I left Sugarcube Corner and was glad I had spoken to Pinkie to fix our friendship, but at the same time, I was happy to put as much distance between us as possible. I had enough Pinkie Pie for today.
I knew Fluttershy had a lot of work with her animals in the morning, so I decided to visit Applejack first.
...
While I walked towards the farm through the orchards, I heard a voice from somewhere. I wasn't sure who it belonged, it was to far away. I guessed it would be someone of the Apple family, so I followed it, surely they could point me towards Applejack.
After I had walked for a while, I noticed it was Applejack herself.
"Hi, nice to meet ya... no, you have to be more fancy... Hello, how nice to meet ya here... you here."
'What is she practicing? Is it because of the gala?'
Whatever it was, I was pretty sure she doesn't want to be seen doing it, or else she wouldn't do it that far away from anyone.
I moved away from her position. When I was far enough not to hear her, I shouted: "Applejack are you here?!"
There was silence for a moment.
"I'm over here!", I heard her.
I walked towards her voice until I reached her in the middle of a little clearance.
"Hi, Applejack.", I greeted her. "So happy to find you here, the princesses have approved my idea to build a lab. We can start whenever you have spare time."
"Well, that's great news. Since you insisted on paying me, I can give some of the chores to the rest of my family for two days, and I will postpone the rest. We sure can use some extra money for buying a new plow and other stuff. I thought about selling apple products at the gala, but this way I can focus on other things instead."
"Sounds great to me. When should we start?", I asked her.
"Tomorrow after the rain will be perfect. It will make digging holes for the wood poles much easier. If this is okay for you."
"Of course, that's a great idea. Is there anything else for me to prepare?"
"No, tomorrow I will use one of our carts to get as much wood as possible from the carpenter to the construction site. You can wait in front of the library."
"Okay, looking forward working with you.", I said and turned to leave. "See you tomorrow."
"See ya."
...
I found Fluttershy outside of her cottage, sitting on the ground and enjoying the sun.
"Hey, Stella. So nice to have you here again."
"Hi, Fluttershy. So good to see you. Look, no more bandages." I brought up my stump to show her.
"Still I feel so sorry for you. I don't know what I would do if I lost a part of my body.", she said gloomy after looking at it.
"I try to stick to what Dashie told me. 'Don't grief about what you lost, concentrate on the things you can do.' She can be pretty wise sometimes."
"Yes, she is pretty.", she said with dreamy eyes.
I raised an eyebrow.
She shook her head. "It is funny you bring her up... I wanted to talk to you about Dashie."
I sat next to her.
"It's difficult...", she started. "I know her for such a long time, but only lately... I..."
"You have a thing for her.", I helped out.
She blushed. "You did know?"
"I knew since the day she showed us her aerial maneuvers. The way you looked at Dashie and how you talked about her was pretty obvious."
"I... I want to ask her to go to the Grand Galloping Gala together, as a couple... on a date, but I don't have the courage to do it. What if she doesn't want to go with somepony as boring as me. I could ruin our friendship. What..."
I laid my hand on her shoulder. "Hush now, relax. You are a beautiful mare, one of the prettiest I seem in this world, and I think you would be a lovely couple since you both have abilities the other could learn from. I will meet her later at lunch. What do you want me to do?"
"Could you tell her I invite her to dinner, this would be a good opportunity for me. Dashie never misses out on free food.", she said smiling.
"No kidding.", I replied smiling as well. "Anything else?"
"Can you hide close-by?", she asked.
"Pardon?" I was confused.
"I'm pretty sure I won't have the courage on my own. But if you would hide in the next room, and I could ask you if I'm stuck in a situation..."
"I'm not sure this is a good idea."
"Please.", she begged me. "I just need a little support."
These huge pony eyes, it's like a dozen puppies at once.
"Fine.", I finally said. I couldn't stand seeing her like this. "I want a lot of tea times in return."
She just hugged me with a huge smile. "Thanks, thanks a lot.", she said after a few seconds. "Let's go inside and I start with your payment."
"Wait, can I tell Twilight about all this? "
She thought about it for a moment. "Yes, you can."
"Good, that will make things easier."
I followed her inside, and we had a lovely tea time together.
...
About one hour later I was standing in front of the stove of the library, reheating the curry for Rainbow Dash. I had told Twilight about the whole situation. She told me she had expected this to happen someday since she had noticed Fluttershy's crush on Dashie before. She thought they would be a good fit for each other.
I wasn't sure if I should question Rainbow a bit to get a feel for how she may react tonight. Twilight was setting up the table while Spike was arranging books. I heard someone entering through the front door.
"I smell something gooood."
'Definitely Dashie.', I thought smiling.
She came straight into the kitchen and looked inside the pot.
"Yes, there is more than enough.", I told her. "Even with Twilight and Spike joining us, you can eat until I can roll you out of here."
"Seems like you know me well.", she said grinning.
"Before I forget, Fluttershy invites you to dinner at her cottage."
"Two free meals on one day? I think this is the best day ever."
"I sure hope so...", I mumbled.
"Did you say something?"
"Go ahead and sit down, it will be ready any minute."
...
We all had finished our meal while Rainbow was on her third portion.
"Say, have you been in any relationship before, Dashie?", I asked her.
She stopped eating and looked at me suspiciously. "Why are you asking this?"
"In contrast to what you said before, I don't know much about you yet. I have no idea how your life has been to this point, apart from a few things Twily told me. So it's just a question to get to know you a bit better.", I defended myself and patted myself mentally on the back.
Dashie relaxed again. "No, not really. I tried a few dates so far, but nothing worked out. I think I was to loud and stubborn for them."
"Mares or stallions?", I asked as innocent as possible.
"I'm open to both options, but you know my weakness of certain body parts, so I'm leaning towards mares."
"What body parts?", Spike asked.
"Maybe you could start to clean the table, Spike.", Twilight interrupted.
"Oh, it is one of these questions.", he mumbled and started to gather the plates.
"This reminds me, how had the princesses reacted to your relationship?", she asked.
"They were speechless for some time, but then they seemed to be quite happy for us."
"That's great. You two deserve it."
"Thank you, Dashie."