’m serious.”

“See you tomorrow, girls... thanks... and sorry, again.”, concluded the unicorn, waving to her friends and closing the door of her treehouse.

Applejack and Rainbow started walking towards the farm. They were both tired, but glad everything ended the way it did.

The sunset gave in to the night’s first stars as the dark purple horizon gave the surrounding trees and eerie but soft and relaxing glow. The birds were quiet and the wind settled down. All they could hear was the sound of their own hooves on the ground and the shy gusts of wind through the grass.

“AJ... umm—“

“You bit me, I licked you, we’re even, end of story”, the orange pony responded abruptly.

Dash pricked up her ears. “Heh, you are as freaked out by this as I am...”

“By what?”

“By this...all this... like nopony ever came close to you in a...you know... close way”

“Well”, started AJ, “nopony ever did. Ah’m far too busy to have time for dates... “

“You never went on a date?”

“Ah did... what ah meant to say was, ah want somepony who can run the farm with me, not get in the way of things. Y’all can dress as nice as you can, if ya can’t buck a tree, y’all are just wasting mah time”

Rainbow giggled as they continued walking on the muddy path. The sky was still gray and it looks like it definitely rained in Ponyville while they were gone. She looked at her friend, who looked tired. Her hooves were muddy, she lost her hat, her mane was a total disaster, (as Rarity would put it,) yet she was still beautiful. Rainbow didn’t know if that was a normal thought a friend should have but, after all they’ve been through, she didn’t care anymore.

“Sorry about your hat”

“Me too... but hey, splinters and dust, objects can be replaced.”

She took a few more steps, looking at the pegasus with the corner of her eye.

“What about you?”, the orange pony asked. “Anypony special?”

“Not really... I had a few crushes... nothing serious. At one time, there was this colt, named Blink. He was hitting on everypony around him, including me and Twilight. It was getting annoying so, after my third attempt to let him down easily, I had to buck him in the face”

Applejack stopped in the middle of the road. “Y’all did what now?!”

“Hahaha, kidding! I’m kidding! ...still he would’ve deserved it”, replied Rainbow.

“Besides being...uh...insistent, was there anythin’ else wrong with him?”, asked AJ as they started moving along.

“Not really... then again, nopony had anything wrong with them... they just couldn’t keep up with me. Nopony can beat me at, well, most stuff. And I’m not talking about competitions... I just don’t want to find somepony who’ll drag me down”

“Ah can.”

“You can what?”

“Beat you”, said Applejack, jokingly. When she saw that Rainbow was not sure how to take that joke, she quickly added: “Don’t get any funny ideas... Y’all are too lazy anyway to help me on the farm, haha!”

Rainbow smiled, or better yet, grinned. “Well, it’s not like you actually asked me to help out”

She was right. Applejack didn’t really think about this and, well, she wasn’t so sure about it either. Even so, it was... weird. What was she supposed to do? Start giving her chores so she can test her—

“Well, we’re here!”, Rainbow said, making AJ jump a little. “You okay?”

“Yeah, ah’m fine... just... thinking about stuff.”

“You’re kind of doing that a lot lately”, the blue pegasus continued. “Oh well, see ya AJ”. She opened her wings to take off.

“Wait, Rainbow...”

RD closed her wings and turned towards her. To be honest, she didn’t really want to leave so fast. She just figured it would’ve been for the best.

The ponies stared at each other. This was really...really...really silly. “She probably would refuse anyway”, AJ thought to herself. “So why is this so weird?”.

“Yes, AJ?”, replied Dash, taking a few steps towards her friend.

Applejack looked at the blue pegasus and remembered her words in the cave... the way she felt about her. She looked at Rainbow and saw in her eyes, beyond all the tiredness and the difficulties that had gotten to her lately. She was still a loyal friend, someone she could trust... someone that cared for her. She still looked after AJ and her safety and happiness, even if she clearly was curious if... maybe, just maybe...

AJ took a few steps towards her friend.

“What is she doing?”, thought Dash, but decided to just shut up and wait to see what happens.

Applejack looked into her dark magenta eyes and sighed. “Ah can’t believe I’m doing this”, she thought to herself, looking at the ground and then back at Dash.

The pegasus slowly leaned towards her friend... and AJ tried to gather the courage to do this. “Well”, she said to herself, “here goes nothin’”... she looked back at her friend and...

“Dash, could ya come by the farm tomorrow mornin’? Ah need yer help with moving some bales of hay”

End of Chapter 6 -

Becoming Perfect

Chapter 7
Becoming perfect

Twilight was enjoying the fresh air as she was on her way to Sweet Apple Acres. She was fully recovered from the cave-episode and started working again on her experiments. The day started out rather interesting. She managed to change the colour of a piece of parchment, which proved to be a little more difficult than it seemed. Now she wanted to try it on something more... organic.

“Some apples should be perfect for this,” she thought to herself as she strolled near the big red barn. It was still cloudy outside and most of the trees were already starting to change their colours. It would soon be time for the Running of the Leaves Festival. That always gets Rainbow and Applejack in a good mood.

But not today.

“Ah thought I was clear about this!”, a voice came from inside the barn. Twilight knew it was Applejack’s, but what could’ve made her so upset? She cautiously approached the wooden building and opened the big door that was already set ajar.

“Yeah, sorry, AJ. I just got one barrel mixed up, I’ll move it right now!”, said Rainbow, as she started pushing a barrel around.

“Ah told you to split them evenly on the left and right side of the barn. If we have twenty apple barrels on the left and eighteen on the right, we can easily lose count later on! Ah don’t wanna have to count them again each time ah move one out!”, replied the orange pony, pointing at the pile of brown barrels.

“Uh, hey!”, said Twilight, announcing her presence.

“Oh, hey Twi”, said Applejack, smiling, as she came to greet her. “What brings y’all here?”

Between two grunts and a gasp, Rainbow waved to Twilight as she pushed the heavy barrel towards one of the piles.

“I... uh... could come back later”, the purple unicorn said, but Applejack just waved her hoof.

“Nonsense, we were just finishing in ‘ere. Well, ah was... Rainbow still needs to double-check all this.”

A background groan made her turn towards the blue pegasus, who was trying to lift the barrel and place it on top of the others. “Don’t ya drop it, these are our best ones!”, she snapped at the poor pony and then turned to Twilight. “What can ah do for you?”

“Oh, um... I was just experimenting on some... things... and I wanted to try changing the colour of some apples. Turns out, I ran out of apples... and I know you always have the best sort around. I need four or five. Red ones, please”, replied Twilight and then quickly added: “I’ll pay for them, of course.”

“Sure, no problem! Ah’ll just get you some from the house, follow me!”, said the orange pony as the two of them exited the barn.

