Chapter 1

I’m not entirely sure when it was that I first realized it. I think maybe it was just something that developed over time and I hadn’t recognized yet what it was. But when I found myself thinking about her over and over again, when everything reminded me of her, I think that’s when I realized it. That I was falling for Rainbow Dash.

I’m honestly still not sure how I feel about it. My family has always been very traditional, including me, so the thought of two girls being together is shameful. I actually had a hard time admitting it to myself at first. I’d stay up late at night, furiously arguing with my mind about how I was not in love with Rainbow Dash. I ended up breaking down and crying myself to sleep. How could I have gotten so pathetic? Not only was I arguing with myself, but I was losing.

I just don’t understand why I never felt this way before. I’ve been friends with Rainbow Dash since grade school— the only one who’s been friends with her for longer is Fluttershy. All these years that we’ve been best friends, I’ve never had one single thought about liking her in that kind of way. So why now?

Frustrated with my thoughts, I flung my pillow against my wall and laid my head against the headboard, sighing angrily. I covered my face with my hands, my breath heating up my face with each exhale. I rolled over on my left side, staring out the window. It was a beautiful night. The stars shone brightly, lighting up the apple trees serenely. Rainbow Dash loved nights like these, where barely a single cloud was in sight.

Damn it! I’m thinking about her again! Why do I keep doing that? I shook my head, attempting to shake Rainbow Dash out of my thoughts. But it’s futile. She keeps coming back to me. Her strangely beautiful hair, each strand a different color of the rainbow. Those incapacitating magenta eyes… God, I could lose myself in those things.

I sighed once again and turned to my other side. I was soon overcome by my exhaustion and drifted off to sleep. Sleep was merciful to me today, and I didn’t dream about Rainbow Dash for the first time in a week.

~ ~ ~

The following morning I woke up in a surprisingly good mood and I found myself smiling as I stretched. I looked out my window. The birds chirped lively and several white, fluffy clouds dotted the perfectly blue sky. I jumped out of bed and skipped downstairs, stretching once again to rid my body of any sleepiness that still remained.

“Mornin’ sis,” my big brother Big Mac said as he cooked eggs in the kitchen.

“Mornin’,” I smiled and sat down at the table.

“You seem like you’re in a good mood this morning,” he said. He turned to look at me, a small glint in his eyes. It was the same glint I saw in his eyes every time he knew something.

The relationship between my brother and I was always a special one. He basically raised me since my parents died only shortly after Apple Bloom was born. Big Mac is the sweetest guy I’ve ever known and he always seems to know what I’m thinking or feeling. In the same way, I always knew what he was thinking as well.

“Hey, Mackie, you like that girl don’t you?” Big Mac’s eyes grew round as saucers and the slightest hint of a blush appeared on his cheeks. I was just a little girl then— maybe nine or ten; Apple Bloom was only one at the time and Big Mac was fourteen.

“Aw, shucks, what do you think I should do?” he asked, a feeble smile on his face.

“Ask her out!” Little Applejack cried out.

I’ve always thought my brother was very handsome and could get any girl he wanted in my opinion. He’s a tall and muscular guy, with blonde hair and freckles just like me. The only thing is that he’s terribly shy.

I feel kind of bad for him sometimes. Not only does he help out a ton with all the work around the farm, but he’s got a whole family to take care of. Granny Smith doesn’t require a lot of attention since she’s sleeping most of the time, but Mackie worries for her sometimes. I can see it in his eyes.

“Thanks, Mac,” I said gently as he put a plate of eggs down in front of me. He smiled back softly and then turned to his eggs again.

“Go wake up your sister, will you?” he asked. I nodded with a mouth full of eggs and energetically hopped up the stairs. I knocked on Apple Bloom’s door.

“Wake up, ‘Bloom,” I called out. I heard the sheets rustle a little inside her room and a muffled groan.

“Five more minutes…” she called out lazily.

I knocked again, a hint of a smile playing my lips. “Come on, Apple Bloom, you’ve got school today.”

Thirty seconds later, Apple Bloom opened her door and groggily walked to the bathroom, her red hair sticking up like a haystack.

I snickered. “Nice hair,” I teased playfully. Before she disappeared into the bathroom, I saw a tiny smile appear on her face.

I went back downstairs to finish my eggs and then started heading out the door.

“Alright, I’m going out to sell,” I told Big Mac. While Apple Bloom had just started her first week of school, I still had a couple precious weeks of summer left before going back to high school. Most of my summer days, however, consisted of me doing work, like days like these when I went out with my apple cart and sold apples.

I closed the door behind me and walked over to the apple cart where I promptly loaded it with various kinds of apples and even a few treats. Pushing the cart down the dirt road, I headed down towards my regular selling spot. I was not in the town for even two seconds before Rainbow Dash came up behind me, her face lit brightly with excitement.

“Hey AJ!” she called out, running towards me. My heart soared when I saw her, a smile immediately lighting up my face. Despite the confusion inside of me, I loved seeing Rainbow Dash more than anything in the world.

“Hey, sug’,” I said casually and kept walking.

“You goin’ to Twilight’s slumber party tonight?” she asked, her head turned towards me. I looked at her, and instantly regretted it. It was probably due to my exaggeration of my current feelings for Rainbow Dash but for some reason I was more nervous around her today than I had ever been before.

“Hellooo? Earth to Applejack?” she said, waving a hand in front of me.

I flinched. “U-um, sorry. Yeah, I’m going,” I said, breathing a laugh.

I glanced over at Rainbow as we walked together, my heart thumping hard against my chest. I could barely even be around her anymore without feeling like my chest was going to explode. She seemed to notice that I was staring at her and she moved her head slowly to the left to look at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Um… hi?” she smiled.

I blinked, and looked down. “Sorry,” I snickered. “Just kind of out of it I guess. Long night.”

I stopped walking once I got to my regular selling area. “Well, here’s where I’ll be for the next five hours.”

“Good luck with that— seriously,” Dash said. “I think everybody in this town should buy your apples. They’re so amazing. The only thing keeping me from buying any right now is lack of money.”

I laughed as I set up the legs of the cart to make sure it would stay in place. I grabbed a bright red apple from the bunch and nonchalantly tossed it towards Rainbow Dash.

“Here,” I said, throwing the apple at her. Her eyes widened a little bit, her hands shooting out to catch it. “On the house,” I said, tipping my Stetson to her. “And, yes, I’m sure,” I said before she could speak, knowing what she’d say next.

“Thanks AJ,” she smiled. “I guess I owe you one.”

I waved her away. “Nah, it’s nothing really. It’s only one apple anyway.”

Her eyes lit up suddenly. Oh God… that usually meant she had some crazy idea. “I know! I’ll go tell everybody in town to buy your apples!”

Before I could even protest, she already started running away, waving thanks to me as she left. I laughed and shook my head.

“You sure are crazy, Rainbow Dash.”

~ ~ ~

Later that night, I sat inside Twilight’s living room, sitting and laughing with the rest of the girls.

“…And then I said, ‘Waiiittt!! Don’t eat that cake!!’ And he was all like, ‘Huh?’, and I was like, ‘Yeah!’ So he ate the cake anyway! And guess what? He exploded! I was so super duper freaked out, I almost didn’t even know what to do! So I said, ‘Well, I guess I won’t be making that batch again.’ And I started making more cakes!”

The room erupted into a fit of giggles at Pinkie’s wacky story.

“Pinkie, you have the weirdest dreams,” I said, still chuckling.

“Wait, that was a dream?” she asked, her eyes wide with innocence.

Everybody stopped laughing and looked at her.

“Wait, you mean…? Did that guy actually explode?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Pinkie Pie looked really confused for a second. “OH, wait! Yeah, that was a dream!”

Everyone groaned and laughed once again. None of us could even keep up with this girl.

“Okay, so in my book of Slumber 101 it says it’s time to do Truth or Dare!” Twilight squealed.

“Twilight, haven’t you already had enough slumber parties to know what to do during one?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, yes, but I just want to make sure that everything’s perfect,” she said.

I rolled my eyes. That girl. It was as if everything she did was because she read it in a book somewhere. She really needed to get out more often.

All of us were already in a circle so now it was just time to start. “Okay, I guess I’ll start first,” Twilight said. “Rarity, truth or dare?”

“Truth. I feel like some of the dares given are just a bit too, er, vulgar for me,” Rarity spoke. I smiled softly. I loved how each and every one of us had completely different personalities, yet we were the best friends anyone could ever have. Having all been friends since grade school, we were a family.

“Alright,” Twilight said and then pondered for a moment, trying to think up a question. “Okay, how old were you when you had your first kiss?”

I looked at Rarity, intrigued by the question. I actually didn’t know much about any of Rarity’s past relationships. Despite her obvious interest in boys, she had a kind of pride and refused to “kiss and tell”, so to speak.

“Ninth grade,” she answered. “Before high school, not to sound conceited but most boys were head over heels for me and they were all far too immature. It was my freshman year in high school that I got my first boyfriend.”

“Aww, I think that’s sweet Rarity,” Twilight said.

Rarity waved a hand nonchalantly. “Yes, well that lasted about a week, as you all know.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled. “No offense Rare, you’re amazingly gorgeous but you have pretty high standards. He couldn’t even keep up with you.”

Rarity smiled sheepishly. “I guess I did boss him around a little bit…”

A shared giggle softly spread throughout the group as we remembered the poor meek boy who, despite his muscular build, looked like a lost puppy as he followed Rarity around.

“Okay, your turn to ask someone,” Twilight said to Rarity.

Rarity looked around. “Pinkie. Truth or dare?”

“Ooh! Umm… I choose dare!” Pinkie said with excitement.

Rarity smiled a bit. “Okay, umm… I dare you to hold your breath for as long as you can.”

I stifled a giggle. That was kind of a silly dare but I guess I shouldn’t have expected much from Rarity.

Pinkie suddenly took in a deep breath and sat there with her cheeks puffed out. We all sat there in silence and stared at her for thirty seconds… a minute… two minutes…

“Jeez, how long is she gonna hold her breath?” Rainbow Dash asked in awe, leaning forward slightly in anticipation.

“I think she’s turning blue!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Um, sugarcube? You don’t have to make yourself pass out, you know,” I said, waving my hand in front of her.

Pinkie still held her breath and the rest of us grew more worried.

“Pinkie, okay! You can hold your breath for an awful long time!” Rarity said with desperation. At this rate, Pinkie was going to pass out.

“WOOH!!” Pinkie suddenly screamed as she let out her breath. “Wowie! That was a long time!”

Several of us sighed in relief and I saw Rainbow Dash face-palm herself.

“Ugh, Pinkie, you really are somethin’ else…” Dash said.

Pinkie giggled, her face lit up with excitement. “Okie! Umm…. DASHIE! Truth or dare?”

Dash smirked. “What do you think? Dare of course.”

Without hesitation, Pinkie said, “I dare you to go outside and ask the very first guy you see out on a date.” Her eyes gleaming with anticipation, smile stretched wide.

“Pinkie, it’s like eleven ‘o’clock at night. No one’s going to be out there,” Rainbow Dash said.

Pinkie didn’t say anything but instead continued to stare at Rainbow Dash, expecting her to get up and do it.

Dash rolled her eyes and got up. The rest of us quickly followed, quietly but anxiously waiting to watch whatever was going to happen. We stopped outside of Twilight’s house and looked around. There was hardly anyone around.

“Look! There’s a guy!” Pinkie whispered. An old man was walking his dog along the sidewalk. I decided not to question why an old guy was walking his dog in the middle of the night.

“He’s like seventy-five years old!” Rainbow Dash whispered back.

Pinkie giggled. “It’s a dare! You have to do it!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine.”

“Oh, wait before you go,” Pinkie said and grabbed Dash’s arm. She then lowered her voice a bit. “Make it sexual.”

Dash face-palmed herself but said nothing. We all watched eagerly as Rainbow Dash walked up to the old guy. Thankfully, we could still hear what she said despite the distance.

“Hey there,” Rainbow Dash said, smiling slightly at the old guy with her right hip dropped.

“Umm, hello,” the old guy said in a cheerful but slightly confused tone.

“You’re pretty cute. Wanna go on a date?” I could see Dash raise her eyebrows a bit.

The old guy’s eyes widened and he was speechless for a few seconds. All of us tried to hold back snickers and I could tell Dash was on the verge of laughing as well.

“U-umm… well, how much do you cost?”

The question seemed to catch everyone off guard, including Rainbow Dash who snorted and bent over in laughter. She turned away from him slightly. “Sorry to have wasted your time,” she said, barely able to say it without laughing. She ran back to the group where we all burst out into laughter— even Fluttershy was laughing.

“Wow I didn’t expect that!” Twilight said, snorting slightly from her laughter in the most adorable way.

“Such a pervert!” Rarity retorted haughtily.

Even in the darkness, I could see Dash was blushing. “Let’s just go back inside,” she smiled.

We soon returned to Twilight’s house, all still a little giggly from Rainbow’s dare.

“Alright, Rainbow Dash, your turn to ask someone,” Twilight said.

“Applejack,” she said, looking right at me. “Truth or dare?”

I thought about it for a little bit. I didn’t exactly want a dare from Rainbow Dash… it could end up badly. “Truth,” I said. “I am the Element of Honesty, after all.”

Everyone in the group chuckled a little. Back when we were all just kids, we played a game where we would all represent different elements of friendship and go on different make-believe adventures. I happened to be the Element of Honesty. I laughed when I thought about Twilight’s element. She was the Element of Magic. I thought it a bit ironic for her; she’s always reading books and such— she seems like the kind of person who would say magic is just a load of baloney.

“Alright,” Dash said. “Have you ever seen your brother naked?”

I instantly felt myself blush and I looked down. Of course she would ask something like that.

“Ooh, that’s a good one, Dashie!” Pinkie said.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. It wasn’t such a big deal but that was kind of an embarrassing question. I looked up but intentionally avoided anyone’s gaze. “Um, yeah, actually I have.”

“HA!” Dash burst out in laughter and I shot her a look.

“On accident!” I quickly retorted. “He had just gotten out of the shower and I didn’t think anyone was in the bathroom…”

“Oh, man, this is too good! I can totally picture that!” Dash said, making everyone else burst into laughter. Great. Now everyone was probably picturing that scene in their heads.

“Yes, ha-ha, very funny,” I said sarcastically. “Twilight, truth or dare?” I asked quickly, trying to move on from the subject.

“Hmm… I’ll go with truth. No, dare!”

“Well which one is it?” I asked with impatience.

“D… dare,” she said, speaking slowly, her eyes squinting slightly as she made the “difficult” decision.

“I dare ya to burn a book,” I deadpanned.

She gasped loudly and looked at me in horror. Drama queen. “BURN a book?! Are you crazy? Books are the jewels of knowledge!”

“Well, ya either burn it or you get the penalty.” I smiled, an evil little glint in my eye.

“Well… which book?” she asked hesitantly.

I pointed to a random book that was on the floor. “That one.”

Twilight gasped even louder and clutched the book. “This is one of my favorite books! I couldn’t possibly burn it!”

She hesitated a moment before asking, “…What’s the penalty?”

In unison, Pinkie, Dash and I loomed over her, evil smirks on our faces. From who-knows-where, Pinkie pulled out a thick black Sharpie marker and pulled off the cap, producing a satisfying clack! sound.

Twilight shrunk back in horror and laughed nervously. “Now, now… let’s not get drastic.”

From behind us, I heard Rarity’s exasperated sigh. “Oh come now, girls, isn’t that a little bit immature? We don’t need a penalty. It’s just a game after all.”

Twilight looked at Rarity like she was her knight in shining armor and dashed over to her as soon as our attention was diverted. She grabbed Rarity’s hand, quickly leading her towards her bedroom.

“Exactly! We should all go to sleep now, sleeping arrangements same as always,” she spoke quicker than Pinkie Pie, a nervous smile still on her face.

“Good night!” she sputtered rapidly, closing the door behind them as quickly as possible.

I rolled my eyes. “Jeez, it’s not like we were gonna murder her or something.”

Pinkie Pie hopped over to Fluttershy, slinging her arm around her with a happiness that was usual of Pinkie Pie.

“Alrighty, Flutters! It’s off to bed we go!” she sang, marching soldier-like towards the other bedroom.

The sleeping arrangements were usually always the same— Fluttershy with Pinkie Pie, Rarity with Twilight, and me with Rainbow Dash. Being the planner that she is, Twilight organized it all. I guess she arranged it based on who complemented each other’s personalities the most.

Rainbow Dash and I headed to the spare room— Twilight’s house was pretty big, rich parents and all— and Dash jumped on the bed, getting comfortable. I had slept in the same bed with Rainbow Dash loads of times, but not since… not since I realized how much I like her. I sat down slowly, hoping Dash couldn’t hear my thudding heart.

“Hey, you okay?” she asked. Crap. Don’t blow this Applejack.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m still thinking about that truth question earlier,” I lied. Element of Honesty my ass.

Rainbow Dash sat up and looked at me, her magenta eyes melting my heart. “About that… you’re not mad are you? It was just out of fun.” She spoke softly, her eyes full of concern.

“No, I’m not mad,” I said quickly and smiled. “Just a little embarrassin’ is all,” I chuckled.

Rainbow Dash laughed a little. “Come on, you gotta admit it was pretty funny. When I asked that question, your face got redder than the apples on your farm!”

I looked down and felt myself blush a little. “Heh, yeah, I guess it did.”

Dash suddenly stretched and lay down fully, closing her eyes. “Let’s get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?” I asked.

She opened one eye and looked at me, smiling. “Dunno.” She shrugged and then winked at me.

I felt my heart explode. God damn, I love you Rainbow Dash. Everything she said was just… perfect to me. She lived in the moment, not having a care in the world, and embraced each day like it was a new adventure.

I got up to turn off the light and got under the covers. “Night, RD,” I said, smiling at her.

She didn’t open her eyes but a small smile was playing at her lips as well. “Night, AJ.”

I turned over and closed my eyes, sighing deeply. Just having her here with me was amazing. I listened to her breathing, letting it lull me to sleep like a lullaby. When I fell asleep, I dreamt of her and of me with her. We sat in the field together, enjoying the day and watching the clouds roll by together.

We laid in the grass together, the cool breeze around us. Dash turned to me and looked into my eyes. “I love you Applejack,” she said softly.

The moment was perfect. “I love you too, Rainbow Dash.”

“Wha—?” Dash’s groggy voice suddenly woke me up and I looked around in confusion.

“Hmm?” I asked, voice muffled by sleepiness.

“You said my name,” she said. From the way her voice sounded I could tell she had almost been asleep.

“Oh, I, uh, must have been dreaming,” I said.

I felt Rainbow Dash move and I turned around to see her looking at me with an eyebrow raised.

“About what exactly?” she asked. Crap.

“Uh, nothing really, we were just with the others and having a picnic in the field,” I answered, hoping she’d buy it. I prayed that she didn’t hear the whole ‘I love you’ part.

Dash stared at me for a couple seconds and then shrugged, lying back down. “Whatever. Just keep your dreams inside your head and don’t wake me up.”

I stifled a little laugh. She was adorable when she was grumpy. “Sorry,” I smiled and lay back down as well.

I fell asleep shortly afterwards, a similar dream invading my head. Thankfully this time it decided to stay in my head.

Author's Notes:

I realize that as the narrator, Applejack seems a bit too literate than most people usually consider her to be, but in this story she’s actually a pretty good writer and that’s part of her character, so yeah.

Also, I don’t type out her accent. I’m sorry. This is for several reasons. The first is because since this is her narrating it, she’s obviously not going to notice her own accent. Like, imagine if she were writing in a diary. She wouldn't write “Ah” in the place of “I”. As for her actual speaking, it’s kind of the same way, but I do bring out her accent a little bit.

The second reason is because I just can’t write that way. I end up forgetting about the accent, so half of the dialogue would end up having the accent and half of it wouldn't. Sorry ^-^’

Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

The next morning, my eyes opened slowly as the morning light gleamed through the window. My mind was still numb from sleep and it took me a couple moments to finally wake up. I sat up and stretched, rubbing my eyes a little bit and looking around the room. Twilight’s house was a little stuffy but I didn’t mind too much.

I turned to look at the other occupant in the bed. She was still asleep, facing my direction, her bangs slightly covering her face. I smiled softly. Seeing the usually-hyper and always-ready-to-go athlete in such a peaceful state was a rare sight. She and Pinkie were a lot alike in that manner.

Getting up, I brushed my hair out with my fingers and walked over to the mirror. I looked back at the green-eyed blonde staring at me and sighed. “My life sure is getting crazy lately…”

I heard Rainbow Dash move a bit and I looked to my right. She lifted a hand to her face and exhaled, then lowered her hand and looked at me.

“Morning,” I snickered, amused at how tired she looked.

“Who’re you talking to?” she asked, her voice thick with sleepiness.

“Oh, um, myself,” I replied, smiling sheepishly.

She suddenly sat up and groaned, attempting to fully wake up. She got out of bed and stretched, then turned around and smiled at me.

“You’re weird, AJ,” she teased and walked out of the room.

I followed behind and saw that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were already up.

“Oh, good morning Applejack and Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy smiled sweetly.

I smiled back brightly. “Mornin’, ‘Shy.”

“Twilight and Rarity are still asleep,” Pinkie said in her usually excited tone. “We’ve been waiting for everyone to wake up!”

I looked at the clock on the wall. It said 8:12. I was usually up and picking apples by seven every day.

“Hey, I’m sorry everyone but I’d better get going,” I said. I didn’t feel the need to explain why. I figured everyone would know anyway.

“Aw, that’s too bad but okay!” Pinkie said. “I’ll tell Twilight you had to go!”

“Thanks, Pinkie,” I smiled.

“See you later, AJ,” Rainbow Dash said.

I felt bad leaving first but things had to be done. It was apple season and things were really busy around the farm. I really couldn’t waste any time.

After a thirty minute walk, I arrived at Sweet Apple Acres and happened upon my brother who was picking apples.

“Mornin’,” he said when he caught sight of me.

“Mornin’! I’m not too late am I?”

“Nope. Did ya have fun last night?”

“Sure did,” I replied. “I’m gonna go get changed, okay? I’ll be out in a sec.”

A quick change of clothes and an apple for breakfast later, I headed outside and wandered over to where my brother was to help him pick apples. We usually didn’t talk much when we were working— not to mention that Big Mac didn’t talk much anyway. Being around him was nice though. As I picked, I thought about the past, smiling at some of the memories Big Mac and I have shared.

I lost myself in my work, and most of the entire day, apart from the quick lunch break, consisted of me and Mac picking apples. As the sun began to set, I looked at the orchard and smiled with content at our progress.

“Wooee!” I exclaimed, wiping a bead of sweat from my brow. “I’d say today was a pretty darn good day of apple pickin’.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied back, nodding once in approval.

We carried the last of the baskets toward the farm and set them down inside, heading inside the farm house afterwards where Granny Smith had just finished cooking dinner.

“You two look exhausted,” she said. “I made a big ol’ dinner just fer you!”

I chuckled. “Thanks Granny. I can always count on you for making sure we don’t go hungry.”

Needless to say, the dinner was delicious. Weary from the hard day’s work and sluggish from my full stomach, I headed off to bed to finally end the day. I hadn’t closed my eyes for even ten seconds before I fell completely unconscious.

~ ~ ~

“Steeeeriike!” Pinkie screamed, making me whirl around in anger.

A couple days had passed and all of us girls were outside playing a game of baseball. We hadn’t exactly planned for this— it was just another random activity Pinkie brought up and we decided to go with it. Naturally, Rarity wasn’t playing and instead fanned herself as she sat on the bench, complaining about how hot it was.

Fluttershy was out in left field, cowering in fear that the ball would come towards her. Rainbow Dash was waiting in line to bat and I, of course, was up to bat. Twilight was pitching and Pinkie was the catcher/umpire, but to me that only meant basically having my right ear being blown out every five seconds by her screams.

Due to the lack of people fit for a real baseball game, we had invited a couple of our friends over as well— mainly guys. I wasn’t too familiar with any of them; they were friends of Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. Two of the boys were out in the field with Fluttershy, waiting for me to hit a ball. The other guy was on our team, waiting in line with Rainbow Dash.

“Pinkie! Stop screamin’ in my damn ear!” I yelled and turned, only to see another baseball come flying towards me.

Pinkie caught that one as well. “Strike two!”

I gritted my teeth and stared at Twilight, ignoring Pinkie.

“Come on AJ! You can do it!” Rainbow Dash yelled out. I felt myself blush a little bit. She was watching me and cheering me on. Now I had to do it.

Twilight prepared to throw the ball and I gripped the bat tighter, preparing. She threw the ball and I waited for just the right time. Now! I thought and, with all my might, swung out at the ball.

Something hit the bat and it took me a moment to realize that I had actually managed to hit the ball. I stood there for a couple moments, unsure of what to do as I watched the ball go speeding past Twilight.

“RUN APPLEJACK!!” Rainbow Dash screamed from behind me.

I started and then quickly dropped the bat, sprinting towards first base. As athletic as I was, I hadn’t really played baseball much in my life so I was still a little clumsy on how to do it. I looked to my left and saw one of the guys preparing to throw the ball to the one on first base. I pushed my legs to go faster and then, right as the guy on first base was about to catch the ball, I skidded to a stop and touched the base.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Safe.

I looked towards the home base and saw that the other guy on our team was up to bat.

Twilight threw the ball and the guy swung, missing it by a hair.

“Strike one!” Pinkie yelled.

The guy shifted his feet and prepared for the pitch. Twilight threw it once again and he swung, hitting the ball and sending it even further than mine had.

I reacted quickly, knowing that I had to run as well. I powered through, speeding towards second base. I looked to my right— I still had time!

“No! Stay on second base!” I heard Rainbow Dash call out.

I stopped quickly, going back a couple steps to stand back on second base. With the other guy safe at first base, they had no one to get out so they threw the ball back to the pitcher.

I looked at third base, knowing that I could have made it. Whatever. I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Rainbow Dash was up to bat next and she emphatically did a couple stretches, a proud smirk on her face. I couldn’t help but smile faintly. Out of all our friends, Dash and I were definitely the most athletic ones, something that brought us even closer together. We were always competing against each other. Although we did butt heads often, I don’t think it ever tore us apart in any way. We were both just naturally competitive.

She grabbed the bat and bent her knees a little, focusing on Twilight. Twilight got in her stance as well, suddenly throwing the ball quickly towards Dash.

Swing! I thought right as the ball was within hitting range but Dash didn’t move a muscle.

“Strike one!” Pinkie called.

