//------------------------------//
// III 
// Story: Burning Bridges 
// by Ninestempest 
//------------------------------//

	III
 
The familiar sound of hooves smacking against tree trunk rang out across the orchard that morning as Applejack proceeded with harvesting apples.  It may have been seven in the morning, but Applejack knew an early start would lead to less work later in the day.  She had cleared half an acre, and definitely didn’t feel remotely tired at all, especially after the previous night, where she had lied to both her mother and her now ex-marefriend about who she was really dating, giving her mom hopes that she knew wouldn’t last, and losing not only her marefriend, but probably her closest friend as well.
No, it was a lot easier to just work the farm.  The farm that she would basically be inheriting.  That she would have to manage without her brother’s help.  And now it looked like, without her marefriend.
She choked back a sudden onslaught of tears, causing her to miss her buck, her hind legs swinging through the air, the farmer then losing her balance and falling flat on her stomach.
The impact knocked the air out of her chest and made her hat fall over her face.  She coughed in an attempt to catch her breath, then reached up with a hoof to raise her hat, but somehow found another hoof already raising it.
“Ya’ll okay, Jackie?”  Apple Butter asked.
Applejack looked up at the lime-green mare, slowly getting to all fours.  “Ah’m fine, ma.”
“Where did ya learn to think that ya could lie to yer mother, Jackie?”
“Honest, ma, ah feel fine.  Fit as a fiddle.”
Apple Butter shook her head.  “It ain’t no use Jackie.  After... last night, with Rainbow Dash, ah had a talk with everypony else.  Big Mag, Applebloom, and Granny Smith.”
“What happened?”
“When ah mentioned Rainbow Dash, and the fact that ya blew her off, they all, uh, had a look on their face.  Ah think scared describes it pretty good.”
“Scared?”
Apple Butter nodded.  “Ah asked them if it meant anythin’, and the first thing that happened was Apple Bloom explained that ya both were great friends.  Racin’ every year in the Runnin’ of the Leaves, competin’ all the time, even goin’ campin’ together.”
“Ah coulda told ya that Rainbow Dash was mah best friend,” Applejack said.  “That ain’t no big deal.”
“Then Granny Smith told us,” Apple Butter continued, “That she’s been seeing the pegasus around a lot more often, and that last week she even helped paint a barn.  Said she saw you two talkin’ real close like sometimes too.”
Applejack didn’t know how Granny Smith could have possibly seen them “close up” all the way from the house, but she didn’t want to give up.  “Th-that doesn’t mean anythin’.”
“Then Big Macintosh decided to tell us that he knew, for a fact, that both of ya’ll had been datin’ for a while, and ya had even talked about it just before ah got to yer room last night.”
Applejack flinched.  “Oh.”
“Now, one last try, Applejack.  After lyin’ to yer mother and throwin’ out yer marefriend like she was nothin’, are ya okay?  Are ya really okay?”
Applejack suddenly felt exhausted.  Not just out of energy, but out of everything.  She was out of sadness for her tears, out of anger for her kicks, out of everything.  She wanted to run into one of her farm’s apple cellars, hide alone in the dark, and let whatever monsters her mind created in the blackness come to life and take her away.  What did it matter anyway?  She lost her best friend and a lover, and possibly her mother.  Ponies had run away after losing less, right?
Applejack lowered her gaze to the ground, her hat blocking her mother from her view.  “Ah-ah told you, everythin’s fine.”
Without warning, her hat was removed from her head.  She blinked, and looked up to see Apple Butter had taken the hat, and now wearing it herself.  “H-hey!”
“Ah gave this hat to my daughter when ah left her in the town of her birth.  Ah was leavin’ to settle a new town, and ah couldn’t bring her along.  Ah gave it to her to remember me by, as well as to keep her cool in the long, hard day’s she’d be workin’, days that ah had no right to force on her.  But ah guess it was misplaced.  This hat belongs to my daughter, not the likes of you.”  She calmly turned around and started a slow trot back home.