Rainbow just leaned over the barrel pile, huffing and puffing, wiping the sweat off her forehead. She lifted her head and started counting.

Twenty-one and seventeen.

“Horseapples.”

***

“Since when does Rainbow work at the farm?”

“Since about a week ago... ten days tops”, replied AJ, frowning a bit.

“Oh, was she in need of bits or something?”

“Nah, she’s just helpin’ out! She can leave whenever she wants”, explained the orange pony. “She usually does leave for a couple of hours some days, to do her weather-related duties... but then she comes right back and helps out ‘round here”.

“How... considerate of her!”, said Twilight, trying her best to smile.

“Considerate? HA! It would be considerate of her if she’d do her job right. Yesterday she was supposed to fix one of the fences and she nailed a plank crookedly. An’ a few days ago, she delivered sixteen apples to a customer instead of fifteen.”, said AJ, opening the door to her house. “Here you go, Twi, have ten apples, on the house.”

As Applejack was putting apples in Twilight’s bag, she kept talking about Rainbow’s mistakes. “Not to mention that during one of our orders, she managed to lose an orange on the way! These things don’t grow on trees, ya know!”

“Well, actually, they kind of—“

“Speakin’ of which, here, have two oranges too. Different colors might give you a challenge, eh?”, said Applejack, laughing. “Ah know how passionate y’all are about yer experiments. Good for the heart!”

“Uh, thanks...”, replied Twi, not really knowing what to say. AJ was acting pretty weird. “Are you sure you don’t want me to pay for them? It’s your hard work after all”

“No no no, we have so many, ah can always spare some for your experiments. You should’ve asked sooner, really!”, concluded the orange pony, smiling.

“O-kay then! Thank you! I’ll let you know how it goes then!”

“Y’all be sure to do that! And you should come and visit more often, Twi. Ah’m always happy to see you! Haven’t had a meal with friends in a looong time.”

“Well”, replied Twilight, scratching her right ear, “We did have those sandwiches in the cave, haha!”

Mentioning the cave was probably not the smartest thing she did that day. Applejack just nodded and went out the door, but Twi knew she might’ve reminded her of that discussion. Actually, since they returned from their scary adventure, Applejack was a bit edgier than usual... and Rainbow was nowhere to be seen, well, until now.

Twi got an idea.

“Hey, AJ?”, she said, following the pony back to the barn. “Do you mind if I borrow Rainbow for a few hours?”

“Why would I mind? She can go away whenever she wants to”, replied the pony, looking somewhere in the distance, as if thinking about other things.

“I’m not gonna keep her long... and I’m quite sure she doesn’t want to . Heh, maybe just take a little break or something.”

“Ah mean, yeah, sure, whatever”, said AJ, entering the barn. She quickly counted the barrels, completely ignoring Rainbow who was lying on the floor, with bits and pieces of hay in her hair and on her coat, panting. “Hm...”, she mumbled, which probably meant that the job was done, judging on RD’s expression of relief.

“Rainbow, care to take a break?”, started Twiling, smiling. “I was just preparing some... stuff and I would enjoy some company for two or three hours, if you want”

“Rainbow pricked up her ears. She looked at Applejack who made herself busy in the corner with dusting off pieces of hay from the barrels. She turned to Twilight and nodded. Just to be safe, she turned again to AJ and told her: “I’ll be back in a few, AJ”, but she didn’t get any response.

The ponies exited the barn as Rainbow took one last look at her orange friend who still didn’t react to her leaving.

***

“Alright, what’s going on?”, asked Twilight as she closed the door of her treehouse behind her. “I can’t leave you two alone for a minute”

“Huh?”, asked RD, not knowing where she was going with this.

“Well” continued Twi, “I actually left you alone for a week, but that’s beside the point.”

She placed her bag full of apples and oranges on the floor and turned toward the pegasus. “How did you end up working on AJ’s farm?”

“Well, she asked me if I can come over to help her move some bales of hay... and I just... stuck around, I guess”, replied Rainbow, sitting down. She could really feel her legs being sore after all that work. Funny, she didn’t really feel it that much before. “Anyway, I’m just helping her out. I can’t sleep, so why not do something useful during that time. Besides, when I’m really, really tired, I do manage to fall asleep faster, so that helps too, I guess”.

“Okay, I can understand that”, said Twilight, who started cleaning up her work-table to prepare for the next experiment. “But doesn’t it bother you that Applejack keeps asking you to do stuff, and then she gets angry when you don’t do it right? I mean, I suppose she was not in a bad mood today... I tend to think she’s like that all the time. At least lately. Am I right?”

Rainbow shrugged: “I don’t mind... I’m not used to this kind of tasks, it’s normal that I sometimes mess it up”.

“Wait, hang on, back up... you don’t mind?! ...You...don’t mind?”

“No, Twi, what’s the big deal? I do my best and learn from what I’m doing wrong. What’s your problem?”

Twilight blinked once or twice before deciding to do something... stupid. Either way, it could help her make a point.

“Well, my problem is that for the past days I had a big cloud on top of my house and you did not take care of it. It’s not that hard to go up there and do a good job, you know.”

In less than a fraction of a second, Rainbow was up on all fours. “Are you kidding me?! Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to work your flank off each day on the farm and then go and do your normal job?! What the HAY, Twilight?!! Do you really expect me to do all those things like that? Are you CRAZY?!”, she shouted, flaring her nostrils. “AND WHY are you SMILING so STUPIDLY at me?!?!”

“I bet you and Applejack always fight over there at the farm... she must ask so much of you”, said Twilight and continued smiling.

Rainbow’s ears went flat: “Well, uh, no... not really. I mean, it’s not that hard, once you get used to it.”

Twilight giggled.

“Okay, that’s it, Twilight. I didn’t come here to be laughed at. I don’t know what’s wrong with you today, but I’m out of here!”, shouted Rainbow, furiously as she was heading towards the window.

“Well, that is the big deal!”

“Huh?”, replied RD, turning around.

“You’ve gathered quite a bit of frustration there, RD... and you just refuse to let it all out on the source: Applejack. You just ? You never ... nor do you fix fences... and don’t get me started on moving barrels and carrying supplies”, said Twi, smirking.

“Applejack needed my help, Twi.”

“Yes, well, I’ll have a talk with her later about that... in the meantime, since there’s just the two of us here... Am I right when I assume that you started sleeping a bit better since you started working on the farm?”

“Yeah, I told you, if I go to bed tired, I fall asleep faster.”

“How do you wake up?”

Rainbow scratched her head. “Okay, I guess.”

“Hmmm... Surely there are days when there’s not much work to be done over there. Especially since the bucking season is over.”

“So?”, replied RD, not liking where this was going.

