//------------------------------//
// Perfect Strangers 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

	"Good night, everypony!" Rarity's voice rang through the starlight.  "It was a most delightful dinner!  We must do it again soon!"  She waved back at the entrance to Sugarcube Corner and resumed trotting towards the far end of town alongside Fluttershy.  "Come along, darling.  I'll escort you home."

"Oh, Rarity, that's so kind of you."

"Yes, well, one does emulate another's grace after much exposure."

"So long!" Twilight exclaimed as she trotted gaily towards the library in the center of downtown.  "I'll have done lots of research before we hang out again so I can tell you all about it!"

Everypony pretended not to groan, instead emitting a salvo of giggles and chuckles into the night air.

"Awwwwww... now I'm all out of muffins," Pinkie sighed, slumping sadly against the doorframe to Sugarcube Corner.  "This means only one thing..."  She brightened.  "I gotta bake twice more overnight!  Woohooo!"  She bounced ecstatically into the kitchen, slamming the door shut behind her.

Rainbow Dash hovered in the dark beside the building.  Once her friends had parted, she took a deep sigh.  Her smile was a lingering thing, but even it started to fade as she pivoted northeast and made limply for her hovering abode in the low horizon—

"Hold on there just a second, Sugarcube."

Rainbow Dash almost imploded.  Chest throbbing, she spun about and stared down with quivering pupils.  "... ... ... ... ..."  Her entire response was a breathy, high-pitched sentence of nothing.  Clearing her throat, she found her voice and loosely repeated, "You n-need something, Applejack?"

"I just wanted to ask ya somethin'."  The farm mare stood like a delicious shadow-within-shadows beneath the pegasus.  "If ya don't mind."

Rainbow Dash took the deepest breath of her life and lowered down on twitching wings.  Once she was hovering just a foot or two above the mare, she pretended to frown.  "What's on your mind?  I mean... I've totally got places to be."

"Heheh... More Gorges to fly through, I reckon."

Rainbow bit the edge of her muzzle.  "...Maybe?"

"Ya mind standin' for a second?  I can't see yer face from here."

"Oh... r-right.  Uhm."  Tensing up, Rainbow stopped flapping her wings.  She dropped like a piano, and it was through a sheer miracle that she landed on four straight legs without collapsing entirely.  The utter unbelievability of the moment pulsed on as Applejack trotted even closer.  Soon, Rainbow could smell the apples, the sweat, the warm fragrance of her breath...

"I was just wonderin', about that amazin' tale you just spun today—Whoah Nelly!"  Applejack suddenly did a double-take.

"What?!  Wh-what?"  Rainbow clenched her teeth.  She looked back and was relieved to see her wings hadn't shot straight out.

"I just realized, I'm a good three inches taller than you!"  Applejack chuckled breathily, her face awash with amusement and disbelief.  "Unless it's just my imagination speakin'.  You ever noticed that?"

"Yes.  I totally h-have," Rainbow exhaled with a slight tremble, then winced.  "Er, I mean... pfft.  It's all in your stupid hat, silly."

Applejack's eyebrow arched.  "How in tarnation does that work?"

"I... have n-no clue."  Rainbow Dash nervously smiled.

Five second passed.

"You... uh... w-were gonna ask me about Ghastly Gorge—?"

"Oh!  Right..."  Applejack tossed her dangling mane over her neck and said, "You said that you escaped the eels by kickin' the walls of Boulder Pass and makin' the rocks fall on them until they let up and stopped chasin' you, right?

"I'm pretty sure that's the awesomeness that took place.  Why?"

"Not tryin' to sass you none, but I couldn't help but wonder..."  Applejack leaned forward with a genuinely confused expression.  "It had to been pretty dark, right?"

"I could barely see the end of my own muzzle.  Yeah.  What's your point?"

"Well... I mean, sure—you had the Gorge memorized from years and years of flyin' through it, but..."  Applejack shifted nervously.  "How could you have seen through the rain of boulders to have come out of the whole mess safely yourself?  I reckon you were familiar with Boulder Pass, but it's not like you had the power to see the fallin' rocks yerself, right?"

"Oh... yeah... well..."  Rainbow squirmed.

"Was it... was it just dumb luck?"

Rainbow bit her lip.  She suddenly glanced over her shoulders at the rest of Ponyville.

Applejack blinked.  "Sugarcube...?"

"I... uh..."  Rainbow looked back at the farm filly with a weak smirk.  "I'm gonna tell you something, AJ.  Something of a secret."

"Secret?"

"It's something that no other ponies know," Rainbow said.  She gulped.  "Not even Fluttershy."

Applejack smirked and tilted her hat back.  "Now this should be interestin'."

Rainbow Dash shifted left and right, then relaxed on bent legs.  "Well... you see... the reason I could make my way through Boulder Pass... or half of the Gorge for that matter... is because of the eels."

"Huh?"  Applejack blinked.  "I'm afraid you've lost me."

"That's okay.  Uhm..."  Rainbow Dash tapped her chin, then gestured as she spoke, "Y'know how I told you that the Quarry Eels are used to livin' in the dark?"

"Right..."

"Well, turns out Mother Nature built them something to deal with that.  Basically... their eyes glow."

"Really?"