What are you doing Dash? I tried not to stress myself out about it but she was our only batter left. Everything relied on her!

Twilight threw the ball again and my heart skipped a beat as it cut through the air. Rainbow Dash suddenly lashed out and, with a huge crack, the ball went flying through the air. I stopped and looked up for a moment, in awe by her amazing hit.

“Run!” the guy on my team yelled.

“Ha! No need to!” I heard Rainbow Dash’s voice call out.

“Damn! Home run!” Twilight said, narrowing her eyes angrily at the ball.

I jogged to home plate and Rainbow Dash jauntily skipped to each base. The guy on our team laughed and joined me at the home plate.

“Yes, you’re welcome,” Dash said and bowed to us once she reached the home plate as well.

“That was awesome,” the guy said. “I think it’s safe to say we’ve won this game.”

I side-glanced at the guy, distrust gleaming in my eyes. The way he looked at Dash… I could tell he liked her. A flare of jealousy ran through me but with a defeated sigh I decided to forget about it. Of course he liked her. Who wouldn’t?

“I gotta say, that was pretty amazin’,” I said as well, flicking her on the shoulder playfully.

The rest of the game went by fairly quickly. Twilight’s team didn’t do all that bad with batting but in the end they only managed to get one point. At the end of the game, we were all tired and sweaty but we forgot about who won and just chatted as friends again.

I talked idly with Pinkie Pie, still jokingly scolding her about how much she screamed in my ear. But something caught my ear while I was talking to her.

“…so do you want to go to the movies with me Friday?”

It was the guy who had been on my team and he was asking none other than Rainbow Dash.

I couldn’t turn my head but my heart sank to my stomach when I pictured Dash’s face in my head, smiling brightly and her cheeks slightly red from a blush.

“Yeah, that’d be awesome!” she replied back.

“Great! Here’s my number.”

A small silence passed between them as, I assumed, they exchanged each other’s phone numbers.

“Listen, I’ve gotta go pick up my little bro’ from his soccer tournament so I’ll see you then?”

“Yeah, totally! I’ll see you later!”

I hadn’t even noticed that by now I was staring at the ground with wide eyes, utterly ignoring the rest of the world around me.

“HELLOOO?” Pinkie’s high-pitched voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked up, snapped out of my trance as Pinkie waved her hand vigorously in front of my face.

“Sorry,” I chuckled.

Soon the rest of the boys had left, leaving us girls as one group. We were about to part ways when Rainbow spoke up, a boastful smile on her face.

“Guess who’s going on a date Friday night with Clad?” she said and all the other girls’ eyes lit up with excitement.

“No way! Nice one Rainbow!” Twilight said.

“Yeah, he’s a total cutie!” Pinkie Pie said.

I felt sick to my stomach. I don’t even think it was from the jealousy anymore though. It was probably from self-disgust over the fact that I was getting jealous of ‘Clad’ to begin with.

“Well, I’m gonna head home you guys. I think Big Mac wanted me to help him out with something,” I said and started walking away. I didn’t want my friends to be around me when I was in a bad mood. They didn’t do anything to deserve it and I’d rather not hurt anyone’s feelings.

I didn’t turn around to look but I assumed that the rest of the group went their separate ways after I left. I was about halfway home when I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I turned around and saw Rainbow Dash approaching me. I stopped and she stopped too to catch her breath.

“Umm, hey. You okay?” I asked, with one eyebrow raised.

She straightened up and looked at me with concern. “Are you okay? You seemed bothered by something when you left to go home.”

I looked at the grass, unsure of how to answer that question. Should I tell her the truth? “Y-yeah, sorry. I guess I’m just jealous,” I chuckled sheepishly and scratched my head.

Dash looked taken aback. “Jealous? Of me?”

Sort of…

“Yeah, right! Applejack, you’re so pretty you could get any guy you wanted!”

I felt my face instantly flush and I looked at her in surprise. “Y-you really think so?”

“Of course,” she said, smiling widely.

“Well, thanks RD,” I breathed and looked down shyly.

I looked up at her and swallowed my nerves. “Do you want to hang out sometime? Just you and me?”

Rainbow Dash snorted a little in laughter, her eyes twinkling light-heartedly. “It sounds like you’re asking me on a date, Applejack.”

I snorted back and put on a sarcastic face. “In your dreams. I’m just saying, we haven’t hung out together in a long time, just the two of us.”

“Yeah…” she said back slightly distantly. “Alright then. How about we do it just like old times and have a good old fashioned contest?” She smirked and winked at me.

I smiled wryly. “You’re on. Swimming contest at the pond?”

“Oh, you’re so on,” Dash said, flashing a cocky smile.

When we were younger, Dash and I happened upon a pretty big pond in the meadow near my house. It seemed no one knew about it so we made it our little hangout spot. We always had contests over there, especially swimming contests. The winner was constantly fluctuating— I was a strong athlete from all the years of working around the farm, but Dash was just one of those girls who was naturally good at sports. Any contest or race between us would end up being so close that we never really did know who the winner was. In the end, it all came down to who yelled the loudest to prove their point. Good times…

“How about Sunday afternoon?” I proposed.

“Definitely!” she said.

By this time, I was feeling a whole lot better than I was earlier. My previous knot of jealousy and depression was replaced with the familiar light feeling of happiness— and of relief— and the smile on my face no longer felt forced. I felt so good, in fact, that it didn’t even bother me to ask what I was about to ask next.

“So about your date with that guy, Clad?” I suggested, hoping she’d get my hint.

“Oh, yeah! I’m so excited!” she said, a huge smile instantly lighting up her face and a slight tint of pink shading her cheeks. “Ugh, I hate sounding like such a girly girl but I haven’t been on a date in forever.”

I chuckled slightly, somehow understanding her glee. “I’m right there with ya, sister. I can’t even remember the last time I went on a date.”

The worst part is that I wasn’t even lying. I think the last time I’d gone on a date was in the early months of my sophomore year, which was just under two years ago. I guess it didn’t help that I wasn’t really looking for a boyfriend either. But right now, even if somebody did ask me out, I probably couldn’t bring myself to say yes. Not when the only person I would be thinking about was the one standing next to me right now.

“Hey, I have an idea!” Rainbow Dash piped up, interrupting my thoughts. “I could ask Clad if he has any hot friends; I’ll totally hook you up. We could have a double date!”

I smiled a little, though it didn’t sound all that great to me. “Heh, maybe Dash.”

A small silence passed between us, but not the awkward kind of silence. Dash and I had been friends for so long, I don’t even think it was possible for there to be an awkward silence between us. We both listened to the sounds of the night around us— I hadn’t even noticed that it was now dusk—, calmly walking side by side towards my house. Pretty soon, my house came into sight.

“Well, I guess this is where we split,” Rainbow Dash said softly, as if hesitant to disturb the tranquility of the night.

“Alright, I’ll see ya tomorrow Dash,” I said, giving her a soft smile.

“Bye,” she said and started to walk away.

I turned and walked the rest of the way towards my house. It didn’t take long and the outside air felt nice. Nighttime air was always perfect here in summer. I closed the door once I walked in the house and saw the rest of my family at the table for dinner.

“Oh, hey there, sugarcube, we just finished eating supper. I was just starting to get out the apple pie,” my grandma said. I smiled in amusement. I loved the way she spoke. Her voice was the epitome of an old person’s and the wrinkles on her face suggested just the same. But I loved her to death. And she made the best apple pies.

I sat down at the table, eyeing the apple pie on the table. “Yum! This looks delicious.”

“You don’t want to eat supper first?” Granny Smith asked.

“Nah, I’m not really all that hungry. I will take a couple bites of this pie though.”

I’d had countless delicious apple pies in the past and the ones made from Granny Smith always tasted equally amazing. It’s hard to say what was the best piece of pie I’d ever had, but with these pies it really didn’t matter.

I sunk my teeth into the soft yet flaky apple pie, and after five bites of pure heaven, I had to put my fork down. As incredibly delicious as it was, it wasn’t exactly healthy to only eat loads of pie for dinner.

I got up and stretched, followed by a quick rinse of my plate. “Thanks, Granny. It was delicious as always.”

I gave her a kiss goodnight and headed upstairs where I took a shower and finally tuckered down to sleep. I thought about Rainbow Dash, of course, but this time it wasn’t entirely about her. Rather, it was about my recent, well, obsession with her. Why had I become so infatuated with her, now of all times? Was it just a phase? I remember hearing somewhere that well over fifty percent of teenage girls question their sexuality. Could I just be questioning myself?

Ugh. This was too much thinking. I rubbed my eyes roughly, exhaustion beginning to drip over my body. As my body entered sleep mode, my mind began thinking astray. Maybe that double date idea isn’t so bad after all. I’ll have to take you up on that offer Rainbow Dash. Date with Rainbow Dash… Wait, who’s dating who again?

I was too far gone at this point to even make sense of myself. But by the time I finally faded into sleep, I didn’t even remember those final thoughts that I had.

Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

Sunday came quicker than I thought it would and before I knew it I found myself opening my front door to let in my recent guest. Rainbow Dash stepped inside, her magenta eyes burning fiercely with anticipation of the day’s coming events.

“Sup, AJ? ‘Bout time you answered your friggin’ door. I was waiting there for like ten minutes,” she said, examining my house as if it were her first time seeing it.

“You were only waiting for thirty seconds,” I answered, rolling my eyes.

She shrugged. “Whatever, same diff’.”

“You wearing your suit?” I asked.

“Yep,” she said, smiling at me.

“Perfect, so am I. Come on, let’s go.”

I lead her out of the house and the two of us walked side by side in the direction of the pond. I looked over at her, smiling happily. The day was beautiful and on top of the great night’s sleep I had, I was feeling pretty good.

“So how was your date with that Clad guy? You went out with him Friday, right?” I asked.

“Yep! It was fun; we went to the movies and spent most of the night just hanging out and talking. We share a lot in common, and he’s athletic like me,” she smiled, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

I smirked and rolled my eyes. “Sounds like just the kind of guy for you.”

“He seems really cool so far and we’re going on a second date next week,” she answered.

“Does he go to our school?” I asked.

“No, he used to but his parents transferred him to Shadow Creek High,” Rainbow answered, sounding a little disappointed.

“Shadow Creek? Isn’t that that private, all boys school?”

“Yeah. Must really suck.”

I breathed a laugh in agreement with Dash. At the same time, I was slightly relieved; at least I didn’t have to worry about seeing Clad and Rainbow Dash together holding hands— or worse, making out— in the middle of the school hallway.

Rainbow Dash suddenly let out a less-than-attractive bear of a noise, throwing her head back in exasperation as she did so. “I can’t believe school starts next Monday. Just kill me now before I have to go through another year of that hell-hole.”

I giggled, empathizing with Rainbow Dash. “Come on, it’s our senior year. This is going to be the best year yet!”

“Bleh, maybe,” she groaned, bringing her head back to normal. “I can already feel a major case of senioritis coming along, if it hasn’t already.”

Before having a chance to reply, we soon caught sight of the lake and an excited smile broke across my face. “We’re here!” I said.

“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her previously exhausted face replaced with pure exhilaration. “Race ya’ there,” she said and suddenly bolted towards the lake.

I huffed in exasperation and started running after her. “Well, that’s no fair; you got a head start!”

I could hear her laughing up ahead and instead my anger dissipated, replaced with the mixed feelings of queasy joy that usually tended to happen to me whenever I was with Rainbow Dash.

Running towards the lake, both of us threw off our clothes and jumped in, the cool water tickling my skin like a splash of delightful nostalgia. I blindly headed towards the surface, breaking through with a short gasp, followed by bouts of laughter. Rainbow Dash was by my side, doing the exact same thing, and she splashed me playfully.

“It’s been way too long since we’ve done this,” I sighed, a smile resting on my face.

“Yeah,” my swimming partner agreed, casting her bright pink eyes upon me.

I wish I could have taken a picture of this moment— or rather, of Rainbow Dash. Her usually-spiky hair flattened messily against her face, the reflection of the sun against the water gleaming in her eyes, her perfect smile, and of course that one little water drop I even happened to notice just barely hanging onto a strand of Rainbow’s hair. She wasn’t just beautiful— she was damn sexy.

As soon as the perfect picture had formed, however, it was flung into the past as Rainbow Dash pushed my head, the sudden imbalance causing me to fall back slightly into the water. I glared at her in annoyance, rolling my eyes as she only smiled wider back at me.

“Stop staring at my sexy bod’ and come on. Are we gonna do this swimming contest or what?” she said and began to swim towards a more shallow area.

I always knew she was joking whenever Rainbow Dash commented on how I was “checking her out” or something of the sort, but I wondered if she actually knew how accurate she was. I didn’t exactly do a good job in keeping my feelings for her a secret and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she already knew.

I contemplated on subtly asking her, or even just asking her outright, playing it off as a joke. From the way she joked about it, though, I didn’t think she had any clue what my true feelings for her were. And if she did know, she’d probably bring it up anyway, being the blunt and outspoken person she was.

But then again… she did like to have her ego stroked.

I mumbled in frustration, deciding just to leave the matter alone. I had a contest to focus on.

Standing in a shallower area of the lake, Rainbow Dash scanned the area as if deciding how to set up the competition. “So what’re we gonna do, Applejack?” she asked nonchalantly, still gazing at the lake. “Guess there really isn’t anything else to do except race.”

Glancing down at me suddenly with devious eyes, she smirked, “Unless we wanna do it like Pinkie and see who can hold their breath underwater the longest.”

I smirked. “Yeah, I‘d rather not have to give you mouth-to-mouth, thank you very much.”

Actually…

She smiled and started heading further down the lake. Naturally, I followed. “We’ll start at that boulder and the finish line could be where we first jumped in,” she stated.

“No kicking, punching, or holding heads underwater,” I smirked, knowing that if I didn’t set up any ground rules she’d probably do just about all of those. “Or fake drowning.”

“I totally got you that one time,” she snickered. “Man, you should have seen the look on your face! You were in too much of a shock to even finish out the race!”

I shot her a dead-panned look. “I know, Rainbow. You remind me just about every time that topic comes up.”

I wasn’t surprised when she continued to laugh, pretty much to the point of tears. “Oh, that was priceless,” she said, wiping away a tear.

I shoved her playfully and headed over towards the boulder. “Shut up and let’s just start this race already.”

Heading over towards the boulder, Rainbow Dash was still laughing by the time she got there. Jeez, it really didn’t take much to amuse this girl, did it?

Gasping for air, she finally managed to get out, “Okay, okay. I’m better now. Get ready, Applejack. I ain’t going easy on you.”

I flashed a cocky smile. “Do you ever?”

She returned the look and both of us got in our ready positions. The two of us had come to an agreement that should a third person not be there with us, we would count down together to make sure no one got a head start. I knew Rainbow Dash liked to cheat but even she happily complied with this method.

“One…”

“Two.”

I couldn’t help but feel my heart thump roughly against my chest in the anticipation of the final second.

“Three!”

I swam madly, wanting more than ever to beat Rainbow Dash in this competition. I don’t know if it was from my good night’s sleep or from the buildup of all the anxiety and stress I’d had recently but I swam like hell, adrenaline surging through my veins with each stroke. I might have even forgotten how to breathe, finding myself more often than not choking on splashes of water.

Until now, I hadn’t dared to look at Rainbow Dash for fear of losing my momentum but my curiosity burned and I couldn’t help but steal a glance her way. To my surprise, she wasn’t parallel with me as I thought she would be but instead lagged behind a bit.

As expected, my turning to look at Rainbow Dash did cost me a bit of my momentum but I powered through and, with triumph, soon found myself crossing the invisible finish line. I stopped swimming and smiled victoriously at Rainbow.

She caught up with me, panting madly. “God, Applejack, have you been secretly practicing for this? I could barely even keep up with you.”

“Correction, you couldn’t keep up with me,” I smirked arrogantly. Conceited? Yes. But, hey, I had the right to act proud when I beat Rainbow Dash in a race. Plus, I honestly kind of wanted to rub it in her face.

“Heh, whatever. You win this time, Applejack, but you know you’d never beat me in a real race.”

“You’re right about that one, partner. I may be athletic but you were a born runner. Hell, I don’t even think anyone in our school is as fast as you.”

“They’re not,” she smirked deviously. “I was the fastest one on the track team last year, remember?”

I nodded, remembering all-too-well. I was proud of her, really. For some reason, when it came to competing on a team Rainbow Dash didn’t have her usual cocky air but instead was determined and hard-working. I admired her for that. She may not have been the most motivated person when it came to school work, but when it came to sports she was dead serious.

“And I’m going to beat my record this year,” she added in a quieter tone, her eyes gleaming with ambition. She turned to me, the usual fight back in her eyes. “Heck, maybe I can even become one of those Olympic runners.”

“Good luck with that, Dash,” I said, laughing light-heartedly. “Speaking of which, are you going to join any fall sports?”

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna join cross country,” she said, playing with a strand of hair idly.

“Oh, really? Not volleyball again?” I asked innocently, kicking my legs through the water softly.

“I don’t think so,” she shrugged. “Volleyball’s great but running’s more my thing. I remember liking cross country my freshman year so I think I’m going to go back to it.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sometimes I forget just how many sports you were in, RD.”

She sat up abruptly, splashing a couple drops of water on me. “How come none of our damn friends have joined any sports?” she exclaimed.

“Well you know I’d probably join one if I didn’t have my duties at the farm, but that takes up nearly all of my time,” I said. Rainbow nodded idly, apparently wanting me to continue. “As for the others, well, Twilight’s too busy studying all the time— although if you ask me she could benefit from putting a book down for once and participating in some kind of team sport.”

Rainbow snorted in agreement. I continued, “Fluttershy’s too meek to join any sports— no offense to her, but you know it’s true—, Pinkie Pie could be in a sport but I think her work schedule would interfere with it, and Rarity won’t even go near sports equipment, let alone the actual sport.”

Rainbow Dash laughed and nodded. “Yeah, although to be honest I think Rarity would be an awesome athlete. You know how whenever she gets really angry about something she goes mental and practically rips our faces off in the process?”

I burst out in laughter, picturing the scene all too well. “Yeah, just imagine what she’d do when the other team pisses her off,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh God, maybe it’s a good thing Rarity isn’t in any sports now that I think about it,” I said between laughs. I couldn’t help but imagine Rarity’s huffy reaction if she’d been able to hear our conversation.

Rainbow Dash sighed peacefully and I sunk a little further into the water, realizing just how good the cool temperature felt on my muscles. My thoughts drifted to a time when Rarity invited me to the spa with her. I had respectfully declined, since spas weren’t really my thing, but with all the work I’d been doing lately, a soothing spa treatment with massage included started to sound pretty nice. I might just have to take Rarity up on that offer later.

“So, how exactly do you and Pinkie know all those guys that were at the baseball game with us?” I asked, simply making small-talk.

“They go to a lot of Vinyl’s parties so we got to know them pretty quickly,” Dash explained. She looked at me with a wry smile. “Plus, it gets easier to be friendly around people once you’ve had a couple drinks.”

Pinkie and Dash were kind of party animals, and with Vinyl Scratch as a close friend of theirs, they were always getting word of new parties. I didn’t exactly approve, especially since I wasn’t entirely sure what even went down at those things.

“Ugh, you know I don’t approve of you drinking, Dash,” I scolded her softly, rolling my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. We don’t do it very often, I promise. And even when we do we don’t even get that drunk,” she said in her defense.

I sighed quietly. “Well, just be careful.”

She smirked. “Okay, Mom,” she teased, jumping over and tickling me. I burst out into laughter, futilely attempting to block her attacks. That was one weakness of mine that I hated. I was extremely ticklish, and Dash used it as a weapon against me whenever she was trying to get her way or whenever she felt like teasing me.

“S-stop!” I choked out through my bouts of laughter, my stomach beginning to ache.

I could barely breathe now, gasping for breath as Dash’s devious smirk widened. In a desperate attempt to stop the torturous assault, I grabbed Rainbow Dash’s wrists and lifted my feet from the bottom of the pond, attempting to break loose with my body weight.

I suddenly reached up towards her neck, pulling her down towards me swiftly. Dash gasped in surprise and we both plunged into the water. I pushed away from her quickly and swam towards the surface, laughing defiantly as she followed suit, her drenched bangs covering her face.

“Ha!” I shouted, a victorious smirk on my face. I panted heavily, still out of breath from the merciless tickling, unable to say anything else.

Dash exhaled and moved her bangs to the side of her face. She smiled, releasing a slightly stressed laugh. “Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting you to pull me underwater like that.”

My smirk widened. “Don’t tickle me. Next time, I’ll catch you when you’re not expecting it and then… then you’ll be sorry.”

My face darkened and Dash laughed nervously. She, too, was ticklish and next time I had the chance, I would be relentless.

“Hmm, I think I have some rope in the barn I could use…” I pondered jokingly.

Rainbow’s face turned to one of horror. “Oh, God no! Ehehe, you know, I was just having some fun… no need to get drastic…”

I smirked and inched closer to her. “I can’t just let you get off scot-free, now, can I?”

She backed away slightly, the terror in her face increasing. It took some strength to hold back my laughter; the look on her face was just priceless. “P-please, don’t! I’ll do anything! I’m sorry!”

I released a few strained laughs and stopped my advance towards her. “Anything?”

“Anything!” she exclaimed eagerly.

I thought of the possibilities of this moment. Here was Rainbow Dash, willing to give me anything to escape the terrible fate she knew lay ahead of her. I could have asked her to do work at the farm for a week; with her hatred of any manual labor whatsoever, it would definitely be entertaining to watch.

But another form of payback lingered in my mind. I could play it off as a joke, laugh about it afterwards, tease her about it. All I had to do was say two simple words.

“Kiss me.”

Rainbow’s nervous expression dropped completely and she blinked with slight confusion and surprise. I held a blank expression, but secretly my heart beat furiously. At first, I meant it as a joke. But now that I had said it, I realized that it was probably a huge mistake.

Dash furrowed her brow and took a step toward me. Oh God, was she actually going to do it?!

I took a step back and put my hands up, smiling nervously. “I was kidding, Dash,” I said and let out a nervous laugh.

She continued to walk towards me and I took a step back. I mean, sure, of course I wanted to kiss her! But not like this! Not when it was a request, rather than an actual romantic… thing.

She was close enough to me now and she grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me closer to her. I practically had a friggin’ heart attack at this point, and I was too confused about my own feelings to even speak.

She rested her forehead on mine, her eyes flickering back and forth slightly as she looked at me. I was too stunned to move, wanting it so badly but also screaming inside in protest. She looked at my lips, and then back at my eyes. She parted her lips slightly. Oh my God, she was actually going to do it.

Her face darkened as she leaned in closer and…

“I have a boyfriend, silly,” she whispered and then pulled away from me.

I gaped at her, still in shock from that entire scene. She smiled and laughed at my expression. I tried to snap out of it quickly.

“Christ, Rainbow, you scared the shit out of me!” I gasped, rubbing the back of my head. She laughed louder.

“Well then don’t make such a bold request next time,” she said and winked at me.

I shook my head. “And you do not have a boyfriend. You guys have been on one date…” I muttered.

She shrugged. “Whatever.”

I walked over to her and shoved her, making my way toward dry land. I was honestly a bit peeved off about the whole thing. She didn’t even know how torturous that was for me…

“Aw, come on. You’re not mad, are you? I was just joking!” she called out after me and I heard a couple splashes as she followed me.

I picked up my clothes and began to put them back on. My legs were still wet since I’d just been standing in the water but my torso was mostly dry. I caught Rainbow’s eye when I was putting on my shirt. She looked nervous.

“What?” I asked after putting my shirt on.

“Are you mad at me?”

I felt bad— she honestly looked really guilty. Sure, I was a bit annoyed, but I was more taken aback then anything. I definitely wasn’t mad at her.

I smiled sympathetically. “No, of course not.”

She breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the ground. “Good. I didn’t mean for that to be uncomfortable or anything. I just thought it’d be funny to see your reaction…”

“And was it funny?” I asked with one eyebrow raised.

She looked up, her face slightly shadowed from her bangs. A tiny smirk escaped her lips.

“Yes.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed her again and began heading back to my house. “Oh, shut up, you moron. We are never coming back here again. This happens every time…”

“I’m pretty sure this is the first time you’ve asked me to kiss you,” I heard her say from behind me.

I whipped my head around and scowled at her. “Not that. I mean, you always play up some kind of scene to officially scare the crap out of me. Fake drowning, pretending like there’s a spider on my back, and now this!”

“That spider one was freakin’ hilarious! I think you peed yourself!” she decided to generously point out.

I stopped and whirled around, lifting up my arm as if about to backhand her— not that I’d actually ever hit her, though. I was fuming at this point, and I’m pretty sure that much was obvious by my expression. She stopped too and held up her arms in defense. Even Rainbow was smart enough not to egg on an angry Applejack.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” she said. “I won’t do it again.”

I lowered my hand and squinted at her with distrust. “Won’t do what again?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’ll stop makin’ up fake stories and stuff to scare you. And I won’t pretend to kiss you again…. Unless you want me to, that is,” she added with a smirk and a daring wink.

I’m pretty sure my eye twitched. I just about lost it.

I lunged forward, slinging my arm around her neck and pushing her to the ground. She yelped in surprise and tried to push me back with her feet. I had the upper hand, though, and soon had her pinned. I’d wrestled enough with her before to know it was best to pin her soon and pin her fast. She looked up at me, nervous.

“I swear to God, Rainbow, if you say one more thing I’m going to break that tiny little neck of yours,” I warned.

She pursed her lips, eyes wide with terror. She knew I wasn’t serious, of course, but there’s no telling what I’d do if she kept going. I’d probably hit her for starters…

“Now, what am I gonna do with you?” I contemplated.

She laughed nervously. “You could let me off the hook, I apologize like mad, and we pretend you don’t look like a crazed serial killer right now?”

I couldn’t help but smile slightly at how terrified she looked right then. Her face was pale and I could feel her heartbeat beating rapidly. This was twice that I had her completely under my control. When would she ever learn?

I smirked evilly as a thought crossed my mind and I moved one hand closer to her stomach, letting my fingers hover.

“I could tickle you until you pee yourself, and I will be relentless,” I warned.

At this point, she honestly looked like she was about to cry. Hey, she deserved this.

“Please, don’t! Applejack, I’m seriously sorry! I’ll stop teasing you, I swear!” she begged.

I sighed and put my hand on the ground. I decided to let her up and sat on the ground. She looked at me, hesitantly moving to a sitting position. Suddenly, I flicked her on the forehead.

“Ow!” she yelped, rubbing her forehead.