Applejack was gritting her teeth.  Somehow, somewhere in the reserves of her mind, she uncovered a last pail of anger, and decided that now was as good a time as any to use it.  She charged forward and slowed to a stop, turning as she slid so that she was directly in front of and facing her mother.  “Ya wanna know why ah lied to ya?  Ya wanna know why ah lied to somepony who was both my closest friend in all the years ya’ve been gone, and then one day, when ah needed it the most, told me she cared about me, loved me, and wanted to be my marefriend?”
Apple Butter stood in utter silence in response to her daugher’s tirade.
“Ah did it because you had just ripped yer own heart out, right in front of my face!  Ya told me every mistake ya made, every regret ya had, and how ah had done everythin’ so much better than ya could have hoped for!  So ya start askin’ me about a coltfriend, and yer really surprised that ah couldn’t tell ya that that was the one thing ah couldn’t do for ya?  That ah wouldn’t be startin’ a family with a nice stallion, havin’ kids, doing it right where you did it wrong?!  You didn’t even have to tell me how much it mattered.  It shone on yer face plainer than a full moon in the dead of night!  Ya had been askin’ me all day about mah special somepony, so who was ah to take that from ya?”  Applejack reached up and grabbed the hat off of her mother’s head, the staggered mare not moving an inch in response.  “So ah’m gonna take my hat that ya rightfully gave me when ya left me to the wolves, find a nice stallion in Ponyville, have me some foals, and run Sweet Apple Acres for the rest of my life, because that’s what my ma deserves.” She ended her rant by putting her hat back snugly on her head.
At first, Apple Butter didn’t move.  She was still as stone, and Applejack felt oddly smug about it.  Her anger was clouding her judgement, but she didn’t care.  She felt relieved.  But after a few moments, her mother’s face darkened.  Applejack swore she saw it turn a few shades darker.  Her eyes were glued to the ground, and after another moment, she got up and started making her way towards the house.  Applejack, perplexed, followed behind her.
“Hey.  Hey, ma?”  Applejack asked.
“Yer right.”
Apple Butter’s voice was barely above a whisper.  Applejack trotted up, side-by-side to her mother, and asked, “Say that again?”
“Yer right.  Every word.  Again.”  Applejack saw a few stray tears fall from her mother’s face, which was hidden by her hair.  “Ah come to what ah thought could be home... to ponies who ah thought had long ago forgotten who ah was, only to find that they loved me still.  After all ah put them through, every mistake of my whole life, they still thought ah could be one of the family.  If not their mother, then somethin’ still.  But yer right.  Ah don’t even deserve a place in the broom closet, or alone in the cellars.”
Applejack’s anger was slowly running out, but her mind was quickly realizing what she had said mere moments ago.  “Mama—”
“But ya know what?  Ya wanna know why ah even hoped that ya had a coltfriend?”  Her voice was weak, cracking on nearly every other word.  “Ah don’t hate you.  Ah don’t want ya to lose yer friends.  Ah just thought that ya’d be happy that way, that’s all!  Consarnit, girl, yer my daughter, and ah love ya!”
“B-but—”
“Ah didn’t know that ya liked mares!”  She turned to Applejack, her eyes a torrential downpour.  “Ah didn’t know that ya were datin’ yer best friend!  Ah didn’t want ya to break up with ’em just for me!”
“But yer my mom!”  Applejack blurted out.
She scoffed.  “And that means ya have to ruin yer life just to make me happy?!”
“Maybe, if ah want you to be happy!”  Applejack shouted.
There was a deafening pause.  Applejack was panting, as if she had just ran a marathon, and her mother was looking at her with a curious face, tears no longer falling, but their trails still present.
Suddenly, her mom laughed.
Not such a laugh that could have been mistaken for sarcasm or arrogance.  No, this was a laugh Applejack recognized.  It was like a Pinkie Pie laugh.  Full of energy, and even a few snorts.  Had she missed a joke?  What was so funny, she had no idea, but despite herself, she started smiling anyway.
