//------------------------------//
// Get On With It! 
// Story: Blessing's 
// by BubbaBrick 
//------------------------------//

Several weeks go by as the pair of lovers work hard behind each other’s back to plan the perfect proposal. What could be called a testament to how well the two mares knew each other, both planned it to take place at the end of the Running of the Leaves Festival. That way the two of them could use the festival as an excuse to get away from each other long enough to put their respective plans into motion. Not to mention it was at this very festival not too many moons ago where they had their first of many competitions. Although both of them regret how competitive they got, it was still the moment where the seeds of their love were planted. 
Rainbow Dash had sent invitations to every Apple she could think of so that all of Applejack’s family could be there for the big question. Definitely a great treat since the Apple Family rarely gets together as a whole. Applejack’s plan was similar, but with more friends than family. Rainbow Dash had become so busy with her Wonderbolt career lately her social life had suffered. So, AJ had sent invitations to all of RD’s friends. From Gilda to the recently retired Spitfire, Daring Do to Kerfuffle, even Miss Harshwhinny. And of course, her parents.
The easiest way for RD and AJ to keep their secrets was to spend less time together. Which went well, except for the poorly timed monthly Friendship Council meeting the day before the festival. This time, the meeting is being held at Rarity’s Canterlot Carousel Boutique so the fashionista and her store manager, Sassy Saddles, can make a new fall ensemble for the group. Once again, the dating pair had nothing to offer in regard to friendship. They were so anxious to get out of there, they didn’t even pay attention to Twilight talking about getting herself a colt-friend.
“Ok, girls!” Rarity calls out, “we have everything we need for the newest Friendship Ensemble of Fall, all that’s left is…” not waiting for Rarity to finish her sentence, Applejack and Rainbow jump at the opportunity to excuse themselves.
“Oh, that’s awesome, Rarity!” Rainbow begins, “that’s great, but I’m afraid I have to get going. I just remembered I have to um… Approve some things back at headquarters for the Wonderbolt show tomorrow, so… See you girls at the festival!” RD bolts out, leaving messed up manes and knocked over mannequins in her wake.
Applejack shakes her mane back to its natural look and adjusts her hat before excusing herself as well, “that reminds me, I got to get going, too. I promised uhh… Sugar Belle I’d show her how to cook some traditional food for the festival.” She gallops out, not even giving her friends a chance to say bye.
“Well, that was quite rude.” Rarity states as her horn lights up and she uses her magic to straighten up the knocked over displays.
“I don’t like to call any creature rude, but I have to agree with Rarity.” Fluttershy comments.
“Any idea what the heck that was all about?” Twilight asks.
“Maybe they just really wanted to have sex?” Pinkie suggests.
“PINKIE!” the other three ponies cry out.
“What? You asked for ‘any idea,’ and that was mine.”
After a collective face-hoof, the bewildered trio go back to talking about AJ and RD while Pinkie finishes off the treats she brought to the meeting.
“I doubt they are fighting again,” Fluttershy brings up.
“I agree, darling,” says Rarity, “those two have been almost insufferably open ever since they told us about their relationship. It hardly seems possible that both of them would be keeping their issues hidden from any of us.”
“Excuse me, Miss Rarity?” Sassy speaks up, “while I cannot speak for Miss Dash, perhaps Miss Applejack has some last-minute things to do for the marriage proposal.”
“The what?” Rarity asks in surprise as the other three perk up their ears.
Sassy’s aura lights up around her horn as she levitates her accessory bag in from the back room and pulls out a decorated piece of paper. She uses her magic to unfold it, revealing that it was an invitation to Applejack’s marriage proposal to Rainbow Dash. As the four friends read it, their collective jaws slowly drop.
“Wait, none of you knew!?!” Sassy asks in an almost panic.
Three of them simply shake their head ‘no’ still speechless at both the proposal idea and the fact AJ didn’t tell them what she planned to do. However, Pinkie couldn’t stay quiet.
“But, but, but, but, but, but, what!?! That can’t be!?! Applejack isn’t supposed to propose to Rainbow because Rainbow is going to propose to Apple…” Pinkie shuts herself up quickly by slapping her hooves over her mouth, but not quick enough. The focus of the awestruck ponies, which now included Sassy, switches to Pinkie.
“Pinkie,” Rarity says, “would you be a dear and please explain what you were just about to say?”
With extreme reluctance, Pinkie started to tell all, with her balloon like mane slowly deflating as she went on, “I started to get letters from my parents and all three of my sisters last week asking me what kind of engagement party I was going to throw, but I had no idea what they were talking about. Instead of writing them back, I just went to see Maud and asked her. She showed me an invitation from Rainbow Dash addressed to all Apple Family Members, and since the Apple’s and Pie’s might be distant cousins they counted as family. Like that one, it was an invitation to a surprise proposal, but switched to Rainbow proposing to Applejack. But Mom, Dad, and my sisters all thought I knew what was going on since me, Rainbow, and Applejack are so close.”
