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// You Named It After Me 
// Story: The Stars Are Free 
// by Touch the Sky 
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"Isn't it brilliant?" Twilight's sparkling violet eyes shone as her marefriend looked away from the telescope. 

Rainbow Dash looked at the beaming alicorn, and her mouth twitched, but not into a smile. Twilight flattened her ears. "You don't like it. It's too sappy and sentimental, isn't it?"

Rainbow grinned. "No, Twilight, it's nice." But even she could hear how unconvinced she sounded. Twilight's ears pressed even harder onto her head, and she turned away.

Rainbow sighed, and zipped around to face her marefriend, nuzzling the alicorn's chin up with her nose. "Look, Twilight, it was a really nice thought. But astronomy really isn't my thing."

And I don't want to need a star named after me in order to be remembered.

Twilight's lip wobbled. "It's a blue giant star. It reminded me of you, and I thought it would be nice to immortalize your name as a star."

"Blue giant? What are you trying to say?"

Twilight stammered, trying to explain, but Rainbow cut her off with a chuckle. "Heh, Twi, I'm just messing with you. I know I'm cyan, not just blue."

Twilight scratched the back of her head with a hoof. "Yes, well... anyway, I thought it was a nice idea. Since you spend so much time in the sky, I also thought having your name fixed there forever would be a good-"

Rainbow grimaced. "Getting sappy again, Twi."

The alicorn's tail flagged. "Sorry. I just wanted to get you a great present for our anniversary."

Rainbow's face dropped. "It's our anniversary?"

Twilight stared at her. Rainbow cracked up. "Just kidding! Here you are, egghead." Rainbow pulled a rectangular parcel out of her saddlebags, wrapped haphazardly in blue paper. Twilight eagerly tore it open, revealing exactly what she had expected... a book.

"Ooooh!" Twilight sang, turning it over in her magic to scan the back. "A signed, first edition, mint condition copy of To Kill A Phoenix by Hoofer Lee? You shouldn't have! This must have cost you a whole month's wages!"

"Eh, it was nothing," Rainbow said, flicking her ears back as she thought of the shady transaction for the book under the cover of thunderclouds. "It can't really compete with your present. You bought me a star!"





One blue star, newly christened 'Rainbow Dash'. That was how it had started.

After that, things had spiralled rapidly out of control. Twilight had bought up a whole constellation, the six stars closest to Rainbow Dash, and named them after the others, so that now Rainbow Dash was surrounded by her buddies Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Applejack and, the closest star to the blue giant, Twilight Sparkle.

Of course Rarity was pleased. She loved being able to tell everypony that there was a star named after her. Fluttershy, Spike and Pinkie had been flattered too, and pleased at the permanent record of their friendship which now existed in the sky, at least, Twilight told them, until Applejack, a red giant, exploded in two thousand years or so.

Applejack had been the least interested. She only ever needed to know the North Star from the others, so that she could navigate by it when it was needed. She then had to intervene when Twilight had offered to buy the North Star, a yellow supergiant, and name it after Apple Bloom.

"Nah, Twilight, that's OK. I don't ever wanna get lost on the way to the Apple Family Reunion and wind up looking for two Apple Blooms instead of just one."

Applejack had cracked a smile, however, when Rainbow had joked about the impending explosion of Applejack. 

"Breaking news: the red giant, Applejack, has exploded, creating a supernova larger than its' pony namesake's leg muscles, and creating a black hole even bigger and more inescapable than her apple-printed bu-"

At this point, Applejack had tackled Rainbow to the ground and stuffed a hoof in her mouth, but she was laughing. Rainbow pushed the earth pony off and pounced back at her, and they rolled around in battle and laughter until Twilight interrupted with technical facts about supernovae and black holes, mostly correcting Rainbow's wording of 'exploded' since technically, stars imploded before exploding back outwards.

Rainbow hadn't been able to hold back her sigh as she listened to her marefriend reciting statistics and chemical elements related to star collapse. Twilight was a hugely adorable dork, but she just wasn't interested in the same things Rainbow was. If Twilight thought she was actually listening to this lecture, she didn't know her all that well. Rainbow glanced at Applejack, who was twiddling an orange hoof in her ear with her green eyes fixed on a point just beyond Twilight's shoulder. Applejack glanced back at her and grinned, shrugging her shoulders, then jerking her head towards Twilight, who was showing signs of reaching the end of her spiel. Rainbow snapped back to attention as Twilight concluded,

"And so, Applejack will most likely not form a black hole when it implodes, but a neutron star or pulsar. Those are fascinating, but I can tell you about those another day. Anyway, it's getting late. I should get back to the castle before Spike gets back from helping Rarity and can't get in." 

Rainbow accepted Twilight's kiss on her cheek, and then the alicorn flew away into the rapidly darkening sky.

"So," Applejack said, sitting back on her haunches. "Do you wanna stick around and show me what Twilight's fussin' about, or do you have to get back to the castle for yer lecture on nutron stars or whatever she said?" She smirked. 

Rainbow pulled a face. "Shut up."