“Ma.”
The laughing continued.
Applejack chuckled.  “Ma, stop.”
She did not stop.
Applejack was holding back snorts of laugher.  “Okay, ya’ll better stop before ah tackle ya and make ya stop.”
She apparently didn’t mind being tackled.
Applejack soon found herself on the ground in an uproar as well, both mares filling the sky with the beautiful sound of laughter.  Applejack tried to give her mother more warnings, but it was to no avail, as she had to make sure she had enough air to laugh, lest she stop and let this close mother-daughter moment pass her by.
After what had to have been a few minutes, both mares started to settle down, each wiping tears from their eyes and letting their lungs catch up to their brains.  When it was finally calm enough, Applejack asked the obvious.  “So, uh, what was that?”
Apple Butter again made the unexpected move, lunging forward to hug her daughter, keeping her head close to her bosom.  Again, the hug was more of an abrupt, Pinkie-Pie hug.  Applejack really had no other way of explaining a hug that made you gasp for air.
“That was me realizin’ that ya really inherited all of yer father and ah’s stubborn attitudes combined,” Apple Butter said.
“So what does that mean?” Applejack asked.
 “Applejack... ah really appreciate what ya just said.  That ya want me to be happy.  But ya absolutely, positively, cannot go about it by destroyin’ yer own life!  Just like it ain’t right for me to be pushin’ things on ya, it ain’t right for ya to drop everythin’ ya have goin’ for me.  And both of us are too stubborn to see the other’s side of it.  And ah just think that that is the darnedest thing about us Apples.  That’s all.”
Applejack nodded.  She understood her mom just fine.  Both of them were so focused on trying to make the other pony happy, that they inadvertently made themselves miserable.  All because they focused so much on family, that they lost sight of anything else.  Actually, Applejack figured that was mostly her fault.
Was there really anything to say other than that?  Applejack knew her mom loved her and she still loved her mom.  Her mom was the one who had come out to tell her that she didn’t need to lie to her.  Did that mean she wanted her to see Rainbow Dash again?  She felt her mind open up, the consequences of the previous night starting to pour into her mind.  Rainbow Dash had left her home thinking she’d never be her marefriend again.
Applejack gulped, and became completely aware of how worried she looked.  “Ma, I—”
“Not another word!” Apple Butter interrupted, as if reading her mind.  “Whatever ya got to say to me can’t be as important as what ya should be sayin’ to yer friend.”
Applejack didn’t need to be told twice.
 
 
Applejack stood awkwardly before the cloud door of Rainbow Dash’s home in the sky.
It was almost eleven now, and there had been great reason for taking so long to get to Rainbow Dash’s home.  First off, it had been moved.  After arriving at Twilight’s home a bit too early for the unicorn and asking for a cloud walking spell, and then preparing the balloon for takeoff, they spent the rest of the morning searching for the home in question.  They eventually found it, almost halfway to Cloudsdale.
Of course, the question also inevitably came up: Why was Applejack looking to talk to Rainbow Dash so early in the morning, and so urgently?
At first, Applejack didn’t know how to respond.  She wanted very desperately to tell her everything, about dating Rainbow Dash, about how stupid she had been to the pegasus, but she realized a few things, the first of which being that if Dash and here were still together, the pegasus would still want to tell all their friends together.  The second was that they might not still be together.
That thought made her gulp.  For a pony like Rainbow Dash, Applejack was of two minds about the situation at hand.  The pegasus had seen ponies before, Applejack knew that.  It had been a few years, but she wasn’t as inexperienced as the farmer was.  She’d been through a break up or two, break ups usually consisting of “I don’t like you anymore,” or Rainbow Dash kicking them in the jaw.  But what Applejack did?  That didn’t even constitute a break up.  That was a “I can’t acknowledge we ever liked each other, ever.”