“That’s for being an annoying asshole,” I said, getting up.

“Come on, Applejack. You know being an annoying asshole is my specialty,” she said and followed me.

I smirked. “Come on, weirdo. We’ve got some leftover apple pie in the fridge if you want some.”

She was silent for a moment. “…Do you have any cider, too?”

I smiled. “Maybe.”

Her face lit up and she was about to say something but I interrupted her. “But! After that little display, you’re not getting any.”

Her smile dropped completely.

“Aw, come on, Applejack!”

Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

No.

As I woke up, that was very first word that entered my mind. My eyes were heavy and my body urged me to go back to sleep but I knew that wasn’t a possibility. I got up at dawn every day, but for some reason the fact that I knew I needed to go to school made me want to sleep for eternity.

Yeah, that’s pretty much how it worked.

But I guess I was pretty excited to go back. I loved working at the farm, but sometimes just hanging out with my friends at school was a nice change from the long, sweaty summer days at the apple orchard.

I was pretty much dead the entire time I got ready. After staring at my zombie face in the mirror for a couple seconds, I couldn’t help but giggle at how ghastly I looked. I tried being quiet while getting ready since everybody else was still asleep, and pretty soon I was heading out the door after having breakfast.

Our house, naturally, was pretty far away from the school— and most of the city for that matter— so I took the truck. It was an old thing, brown in color, and we only used it when it was really necessary. Personally, I liked walking but the school was just too far away for that.

I started the truck and felt my pocket buzz. Taking out my phone, I saw Rainbow Dash’s name show up with a new text message alert. With a quick tap of a button, I opened the message and read the single word that was in the message.

-UGH.

I giggled, picturing Rainbow Dash’s exhausted face all-too-well. I typed a quick reply back to her.

-I hear ya, sister.

It took a little less than ten minutes to drive to school and I found a spot in the parking lot without any trouble. I noticed Fluttershy’s truck— white, and nicer than mine— a little ways down. I also noticed Fluttershy was still in it, staring at her steering wheel.

I walked over and tapped on her window. She jumped in fright and I swore I could hear a muffled squeak. She opened the door and smiled at me, her hair covering half her face like it usually does.

“Oh, hello Applejack. I didn’t see you there,” she said quietly.

“You okay there? You looked like you were lost in thought,” I asked her.

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s strange being back at school, isn’t it?”

It seemed like something was bothering her but I didn’t persist.

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Can’t believe we survived this long.”

She giggled softly, barely more than a whisper in the thin morning air. We walked together, trying to find the others where they texted us they’d be. We found them soon enough, with everyone but Pinkie Pie there.

“Heya,” I said as we approached.

Twilight looked tired as hell, to which I felt kind of bad laughing about. Rainbow Dash, surprisingly, didn’t look tired at all— just a bit subdued— and Rarity looked gorgeous as always. From behind the others I saw our last friend happily skipping toward us, eyes closed and smile wide as always.

She approached the group, greeting us with a hello a little more high-pitched than any of us would have preferred at this moment. Still, her exuberance— learned that one from Twilight— brought a small smile to my face.

“We should go get our schedules,” Twilight said. “They’re handing them out on the tables over there.”

We walked as a group, collecting our schedules from the teachers that were handing them out. With excitement, we all compared ours. Just as we had planned, we all had math together first hour. Twilight had decided to give up the higher A.P. Calculus class to be with us. We encouraged her not to at first, but she said that she would rather have been in a class with us her senior year than in another class where she knew all the material anyway. She had a good point, so we didn’t argue with her.

I looked at my own schedule. Pre-Calculus first hour, then Economics—I figured I would have Government next semester—, Advanced Placement Literature, and Psychology. I was a little nervous about taking A.P. Literature but, unbeknownst to my friends, I was actually a pretty good writer. Twilight was in that class with me too so in case I ever needed her help with something I’m sure she’d be more than willing to help. I had Psychology with Rainbow Dash and Rarity, which I could already tell was going to be interesting, especially since I knew Rarity didn’t give a flying feather about that class. I also had Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in my Economics class.

I was glad to see that I had a friend in every one of my classes, since I hadn’t been so lucky in previous years. Having a half-day was also a relief, and would be very useful on the weekdays that Big Mac needed extra help on the farm.

Everyone seemed pretty happy about their schedules, seeming to share the same relief as me at having half day schedules. Even Twilight figured relaxing and having a good time her senior year was better than stressing herself out and spending every hour of the day working on homework. Although, I guess “relaxing” probably isn’t the best use of vocabulary. We knew we would still have to work hard in each of our classes.

After a short time of chatting with everyone, the first bell rang right on time and we headed off to our first class. It was great having all of them in my first hour— maybe now I could actually get through first period without wanting to fall asleep or tune out everything my teacher has to say.

The class was set up in groups of four, two rows of two desks side-by-side. Seeing no seating chart, we sat in the back of the room and to the left a ways. Pinkie Pie sat next to Rainbow Dash in a row, and Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy all sat in the group of desks next to them. I decided to sit in the seat in front of Rainbow Dash, for the obvious reasons.

The class filled up quickly, and the seats next to me and Rarity remained empty since it wasn’t a full class. Our teacher was female and she looked pretty young. She had really dark brown hair and wore red glasses. She looked like the kind of teacher who was sarcastic and could have fun with the class, but could also be pretty strict if you got on her bad side.

“Morning, class,” she began. “My name is Ms. Catenaria, but please call me Ms. Cat.”

Pretty name, I thought.

She started with the repetitive overview of the class. To the entire class’s disappointment, she changed the seating arrangements before anything else. I was moved to the right and up a seat, just diagonal of Rainbow Dash’s seat— which was where she ended up staying— behind Pinkie Pie and with two other students I didn’t know very well.

Twilight was in the group to the right of mine, and Rarity sat behind me. Fluttershy was in the back right, surrounded by a group of large, loud boys while she cowered in her seat. I felt terrible for the poor girl, but thankfully Ms. Cat seemed to notice how terrified Fluttershy was as well, and moved her to a spot that was closer to me and Rarity.

The rest of the class period was taken up by all of the usual motions, handing out papers, explanations, introductions, and so on. As I slouched in my seat, my fist solely holding up the weight of my head, I almost began to fall asleep again. Probably just as bored as I was, Rarity began to play with my hair. Normally I would have shooed her away but I didn’t really care at this point, and— although I would never admit it to my friends— it actually felt kind of good when she played with my hair.

After a while, I turned around to see how Rainbow and Pinkie Pie were doing. Pinkie was sitting upright in her seat, smiling and bouncing to a nonexistent tune. Behind her, Rainbow had her head on her desk, staring with bored, half-lidded eyes toward the front of the class. Her eyes flickered over to me when I turned around. She waggled her eyebrows, and I tried stifling a tiny giggle. I turned back around to check the clock. Good, we only had seven minutes left of class.

Ms. Cat let us socialize the rest of the time and the group and I all got back together. We didn’t really talk about anything in particular. I sat next to Rainbow on top of the desks, trying to get as close as possible to her. Of course, being her best friend, I really could be as close to her as I wanted without it being weird. I guess that’s one benefit of being in love with your best friend.

The bell soon rang and we headed to our second hour class. We split halfway there and I walked with Pinkie and Fluttershy the rest of the way to our class. Fluttershy walked alongside of me calmly while Pinkie skipped alongside of us, humming a random tune.

Upon entering our Economics class we saw that we had a young, male teacher, and we were allowed to sit wherever we wanted according to him. The desks weren’t really set up in any order, which gave the classroom a carefree yet slightly disarrayed appearance, so the three of us just sat together in a random spot.

“Morning, class. My name is Mr. Stanton; please find a seat wherever you’d like,” the teacher said as more students piled into the classroom. Mr. Stanton was a tall and lean guy, with dark curly hair and a bright face— his enthusiasm kind of reminded me of Pinkie Pie in some ways.

Once everyone was seated, and the final bell rang, Mr. Stanton spoke again.

“Hello everyone! Once again, I’m Mr. Stanton and this is Economics, the best class you’ll be taking all year! Or at least for this semester,” he said, giving the class a big, goofy smile.

No one laughed.

My eye twitched slightly. Oh God, please don’t let this guy be one of those teachers who tells cheesy jokes all the time and thinks he’s hilarious when really he’s not.

“Listen, this class is a breeze if you just do your work and listen. It’s not a challenging class so I expect all of you to at least try your best,” Stanton explained. “I’m a pretty laid back teacher; if I see a cell phone I’ll ask you to put it away. I usually don’t take them away, but that doesn’t mean I want to see them out.

“I would allow eating but thanks to the new rules they’ve enforced, they’re getting pretty strict about wrappers and crumbs everywhere. So, no eating. Or if you do, don’t let me notice,” he said and smiled.

A couple people chuckled to that. He passed out a syllabus and went over it quickly, instructing the class to sign it once we had read all of it.

“Alright, guys. I’m going to pass around some index cards and on them I want you to write all of these things down,” Mr. Stanton said, gesturing towards a list he’d written on the white board. The list was numbered from one to seven:

1. Name

2. Current job (if you have one)

3. Desired college

4. Desired career

5. What you know about economics

6. What you hope to get out of this class

7. One goal you hope to achieve by the end of the semester

I didn’t know if my allowance I got on the farm counted as a current job, so I just put it down anyway. I struggled with numbers three and four. I hadn’t given much thought to what I was going to be doing after high school, whether I’d be staying at the farm like Big Mac did or going off to college. I mean, apples were kind of my thing— my passion. I loved working at the farm but… did I really want to be working there my entire life?

I decided to skip the two and moved on to number five. What I knew about economics. Um… nothing? I wrote down, ‘It has to do with money’, and moved on to number six. These were stupid questions. I wrote down, ‘I hope to learn how to learn money.’ Oh God, that didn’t even make sense. You know what? Whatever. I doubted Mr. Stanton would even look at my answers.

And finally, one goal I hoped to achieve. I thought a little longer about this one, feeling this one had a bit more meaning than the others. I wanted it to be an important goal, something I could seriously work towards… but I honestly couldn’t think of anything that important. I mean, except maybe getting Rainbow Dash to fall in love with me. Ha. Ha. Yeah… like that would happen.

I sighed and wrote down, ‘To figure out what I want to do in life’, and set the index card aside. Kind of a crappy goal, but I didn’t feel like stressing myself out at the moment over a stupid index card.

Mr. Stanton came by to pick everyone’s cards up. He took a glance at mine while picking it up and, after he squinted in amusement and gave me a slightly humorous smile, I figured he’d read what I put down for number five or six. I expected some kind of witty comment, but he said nothing and went to pick up Pinkie’s and Fluttershy’s cards.

I looked at Fluttershy and she returned the look, giving me a small smile.

“You know what you want to do for a career?” I asked. “Wait, no, don’t tell me. Let me guess… veterinarian?”

She nodded enthusiastically. She opened her mouth to respond but was cut off when Pinkie practically dove in front of her.

“I wrote that I want to be a Laughter Therapist! Wouldn’t that just be the funnest job ever? I mean, I LOVE making people laugh. Imagine doing it for your job!” she exclaimed, practically screaming. Seeing as how the rest of the class was at a low murmur, practically everyone was now looking at her.

“Laughter Therapist?” I said incredulously. “I didn’t even know a job like that existed…”

“Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed again. “But if that doesn’t work out, then I think I’d like to be a baker! Like those people you see on TV making really cool cakes and cupcakes and they look so yummy and—“

I shoved my hand on Pinkie’s mouth to shut her up. The teacher was now looking at us in amusement and walked a couple steps toward us. He looked down at the index cards.

“Well, Miss Pinkamena—“

“You can call me Pinkie!”

Fluttershy glanced at her. “You put your full name on your card?” she whispered.

“Now that we all know what you want to be when you grow up, would you care to share what goal you wrote down?” Mr. Stanton asked.

“Okey dokey lokey! My goal is to be able to run the bakery myself a couple times! The extra practice would be great and I think it’d be a really great way for the Cakes— they’re my bosses— to see how responsible I am,” Pinkie responded.

I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. I was honestly expecting some kind of crazy goal, like eating twenty cupcakes in one sitting or breaking the land speed record. Her goal was better than mine. At least she had an idea of what she wanted to accomplish.

“Oh? You work there?” Mr. Stanton asked.

“Yep! Sugarcube Corner.”

“Oh, I’ve been to that place a couple times. The cupcakes there are to die for,” Mr. Stanton smiled.

“Thanks! It’s a small bakery so technically I’m the only person who works there besides Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Ever since they had their twin babies I’ve been doing most of the baking,” Pinkie said.

“Well,” Stanton said, seeming pretty impressed. “I’ll be sure to stop by there more often.”

He turned around, scanning the classroom with raised eyebrows. “Is there anyone else who would like to share their goal?”

A couple people shared theirs. They were all pretty much the same, like get accepted into a certain college or maybe save up money to buy a certain car. I side-glanced at Fluttershy and Pinkie, wondering where they were considering going to college. Sighing quietly, I rested my head on my hand and looked up at the clock. We would be leaving soon.

After a bit of talking, Mr. Stanton concluded the class, telling us a little bit of what we’d be learning this semester. He seemed like he’d be a cool teacher and the class seemed fine so I left the class happy, ready to take on my hardest class of the day. I knew we wouldn’t be doing anything on the first day, but I was still a little nervous about what this class would be like.

I said goodbye to Fluttershy and walked with Pinkie upstairs where she had her next class as well. Halfway down the hallway she waved goodbye to me and we headed our separate ways. Glancing at my schedule again to check which room it was in, I headed down the correct hallway and eventually found my way into the classroom.

Twilight was already inside, along with about half of the class, and she waved at me as I walked in. I smiled and went to sit down beside her.

“Hi, Applejack! How was Economics?” she asked.

“Fine. Our teacher seems pretty cool and it definitely helps to have Fluttershy and Pinkie in it with me,” I answered. “How was, uh, whatever class you had last hour?” I felt kind of bad for not remembering, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“Good. Our teacher’s kind of a snob but Rarity was in it with me and we made fun of the teacher practically the whole time,” she giggled.

I breathed a small laugh. “The Twilight Sparkle? Making fun of a teacher? I never expected that,” I teased her.

She waved it off. “Eh. You know normally I wouldn’t but she’s one of those really snotty teachers who act as if their students are scum and she’s the Queen of England or something.”

“Ugh, good luck with that one,” I said, making a disgusted face. Yeah, I’d had my fair share of those kinds of teachers.

Speaking of teachers, our current teacher for this class walked inside the classroom, greeting everyone with a loud “Hello”. He was a short, old man with pure white hair and a belly that stuck out from his belt a little too much. His eyes were widened with excitement; he looked like one of those teachers who were absolutely ecstatic about the subject he taught.

“Good morning, good morning!” he said once everyone was seated.

“Welcome to Advanced Placement Literature,” he said, drawling out the last syllable of “literature” a bit too much. “I’m Mr. Novella. Many of you know me already from previous years but I also see a lot of new faces which is always great to see! I’m very glad you all chose to take this class. I promise you it will be a good class. We will work hard but it will pay off in the end.”

I sure hoped he was right. I’d heard from previous students that the class really wasn’t that bad as long as you read the books you were assigned and did your best in class. But I guess that was the guide for every class, wasn’t it?

Mr. Novella spent the whole hour telling us about himself, the class and what to expect, and the different books we’d be covering. He told us we were going to have assigned seats tomorrow, to which I was a little disappointed about, but I figured that if I ever needed Twilight’s help she’d be happy to study with me after school.

The hour passed by slowly but surely and soon we were all putting our bags on and waiting for the bell to ring. Twilight and I passed the last couple minutes chatting and after the bell rang we headed our separate ways to our last class of the day. I had Psychology, an elective simply taken to fulfill the required credit hours to graduate.

Once inside, I saw that Rainbow Dash and Rarity were already inside, talking quietly. Rainbow Dash gave a slight wave when she saw me and I sat down next to them.

“Yo,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Morning, Applejack! How have your classes been?” Rarity asked.

“Pretty good, I guess,” I answered. “How ‘bout you guys?”

“Most of them have been fine. My second hour teacher is a witch,” Rarity said, rolling her eyes.

“Twilight told me about that,” I said with a small chuckle. I looked at Rainbow Dash. “How have your classes been?”

“Awesome, except I’ve got that jerk-off Dumb-Bell in my Government class,” Dash said with a look of disgust.

“Oh God,” I said, returning the look. “I freaking hate that guy.”

“I know,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. “Whatever. I’m just going to try and ignore him.”

“Good plan,” Rarity commented. “That guy’s been harassing you since grade school. You’d think he would have grown up by now.”

Rainbow Dash’s response was simply to roll her eyes. The teacher, who I’d failed to notice until now, had walked up to the front of the class and introduced herself. She was a slightly older woman, maybe sixty years of age, with curly brown hair and small round glasses. She had a warm smile on her face and was slightly hunched over but she looked really sweet.

Her name was Mrs. Hawthorne. She had a vibrant personality, bouncing around the classroom with every step. She spoke with gusto and made emphatic hand motions— it was actually pretty uplifting to see a teacher so excited about her class and her new students.

Rainbow Dash seemed to enjoy Mrs. Hawthorne’s personality as well, as she sat there with a faint smile on her lips. I was really glad to be able to see Dash at the end of the day— or, at least, end of the school day. I had a feeling it would be a relief from the stresses of my previous classes and a good way to relax and just enjoy her company.

I idly played with Rainbow’s hair while the teacher spoke. Mrs. Hawthorne actually spent most of the hour telling us about her kids and her husband, but I didn’t mind. She had funny stories, and a very eccentric way of telling them. It was actually a nice break from the repetition of first day syllabi and class introductions.

By the end of class, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and I were already making plans for the rest of the day. We decided on our favorite café, a favorite spot of ours that we visit so often the employees actually know all of our names, preferred orders, and greet us as if we were old friends.

There really weren’t many places like that for us to hang out. Our city was pretty small, several miles away from the big city. We had small streets, rarely any traffic jams, the taxis weren’t in as much of a hurry, and our streets were lined with small and homely self-owned businesses— like this café, Sugarcube Corner, and that little library Twilight spends so much of her time at.

The other side of the street, as if it were a completely different place, was lined with trees, leading into a small forest itself. They called it a park, but there was just a small dirt pathway somewhere in it with a couple benches. A tourist site, not somewhere we residents usually went.

Except for Rainbow Dash.

As strange as that girl was, that forest was one of her favorite spots. She doesn’t usually tell us about it, since I think it’s kind of personal to her, but she started going there a lot more often after her parents died.

Oh, yeah. That. Well, that’s a story for a different time.

Dash, Rarity and I all headed outside together after the class ended and we texted Twilight and the others to meet us. After meeting back up, we all were fine with hanging out at the café. We decided to carpool there, finding it unnecessary to take all of our cars individually. It was a nice afternoon and I really appreciated the time I was able to spend with all of my friends. I don’t know why, but I just felt really… good. Like today was a new start. I don’t know how long it had been since I felt so carefree.

It was nice.

Chapter 5

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Chapter 5

About a week had passed since our last get-together and we were sitting in practically the exact same spot as the week before. Six identical glasses sat at the table in front of each of us; Pinkie Pie and I had lemonades, Twilight had a Coke, Rarity had water with lemon, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both had tea. We usually changed up our orders from time to time, but I was a little confused at Rainbow’s choice this particular time. She never got tea.

Being a lazy Sunday afternoon, the six of us talked about nothing in particular— we actually weren’t even talking as a group really. Twilight seemed to be off in her own world, Fluttershy sat timidly before Pinkie Pie who was excitedly rambling on about who-knows-what, and Rarity was just kind of talking. Rarity sat between me and Rainbow Dash so we naturally tuned into what Rarity was saying, especially since tuning out Pinkie Pie was a habit of ours by now anyway.

I was probably going to fall asleep if I had to listen to another word from Rarity so I quickly interjected when I had the chance.

“Hey, Rainbow, I thought you hated tea?” I said, loud enough for Twilight to look up from her daze and Pinkie to stop her pointless rambling.

Rainbow Dash glanced up at me innocently. “Oh, yeah, I do.”

“Well then why are ‘ya drinking it?” I asked with a little chuckle.

Rainbow Dash sat up with a small sigh. “I had some manic sugar buzz the other day from God-knows-what and now I guess I’m trying to ‘detoxify’ by drinking tea instead of coffee or soda. It was probably when I drank a bunch of coffee the other night to have the energy to do my homework.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Already up ‘till midnight doing homework?”

Dash smiled and shrugged. “I guess I didn’t realize how much homework I had and I didn’t bother starting it until later. You can’t blame me entirely. I mean, why the hell did they give us so much homework the first week anyway? It’s blasphemy…” she muttered and took a sip of her tea.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the wrong context of the word blasphemy…” I muttered as Rainbow Dash silently gagged on her tea.

“OH! Speaking of which,” Twilight exclaimed, slamming her hand on the table and eliciting a small jump from everyone else at the table, “What the hell was up with that essay Mr. Novella gave us like the third day of school?”

“It wasn’t worth a grade,” I interjected calmly. She was talking about the timed-essay we were given. No one was prepared for it, and Mr. Novella didn’t tell us until the next day that it wasn’t even worth a grade.

“I know,” Twilight grumbled. “But that seriously stressed me out. I mean, you know how I am. I like to prepare for things…”

“’Ya think?” I said, smirking.

Beside me, Rarity suddenly let out an ear-piercing gasp, completely scaring the shit out of me. Everyone looked at her in surprised confusion, all of our eyes wide.

“Oh my God, Twilight, you’ll never guess what I found in Sweetie Belle’s room earlier!” Rarity exclaimed.

Ugh, I swear if Rarity didn’t win an award for Most Dramatic Person Alive, I’d personally grant it to her myself.

Rainbow Dash leaned forward nonchalantly. “Well, you know, she is at that age when kids start to explore certain… things.”

Oh my God. Did she seriously just say that?

Twilight, who had been drinking, must have gasped and breathed in coke, spending the better half of a minute choking and coughing like some kind of dying person. Had I not still been in shock from what Rainbow Dash said, I probably would have been crying from laughter.

“Ew, Rainbow Dash, not like that!” Rarity screeched, shoving Rainbow Dash slightly who was now bawling in laughter. Pinkie joined her in her laughter, Twilight— after finally recovering— had her head bowed in embarrassment, and Fluttershy sat there with a blank look on her face.

Jeez, Fluttershy. You’re just way too innocent for your own good…

Rarity, now blushing furiously, quickly tried to save herself. “It was a picture she drew, for pity’s sake! Sweetie Belle drew a picture of her and Spike together.”

“Spike?” Twilight asked, the commotion finally down to the muffled laughter of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

“Yes!” Rarity answered with excitement. “I think Sweetie Belle has a crush on your little brother! It’s quite adorable really.”

Pulling herself up from practically underneath the table, Rainbow Dash interjected with an adorable snort from her previous bout of laughter. “What were you doing in Sweetie Belle’s room?”

Rarity scoffed, rolling her eyes. “I wasn’t snooping, if that’s what you were wondering. I was just doing laundry and putting her pile of clothes in her room when I happened to see the picture.”

“Does Spike know?” Twilight asked, forcing her way back into the conversation.

“I don’t know really,” Rarity answered. “I mean, he’s kind of at that age where he thinks acting like a ‘bad boy’ is cool.”

“Ugh, you don’t have to remind me,” Twilight groaned.

“Aw, Sweetie Belle and Spike would be so cute together!” Pinkie cooed, clapping her hands together.

“For pity’s sake, Pinkie, Spike’s three years older than her!” Rarity said. “No way I’m letting my nine-year old sister go out with Twilight’s twelve-year old brother— no offense Twilight.”

“None taken,” Twi replied dryly.

“Speaking of dating and whatnot,” Rarity began, “I heard you’ve been going on some dates with a certain Armour-Clad, Rainbow Dash?”

Every one of us smiled and looked expectantly at Rainbow Dash who was now smiling nervously.

“Heh, yeah, Clad and I have gone on three dates already. We’re officially dating now,” she replied. “He asked me out after our date on Friday.”

Pinkie squealed and hugged her from the side, practically crushing the poor girl. The rest of us were happy for Rainbow— at least, I think I was. I still had mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand, if Rainbow Dash was dating Clad then that means I had no chance with her. But then again, I didn’t have a chance anyway and if she was dating someone then I guess I felt less conflicted about my own feelings.

“Well, I’m very happy for you,” Rarity said cheerfully. “Does Nick know about him yet?”

Nick was Rainbow Dash’s uncle and legal guardian since the death of her parents. It was hard to describe Nick in just a few sentences. He was a lot like Rainbow Dash in some ways— cool, laid back, a jokester— and we all loved having him around. He had a great temperament and, being a tad younger than all of our parents, he connected well with us.

Nick was the kind of guy that could handle Rainbow Dash but he had a hard time keeping up with her. I don’t think it was a problem much of the time, though— Dash wasn’t the kind of kid who rebelled or lashed out after a life-changing tragedy and for the most part the two of them got along just fine.

“Yeah, but he hasn’t met him yet,” Rainbow Dash responded. “I should invite him over for dinner sometime so they can meet each other.”

“That’s a good idea,” Rarity responded. “Think Nick will approve of him?”

RD shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I can actually picture the two getting along great. Once Nick finds out Clad’s a sports guy, I bet he’ll be inviting him over all the time to watch some sort of game.” Rainbow smiled and rolled her eyes. “Nick would be ecstatic just to finally have someone to watch sports with. Ugh, maybe he’ll finally stop asking me to watch it with him.”

“I thought you loved sports?” Twilight said absentmindedly.

“Yeah, playing them— not watching them,” Dash responded. “The only reason I’d watch sports is to improve my own game.”

Rainbow Dash leaned back in her seat a little bit, a sudden mix of emotions flashing in her eyes. She opened her mouth as if beginning to say something, but instead just brought her drink up to her mouth and took a small sip. I took a sip of mine as well, idly keeping my eyes upon Rainbow Dash.

The sound of a car door shutting nearby caught my attention and I looked to my right to see— in surprise— my brother getting out of the truck and glancing toward us. My brow furrowed and I knew by his distressed expression that something was wrong. Still inside the truck I could see Apple Bloom staring out worriedly.

I stood up hesitantly as Big Mac hurriedly walked over. I met him halfway there, my friends all watching with concerned expressions.

“What’s wrong?” I asked in a low voice.

“Granny Smith’s in the hospital,” he said quickly, his voice stressed. “She had a heart attack.”

My heart skipped a beat and I could barely even believe it for a brief moment. When had this happened? The short while I was here with my friends?

