The party was huge. Everypony in town must have been there, and there were rainbow banners hung all around Sugarcube Corner. Rainbow Dash had just returned from her day with The Wonderbolts and she hadn't taken off her victory crown since Princess Celestia put it on her head. Every time she turned around somepony was congratulating her, and Scootaloo nearly fainted from excitement when Dash asked the filly to get her another cupcake.
In other words, all was right in Equestria, as far as Rainbow Dash was concerned.
On second thought, one thing was out of place. Dash's wing wasn't wrapped around a certain pretty orange earth pony she'd been seeing. For everything to be perfect, everypony at the party should know that not only was she the winner of the Best Young Flyer competition, and a hero for saving Rarity and the three Wonderbolts, but she was also cool enough to get a pony like Applejack to date her.
This was easy to fix. Rainbow Dash scanned the crowd for Applejack, and saw her standing and laughing with Twilight and Fluttershy. They hadn't mentioned their dates to their friends yet, but this was the perfect time.
Rainbow Dash flew through the crowd with style, like she owned the place, and stopped right in front of Applejack. Before AJ had a chance to speak, Dash leaned forward and kissed her lips.
She wasn't expecting Applejack to hop backwards with a look of shock on her face, almost running into Pinkie.
“Woah there!” AJ cried nervously.
“Applejack, are you okay?” Twilight asked, obviously confused by the scene.
“She's fine,” Dash said with a wave of her hoof. “We've been going out! Right AJ?”
“Uh, yeah. . .” Applejack said, her cheeks turning slightly pink.
Twilight looked mildly surprised, “Going out? Like, dating?”
“Did somepony say dating?” Rarity appeared as if summoned. She glanced between the pegasus and earth pony who were the center of the groups attention. “You two?”
“This is so exciting!” Pinkie squealed, hugging the first pony she could get her hooves on, which happened to be Applejack. Applejack managed to pry herself free, still blushing as she straightened her hat.
“We're very happy for you.” Fluttershy said softly, a gentle smile on her face.
“Oh, true love! How romantic!” Rarity sighed, “When did this happen? Oh! Your little race thing must have been a lovers quarrel!”
“Lovers?!”Applejack exclaimed, “Lands sake, we only been datin' a couple weeks!”
“Of course I didn't mean it like that, dear. You're both proper- well, you're both ladies at least. But go on. . . details!”
AJ shook her head, but Rainbow Dash went on regardless, “Well, after that race we were talking and I guess she was pretty impressed with me, I mean, who wouldn't be? So when I asked her out, she couldn't wait-”
“Rainbow Dash? I'm not sure that Applejack wants to talk about this right now,” Twilight pointed out nervously.
“Yeah, she looks kinda like she's gonna explode!” added Pinkie.
“What? Why wouldn't she want to talk about how she caught the Best Young Flyer in Equestria?” Dash said with a grin, but glancing at Applejack revealed the truth of their friends words.
Applejack's cheeks were close to the color of the apples in her cutie mark, and her green eyes were shooting daggers at Dash. There was a tension in her demeanor her that indicated that either steam would shoot out of her ears or something was going to get bucked.
Through gritted teeth and an extremely fake smile, AJ said. “Dash, we gotta talk. Alone.”
Rainbow Dash nodded, but she was confused as she followed Applejack outside and down the street a little ways. Everything tonight had be going perfectly, and she hadn't even meant to make AJ mad this time. She went over what she had done, but none of it seemed out of line. This party was for her after all, who here wouldn't want her to kiss them, or let the whole town know that they were dating a champion and bone fide hero?
When they were well clear of the ponies coming and going from the party Applejack stopped and turned to Dash, glaring accusingly. “Why'd you go and embarrass me like that?”
“How was that embarrassing? I was just telling them about us.” Dash asked, but she was getting a little angry by now. This was her party, and Applejack was acting all weird all of a sudden.
“What's between us is our personal business, Rainbow Dash. And I don't appreciate you tellin it to everypony in town!”
“So you don't want them to know you're dating me? What happened to honesty?” Dash shot back.
“Honesty is darned important, but that don't mean you gotta tell your friends every time you use the bathroom. Some things are your own business, and for me that includes my love life.”
“Why? I know you're not shy.” Dash said, then her face softened as she had a thought. "Are you afraid ponies will tease you like when you were a foal? Cause if they do, I'll-” She held up her hooves, ready to defend Applejack, but the earth pony cut her off.
“It ain't that. I don't care if everypony knows we're datin'. I just was hopin' we could tell 'em quite sometime, so they wouldn't all make a big deal outta it.”
Dash was stunned. The idea of not making a big deal out of something as awesome as this was completely foreign to her.
Applejack had calmed down by now, and went on, “I'm a down-to-earth kinda pony, Dash, and I'm proud of that. I don't like folks thinkin' I've gone all moony-eyed and mushy over you. . . even if sometimes I kinda am.”