“Okay, let me just go out on a hoof here and say that you started sleeping since AJ gave you a room to sleep in at the farm.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. How did she know that? This was just between her and AJ... and, well, the Apple Family. But still, Twilight had no way of knowing that.

“Applejack, uh, did give me a room, yeah... since we both worked together until nightfall, she saw to it that I don’t have to fly out so late.”

“Mhm”, replied Twilight, crossing her front hooves, pleased with the fact that she was right. “Do you miss your ?”

Those last words fell heavily on Dash. She lifted herself from the ground and flew right in front of Twilight. “Ah do not!!”

The purple unicorn really tried her best to hide her grin, since she didn’t want to annoy Rainbow too much.

“I mean, I... I do not. I...me...”, Rainbow corrected herself as she gently landed on the floor. “It’s the...time spent on the farm. I...”, she mumbled, trying to explain the weird outburst.

“Mhm”, said Twi as she laid down on her belly, in front of the pegasus. “It’s just the two of us, Rainbow. Nothing leaves this room.”

Dash looked at her friend then down at the wooden floor. Her heart started racing as she remembered bits and pieces of conversations with AJ. Indeed, she felt a bit more rested since she started sleeping over at AJ’s place, despite all the hard work she was doing during the day. She loved having breakfast and dinner with her, she loved seeing her put so much effort and passion in her work... she loved...

“Yeah...”, Dash said, blushing. “Yeah, I miss ...that.”

Twilight smiled, endearingly. As much as she cared for her blue friend, she had to do this right, all the way through.

“So?”, she coldly responded, shifting her expression before Rainbow could notice.

“So.. what?”, asked RD.

“So what are you gonna do about it?”

RD opened her mouth... and closed it again. She didn’t know what to say.

Twilight knew it was a huge step for the blue pegasus, just admitting that to herself. Not to mention admitting it to a close friend which she could trust. Even so, this entire thing has been going on for far too long and it was clearly tearing Rainbow apart.

Applejack wasn’t doing too well either, but Twilight was going to get to her later.

“I can’t tell her”, suddenly Rainbow broke the silence.

“Why?”, asked Twilight, keeping her face motionless.

“I already freaked her out enough lately, don’t you think? Not to mention that I probably wouldn’t be capable of saying it myself. It’s not exactly something you hear in a day-to-day conversation”

“What isn’t?”

“You know... this...”

“This what?”

Rainbow frowned... she knew she had to say it, otherwise they would probably get nowhere.

“You can’t just walk up to somepony and say ”, she said, quickly, to get it over with. Her blush rivalled Twilight’s purple color... even so, the unicorn did not back off.

“Yes, you can’t just tell that to somepony... but Applejack is not just somepony.”

“I can’t tell her that”, protested Rainbow. Why couldn’t Twilight understand?

“I’m not saying you should tell her that. It would just be creepy!”

“You see?”

“But... nopony says that you can’t tell her how you feel. After all, if you just wanted a cozy pillow to sleep on, you wouldn’t have the farm”, concluded the purple pony, giving Rainbow a minute to let that sink in.

Twilight got up and slowly started to walk towards the door.

“I never felt this before in my life... I have no idea how to handle this.”, said the pegasus, covering her face with her hooves. She let out a grunt: “Why isn’t there a manual for this!?”

“There are guidelines, and you’ve just taken a crash course through them”, replied the unicorn, opening the front door.

“Wait, you’re kicking me out?! I can’t go back to the farm like this!!”, shouted Dash, desperately. “Can’t you talk to her for me? Or maybe just forget about the whole thing and let it slip by? Or, wait, I know! We just write a letter and we send it to her... and then we--

“I’m sorry... it doesn’t work like that”, concluded Twilight, smiling and pointing towards the exit.

***

“Hey, AJ”

“Hey, Twi, what’s the matter? Somethin’ wrong with the apples?”, replied Applejack as she was hanging one of her ropes on the fence.

“No, they’re fine... listen, can we talk for a few minutes?”

“Uh, sure!”, she nodded, looking around. “Wait, where’s Dash?”

“She’ll come by soon... I just wanted to talk to you about something, in a little more private space, if possible? Like...your room?”

“Al-right... why mah room? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“No trouble at all and your room is just fine, thank you”, replied the unicorn, following her slightly confused friend as they entered the house.

They climbed the stairs and entered the first door on the right. Applejack’s room was not very big, but it was cozy and warm. Well, as warm as it could be on this kind of weather. Applejack closed the door and turned to Twilight with a concerned look.

“What’s this all about?”, she asked.

“Two important things... First thing: Rainbow. Well, she isn’t really a thing, she’s a pony, but you know what I mean. What’s going on with you two?”

“Ah don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. I asked her if she can help out ‘round here and she does. End of story”, explained Applejack. She kept shifting from one front leg to the other, seeming very uncomfortable.

“Listen, AJ”, she started... but then she stopped. Twi had to use some other method to make sure Applejack doesn’t freak out or anything. “Um, Rainbow broke one of your barrels”.

“She did what?!”, jumped the orange pony. “That silly multi-colored broomstick, ah’m gonna... ah’m gonna...”

“Relax, AJ, hey... relax, why are you getting so upset everytime she does something wrong?”

“Well, she... she shouldn’t do anything wrong! Ah mean, if she wants to help ‘round here, she should do her job right and not get in mah way like that. Those barrels cost a lot... or take a lot of time to make!”, she responded, angrily.

“It’s not really her job... she can easily spend her time elsewhere, doing something she likes, and you’re being a bit too harsh on her.”

“Ah’m not keeping her here! Ah told her she can go whenever she wants to. Life on the farm is not for everypony!”, she said, stomping her hoof on the floor.

“Well you’re making it impossible for her to enjoy it here! Why are you testing her like that?”

“How else would ya like me to test her?!”, shouted AJ... and then immediately shoved a hoof in her own mouth.

Bingo.

Twilight sat down and waited for AJ to recover from the shock she gave herself. “Ah mean... ah... Well, it’s not like that. Ah’m just... I don’t know, Twilight... I sometimes don’t realize that I’m doing that.”

“It’s okay... apparently she doesn’t fully realize that either”, replied the purple pony.

“What do ya mean?”

“Well, she keeps coming here, despite your outbursts and demands... she’s either crazy or, maybe, she’s just incredibly bored. Or she just likes being shouted at”, said Twi, giggling.

AJ gave her a crooked, semi-apologetic smile: “Heh, ah doubt it... gee, ah didn’t want to be so harsh. It’s farm-work, Twi... ah don’t like it when some ponies don’t take care of their work”

“Some ponies?”

“Well, ponies that work with me”

“Like, partners?”

“Yeah, something like that...”, she said, blushing a little at the ambivalence of the term. “but if she really wants to work here, she has to know and to be sure that she wants to give 110% of everything she can. Ah mean, yesterday, she almost took the entire day off to go do something .”