I wasted no time and walked quickly with Mac towards the truck. My friends followed, now just as worried as me. No words were spoken but as they walked towards their cars it was apparent that were going to follow us to the hospital.

As I was about to close the door, Rainbow Dash looked at me and our eyes met. In her eyes, I saw concern and comfort. Our eyes met for only a second, but in that second, looking into those pools of magenta, I found myself falling in love with her deeper than ever before. My heart throbbed and I closed the door quickly, swallowing hard to fight back the forming tears in my eyes.

Neither Big Mac nor Apple Bloom said anything during the car ride, but I knew Apple Bloom had noticed a few tears running down my cheek. She fidgeted in her seat and I had to turn my head toward the window to try and shield my emotions from her view.

I was able to calm down once we reached the hospital, determination thankfully taking over my other emotions. Once inside, Mac and I found the triage nurse, asking for Granny Smith. She’d only gotten here a short time before us, but I knew little about heart attacks and such so I didn’t know what to expect.

The nurse told us that the doctors were stabilizing her and checking her to make sure everything was okay. She told us that we should probably wait for a couple minutes before visiting her so, with slight disappointment and tension, Mac and I sat down where the others were waiting for us, Apple Bloom being with them.

“She’s gonna be fine,” I said, sighing as I sat down, “But I’m still worried about her. She’s probably scared…”

Big Mac put his hand on my back to comfort me. “Don’t worry. Granny’s got a lot of spirit. But I wish we could go in and see her.”

I turned to look back at the triage nurse who was focusing on a paper that she occasionally scribbled on. “I’m sure we’ll be able to go in soon.”

I turned back to Big Mac, my brow slightly furrowing. “Were you there when it happened?”

He nodded. “I was in the kitchen and she was sitting in her chair. She seemed really quiet and I kind of had this feeling that something was wrong, and when I looked at her she looked like she was in pain. When I asked her if she was okay, she was out of breath and in a lot of pain so I called an ambulance.”

I thought for a moment, then glanced slowly up at my friends. Rarity and Rainbow Dash both looked back at me, and I released a small sigh. “Thanks for coming here, you guys. But I don’t think this is anything too serious. If ya’ll got other things to do…”

“Nah, we wanna stay,” Rainbow Dash said. “They probably won’t let us in but we’ll stay here if it makes you feel better.”

Pinkie Pie turned her head and nodded enthusiastically, but remained quiet. None of them seemed impatient or anxious, except Apple Bloom, so it was obvious they were sincere in saying they wanted to stay. I beckoned Apple Bloom over and gave her a comforting half-hug.

“Don’t worry, ‘Bloom. I promise Granny will be just fine,” I assured her, knowing exactly what was going on in her head.

“Will she act differently? I’ve heard of people getting sick like this and never coming back the same, like they talk differently and walk all weird and stuff,” she said, trailing off into a mumble.

I gave her a comforting smile. “I think you’re thinking of a stroke. Heart attacks are different. Most people usually survive heart attacks, and they’re still the same people afterwards. She’ll probably just have to take some medicine every day.”

Apple Bloom looked up at me and stopped her fidgeting, seemingly calmed down now. “Can we visit her?”

I glanced back at the triage nurse. “We probably can now…”

I walked back up to her, followed by Big Mac and Apple Bloom, and asked about Granny Smith again. The triage nurse gave us permission to go see her, as she was stable now.

Granny Smith turned her head towards us as we entered the room and I smiled at her comfortingly, walking over to her.

“Hey, Granny. How ya’ feelin’?” I asked.

“A little tired,” she responded weakly.

We didn’t spend too much time talking to her. Big Mac said barely anything, and Apple Bloom told her that she was going to be alright and that there was nothing to worry about, eliciting a small chuckle from Granny.

“Well, we’ll let you get some sleep,” I told her. My head turned when the door opened and the doctor entered the room. I took Apple Bloom’s hand and led her out and Big Mac stayed to talk to the doctor who likely was telling him the prognosis and what would need to be done once Granny returned home. I figured Big Mac would repeat everything to me later.

Upon returning, my friends looked up at me. I told them she was fine and just needed some sleep.

“You guys should go back home. Big Mac is going to stay here for a while and I’m going to take Apple Bloom home. She’ll be bored out of her mind waiting here,” I said.

She looked up at me but said nothing. I figured she was still a little confused about the whole thing, and this was her first time in a hospital. My friends all nodded and we left the building together.

“Text us how she is when she gets back, ‘kay?” Rainbow Dash said before leaving. I nodded and we parted ways. I took Apple Bloom home and texted Big Mac— I hoped he had his phone with him— telling him that I’d taken Apple Bloom home and to let me know when he needed me to come back with the truck.

Once we were home, Apple Bloom watched TV quietly but I could tell she was still a little unsettled about everything. I took some Advil for a headache I’d had for the past forty-five minutes and sat down at the table to think. I thought about Granny Smith a little bit, and Rainbow Dash. My thoughts were pretty scattered, so I didn’t really have much of an internal dialogue.

I wanted to call Rainbow Dash, ask her to come over. Her presence calmed me in situations like these— funny, because it seemed to do the exact opposite during any other occasion. At some point Big Mac texted me back and I went to go pick him up.

“The doctors said they were going to keep her there for a couple more days,” he explained.

It was close to night and all of us were tired and in desperate need of some sleep. Once we got back home, Big Mac carried an exhausted Apple Bloom up to her room and we headed to our own rooms after saying goodnight.

Despite my exhaustion, my anxiety kept me awake. I stared out my window, gazing at the stars and the moonlit apple orchard. I began to feel really lonely and got to thinking about my parents. Both of them died very shortly after Apple Bloom’s birth, so I was still very young when they died. Memories of them are faint, but I would never forget them.

I’ve actually never really talked about it with Rainbow Dash, despite her situation having been similar— in the sense that we were both orphans. I guess maybe she didn’t consider it the same. Or maybe she just never felt like bringing up such a depressing subject.

I rolled over on my side, smiling slightly, and glanced at the phone on my nightstand. After staring at it for five minutes, I picked it up, enjoying the coolness of it on my fingers. I browsed through my messages, wishing someone would text me. I waited for it to buzz, followed by Rainbow Dash’s name showing up on the screen.

But I knew it never would. Even if she was doing the exact same thing as me, staring at her phone, she wouldn’t text me for fear of possibly waking me up. I knew her too well. So instead I texted her. I figured she might have been asleep, but I was feeling too lonely to even care.

-Hey. You awake?

I waited for a couple moments. My heart leapt when my phone buzzed softly and showed Dash’s name.

-Yep. Everything okay?

-Yeah. Just feeling kind of lonely I guess.

I hesitated before sending it. I didn’t like feeling vulnerable, but I had to tell her the truth. It was killing me, and I really just needed someone to vent to. Her reply came within a few minutes.

-Well, I know there’s not really much I can do over text but I’m here if you just need someone to talk to.

I smiled softly, contemplating a response.

-Heh, kind of wishing you were here right now.

I stared at my phone after it sent. Oh God, why did I send that? Jesus Christ, Applejack, might as well just confess all your feelings while you’re at it. I opened my phone again quickly to type out another text message, hoping to somehow save myself, but before I could type two letters I got a text back from her. I was afraid to open it.

-Want me to come over?

My heart leapt. It screamed yes, urging my fingers to type out the three-lettered word. I wanted her to come over more than anything right now… but I held back. I couldn’t do this to myself, or her for that matter. I bit my lip, a few tears forming in my eyes as I typed out the message.

-No, it’s fine :) I’m exhausted anyway. We should probably get to sleep.

I sighed after sending it. A nervous knot formed in my stomach. No, I wasn’t nervous. Disappointed maybe? Whatever it was, it made me feel sick. I laid my head down on my pillow, a tear falling from my eye and onto the pillow.

Too many nights ended like this. Too many nights strung up and distressed about the girl I was infatuated with.

-Alright AJ. Sleep well, ok? Love you :)

-Love you too RD :)

More than you know.

Chapter 6

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Chapter 6

Granny Smith returned home on Tuesday and the rest of that week was focused on taking care of her. Thankfully, her bedroom was on the first floor of the house, unlike everyone else’s whose room was on the second floor, so she didn’t have to go up and down any stairs. She was able to rest for the most of the week, but the doctor told us that she did need to get up and walk around occasionally. She was also given medicine that we needed to make sure she took every day, but that wasn’t much of a problem— Granny was never the type of person who absolutely refused to take medication.

I woke up earlier than usual that week to help out Big Mac by taking care of a couple chores around the farm. I didn’t mind waking up earlier, and I felt bad that he was once again loaded up with most of the farm duties since school started.

After a sudden idea popped into my head one morning, I suggested to Big Mac to hire Caramel to help out on the farm. Caramel was a good friend of the family’s, more Big Mac’s friend actually, and we had hired him for a pretty good amount of time last year. He was a hard worker and I knew he and Big Mac enjoyed each other’s company. From what I knew, they’d been friends since their freshman year of high school.

Big Mac took the idea into consideration and promised to call him later that week. I left for school, feeling pretty relaxed. It was Friday, after all. The week passed by quickly, probably because it had been a pretty busy one for the family.

I got to school a little too early and stood there waiting for everybody else. All of the sudden, somebody’s arm slung around my shoulders and a certain rainbow-haired girl disrupted my peaceful mood with a loud and excited voice.

“Applejack!” she exclaimed, her voice cracking. “I’m glad you’re here. I was getting bored here all by myself.”

“Why were you here so early?” I asked, side-glancing at her since I couldn’t really move my head due to her tight grip.

“I went to speak with my coach. I came here a bit too early,” she responded, voice filled with complete boredom.

She suddenly whirled around, letting her arm drop from my shoulders, and stared at me with wide, excited eyes. “I’m so excited! Apart from cross-country beginning next week, which is totally awesome by the way, I totally managed to set up a date between you and one of Clad’s friends and we’re going on a double date tonight!”

Wait, what.

I can’t say exactly what my face looked like at that moment, but I’m guessing it resembled something of dumbstruck confusion.

“Wait… date? Um…”

“Don’t worry, Applesnack, he’s cute, you’ll like him,” she said, waving her hand at me and glancing around the school with frenzied eyes. Someone had a little too much coffee this morning…

I sighed, knowing nothing I could say was really going to change anything. “Well thanks for telling me ahead of time…”

“No problem,” she said, still glancing around the school, completely failing to catch my sarcasm.

From behind, Pinkie Pie practically pounced on the two of us, greeting us with excitement. I turned and saw Rarity and Twilight walking up together behind Pinkie. I started to wonder where Fluttershy was but then I saw her in the distance in the parking lot.

“Pinkie! Just making sure, you’re going on Saturday, right?” Dash asked.

“Yep! No way I’d miss the first party of the year!” Pinkie said. “Vinyl’s sure to make it totally awesome!”

“Ha, that’s an understatement,” Dash smirked. She looked at the rest of us. “You guys should come. I know none of you really do the whole ‘party’ thing but it’s going to be really fun. A ton of people are going.”

I actually considered it. I wasn’t completely against the idea of going to one of these parties. I mean, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie sure seemed to love them so I might as well have given it a shot.

“Well, you can count on me going,” Rarity said.

“Really?” Rainbow Dash said in slight surprise, turning to her.

“Don’t act so surprised. You forget I like Vinyl’s parties too; I just don’t go to as many of them as you two do,” she said.

“Sure, I’ll go too,” I shrugged. Rainbow Dash looked exuberant at hearing this from me. She then turned to Twilight and Fluttershy, looking at them expectantly.

Twilight looked uneasy, groaning slightly. “I don’t know…”

“Oh, come on Twi. Just this once,” Rainbow pleaded. Pinkie Pie helped by contributing with puppy eyes.

“Is there going to be alcohol?” Twilight asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Um, probably,” Rainbow Dash said, shrugging slightly.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’ll go just for you Rainbow Dash… and Pinkie Pie.”

After Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash shared an excited smile, they looked at Fluttershy.

“I’ll go if everyone else is going, I mean…” she said quietly.

I felt like saying she really didn’t have to go if she didn’t want to. A loud party with a lot of people is the last thing I can see Fluttershy being comfortable with. But, I could tell she still wanted to spend time with all of us, so I smiled faintly in respect of her decision and kept quiet.

“Oh, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash said with a nonchalant turn towards the fashionista. “AJ needs your help getting ready for her date tonight.”

In a single movement, Rarity’s face lit up brighter than a kid in a candy shop, and she whirled on her toes to face me, clapping her hands together in excitement.

Oh dear. Tonight was going to be an eventful night.

~ ~ ~

“Honestly, Applejack, will you quit squirming around?” Rarity said with a tinge of annoyance as she worked with my hair.

I huffed and crossed my arms, glaring into the mirror in front of me. Yes, it was immature, but I really didn’t want to be there. I didn’t mind the fact that I was going on a date later that evening, or even the fact that I was getting all girlied up for it, but getting it done by Rarity was rather… time-consuming.

She had spent at least an hour on my makeup alone, and she was only just getting started on my hair. And then halfway through the makeup process she tells me that she has a new outfit for me too. I couldn’t object to this though; she told me that it was something she had made a little while ago and was specifically for me for an occasion like this one, so I couldn’t say no.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated everything Rarity was doing for me— and, from looking in the mirror, she was doing a really good job— but I found the whole thing simply unnecessary. I had gotten all fixed up like this only two times before: Junior year prom and freshman year on a date with a guy I really liked. I didn’t even know the guy I was going on a date with tonight, nor was I even looking for a boyfriend.

I let out another sigh and resisted the urge to rest my head on my palm. Rarity played around with my hair for what seemed like another hour until she finally let me up and made her follow her to her dressing room.

“This isn’t some fancy dress, is it?” I asked cautiously as I followed her.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a simple outfit— but it’s a cute one,” Rarity responded. “A dress would just be a tad too formal for this occasion.”

I nodded, silently agreeing with her. Once inside the dressing room, she showed me the outfit and I had to admit: it was pretty cute. It was never something I’d wear on a regular day, but I guessed for this occasion it was alright.

After I put it on, Rarity led me over to the mirror once again so I could get a look at the final product. I looked good, I admit it. The makeup brought out my eyes and lips well, and was just subtle enough to where it still looked almost natural. My curled hair was in an up-do with several strands falling down beside my face. Rarity even took the time to put a couple small, fake turquoise flowers in my hair. The outfit was made up of a light, silk top, yellow in color, tucked into a skirt that was patterned with turquoise flowers to match the flowers in my hair, just above my knees. I had small yellow flats on and, to complete the outfit, dangling turquoise earrings.

“Wow,” I said, twisting my hips slightly to see other angles of the outfit.

“You like?” Rarity asked with a smug smile on her face.

“Yeah, I do,” I replied, unable to hold back a small smile.

Rarity smiled and put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m glad. I don’t do this kind of thing for everyone, you know. But I wanted you to have a great date so I was glad to do it.”

“Thanks,” I said sincerely and pulled her into a hug. “It really means a lot to me that you did this, Rare.”

She simply giggled and hugged me back. “Anytime, Applejack. What time does your date start?”

I looked at my phone to check the time. “They’re going to pick me up here. They should be here in about fifteen minutes.”

I spent the rest of the time just chatting with Rarity. As the minutes passed by, I couldn’t help but feel my stomach grow knotted with anxiety. I didn’t know exactly why I was nervous— maybe I was worried about making a good impression on the guy I was meeting. Crap, what was his name again? I tried thinking back to what Rainbow Dash had said to me earlier today.

“Clad and I are gonna pick you about at about six at Rarity’s. The guy you’re meeting is named Jack Rafter. He’s a really nice guy so I think you’ll really like him,” Rainbow had said.

Oh yeah, how could I forget? I practically death-glared at Rainbow when she told me his name. She insisted that the similarity was just a coincidence. Yeah, sure.

I didn’t know what Jack looked like, or really what to expect at all, but I trusted Dash so I didn’t worry about it. There was suddenly a series of knocks at the door and I gave a slight wave to Rarity as I opened it and walked out to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow looked me over from head to toe and I couldn’t help but blush under her gaze. She smiled slyly as she met my gaze. “Damn AJ, you look hot,” she said.

If I wasn’t red before, I certainly was now. “Come on,” I grumbled, grabbing her hand and dragging her towards the car where the boys were waiting for us. I heard her giggle as she followed behind me.

Clad was driving and Rainbow Dash was in the passenger seat next to him. I was in the back with Jack, and to say things were awkward was beyond an understatement. We exchanged an awkward smile and greeting at first but now we weren’t even talking.

I glanced at him and saw that he had an uncomfortable look on his face. He didn’t know what to say. I understood then— he was just really shy. I turned to him, a smile on my face.

“So, um, what do you do Jack?” I asked. He looked relieved and he smiled back as he answered.

“I’m a carpenter— my dad has actually been mentoring me for quite a while now. I’ve helped build a lot of the furniture in our house,” he replied. Looking at him now, I could easily tell that’s what he did, if his muscles were any indicator.

I blushed suddenly and looked away quickly, realizing that I had been looking at his biceps. Truth was, he was actually really cute. He had short, blonde hair and faint purple eyes, and was pretty tall.

I glanced back at him, blushing even more to find that he was still looking at me, that smile still on his face. “What about you, Applejack? I hear you own a pretty big apple orchard?”

Clad turned his head, laughing slightly. “Oh, quit the act Rafter. You buy Apple Family apples all the time.”

Jack chuckled and shrugged innocently. “What can I say? You guys have the best apples in town.”

“Heh, thanks,” I said, smiling at him. “Hey, maybe if we ever need some woodworking done, I could call you. There always seems to be something that needs fixing at the barn.”

“Perfect,” he said, laughing light-heartedly.

His laugh was absolutely adorable, and I started laughing alongside of him. Rainbow Dash turned around, looking at me with a smirk on her face. I stopped laughing and blushed slightly.

“Aw, aren’t you two just adorable?” she teased us.

“Shut up,” I growled, pushing her away. She laughed and went back to sitting normally.

I glanced at Jack and he returned the look, smiling at me slightly. I couldn’t help but smile back, and turned my head slightly towards my window as I felt yet another blush creep onto my cheeks.

Clad pulled into a parking space in front of Ricota’s Pizzeria, the place where we planned on having our double date. I’d been there several times before with my friends; it was actually a really fun hang-out spot, and perfect for a casual double-date such as this one.

We found a booth to sit at and we all talked and laughed together for quite a while. It started raining shortly after we ordered our food but that didn’t stop us from still having a good time. I was surprised; I honestly didn’t expect to have this much fun. And, to be honest, it actually did get my mind off of Rainbow Dash, despite her being there with me.

We were there for several hours before deciding to end the night. The rain had ceased when we got back into Clad’s car and he decided to drop me off first. Once we got there, Jack walked up with me to my house, and I was glad to be able to talk with him alone.

“I had fun tonight,” I said.

“Me too. To be honest, I was a little hesitant when Clad told me he was setting me up on a date, but I really like you Applejack,” Jack said.

I smiled at the flattery and thanked him for the nice time. I gave him my number and he headed back to the car as I went into my house. Rainbow Dash rolled down her window and waved goodbye; likewise, I waved back before closing the door behind me.

I stood there for a couple seconds, my back pressed against the door. The house was dark, as it was late, but I suspected Big Mac was still up. A smile slowly crept onto my face as I reflected on the night’s events.

“Hey, you’re back?” I heard a low voice and looked to see Big Mac peering at the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh, hey,” I said quietly and walked towards him.

“How was your, erm, date?” he asked, looking slightly confused. It took me a couple seconds to realize why— he probably wasn’t expecting me too look all made-up and girly.

“It was nice,” I answered truthfully. “I’m actually pretty tired though so I’m going to bed. ‘Night Mac.”

“’Night,” he whispered and we both went into our rooms.

I changed into my pajamas and lay down on top of my bed, not bothering to get under the covers yet. I turned my head to look outside my window, staring out at the orchard. The sky was still cloudy and a small patch of clouds was lit up from the moon. I sighed, not from sadness or dejection; it was just a simple sigh. The night’s events left me feeling light-hearted and content. I really did enjoy the date with Jack; he was really sweet and we connected well.

But as the night grew, and I turned over on my side, I couldn’t stop my thoughts as they once again lingered back to those magenta eyes.

Chapter 7

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Chapter 7

I woke up later than usual Saturday morning when the sun shone through my window, landing perfectly on my closed eyelids. I let out a soft groan in protest and shielded my eyes with my arm, mussing up my hair in the process as my fingers slipped through my hair. Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion, I noticed my hair still had the pins in it from yesterday; I had forgotten to take them out last night.

Practically falling out of my bed, I got up and walked half-asleep to the bathroom. A short shower later, I was more awake and got dressed in my regular clothes. I folded up my clothes from last night and put them away. I figured since they were mine now that I might wear them a bit more often; after all, I really did like the outfit.

I made my way downstairs to be greeted by Granny Smith who was sitting in her chair. I smiled and asked her how she was feeling. She was doing a lot better since she got back from the hospital and was making a speedy recovery— Granny Smith may have been old, but she was resilient.

We chatted for a little bit; Granny told me Apple Bloom was with her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and Big Mac was outside with Caramel. I raised an eyebrow at this, wondering if Mac had taken my advice and hired Caramel.

I walked outside and saw Big Mac and Caramel standing at the fence, talking to each other. I waved at them and, once I caught their attention, they waved back. I walked over and, to my surprise, Caramel pulled me into a hug.

“Good to see you, AJ!” he said with a huge smile on his face.

I chuckled. “Yeah, you too Caramel. I take it you’re helping out Big Mac with the farm?”

“Yep!” he responded cheerfully. That’s one thing I loved about Caramel; he was always in the best mood. “And the apple orchards too.”

“Great! It’s always a pleasure having you on the farm, Caramel,” I said with a smile.

Big Mac gave Caramel a friendly pat on the back. “We should probably get to work then. Need me to go over anything?”

Caramel smirked. “Nope. I may be a bit rusty, but I’ll probably pick it back up right away.”

They said goodbye to me and I leaned against the fence, staring out past the orchards. I felt my pocket buzz from a text message and pulled out my phone. To my slight surprise, it wasn’t from any of my friends but instead it was from Jack.

-Hey there :) Are you doing anything today?

I couldn’t help but smile at the text message and I typed out a response.

-Nope :)

-Do you want to hang out? I was thinking we could have lunch together.

I wondered if this was supposed to be a date or more just a simple “spend some time together” kind of thing. I guessed it was a date regardless.

-Sounds great! Bon Bon’s Café at 11:30?

-Perfect!

I went back into the house to fix myself up a little bit more, changing into a cuter outfit than my regular farm clothes. I still had a good two hours to kill before my lunch date with Jack, and I decided just to get some of my homework done until then.

After a while, I realized it was about time that I should go and grabbed the keys from the kitchen counter. As I left the house, I noticed Big Mac and Caramel working in the distance— too far away to give a quick wave goodbye.

I got in the truck and headed on my way to Bon Bon’s Café— a short little five minute drive. Upon arriving, I saw that Jack was already there at a table outside. It was slightly cloudy outside but beautiful all the same so I was glad he chose an outside table.

“Hey!” I said as I walked up to him, his back faced toward me. He turned and smiled at me, replying with a cheerful hello, and I sat down across from him

“Do you like coffee?” he asked. “The waitress came by the get drinks; I just got us two coffees.”

He shrugged innocently, and I’d be lying if I said that his shrug wasn’t completely adorable.

“Coffee’s great, thanks,” I said.

The waitress brought the coffee, to which I added two cups of cream to mine and a pack of sugar. I didn’t drink coffee very often, but I still enjoyed it on the rare occasion that I had it. While she was there, the waitress took our orders. I hadn’t much time to look at the menu but I just ordered a sandwich and some soup.

“So do you play any sports?” I asked to start conversation once the waitress left. “You hang around with Clad a lot, and I know he’s pretty into sports.”

“Yeah, that’s actually how we became friends,” he responded. “We were both on the school baseball team our freshman and sophomore year. I didn’t play my junior year, and I don’t think I will this year either, but I still participate in the occasional baseball or basketball game every so often.”

“That’s nice. I haven’t ever been on a sports team in high school, mainly because I spend a lot of my time working. I think if I had the time I would probably be in sports— volleyball or something,” I said.

Jack smiled at me. “You seem like you’d be good at volleyball. You have the body for it.”

I blushed slightly, looking down at my coffee. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feel complimented or slightly offended.

I looked up as the waitress approached our table once again with our orders with her. She set them on the table, said she hoped we’d enjoy it, and then left. For a poorly planned order, mine still looked pretty good. I wasn’t surprised though; Bon Bon’s café didn’t have one bad order on their menu.

Jack had gotten a sandwich as well, a little bigger in size than mine. I watched as he took a bite of his and, smiling, I took a small bite of my own sandwich.

“So, what classes do you have this year?” he asked after swallowing his food.

“Um,” I looked up as I thought about my schedule. “I have Pre-Calc, Economics, A.P. Literature, and Psychology.” I counted with my fingers each time I named another class.

“Oh, I took Psychology last year. Do you have Mrs. Hawthorne?” he asked, a tint of excitement in his voice.

I nodded. “She’s kind of crazy…”

He laughed and nodded. “Yeah, she definitely is. Just wait until you get to psychological disorders. She goes manic on that kind of stuff.”

I laughed, bringing my cup up to my mouth to take another drink. “I didn’t know you went to our school last year?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I transferred to Shadow Creek just this year.”

“Really? Why?” I asked.

“Well, Shadow Creek’s AP and IB classes are a bit better, not to shoot down your school or anything, it was just a tougher schedule that I thought could help me get into the college I want. They also have a great baseball team so I thought joining that could help my chances too,” he explained.

“Wow,” I said. “That must have been a tough choice, having to leave your friends at this school and all.”

“Yeah, but Clad was doing the same thing as me so at least he’d be there too. And I’ve actually made a lot of new friends so far,” he said. “So, uh, how about your other teachers? Any good ones?”

“Ms. Cat for Pre-Calc. She seems fine. Mr. Novella seems crazy but I think he’ll be a good teacher. And then I have Mr. Stanton for Econ,” I said.

“I’ve heard of Ms. Cat and Mr. Novella but I haven’t heard of Stanton. Is he new?” Jack asked and took another bite of his sandwich.

“Yeah, I think so. He’s interesting. He seems like the kind of teacher who will try way too hard to get to know you,” I said and laughed.

Jack laughed a little, nodding. “Like that teacher you see in the grocery store and he starts an hour long conversation with you.”