She hoped that Rainbow Dash’s loyalty would win out though.  But she had no reason to think it would.
She knocked against the door, a few quick solid hits, like she did anywhere else.  She wasn’t sure if Rainbow Dash was awake or not, so she held nothing back.  She heard a few muffled sounds inside which sounded like shuffling hooves.  She was always surprised by how solid clouds could be.  The way Dash made them, they were like hardwood floors, not like some of the fluffier textures she had walked on at Cloudsdale in the past.
The door swung open a moment later, a very sleepy Rainbow Dash at the entrance.  Her mane was disheveled and a hoof was rubbing at her eyes.  Applejack noticed they were slightly pink. “Who knocks on ponies’ doors so—you!”  Rainbow Dash pointed an accusing hoof at the farmer.  “What are... wait, how did you get up here?”
“Twilight’s Balloon.”
“But the clouds—”
“Twilight’s Magic.”
Rainbow Dash blinked.  “I... haven’t we done that before?  Augh, forget it.  What are you doing here, Applejack?”
Rainbow Dash hadn’t hit her yet, or yelled at her.  Applejack thought that gave her some hope.  “Ah... ah wanted to... no, ah need to apologize to ya, about last night.”
“Apologize?”  Rainbow Dash repeated.  “Is that it?  You think an apology is all it’ll take?”  Her voice was now firmly raised, her anger growing with every word.  “An apology is nothing, because what you did last night wasn’t even a break up.  You blew me off like some love-sick filly who didn’t know what she was saying, right in front of your mom!  How in Equestria do you think that an apology makes up for that?!”
Applejack gulped.  She had said it word for word exactly how the farmer though about it earlier.  “Ah... well...”
“It doesn’t!”  Rainbow Dash’s voice was cracking more than usual, and something told Applejack that while this was hard for her to do, she thought she had to do it.  “So go!  Leave me alone!  I don’t wanna see you... until... I don’t wanna see you until forever!”  She slammed the door shut, nearly hitting Applejack’s snout.
“Now come on, Dash!”  Applejack yelled through the door.  “Let me have my say!”
“You don’t have any say,” Rainbow Dash shouted back, “so why don’t you go find your coltfriend and show him off to your mom already!”
“Because she sent me out here to begin with!”
Somehow, there was utter silence.  What Applejack would call silence, back on the ground, would not be utter silence.  There were always sounds: maybe that of a nearby stream, a pony talking in the distance, trees rustling, critters making tiny bits of sound.  Up in the sky, though, you needed wind.  Birds were not guaranteed to be close, and pegasi weren’t everywhere.  So there was only the wind to give comfort to those used to at least the tiniest bits of sound.  But right now, the air was dead, and the silence was audible.
The door opened.  Applejack didn’t know how long she stood alone in that silence.  It could have been ten seconds, or ten minutes.  Just seeing another pony relieved the tension that was building inside of her.  Rainbow Dash looked bewildered.  “What?”
“Ma knows everythin’.  That ah lied, that ah wasn’t seein’ no stallion, that ah really... ah really loved you.”
Her world was sent spinning.  She caught a glimpse of the sky and saw that it was growing distant with every second.  There was a sharp pain in her face from the impact of a cyan hoof, the pain of which was already numbing her to the sensation of falling.  When she came to her senses, she saw she was already halfway to the ground.  Before she could even start to scream, a rainbow-colored blur caught up with her, and soon the earth stopped approaching her at breakneck speeds.
“You don’t get to say something like that after what you did last night!”  Rainbow Dash shouted.  She was effortlessly holding Applejack by both of her forelegs.  She raced up to her cloud home, putting Applejack in the front step again.  Still floating above the farmer, she said, “Th-that isn’t fair!”