“You yourself said that she doesn’t have to stay here if she doesn’t want to...”

“Ah know, but—“

“Applejack, you are giving her difficult stuff to do and you criticize every single aspect of her work. Nopony is perfect...”

“Ah know”, said AJ, quietly, lowering her ears.

“...so why do you want so badly for her to be perfect?”

It’s funny how some ponies don’t realize things even if they’re right in front of them. What’s even funnier is that, sometimes, they know that they were able to see those things, but deliberately ignored them due to fears or insecurities.

Being honest is not easy all the time, but even more difficult than that is being honest with oneself. Judging by applejack’s blush, she probably had come to terms to what she was trying to do with the poor pegasus. Well, not exactly.

“Ah’m not testing her for that!”, she snapped.

“For what?”

To quote a certain princess, .

“For...uh... ah... Consarn it, Twi! Stop playing with mah head! Ah’ve got work to do!”

“Yeah, you do... that’s the second thing I was going to talk to you about.”, and with that, the purple unicorn went over to the window and opened it. A few seconds later, Dash flew in.

“Ah really need to buy one of them locks for mah room”, Applejack thought. “What is this, a train station?!”, she snapped, turning towards the unicorn, but Twilight already left the room.

***

“What exactly is going on here?”, Applejack rightfully asked.

“Twilight made me do it”, came the response from a very perplexed Dash. “She kind of said that she’ll change the color of my mane to monochrome if I don’t talk with you.”

“Dash, there’s nothin’ to talk about, we both have work to do and—“

“Just shut up and sit down”, said the pegasus, calm but firm. Applejack sat down instantly, and spent the next couple of seconds wondering why she did that in the first place. It was her house after all.

“There’s no short way around this”, continued Dash, approaching the earth pony. AJ was just looking at her, not knowing what to expect, but Dash walked right by her and locked the door. “Nopony leaves this room until we settle this once and for all”. She took out the key and graciously threw it out the window.

Applejack blinked and tilted her head to the right. “An’ how do we get out once we settle this?”

Rainbow widened her eyes and looked out the window, then back at AJ, then out the window again. “Hm... I didn’t really plan this through. I’m really gonna have to write a manual about this”

“About what?”

“About this... hey, I told you to be quiet”

“Being quiet”, replied AJ, confused.

Rainbow sighed, took a deep breath and began: “I have no idea what will happen after this discussion, but it’s probably better to have something happen, rather than keep this state of... confusion and craziness. “

“Ah agree!”

“Shush!”

“Shushing.”

“Therefore, if nopony is going to do anything about this, I figured I should take the first step and tell you. I know it will be hard but, in the end, it will do us both some good. After all, you deserve to know... and I want to apologize in advance in case this ends up ruining our friendship.”

“Well, Ah’m a bit angry at you.”

Rainbow blinked.

“Umm, I haven’t even started telling you about--”

“Well, ah already know! And Ah’m not too happy about it, Dash.”

She knew?? Already?? But how?! Wait, of course she did, she wasn’t stupid. Dash felt silly now by going through all this trouble to talk to her... of course, the result is not exactly pleasant, but—

“You broke mah barrel.”

“I did what?!”

“Mah barrel. Y’all broke it. Twilight told me, and I’m not too happy about it.”, explained Applejack, crossing her front hooves.

Rainbow facehooved. “Applejack, that was Twilight’s way of... wait, why would she... nevermind, I did not break any barrel. All the barrels are safe! All of them! Every single heavy-as-hay one of them!”

“Good, problem solved, go get the key.”

“AJ, I swear I’m gonna tie you up with your own rope if you don’t shut up and listen for a minute”, said Dash, trying desperately to get a grip in this conversation. RD took a few steps towards her orange friend... probably her orange ex-friend after this talk. “I’m having these feelings... these... I don’t know what to call them... I’m just very, very sad lately. The only moments in which I’m not sad is when I’m with you. I don’t know if that makes sense or not...”

She started pacing around the room, trying to focus on her thoughts, measuring every sentence carefully. “I’m scared. I don’t want to lose you as a friend... but I’ve never felt this before and, I think I know what’s going on.”

She stopped and looked at her friend. Applejack had a surprised look on her face. On the other hand, unknown to Rainbow, AJ’s heart was going at a couple of hundred miles per hour. She didn’t know if she was ready to hear this.

“No... enough confusion... I know what’s going on”, continued Rainbow. She wanted to do this right, no matter what the consequences were. No turning back. “AJ... I know and I’m sure about it, 110%.”

Applejack’s ears fell to the back of her head, recognizing her own words. Dash took another deep breath and looked down, blushing hard. No. She must do this right. She forced herself to look into her friend’s eyes.

“Applejack...”, she started... but the words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. She took another deep breath. “I...”, she tried again. Nothing. It was the scariest thing she ever had to face. Nevermind the past fights, nevermind the recent fall-off-the-mountain episode... she was scared that she might be rejected.

Silence.

Applejack looked down at the floor. She felt sorry for Dash and admired her so much at the same time. She also envied her for being able to, at least, recognize and admit those feelings of hers. AJ was not-so-brave when it came to that... she just knew how to run away from things she couldn’t understand.

This was beyond everything she knew, everything she was taught, everything she experienced. It was too much for her to handle. Far too much.

She got up from the floor and approached Dash. She wanted so much to be able to understand things and to live her own feelings without being afraid of them, or of what others might think or say. She couldn’t handle it... she just couldn’t.

She just came closer and closer to Rainbow, who started shaking, overwhelmed by the situation. With her head down, she reached the pegasus and put her head on Rainbow’s shoulder. If she couldn’t handle it, she would do her best to help Rainbow handle those feelings for both of them.

Dash looked at the earth pony and slowly embraced her. She was exactly as the pegasus remembered... the warmth and that small scent of apples that was so unique... Applejack rubbed her muzzle on Rainbow’s neck and gave her a small lick. She smiled as she saw the pegasus’ wings expanding. She took a small step back and looked at Rainbow.

Dash’s eyes were glowing, she had never been so happy in her life. “Hang on, I.. I have something for you”, she said, and gently lifted herself in the air. She flew out the window and two seconds later she brought in AJ’s gift. “Remember when I told you yesterday that I had to take care of something? ...well, this is why I’ve been gone the whole day”.

She placed AJ’s hat on the earth pony’s head. Applejack was speechless... it was the nicest thing anypony ever did for her. Dash probably spent hours and hours searching for this, all because it belonged to her.

Forget the difficult tests, forget all that talk about the perfect partner... There is no such thing as a perfect partner. But one can find somepony, some imperfect pony, who is perfect in their eyes.

