It took a very long time, but Rainbow Dash finally built up the nerve to speak.
“Hey, uh, AJ?” A cute little shiver ran through her body; she forced it away by clearing her throat. Rainbow’s next breath came out in a pitiable squeak. “It’s been a really crazy week for all of us. Heh.” She rolled her shiny, ruby eyes. “Okay, so it’s been a crazy year, I mean… shucks… will ya take a look at this mess?”
She smiled nervously, her lower body fidgeting with the tattered folds of her ruined dress.
“We put so much hype into the Grand Galloping Whatchamacallit, and where did it get us? Pinkie never got to party. Rarity didn’t meet prince charming. I totally blew my chance at wowing the Wonderbolts. And you…” She bit her lip, gazing down at her scuffling slippers. “Well, yeah. We don’t need to go into that.”
Rainbow Dash battled the crest of an oncoming sigh. She couldn’t tell whether or not she came out the victor.
“But, like, it’s all good. Because it’s made us closer and all that jazz, I mean--right?” She smirked out the side of her fuzzy blue muzzle. “And I don’t mean just the stupid Gala, but all the crazy scrapes we’ve been through. I mean, ever since Twilight rolled into town, it’s been dragons one week… parasprites the other…” She winced heavily, hissing through her pearly whites. “Crud! The barn! Shouldn’t have mentioned the parasprites! Shouldn’t have--”
Rainbow froze, her eyes blinking wide as if she had been caught in a burning spotlight. With a nervous chuckle, she adjusted the golden crown of laurels on her skull and stared once again at the floor.
“So, like, there’s no telling how crazier things are gonna get. I don’t mean to be dark or nothin’, but it’d really suck if something super crazy bad happened to one of us and we couldn’t do awesome things together like we used to anymore. I mean…” She smirked proudly and held a hoof over her chest. “Not like anything horrible would take me down. Heh… I could kick a hurricane in the face and sing a song about it!”
A few seconds passed.
Rainbow Dash grunted, smacked herself in the forehead, and bowed her head lower with folded ears. “Okay, look. I’m no good at this. I knew before I even opened my stupid muzzle that I wouldn’t be any good at this. But… I-I’m really not one to back down from a challenge, even if this is…” She grimaced, and her voice cracked, “...kinda sorta the craziest, scariest challenge that I’ve ever faced. But… uh… I just gotta let it out. I gotta let the truth out. And you of all ponies are all about honesty, ponies. So… I should trust you… and you should trust me… and… and…”
Her body rocked from side to side. At last, she clenched her eyes shut, her entire body tensing as if giving birth.
“I c-can’t stop thinking about you Applejack.” She inhaled deeply and prepared for the second wave of outbursts. “Like--every friggin’ day--I’m totally blown away by how strong you are. How totally together you are. How totally honest, dependable, straight-forward… and a-awesome you are.” Her lungs wheezed in and out, then produced something like a kitten mewl. “And you are definitely the most beautiful pony I have ever known.” The shivers returned, but the dam had been blown. “And I don’t use that word lightly. You really are. Beautiful, I mean, Applejack, and all the other stuff too.”
Her wings drooped on either side of her deflating body.
“Soooooooooo yeah. Not to… sound creepy or nothin’...” She gulped. “But I would really like to hang out with you, Applejack. I mean, if that’s okay with you. It’d be really, really cool if I could get to know you more.” She smiled as the very tips of her wings fluttered on either side of her. “Heck, you could teach me a thing or two about being awesome. Because let’s face it, I’m tired of trying to compete with something… with somepony who makes each day so bright and radical… f-for me.”
Biting her lip, Rainbow Dash’s cheeks flushed red, and she nervously tilted her head up.
“So… uh… Applejack?” She gulped, then thinned her lids until they produced the haphazard equivalent of ‘bedroom eyes.’ “What do you think… sugarcube?” She wagged her eyebrows at the last part.