I laughed and nodded. “That’s never actually happened to me, but it did happen to my friend Fluttershy once. She told us that the teacher talked her ear off but she was too afraid to tell her that she was going to be late for an appointment.”

Jack burst out in laughter. “And was she late?”

I nodded, joining him in his fit of laughter.

“Oh, that’s amazing…” he sighed, wiping away a tear.

“Poor girl…” I laughed, shaking my head.

Laughing and talking with Jack like that was relieving. I had been worried that the date would be awkward, that we’d have nothing to talk about and sit in an uncomfortably awkward silence for most of the time. But talking with him was actually really easy, and time flew by as we continued eating and talking together.

Once we finished eating, Jack suggested we walk around town and go into a couple of the shops. He paid for lunch— I offered to pay, of course, but he wouldn’t let me. It wasn’t until I started walking next to him as we headed toward the shops that I realized just how tall he was compared to me— he must have been at least a foot taller than me.

We walked side-by-side down the sidewalk, glancing at the stores as they passed. He turned his head to look at me after a couple moments in silence.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked.

I hated when people asked that, mainly because I could never make a decision. I glanced around and saw the little bookstore that Twilight went to pretty often. Next to it was a store called Gimmick’s. It was a fun store that sold little trinkets and knick-knacks; I had gone there once or twice before.

“Have you ever been to Gimmick’s?” I asked.

He glanced over at the store. “Oh yeah, I’ve been there once. It’s a pretty fun store.”

“Let’s go,” I said with a smile. I grabbed his hand and led him to the store.

I let out a small laugh when I noticed a slight blush on his cheeks. We went into the store and looked around for a bit. There was a small tub full of little plastic velociraptors with a knob that you could twist. I picked one up and twisted the knob, then set it down on the counter-top, watching it with amusement as it hobbled across the surface.

“Is it just me or is it hot in here?” I heard Jack’s muffled voice behind me.

I turned and burst out in laughter upon seeing possibly the ugliest horse mask I’d ever seen. I reached over and pulled it off of him, examining the mask.

“Where’d you get this?” I asked.

“There’s a big bucket full of them over there,” he answered.

“How fun would it be to prank one of our friends with this?” I snickered, turning over the mask in my hands.

I pictured myself pranking Rainbow Dash with this at one of our sleepovers— she’d wake up and see a freaky-as-hell horse head staring at her. That would be too good…

We wandered around the store for a little bit longer. An antique record player caught Jack’s eye, and something a little bit smaller caught mine. I don’t know why it intrigued me as much as it did; it just seemed so lonely, sitting on the shelf without any others like it.

It was a small snow globe-like trinket. Instead of the usual spherical shape of snow globes, this one was made from an old jam jar. It had a bluish Christmas tree inside with sparkling bits swirling all around. It was simple, yet beautiful, and it seemed kind of contradictory in a way. Like the tree deserved to be in a prettier jar. But it seemed content to be there, the tree. Like it belonged there.

The snow globe reminded me of her, and I couldn’t stop myself thinking about her once it had already begun. I don’t know why, but winter always reminded me of Rainbow Dash. Maybe it was because her birthday was in November. Maybe it was because Rainbow Dash used to love winter, always being the first one to throw the snowball or build the snowman or just run outside in the freezing weather like some kind of maniac.

I ran my thumb across the glass, considering buying it for her. She always appreciated gifts from me, even if they were little trinkets such as this one. She’d always find a place to put them in her room.

Suddenly, the snow globe was snatched out of my hand and I looked up in surprise to see Jack walking away with it with a smirk on his face. He walked over to the cashier and put the snow globe down. I quickly hurried over.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“You were staring at that thing for at least five minutes,” Jack said with a smirk. “I know when a girl wants something.”

I raised my eyebrow. “No, it’s not what you think. You don’t have to buy that…”

My protests fell on deaf ears as Jack bought it and the cashier put it in a little bag. Jack handed it to me with a smug smile.

“You really didn’t have to buy it for me,” I mumbled. “Now I feel bad.”

“Nonsense. Consider it a gift from me to you,” he said, handing me the bag.

“Well, thanks,” I said and breathed a small laugh.

He smiled and walked with me out of the shop. I waved the cashier goodbye and thanked him. Jack and I visited a couple more shops afterwards and stopped at a locally-run ice cream shop to have a quick bite of ice cream. We spent several hours together, and even though I’m pretty sure neither of us particularly enjoyed shopping, we both had a great time.

It was nearly four when we finally decided to head home. We had made it back to Bon Bon’s Café where our cars were parked and were standing in the parking lot.

“Are you going to the party later tonight?” I asked him.

“You bet. I’m guessing I’ll see you there?” he asked with a hopeful smile.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Awesome,” he smiled. “I’ll see you then?”

“Sure,” I said. He was about to part ways when I spoke up again. “Hey, are you doing anything tomorrow?”

“I don’t have any plans. What were you thinking?” he asked.

“Would you want to help out at the farm for a little bit? We have some things that need fixing,” I said. In truth, I kind of made that up on the spot. I mean, there was probably something he could do, but truth was I actually just wanted to spend more time with him.

So you can forget about her.

I grimaced as that haunting voice entered my mind. I tried to push it out. No, because I like him.

Sure.

“Of course,” Jack said, his voice cutting through my own thoughts.

“Awesome. I’ll see you later then. I had fun today,” I said, hoping Jack couldn’t detect the shakiness in my voice.

“Me too,” he said with a huge smile. “I’ll text you.”

With that, he turned and headed to his car and I headed to mine. For a while, after starting my car, I simply sat there, my hands shaking as I stared down at the wheel. That’s never happened before. The argument with myself. I mean, not like that.

I breathed shakily and shook my head, pulling out of the parking lot. Once I got back home, I saw that Big Mac and Caramel were still hanging out outside. I took the bag with my snow globe to my room and put the bag on my bed. Even after getting back home, however, I still couldn’t calm down. I pulled out my phone and found Rainbow Dash’s number.

A funny thought ran through my head at that moment. I realized that I’d been trying to avoid her mentally for a while, attempting to keep her out of my thoughts, as if I was on some kind of purge in the hopes of losing my feelings for her. I felt like I was cheating now as I was about text her, losing control of my willpower.

But I never signed any contract. I never made a promise to myself. I shouldn’t have felt bad at all for wanting to spend time with her. I loved her, after all.

I typed up a quick text, not giving much thought to what I wrote.

-Hey, i’m coming to your house. You better be dressed when i get there.

…

The phone buzzed.

-No promises ;)

I smiled at her text back and headed on my way to her house. I don’t know why I had been so forward, that was usually her thing. But she didn’t seem to mind, so I guess whatever.

I got to her house in about ten minutes and knocked on her door. She answered it quickly, leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on her face once she opened the door.

“Why, hello there Applejack,” she said in a slightly seductive tone.

“Sweatpants, huh?” I said, looking at the dark grey sweatpants she was wearing. She had on a light blue tank top that didn’t fully reach her pants, so a little bit of her skin was showing. Damn, that was hot.

“Hey, I like being comfy,” she shrugged and twirled around. I followed her into her house, closing the door behind me. She jumped on her couch, lying across pretty much the entire thing. I smirked and shoved her legs out of the way and sat down next to her. The TV was already on, the volume turned low.

“Why exactly did you come here again?” she asked, repositioning herself as she brought her legs closer to her.

I shrugged. “I dunno. I was bored.”

I heard muffled footsteps behind me and looked to see Dash’s uncle, Nick, coming down their stairs, drying his wet hair with a towel. Thank God he had clothes on. I doubted Rainbow Dash would have told him that I was coming over.

He noticed me and waved at me. “Hey there Applejack! Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Hi, Nick,” I smiled. “Yeah, it’s been a while. How’ve you been?”

“Great! I’m actually just heading out right now, sorry about that. Going on a date,” he said, clicking his tongue.

“Ooh, nice,” I said and laughed. “Have fun, Nick.”

Rainbow Dash waved as he left. “Have fun, Nick,” she echoed me, not bothering to lift up her head from the couch.

He waved goodbye to both of us and left. I caught a whiff of his cologne after he left and I turned to Rainbow Dash.

“This must be his first date with this girl, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yeah, I actually kind of forgot her name,” Rainbow Dash said. “He met her last week.”

“Aw, well I hope it goes well,” I said.

Nick was still relatively pretty young— in his early-30’s— and was definitely a good-looking guy. He was pretty fit, and he had black hair and blue eyes. Rainbow Dash had told us that he was once in a pretty serious relationship with a girl, that they were engaged and everything. But I guessed they realized they had very different dreams, and it just ended up not working out.

Nick was a great guy, and he and Rainbow Dash had a strong relationship. But I couldn’t help but wonder if Rainbow Dash should have had a mother figure in her life as well. She had been very close to her mom, and Nick wasn’t exactly a “motherly figure”.

“Yo, Earth to Applejack. You okay?” Rainbow Dash’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. I found myself staring into her eyes. Just how long had I been staring at her?

I smiled. “Sorry. I get kind of lost in my thoughts.”

“Come on, let’s chill in my room,” Dash said, suddenly getting up from the couch.

I followed her up the stairs and she opened the door to her room. It sounded like it hit something hard— that same thing must have slid and hit the opposite wall, as another thump sounded.

“Shit, I think that was Tank,” Rainbow Dash said, bending down to look for her turtle. Or tortoise. Whatever the hell that thing was.

I found him on the other side of the room emerging from his shell and smiling up at me. I picked him up with a smile, petting him gently with a finger under his chin while Rainbow Dash searched for something in her messy room. I don’t think I’d ever seen her room clean before.

She eventually gave up on her search and jumped on her bed. I sat down on it, slouching a bit to get comfortable. Things were pretty lazy at RD’s house and we spent the entire time just hanging out in her room, casually chatting about nothing in particular.

Eventually, when the time came, we left together to go to the party. Rainbow Dash drove and pretty soon we were arriving at a crowded house with muffled music coming from the inside. From the beat alone I could tell it was Vinyl’s music.

“Pinkie’s already here, of course,” Rainbow Dash muttered and smiled slightly. I followed her gaze and saw Pinkie’s car parked in the road.

“So it can get pretty loud in there but you can stick by me if you want,” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t think the others are here yet, but they’ll probably be here soon.”

“Is this the only party around?” I asked.

“I doubt it, but it’s definitely the biggest. Vinyl and Pinkie always plan a party like this at the beginning of the year, and most people know not to miss it.”

She parked after eventually finding a space— I was surprised at how many cars were actually here. How many people were at this party?

I soon got my answer. Upon walking inside the house, I nearly dropped my jaw. The place was packed! And the house was huge too; I wondered if it was just as crowded upstairs as well. I recognized only a couple people out of the socializing crowd, and over half the people there were holding some kind of drink— I wondered just how many of those drinks had alcohol in them.

Rainbow Dash grabbed my hand and I followed her like an obedient dog as she led me through the crowd. The music was getting louder as I realized we were getting closer to the DJ stand with a certain electric-blue-haired DJ just behind it, accompanied by a certain pink-haired girl with that crazy smile.

“Rainbow Dash! Applejack! You’re here!” Pinkie squealed when she saw us and ran down to pull us into a tight, awkward hug.

Vinyl Scratch waved at Rainbow Dash and we walked up there to greet her as well.

“Glad you guys could come,” the DJ said. “Your other friends coming too?”

“Yeah, they’ll probably been here in a minute,” Rainbow said.

I felt out of place here. Vinyl was a friend of mine as well, but I only talked to her on occasions like these when the only thing that brought us together were Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. And parties like this… they weren’t me. I convinced myself that I’d try to have fun; after all, there was nothing wrong with socializing.

I suddenly saw Twilight and the others walk through the door. Twilight looked a little surprised, Fluttershy meekly cowered behind her, and Rarity had already separated from the two and began talking with a group of people she apparently was best friends with.

“Dang, it sure is crowded in here,” Twilight said to me as she walked up to us, holding Fluttershy’s hand as she guided her behind her.

“Hey guys, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine,” Vinyl said suddenly. There was a tall guy with spiked black hair approaching us; he had a cocky smile on his face and similar glasses to the ones Vinyl wore.

“This is Neon Lights,” Vinyl introduced him. “We’ve been friends since we were kids. He DJ’s like me, so we have some friendly competition from time to time.”

Vinyl smiled wryly at Neon Lights, who returned the smile. “Call me Neon,” he said. “I’m actually just here to kick Vinyl off the stage. She’s doing a terrible job…”

“Shut up, asshole,” Vinyl chuckled, pushing him away.

I turned my head when I recognized a familiar face making his way through the crowd: Jack. I would have waved at him or something but his head wasn’t turned my way; I figured maybe I’d talk to him in a minute.

“Clad’s here,” Rainbow Dash said, already beginning to make her way towards him. “Come on, your boyfriend’s with him.”

I blushed angrily. “He’s not my boyfriend!”

Rainbow Dash smiled and rolled her eyes and we walked over to them. Vinyl started screaming something at the crowd and turned up the music even louder, getting a cheer from most of the audience.

“Hey babe!” Clad said to Rainbow Dash when we approached them and he slung his arm around her shoulders. Ugh.

I made eye contact with Jack and smiled slightly. “Hey, long time no see,” he said with a small chuckle.

We ended up talking— or rather, trying to yell over the music— for a pretty good amount of time, and we all danced for a little bit. From what I could see, Rainbow Dash wasn’t having anything to drink, but Clad and Jack both helped themselves to a couple of drinks. Rainbow must not have been drinking anything because we were here, and she probably didn’t want to make us uncomfortable.

I didn’t see the others for a while and felt kind of bad that we weren’t all one big group, but I figured they were getting along fine anyway. Except Pinkie. Even from here, I could see her dancing around like mad and had no doubt that she’d had a couple drinks at least.

Time flew by and I didn’t even know how long we’d been there but I was having a ton of fun. But eventually the time came that we had to leave. We entrusted Vinyl in getting Pinkie home safely, since apparently they’d driven here together anyway and Vinyl never got drunk at a party she was DJ’ing at.

Rainbow Dash drove me back to her house where my truck would be waiting for me. Most of the way there I was still trying to get adjusted to the quietness, although I’m pretty sure I’d gone deaf by then.

“That was fun,” Rainbow said as she pulled up to her house and parked.

I looked over at her and smiled. “Yeah, it really was. I don’t think I’d be able to go to those as much as you and Pinkie do, but it’d be fun to go to another party sometime.”

“Definitely,” she smiled. “Even Fluttershy and Twilight opened up after a while and started having fun.”

I was glad Fluttershy had fun. I had been worried about her, but it was a huge relief to look over at some point during the party to see her smiling and talking with other people.

“Alright, I’ll see you later then AJ,” she said. “Thanks for coming tonight. Be safe driving home.”

She smiled at me and I returned it. “Thanks, bye RD.”

I drove home in silence. The silence was strange but it was calming. Once I got home, I realized just how late it was and knew that the rest of my family were most likely all asleep. I went into the house as quietly as I could. I felt my eyes drooping with exhaustion as I made my way upstairs, not realizing how tired I was until now.

The bag was still on my bed and I took it off, taking out the snow globe inside and putting it on my windowsill. I changed into my pajamas and slid into bed, utterly exhausted. The beat of Vinyl’s music thumped in the back of my mind, lulling me to an aching and ever-so-inviting sleep.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys, so sorry about the really late update. I've been having a really hard time lately-- stresses with homework and classes, a girl that completely broke my heart, you know, that kinda stuff... It's starting to feel like I'm actually living this story. =/

Sigh, anyway, it's something I'm trying to work through and writing this story helps so I'm going to update more often. I think I'm gonna go watch Lion King now. Anyone wanna cuddle and watch it with me? Shweet, glad we got that settled.

As always, thanks for reading you guys :) So much suspense of what is going to happen with AJ! *Gasp!* Like, come on Jack, get out of the picture. Stahp making things even more complicated. Stay with me and I promise things will get better :D

Also, 100 likes and over 100 favorites! Yay! Thank you guys so much! :D

Chapter 8

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Chapter 8

Everything seemed to be getting a little better a couple days after the party on Saturday. Jack came over on Sunday and he’d been helping out on the farm ever since. I made him fix things like the fence or the barn, but both of us knew it was just an excuse to have him come over.

Caramel stayed working on the farm as well and I introduced Jack to Caramel and Big Mac. Granny Smith was doing great and she sat outside a couple times to keep us all company. Apple Bloom was apparently doing fine in school and so was I— it was still only the beginning of the school year but, hey, I can still be optimistic right?

It was Tuesday morning and everyone was a bit quiet from sleepiness. Rainbow Dash slept through first hour entirely, I was zoned out pretty much the entire time, and Rarity sat there filing her nails. I’m pretty sure Twilight was the only one actually paying attention and taking notes out of the six of us. I probably should have been.

Economics class was actually kind of fun. We did this interactive group activity that Mr. Stanton went crazy over; his energy alone helped me to wake up. And, despite how 9th grade this activity felt, I actually learned a lot about microeconomics.

Fourth period came and passed quickly. Mrs. Hawthorne gave a lecture about Pavlov which didn’t even take all period, happily giving me time to talk to Rainbow Dash at the end of the hour.

“You doing anything later today, then?” I asked her while the three of us sat.

“Just cross country and I’m probably gonna spend time with Clad,” she answered calmly.

“Oh, how’s cross country going?” I asked her, remembering that it had started this week.

“Well, I mean we just started but it’s going great so far. I had a fun little reunion with Lightning Dust and Cloudchaser. Dust and I are definitely gonna be the fastest on the track team this year, I can tell already,” she said, a small gleam of excitement glistening in her eyes.

I smiled at the irony. Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust had been sworn enemies their freshman year— we almost had to break up a would-be fight between the two. I’m not really sure when they became friends. As far as I knew, they hated each other throughout their freshman year. Even now they argued occasionally, butting heads even more often than I do with Rainbow Dash.

Cloudchaser had been another long-time friend of Rainbow Dash’s, since grade school. There had been a time when Rainbow Dash was even closer to Cloudchaser than she was us— it was freshman year. Apparently Cloudchaser had helped Rainbow a lot after her parents died. Frankly, I was glad Cloudchaser was there to help her. For some reason, Dash pushed me and the others away after the accident occurred and I was thankful that she at least let Cloudchaser help her out.

I was actually a little jealous of Cloudchaser and Lightning Dust, being able to spend that much time with Rainbow Dash. I wished I could be in a sport with her but I knew there just wouldn’t be enough time with my other priorities at the farm.

That week ended up being pretty uneventful until Thursday. I had been talking with Jack in the barn— come to think of it, he’d actually come over every day that week so far— and I guess something just came over me. There we were, standing in the barn, talking and laughing like usual and then I kissed him.

It was strange. I sort of felt detached when I did it, almost like it didn’t even happen. But, boy, did he sure look surprised. He just sort of stood there with his mouth slightly parted, staring at me for a while until he finally found his voice.

“What was that for?” he chuckled, a slight blush on his cheeks.

I shrugged with a smile on my face.

He smiled widely, excitement gleaming in his eyes. He blushed even further when he began to speak again.

“I… I was wondering Applejack. I really like you, and I love spending time with you. Would you, perhaps…” he looked at me with wide eyes and gulped. I felt kind of bad that he was so nervous, and almost considered cutting him off since I knew what he was going to say anyway. “Would you perhaps want to be my girlfriend?”

He could barely look me in the eye by the time he was done. Poor guy.

I smiled at him and reached over and grabbed his hand reassuringly. “Yes, I’d love to.”

He smiled brightly, his eyes lighting up with relief and happiness. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure why I said yes. Sure, Jack was a great guy but I didn’t want a boyfriend even the slightest bit. But I knew the truth of why I did it, in the back of my mind. I did it as a way of hopefully distracting myself from Rainbow Dash. It was the stark truth, and I had to admit it to myself.

I suppressed a sigh and decided to ignore my feelings. Jack stayed over for about another hour after that before he had to leave and I decided to work on my homework.

The next week afterwards passed by quickly, mainly consisting of homework and spending a bit more time with Jack. It was Friday and the girls and I were all together at our regular hangout spot.

“Hey, is anyone doing anything tonight?” Twilight piped up.

Most of us shook our heads. “I’m not doing anything,” I said.

“Me neither,” Pinkie Pie said.

The others said nothing but Twilight took their silence as them not having plans.

“We should do something,” Twilight said. “Maybe a sleepover or something. I dunno, just something fun for us all to do.”

We all thought about it, thinking about different things we could do. “Maybe we could see a movie, and then just chill at your place,” I suggested to Twilight.

“Alright, we could do that. I haven’t seen a movie in a while after all,” Twilight said with a small smile.

“Oh, I’ve heard Evermore is supposed to be remarkable,” Rarity said. I remembered seeing previews for that one; I’m pretty sure it was about some farm girl whose father dies and she falls in love with a guy who’s going in the military or something like that. It looked depressing but I’d heard people say that it was a pretty good movie.

“I’ve been wanting to see that one too,” Fluttershy added.

“It sounds kind of sad but I’ll see whatever!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

I looked over at Rainbow Dash who looked kind of zonked out; she was sipping her drink and staring down at the table with half-lidded eyes.

“Rainbow?”

She perked her head up and looked at me.

“Is that movie alright with you?” I asked, watching her carefully.

“Oh yeah, sounds fine. I’ll see whatever really,” she said.

She might have just been tired, but I at least expected her to make some comment about how romantic movies totally weren’t her thing. I watched her for a little bit before returning my gaze to Twilight.

“Alright! It’s settled then. I’ll look up movie times,” Twilight said and she pulled out her phone.

Rarity waved the waitress over while we waited. “Fluttershy, dear, would you like to share a little chocolate cake with me?”

“Sure, that sounds great,” Fluttershy said sweetly.

“Ooh cake! Can I get one too?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“You can get whatever you want, darling,” Rarity said with slight amusement.

“Oh! I’ll get what they’re getting!”

The waitress wrote down two orders of chocolate cake and walked away.

“Cake, huh?” Rainbow Dash smirked, eyeing Rarity deviously. Rarity rarely ate desserts like cake or cupcakes; she was always so worried about keeping her figure.

“I can have a treat every once in a while,” Rarity said with a small smile.

Their orders arrived after just a couple minutes. Rarity and Fluttershy kindly shared the cake, while Pinkie Pie dove into hers.

“Wamf somph?” Pinkie Pie asked Rainbow Dash with a mouthful of cake in her mouth, extending her fork with a bit of cake on it toward Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow shrugged and grimaced slightly. “Nah. I should probably lighten up on the sweets and junk food now that I’m going to be running every day again.”

I raised an eyebrow. Little liar. No matter what season it was, she ran all the time and she always continued to eat junk food. And I knew she had a particular weakness for chocolate cake. Something was bothering her.

But then again, it could have just been another one of her random mood swings. She tended to be like that— hyper and excited one week, unresponsive and depressed the next. I don’t think she’d ever admit it to herself, but I had a feeling that she might have been bipolar. I never brought it up with her because she tended to get defensive when talking about her faults or her feelings.

“Okay, there’s a showing at 6:10,” Twilight’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “That sound good for you guys?”

Everyone nodded and chimed in a little “Mmhm”. We relaxed at the café until we decided to leave to go to the movies. We got there a bit early to find good seats and get snacks. Pinkie Pie must have gotten at least ten different kinds of candy. I began to wonder how it was possible that she wasn’t fat. It seemed like I could eat one Whopper and gain two pounds.

We got seats somewhere in the middle of the theater. I sat at the end, Rainbow Dash was sitting next to me, then Pinkie, Twilight, Rarity, and finally Fluttershy at the other end. I stretched lazily, hoping I wouldn’t accidentally hit whoever was sitting behind me.

It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t yet told my friends that Jack and I were technically dating now. I pursed my lips as I weighed the possible outcomes of telling them. Well, there was no harm in not telling them…

Rainbow Dash slowly looked over at me and my gaze flicked down to meet hers. I smiled goofily, getting a small giggle out of her. My eyes flickered upwards when the lights began to dim and I paid my attention to the screen.

The movie was about two hours long, and although it was predictable it was really good. I admit it almost brought tears to my eyes a couple times, but no way I’d let my friends see that. Rarity was sobbing on Twilight pretty much the entire time and I’m pretty sure Pinkie was crying too but I didn’t look over to see.

When the credits began rolling, we all exited the theatre and Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy went to the bathroom.

“That was so sad but sooo good!” Pinkie cried and emphatically grabbed Rainbow Dash’s arm, crying into it. At least, I think she was crying. She could have just been over exaggerating it.

“Yeah, but I mean, everything turned out okay in the end,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “The way I see it, it doesn’t really matter how painful everything is as long as you end up with the person you love.”

My eyes widened ever-so-slightly. Heh, you may be right Rainbow Dash, but I’ll tell ya’ one thing: it sure would be a hell of a lot easier if I didn’t have to go through the pain of loving you unrequitedly.

“I guess none of that would have happened if she didn’t tell him that she loved him, huh?” I said dryly.

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow and looked at the ceiling. “I dunno. I mean, they both kinda fell in love with each other at the same time.”

I looked down, an ironic smile on my face. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Neither one could hear my sigh.

~ ~ ~

Cream swirled around mocha, tiny shivers of steam lifted from the small cup. I stared blankly at the swirling coffee, my mind wandering when it decided that it could no longer focus on the math book in front of me.

I was at the old café again, trying out a new scene to do my homework in. I couldn’t concentrate at home, not with an eight year old making all kinds of racket, a twenty-one year old working loudly outside, and an seventy-five year old constantly flapping her gums about who-knows-what.

So I decided to come out here. The café had a nice atmosphere, even outside, and the drinks were a bonus. But now, after studying for almost three hours, I needed a break. The week hadn’t been too stressful, but I sort of let my homework build up and now I needed to get it done.

I didn’t even know what day it was anymore. Wednesday? Wait, no, it couldn’t be Wednesday because Fluttershy wanted me to help out with her monthly bunny count which always landed on a Wednesday— and that was yesterday. Damn, Thursday already?

I stretched, letting out a quiet groan as I stretched out my sore shoulder muscles. Too much time spent hunched over this book. I took another sip of my coffee, humming in satisfaction at the perfectly-sweet taste of it. I had Bon Bon to thank for that one— she really was one of the sweetest girls I’ve met.

A familiar flash of color caught my eye and I saw Rainbow Dash running with a group of friends. Her hair was up in a ponytail and she wore her signature blue short-shorts that she used pretty often for running.

I waved her down and Rainbow saw me, slowing down to a stop. She turned to her friends. I couldn’t hear what she said but I could only assume what it was when she separated from them and jogged towards my table.

“Hey Applejack. What’s up?” she asked, sitting down next to me.

