//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Ace Flier // by nixf //------------------------------// They say that the shortest period of time is the instant between when you make a mistake, and when you realise it. However that was for normal ponies, Rainbow Dash was cut from better cloth. She was so far ahead of the average pony that she knew that it was a bad idea to ask out Applejack before she did it. Of course, she still went ahead and did it anyway. The second the words were out of her lips Rainbow Dash already knew that the evening was going to be an absolute disaster. Applejack wasn't looking for a night out with a friend, she was going to expect Rainbow Dash to court her. The problem was that Rainbow Dash didn't know the first thing about how to actually date anyone. Was there a list of rules she was meant to follow? Was she meant to kiss Applejack or something? This date had to go well, otherwise, she would make a mess of Twilight's herding plan, but she also knew that she had no idea what she was doing. Now she only had a few short hours before she was expected to be the perfect romantic partner. "Sometimes it's a curse to be the fastest in every way possible. You don't have time to actually think." Rainbow Dash groaned as she landed back at her cloud home, shoving open the door with a well-placed shoulder charge. She stomped through the living room like an unhappy filly before throwing herself dramatically on the couch. "I should've done something else, anything else. This is going to be such a bad idea." "What's a bad idea?" A voice suddenly asked quietly. Rainbow Dash would never admit that she let out an adorably loud squeal when she jumped out of the couch to see Twilight sitting in her living room already. "Twilight, what are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash asked in a panic, hoping that she hadn't said anything too bad in front of her friend. "Aren't you meant to be dealing with royal stuff in Canterlot? Twilight snorted, "Rarity wouldn't let me go back to the nobles without first talking with you. Do you have any idea how hard it is to read through a friendship balance sheet while your marefriend won't stop pacing and muttering to herself?" "I've never had a marefriend, so I can't say I would know. Is she still stressing out about the herd stuff?" Rainbow Dash replied with an eye roll. "Yeah, and I shared her concern. You ran off as soon as we asked you," Twilight sighed. "I really do want you to join, but I also don't want you to feel compelled to do so. If you're not comfortable with this, please tell us." "You don't have to worry about this anyway. I had a talk with Fluttershy and Pinkie. Also, I might've accidentally blabbed to Applejack about the whole herd thing," Rainbow Dash admitted, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "I hope that wasn't meant to be a secret or something." "It's not meant to be a secret, though I think Rarity was hoping to try and dramatically ask her out. Trying to keep a secret from Applejack is harder than failing a history exam anyway." Twilight responded with a shrug before biting her lip nervously. "So, you said you talked with the others about it?" "Flutters and Pinkie tried to be helpful about it all I guess," Rainbow Dash responded. "So, what did you decide to do?" Twilight asked nervously. "Well, I had a long talk with Applejack about it," Rainbow Dash continued, trying to ignore the fact that Twilight was almost bouncing on her hooves in anticipation. "And she convinced me to go for it." "That's great" Twilight threw her forelegs around Rainbow Dash, pulling the smaller pegasus into a tight embrace that was near as constricting as a patented Pinkie Pie cuddle. Rainbow Dash made an attempt to free herself, before giving up. She was awesome but Twilight's alicorn strength was beyond her, and she actually didn't mind that much. "I enjoy breathing," Rainbow Dash huffed as she managed to get a hoof free from Twilight, using the extra leverage to pry away one of her forelegs. "I'm not all in just yet, Applejack convinced me to go on a date with her first to see if I like it." "Is that what you were worried about earlier" "Pretty much, I don't exactly have that much experience with dating. I really don't want to mess it up, you know," Rainbow Dash admitted. "Well, I could always help you prepare?" Twilight offered. "I made a lot of notes on how to approach all of you and what were good topics to discuss. Let me just go get my notes. Maybe Rarity can help as well." "Wait, I don't think t-" Rainbow tried to protest. "Don't worry. Rarity and I will make sure that you are prepared to properly date her" Twilight finally pulled away from her. "I'll see you back here in three minutes." Twilight Sparkle disappeared in a flash of magical energy, leaving Rainbow Dash alone. "I think I may have just made a bigger mess," Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. It took a painful hour of lecturing for Rarity and Twilight to finally decide to allow Rainbow Dash to head off on her date. An hour of lecturing that Rainbow Dash utterly failed to absorb in any way. Rarity had also volunteered to handle Rainbow Dash's outfit for the evening and she naturally chose something that completely restricted Rainbow Dash's wings. Something that Rainbow Dash made sure to complain about in the hope that Rarity would finally learn to remember that she had wings.x` So, it was a very grumpy Rainbow Dash who was currently trotting up the dirt road to Sweet