“So why didn’t you ask Rainbow or us about it?” Twilight asks.
“I thought about it, but Maud convinced me that Rainbow must have wanted the whole thing to be a surprise to Applejack, so she decided not to tell me, or any of you, about it so that there was no chance of it slipping to Applejack.”
“That does make since,” says Twilight, looking down to the floor with a hoof on her chin.
“Maybe Applejack is doing the same thing,” Rarity suggests, “she is also keeping us in the dark to lower the chances of Rainbow hearing about it through us.”
“But what about us, their best friends, how were WE going to hear about the proposals!?!” Pinkie asks in a frantic. A few moments of silence pass before Fluttershy speaks up.
“Well, maybe they didn’t think of inviting us because they know we are going to be there anyway. Rarity, you will be there selling fall and winter accessories. Pinkie, you are the event organizer and announcer. Twilight, it is your royal duty to attend and present the rewards to the runners. And I am in charge of the animal choirs who will be singing throughout the festival.”
After another moment of thought, the other three council members nod in agreement. 
“Wait a minute,” Pinkie speaks up, “that means the Rainbow Dash and Applejack are going to get married!?!” With all the confusion out of the way, the four friends huddle together in a collective squeal-fest leading to a group hug.
“Umm, ladies,” Sassy speaks up, “I hate to spoil the moment, but how are these surprise proposals going to work at the same time? As I understand it, you have a massive schedule conflict in the works. Not to mention if either Miss Dash or Miss Applejack recognizes any of the special invitees, the surprise could be ruined!”
Still entangled in their group hug, the four pony’s faces go from pure joy to sudden panic with the only audible sound being a Fluttershy, “oh dear.”
They break off from their hug and start to silently ponder this new problem. They pace around the room in deep thought until Twilight finally breaks the silence.
“I think all we need is a bit of… organization.”

The anticipated day finally arrives, the day of the Running of the Leaves Festival. Throughout all of Ponyville, fall themed activities dominated the streets. Most of the crowds were made up of ponies, of course, but many other creatures were also present. Including the many creatures from Twilight’s School of Friendship taking in this cultural experience. Everywhere you looked there was laughter and excitement, except for two of the ponies who were lining up for the main event. Despite putting on brave faces for the crowd, both Rainbow Dash and Applejack were really scared as they moved up to the start line with the other competitors. Neither of them had seen any of their respective invited guests all day and both were thinking worst case scenarios again. 
“Uh, Professors?” The two mares were suddenly jerked back into reality by a group of their students.
“Smolder,” Rainbow Dash yells out, “don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Sneak up on you?” The orange dragon replies, “we all have been talking to both of you since we got on the track!”
“Weren’t you listening to us?” Asks Sandbar.
“Mighty sorry about that,” Applejack replies, “guess we’re just so focus on the umm… race, we weren’t paying much attention to anything else.” Again, AJ avoids looking at RD thinking she’ll see right through her fake smile.
“That’s not the only thing that’s on your all’s mind,” Gallus snickers under his breath.
“Gallus,” Silverstream says with a sharp poke into Gallus’ ribs.
“Uh ok, anyway, what were you asking” says Rainbow Dash looking for any distraction from her missing guests and AJ.
“I still feel unsure about us non-ponies competing,” Ocellus exclaims, “having changelings, hippogriffs, dragons, yaks, and griffins going against ponies just doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s like I was saying,” Sandbar replies, “the point of the race isn’t to see who is the fastest, the point is getting the leaves down to prepare for winter and have fun with friends or make new ones.”
“Sandbar would know since Sandbar is pony,” Yona explains as she wraps one of her large hoofs around her special-some-pony. Sandbar replies by nuzzling his face in the yak’s fur. The two of them with their public display of affection weren’t making Applejack or Rainbow Dash feel any better. Silverstream notices and quickly goes back to conversation.
“And besides! Us flyers don’t usually run, so there’s our challenge, Ocellus!”
“Double challenge for me,” Smolder adds, “I had to practice running on all fours for this since I never would have stood a chance against quadrupeds.”
“That’s a big word for you! Can you spell it?” teases Gallus.
“Sure, I’ll even write it out for you in your own feathers!” Smolder replies.
The six young friends continue their playful banter on either side of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but both were once again lost in a haze of worry and disappointment. Their respective plans apparently failing before they ever got started. They each looked at the other out of the corner of their eye, both considering coming clean about the whole thing but were too depressed to do so. They would have stayed there planted like old oak trees until the end of time if it wasn’t for Pinkie’s booming announcement that the race was about to begin. They looked up just in time to see Twilight in full regalia drop the symbolic first leaf of fall to start the race.
