Sometimes there's room for improvement that you may have never noticed until just now.
Sometimes an eye-openingly happy experience with a new activity can improve your mood in the long run.
The latter thing might be a gateway to the former, or at least, that's what Applejack is thinking!
These are the messages of today when it comes to a certain farm pony. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, when the competitive duo of Applejack and Rainbow Dash simultaneously have the ability to take time off, Applejack, while nonchalantly strolling around her farm without a single entry on the to-do list and a smile holding on her face, suddenly hatches up an idea.
An idea that only makes today seem even more sunny. An idea that she believes was able to come about precisely because she had let loose her embarrassing desire and had a more sunny mood.
An idea that she sees as a sparkly, shiny addition to an already great friendship.
What if... Dash and I did something that's... not competitive? What if we just casually dined for lunch at a restaurant together?
Like, I can't even remember when was the last time we had a one-on-one hangout without continuing the toughest pony competition. When was the last time?
Land sakes... I've gotta do this! I've gotta invite Dash to lunch!
AJ runs inside the barn, scoops up a brown paper off the shelf and writes the words down at no-hesitation speed, and, luckily enough, Spike was sleeping over at the farm this weekend, so she wasn't at risk of having to rely on the mail that might not be able to deliver the letter in time.
"Hiya Spike, could ya send this to Rainbow Dash?"
"Sure, AJ!"
The blow was blown, and the invitation was off to a certain cloud house.
If she accepts... it's gonna be a fun day.
Rainbow Dash, who, as a Wonderbolt, now uses the weekends to reset her muscles, especially those in her wings, had been spending the hours of the morning reading Daring Do books. Her favorite pasttime.
Guess I should check the mailbox., she thinks as the afternoon rolls around and she decides to close off her book session, making way for a mid-day meal and hopefully hanging out with some friends. That's her plan.
I wonder what exactly I'm gonna do this afternoon! What will I eat? Where will I go in town to see who's there?
She ain't havin' to wait long to figure that out, as the lone arrival in the box not to be a white envelope catches her attention, and in turn, first read. She unties and unrolls the bottle-style paper.
Hey Rainbow Dash,
Applejack here. Today I came up with the idea, and I wanted to ask you, do you think we could hang out together with just the two of us this afternoon, but doing something that's not battling each other in games?
Don't get me wrong, I love our ongoing toughness competition and all, but friendship is about way more than just that. And I don't feel like our one-on-one friendship has been expanded to what it could be, if ya get what I mean.
So... lunch today at The Sandwich Club, with a meetup time of 12:15?
Today might feature some new digs. Upon hearing her friend's perspective, Rainbow can't help but agree with it. Applejack is right; they really haven't done anything in 2-player mode except toughness gaming. Rainbow can't even recall the last time they did something more... girly, if you could call it that.
And as if that wasn't a strong enough motive to go out and do it, Rainbow had just let Pinkie Pie launch tickles all over her body only a week ago, and... she liked it. Heck, the tickling was done by Rainbow's request.
Girly? Not a problem one bit. Rainbow takes off right away to the restaurant of Applejack's suggestion.
The timing at which both ponies reached the restaurant happened to be very good, as Rainbow catches sight of her farmer friend approaching the building as soon as her hooves make the landing.
"AJ!", she happily exclaims. "Wow, I have to say, I really like this idea you came up with. I agree, we've been competing too much and not just, well, being friends enough, I'd say. Not that friends shouldn't compete with each other, it's downright awesome, but as you said, it's about the cute things too.", Rainbow says.
"I agree; I'm sure happy I hatched up this idea.", Applejack says. "And I just thought of it, in the middle of the field, when I was doin' nothin'!"
The two ponies share a quick hug before they both declare they're ready for lunch. They ring the front door bell to the light-blue inside of the cafe, take seats at their table, and give the waitress their orders, which buys them time for conversation.
"So Dash, what have you been up to recently? Nothin' but the normal stuff, or did something more... memorable happen at any time this week?"
This question puts Rainbow Dash in a stun. Something memorable? This week?
Oh, if the answer to that question wasn't ever "yes." Rainbow had made a life-altering discovery, in that, when it's done in a certain (better) setting, she turns out to enjoy something that, for her whole life, she continually insisted she didn't like. Her thoughts at bedtime were dominated by "I've been lying to myself this whole time..."
So yes, something extraordinarily conversation-worthy has definitely occurred. Rainbow wanted to blurt the awesome news out right then and there, but... remember who's on the other side of the table from her.
Ultimately, step-by-step is the truth. Rainbow may have been successful at opening the door to her more "cute" desires for Pinkie, a shameless sillyhead, but with Applejack... not as easy to do when your friendship history is dominated by "Who's the toughest?" So she sits in silence.