Keeping her promise not to say a word, she just went over to the window and closed it shut. She then turned towards Dash and locked her lips on hers.

The kiss did not last an eternity, she didn’t feel like she could fly, there were no sparks or fireworks. It was just her and Rainbow. And that was more than enough.

They hugged and continued kissing, slowly making their way towards the bed. They climbed onto it, as Rainbow started licking Applejack’s neck, making her moan lightly. Then, suddenly, they stopped. RD looked into AJ’s eyes.

“Applejack...”, she started. “Do you...?”

“Yeah... Ah... ah know...”

“But this is... impossible...”

“Ah don’t know about that, sugarcube... but this was not our first kiss”.

End of Chapter 7 -

Too good to be true

Chapter 8
Too good to be true

“Can’t this wait!?”, shouted Applejack as she was trying to keep up with Rainbow Dash. They were galloping towards Twilight’s treehouse in the middle of the night.

“No!”, replied the blue pegasus and yelped as her friend grabbed her tail, making her slow down.

“Rainbow, let’s just leave it be... Why is this so important? It took us weeks to get to this point—“

“Exactly, AJ, and I want to make sure it’s... right.”

“Huh?”, asked the confused earth pony.

Rainbow came to a full stop and turned towards her. “I just... want to be sure... that everything is alright.”

“Still not followin’”

“Listen, AJ, I don’t know what will happen next... or if this is okay. I mean, you felt it too, right? Tonight, our kiss tonight... this was not our first kiss.”

“It felt familiar, yeah... so what? We’ve been around each other so long, maybe we just knew what to expect.”

Applejack’s words did not appease the pegasus. She shook her head and continued; “Applejack, what if... what if this was the result of some spell or something? What if...”, she found it hard to continue. “What if we don’t really feel that way about each other and this is all just somepony’s cruel joke?”

“Now y’all are just being silly,” replied the earth pony, waving away all those thoughts. “Let’s just head back to the farm. It’s been a long day and-- Oh for Pete’s sake!” she shouted as Rainbow started galloping again towards Twilight’s house.

Rainbow knocked on the door but couldn’t wait anymore so she just let herself in.

“Twilight, sorry, sorry, sorry to barge in like this... but something weird happened!”

The purple pony poked her head out of the kitchen. Rainbow continued as AJ just caught up with her.

“We kissed!” exploded Rainbow Dash with a terrified look on her face.

Twilight blinked once and took a few steps towards the pair. “Oh, well, that doesn’t sound so bad.” She looked at Applejack who lowered her ears and blushed a little. “I mean, practice makes perfect, Rainbow. Many ponies learn as they go...”

“Wha--?” asked the pegasus, shaking her head and quickly redressing herself “What, wait, nonono, AJ is a great kisser, she really knows her stuff! You should’ve seen her!”

The blush has been doubled. On both AJ and Twilight.

“Yeah, uh, Rainbow... I’m happy for you two but I don’t need to know ALL the details”, Twilight started explaining before being cut off by the pegasus.

“Wait, no, listen! We both felt that we’ve done this before. It felt familiar to us... like... too familiar.”

“Sorry to bother you with this, Twilight,” said Applejack, adjusting her hat. “Rainbow started panicking and came up with this crazy idea that, well... it’s just plain ol’ silly.”

“No, it’s not!" Rainbow protested.

“Yeah, it is... Ah think y’all just chickened out like that”, continued the earth pony, making Rainbow blush for a change.

“What?! I did not--”

“Yeah, as you can see, Twilight is not worried one bit. She also thinks it’s silly!”

“I have no idea what we are all talking about,” said the purple unicorn in her defense.

“That’s probably for the best,” replied Applejack, turning to Rainbow. “Now, let’s leave Twilight alone and go back to the farm! Don’t make me use mah rope to drag you back to bed!”

Rainbow jerked her head up in surprise as she looked at her friend. Twilight was a mere spectator (though was feeling more and more awkward in this situation) as she could only guess what was going on in their heads right now. Applejack frowned, then her eyes widened as she replayed her own words in her mind.

“Wait, no... YOUR bed! Not mah bed! Not like THAT! Oh, you know what Ah mean!”

Rainbow blinked.

There was a moment of silence as various images and thoughts invaded the pony’s brain.

Twilight blinked, not knowing what exactly was she supposed to do in this situation. Frankly, no book could help her there.

Rarity blinked too... and then she grinned.

***

“Oh.... Yeah...” started Twilight, rubbing her hooves together apologetically. “Rarity was spending the night here. She was helping me with this new dress that I wanted to—“

“No... way!”, the white unicorn shouted, forgetting all the 'fancy-talk' that she was used to.

Rainbow opened her mouth, and closed it... then opened it again, looking at Rarity who was acting almost like a filly who got lost in a Theme Park.

“Ah told you we should’ve waited 'til morning!” snapped Applejack.

“You’re not making this sound any better. Really.” replied Rainbow Dash, and then turned towards Rarity. “Uh, hey...Rarity... Not sure what you’ve heard, but it’s not what it—“

“I can already see”, continued Rarity as if she was in a semi-trance. “Matching dresses for fancy balls! Oh and maybe matching accessories for day-today activities! Ah and we’ll surely need to find a harmonious blend of colours, then again, orange does go quite well with blue!”

“Uh, Rarity... maybe now is not the time,” suggested Twilight. The words entered Rarity’s left ear and exited through the right one as the unicorn started babbling about how she always dreamed to “work on couples”.

“Listen, Rarity, it’s all nice that you’re not as freaked out as we were about this... but we’re trying to figure something out here,” explained Rainbow. “All this started during that night we all spent at Twilight’s.”

“Well, let’s all just take it one by one...” continued the purple unicorn. “You all came over, we talked, we laughed, I arranged everything by the book...”

“We had music... maybe there was something wrong with that, maybe that’s what made Rainbow bite me,” said Applejack as they were all trying to put an end to this uncertainty. Except Rarity, of course.

“Wait, what?” inquired the white pony. “Rainbow, you... you bit Applejack?”

“Uh... yeah. Heh... I have no idea when that happened. In my sleep, I guess.”

Rarity didn’t know if she should be really excited of the situation (like when she reads all those scandal-magazines related to famous ponies) or if she should feel really, really dumb for believing such nonsense as bed bugs. Either way, the ponies continued throwing ideas, hoping that they might make some sense out of all of this.

Applejack started walking around, focusing on her thoughts. “Y’all tried various musics, I played mah guitar for a while... then we all had that pillow fight...”

The glitter in Rarity’s eyes faded out for a split second. “Wait, pillow fight? What pillow fight?”

The ponies turned to her nor knowing if she was joking or not.

“Um, the biggest and most epic pillow fight we've ever had, hello?!” said Rainbow as if one could not easily forget such a memorable scenario. “You even held your ground better than ever!”