Right as the leaf touched the ground, all the racers took off and began thundering down Ponyville’s main street out of town and into the surrounding woods. AJ and RD were only half-heartedly running and were quickly falling behind even on the short sprint to the woods. Little did they know that Twilight and the others’ plan was well underway. 

Several minutes pass and the two depressed mares continue to trot slowly through the auburn-colored woods. Despite wishing to be with any other creature right now at the same time neither of them wants to be alone. Desperately, each of them looks around trying to focus their attention on anything but each other. The whole time nothing but negative thoughts about their relationship ending horribly raced through their minds. At last the weight of the awkward silence and shattered dreams was finally too much for Applejack, who started to trot even slower. She looked up at her lover’s flank as she passed and started to gather as much strength as she could for what was to be the hardest moment of her life.
“Rainbow Dash,” Applejack says with a bit of a whimper.
RD, also internally drowning in impending grief, takes a big gulp as she prepares to disappoint her lover, “Yeah, Applejack?”
But before anything else could be said, both of them hear sounds of shouting coming from ahead of them on the trail. The two mares listen and recognize Gallus’ voice as well as others overlapping each other. AJ and RD look back at each other and simply nod before running up the trail. They quickly find Gallus, Smolder, and Sandbar yelling at each other while Yona, Ocellus, and Silverstream try to hold the three aggressors back. All six of them have some amount of dirt and mud on them. When the mares got close enough, Applejack lets out a loud and long whistle that got every creature’s attention.
“What is going on with you guys?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“Oh nothing,” Gallus responds with some sarcastic snark before raising his voice again, “except I’m running with a bunch of cheaters!”
“What makes you think they are cheating?” asks Applejack?
“Smolder pushed me off the side of the trail and I went into the ditch!”
“I told you!” Smolder yells out, “I only bumped you because Sandbar bumped me!”
“And I didn’t touch anyone!” says Sandbar, “I was minding my own business until you two tackled the rest of us in the ditch with you!”
With that everyone in the group started shouting and arguing again, until Applejack whistled again and silenced them once more.
“What are you guys doing?” Rainbow says as she spreads her forelegs at the group, “don’t you remember what we taught you all? Friendship is always more important than a competition!”
“And being poor sports makes a rotten apple out of all of ya.” Applejack adds, “whatever happened here was clearly an accident and ya’ll should know each other well enough that none of ya would do such a thing!”
Rather quickly, the six friends looked at each other, smiled, and came together in a group hug with apologizes all around. Before running off, they all looked at Rainbow Dash and applejack with smiles.
“Who better to remind us of the ‘friend’ in ‘friendly competition’ than the best competing friends in town?” says Gallus.
Knowing he was joking AJ and RD laugh a bit until they end up looking at each other for the first real time all day. As their eyes lock, both of them start having flashbacks to their many friendly competitions over the years and during this very race. All the times they made fools of themselves for the sake of winning, and all the times they competed just to be with each other. Remembering how they fell in love during all of those stupid and pointless competitions. And now, realizing they didn’t need some grandiose proposal, just themselves. 
“AJ, we need to talk about something important.” Rainbow says with a nervous quiver.
“I got something important, too, Dashie.” Applejack answers as they reach for each other’s hooves.
“Save it for the end,” Smolder butts in, “let’s all finish this race, together!”
The eight friends line up for an impromptu restart and all take off together. This time, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were running like they mean it and were pulling ahead. Behind them, the six friends were all high fiving each other for a job well done.

No one in the group was seeing any of the other racers, but at this point they didn’t care anymore. Applejack and Rainbow Dash knew and accepted that none of them was going to win the race but being together with friends was more important. They occasionally looked back at the young six and encouraged them to keep going and to try and pass them, but they never do. 
Finally, they make the final turn and can see the finish line ahead. AJ and RD look at each other and, in their unspoken language, go for one last dash to the end. With the crowd cheering as if it was a battle for the win, they both charge up the final sprint and cross the line at the same time. The cheers continue as the mares slow to a stop and plop on the ground from exhaustion, using the last of their energy to crawl up to each other and share a muzzle nuzzle.
“I think we are getting too old for this, Dashie.” Applejack says with a pant.
Rainbow giggles, “you might be right, but let’s keep that to ourselves.”
As they lay there, the sun slowly gets blocked out as Twilight and Spike leans in over top of them.
“At least we didn’t lose to her again,” Rainbow says with a laugh, quickly followed by Applejack’s laughing.
“If you two are ready,” Twilight says with a sly look on her face, “there are some ponies who want to see you.”