Rainbow wagged her eyebrows back, or at least her reflection did. The pegasus and her mirage blinked stupidly from where they both lingered beneath the buzz of a flickering lamp in the little mare’s room. Ruby eyes darted left and right, staring at the claustrophobic cinderblock walls. At last, Rainbow Dash slumped forward, throwing her upper body over the washroom’s sink as she covered her eyes with a pair of frustrated forelimbs.
“Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid!! She’d never talk to you ever again if you do that ‘sugarcube’ part at the end! Dang it! What’s wrong with you?!” Rainbow Dash shook; Rainbow Dash shivered. As her muzzle turned increasingly red, she growled and twisted the faucet, running her frustrated mouth under the running water. “Blarghlblarghlblarghlblarghlblarghl!”
Just then, a hoof slammed repeatedly on the restroom door like a stampede of buffalo. ”Dashie Dashie Dashie!” Pinkie’s voice warbled like a tornado siren, accompanied by the weight of a plump equine stomping on alternating hooves in what must have been a truly fabulous rain dance. “How long are you gonna take in there! Cut a mare a break! Pretty pretty pretty pleasies! Ohhhhh-ohhhhhh!”
Rainbow Dash stood straight up. “Blarghlg-glaghghgll! Spttt!” She vomited the water into the sink, wiped her muzzle, and twisted the faucet shut with a squeak. “Just a sec, Pinkie!” Panting, she stared back at the mirror, fidgeting with her golden crown and the hem of her shredded dress. She stood back, struck a heroic pose, and froze in place. A few blinks later, she sighed. “Buck it.”
ThudThudThudThud! “Dasssssshieeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“Hold your horses! I… er…” Rainbow rolled her eyes as she fumbled with the door handle. “You know what I mean!”
Not a millisecond after opening it, Pinkie blurred through. The sheer velocity of the party pony’s plunge into the washroom forced Rainbow out into the lobby of the Doughnut Cafe like a gunshot. Pinkie’s candied hat had fallen to the floor where it rotated to a rattling stop. “ThankyouRainbowtalktoyoulaterkaythanksbye!”
“Unngh…” Rainbow Dash was still recovering her balance. “Sheesh. Either cut back on the sarsaparilla or borrow a water tower for your bladder, girl.” In the middle of fidgeting with her Gala gown, Rainbow froze. Wincing, she raised her forelimb and flexed it a few times at the elbow before tapping it firmly against the black and white tile floor. She tongued the inside of mouth, anxiously.
“Rainbow! There you are!” Twilight Sparkle waved enthusiastically, her smile a lavender blur from afar. “Come on over! Joe baked us the last batch of doughnuts for the night! We know how much you hate to lose out on the last bite!”
“Quickly, darling!” Rarity’s voice chimed in. “Before Pinkie returns from her… business and leaves you starving.”
Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath in mid-trot. “The last thing I need is an excuse to gag myself tonight…”
“Don’t you fret none, sugarcube.” The most magical voice in the world reverberated off the walls in twangy tonality. “I saved ya the blueberry swirls one.”
Rainbow instantly smiled a crescent moon. “Oh, AJ! Thank you! Thanks a ton!” She instantly regretted how ecstatically her face had exploded. Shading her flushed muzzle behind a limp wing, Rainbow side-shuffled her way towards the table and climbed onto a seat like a little filly. The sparkly blanket of night hung over the cafe’s windows outside, positively bedazzling the eyes of every marefriend within view--especially the emerald jewels that were presently glistening in the pegasus’ direction.
“There ya go, Rainbow.” Applejack said, sliding the purple-glazed doughnut in question across the tabletop. The Gala Night’s chaotic wear and tear did very little to mar her shiny orange coat, her gentle smile, her supple shoulders, he shiny golden braids and braids and more braids--”You do fancy yerself some blueberry, don’t you?”
Applejack’s question snapped Rainbow Dash from staring at her long, blonde locks. “Oh! Uh… yeah!” She smiled nervously. “Blue as the sky! That means awesome!” With her next inhalation, she took a massive bite of the pastry, spitting up crumbs and breaded bits. “Mmmmf--shee? Aweshommeffff!”
Applejack chuckled, a deep, hearty, reverberating sound that rumbled deliciously across the tabletop. Rainbow Dash nearly choked on her dessert; she was certain she would die with a smile on her face.