"Yup!  It's got this freaky pale green shine to it too!  Like someone vomited over a flashlight and decided to aim it at a wall or something.  Heheheh..."

"Land's Sakes, that's mighty unbelievable..."  Applejack murmured.  Suddenly, her pupils shrank, and she gazed in shock at the pegasus.  "Wait a minute, then that must mean—"

Rainbow was already nodding.  "Having them chase me was the only thing lighting my path," she said.  "And, y'know, in the heat of the moment, I had kinda lost my bearings.  I was a lot younger than, so... eheheh... even more stupid.  I didn't even remember Boulder Pass was in front of me until the eels' eyes light it up.  So, you see, Applejack..."  The pegasus shrugged.  "To finish my flight through Ghastly Gorge, I needed them to chase me."

"That's... that's plum incredible!" Applejack exhaled.  "Why didn't you tell that to the girls at the table?  It woulda absolutely floored them!"

"Heh... because it's much cooler the way I told it," Rainbow Dash said with a slick grin.  "Not to mention a lot more suspenseful to make it look like I relied on total luck in the dark.  Well, the luck part still applies, but if they knew about the eels and their eyes lighting up everything..."

"But wait..."  Applejack tilted her head with a suspicous squint.  "Does that mean that you could've flown out of the Gorge at any time?  I mean, if they had to light you up to see you—"

"Ehhhhhh..."  Rainbow Dash smiled sheepishly.  "Yeahhhh.  I guess I could have."

"Rainbow!"  Applejack frowned.  "No kiddin' about being young and stupid!  Shoot, you could have been gobbled up at any moment!  What was so important about flyin' through that Gorge that you had to nearly kill yerself doin' it!"

"Because..."  Rainbow Dash's ears drooped.  She avoided Applejack's gaze when she ultimately limped forth, "Because sometimes fear is the one thing that makes me feel like I'm really alive."  She gulped.  "And conquering it."

Applejack stared in silent comprehension.

"It's just that... y'know..."  Rainbow tossed her mane and chuckled nervously, finally looking up at Applejack.  "Some fear is... easier than others."

Slowly, the farm filly smiled.  A very warm and friendly smile.  "Yer an amazin' pony, Rainbow Dash."

That was it.  Rainbow's wings shot out, but she covered for it by giving them a good flap or two before coiling them back beside her wings.  "Eheheheheh..."  She prayed to Celestia that the starlight wasn't bright enough to illuminate her flushed cheeks.  "You r-really think so?"

"Know so," Applejack said with a nod.  Then, like a scalpel:  "You doin' alright lately?"

Rainbow's heart freezed over.  Her neck had suddenly locked up, and she had to pivot her entire body to face Applejack directly.  "Uhhhh... s-sure!  What... makes you ask that?"

"Was just wonderin'.  After all, I hadn't seen you since the weekend of the gala.  And when I last did—"  Her voice trailed, and the freckles on her face combined with a brief wince.

Rainbow thought of a million ways to respond to that.  Instead, she remained still as a statue.

Applejack cleared her throat.  Her hoof flickered in the starlight, almost as if it was trembling.  In a gentle motion, she tightened that hat onto her scalp, as if afraid it might fly off.  "Well, anyhow, this was a nice little evenin' we all had, wasn't it?"

"Yeah..."  Rainbow exhaled for the first time in nearly a minute.  Her legs felt weaker, and she struggled with the urge to flap her wings.  "It totally was.  I wouldn't mind if—"  Her face froze, as did her whole body.

Applejack was hugging her, a very warm, soft, but loose hug.  A hug from a friend to a friend.  It didn't stop Rainbow from melting on the inside out.  When Applejack spoke, it was like thunder against the pegasus' quivering heart.

"Just know that if ya ever need anythang, from any of us, we're just a cloud-hop away, ya hear?"  Something drifted between the two.  At first, Rainbow thought it was the wind, with the way her bangs were parting.  But there was purpose to it, and heat too.

Rainbow's tongue stabbed the roof of her mouth.  Did Applejack just... stroke her mane—?

"Yer a loyal pony, but we're loyal too."  Applejack had stepped back.  The whole embrace had lasted the holy span of two short seconds, and still Rainbow was reeling numbly.  "We're all there for each other, and that includes the most awesome pony in town."  An emerald wink.  "So don't become a stranger, ya hear?"

"Uh... no way, AJ..."  Rainbow squeaked.  Fearing Applejack hadn't heard the first part, she spoke with greater volume, like a dying siren trying to summon its last waking noise.  "We'll never be strangers.  You can bet your farm on th-that!"  She tried to wink back; it came across as a seizure.

If Applejack saw it, she didn't let on.  She trotted away, carrying a smile along with her hat.  "Good night, sugarcube.  Don't let the cloud bugs bite."  She laughed at herself, an angelic guffaw... if there could ever be such a thing.

Only once the mare was out of sight did Rainbow allow gravity to run its course.  She collapsed on folded legs, breathing heavily.  Eventually, she raised a hoof to her own mane, trying to reenact the breezy mystery that had passed between them, when she realized to her trembling self that they had actually hugged.

The smile that the epiphany produced was positively luminescent.  She used it as a spotlight to find her way home, and it was a far more thrilling trek than any quarry eel could afford.