With help up from Twilight and Spike, the tired ponies look around and start noticing who all was in the crowd. They became more and more bewildered with each face they pick out. Distant family and friends practically surround them, all with smiles and tears of joy in their eyes. The two lovers turn round and round until they finally stop to face each other.
“Did you…? But I…? How did…?” they both stammer in disbelief. Even before Twilight started moving into the center of the circle with them, they both knew what was coming next. Twilight gives them each a box with her magic, and Rainbow Dash is the first to drop to her knee.
“I swear, I had a speech ready for this,” she says while trying and failing to hold back the tears, “but I don’t think I can get through it now.”
“So did I, Sugarcube,” AJ replies, also failing to hold back the tears, “but I won’t get through mine neither.”
“So can we just skip to the part where you say ‘yes?’” RD opens her box.
“Only if you say ‘yes’ with me.” And AJ opens hers.
“YES, I WILL MERRY YOU!” they both shout out so every creature for miles could hear it. The crowd cheers even louder than before as the Wonderbolts take off and preform a fireworks display. Various Apple’s start bucking apples into the air where they collide into each other and explode, raining down a light sprinkle of apple juice over all who was there.
Despite the near hundred creatures celebrating for them, Applejack and Rainbow Dash could only see each other as they lean in for their first public kiss. A passionate kiss that probably would have gone on forever if it wasn’t for the bouncing Pinkie Pie diving in for a tackling hug. The now engaged pair couldn’t be mad at her and just hugged her back. Twilight, Spike, Rarity, and Fluttershy weren’t far behind to add to the pile, all expressing how happy they all were for them.
“How did you guys do this?” Rainbow finally asks as the hug ends and they all start making their way into the crowd.
The group explains how after yesterday’s meeting Sassy Saddles told them about the invite she got from Applejack, which lead to Pinkie telling them about the invites her sisters got from Rainbow Dash.
“It didn’t take us long to realize it was going to be near impossible for either of you to hide such a large group of ponies from the other,” explains Twilight, “so I might have asked Spike to collect them before the festival started.”
“It was a good thing too,” Spike adds, “a lot of the Apple’s Rainbow invited were already talking to you some of Rainbow’s friends Applejack invited and were quickly putting two and two together!”
“Which would’ve ruined both of your plans,” Twilight concludes.
“Wow, Dashie,” says Applejack as she nuzzles her face into Rainbow’s neck.
“Anything for my Number One Mare,” Rainbow says followed by a kiss on AJ’s forehead, “but how did you know who to invite?”
“We might’ve had something to do with that,” Windy says as she comes out of the crowd with Bow and Granny Smith wrapped up in his wing. Close behind them was Big Mac with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo on his back, all smiling and puffy eyed from crying. The seven of them huddle together for their first family hug and the tears start all over again until the littlest two speak up.
“Wait a minute, that means me and Scootaloo are sisters?” Apple Bloom asks in excitement.
“It does!” Scootaloo remarks. The two fillies jump out of the family hug and into their own little hug screaming, “I have another sister! I have another sister!” Everyone else chuckles.
“Uh excuse me, we helped too!” Gallus says from somewhere. Rainbow and AJ whip around to see Gallus hovering over the other five students of theirs.
“Gallus!” the five of them yell out in annoyance as Yona pulls him down to ground level.
“Well,” Gallus continues, “I think we deserve a ‘thank you’ for throwing away our chances at winning the race for them. After all, if we didn’t fake that fight, they would’ve moped through the woods all day. Then how would all of this…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Applejack and Rainbow hug him from both sides.
“Thank you, Sugarcube,” Applejack says.
“You are still a jerk, though,” Rainbow adds.
“Meh, I’ve been called worse,” Gallus responds, wrapping his claws around the mares. The rest of the students gather round for one last group hug that was finished off by an eyepopping hug from Yona.

Many hours later, as the sun sets over the hills surrounding Ponyville, Applejack and Rainbow Dash rendezvous on the edge of town. They managed to sneak off from the party that was still going on strong for some much-needed alone time. They stared into each other’s eyes for a minute, chuckled, and then collapsed to the ground next to each other. The evening dusk slowly turned to night and the stars started to light up, and the now engaged lovers laid there in a content silence. 
“I think Apple Dash has a nice ring to it,” Rainbow says breaking the silence.
Applejack laughs, “You mean for you, right?”
They both share a laugh then quickly stop as they lock eyes.
“It doesn’t matter,” says Rainbow Dash in a soft voice, “you can call me snowflake for all I care, I will still love you with all my heart.”
“Oh, Dash,” Applejack says, “I have never loved anyone as much as I love you.”
And with that, Applejack and Rainbow Dash lean in and kiss each other passionately as a pair of shooting stars flash overhead.