“I still can’t believe the dude ran out of sprinkles,” Spike muttered.
“Spiiiike…” Twilight chided with a gentle smile. “We should be glad he’s staying open as late as he is.”
“You mean, he’s doing it just for us?” Fluttershy asked.
“Mmmm…” Rarity swirled a mug of coffee in her hoof while gazing suggestively towards the bar. “What a fine, fine gentlecolt.”
“Oh come now, Rarity!” Applejack rolled her green eyes. “The very night royalty itself gives you the burn, your heart flutters towards the next dag-blame’d stallion that crosses your eyes!”
“So help me if I can recognize true chivalry when I see it!” Rarity upturned her nose while taking a dainty, dainty sip of her steaming mug. “Especially after a night as disastrous as this one, a lady can be forgiven for wanting to seek solace.” She leaned back, lapping her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Hmmm…” She swirled the mug some more. “Could use some more marshmallows.”
“How ‘bout you dunk yer sassy head?”
“Grrrrr…”
The table rang with giggles.
Finishing up her doughnut, Rainbow Dash avoided looking at Applejack like the plague and asked, “Say, where did Princess Celestia head off to?”
“She had some royal duties to take care of at the Castle,” Twilight said between nibbles of a frosted eclair. “Even on the Night of the Grand Galloping Gala, she doesn’t run out of stuff to do.”
The sound of a flushing toilet filled the air. “Yeah!” Pinkie Pie, suddenly there, suddenly said, “Like sweeping up the mess of the most awesome party everrrr!” She pumped her bright hoof in the air. Suddenly.
“Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy looked painfully confused. “How could you call that a party?” She rubbed her hooves together in a guilty, pensive manner. “All we did was make a terrible, terrible mess of things.”
“You heard the Princess, though!” Pinkie bounced between her friends, hugging each of them in separate turns. “The Gala is awful every year! This is the first year it was made not-awful! And it was thanks to us! We’re the nicest, funnest, friendliest, most not-awfulest bunch of party-goers in the world!”
More giggles.
“Well…” Twilight smiled warmly. “At least one of us got to have their dream come true tonight.” She blinked. “I think.”
“Eh, I think Pinkie’s dreaming every day,” Spike muttered between bored bites of cinnamon.
“In truth, it wasn’t all that ghastly terrible,” Rarity said before casting a tranquil smile at the rest of the group. “This little after-soiree soiree of ours here is turning out to be truly delightful.”
“Yeah!” Twilight nodded with a bright grin. “And once we go back to my parent’s apartment, we’ll have the whole weekend to ourselves!”
“Oh, Twilight!” Fluttershy smiled with gently flapping wings. “That sounds delightful!”
“We’re all gonna have so much fun!” Pinkie Pie literally rolled under the table. “Fun fun fun fun fun!” Her hooves slammed against the underside, making every dish and coffee mug rattle.
Applejack teetered back, fumbling to keep her hat on straight. “Pinkie!” She burned holes in the tabletop with angry emeralds. “Knock it off, will ya!”
“Yes, darling. Share the mirth with all of us.” Rarity leaned forward as Pinkie sat up across from her. “I have the most outrageously hilarious image in my mind of Prince Blueblood covered in apple sauce. I daresay, I think I’m the only pony in contemporary times to have seen the uncouth side of a two-faced monarch.”
“Oooh! Oooh!” Pinkie leaned forward across the table with a mischievous smile. “Spill the beans! Spill ‘em!”
“Well…” Rarity’s eyes darted back and forth. She playfully stroked circles along the top of her mug while the other mares leaned in. “Before the Gala turned into unmitigated bedlam, I was treated to an earful of the prince’s woeful stories of yesteryear, including a rather foalish habit he couldn’t kick until well into his preteen years.”
“Oh?” Fluttershy tilted her head aside. “What kind of habit?”
“Well, think of it this way.” Rarity took another dainty sip, smiling out the corner of her muzzle. “I now know that there’s a market for royally monogrammed plastic bedsheets.”
