Rainbow swayed left and right, looking in a mirror. "You were not kidding... about either part." Parts of her... him... were moving in ways they never had before. But that made sense. He had parts he never had before, and a rush of energy to do... something, anything! "And I can't just go tackle Applejack right now? It's the whole point."
Blue shook her head slowly. "You are not in the right state of mind, and could get in trouble before you reach her. By the way, I did have a question."
"Shoot." Rainbow turned to Blue, one ear twitching. "Huh."
"Hm?" Blue's brows went up together. "Something wrong?"
"This is so weird... But, looking at you, right now... I'm conflicted." Rainbow took a step back, only to retake it. "I know you're a mare, and I don't know you that way, but also you're a mare, and that's super interesting."
That brought a little smile to Blue's face. "Proof of why we keep new stallions put for a little while. After that, you may go. Then come back when you're done."
Rainbow huffed. "Let me go now and I'd be there before anything happened. Fast is my thing."
Blue was a stubborn mare, and Rainbow would have to wait a little longer before he was allowed to continue his plan.
Applejack lashed her hooves out, knocking apples from the tree in a brief intense rain of fruits into the baskets she had set out. "Makin' good progress." There was nopony there to say that to, but she said it anyway, moving to get the baskets emptied into barrels, then on to the next tree. "Of all the days for her to be missin'."
"Missing me?!" Rainbow streaked from the canopy of the next tree with a huge grin. "I'm right here, AJ!"
AJ jumped with surprise. "Ya varmint! Stop h..." It was at that moment she realized Rainbow was shaped... wrong... A squared snout, broader body lines... "Since when were ya a stallion?! No, wait, that's a dumb question." She set a hoof over her face. "Why are you a stallion?" she said each word slowly and purposefully.
"You, mostly." Rainbow landed in front of AJ, his eager grin undeterred. "Specifically you. AJ, I want you to have everything in the world. Everything! I can't give, um, everything... But I can give this..."
"Ah never asked fer a stallion fer mah birthday, which it ain't." She turned away, just to find Rainbow right back in front of her. That rainbow-colored pony was still just as fast. "What exactly are ya meanin'? Ya ain't a stallion."
"Nah," he admitted without resistance. "But if playing one means I can make your dream come true? Well, I already signed up. The apples can wait, a little bit." He closed with Applejack. "We have a different Apple to see to, and I'll help with them afterwards, promise."
Applejack did not shrink away, instead hiking a brow suspiciously. "Not to throw doubt on ya, 'Dash, but do ya even know how to... do that?"
Rainbow colored in a new way, his cheeks darkening. "We'll figure it out! It isn't... that complicated..."
"An' how long are ya... this?" She waved a hoof over Rainbow's altered form. "Yer gonna have to relearn yer flyin' tricks, shaped like that."
Rainbow paled faintly along his larger snout. "I didn't even think of that!" But it was true. Different body meant different balances and different... "As soon we're sure I did my part here--" He pointed at Applejack. "I'm headed back to get the old shape back. I'm perfectly happy as a mare, thanks, but one day won't kill me, especially if it makes you happy."
Applejack touched nose to nose with Rainbow. "Ah know ah ain't broadcastin' that right now, but ah am a bit tickled. That you'd go so far out of your way, jus' fer me. Uh... but... if we... get a foal, what'll we tell them when they ask who their father is?" She nipped gently at Rainbow's face. "You'll be a mare again."
"The truth?" ventured Rainbow. "I thought that was your specialty." He chuckled at the idea. "The sooner they learn about magic, probably the better. Have you seen their auntie?"
Applejack snorted explosively into laughter. "Ya got a point there. Auntie Twily'll be a bad influence." But she was smiling as she said it. "But that ain't normal. Won't they feel... strange?"
"They'll feel awesome," countered Rainbow, doing a little canter in place. "And I'll be there to remind them just how awesome they are."
"W-wait..." Applejack shrank back. "Ya mean..."
Rainbow dropped to one knee before Applejack. "Yup!" Folding a wing back, he drew a tiny felt box from his side. "Applejack, will you marry me?"
Applejack's entire face went red. "Shoot... Shoot! Horseapples! Ya... Ya done went and faced my next question before ah could even say it." She booped Rainbow's lowered snout gently. "Stop bein' so fast!"
"Never will, and you know it." Rainbow was still kneeling. "So, whattaya say?"
"No pressure or nothin'." Applejack circled in place, hooves fidgeting in place. "Are ya serious? Forever like? 'Till the end?"
"Maybe longer, I'm stubborn." Rainbow chuckled at her morbid joke. "We'll race when we're old and wrinkled."
Applejack smiled a little at that. "Yer serious..." She took a slow breath. "Which means it's on me, ain't it..." Rainbow was watching her, not saying anything in that moment. "Shoot... Alright! Honest time. Time to be honest, with mahself, an' you." She put a hoof on her chest. "Ah like yer company. Sometimes ah don't even know why yer around. We fight as often as not, but ya always come back, and ah'm always happy to see ya..."
She took a slow breath. "And ah'm a bit sad when yer called away, doin' fancy things with those fancy fliers ah yers."
"Is that a yes?" Rainbow flashed his best smile.