I smiled. “Howdy. You didn’t need to quit running you know; I was just sayin’ hi.”

“I know, but we were pretty much done anyway,” she said. She glanced down at my coffee and picked it up, taking a generous sip of it.

I smirked. “Oh, no, go right ahead. I didn’t want it anyway.”

I saw her smirk behind the cup and she set it down. “Mm, Bon Bon made that one, didn’t she?”

I nodded and waved down the waitress who was nearby and ordered a glass of water. Once she brought it, I pushed it over to Rainbow Dash who started sipping at it without a word. She stared off into the distance somewhere, her eyes flicking around as she took in different sights.

“So, uh, how are… things?” I shrugged. I didn’t have much to say, but honestly it was just nice having her here with me.

She shrugged too. “Same ol’.”

She opened her mouth to say something else but decided not to and took another sip of water, still staring off into the distance.

I followed her gaze, sighing softly. “Yeah… me too.”

Her gaze flickered over to my book. “What’re you studying?”

“Math,” I grumbled.

“Oh,” she said. “Need any help?”

“Nah, I’m almost done with it anyway,” I said and stretched.

Even though Rainbow Dash would rather have slept during class than actually pay attention, I knew for a fact that she was actually pretty good at math. I, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Numbers and figures confused the hell out of me; no, I’m much better at writing. With writing, it was almost like I could create my own equation, put each character where I wanted them.

I snapped out of my small reverie and saw Rainbow Dash absentmindedly rubbing her arm. It was then that I noticed a small bruise that she was softly rubbing and grimacing at. I raised an eyebrow.

“How’dja get that bruise?” I asked.

She looked at me, likely snapping out of a daze as well. “Oh, cross country,” she said, cracking a small smirk. “Of course, out of all the people, I’m the one who slips on the grass.”

I giggled softly. “Be careful. God knows you’re always gettin’ yourself hurt somehow.”

She smiled, a familiar spark in her eyes. “Hey, no pain no game,” she said and winked.

I smiled. I could at least partially sympathize with her there. It wasn’t too rare for me to pull some kind of muscle or sprain an ankle working on the farm. It was just something that came with laborious work, and neither of us— stubborn as we were— would ever let that slow us down.

I stretched again and rested my head on my book, drooping my eyes lazily as the sun’s warmth washed over me. The day was perfect and, given some more time, I had no doubt that I would fall asleep right there.

“Hey, Applejack!”

I lifted my head and looked around for the source of the voice calling a few feet away. I turned around and saw Jack approaching the table. Oh no.

I don’t know why, but I freaked out— internally, of course. Rainbow Dash couldn’t know that he and I were dating! It would… it would… well, I don’t really know what it would do but still…

I glanced over at Rainbow Dash as a realization set in. Who was I kidding? It wouldn’t do anything. It’s not like Rainbow Dash even knew about my feelings for her anyway, so why should this have mattered?

Stifling a sigh, I looked over once again at Jack who was now sitting down, smiling at me and Rainbow Dash. My eyes widened when he put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. I looked at Rainbow Dash in desperation. Aaaaand… too late.

Her eyes were already widened, one eyebrow raised in interest as her gaze flickered from Jack then to me. Slowly, a smile began to appear on her face. I glowered at her.

“Oh-ho, well don’t mind me,” she smirked, getting up from the table. “I was just leaving. You two enjoy your time together.”

I blushed when she walked away and looked at Jack. He was smiling brightly and looking at me. We’d hung out a couple times since he asked me out, but I still felt a little awkward around him. I guess he didn’t feel the same since he looked completely comfortable around me.

“So, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“I was actually just walking around when I saw you two sitting here and I thought I’d say hi. I’m guessing from Rainbow Dash’s reaction that you haven’t told your friends yet?” he asked.

I smiled sheepishly. “Not exactly.”

He chuckled. “It’s fine. I kind of already told my friends… I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, it’s alright,” I said. “I’ll probably tell them soon anyway.”

We ended up spending some time together since I was done with math and had nothing else to do, but telling my friends about us came a little bit sooner than I expected thanks to a certain rainbow-haired girl…

~ ~ ~

She eyed me carefully, a tiny smirk on her face as I looked at her with confusion. It was Friday morning, math class. The teacher allowed us a work day in class, letting me catch up a bit on the questions I didn’t answer. And I could only guess what devious little Rainbow Dash was planning.

She stretched nonchalantly and spoke loud enough for everyone in the group to hear. “So, Applejack, how long have you and Jack been going out?”

I wanted to smack her. All the girls looked at me with curious looks and I began to blush from both embarrassment and anger. Well, I guess they would have found out sooner or later…

“Um, two weeks,” I said, avoiding anyone’s gaze.

The girls all gasped when they realized that Rainbow Dash’s playful quip was not a joke made just to annoy me. As expected, they all leaned forward and asked me about it, making a much bigger deal than necessary.

I told them that Jack was Clad’s friend and Rarity seemed to know who he was. Their excitement died down after a while, thankfully, but I was sort of glad Rainbow Dash had brought it up. It didn’t make me feel like I was keeping a secret anymore.

“Hey guys!” Twilight piped up. “We should have another sleepover tomorrow. I have a feeling that these will become less frequent once our schoolwork gets heavier and I’d like to take the opportunity to have them while we can.”

I snickered quietly; even when talking to her friends she sounded like she was conducting an interview or something.

All the girls chimed in an excited, “Okay!”

I added, “Sure, Twi, sounds fun.”

But then I noticed Rainbow Dash had said nothing. She scratched the back of her neck, frowning apologetically.

“Shit. Um, I’m hanging out with Clad at his house on Saturday…” she said, obviously feeling bad about it. She waved her arms quickly, eyes widening. “But don’t let that stop you guys! Seriously, I’ll just go to the next one.”

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked. “I’d feel bad having one without you.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, no, it’s fine, seriously. You guys have fun; I don’t want you to cancel just because of me.”

Twilight smiled. “Well then I promise we won’t have too much fun without you.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie piped up. “We’ll make the next one super-duper-wuper-fun to make up for it!”

Everyone giggled at Pinkie’s enthusiasm.

“Good, you better,” Rainbow Dash joked as the bell rang. “Let me know who kisses who in Truth or Dare,” she said and winked at me.

With a laugh, I rolled my eyes headed to my next class.

Chapter 9

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Chapter 9

“Oh, come on Rarity! I told you guys my secret crush, just tell us one little secret,” Twilight pleaded.

We were all sitting in a circle, talking. Before we were just chatting and gossiping a bit, but then we moved on to the topic of secrets— it was fun to hear about others’ secrets of course but I knew eventually it would come to me…

Rarity huffed and rolled her eyes, a slight blush on her cheeks. “They’re called secrets for a reason… Ugh, fine. When we were freshmen, I had a crush on Applejack’s brother.”

I burst out laughing. “Aw, Rarity, that’s adorable. I never thought you’d have a crush on a quiet, rugged farm-boy,” I said.

She shrugged. “Yes, well, he is quite the looker you have to admit. Well, what about you Applejack? Any burning secrets of yours?”

I thought I saw something flash in her eyes, but maybe it was just my imagination. I shifted slightly.

Burning secrets? Oh, you mean the fact that I like girls? Or maybe the fact that I’m completely infatuated with my best friend, Rainbow Dash?

“Uh, well, I don’t think so. Nothing too ‘burning’,” I answered. “I mean, you guys already found out about me and Jack and that was pretty much my biggest secret.”

Rarity smirked and I thought I saw disappointment flash in her eyes. “Well, phoo, I wanted to hear some juicy secrets.”

I smirked as well. “Sorry.”

I wanted to tell them, I really did. I didn’t even necessarily need to tell them about Rainbow Dash, but I did want to tell them of my sexual orientation. I didn’t want to keep secrets from them, but this was just something I couldn’t tell. It would just make matters worse. Then they’d all be wondering why I’m dating Jack and I wouldn’t have the guts to tell them that I’m just hoping he can distract me from what’s really in my heart.

I looked down in shame as my stomach dropped and I swallowed hard. Things were kind of messed up with me right now; problem was, I didn’t know how to fix them. I guess I could talk to someone about it— I’m sure Twilight would understand, she’s always been a good listener— but a small part of my stubborn reserve kept me from doing so.

A flash of color in the corner of my eye snapped me out of my daze and I looked out the window— in the direction of the color. It was dark out, the ending dusk, but even through the poor lighting I could make out Rainbow Dash’s hair perfectly. My brow furrowed, confusion running through my mind as to why she was out there. Did her date end already?

I stood up and walked over to the window; the others followed quickly, wondering what I was looking at. Twi opened the door soon afterwards, light from her house shedding on Rainbow Dash and catching her attention. She looked up at us and then crossed the street so Twilight wouldn’t have to yell.

“Hey Rainbow! Is your date over?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah,” she said. Her face was emotionless and her eyes darted back and forth between me and Twilight.

Something was wrong.

“Do you want to come and join us? We’re just telling secrets and stuff,” Twilight asked.

Rainbow scratched the back of her neck and winced. “I’m actually kind of tired. I think I’m just gonna head home.”

Something was very wrong. I could see it in her eyes; they were distressed.

“Oh, okay then,” Twilight said with disappointment. I scrutinized Rainbow Dash, trying to figure her out.

She waved a short goodbye and continued on her walk.

…Walk?

That’s when it hit me. She was walking home. There was no way Clad would have made her walk home from his house unless something happened between them. But even if they had a fight, he still would have given her a ride, wouldn’t he have?

I cast a worried glance at the others and they returned the look. They were probably thinking the same thing as me, or at least had seen that something was obviously wrong with her. Twilight nodded to me barely, and I knew what they were expecting of me. I was RD’s best friend, and the one who connected best with her. It was obvious I would be the one to go after her and make sure she’s okay.

I grimaced slightly. “I’ll be back, don’t wait up for me,” I said quietly, but Rainbow was too far off to hear me now anyway.

“Good luck,” Twilight said. “I hope she’s okay…”

I left to follow after Rainbow, and Twilight and the others went back inside. I couldn’t see Rainbow Dash anymore so I went in the direction she had been heading. But I didn’t even really need to see her to know where she was going. She was going to the forest.

She always went there whenever she wanted to think or be by herself. It’s always been one of her favorite places, and in more recent times it became a place of solitude and deep thinking rather than just the fun, mysterious forest it used to be.

I crossed the road and the trees began to get thicker at the start of the forest. I felt the concrete turn to dirt and leaves under my feet when I walked into the forest, the trees getting thicker as I continued on. After a bit of walking, I finally found my target. There she was, sitting against a tree with her back facing towards me. She made no indication to whether or not she heard me approaching her.

Silently, I sat down next to her, pulling my knees up and hugging them close to my chest. I looked at her, but said nothing. Her face was turned the other way so I had no idea what her emotions were.

Sighing inaudibly, I looked at the ground and remained silent for a couple more moments.

“Are you okay?” I asked finally.

She didn’t move. I looked over at her again, wishing she’d look at me.

When she didn’t reply, I asked her again. “What happened?” My voice was barely above a whisper. I felt afraid of breaking the silence of the forest.

Come on, Dashie, please turn to me, I implored silently.

She brought her knees even closer to her chest and rubbed her head against them. I wanted to see her eyes. I needed to see them now. Please, I thought, please be filled with tears. Because I knew what the other option was…

Detached. Dull eyes, with no response. I feared those eyes so much. I didn’t know what she would do to herself with those eyes. I don’t know if Dash has ever tried to hurt herself, and I hope to God that she hasn’t, but with those eyes I truly fear that she would do it.

I didn’t realize until I snapped out of my daze that my throat was aching and my eyes were filled with tears. I glanced over to my right and saw Rainbow Dash watching me silently. Most of her face was covered by her hair but I could still see one deep magenta eye staring at me.

I blinked away my tears and my lip twitched. I felt like I should say something, but nothing came out. I then realized that her eyes, too, were teary and red. Relief washed through me, and at the same time, sadness. It hurt to see her like this.

She broke eye contact with me and lifted her head a bit, staring intensely at her knees. I watched her closely. She twiddled with her thumbs.

“I broke up with Clad,” she said quietly, as if the act of speaking were exhausting to her.

I wasn’t surprised, just sort of wondered why. What bothered me was that she wasn’t angry. Clad must have done or said something that really hurt her. I rested my head on my knees in further attempt to make eye contact with her. Her eyes flicked about, but didn’t meet mine. She looked nervous, or anxious.

“He, um…” Her voice shook and she continued to twiddle with her fingers. “He tried to get me to have sex with him.”

My brow furrowed.

“And when I refused, he got hostile. So I left,” she said.

My eyes flickered over to that bruise I’d seen on her arm a while ago, and I felt like a moron for not realizing it sooner.

“Did he give this to you?” I asked quietly, gesturing to the bruise. She looked at it and nodded.

At first, I didn’t really feel any emotion other than sadness for her. I pulled her into a hug, which she softly returned. Her arms tightened around my waist and I felt her muscles tense up. I rubbed her back and she began to cry on my shoulder.

This was the second time I had seen Rainbow really cry. For the most part, she kept her feelings in, like, all the time. It was frustrating— for all of us. We wanted to help her, to let her know that it was okay to talk about things.

Her crying soon turned to sobbing. My eyes stung with my own tears. That’s when I felt anger for what Clad had done. My stomach bubbled with fury; I clenched my jaw to hold back the hatred. I would never use Rainbow Dash like he did.

I rested my mouth on her shoulder and she cried harder into mine, and I knew this was about more than just Clad. I think the real reason she was so upset was because she was used, made to feel lesser than herself.

The first time I’d ever seen Rainbow Dash cry was quite possibly the worst day of my life— a day none of us liked to remember. The day Rainbow Dash’s parents died.

~ ~ ~

It was the 8th of December. Our freshman year in high school. We were all in our last class, I can’t remember which one it was now— math, maybe, or language arts. I guess it doesn’t matter now. It was the only class that all six of us had together and the teacher was up at the front going through some notes.

About fifteen minutes into the class period a security guard came in and asked for Rainbow Dash. A chorus of “Ooh’s” went up around the room, save from the six of us. Rainbow Dash looked just as clueless as us but she followed the security guard, bringing her bag with her.

The class returned to normal, but after a while, Rainbow Dash still hadn’t come back. Pinkie Pie leaned in towards us. “Dashie’s been gone a long time. Do you think she’s in trouble?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight whispered back. “She’s never really gotten into any real trouble, even if it is Rainbow Dash.”

“I hope everything’s alright,” Rarity said. She bit her lip nervously. Fluttershy nodded in agreement.

I looked at the door, my brow furrowing in worry. Leave it up to Rainbow Dash to get herself in trouble with the police. What if she was caught stealing something? Or worse? What if she was caught with drugs? My mind raced, imagining all the bad things that might have happened.

I never could have imagined what would come later that day.

When Rainbow Dash didn’t return the rest of the class period, I decided I would go to the office after school and see if she was still there. When the bell rang, I told the others I was going to head over there and started on my way.

Sure enough, she was there, sitting on a chair with her head in her hands. Shit, I thought. What did she do?

I rushed over but as I got closer, something felt off. She wasn’t burying her hands because she was in trouble. She was… crying. I looked at her, completely baffled.

“Rainbow…” I whispered.

She let out a sob and I instinctively grabbed her, pulling her into a hug. I pulled her up on her feet and she wrapped her arms around me, burying her head into my shoulder. She sobbed louder, uncontrollably even. I felt sick, not wanting to think about what was the cause of all this.

I let go of her with my right arm and pulled out my phone, sending out a text to the others as quickly as I could.

-Come to the office. Now.

I put my arm back around her and rested my chin on her shoulder, my stomach twisting in knots. It didn’t take long for the others to arrive, thankfully. They rushed over, looking just as baffled as I was. I simply shot them a look and shook my head slowly to show that I was just as clueless as they were.

Rainbow clutched my shirt harder, sobbing louder than before. I felt sick to my stomach and my vision began to get blurry with tears. Rarity rushed over to the security guard who looked like he was sorting something out at the desk.

“Excuse me, do you mind me asking what happened?” Rarity said quietly.

The guard looked over at Rainbow Dash with pity and slowly shook his head. He tried to speak quietly but we all could hear what he said— I assumed Rainbow Dash could hear him as well. What he said next made my blood run cold.

“Her parents were in a car accident this morning. Killed on impact.”

I swear time stopped in that moment. It was like… like… I don’t even know how to explain it. Like, it wasn’t true. Impossible. I felt numb, trying to grasp the words I’d just heard, but not wanting to at the same time.

Twilight gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth as her eyes filled with tears. Pinkie instinctively hugged Rainbow Dash along with me, joined soon by the others.

I’m not even able to describe that day, years after the fact. Rainbow Dash was my best friend and her parents dying was almost like losing mine all over again. We all loved her parents to death, and it was unreal that they could possibly be gone.

After that day, everything changed. Rainbow Dash didn’t come to school for weeks and when she did come back she was a completely different person. She didn’t talk to anybody, including us. The only person she allowed in her life was Cloudchaser. I don’t know what that girl did, but she got through to her somehow and stuck with her in her time of need. Frankly, I was just thankful someone was there to help her.

That was a bad time for all of us. We all worried about Rainbow Dash and her depression got to us too. It took a while, but eventually she started letting us back into her life. I got through to her first.

She began to improve a lot over time, talking to people— laughing even— but she still was not the same. Until one day. Well, it was more like one week. I’m not entirely sure what happened to her, what went through her mind, but she… it was like she was happy again, out of nowhere. She acted like her normal self.

Everyone was astounded and we began to fear if she was in denial about the whole thing. We singled her out one day and asked her about it. To this day, I still think about the answer she gave us.

She told us that she was not over her parents’ death— not by a long shot. She was more anguished than words could express, but she had seen how much her own depression was affecting people over the course of those several months. And she didn’t want people to feel the way she did, so she changed. She also told us that she knew there was no way her parents were coming back and it was only hurting herself to act the way she did.

“I’m not over their deaths, nor am I ignoring it,” Rainbow Dash had told us, “But I can’t let this destroy who I am.”

She looked up at us with a pained smile and a kind of torture in her eyes that I never could have imagined. “It hurts. More than you guys can imagine. But I’m going to try my hardest to go back to the person I was before.”

And she did, for the most part. She remembered that person she used to be— the joker, the prankster, the daredevil, the athlete, and the loyal friend we all loved to death. I remembered that when I heard those words of hers, I respected her more than I ever had before. Very few people have the strength to do something like that.

We all know Rainbow still hurts, a lot. But she didn’t lose who she was, and honestly, when someone goes through a tragedy, that’s one of the most important things to remember: who you really are.

I was very young when my own parents died. I still remember them, but I did not suffer the kind of pain Rainbow suffered. Although, she did have one thing on me. At least she was still able to have her parents for a while, whereas mine went away when I was just a child.

But then again, I did also grow up with a large and caring family. We all helped each other move on, helped each other grow into the people we are today— heck, we’d make Ma and Pa proud if they could see us now.

~ ~ ~

A sniff jolted me back to reality and it took me a moment to realize my surroundings again. Rainbow was leaning against me and I held her protectively as the last of her sobs began to die down. Right, this isn’t about me. It’s about Rainbow Dash, I thought.

I petted her head softly as the memories drifted away and I focused more on my best friend, vulnerable and broken as she laid in my arms. I thought about Clad, and my stomach burned in anger in response. How could he have just used her like this?

I would never hurt you, Rainbow Dash, I thought.

She stirred in my arms and I looked down. I loosened my hold a bit and she backed up, pulling away from the hug. She wiped her eyes and let out a soft chuckle.

“Man, it’s been a while since I cried like that,” she said, looking at the ground.

I smiled softly. “You okay, sugarcube?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m good now. Thanks, Applejack. I…“

I waited for her to finish but she never did. I reached out and put my hand on her leg as a comforting gesture. “Do you want to come back to Twilight’s house? I doubt they’ve gone to bed yet, and it’d be nice having you over… Maybe get you to forget about this for a little bit.”

She looked up, finally meeting me in the eyes. “Thanks, but I’m pretty tired and I don’t want the girls seeing me like this. I’m just gonna head home.”

We stood up together. “I’ll walk you home,” I said.

“No, it’s fine,” Rainbow Dash said. “Go back to Twilight’s, I’m sure they’re missing you.”

I looked at her, unsure, and she returned the look with a pair of reassuring eyes. “I’ll be fine, AJ.”

My lip twitched. After a moment, I sighed in defeat and pulled her in for another quick hug. “Alright, Rainbow. Be safe, okay? Can you… text me or something to let me know you got home okay?”

She smiled softly, that familiar teasing glint coming back into her eyes. “Alright, mom,” she chastised quietly.

We separated and headed our different ways. I watched her for a couple steps before turning around and heading back to Twilight’s house. The walk felt longer than it was; I guess the night’s events had just weighed down on me.

The others were playing a board game— silently it looked like; guess they were worried about us— when I got back. They all got up when I walked in, looking at me with both relief and expectancy.

“We talked for a while, I think she’ll be okay,” I said. “She headed home— I think it’s best she got some rest right now anyway.”

Twilight nodded. “Is everything okay between… her and Clad?” she asked hesitantly.

“They broke up,” I said. I didn’t say why; I figured it wasn’t my place to tell.

Twilight nodded again and seemed to get the hint that I wasn’t going to elaborate any further. She pointed over at the board game with a little smile. “Want to join the game?”

I smiled. “Sure.”

We weren’t ignoring the subject, but we knew it wasn’t best to brood over it as well. The board game went by calmly, but it was fun and by the end of it we were all ready for bed. During the game I’d gotten a text from Rainbow assuring me she’d made it home safely, making me feel a lot more relieved.

After the game, everyone said goodnight and headed off to their usual beds. I sat in my bed alone, wondering if my usual sleeping partner was still up or not. I hoped that I’d made her feel a bit better, and I really hoped she wasn’t up in her room crying again. I wondered if Nick talked with her at all.

I guess it didn’t really matter. I closed my eyes and got comfortable in the bed. It felt cold, but in a good way. Surprisingly, for all that had happened that night, I was pretty emotionless while lying in that bed. I guess maybe I was just drained and my body had already decided that it was going to sleep.

After getting comfortable, I let out a sigh and let my body go limp. My heart beat once heavily and I thought of Rainbow Dash, feeling a bit of emotion once again. I still loved her. No way I’d ever stop. But nights like these were just… draining. I tried to let go of it and let my body rest. You worry about her too much, Applejack. She’s strong and she’ll get over it in no time.

Those final reassuring thoughts put my mind to ease and I was able to finally fall asleep.

Chapter 10

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Chapter 10

My room was still dark when I woke up. Waking up in Twilight’s house was always a little bit of a shock; her rooms were so much darker than mine, since I barely ever closed my blinds. I was used to waking up to the sunrise.

I got up since I didn’t feel well and I didn’t want to fall back asleep. It was quiet in Twilight’s house— still a little dark too since it was dawn— and I didn’t think anyone else was awake yet. I decided to make some coffee to help myself wake up.

I sat down on the couch to drink my coffee and saw Fluttershy closing her bedroom door quietly behind her. I waved to her silently and smiled. She returned the gesture, her head slightly dipped like it always is.

“I made some coffee if you’d like some,” I said when she approached me.

“Oh, that sounds great, thanks,” she said and made herself a cup.

She sat down beside me on the couch and for a couple moments we drank our coffee together in silence. I looked out a window, letting thoughts run through my head. I shifted a bit.

“You ever wonder…?” I started off, staring into the distance. Fluttershy turned her head towards me, expecting me to finish. I looked down.

“Nah, never mind,” I sighed.

I could see her fiddle with her fingers from the corner of my eye.

“Do you think Rainbow Dash is alright?” she asked.

I clenched my jaw, my eyes squinted slightly as a result. Can’t we just stop talking about Rainbow Dash for one second?

“She’s fine,” I snapped.

“It’s okay to feel worried, Applejack,” she said. “I know it’s—“

“I said she’s fine!” I yelled, whipping my head around.

Fluttershy flinched and my stomach dropped from the look on her face. Surprised, mainly, with fear, and… pity. Oh, no. Please don’t pity me, I thought hopelessly. She thought I was worried more than anyone about Rainbow Dash, that’s why I snapped at her. But she was wrong. I wasn’t worried…

“Aw, jeez, Fluttershy. I’m sorry,” I said, feeling terrible for yelling at her. “I guess I just… Can we just…?”

I couldn’t finish my sentence; I didn’t even know what I wanted. Apathy, maybe. I just wanted to forget about all the drama, maybe live my life like I used to be able to. This mess was all because of that stupid girl with that stupid rainbow hair.

I felt Fluttershy’s hand touch mine and I looked up to see her blurry face. I hadn’t even realized that I’d started crying.

“I’m just gonna go,” I breathed. “I think I just need some exercise and fresh air.”

Fluttershy made eye contact with me and held her gaze for a couple moments. Her look was intense, like she was trying to figure me out. She squeezed my hand and then hugged me briefly.

“Take care of yourself, Applejack. We care about you, you know. I care about you,” she said sincerely.

I looked at her for a moment and then nodded. “I care about you too, Fluttershy. You know that.”

She smiled. “I’ll tell everyone else that you went back to the farm to take care of some things.”

I smiled back. “Thanks, Fluttershy. I’ll… I’ll see you later.”

I got up to leave and she took both our mugs back to the kitchen to put them in the sink. I felt bad for leaving now, but it was probably best that I got out. The walk home would help clear my head, and maybe a calm day at the farm was the best thing for me.

I left shortly after that, saying a quick goodbye to Fluttershy. I didn’t think about much during the walk home, I just sort of stared at the ground. But it did help me to feel a little bit better and by the time I got home I was glad to see the familiar scene. My brother was outside working, although Caramel wasn’t here for some reason. Maybe it was his day off.

Big Mac was a ways off and I don’t think he saw me before I went into the house to get myself some proper breakfast. I just helped myself to some cereal, not in the mood for actually making something. The house was quiet. I wondered where Apple Bloom was.

After breakfast, I made my way outside and found Big Mac. He waved when I approached.

“Hey, do you know where Apple Bloom’s at?” I asked.

“She went to a sleepover last night too after you left. I reckon she’s still over there,” he said.

I nodded and he went back to his work. For a while, I just stood near the fence, looking out into the orchard. It didn’t really occur to me to do some work on the farm. It’s not that I forgot about it, I just didn’t really feel like it. Huh. That’s something new.

Eventually, boredom got to me and I found myself searching through the contacts in my phone. Before I really knew what I was looking for, I found myself looking at Rainbow Dash’s name. I wondered how she was doing… Maybe I should check up on her, I thought, see if she needed me.