The table broke into more cackles and giggles. As Rarity carried on, Applejack rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. “Unnngh… If I’d known that this would have been nothin’ but fussy gabbin’, I would have just trotted on to Twilight’s folks’ house on my lonesome and called it a night.” A beat. Applejack glanced over her shoulder and swatted Rainbow Dash in the side. “Good thing you’n I are a lot alike, partner, or otherwise I’d feel like I was plum alone here.”
“Uhhh…” Rainbow Dash gulped as she rubbed the spot on her coat that still pleasantly tingled from Applejack’s gruff contact. “Yeahhh,” her voice squeaked. “I’d never leave ya hangin’, AJ.”
“Heh. I know ya wouldn’t, sugarcube.”
Rainbow smiled crookedly.
“Cuz yer the Element of Loyalty, after all.”
Rainbow’s face fell straight. She fiddled with the edge of her table, ears drooped, wings… even droopier.
Applejack blinked at her in concern. “Y’all alright, Rainbow? Is there somethin’ on yer mind?”
“Huh? What? Me?” Rainbow Dash cracked like a ravenous hyena. “Eheheheheheh! Nawwwww… I’m… I’m f-f-f-fine, Applejaaaaack.” She coughed, then cleared her throat, desperate to keep it from cracking. She failed.
Applejack merely stared at her.
Rainbow Dash bit her lip. “I… I-I can never hide anything from you, can I, AJ?”
“Reckon ya can’t, darlin’.” Applejack held up a doughnut. “Come on.” She tossed it up, opened her jaws wide, and scarfed it in one ravenous sharklike gulp. “Mmmmf… Out with it.”
Rainbow’s ruby eyes quivered. “Out with it. Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah… uhm…” A bulb of sweat ran down her petite blue neck. She tilted her crown straight, only for it to fall crooked again. “I was just… uh… I was just wanting to… uhm…” She gulped. “To ask you something.”
“Oh?” Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash, her green eyes glistening, her silky-smooth coat shining in the cafe light. The faintest scent of sweat mixed with sugar, performing a dance between them and enchanting Rainbow’s nostrils. “What is it, Rainbow?”
Rainbow looked at her. She fought back a whimper, then produced a plastic smile. “How’s apple bucking lately?” She bit onto her tongue.
Applejack stared blankly for a bit, then smiled so wide her cheeks threatened to burst. “Why, I thought y’all’d never ask!” With a starry glint to her eyes, the farm filly gazed at the ceiling and purred in her usual drawl, “Why, land’s sakes! We’ve been bustin’ our flanks off over at Sweet Apple Acres! What, with the bounty that I was needin’ to bake desserts with at the Gala before our regular Apple Buckin’ Season! Whew-wee! It was a lot of tiresome work. I’m pretty sure Granny Smith and Big Macintosh were tossin’ me evil glances by the time we had rounded up the fruits of the southern field by sundown two days ago, but they all understood that it was for a good cause, even if it all ended up as mushy ballroom floor polish in the end.”
“Uh huh. Uh huh.” Rainbow Dash nodded, nodded, nodded.
“But once I get back, I’m gonna be tacklin’ the east and northern fields! I’ll do it on my lonesome too! Why, it’ll give Big Mac and Granny the time off that they deserve! But t’ain’t no biggie. The East and Northern Fields are my favorite. Did you know that the golden delicious apples are the ripest where the sun rises? I swear on my own grave! That’s the stuff we use to make cider on cider season! Why, if it weren’t for that long stretch of land we have in the east, I don’t know how we’d be earnin’ our revenue each year! For instance, back before we bought several plots…”
Rainbow Dash listened intently, but as the seconds rolled by, and the peripheral of Applejack’s vision drew further and further away, the pegasus took the opportunity to slam her forehead multiple times against the tabletop. She gripped her skull, mumbling curses at herself, and just barely managed to throw on a fake grin when Applejack glanced at her in mid dissertation a few seconds later. As the minutes wore on, Rainbow found it harder to contain her smile, instead tossing the mother of all lingering sighs into the fringes of that night-shrouded place.