However, Applejack senses something to work with. Rainbow's red cheeks, puppy-dog eyes, and her own memorable experience this week brought her in for a wild, and straight-out-there, try-out. A second try-out.
"Let me guess... ya got tickled?", Applejack asks.
Rainbow gets shocked by this question so hard that her seat falls on its back as she unintentionally suspends herself in the air. Good thing she's a pegasus, otherwise there likely would have been an injury here.
"W-w-why do you guess that?", Rainbow asks in distress, breathing heavily.
Her experience being what it was, Applejack has no choice but to be lighthearted with her friend here.
"Because... I got tickled too!", Applejack says excitedly.
A baker's dozen of questions were to pop out into Rainbow's mind here, which results in her remaining silent, enabling Applejack to tell more of the story.
"I woke up in the night, and suddenly I was feelin' like I was wantin' to be tickled, which I thought was a load of dirt at first because of the experiences I remembered. Because of that, I tried to ignore it. But it stubbornly persisted, and after I caved in and took a look through some family photo albums, I discovered that I have liked ticklin' before, and so now I had incentive to try it out some."
Here's where she feels the power of that experience letting her speak about it further to Rainbow Dash, of all ponies.
"Which I did! I asked Rarity, and the result was... I had a great, fun time! I'm sure ticklish, and I loved gettin' those laughs.", she says shamelessly.
That shamelessness was not only instrumental in getting Rainbow Dash to calm down and use her chair again, but listening to AJ chronicle this hits right into the heart and mind of Rainbow Dash, because it sure sounded... a lot like her story!
"Uhh, yeah, it turns out, we've got a big coincidence going on here, because that's pretty much exactly what happened to me!"
Rainbow blushes at revealing this to her competitive friend, but, powered by what that tickle session did for her, she keeps going.
"I, just like you, suddenly developed a weird desire to try out being tickled, and I myself also thought it was nonsense at first, based on my childhood experiences. But then I realized that tickling isn't always done that way, and since I was hanging out with Pinkie Pie at the time, I had a perfect gateway to trying out good tickling."
"And I clearly wanted to try it, so I did. Result: ...I actually liked it."
Applejack's mind is blown in every way it could be.
"Wow! Ya liked it?! And we both had almost the exact same experience? Land sakes, this sure is something to tell our friends about!"
Rainbow Dash, being herself, still says, hesitantly and with blushing, "Uh... yeah." to this sentence, but upon letting in the image of Rainbow telling this story to the rest of the girls, say, at a sleepover, all she can picture is herself feeling perfectly comfortable doing so.
The times they are changing, Dash. The times they are changing.
"Just out of curiosity, what day was it that ya got tickled, if ya can remember? I did it exactly a week ago from today, on Saturday afternoon.", Applejack says.
"I also did it on Saturday!", Rainbow Dash exclaims. "Pinkie hosted a party that night that I went to, and in fact, I developed the desire to be tickled because of that party! There was an event there where ponies volunteered to get tickled; I don't think anything would have happened with me that night if I wasn't directly seeing it."
The ponies look into each other stunned. This is insane!
"I dub today... coincidence day!", a human named Player 4 suddenly says off-screen, surprising AJ and Dash. And then just casually walking out the door afterward.
"Uh... forgive me, but... what is he doin' in this story?", Applejack says. "Like, he doesn't participate in ticklin'; he ain't got no place here."
"Honestly, I am confused, but not surprised.", Rainbow responds. "He's done that before, haven't you heard? Earlier in the story?"
Applejack was feeling that a possible bombshell was on the horizon. So many thoughts and guesses, some on the more... scary side, some contradicting each other were swirling around in Applejack's mind; it would be a grueling task to give this attention.
Her goal for today was happiness, so she thought it might be best to just... move on.
"Uh... okay. But, uh, new topic, so are you thinkin' you'll want to like, move forward with tickling, since ya liked it?", Applejack asks. "I am. I want to be tickled by Pinkie Pie someday, participate in tickle parties, and maybe start being the tickler too."
"Also, since we are still competitors, ya think we could start ticklin' each other, as a new sub-game for that? And we could also do it in the way we were doin' with our ticklers before. As in, nothin' competitive. Just for adorable friendship fun."
Rainbow abruptly stops sipping on her drink. Applejack is like an idea machine today!
...But Rainbow hasn't reached that level yet.
"Uh... I'll get there someday, but, as Fluttershy would say, baby steps for now.", Rainbow says.
"I understand. I myself will probably still ask Rarity next time I want to be tickled.", Applejack responds.
"But I sure am excited for what this new addition to my life will bring me."
And Rainbow Dash was pinned again. Pinned to releasing this out.
"Honestly... me too.", she responds.