“Well, it’s the truth!”  Applejack said.  She had fallen plenty of times, and this didn’t shock her in the slightest, though somewhere in her mind she figured she deserved that hit.  “Ah know ah ain’t done nothin’ to deserve it, but... but ah need ya back, Dash.  Ya’ll were the best thing to ever happen to me.  Better than mah folks, better than all this hero stuff... better than all of it.”
“Applejack, stop it.”
“Yer loyal, funny, ready to throw yerself at anythin’ that threatens yer friends, and ya work hard, even if ya complain a bit much.  If there’s anypony among my friends that ah trust, it’s you, with anythin’ and everythin’.  Yer as stubborn and headstrong as ah am, and yer the only pony that can keep up with me.  And dangit if ya don’t look like one of the prettiest mares in Ponyville when ya don’t even try.”  That line caused Rainbow Dash to blush.  “But... ah did wrong by you, and if yer sure ya don’t want me back, then it ain’t my place to try.  Ah’ve caused you enough pain, anyway.”
Applejack turned from Rainbow Dash and made her way back to the balloon.  The pegasus didn’t say anything at first, and Applejack took that as a sign that it was done.  When she was about to jump into the basket, she looked back at her.  Rainbow Dash’s expression was unreadable to the farmer.  She was thinking, but Applejack didn’t have anything to say.  She had said all she could.  She made a mistake.  She apologized.  There wasn’t anything else she could do, and knew that it was up to the pegasus to decide if she was worth it.  Applejack couldn’t do squat.
She pushed the basket over the edge, and then jumped in.  The balloon still had enough hot air to slow the descent, so Applejack didn’t bother to light the flame, since she’d be down in maybe a minute at most.  When she was about halfway down, she felt her chest tighten suddenly.  She felt a wetness on her face, and she had to hold back a sob.  That was it, then.  Rainbow Dash really wasn’t her marefriend anymore.  The farmer took a deep breath, holding back the rushing water with continuous blinks like a makeshift dam.
By the time she landed, the dam had already broke, and she was letting out the periodic sob as she felt tears stream down her face.  She lit the flame and jumped out, letting the balloon get a tiny bit of altitude before tying a rope that was attached to the balloon to herself.  With one last sniffle, she swallowed the sadness and started making for Ponyville.
That was when a gust of wind blew in from behind her.  She swung around to see Rainbow Dash there once again, wearing an oddly neutral expression.
“Do you remember the day I got to Ponyville?” Rainbow Dash asked.  She didn’t seem to care at all that Applejack was crying.
Applejack rubbed away a few tears.  “Wh-what?”
“Do you?”
“Uhhhh, yeah, ah think so.”  Quickly composing herself from this strange turn of events, she said, “Ah was haulin’ an apple cart back to Sweet Apple Acres, and ya called out to me, right?”
“Yup,” Rainbow Dash said with a grin, “and I asked you if you wanted to race.  I hadn’t seen many earth ponies, so I wondered if they were any bit as fast as I was.  You said you’d race me, but that I couldn’t use my wings, since you couldn’t fly.”
“Heh, some things never change, ah guess.”  Applejack didn’t know what Rainbow Dash was getting at, but she was happy as ever to at least be talking with her.  “Ah set the finish line for Sweet Apple Acres, which ya said ya knew the way too.”
“And then we raced.”
“And ah totally beat you.”
“Yup!”  Rainbow Dash didn’t seem the least bit offended.  “You totally creamed me.  I hadn’t really raced with my legs before, so when you sped ahead of me so suddenly, I was kind of left in awe.  That’s when I decided to get better at racing, both on the ground, and through the air.  I don’t think I would have given it much thought if it was anypony else, since I would have beaten them.”
Applejack nodded, remembering the day more clearly now.  “Yeah, ah remember that.  That happened around September too, ah think.”
“So wanna race again?”  Rainbow Dash asked.
“Dash, c’mon, ya just let me leave yer house after ah begged to have ya back, and yer askin’ me for a race?!”
Rainbow Dash ignored Applejack’s protests.  “Come on, it’ll be fun!”