Dash smiled. Pride was something she understood. Of course, so was taking AJ down a peg or two. “Moony-eyed and mushy, huh?”
“I said sometimes." AJ pointed out. "Don't you let that go to your head.”
“How mushy? Like, writing sappy love poetry? Oh! I know! I bet you've got a picture of me and you look it before you go to bed every night!”
“I don't even got a picture of you!” Applejack protested.
“I can get you one. You can kiss it.” Dash said, giggling. She pretended to cuddle a picture and said in an awful version of AJ's accent, “Oh Rhainbow, Ah luv ya so much!”
“You're provin' my point.” Applejack said, dryly.
“I was joking!”
“I know, but Rarity wasn't with all’a that romance stuff. I know she means well, and none of my friends would make fun of me.” She glanced at Dash and rolled her eyes, “Well, 'cept the one I'm datin', Celestia help me. But now ya' see where my problem is, ya' think you could keep this stuff between us?”
“I guess I can live with that. But since I don't get to kiss you around our friends, you owe me extra kisses when we're alone. It's only fair.” Rainbow Dash looked into Applejack's eyes and gave what she hoped was a charming smile.
AJ's serious expression melted into a smile, “I reckon I can part with a few extra kisses.”
She leaned forward and touched her lips softly to Dash's. When they parted, she said “That one's for bein' the best flier in all Equestria. Even though I coulda told ya' that before.”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “I've gotta find more contests to win.”
Applejack kissed her again softly. “And that one's for bein' so understandin' bout me wantin' this kept quiet.”
“Nopony will notice a thing,” Dash agreed happily.
Then Applejack kissed her a third time, as deeply as she could. For Dash the world fell away, and there was nothing that mattered more than Applejack's soft lips and gentle tongue.
When AJ pulled away, she whispered, “And that one's for never mentionin' me bein' mushy over you, ever again.”
“Uh-huh.” Dash nodded, dazed. Then she came to her senses. “Hey, that one was a trick!”
“You fell for it,” Applejack said, grinning over her shoulder as she started back towards the party.
“Dumb 'sensible ponies' and their amazing kisses,” Dash muttered, smiling as she flew to catch up with AJ.
When they reentered the party, they spotted their friends in a group, glancing at them and looking worried. AJ made her way through the crowd as Dash flew behind her. Appearently their friends noticed their smiles right away, because all four of them looked releaved as Dash and AJ joined them.
Twilight smiled at Applejack. “So I guess you guys worked things out?”
Applejack nodded. “As we were sayin', me and Rainbow Dash are kinda seein' each other, but we'd rather not make a big deal over it. Right Dash?”
“Yeah. We're playing it cool,” Dash said, crossing her front legs with a nod.
AJ glanced at Rarity. “That means no details. Not a one. Alla that's between me and Dash.”
“Very well, dear. But if either of you need any advice, or if you need to beautify yourselves for a date. . .” Rarity paused, considering the likelihood of this. “You're never going to talk to me about this, are you?”
Applejack smirked and shook her head.
Rarity sighed, “Well, I'm here if you need me.”
“We all are,” Twilight added.
“But we completely understand that you need your privacy,” Fluttershy said with an empathetic smile towards Applejack.
Pinkie started to nod, then gasped and darted away.
“Um, what do ya think that meant?” AJ asked, a little worried.
Dash shrugged. “It's Pinkie. Who knows?”
* * *
The next day, Rainbow Dash received a strange invitation for that evening. She had no idea why Pinkie might be throwing a party at 8 o'clock in the park, but she had no idea why Pinkie did most things. Dash had been feeling a little down all day, the highs of winning and celebration were starting to fade, so she was kind of glad for the distraction.
She got there on time, and there was a picnic blanket and basket with a lantern for light, but the only other pony there was a very confused Applejack. Dash had to smile when she saw her.
“What's this?”
“Dunno. I got this here invitation from Pinkie, but I don't see her anywhere.”
Rainbow Dash flew around the blanket, checking it out. She spotted a note on the picnic basket.
She got closer and read out loud:
“Surprise! This is a very, very private and not a big deal, 'Congratulations on finding a special somepony who's one of your best friends!' party, just for Rainbow Dash and Applejack! Have fun!
Love,
Pinkie Pie
PS: Last night I gasped 'cause I was like 'I should throw a party! But they don't want a party! So I should throw a very very private party that's just for them!' then I ran away because I had to get the party ready then I remembered that I was AT a party then-”
Dash stopped reading and looked up, “It goes on like that for the rest of the page.”
“Well if that don't beat all!” Applejack said in happy surprise, sitting on the blanket.
Dash just grinned and landed on the blanket next to AJ. She wrapped a wing around Applejack and smiled at the whole scene. “You know, I have the coolest friends and the coolest marefriend. My life is awesome.”