Rarity frowned. “I’m sorry, but as much as I love Twilight’s slumber parties, I would do no such thing as, how you say, stand my ground. Pillow fights are fun... from a certain distance.”.

Twilight was baffled. “Are you saying you don’t remember the way you completely took AJ by surprise?”

“There’s nothing to remember, we had no pillow fight!” replied Rarity, getting slightly irritated by the thought.

“Okay, this doesn’t make any sense... We need to bring Fluttershy and Pinkie here. This goes beyond AJ and myself. This involves all of us,” said Rainbow, stomping a hoof on the floor.

***

“Are we having another party!?” screamed Pinkie with glee, but she soon felt disappointed as the ponies shook their heads.

Twilight approached her and said, trying to hide her wry smile, “Pinkie, we wouldn’t normally ask you this but, given the circumstances... could you please tell us, in detail, what you remember from the slumber party?”

What followed was a rain of words and half-thought sentences that would probably tear apart any parchment if Pinkie would’ve addressed this to Princess Celestia. She did offer enough details, to the semi-exasperation of her friends who started to wonder when will she stop to take another breath of air. However, they were looking for something that was missing... and they found it.

“Woah, hang on, stop... Pinkie, STOP, please, for a moment... Thank you”, shouted Twilight. She redressed her voice and continued, “You just said that we all went upstairs and got ready for bed... and shared stories and talked... but don’t you remember the window incident?”

Pinkie stared at her.

“You know, you were jumping on the bed and, somehow, you managed to throw yourself out the window...?”

Pinkie kept staring. The finally replied, grinning, “That sounds like fun!”

“Yes, but... you already did that,” said the purple unicorn.

“No I didn’t! I mean, yeah, sure, sounds like fun but I’d be too scared to do something like that! I mean, not scared-scared, but I wouldn’t just do it without making sure I land safely. That would be crazy, to jump around like that! Well, it would be fun doing that without looking, you know, jumping before looking, and I’d have a blast but I’m not that crazy!” said the pink pony and she would’ve probably kept on talking if Twilight didn’t raise a hoof.

“Alright, so we have Pinkie not remembering the window incident and Rarity not remembering the pillow fight.”

“Um, excuse me... Twilight, but, um... I don’t know if this helps or not... I don’t remember any pillow fight either,” said Fluttershy after waiting patiently in a corner. Everypony turned towards her, making her feel slightly uncomfortable. “I don’t want you to think that I disliked your party... I just don’t remember that part. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, Fluttershy. You’ve actually helped us a lot”, Twilight said, turning to the other ponies. “It seems each of us forgot something from the party”

“Except you”, observed Applejack as the group nodded their heads.

“Yes,” confirmed the purple unicorn. “Which leads to the question: What did I do different than everypony, that allowed me to remember everything? If we find the answer to that, we can find out what happened to us.”

The questions followed like an avalanche, each of the ponies trying to figure out what was different in the equation.

“Did ya dance?”

“Yeah”

“Are you sure you participated in that pillow fight you all recall, darling?”

“Yes, quite sure”

The questions were getting slightly more ridiculous and Pinkie was clearly enjoying this game, despite it not being part of a party.

“Oh, I know! Did you laugh?”

“Yes, Pinkie, I did. A Lot!”

“Did you experiment with magic at one point? Or did you use magic to do anything?”

“No, not at all. Except for the party decorations, but that was before anypony was here. I just decorated the library, Spike helped me arrange the food and the drinks and—“

It suddenly hit her.

“No...”

It suddenly made sense.

“I told him not to use that—“, she said, rushing towards one of her cabinets and opened it desperately, to the surprise of everypony in the room. She gasped as her eyes fell upon an empty bottle.

She didn’t waste any time. She teleported herself upstairs, near Spike’s bed.

“Spike, wake up!” she shouted as she started shaking the confused dragon.

“What?! What did I do?!”

The pony pointed towards the levitating bottle: “Did you pour this into our glasses at the slumber party?”

Spike probably managed to set a new record with his level of confusion. It took a few good minutes for Twilight to wake him up fully and explain the situation to him, sparing the minor details involving Rainbow and Applejack.

“You asked me to go grab some juice but I kept telling you that there was plenty left from the previous party you had not too long ago. I didn’t know this one wasn't juice! It smelled like juice to me!”, explained the dragon. “Are... are you going to explode because of me?”

“No, Spike... you can go back to bed now. It’s fine... just, next time, tell me before you start doing things like that”

And with that, she left the little dragon in peace as she returned to her friends.

Without another word, she sent Rainbow and Applejack in her bedroom. The two ponies complied. As they shut the door behind them, they could hear the other ponies in awe as Twilight explained everything. They both pressed their ears on the wooden door, but they couldn’t make out anything of that.

At one point, Rarity shouted something along the lines of: “Please, let me stay! I want to see their faces!”

They heard the door being shut and then hoofsteps as Twilight was approaching them. This was it. It was probably all one big mistake, one silly prank that got out of control.

Twilight opened the bedroom door and found Rainbow and Applejack sitting on the bed, with a concerned look on their faces, holding each other’s hooves.

***

The moonlight was shining through the window, veiling the room in a sad and deep shade of blue. The night was similar to the one in which everything started, yet there were no laughs now, no stories... not even a trace of smiles on the ponies’ faces.

It was quiet.

Twilight sighed as she approached them.

“I’m sorry, girls”

Rainbow cringed and squeezed Applejack’s hoof in her own. Even if it was fake... she didn’t want it to end or 'be fixed'. She was actually happy like that. She knew Applejack felt the same, even if the orange pony couldn’t express her emotions so lightly. They just looked at each other, wondering how much time they had left until everything was back to ...”normal”.

“I didn’t mean to hide you up here like that, but the last thing we needed was Pinkie finding out about you two. I mean, no offense... but you’ll have to learn to be really discreet about this.”

“Wait... you mean we didn’t drink some silly love potion that will wear off in a few days?”, asked Rainbow, confused.

“Heh, nooot exactly”, replied Twilight, sitting down right in front of them. “The potion that Spike accidentally mistook for juice was actually brought by Zecora a few days before the party. She was working on it for quite some time and asked me to perform some tests. It wasn’t meant to be used on ponies yet, especially since the side-effects are unaccounted for”

“Side effects?” repeated Applejack.

“Relax... it’s not harmful, but as you can see, it can create a lot of confusion. Zecora defined it as a potion that can help the pony who drinks it to fulfill his or her biggest wish at that moment. You realize that such a powerful potion needs a lot of tests, not to mention that the ingredients are pretty rare...”

“Did we all drink that thing?”, asked the blue pegasus.