"Excuse me, but ah put up with yer comparin' my flanks to a black hole. Don't be dishin' it out if ya can't take yer own servin'."

"You should dish it out more often, AJ. Clearly you've been taking too many servings."

"I dish it out like it is, unlike some po- Hey, wait a minute!"

Rainbow soared away, laughing, as Applejack hollered indignantly after her. The pegasus sniggered, skimming her hooves over the tops of the apple trees before spinning skyward. She paused to hover in the starlit sky, turning her gaze towards the little bunch of seven stars. Her excellent vision just about allowed her to make out the blue colour of her own namesake, as well as the red of Applejack. They were the two brightest stars in the group; the others were merely white pinpricks of light. Fluttershy appeared to twinkle slightly as Rainbow watched, but the others blazed on in the great black canvas of Luna's sky.

She drifted back down to where Applejack stood. The earth pony had calmed down, and was now looking up at the sky. "It's them seven over there, right?" she asked, pointing to the cluster with a hoof.

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "The twinkly one is Fluttershy, the small one in the middle is Spike, the bright one at the top is mine, and the one next to that is Twilight's. Yours is the other bright one below Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie and Rarity are those two middley ones next to yours."

"Huh."

Rainbow waited for the farm pony to say more, but she didn't for a while, just continuing to look up at the cluster of light. "Well, it sure was nice of Twilight to buy 'em for us," Applejack said eventually. "But I don't know. I don't think of stars as something which can be bought."

"I think Princess Luna wanted a new moonstone-studded moondial."

"Pfft... really?"

"Yeah. According to Rarity, stars are all the rage up in Canterlot at the moment. In fact..." Rainbow pointed out three more stars. "There's Fancy Pants, Hoity Toity, and Upper Crust."

"Nopony's bought the North Star though, right? I am not looking for Sapphire Shores when I get lost between here and Appaloosa."

"Actually, somepony did."

"Oh, Celestia. What's it called now, then?"

"'North Star'."

"What?"

"Exactly. Either somepony is a total idiot, or just thought they were hilarious. Some stallion in Fillydelphia paid a million bits to call the North Star 'North Star'."

"Where did ya hear that?"

"Twilight heard it from Princess Luna. Apparently Luna thought it was so funny she had to write to Twilight and tell her, especially since Twilight's been buying so many stars. Luna also wrote to say she loves her new moondial."

Applejack chuckled. "What's next, Celestia sellin' sunbeams?"

"You know Twilight would buy those too."

"It just feels wrong somehow," Applejack frowned. "Buying stars. They're free, in both senses of the word. Ya don't have to own 'em to appreciate 'em. And you don't see ponies walkin' around with stars in their bags or on leashes. When ponies buy stars, it feels like they're tryin' to claim 'em, like they're printing their names all over 'em. It was nice of Twi, and I know she thought she was giving us all a gift, but I feel more like she's tryin' to tie me to somethin' that should be free. And if ya tie two free things together... are they really free any more?"

Rainbow sat down. "I never really saw it that way. Also, whoa, that got deep. You been taking lessons from black holes?"

"Nah. I just have a lot of time to think out in the orchards nowadays. Ya don't fly over to chat as much as ya used to."

"I don't?" Thinking about it, Rainbow couldn't remember when she had last paused over the orchard to talk to Applejack. 

"Well, ya do have a marefriend now. Twilight takes up a lot of your time with all her 'Let's Reform Starlight Glimmer' sessions."

"Pssh, tell me about it. Trying to teach that mare loyalty is like trying to teach Fluttershy to cheer all over again, except with way more shouting, crying, and shouting while crying. I wish we'd had more luck in tracking down Sunburst, or whatever his name is."

"At least she got ahold of being honest pretty quick. I only had to teach her about that twice. 'Course, she'll never be as honest as me, but she's gettin' there. And didn't Twilight say Moondancer knew Sunburst once?"

"Yeah. But he ditched her too, apparently, and she never saw him again."

"I'm seeing a pattern here."

"Me too." Rainbow gazed upwards. "I don't really get why he'd just ditch her like that, though. I mean, I could never just leave my friend without even saying goodbye."

"Well duh, yer the Element of Loyalty. Pretty sure Sunburst isn't."

"But seriously? No letters or anything? It just annoys me."

"Well, as much as it does, and me too, sugarcube, he's a free pony. If he didn't want to stay in touch with her, he was perfectly free to do so. Just like we're free to do whatever we want. Just like the stars are free. Or should be, anyway."

"Yeah." Rainbow looked down. "I should probably get going. Twilight will be waiting with her presentation about nugget stars, and then I have to bring in a storm with Thunderlane tomorrow morning. I'll try and fly over after lunch. The day after, I have to go to some boring awards ceremony at the unicorn school in Canterlot with Twilight." She gave a huff of annoyance. "I was hoping to spend that day practising my stunts." 

Applejack smiled. "Well, if you fly over, I'll be in the south field."

Applejack stood up and trotted back towards the farmhouse. Rainbow took off again, glancing back at the cluster of seven stars before sweeping away towards the castle on the horizon.

If you tie two free things together... are they really free any more?