Apple Acres. Of course, she did her best to put on a happy face by the time she reached the farmhouse and rapped her hoof against the door. "Hey Dash," Applejack's smiling face quickly appeared as she gave Rainbow Dash a quick visual once over. "You're looking pretty snazzy in that outfit. I'm guessing Rarity found out about our date?" "Of course, she did. Twilight told her instantly," Rainbow Dash huffed, noting that Applejack was wearing a much less constricting bit of formal wear. Rarity would probably have a fit if she saw the farm mare. "Now come on, this stupid dress is already making my neck itch." "I'm surprised that she managed to get you into that cute little number." Applejack pointed out as she closed the door behind her and joined Dash in her slow trot back towards Ponyville. "I'm not little," Rainbow Dash complained. "Normally I would've stopped her. I can't even properly flap my wings in this stupid thing. I don't think Rarity understands how much pegasi hate having their wings covered. Either that or she wanted to make sure I didn't fly ahead when I was on a date." "Knowing her, it was probably that second reason," Applejack mused. "Sounds like that mare put you through the wringer preparing for this." "You have no idea," Rainbow Dash muttered darkly. "Just be happy you didn't have to sit an hour while Twilight lectured you on century-old earth pony marriage rituals. Apparently, earth ponies use to literally tie rope knots. Literally!" "Sounds fun," Applejack laughed, though she did try to not be too happy at Rainbow Dash's misfortune. "I'm guessing that Twilight and Rarity were less than helpful?" "Are you planning on asking me to plant a flower to demonstrate my ability to make life bloom?" "Nope." "Then it was exactly as useful as you think," Rainbow Dash trailed off as they neared the restaurant. "Time to be all romantic and stuff, I guess." Applejack just laughed. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash's brilliant plan hit its first roadblock, the restaurant's hostess. The mare was a green earth pony called Tealove, and she was not a fan of Rainbow Dash. "Who is the booking under?" Tealove asked, looking straight at Applejack and refusing to even flick her eyes in the direction of Rainbow Dash. "I didn't make a booking," Rainbow Dash admitted with no small amount of embarrassment. In all honesty, it was an early Wednesday night in Ponyville. She could see that there were empty tables. "Can we have a table for two?" "We're full up," Tealove responded with a huff, flicking her hoof at Rainbow Dash. "Perhaps you could try someplace with more capacity for walk-ins. I presume that the Hay Burger will suit you." "Be nice, Tealove" Applejack interrupted before Rainbow Dash could be impulsive. "We're just here to have dinner, and I know that you could find a table for me. It's not a busy night, after all." There was an awkward silence as Tealove shot Rainbow Dash a venomous look, before rolling her eyes and gesturing for them to enter. Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly settled into their seats, ordering their respective meals was also a painless affair. Rainbow Dash was relieved to see that they actually had what she wanted on the menu, and it wasn't even in the foal's section this time. However, with their meals ordered, that meant that they had to begin the dreaded first date talk. Rainbow Dash didn't really have any idea where to begin, knowing that she probably would not care about the weather. Thankfully Applejack broke the silence. "There's a chance that mare doesn't like you," Applejack pointed out, gesturing towards Tealove, the sarcasm dry on her lips. "What did you do, crash into her house?" "I honestly couldn't tell you," Rainbow Dash responded with her own eye roll, "We used to get on well enough, but I apparently talked with her stallion too much or something?" "You talked to her stallion? What did she mean by that?" "She thought I was flirting with him." "You hit on her partner without noticing? How in Equestria did you manage that?" "I don't know. They were talking about the weather patterns with me for an hour and she kind of stormed over and told me off. It was super weird." Rainbow Dash tried to explain. "You talked about the weather for an hour?" Applejack raised an eyebrow. "They actually knew the difference between a cumulus and a cirrus cloud," Rainbow Dash exclaimed "Do you have any idea how few ponies actually care about that stuff? I work with weather pegasi who don't know the name of the cloud they are currently bucking." "Yeah, but you talked about the weather for an hour!" "Yeah! Tealove acted as if no pony would ever want to talk about the weather." Rainbow Dash fumed. "Apparently talking to somepony about something you do daily somehow means you want to get them on your back." "Were you interested in him?" "I don't know, I just liked talking to them. I also like talking to you. I don't see the big deal." Their conversation was briefly interrupted by the waiter, however this time it was considerably easier for Dash to choose something to order. She didn't even have to resort to the foal's menu to get them to add fish fingers with her salmon. "You know, this actually explains a lot," Applejack mused as they returned to their previous conversation. "The girls and I all used to think that your barn door didn't swing our way." "Half of Equestria thinks that I'm into mares just because I have a rainbow mane," Rainbow Dash snorted. "What made you think I