No, I thought sternly. She’s not my girlfriend, I shouldn’t keep acting like she is.

I scrolled up on my phone and found Jack’s name instead. He was my boyfriend for Pete’s sake, I should be spending more time with him! I pushed Rainbow Dash out of my head and decided to text Jack.

-Are you doing anything today?

It didn’t take long for him to reply.

-Nope. Want to do something? :)

-Definitely :) Wanna come over to my house?

-Sounds great! I’m on my way.

I waited for him by the fence, but I wasn’t feeling any better than before. I sighed and tried resting my head on my crossed arms while I waited. Before long, I heard Jack’s car coming down our dirt road and pretty soon it came into sight. I straightened up and smiled, waving at him. He parked near our truck and got out.

“Hey!” he called out, walking over to me.

I greeted him with a kiss which he was more than happy to return. The way he looked into my eyes, I wanted Rainbow Dash to look at me like that.

Mentally, I slapped myself. Why can’t I just be happy with what I have? Here was this guy, completely happy to be around me, and I’m still here thinking about someone I can’t even have. It wasn’t fair to Jack.

I shoved her out of my thoughts and grabbed his hand, leading him towards my house.

“I was thinking we could just hang out at my place,” I suggested. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I didn’t feel like going anywhere.

“Sounds great,” he said happily.

Inside, Granny Smith was taking a nap on her favorite rocking chair. I put my finger in front of my mouth to tell Jack to be quiet and I led him upstairs. I didn’t want to wake Granny. She was still recovering a bit from her heart attack and I thought she could use the rest still.

I took Jack into my room and closed the door behind me. It wasn’t until we were in there until I realized that there really wasn’t much to do in my room. I jumped up on my bed and sat crisscross, then patted in front of me to let Jack know it was okay to join me.

He sat down next to me, letting his legs hang from the side of the bed. I poked his chest and glared at him playfully.

“Don’t think that because we’re on my bed means we’re gonna be doing anything,” I warned.

He laughed and held up his hands in defense. “I was thinking no such thoughts!”

I smiled and fiddled around with the covers a bit. “So, how has your day been so far?”

“Better now that I’m with you,” he said.

I looked up and he smiled at me. My heart melted slightly. He really was very sweet…

I think I blushed. “Thanks. My day’s gotten a lot better too, now that you’re here.”

I thought about bringing up what had happened last night, but I knew he wouldn’t want to hear about it and I didn’t really want to bring it up anyway.

“Hey, I see you put that snow globe next to your window. I think it suits it nicely,” Jack said.

I looked over at the small trinket and smiled. “Yeah, it does.”

Remembering the day he got it for me, I admired it for a small moment before looking back over at Jack, meeting his eyes and smiling softly. He returned the look, and the look in his eyes was heartwarming. Magenta eyes replaced his faded purple eyes.

No, I thought firmly, blinking once to get her eyes out my vision.

I bit my lip and put my arm around Jack’s neck. I leaned in and closed my eyes and he met me halfway, kissing me softly. I had no intention of pulling back, and neither did he. I wasn’t entirely sure how long we kissed for, but eventually I’d gotten into a lying position to get more comfortable.

It’s funny, though. All throughout that time, I didn’t feel… much of anything, really. It’s not like he was a bad kisser, but I guess… I guess I was just doing it to forget about her. Hoping that maybe if Jack’s lips could numb my own then maybe he could also numb my heart.

It made me sick from guilt thinking about it and I had to stop. I pulled away from Jack, not meeting him in the eyes.

I’m a horrible person… I’m basically just using him. One of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met and I’m just using him, I scolded myself mentally, overwrought with guilt.

I looked up in Jack’s eyes and he was watching me closely. He probably realized something was wrong and looked like he was about to ask me about it. Suddenly, my door creaked open.

“AJ, are you in here? I was—“

Big Mac stopped short, eyes wide, when he saw me and Jack on the bed. We both looked over at him, equally as horrified. Oh, jeez. Why couldn’t I have remembered to lock the door?

“Uh… I’ll just… come back… later…” he said slowly, closing the door behind him.

I smacked my forehead and groaned. “Of course that would happen!”

Jack looked back at me and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. Maybe it’s best if I get going? I think in probably about two minutes your brother is going to come in here and tear me to pieces.” He gave a nervous laugh.

I looked at him, still feeling guilty from earlier and wondering if I should tell him the truth.

No, not today. I’ll give it some time, maybe I can figure out my feelings first, I thought.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Sorry about this. And don’t worry, Big Mac may be my big brother but he trusts me and he respects me enough to give me my space. I promise he won’t hunt you down.”

I smiled and Jack returned it, seemingly reassured. We got up and headed outside, back towards his car. Big Mac was working a ways off with his back towards us. I think he knew we were out there but wouldn’t dare turn to look at us— he was just as embarrassed as we were, after all.

“See you later,” I said as Jack got in the car. He smiled and waved goodbye. I watched him go, guilt forming in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t keep doing this to him. The best thing I could do for him was to break up with him. He didn’t deserve this.

I sighed and pulled out my phone. I couldn’t just keep ignoring my feelings and trying to pretend they’re not there. I wanted to be with Rainbow. That much was a fact. Now, who knew if that would ever become a possibility but I still needed to try. She was broken up with Clad now. I’ll wait for her to get over it, and then I’ll confess to her. Even if it meant rejection.

-Hey. How are you doing?

I sent the message to Rainbow Dash. It took a couple moments for her to respond.

-Better than last night, I guess.

-How about you and I do something? I think you’ll feel better if you got out.

-I guess..

-Come on, I guarantee you’ll feel better once you get out a bit.

-Okay.. Pick me up in thirty?

-Alright. :) See you in a bit.

I slipped my phone back in my pocket. I turned around, looking at Big Mac working a ways down. I walked up to him, scratching the back of my head sheepishly as I approached. He noticed me approaching and looked down, clearly embarrassed still. He cleared his throat.

“Hey,” I said with a small laugh. “Uh, about earlier…”

“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck.

“It’s fine,” I said, waving it off. “I guess it’s kinda my fault I didn’t tell you he was coming over here.”

“He go home?” he asked.

I nodded. “I’m gonna spend a bit of time with Rainbow Dash in a bit. She… had a rough night.”

Mac raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He knew all of my friends well and I knew he cared about them all too.

“I’ll help on the farm when I get back. I feel bad that I’ve been working less than you,” I said.

“It’s not your fault. You have school, after all, and you’ve still been doing everything you need to do,” Mac said. He smiled reassuringly.

“How’s Caramel? He working hard?”

“Eeyup!”

I chuckled. “He always does. He’s a hard worker, and I know he loves working here with you.”

Big Mac smiled with amusement. “If you ask me, I think he works here so much so he can see you.”

“What? You think he likes me?” I laughed. I wasn’t going to say it to Big Mac, but I didn’t exactly think Caramel was into girls... Heck, if Big Mac’s barn door swung that way, they might actually make a cute couple.

I kept my eyes on the time and hung around my brother until I decided it was time to leave.

“Alright, I’m headed out. You won’t need the truck for anything, will ya?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“Perfect. See ya later, Mac,” I said and hopped in the truck.

I got to RD’s house within about ten minutes— I might have sped a little— and knocked on her front door when I got there. After a couple minutes I got impatient and rung her doorbell a couple of times.

“I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” I heard her say from inside and she opened the door within the next couple of seconds. She was messing with her hair when she let me inside.

“My hair’s being a little bitch today,” she growled.

“It looks fine,” I chuckled and ruffled it affectionately.

She flicked her hair, messing with a couple strands.

“Okay, whatever. It’s not like you care what I look like anyway,” she said.

I smiled crookedly. “Beautiful as always, love.”

She smiled to that and headed out the door with me, locking it behind her.

“So, whatd’ya wanna do?” she asked casually.

I shrugged. “Do you want to head up to the city? I haven’t been there in a while and I’m getting bored of all the little shops here.”

“Sounds fine with me,” she shrugged.

The drive to the city was mainly composed of me doing the talking— RD was quieter than normal, as was to be expected. At least she seemed alright, which was good. Her and Clad had only been dating a month so I figured the breakup didn’t hit her very hard— I think she was more upset about what Clad did, or rather, what he tried to do.

Rainbow Dash and I went to the mall for a while. The mall there was huge so we had no problem finding things to do. We mainly went to clothing stores, but we didn’t buy anything. We even went into the pet store to look at the puppies that were there. There were definitely some cute ones, but I was pretty content with Winona.

Rainbow Dash seemed to enjoy looking at the puppies, but I don’t think she’d ever want one. I think dogs annoyed her, for the most part. Although she did use to love playing with Winona whenever she came over. But that’s probably because Winona’s the best dog ever— I mean, come on, who could hate her?

We got a couple smoothies when we were done shopping and sat at a table, slightly bored.

“Hey,” I said with a crooked smile. “Remember when we used to come out here and go to the apartment complexes and see if we could get into the pools?”

Rainbow Dash smiled. “More like, see how long we could swim in the pools before they came and chased us out.”

I laughed. “Come on, we should do that again! Let’s see if the security guards there still remember us.”

She agreed to it and pretty soon we were back in the car and headed to one of the many apartment complexes here. We got out and headed towards the pool area. The place was fenced off, as usual, with a medium sized pool and a hot tub off to the side. Lawn chairs lined the pool area and one random umbrella was in the corner.

“Damn, that hot tub looks nice,” Rainbow Dash said. “I kinda wish I had brought my suit.”

She looked around before quickly hopping the fence. We used to do these kinds of things a ton when we were in junior high
and it was always hilarious. It was always something that only Rainbow Dash and I did together, so it felt a bit more special to me.

I hopped the fence too, jumping down next to Rainbow Dash. The main building was accessible from the pool area. The doors were locked from the outside, but from the inside— where we were now— the doors didn’t require a card to get inside.

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing. “Remember that gross banana that was in the pool that one time?”

Likewise, I also burst into laughter. “Oh my God, that was hilarious. Or how we used to swim underwater making stupid dolphin noises to communicate?”

Dash laughed again. “Man, those were great times. I miss this.”

I smiled, looking at her. “Same. But hey, that’s why we’re here again.”

She looked at me and smiled and the two of us headed toward the building. Neither of us had swim suits so we decided to skip the swim. Inside there was usually always a security guard but the place was seemingly empty when we got there. We headed up the stairs where there was a large pool room and several smaller conference rooms.

“Ah, the pool room. Best room in this place,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile, gesturing to the three different pool tables in front of her. Four TV’s were attached to the walls, two playing the news and two playing a golf tournament.

Rainbow Dash picked up a cue stick and pretended to be hitting a ball, even though all the balls were in the table pockets. Memories flashed back of us playing pool in this room, cold and still wet from swimming just before.

“Come on, let’s go to the conference room,” Dash said with excitement, lazily throwing the cue stick back onto the rack.

We went to the conference room, which was only a couple feet away, and shut the door behind us. All the room had was a conference table with chairs and a whiteboard on the wall, but RD and I had all kinds of fun with whiteboards. We’d been to this particular apartment complex twice before so this place was not unfamiliar to us. Of course, this was also the apartment complex that we’d been kicked out of twice, so there was a chance of a security guard recognizing us— all part of the fun.

Rainbow Dash grabbed a green whiteboard marker and I picked up the red one, taking off the cap with a satisfying click. Rainbow Dash didn’t draw anything in particular, she just kind of drew a squiggly line over the entirety of the board. I laughed and wrote “RD and AJ were here,” on the left side of the board. It was custom for us to write our initials on the board— how else would the security guards know who did it? I wondered if they would even remember our initials.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash drew crudely drawn obscenities on the right side, to which I rolled my eyes and laughed at.

“We’re such children,” I laughed.

“Hey, being a kid is fun. Why would you ever want to grow up?” Dash said.

“Tell me how not growing up works out for you, Peter Pan,” I joked.

She smiled crookedly, drawing more squiggly lines and random shapes on the board. As if to add her final touch, she poked the board with her marker, adding a single random dot in the middle of the board.

“There! It’s perfect!” she exclaimed.

I laughed. “Come on, let’s go before someone discovers us and we lose our anonymity!”

“Ooh, such big words,” she teased me.

I pushed her playfully. “Shut up.”

“Don’t you become Twilight Sparkle on me,” she said as we left the room. “I might just go crazy if we had another one.”

I burst out laughing. We were kind of mean to Twilight, talking about her behind her back or teasing her. We loved her all the same, though, and I doubt Twilight cared much.

“It’d be fun if we brought Pinkie with us sometime,” Dash said suddenly.

“Jeez, she’d wreak havoc on the place. Can you imagine how much trouble we’d get in?” I said.

“If we got caught,” she laughed.

We went downstairs and this time the guard was there, walking around casually. Rainbow Dash waved to him.

“Hey, Nel,” she said with a mischievous smile. The guy’s full name was Sentinel, and yes, we had definitely seen him before. And by that I mean he was the one that caught us hopping the fence last time we’d come here and proceeded to come chasing after us.

He looked at us with confusion at first, trying to figure out who we were. The look on his face when he figured it out was priceless but by then we were already heading out the door. We took off running when we got outside, laughing hysterically.

“Oh my God, did you see his face?” Rainbow said, laughing, when we slowed down to a walk.

“Yes! Priceless,” I said. “God, I miss coming here. I forgot how fun it is even just being in a place that we shouldn’t be.”

Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “Plus, it’s totally awesome when you break the rules, since it’s something you don’t normally do.”

I chuckled. “You’re a bad influence on me.”

She smirked. “Who, moi? Never!”

I smiled and shook my head. “You wanna head back? It’s four thirty,” I said.

“Why don’t we invite the others to dinner?” Rainbow Dash suggested. “Maybe all go get pizza or something.”

“Alright, I can do that,” I said. I pulled out my phone and sent a group text message to the others.

-Hey, ya’ll want to go to dinner somewhere with me and RD? We were thinking pizza or something.

By the time we made it back to my truck, everyone had replied back.

“Alright, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie said they’d like to join us for dinner but Twilight and Rarity are busy,” I told Rainbow Dash.

“Alright, sounds good,” she said.

“Wanna go to Dough’s?” I asked. Dough’s was the name of a pizza shop back in town, and personally I thought was much better than all the big pizza chains. They were a bit more expensive, but I figured we’d all just be sharing one pizza anyway and we’d all pitch in.

“Fine with me,” she said.

I told Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie to meet us at Dough’s in half an hour since it would take me and RD a little while to get back. When we got there, we parked outside of the restaurant and headed in; Pinkie Pie waved at us from a booth and we headed on over. She was sitting next to Fluttershy so Rainbow Dash and I sat next to each other on the other side of the booth.

“Hey, have you been waiting here long?” I asked.

“Nope! Only about five minutes,” Pinkie answered. “Applejack, I ordered you an iced tea and Rainbow Dash I got you a Sprite!”

Rainbow Dash and I exchanged impressed looks. Of course Pinkie would be bold enough to order our drinks for us, and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that she knew what we liked too.

“I was thinking we could all share one pizza,” I suggested. “Then we could all pool in and it’d be cheaper.”

“Sounds great! What do you guys want to order?” Pinkie asked. She bounced around in her seat a little. Fluttershy looked nervous, but she kind of always did so I wasn’t too worried about her.

“How ‘bout we do a half ‘n’ half kinda thing? So maybe we could get sausage and mushrooms on one half, and vegetarian on the other,” I suggested. I was mainly accommodating for Fluttershy’s being a vegetarian. Thankfully she was fine with us eating meat, and I knew she didn’t mind doing the pizzas like this since we’d done it before.

I waved my arms a little bit. “I mean, we don’t have to do exactly that combination but, you know, something like that.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Sausage and mushrooms and a vegetarian sounds awesome to me.”

“Yeah, me too! Nice choice, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie smiled.

Fluttershy smiled a bit and nodded. “Thanks, Applejack.” I assumed she was referring to me remembering that she was a vegetarian— not like I’d forget about that anyway.

“Oh! But can we add pepperonis too?” Pinkie asked.

“Of course, Pinkie,” I said.

The waitress came around with our drinks and asked us if we were ready to order.

“Yeah, we’re gonna get one large pizza,” I said, “With one half being mushroom, pepperoni, and sausage and then the other half being vegetarian.”

“Alright! Will that be all?” the waitress asked.

I looked over at the others who didn’t seem to want to add anything. I turned back to our waitress.

“That’s it,” I said.

“Alright, I’ll have that made ready for you guys!”

She left and I looked back at the others. Rainbow Dash ripped off a piece of the paper from her straw. She put the straw in her mouth and blew the remaining paper towards Fluttershy. She burst out into laughter when Fluttershy, who wasn’t expecting it, jumped and let out a yelp. After the initial surprise, though, Fluttershy soon began giggling as well.

I smiled and rolled my own straw paper up into a ball, throwing it at Rainbow Dash.

“Hey!” she snorted and threw it back at me, missing terribly.

Pinkie was having fun trying to blow bubbles with her drink. I raised an eyebrow at the pink drink.

“Pinkie, what’s your drink?” I asked.

“Shirley Temple!” she answered. Her bubble-making wasn’t going so well, since the bubbles would just pop right after they were formed.

“Oh, damn. That looks good,” I mumbled, kind of wanting one for myself.

Pinkie gasped sharply and slammed her hands on the table, effectively scaring the shit out of me.

“Did I get your drink wrong?!” she shrieked. “Silly Pinkie, Applejack wanted a Shirley Temple not an iced tea!”

She chastised herself and began pouting.

“Uh, no, no,” I said quickly, waving my hands. “Iced tea is exactly what I wanted! I was just saying yours looked good, that’s all.”

“Oh! Okey dokey lokey then!”

I rolled my eyes. I’ve known her since grade school and I still don’t understand most of the things she does…

While we waited for our pizza, the four of us just talked and joked with one another. It was fun hanging out with them all, and it was nice to see Rainbow laughing and having a good time. I was proud to have been able to make her forget about the previous night completely, and I knew she’d feel better tonight because of it.

She side-glanced at me while drinking, meeting my eyes as I idly stared at her. She smiled softly, I think as a way of saying thanks. At least, that’s how I interpreted it. Either way, I knew she was thankful.

I sighed happily and took another drink as well. Nights like these were always great, and quite frankly it was relieving to me to have a night like this where I could just laugh with my friends and have fun. I needed to have more nights like these and stop worrying about everything. As I took another sip, I made a mental note to try and do just that from now on.

Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

A couple days had passed and it was Wednesday morning in Psychology class. Mrs. Hawthorne had given us a small quiz on the previous week’s lesson and was now teaching us the next unit— mental disorders. I had to admit it was a really interesting subject, despite it being only our first day into the unit.

Mrs. Hawthorne only did a basic overview of the different mental disorders rather than go into detail about any of them. I glanced over at Rainbow Dash when Mrs. Hawthorne happened to mention bipolar disorder. I still thought there was a possibility that she had it, but I still wasn’t totally sure.

My gaze drifted over to Rarity. Right as I started to doze off a bit, the class began packing up their things. I looked up at the clock, surprised to see that it was time to go. I packed up my bag and stretched, relieved that the school day was over. It had been a pretty quiet day between me and my friends; I guessed maybe it was just because everyone was tired. Either way, I hadn’t made plans with anyone, and that’s the way I wanted it to be. I had something else I needed to take care of.

I spent a couple minutes talking with everyone after school but after that we all headed back home. When I got home, I worked on math homework for a little while and finished annotating a poem Mr. Novella had given us. When I was done with that, I pulled out my phone, frowning at it before finding Jack’s name and typing out a message.

-Hey. Are you busy?

I waited a couple minutes and he replied back.

-Not really. Just finishing up some homework.

-When you’re done, do you want to meet up somewhere? I kind of need to talk to you about something.

-Alright :) How about at the café?

I felt so guilty reading his response. He probably knew something was up but didn’t want to ask until we were together.

-Sounds good. :)

He sent another text back saying to meet there in half an hour, I assumed since he was finishing up his homework. I left early since I decided to walk there. The walk was about fifteen minutes, so it wasn’t too long, and it was a beautiful day outside so I decided to take the opportunity.

I got there before him and sat down at a table outside while I waited. When the waitress came around I just ordered a water, not in the mood for anything else. Jack’s car came around pretty soon, parking in one of the spaces next to the café. He walked over to my table and sat down, a smile on his face.

“Hey,” he said. “How are you?”

I smiled, but my heart wasn’t really into it. “I’m… well, I’ve been better. I kind of need to talk to you about something.”

His smile dropped and he nodded seriously. “Yeah. Is everything okay?”

I looked away, tapping my fingers against my water glass. After a moment of silence, I sighed. “There’s not really any other way I can say this, and I feel like absolute shit for doing this, Jack.”

He listened to me, keeping his gaze on me the entire time. I decided to look up and meet him in the eye, knowing he deserved at least that.

“You’re probably one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met, but… I have to break up with you.”

There was a long pause before I said what I said next.

“I’m kinda in love with Rainbow Dash…”

His eyes widened a bit and he looked at me with surprise. “Woah.”

I released a tense laugh, looking down. “Yeah…”

To my surprise, he smiled. “Gonna be honest, this kind of sucks. You’re an awesome person, Applejack, and it kinda sucks that you’re in love with someone else. But maybe we could stay friends? I mean, I’d still like to spend time with you, even if it’s just as friends.”

I looked up to see him smiling at me, and I smiled back. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

I knew the whole “staying friends” thing didn’t usually work out, but I figured we could at least try. I was beyond relieved that he hadn’t taken this too hard, or if he did he wasn’t showing it.

Jack leaned in a bit, his eyes wide with innocence, lips pursed tightly.

“So, like, are you a lesbian or something?” he asked quietly.

I laughed a little at his expression, then shrugged. “I don’t know… I mean, even though I love Rainbow Dash, I did still enjoy being with you. I guess maybe I’m into both guys and girls?”

He sat back, thinking about it, nodding a little. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. There’s no need to label yourself. Just be you.”

I smiled, looking at him for a moment. I looked down, shaking my head slightly. “You’re one of a kind, you know that Jack?”

He smiled, letting out a small laugh. “And yet… I still couldn’t keep you,” he said, clicking his tongue. “But hey, don’t feel bad. I get it. Go after Rainbow Dash. I’m serious. You guys would make an adorable couple.”

“Thanks,” I smiled. I felt bad for Jack. Although he was taking this whole thing surprisingly well, he was still a great guy and deserved someone who actually wanted to be with him. I wondered if I could set him up with one of my friends. He and Fluttershy would be great together…

I snapped out of my daydreaming. It wasn’t really the time to be thinking about setting him up with Fluttershy. Perhaps later, but for now I should just enjoy his company. We spent a little more time at the café together talking and chatting before deciding to head our separate ways.

We hugged goodbye and I headed back home— it was nearly dinner time by the time I actually got home. Big Mac was washing his hands in the sink and Granny Smith was making soup. I peered inside the pot and saw an assortment of carrots, celery, beef, and a couple spices.

“Mm, smells delicious,” I commented.

“Where were you all day?” she asked, ignoring my comment.

“Oh, I was out with Jack.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“Um,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “Well, ex-boyfriend now.”

Big Mac turned with an eyebrow raised, drying his hands off with a towel.

“You broke up? Are you okay?” he asked with concern.

“Oh, yeah. I’m the one who broke up with him,” I said, appreciative of Big Mac’s concern about me.

“Aw, I’m sorry, honey,” Granny Smith sympathized. “Things just not work out between you two?”

“Well…” I looked away, unsure of what to say. I couldn’t tell them the whole truth of what happened. But I didn’t necessarily need to lie either. “He’s a great guy, just maybe not the guy for me.”

“Well, you can’t go turning down every guy you meet just ‘cause he don’t seem like the one for you,” Big Mac lectured, walking over and playfully flicking my arm. “That’s why you gotta get to know ‘em.”

I rolled my eyes and punched him lightly. “Like I need relationship advice from you, Mister Single.”

Apple Bloom came running down the stairs. “Hey, ya’ll! What’s going on?”

“AJ broke up with her feller,” Granny Smith said, waving the spoon around that she’d been using to stir the soup. I rolled my eyes— my whole family is crazy.

“Her ‘feller’?” Apple Bloom asked with an eyebrow raised. “Oh! You mean her boyfriend? Aw, why, Applejack?”

I stifled a groan, partially from Apple Bloom’s far-too-excited tone and partially because I didn’t feel like explaining it again.

“Things didn’t work out,” I said quickly. “Can we please eat now? I’m starved!”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and walked over to the table. “Fine.”

We all got our bowls and filled them with soup once it was ready and sat down at the table to eat. Thankfully, the subject of Jack was dropped and we had normal conversations about school and whatnot while we ate. When we had all finished eating and washed our dishes, I headed upstairs to my room.

I caught sight of the snow globe near my windowsill and walked over to it. I picked it up, examining it lightly. It felt strange still having it since Jack had been the one who got it for me, almost like it didn’t really have much of a meaning. When I first saw it it reminded me of Rainbow Dash, but now it was just a snow globe with a Christmas tree inside, and a little pile of sparkles resting at the bottom waiting to be shaken up.

~ ~ ~

Friday morning passed by quickly and I was in a good mood, simply enjoying the day. Mrs. Hawthorne decided to give the class an easy day, allowing us to finish homework and talk with our friends. Rainbow Dash whirled around in her seat, placing her hands on my desk. I looked up.

“Applejack, you doing anything with Jack today?” she asked.

“Uh, no. I—“

“Sweet! You wanna hang out?” she asked eagerly.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” I said. “But, actually… I broke up with Jack a couple days ago.”

Rainbow Dash looked at me with surprise. Rarity, who had been sketching some designs in her notebook, stopped drawing and looked at me.

“Huh? Why?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Um…” I looked down, tapping my pencil against my desk.

“That’s okay,” Rainbow Dash said. “If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine. I thought you were happy with him though.”

I looked up at her again. “It’s… complicated.”

Rainbow seemed to drop the subject but Rarity stared at me for a little moment longer. I looked over and saw something in her eyes; I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. She looked away too.

“Do you still want to hang today? I mean, if you don’t want to I understand,” Dash said.

I smiled. “No, I’d love to hang out.”

She looked confused, although I didn’t know why. She was probably wondering why Jack and I hadn’t worked out, but of course I couldn’t tell her the real reason.

“Wanna come to my place?” I offered, hoping to get her mind off the subject.

“Sure. What’s there to do, though?” Rainbow Dash asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll find something.”