“Yes, except me. When I arrange parties, I’m getting so worked up about them that I’m more focused on you guys having fun rather than me relaxing. I don’t drink and I eat very little at the parties I organize, just to make sure there’s enough drinks and food for everypony. It’s silly, I know... but I’m not the only one doing that... I think,” said Twilight, smiling. “You drank it and the effects were almost instant. Fluttershy gathered up the courage to join the group in a pillow fight, where Rarity forgot all about her classy ways just so she can feel more like one of us. I’ve seen artists feeling that way about their group of friends, and the potion helped her overcome her fears... or emotional obstacles.”

“You’re kinda losing us here,” said Applejack, trying to follow Twilight’s train of thought.

“Right, sorry... Pinkie is always looking for fun things to do and, as I suspect, she really wished the party would go on. Remember how she didn’t want to go to bed? The potion helped her create a situation through which she could consume her wish of ‘more fun stuff to do’, taking it a little to the extreme. As crazy as it sounds, she got her wish fulfilled by doing something completely unexpected and, in her view, fun”

“Somehow, it does make sense. Even for Pinkie,” concluded Rainbow, nodding her head.

“But what about us?” asked the orange pony. “Ah mean, Fluttershy wished for courage, Rarity for feelin’ like she belongs in our group and Pinkie for fun...”

“Yeah, where does that leave us? They didn’t know they were actively wishing all that... neither did we”, continued Dash.

Twilight lowered her head, thinking. After a few seconds, she looked back at them and nodded.

“I’m not usually messing around with other ponies’ private thoughts, but... if I’m right... it wouldn’t make much difference anyway”, she said, making the other two lean in close, to hear every single word. “As far as I figured out, Applejack... you really wanted somepony beside you. Without realizing it, the potion might’ve helped you choose Rainbow out of all of us. Remember? You did say that you’ll ‘share your blanket’ with her”

Applejack thought about it and nodded. It was true. Twilight continued.

“Now, here comes the tricky part... When Pinkie wanted to have more fun, the potion helped her have fun, without influencing the rest of us against our will. Since you and Rainbow don’t remember what happened after we all went to sleep, I can only assume that both of you wanted... each other. The potion you drank did more than help you... it basically worked in harmony to fulfill both your wishes, through each other”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that, without realizing it, you probably already wanted to be with each other long before all this happened. The potion just sped up everything. It just helped enhance your own natural feelings,” concluded the unicorn, smiling at the surprised pair. “As for what you actually did that night, heh, ahem... well, we were all asleep, so we might never know for sure. Still, since none of you can remember it, I have a few ideas as to what you two did. In my bedroom. As we were sleeping...”

The couple smiled awkwardly as both ponies were looking anywhere but at Twilight.

“Well, uh... now that you talk about it like that...” started Rainbow, scratching the back of her head. “AJ... You did mention a long time ago that, well... one of your, uh, sensitive zones is your neck. I guess that I sort of remembered that... involuntarily.”

Applejack’s hoof met the top of Rainbow’s head in a painful, but endearing, knuckle. The orange pony turned to Twilight, “Ah’m mighty sorry about that, Twilight... and causing all this trouble.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, Applejack. Besides, I’m pretty sure nothing, uh... too detailed happened then. At least now we can all relax and get on with our lives. Especially you two.”

The ponies smiled at each other and both of them rushed towards the unicorn and hugged her tight as ever. “You’re an awesome friend, Twilight. Thank you!”

“I’m happy everything turned out to be fine”

“Are you kidding?” jumped Rainbow. “It’s more than fine! It’s awesome!”

“Well, either way, to show our appreciation... we’ll just let y’all get your sleep. Ah guess we all deserve it”

“Indeed...” yawned the purple unicorn as she lead Rainbow and Applejack out the door. “See you tomorrow, girls. Good night!”

***

As the couple returned to the farm, in silence, smiling and enjoying each other’s company, the world around them seemed a lot calmer. Peaceful. Beautiful.

“Ya know, Rainbow...” started the orange pony, breaking the silence. “There might be difficult times ahead for us. Ah don’t know if mah family suspects anything or if...you know... word got out...”

“Hey, it’s alright. We’re together now. We’re unstoppable and we can face anything that gets thrown at us!”

“Ah know but... what if everything changes?”

“I don’t know... but what if everything changes... for the better?”

Rainbow stopped and gently, but firmly, grabbed Applejack by the neck and turned the pony towards herself, planting a kiss on her lips. “This is all that matters to me from now on, AJ. If you are here, everything can change as much as it wants to”

Applejack frowned a little. “It will all take some time to get used to, ya know?”

“Yes... but we’ll be busy during that time”, replied Rainbow as she started walking again.

“What do ya mean?”

“Well, I for one don’t really like having memory losses... so we’ll both have to work really hard to figure out what exactly we did do that night. You know, trial and error... see what else seems familiar and what else seems... better,” she smirked, playfully, at the blushing pony.

“Y’all can work as hard as ya want... but Ah am not giving you mah hat,” she replied, confronting her.

“Nah, not interested in the hat... actually, I’d very much like you to keep it on...”

“Rainbow!”

The two giggled their way back to the farm as a new way of life slowly embraced them and all the things around suddenly seemed brighter.

The End

Thank you for supporting me during the entire writing process of this story.
Will

About sequel

Hi fans,

I WAS going to announce here the launch of the sequel to Pillow Thoughts... but you awesome ponies already found it o.o
Either way, for those that missed the launch, here's the link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/9090/Pillow-Thoughts-II

Enjoy!

Glittering Thoughts

Chapter 1
- Glittering Thoughts –

"Ah'm sorry, wha--?"

Applejack turned towards the blue pegasus. This was becoming slightly annoying.

"I uh... I said that you did a fine job.... today, I mean," replied Rainbow Dash. She quickly pointed at the nearest apple tree. "The apples, all gone. Ha! I never knew how you could get them all down... you know, with a single kick."

Applejack tilted her head to the right. This was surpassing annoying, sliding towards worrying.

"Are you sure you're okay, Rainbow? Y'all seem a bit…" She stopped mid-sentence, not really knowing how to continue.

"Okay? Pff, of course I'm okay! I was just... you know..." she said, ending her phrase with a wide, awkward smile. The pegasus shifted a bit, trying to arrange the bag she was carrying so it wouldn't fall off her back.

Applejack frowned a bit, but decided to ignore this altogether. She had plenty of chores to do today and she had no time for Rainbow's silly pranks or less-than-inspired jokes. Without a word, she moved on to the next tree.

"Oh, by the way!" Rainbow continued, a little faster than she would've wanted to. "Twilight asked me to bring you that book about foreign apple trees."

"Uh, thanks... just... put it on the kitchen table over there," replied the cowpony, pointing a hoof in the general direction of the farmhouse.