wasn't?" "You seemed to never be interested," Applejack shrugged. "Fluttershy has been fluffing her tail at you for the past few months and you never even glanced in her direction. It seems that no matter how close you two got it never went further than that. You never even wanted to preen together." "Preening with others is weird." "Dash, I don't have wings but even I know that it's not uncommon for friends to preen together. Fluttershy showed Twilight how to do it." "Can we drop this?" Rainbow Dash groaned, staring at the ceiling and wishing that she could end the date early and no longer have to deal with Applejack's questions. "I have not been able to eat a bite since this morning. I don't like arguing on an empty stomach." "It's not like you to skip meals?" "The place Rarity and Twi took me to didn't exactly have very good food," Rainbow Dash complained, "They managed to completely butcher a hay burger. Like, how do you manage to overcook the bun? It's a bun. You throw it in the pan to crisp it up and then you are done, even Ditzy could have done a better job." "Was that the only reason you left?" "Well, there was the whole herd thing as well. Do I want to deal with Rarity acting all swoony, and have a burnt lunch?" Rainbow Dash shrugged, "What do you think about this herd thing? I bet you never thought of dating all five of us before." "My younger self might have been surprised by it. But that mare changed her mind a long time ago." Applejack admitted with a shrug. "What do you mean by that?" "I'm sure you felt it as well. The day when we all stood together with the Elements of Harmony powering themselves through the connection between us. I knew that instant that there was a bond between all of us that was special. I may not have entirely worked out how deep the connection was, but to form a herd isn't all that outlandish." "So you went from never dating, to knowing you wanted to be with us?" Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, wondering if Applejack was keeping something from her. "How do you know we just aren't really good friends and you just need to find the right one to date?" "I'll be honest, I use to think that there was a pony out there that I would have the same spark with. A pony that I would settle down with and raise a family." Applejack sighed. "You know, there were quite a few ponies over the years that caught my eye. None of them worked out, and none of them even compared to the six of us." "Wait, you've dated before?" "Hasn't everypony our age?" Applejack rolled her eyes. "Well yeah, of course." Dash lied, not willing to admit that the closest thing she had ever had to a relationship was a weird few days with Fluttershy back in flight school. "I just figured you were married to your farm or something." "I've since learned a little bit more about sharing my time with those I care about," Applejack admitted. "What about you, apart from us, has there been any other pony who caught your eye?" "I get that question from Rarity, constantly," Rainbow Dash complained. "Surely you are okay with answering it one more time." "I think I'd prefer to talk about anything else." As the night progressed, Rainbow Dash quickly discovered that going on a dinner date was not doing much to help her work out if she wanted to date Applejack. Rarity's romance books had mentioned feeling weird feelings whenever the main character fell in love, but Rainbow Dash felt nothing. Obviously, Rainbow Dash knew that she couldn't take a fictional story from Rarity as the most accurate source of information, Twilight would pluck her feathers if she did, but surely it was somewhat based on reality. Ultimately the date didn't feel much different to a normal meal with her friends, and that worried her. It wasn't the first time that she had eaten with only a few of her friends, and the awkwardness expected out of a first date never seemed to arrive. But the feeling of loving her friend also never seemed to happen. It was just dinner. She kept a close eye out for anything, but she did not see a single sign that Applejack was anything other than what she always been, a good friend. Unfortunately, the night drew to a close and Rainbow Dash was still seeing nothing. The two of them left the restaurant and Rainbow Dash still had no answers. Desperate to buy a few more minutes before giving up, Rainbow Dash offered to walk Applejack home. An offer that Applejack took with more enthusiasm than she expected. Together with the two of them slowly trotted back to Applejack's farm, their attention only on each other and ignorant of any unwanted observers. Rainbow Dash nervously trailed behind Applejack, worried about whether she had done a good enough job for Applejack to want to continue dating. However, the thing that scared her the most was the small part of her that was hoping that Applejack would call this whole charade a sham. That slim chance that Applejack would be the one to call everything off so that Rainbow Dash didn't need to. "Well, here we are sugar," Applejack paused at the gate that led into the far, reaching out a hoof around Rainbow Dash. She pulled the pegasi into a tight embrace and gave her a quick nuzzle. "Yeah, here we are?" Rainbow Dash returned, mentally cursing how uncertain she sounded. Rainbow Dash didn't know what to do with her own hooves. She briefly considered wrapping them around Applejack as well, but it just didn't feel quite right to her. So instead, she just awkwardly stood next to Applejack as the farm pony