Applejack bonked Rainbow atop the noggin' "'Course it's a yes! Let a mare get--"
But she was grabbed, Rainbow half-tackling her, lifting her up and going in a circle with a wild cheer. She had said yes. That was all that mattered in that moment.
Applejack popped free of Rainbow's stronger than usual grip. "But! But. We finish these apples." She waved over the orchard. "Yer serious? Than you put the farm first. With you bein' serious, we can finish it before night. Then..."
"Then we do what couples do at night." Rainbow waggled his brows meaningfully. "Apples, then an Apple, got it. On the case!" He darted off in a streak of rainbows, only to loop around and come back. "Where should I start?"
Applejack had to laugh, shaking her head. "C'mon."
They worked together, as a team. Applejack knocked the apples free, and Rainbow quickly zipped the filled baskets over to where the apples would be stored, just to rush back with the baskets so the next tree could be done. It was a lot faster than the solo work Applejack had been doing.
That evening, Applejack came in, Rainbow just behind her. "Shoot, got 'er done, but ah'm powerful hungry. What's fer dinner?"
Granny Smith looked up from where she sat. "Nothin' but..." Her sales pitch faltered on seeing the altered Rainbow Dash. "What the? What happened ta you?"
Applejack went red, saying nothing. Rainbow did not have that problem. "Hey mom."
Granny Smith frowned at that. "We're friends, but ya ain't one of my foals." She snorted softly. "Way too young."
"True, I shoulda said 'Hey Grandma', but everypony calls you that, and the difference would have been, you know, lost."
"What difference?" Granny leaned forward, only to whip her head towards Applejack. "Explain."
"Well, ya see..." Applejack drew her hat off, holding in front of her chest as almost a shield. "This crazy pony right here just proposed to me."
Granny sat back, gaze going long. "Oh... And ya wouldn't be mentionin' that 'less ya..."
"Said yes, yeah..." Applejack worried at her hat with her hooves. "So, technical-like, Rainbow's yer--"
"Grandson, in law. Ah know how that works." Granny slipped down to the floor, circling the dining room table towards them. "And she's a... he... now. Ain't sure how that happened. That a part?"
"I will give you an Apple, Grandma." Rainbow inclined his head towards the blushing Applejack. "But after that, going back to being a mare. But I'm staying with her, and you, and the family." He threw a hoof wide. "So you're gonna have to get used to me being around!"
Granny went ahead and bonked Rainbow as Applejack had done not long before. "We're already pretty used to you bein' 'round." But a smile did come. "Just didn't see it comin' with this." She waved a wrinkled leg at Rainbow's altered physique. "Are you two ready? This ain't no small commitment." She snorted softly. "Shoot, mah havin' foals made me in the parentin' game fer countless moons, considerin' ah ended up carin' fer my grandfoals too. Could happen to you too. Ya ready for that kinda commitment?"
"Nope," admitted Rainbow without even a second of hesitation. "But I'm doin' it anyway, and I'm way too stubborn to quit halfway. I'll just have to figure it out." He moved to AJ's side, leaning a little against her. "At least I'll have great company while I do it."
Applejack burst into a brief laugh. "That is.. perfectly you, Rainbow." She shook her head slowly. "Gonna have to keep an eye on ya, keep ya from doin' somethin' dumb."
"Too late, already went and did this." He nuzzled at Applejack's cheek gently. "And going to do more before the night's up."
Granny burst into laughter. "Hold yer horses. Ya both worked hard. At least eat some dinner afore ya go back to work." Dinner was served, hot and made with love. It was Rainbow Dash's first. The first meal he ate there with family. "Now, ah'm gonna take little Apple Bloom out fer a little campin'. If you two wanna do things, won't be nopony to bother."
Big Mac raised a brow, having joined during dinner. "Nope?" Surely he was still there.
Apple Bloom curled a hoof at herself. "Why're we campin'?"
Granny looked between the two. "My mistake. Me an' Bloom an' Big Mac. No more questionin'. Let's go." With the firm word of the matriarch given, they all left, confused, but going.
Applejack was left alone, with her... fiancée? That idea was a new one, but she had been proposed to, and she had said yes, so they were... That was... She shook the thought free. "This way." She led the way up towards her room. "Now, we're both 'dults. Let's just take this nice an' orderly."
Rainbow snorted out a laugh. "AJ, this is not something you take 'nice and orderly'." He advanced, sniffing gently at AJ. She smelled so much nicer, as a stallion. What did stallion noses smell that mare noses did not? "But!"
"But?" Applejack peeked over her shoulder.
"But." Rainbow sat and brought her hooves together. "But, that doesn't mean we don't care. If either of us doesn't like how something feels, we say something, and we stop and get it right. This should be a great moment, between us. None of it should hurt, or we're doing it wrong."
"An' we don't want that." Applejack swatted Rainbow across the snout with her tail. "Alright, if we're doin' this... Let's get 'er done." She led the way into her room, kicking the door shut once Rainbow was past the door. "Now, jus' to be crystal clear, ah ain't never done this before."
"I have, um... as a mare." Rainbow laughed nervously. "But that means I know what I don't want a stallion doing. So, leave it to me." He thumped himself on the chest, standing proudly. "'Cause Rainbow Dash is gonna make your evening special!"
And so it was that they got to know each other in a whole new way.