“That should be it!” The Princess of Equestria proclaims, “I think we can call this meeting of the Council of Friendship a complete success!” Princess Twilight lights up her aura and starts to collect every pony’s parchment spread out around the old Cutie Map table and floats it over to Spike.
“Oh, does it have to be over so soon?” Fluttershy asks in her usual timid tone, “Surely something interesting has happened in the past month?”
“I wish there was,” Twilight answers with a sigh.
“Perhaps we could stay a little longer if a certain pair of ponies would actually consider joining us?” Rarity shouts, not so subtly calling out Applejack and Rainbow Dash for their lack of participation. Shocked by the raised voice, RD jumps up into a defensive position over the large table and AJ stumbles out of her chair.
“I am terribly sorry, darlings,” Rarity continues, “but the two of you had barely said a word during the entire meeting. I only mention it because, well, I for one am worried.”
Rainbow slowly lowers herself to the ground and helps Applejack back up from the floor. The two mares look at each other for a moment until Rainbow finally speaks softly to the shaking earth pony.
“I think now is the time to tell them.” Rainbow’s voice came out in a somber tone and very unlike her. She helps AJ back on all four hoofs and the pair faces their friends.
“Tell us what?” Twilight asks.
“You two aren’t fighting again, are you?” Fluttershy asks.
“Goodness, I hope not,” exclaimed Rarity, “I don’t think the students can handle another Teacher of the Month incident! It was difficult enough to clear things up after Rainbow and I had our disagreement!”
“(Gasp) Don’t tell me there is another parasprite infestation in Ponyville!” Pinkie Pie yells out.
“Pinkie,” Twilight calls out in a slightly raised voice, “what in Equestria makes you think THAT is their problem?”
“I was just thinking worst case scenario,” Pinkie replies with a smile, “I just gave away all of my instruments to make room in my party cave for the Cakes’ stuff since Pound and Pumpkin are getting their own rooms soon!”
“Um, girls,” Fluttershy’s timid voice speaks up again, “why don’t we let Applejack and Rainbow tell us what is going on?”
It was only now that the other ponies noticed their quiet friends obviously holding something back. Applejack’s head was slumped and her body was shaking all over as if she were straining to hold up the air above her. Rainbow wrapped her wing around the earth pony and looked down on her like she does when her beloved tortoise goes into hibernation. The touchingly sweet scene lured Twilight closer.
“Is there something wrong?” Twilight asks, leaning low enough to see Applejack’s eyes.
“No, sugarcube.” Applejack answers, finally speaking for the first time since she walked in the door. With a small smile she looks up a bit and continues.
“It’s just the opposite.” Applejack turns her head and nuzzles the side of her face in Rainbow’s neck fur, “go on and tell ‘em”
“(sharp inhale) me and Applejack are dating.” Rainbow Dash proudly proclaims, “and we have been for a while.”
“YEEEEES!” Pinkie Pie cries out, leaping over the Cutie Map and literally tackling the couple with a hug so tight both sets of eyes almost pop out. The other three ponies, and dragon, join in the group hug as happy squeals come from them all. Soon the six of them released their grips and backed away to start with the questioning. All except for Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing like a pinball around the massive room shouting, “I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!!!”
“You did!?!” the remaining six collectively ask Pinkie as she came to a stop in the middle of the group.
“Uh, yeah, sillies!” Pinkie confidently proclaims, “I notice the two of them were hanging out on their own a lot ever since Twilight moved to Ponyville but didn’t think much of it because friends can do friendly things without all of their friends. But then I talked about it with Gummy and he thought they were dating and I said ‘Whaaaaat? No way!’ But then it started making since they were having one friendly competition after another after another after another. So, I finally asked if everything was ok with them, and they told me-(smack) mmph mmph mmph?”
Rainbow had stuffed her hoof in Pinkie’s mouth and continued where she stopped her, “We told her everything was fine, but that me and Applejack were dealing with personal problems we promised to keep to ourselves. And that was good enough to stop her from looking into it.” Rainbow removes her hoof as Pinkie looks at her a bit confused.
“Sorry, Pinkie,” says Rainbow, “but that was our secret to tell, not yours.”
“We wanted to tell everyone of y’all about us for a while now,” Applejack adds, “but we had to make sure this was more than just a flash in a pan.”
“And it definitely is more than that,” Rainbow says as she walks up to her mare-friend, wrapping her with her wing again and pecks a kiss on AJ’s freckles. The remaining five watches as the pair cuddles up to soak in the image, tears of joy waters their eyes with the only sound being a coo from Rarity.