hugged her. Applejack hadn't done much of the lovey-dovey stuff that Rarity's novels had said would happen apart from the hug. Rainbow Dash hadn't even seen a hint of the no magic spark thing either. She had even failed to get lost in Applejack's eyes, and Rarity had sworn that was basically compulsory. Rainbow Dash could only reach the conclusion that the date had been a complete failure. So she was shocked when Applejack gave her a nuzzle and told her the exact opposite. "I would say that this date has been quite the success," Applejack nudged Rainbow Dash before leaving her muzzle close to Rainbow Dash's own. "What do you say we properly end this date?" "Oh?" Rainbow Dash froze as her mind went into overdrive, before realising that Applejack wanted to kiss her. She flicked her eyes at Applejack's lips, wondering if this was her chance to finally know for sure. Twilight and Rarity had been in agreement that kissing was a great way to show that you loved someone. So surely it would help Rainbow Dash work out her confused thoughts and know for sure that she loved her friends. "Of course!" Rainbow Dash didn't exactly know what to do next, so she just waited as Applejack closed the gap between them. She waited in anticipation for the feeling of warmth or explosions, or whatever Rarity's novels said would happen next. However, nothing happened. Instead, Rainbow Dash became intensely aware of the fact that Applejack was pushing her lips against her own and Rainbow Dash's teeth were awkwardly pressing against the back of her lip. It wasn't the mind-blowing experience that she was promised. Instead, she just sat there awkwardly waiting for Applejack to finish. Thankfully she pulled away only a few seconds later, pausing to look into Rainbow Dash's own eyes with a weird feeling of closeness between them. Rainbow Dash suppressed a shiver. "I love you," Applejack told her softly, one of her hooves rubbing against Rainbow Dash's arm. "I, um, love you too?" Rainbow Dash stuttered out. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she felt dirty like she had just sullied the entire experience. She did care deeply for her friends, but it still felt like she was lying. At best she had told a half-truth to the element of honesty, and Applejack had believed her. "I told you that you just needed to try it out for yourself," Applejack leant in for another nuzzle, before pulling away. "It's almost like we've known each other for years." Rainbow Dash was just relieved that it wasn't more kisses. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." Rainbow Dash awkwardly responded as Applejack walked up to her door. "I think you'll be seeing all of us a lot more." Rainbow Dash didn't trust her voice to respond, instead just nodded. "Goodnight Dashie," Applejack said with a smirk before heading inside. The second Rainbow Dash was home she shoved her face into the nearest pillow and screamed. The date had been a complete disaster, and the issue was not with Applejack. There was only one proper conclusion that Rainbow Dash had reached after the evening's intensely awkward ending, there was something wrong with Rainbow Dash. Rarity had told her endlessly that kissing somepony you care about is meant to be a feeling of impassioned expression or some rubbish like that. However, for Rainbow Dash, she could only think of one way to describe a kiss; boring. Clearly, there was something very wrong with Rainbow Dash. Either that or she was just somehow not seeing the obvious thing that all of her friends had already figured out. Everypony else seemed to understand what they wanted, and yet here she was trying to work out why something so obvious to everypony else was a mystery to her. Even Twilight knew exactly what she wanted, and yet here was Dash screaming into her pillow without an answer. Instead, she could feel herself getting angry at this stupid mess. Twilight and Rarity knew that they wanted to form a herd with their friends. Pinkie Pie wanted to kiss everyone. Applejack wanted to find a partner whom she could love and form an eternal bond with or something. Even Fluttershy knew that she wanted to date a mare. These were all things that they had known for years. However, she had no idea what she wanted. It was as if she was some foalish filly who had failed to ever grow up after getting her mark, forever stuck waiting to become an adult. She had ruined Rarity and Twilight's date by acting like she was still markless. She had nearly ruined Applejack's date by not liking being kissed. It was all so absolutely ridiculous. There was a part of her that just did not know how to work out this stuff, and she couldn't believe that even Fluttershy had figured it all out before her. She loved her friends; they were basically family after all of the adventures they had been on together. There was nothing that she wouldn't trust them with. If they all wanted to be together with her, then clearly they all understood something that she wasn't yet able to work out. Right now, Rainbow Dash knew that she was falling behind them. She knew that it was going to be a difficult task to catch up, but she had to do it before they were forced to leave her behind. Right now she felt like a filly surrounded by mares, but she wasn't going to let herself lose this race. She was born for speed, so surely she just needed to figure out the first step or two and then she'll be winning the race. She was going to make sure that she would be the Rainbow Dash that they already loved.