"Sure thing! I'll let you get back to your work," said the blue pegasus, and then took off, managing to somehow avoid colliding with any branches.

Applejack didn't even look away from her trees. The sun was setting and she wanted to buck as many of them as she could before calling it a day. It would've made it easier tomorrow. Even so, somewhere, in the back of her head, a little thought wouldn't let her fully concentrate on the task at hoof.

The same tiny thought that she was trying to ignore lately. A tiny thought that came with a question attached.
THUD! The tree she bucked shook fiercely and every single apple fell to the ground. If only it would be that easy to shake the thoughts from your mind the same way.

***

Three tiny knocks on the door stopped Applejack from putting out the candle in her room. Did she forget to do something? She walked towards the door and opened it, only to discover Apple Bloom with a curious look on her face.

"Hey, sis... everythin’ okay?" asked the orange pony.

"Yup, all's fine and dandy with me... but Ah'm not so sure about you, big sis," replied the filly, trotting into the room. Applejack blinked once, wondering if she should just send her sister to bed and also, if Apple Bloom will one day altogether ignore knocking and just start invading ponies' personal spaces. She could see it clearly: Cutie Mark Invaders.

"What do you mean?" she asked, cautiously shaking the previous image in her head, as her little sister climbed onto her bed.

"Ah mean... we're special, right? We have, like, superpowers!"

Was this another clever scheme to stay up late or was just Apple Bloom being Apple Bloom? Other thoughts crossed the earth pony's mind, but she found it better to just listen, for now.

"Y'know, when there's something wrong with me, even if Ah don't say anythin', you just know,” continued the filly. "So, it's only natural that Ah know when there's somethin’ wrong with you."

Applejack let out a soft giggle. "So that's what this was all about? You don't need to worry, sugarcube. Ah'm fine. Just tired, Ah guess."

Apple Bloom shook her head in disapproval. "Nu-uh. Mah sister may be the greatest sister ever, but y'all have problems too. Also, it's not nice to lie to your lil' sis."

She was right. Applejack sighed and her ears tilted a little to the back of her head.

"This is really not somethin’ you should worry about, Apple Bloom. Yeah, Ah have some stuff to figure out... it's really nothin' bad or serious."

"What's it about? Can Ah help?"

Applejack smiled. "Thanks, but Ah think Ah can handle it on mah own."

The candle flickered a little, making the shadows of the two ponies tremble against the dark orange walls. Apple Bloom stood there for a few seconds, then just got up and started walking towards the door.

"If you say so... but you've kind of been handlin’ it for the past 3 weeks or so," she continued. "Ah get it if you don't wanna tell me about it, but at least talk to somepony about it."

Applejack frowned a little at those last words. She couldn't just talk about it. She didn't really know what to talk about in the first place.

"I'm always here if y'all wanna talk," said Apple Bloom, giving her sister a great big smile. "G'night, sis."

"Good night, sugarcube," replied the orange pony, as she closed the door.

She didn't like this... all this hiding and confusion. It's not like she didn't trust her family. She just didn't know what to say to them. Her sister was way too young for this kind of talk.

Wait, what kind of talk? That little thought creeped into her mind again. She didn't like thinking about it, but what choice did she have? It just wouldn't go away.

Applejack climbed into bed and blew out the candle. The orange colors now turned into a dark blue pool of thoughts. One by one, like stars, broken pieces of ideas started emerging into the pony's mind.

Maybe Ah could talk to Big Macintosh about it. Or Granny Smith. They both are older and wiser than me... but this ain't no farm-related problem, she thought. This is something... else. Maybe it's something that Rarity would know, since she meets all kinds of ponies every day. Even so, Rarity would probably frown at that kind of thoughts. Well, Ah now Ah am frownin’ enough already and I ain’t all that sophisticated.

Fluttershy is... not really the best choice. Pinkie has her moments of wisdom, sorta, but this might be too much even for her. Or worse, she could turn it into a party of some sorts.

The orange pony cringed at that thought. She looked up at the ceiling and let out a soft sigh. The night was quiet, the wind was soft... the smell of freshly picked apples was still lingering in the cold air.

Twilight knows stuff, even more than Rarity. She would probably be quiet enough about it. After all, it would probably be like one of those, what does she call 'em... experiments of hers?

...or maybe Ah should just focus on work and forget this whole thing altogether.

"Horseapples," she mumbled, turning to her side and trying to fall asleep, knowing very well that it would surely prove to be the most difficult task of the night, or rather, of the past nights along with this one.

***

"Horseapples," murmured Rainbow Dash as she rested her head on her cloud-made pillow.

Her home was floating peacefully at the outskirts of Ponyville. It was simple, but cozy. Even at night, the place seemed very welcoming. All over the puffy walls you could see images related to Rainbow's favorite pony bands, shelves with little prizes she won in various flying competitions and, of course, the unmistakable Wonderbolts poster that she had, ever since she was a filly.

Rainbow was always prepared for everything, always ready to spring into action.

I was actually able to talk to the Wonderbolts a few weeks ago at the Grand Galloping Gala, she continued her thoughts.

So what's happening to me now?

The pegasus turned to her side, sliding a hoof under the white pillow, her gaze landing upon the brown bag she was carrying a few moments ago. A quick slap over her forehead was unavoidable, as she realized that she forgot to actually put Twilight's book on the table, as instructed by Applejack. How could she have forgotten that? It's like the information didn't even reach her.

“I'll get it to her tomorrow morning,” she mumbled as she turned around again. "Or maybe in the afternoon,” she thought, trying to find a good position to sleep.

Yeah, sleep... that would be something new. Ever since that particular night, she wasn't able to sleep at all. Well, she eventually fell asleep every night, only to wake up feeling very tired and frustrated.

Her thoughts floated a bit towards that night. As much as she tried to understand, nothing really made sense. Everything was going swell, she had fun, she felt great.

So why did I…

Rainbow turned again in her bed, facing one of the windows. It's not like it was something bad.

And I didn't mean to do that.

Still, it never happened before and she's been to many slumber parties.

So why now? ...and why can’t I just get over it?

The stars were starting to appear, one by one, glittering silently in the distance. It's nice to have big windows when you're living near Ponyville, since the view can sometimes be breathtaking. Twilight had big windows in her treehouse too, she thought. After all, it was a big treehouse, it needed big windows. It was big enough to hold slumber parties.

Like that one...

Nevermind sleeping. Waking up can influence how somepony starts his or her day. Rainbow was very fussy when it came to waking up.

Warm... so warm... and the sunlight... I could feel the sunlight on my face... she remembered. The warmth, the smell.

She remembered too well.

Especially the sun making Applejack's golden hair glow even brighter, as Rainbow woke up on top of her friend.

- End of Chapter 1 –