Applejack sighed, and nodded.  She took the hot air balloon’s rope and tied it to a nearby tree.  She then took her place on the path, standing right next to the pegasus.  “Where to, then?” Applejack asked.
“Sweet Apple Acres. Just like the first time.  So you’re up for it?”
“Ah’m... ah think...” she looked over at Rainbow Dash.
There it was again.  That smile she looked for whenever she was with her.  A smug, confident smile that made her light up like a lamp.  Applejack got all she needed from a smile like that, given how well she knew the her.  She had no intent on hurting Applejack, no malicious reason behind this.  She wanted a race, pure and simple.  So that’s what Applejack would give her.
“On my mark!”  Rainbow Dash said, not waiting for Applejack to finish her thought.  “Three-two-one-go!”
Rainbow Dash took off in a blur, but Applejack was ready for it, and sped off right beside her.  In a moment, she was neck and neck with the Equestria’s number one flier, but she had no intention of staying there.  It would be about seven minutes of full sprinting before they reached the farm, and Applejack had the advantage: she had been up early, and had been bucking apples all morning to boot.  She was warmed up.  She guessed Rainbow Dash had been in her house most of the morning, and that she hadn’t had a chance to warm up, let alone wake up.
Applejack let the race focus her mind, feeling every step and every breeze around her body.  It wasn’t just her competitive spirit that kept her interested in sports, racing especially, but it was partially the confidence that she could run a race, that made her push onward.  She could run a farm, support her family, and win a race.  Her athleticism was just another part of herself that she made sure to keep going, and she was proud of it.  And after two sharp turns that were about halfway to their destination, Applejack knew she was still as athletic as ever, as she started pulling ahead of Rainbow Dash.  She looked back and flashed one confident smile before turning her focus forward again, making sure to keep up the pace.
It occurred to her once that maybe she should let Rainbow Dash win.  Let her feel some confidence again.  But Applejack dismissed it as quickly as she was running.  Rainbow Dash wanted an honest race, that much she could tell from her attitude, and Applejack was gonna give it to her.  The pegasus definitely deserved that much. It also wouldn’t have been the most honest thing, and Applejack was done with all this not-honesty.
After another turn, Applejack knew she was on the final stretch, and the rest of the way to Sweet Apple Acres was a straight line.  Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash had caught up with her, and the two were neck-and-neck again.  Applejack chanced a glance at her, and saw her face was one of complete concentration.  Applejack gathered that she was working as hard as she could to keep up, and Applejack wasn’t even sure she had gone full-tilt yet.
They crested a hill, and the front entrance of Sweet Apple Acres came into view, maybe a thousand feet in front of them.  Rainbow Dash suddenly pulled forward with a burst of speed that took Applejack by total surprise.  Rainbow Dash turned her head and stuck her tongue out at the farmer.  “Think you can keep up with me?” She taunted.
“Ah know ah can.”  With one last burst of energy, the farmer charged forward.  She completely overtook the pegasus and zoomed past her, leaving a hefty dust trail in her wake, and mere seconds later, she crossed the front gate.
She had won.  Applejack let out an internal cheer, and turned around to see how the defeated pegasus’s response.  She was met by Rainbow Dash crashing into her, her momentum carrying the two as the rolled along the ground, until they finally stopped with Rainbow Dash standing over an Applejack lying flat on her back.
“What in the—” Her eyes went wide as Rainbow Dash interrupted her protests with a kiss.  Dash pulled back a moment later, and Applejack was still as surprised as ever.  “Uh, Dash?”
“I love you, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash said.
Applejack blinked.  “W-what?!”
“Last night... after you kicked me out, and I got home... I did a lot of thinking, and realized that you were the only pony I’ve ever even given a second thought to when I thought we were over.  I was scared that we’d never talk to each other again, or something dumb like that.  I got... really worked up over it.  You’re so great.  I think that race I just made you do showed it too.  For some reason, I wanted you to beat me, but I couldn’t hold back.  So when you charged forward, something about it told me that... that you’ll really try again, just like now. I mean, Always helping everypony you can.  Always putting all the blame on yourself and taking so much responsibility.  I couldn’t do that.  I don’t do that.  And it’s all you ever do.  Even last night... I realized earlier that you didn’t want to hurt me, but you were just trying to make your mom happy.  Even in the worst of times, you just wanted to do the right thing.  It was the wrong thing, but you thought it was the right thing.”
Applejack nodded cautiously.  “Ah... ah’m glad ya understand, but—”
“But that’s just it!  I want to stay mad at you!  I ought to hate you!  But... but somewhere in my stupid, stupid brain, I know you wouldn’t do something like that on purpose.  Not just to get me mad, or just to make me feel worse.  I don’t know if that’s worse or better, but I can’t hate you for it.  So... I’ll give it another shot, if you’re still up for it.  Just promise me you won’t do something like that again.”
Applejack nodded.  The last day had been one of the hardest days of her life, and not for any physical reasons.  Her mother’s confessions of regret, Applejack herself nearly losing her closest friend, but now she felt... that it was over.  Somehow, everything had worked out.  Her mom no longer bore those regrets, knowing full well her family not only prevailed, but still loved her.  She had Rainbow Dash again, even if she didn’t feel that she deserved somepony like her.
And so she smiled, her heart restored to its rightful state.  “Ah promise.”  With those words, she reached up to kiss Rainbow Dash, their lips only just meeting when she heard a shuffling of hooves approaching them.  Both ponies looked up, still attached at the mouth, to find a bemused Apple Butter looking down at both of them.
Both mares scrambled to their hooves, Applejack blushing furiously and Rainbow Dash looking proud of herself.  “Ah’m all for both of ya bein’ happy,” Apple Butter said, “but careful where ya decide to show it.  Ya never know who might be watchin’.”
“No problem, Mrs. Apple.  Thanks for the advice.”  Applejack looked over to a slyly smiling Rainbow Dash.
Apple Butter snickered.  “Wow, no one’s called me that in a loooong time.”  She motioned with a hoof towards Applejack’s home.  “How about ya join us for lunch, Miss Dash?  Get ya used to life in the Apple Family and all?  It’s just about lunch time by now, ah reckon.”
“Huh?”  Rainbow Dash looked over at Applejack, who replied with a shrug.
Apple Butter walked over to her daughter, draping an arm over her shoulder.  “Well, sure!  Ah mean, ah can only assume if my daughter’s datin’ ya, that she thinks ya’d make a good wife.  Right, sugar?”  She said, turning to Applejack, who started blushing even harder than before.  “Ah’ll see ya’ll inside then, ah hope.”  Apple Butter then started trotting toward the house, not even bothering to glance back at the two mares.
An awkward silence hung in the air, and was broken just as quickly as it settled by Rainbow Dash.  “What... was that?”
“Ah think that was her way of makin’ a joke, and sayin’ that she’s okay with you.”  Applejack nodded, reassuring herself.  “Yeah, that’s gotta be it.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.  And your mom totally just offered me some free food.  So let’s go.  As marefriend and marefriend.”  She threw an arm over Applejack’s shoulder.
The farmer closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, exhaling it as slowly as she could.  She felt no pressure on her shoulders—not metaphorically at least.  She wasn’t worried about her relationship with Rainbow Dash, she wasn’t worried about her mother, her brother, nothing.  In that moment, all her worries had ceased to be, and she was purely happy.  She almost felt like she could cry again, but there wasn’t any need.  She had done enough of that the last day or so.  No, now it was time to celebrate, and be happy, and when the next big worry came, she’d worry about it.
But for now, she’d spend some time with her family, and her loved ones, all one and the same.
Applejack walked out from under Rainbow Dash’s grip, and looked back at her.  “Hey, Rainbow Dash.”
“Yeah?”
“Race ya.”