I suddenly realized how rude it probably was to make plans right in front of Rarity. I looked at her but she was back to drawing again. Even though I didn’t exactly want her to come, I decided I’d offer anyway.

“Did you want to join us, Rarity?”

She looked up from her paper and looked at me. “Oh no, darling, that’s fine. Besides, I have a dress I need to make by tomorrow and I need today to work on it.”

Rarity smiled strangely— almost like a smirk— and her eyes narrowed slightly. I got the feeling that she was lying for some reason, but I had no idea what that look was all about. She didn’t… she didn’t know, did she? No, she couldn’t have…

I looked away, shaking away the thought. After class ended, the three of us walked outside and met up with the rest of the group as we usually did after school ended. As we parted our separate ways, Rainbow Dash and I walked to the parking lot together.

“I’ll just follow you to your house then,” she said. I nodded and headed over to my truck.

She followed me in her car back to my house and parked behind me once we got there. We got out of our cars and she stretched her arms over her head when she got out.

“Ugh,” she groaned. “So nice to be out of that place and into the sunlight.”

She held her arms out as if absorbing the sunlight, making me laugh a little. She waved at Big Mac who was feeding the chickens.

“Hey Big Mac!” she called out. He looked up and waved back.

“Come on, let’s go inside,” I said. “Nothing to do out here except farm work.”

RD followed me inside and she got a glass of water for herself. I set my bag down on a chair then looked up the stairs, wondering where everyone was.

“Apple Bloom?” I called out. No response. I shook my head. “She’s probably out with her friends again. That girl is out way too much.”

“Aw, come on, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash smiled, nudging me with her elbow. “There’s nothing wrong with hanging out with friends.”

“There is when she doesn’t do her homework,” I mumbled.

Rainbow Dash walked over and laid down on the couch emphatically, making herself at home. She had one leg resting on the armrest and the other leg hanging off the side of the couch. I rolled my eyes and walked over, poking her in the stomach. She jerked instantly and grabbed my hand with both of hers, afraid that I was going to tickle her.

I rolled my eyes again. “I ain’t gonna tickle ya’, freak.”

She let go of my hand hesitantly, eyeing me cautiously. She moved over on the couch, allowing me to sit down next to her. After a small moment of silence, she huffed quickly, getting up from the couch and going toward the cabinet under the TV.

“Come on, let’s play a game,” she said, rummaging through my collection of Xbox games. They were mainly Apple Bloom’s. Big Mac and I rarely played video games.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash looked at a certain game and smirked deviously. My eyebrow raised cautiously. She held it up for me to see, waggling her eyebrows.

“Come on, Applejack. Dance competition?”

Oh, Lord. She was holding up the game Dance Central, a game that I had no doubt I was horrible at. I couldn’t dance at all, and there was no way I was going to try and play this stupid game with her.

Ten minutes later, Rainbow Dash and I were dancing horribly to some stupid song that I couldn’t even understand the lyrics of. But honestly, it was kind of fun. Because neither of us cared how we looked, and it was just fun acting completely stupid with Dash.

The song ended and it gave us our score— I got one and a half stars and she got two and a half.

“AGH!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in anger. RD burst out in laughter, and I couldn’t stay mad for long because of how adorable she was. I smiled and shook my head.

“Whatever. You still sucked,” I teased.

“You sucked more,” she said, sticking her tongue out.

I playfully shoved her and we both laughed. She was choosing another song when Big Mac walked into the kitchen and began washing his hands. She looked over and suddenly her face lit up like it does when she has a crazy idea.

“Oh my God,” she said. Suddenly, she ran over and grabbed Big Mac’s wrist, pulling him over with a surprised look on his face. “Come on, Big Mac. Dance with us!”

I stifled a laugh and his face turned red with embarrassment, eyes wide from surprise. He tried stammering out an excuse but couldn’t come up with one in time before Rainbow dragged him over. She picked the next song and I backed up since only two people could dance at once.

I can’t say that I’d ever even seen my brother dance before that, but watching him now was quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. I was laughing the entire time at Big Mac’s flailing arms and legs. Rainbow was doing better than him, but it was still funny to watch the both of them attempt to follow the dancing character on the screen.

By the time the song was over, Big Mac and RD were both sweaty, and I was on the couch dying from laughter. They turned around, RD smiling through her heavy breathing and Big Mac still blushing from embarrassment, but I could see a small smile playing at his lips.

“See, Mac? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I asked after I stopped laughing.

He breathed a sigh and smiled a little more. “Eenope.”

Rainbow Dash laughed one of those adorable little laughs she does when she’s high off adrenaline. “You play him now, AJ. I wanna see who wins, brother vs. sister.”

She took my place on the couch and I got up, stretching my arms a bit as I prepared for the next song. Big Mac let me choose it and I decided to go with an easy one since neither Big Mac nor I were very good at this game.

We started dancing, looking pretty much the same as we sloppily copied the movements of the woman on the screen. A couple times throughout the song we accidentally hit each other, some arm or leg bumping into the other’s. By the time the song was done, we both were panting from laughter and exhaustion.

We plopped on the couch, both on one side of Rainbow Dash. She was also laughing from watching us; eventually the three of us calmed down and sat on the couch, trying to catch our breath.

“That was fun, but I think I’m done for the day,” I said, a smile on my face.

RD smiled in agreement. “Yeah. I mean, not ‘cause I’m tired or anything. I just don’t feel like dancing anymore,” she flicked her hair, rolling her eyes a bit. I snorted slightly.

I hadn’t seen Big Mac smiling like this in a while, either. It wasn’t that he was never happy, he just didn’t smile very often. His smile is great though, so I love seeing it. I stretched my arm behind RD’s back so I could playfully punch Big Mac in the shoulder.

“See? Taking a break from the farm ain’t that bad. You should spend a little more time hanging out with the female gender. We aren’t that bad, you know,” I teased.

He smiled and rolled his eyes. “I like girls, you know.”

“I know, I’m just teasin’ ya,” I said, smiling.

I suddenly heard a bit of muffled giggling coming from outside. I raised an eyebrow and looked out the window but didn’t see anything. Big Mac and RD seemed to hear it too, judging by the confused looks on their faces. I walked outside and heard another giggle. I followed it to the source, only to find my little sister and her friends hiding in a bush, staring down at something.

“What are you three doing?” I asked.

They gasped once they heard me and jumped, staring up at me. Apple Bloom quickly hid whatever it was they were staring at. My eyebrow raised once again and I put my hands on my hips. Rainbow Dash and Big Mac had followed me outside and now stood next to me. Scootaloo looked suddenly excited when she saw Rainbow Dash but then shrunk back down, remembering that they’d just been caught doing… whatever it was they were doing.

“Whatcha got there?” I asked skeptically.

“Nothin’,” Apple Bloom responded quickly.

“Ya’ll are acting real suspicious. So now I’m gettin’ worried about what you’re hiding, there,” I said.

“It’s nothing, really! We were just, uh…” Apple Bloom trailed off. Sweetie Belle tried to stifle a laugh, but her half-laugh soon spread to the other two who sat holding back giggles.

Suddenly, Apple Bloom broke out into a full-on laugh. “You guys have some pretty sweet dance moves there…”

My face turned from suspicious to confused. “So you saw us dancing. But what’s so secretive about that?”

“Oh, don’t worry. It won’t be secretive for long!” Apple Bloom said through her laughter. From behind her back, she pulled out a video camera— it didn’t take long for me to realize what they’d done.

“Oh, no. You are not showing that to anyone!” I said, making a quick attempt to grab it. The three of them made a break for it, running away and laughing hysterically.

“Oh, God. We have to get that video camera,” Rainbow Dash said with horror. “If anyone sees me dancing the way I did, I will lose any and all dignity I have left.”

“It’s okay, if Apple Bloom shows it to anyone I’ll ground her for a week,” I said angrily, glaring at the three kids as they ran off even further.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash started giggling. I looked over with confusion, trying to keep myself from laughing as well— it was difficult; her laugh is contagious.

“Your guys’ faces…” she said, breaking out into laughter once again.

I looked at Big Mac and couldn’t stop a smile breaking out onto my face. He was beet red with embarrassment and I could only imagine how comical my own face must have looked when I was glaring down Apple Bloom and her friends.

I laughed and shook my head. “Shut it, RD,” I said and began walking back inside. “Come on, who’s up for another round?”

Chapter 12

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Chapter 12

I fiddled with my pencil nervously, eyes flicking to and fro at the paper in front of me. I couldn’t concentrate. It wasn’t because we were writing an essay, or even because of the tense, awkward silence that encompassed the whole class as we worked.

I looked over at Twilight. She scribbled away furiously on her paper. She probably had three pages filled up already. I sighed and looked back at my own paper, forcing myself to concentrate on the task at hand. I finished up my essay in the time we had left, satisfied enough with my work to turn it in. I finished just in time and only a minute later, the bell rang and it was time to go to our next class.

“Hey, Twi,” I said after making my way over to her when most the class was on their way out the door.

“Yes, Applejack?” she asked.

“I was wondering if I could, uh, borrow a book,” I said. “I remember seeing it in your family’s bookcases a while back and I really want to read it.”

“Sure thing! Do you want me to bring it to you tomorrow?” Twilight asked cheerfully.

“I’ll just come over and get it. I don’t remember the title but I remember what it looked like so it’ll be easier for me to find that way,” I said.

“Okay! Feel free to stop by any time you want,” Twilight said.

“Thanks, Twi. I’ll stop by later today.”

Twi and I headed our separate ways to our last class after that. I got to Psych class and sat in my seat. Rarity was already there and Rainbow Dash arrived a couple moments after me.

We were pretty quiet for most of the class period— well, at least I was. Rainbow chatted with Rarity at the beginning of class, but I didn’t join in on the conversation. I didn’t want to seem antisocial, but I was just sort of out of it.

Class ended quickly and I talked with RD and Rare as we headed out to meet up with the rest of the group. After talking for a bit, we all finally decided to head home. I told Twilight that I was going to eat lunch at home and then head to her place, and she seemed fine with that.

After having lunch, I finally headed over to her place and she invited me in. It looked like she had the house to herself, which was good because I didn’t exactly want anyone else around for this. Spike might have been in his room, but I didn’t think he’d interrupt us. Twi’s parents were out quite a bit. They both had important jobs and were away on business trips or working most of the time. I don’t think Twi minded much.

“I was just working on some homework. Do you need me to help look for the book?” Twilight asked.

“No, that’s fine, Twi. I’ll just look for it myself. You keep working on homework.”

I looked through the books numbly, not even paying much attention to the actual covers. After a while, I sighed and turned around to look at Twilight. She seemed to notice my movement and looked up from her homework, smiling at me.

“Twi, can I talk to you about something?” I asked.

“Of course! What is it?” she asked.

I looked down, not meeting her in the eye. Now that it had come down to it, I realized just how nervous I was.

“Do you need help with homework?” Twilight asked.

“No, it’s not that…” I said.

Her brow furrowed a bit. “Is it something with your family?”

“No, everything’s fine with them. It’s…”

I scolded myself mentally for not being able to do this. Twi looked concerned and she asked me what was up. Finally, I just shook my head.

“You know what? It’s really not that important,” I said, and started to turn back around.

Twilight got up and stopped me, holding a hand on my shoulder. I turned and met her eye and she looked at me with concern.

“Applejack, you can talk to me about anything,” she said genuinely.

I suppressed a sigh. “It’s… It’s about Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight looked a little confused. “Rainbow Dash? What about her?”

My voice faltered a bit. “…I’m in love with her?”

I looked up at Twilight sheepishly, gauging her reaction. Her eyes were wide and she released a breath in surprise.

“…Wow, um, I wasn’t expecting that,” she said.

I looked away again, suddenly feeling hot. “Yeah… Please don’t hate me?”

Twilight sighed and smiled. “Applejack, I would never hate you. But… why are you coming to me about this?”

I shrugged. “I needed someone to talk to. This has been killing me lately.”

“Are you going to tell her?” Twilight asked.

I shrugged again. “I’m not sure. I figured maybe I’d tell her once she got over Clad, but it seems like she’s pretty much over him already. And… I just don’t think I can do it.”

Twilight reached over and held my hand reassuringly. “I know this is difficult, Applejack, but I recommend you tell her. I’m guessing you’re probably most afraid of her not returning the feelings, but Rainbow Dash would never stop being your friend. Trust me, you’ll feel so much better once you finally just confess your feelings. And who knows? She may just feel the same way about you. I mean, she’s never really been clear about her sexuality and your confession to her may just spark something.”

I took in everything Twilight was saying, nodding slowly while she spoke.

“But what if we’re wrong? She could be as straight as they get,” I said.

“Even if she is straight, like I said, Rainbow Dash will never stop being your friend. I think she’d appreciate the confession,” Twilight said sincerely.

I nodded. I fiddled with my fingers, looking down uncomfortably. Twilight rubbed my hand with her thumb, catching my attention again. I looked up at her and she was smiling.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. “I’m here to listen.”

I shrugged. “Not really.”

Twilight looked at me with curiosity. “…Can I ask you something?”

I raised an eyebrow and nodded.

“How long have you, well, liked girls?” she asked.

I was a little surprised. I thought she was going to ask how long I’d liked Rainbow Dash. But I guess when I thought about it, the answer would have been the same.

“I’m not really sure,” I answered. “I only realized it when I realized I liked Rainbow Dash. Which was a little before this summer. Looking back, I suppose there were signs during my childhood. I mean, I’ve always been pretty tom-boyish and I was never boy-crazy.”

Twilight chuckled. “Yeah, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to you eventually liking girls. Although I guess in this instance it does. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Applejack, if you decide you want to come out to the rest of the girls, I’ll always be here to support you. And they will too. Trust me.”

I smiled. “I know, Twilight. It’s funny, it’s not even that that’s bothering me so much. I guess because all my attention is on Rainbow Dash, it hasn’t even occurred to me that this whole… liking girls thing is actually a pretty big deal. Especially with, y’know, my family…”

Twilight gave me a reassuring smile. “When you decide to tell them, I’ll always be here supporting you.”

I breathed a little laugh. “Thanks Twi. It really means a lot to me. And um… if you could just keep all this on the DL for now… I’d really appreciate it.”

“Of course, Applejack,” Twilight said.

“Thanks. I better get going. Thanks for understanding, Twilight.”

I left Twilight’s house with a smile. It’s amazing how letting something out, even to just one person, can be so relieving. I was beyond grateful that I had someone like Twilight who I could trust entirely.

Maybe… I don’t have to do this alone.

~ ~ ~

“I can’t believe this is the last day of September.”

Rainbow Dash looked up at the sky, her fingers nonchalantly stuck in her pockets. She blew a hair out of her face.

“Yeah, I know,” I replied to her. “But it only means winter is closer to us.”

I smiled excitedly and Rainbow Dash looked over at me, casually smiling.

“Yeah, I guess. It’s gonna start getting cold here real fast.”

“Yeah, how’s that going to be? With your cross country and all?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Well, the same as it’s always been. It’ll be cold, but the season ends at the end of October, beginning of November if we go to state. Huh, feels weird that it’ll be over so soon.”

She looked over at me with a wry smile. “It’s gonna be cold as shit during the first couple months of track.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Fun.”

The two of us were hanging out for the third time since our little Dance Central competition. Yesterday marked two weeks since Rainbow Dash’s breakup with Clad and she seemed completely fine now. It made sense— after all, they were only dating for about a month so I didn’t think she had been very attached to him.

I looked around at the apple orchard. Apple picking season would end soon. Work would be busy for the next couple of weeks and afterwards we’d be preparing for winter.

“What do you want to do?” I asked Rainbow.

She shrugged. “We could go to the mall.”

I cracked my neck. “Eh, sounds better than sittin’ around here doing nothing. Wait here, I’m gonna go grab my wallet and the keys.”

I walked into the house and ran upstairs to grab the leather wallet on my desk. The wallet had a pretty typical cowgirl-looking design but I liked it. It suited me. I checked inside to make sure I had enough money as well as my driver’s license and then headed back downstairs. I grabbed the keys off the counter and headed back outside.

Once outside, I noticed that Big Mac had started up conversation with Rainbow Dash who was still waiting by the fence. Mac was carrying a saddle in his left arm— to me that simply meant that he had been working but stopped when he started talking to Rainbow. I rolled my eyes and headed over.

“Okay, Mac. I know you’re such a people-person but clearly you’re not done here so get back to work,” I said with a smirk.

Big Mac smiled and rolled his eyes. “Oh, because you’re doing so much work around here.”

I scoffed at his sarcasm. Damn, he may have been quiet most of the time but this boy could sure be hecka’ sassy if he wanted to be. “I do my share. Besides, you ain’t the one who’s got to go to school all week! This is your full time job, mister.”

He smiled and rolled his eyes once again before walking away with the saddle. I laughed and shook my head, then looked at Rainbow Dash. She was smiling at me.

“I love the relationship you have with your brother. It’s adorable. Sometimes I wish I had a brother,” she said.

I shrugged. “Yeah, Mac and I are pretty close. S’not like that with every family though. I think it’s like that with us ‘cause Mac was sort of a parent figure to me growing up, so naturally we’re pretty close.”

Dash nodded. “Either way, you guys make adorable siblings.”

I laughed and headed to the truck. Dash followed me and got in the passenger seat. I turned on the radio once I started the car and the two of us headed to the mall, singing horribly to the songs on the radio along the way.

~ ~ ~

Several days had passed since my adventure with Dash at the mall. It was Thursday and, thankfully, we didn’t have school tomorrow. It would be really nice having a three-day weekend. I made plans with the girls and we all decided to go swimming in the pond near my house. It was going to start getting cold real soon and today was a strangely warm day so we decided to take the opportunity.

It had been a long time since we had all gone swimming together, but it was one of those things that I absolutely loved doing with them. Everyone was always so carefree and happy when they were in the water. I guess swimming has that effect on people.

We were all at my place currently; the girls were waiting for me while I ran to my house and put on a bathing suit. They all teased me about how I’m always the one they end up waiting for, which honestly is kind of true. Whatever. It was my pond they were going to be using, so they shouldn’t have been complaining. I knew it was all in good fun though.

I put on my suit quickly— a cute bikini that was orange plaid. I put on an old shirt and shorts over it to be worn until we got to the pond, and I ran back downstairs and outside to meet up with the others.

While I was gone, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were having their own conversation— well, it actually consisted of Pinkie jumping up and down explaining something excitedly to Fluttershy while she stood there patiently with a smile. Rarity and Twilight were chatting about something as well, and Rainbow Dash was actually chatting with my brother.

I liked seeing Big Mac hang out with my friends, quite honestly. They all enjoy each other’s company, and there’s something about his personality that just generally makes us all calm and happy.

Unfortunately for him, I wouldn’t allow him to swim with us at the pond today. He would have enjoyed that far too much. The only guy in a group of five girls— minus me, of course— all in cute swimsuits and playing in the water? Yeah, no. Besides, he had work to do and this was just an event for me and the girls.

“Alright girls, let’s go!” I said when I approached the group. They all snapped out of their individual conversations and we headed to the pond together. When we got there, we all threw off our clothes and jumped in joyfully.

“EEK! The water’s cold!” Pinkie screamed when she jumped in.

The water was a lot colder than usual. Its temperature was dropping with the weather, and although today was a warm day, the water still stayed pretty chilly. Despite that though, it felt good and I knew we would all warm up to it in no time.

Rarity and Fluttershy eased themselves into the water. It was actually a hilarious sight watching Rarity force herself into the brisk water inch by inch with a frown on her face. Surprisingly, Twilight had jumped straight into the water with Pinkie, RD, and I. I think she was regretting her decision soon after.

I laughed at their expressions. “Aw, it’s not that cold. You guys’ll get used to it! Besides, the sun is shining right on us so we’ll get warm pretty quickly.”

“True. The water is beautiful,” Rarity cooed. “I’ve always envied this little pool of yours, Applejack.”

I smiled. Fluttershy seemed to really enjoy the water too once she got fully in. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie started blowing up a beach ball she’d apparently brought. I didn’t notice she had it, but I wasn’t surprised that she had one with her. Once it was all full of air, she tossed it around and we all bounced it around gleefully.

We all spent quite a bit of time playing in that pond. Eventually, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, and I moved on to splashing each other and wrestling in the water. Twilight and Fluttershy did some sight-seeing, looking at the different plants and animals in the area. Nothing new for Fluttershy, but I assumed Twilight was interested in the flora and fauna for research purposes. Rarity looked like she was in heaven over in her little spot. While sitting in the water, she had her head leaned back and eyes closed so she could absorb the sunlight. She moved her hands and feet slightly to move around the water a bit, but otherwise she looked completely relaxed.

Eventually the three of us got tired and swam over to the spot Fluttershy, Twilight and Rarity were in. With all of us together in a circle and our energy worn out, we all decided to talk. To start off, we went around the circle and each said something that had happened to us lately that made us happy. It was a nice little exercise we sometimes did when things were getting stressful, and it really helped us feel better.

We did noes-goes to see who would go first. Rarity was last because she was still a little spacey from her relaxation before.

“Oh, now that wasn’t fair. I wasn’t ready,” she pouted. “Alright, let’s see… Something that’s made me happy lately… Well, for starters I’m doing very well in most of my classes. I have a new project that I’m working on lately— it’s a dress that I’m designing for Ava, that fancy dress store down at the mall. I’m very excited about it!”

“That’s amazing, Rarity!” Twilight beamed.

“I’m so proud of you,” Fluttershy smiled.

“That’s awesome, Rare!” I contributed.

“Wow, Rarity, that’s so cool! I bet you’ll make the best dress ever and completely woo them!” Pinkie jumped.

“Nice going, Rare! I’m sure they’ll love it,” Rainbow Dash said.

Rarity blushed from all the compliments. “Oh, thank you guys. I really do hope they enjoy it! Alright, Fluttershy, your turn.”

Fluttershy blushed and looked down. “Well, um, I guess now is as good a time as ever to tell you guys…”

We were all genuinely curious now since whatever she was about to say sounded like a big deal. I leaned in instinctively.

“So, I kind of have a boyfriend, I guess…” she said quietly, brushing her hair with embarrassment.

We all gasped in surprise and glee.

“Wow, really?!”

“Omigosh, tell us!”

“Yeah, what’s his name?”

Fluttershy let out a small laugh and looked up at us. “His name is Alloy. He’s kind of quiet like me and he also greatly enjoys nature. He likes working with metals and forging things. I think it’s quite manly…”

She giggled, clearly blushing before continuing. “He has brown hair, it’s a little curly, and green eyes. He goes to our school so you have probably seen him around somewhere.”

“Aww, I think that’s so cute Fluttershy! I’m really happy for you,” Twilight smiled.

“How long have you been going out?” Pinkie asked.

“Um, almost two weeks. I wanted to wait a bit before I told you all.”

“Yeah, we understand completely! That’s awesome Fluttershy, I hope we get to meet him soon!” Twilight said.

“Yes, definitely! I would love to meet the boy that stole my little Fluttershy,” Rarity cooed.

Fluttershy smiled and nodded. “Yes. Okay. I’ll introduce him to you all soon then.”

Rarity suddenly huffed and blew away her bangs. “You girls and all your boyfriends. I’m jealous. When do I get one?”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “You know Fluttershy’s the only one with a boyfriend right now, right?”

“Yes, but you two at least had boyfriends for a little while,” Rarity said, pointing at me and Rainbow.

I smirked. “Yeah and look how long mine lasted.”

“And mine,” Rainbow Dash said, smirking as well.

Rarity smiled and rolled her eyes playfully. “True. I suppose my dream man will come around soon enough.”

Twilight giggled at us all and I playfully splashed her with water.

“Oh!” Rarity suddenly realized. “Well, I suppose Fluttershy’s turn is over. Twilight, you now.”

We all remembered that our little sharing activity was still going in and tuned into what Twilight was going to say.

“Well, grades have been good. School is stressing me out but I suppose that’s because I’ve been studying so much, and that certainly is paying off. I’ve been spending some time with Spike lately which actually makes me really happy since he tends to ignore me most of the time,” Twilight said. “He comes to me when he needs help with homework and I know he’s grateful and that makes me happy!”

I smiled. “That’s great, Twi. Building a good relationship with your brother should make you happy!”

“Thanks!” Twilight smiled. “And I just got to talk to Shining Armor the other day on the phone. He and Cadence are doing great, so that made me happy too.”

After Twilight it was Pinkie’s turn. She went off on some really long tangent about all the good things happening in her life. I tuned out after the first three minutes went by. It was mostly things about her job at the bakery and babysitting her bosses’ kids, and some things in school. None of us stopped her; we all knew how much she liked telling stories that were far too long than necessary.

Eventually Pinkie Pie finished and Rainbow Dash went. “Cross country is going great, and I’m managing to stay on top of my grades. Nick actually has this new girlfriend now so she’s been spending a lot of time at our house lately, having dinner and whatnot. I think she’s cool, a little dumb but whatever. I don’t judge who Nick decides to date. Umm… yeah! I think that’s about it. Not much going on in my life.”

Finally it was my turn. I didn’t have much to say. “Nothing really exciting has been going on with me either. Honestly, just spending time with you guys is what makes me the happiest!”

That elicited an “Aww” from the group and I smirked and splashed water at everyone.

“You nerds,” I said teasingly.

We all shared a laugh and spent the rest of our time chatting. I was so relaxed talking with all of them like this, just sitting here in the pond. It really reminded me of just how close our friendship was and how much I loved all of them. I was so grateful to have each and every one of them in my life. They were my second family, and I don’t know what I would do without them and our support of each other.

I knew they would all support me if I told them about my sexuality, and I almost decided to tell them right then and there. But I decided a different time would be better. Maybe a time when we’re not all almost-naked and wet. Yeah… when I got to thinking about it, now would definitely not be the best time to just come right out and tell them.

I smiled and sighed, enjoying the company of the five girls I loved so much. I would tell them soon. And I was so relaxed and relieved, because I knew all of them would love and accept me just the way they do now. I closed my eyes, enjoying the water and the sun, wishing this day would never end.

Chapter 13

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*Warning: Couple F-Bombs in this chapter. Just a heads up.*

Chapter 13

A week and a half later, I waited at the café for Rainbow Dash. I had on a light jacket and was drinking some hot cocoa. We agreed to have a little coffee date after school on Monday, after she was done with track practice. I sat there for a little bit, until finally I noticed her jogging down the sidewalk toward me.

As she neared, I waved at her and she waved back, clearly a little out of breath even from afar. She was wearing Under Armour running shorts and a blue track jacket. Her hair was up in a pony. She reached me quickly and sat down across from me at the table. Today was a little bit overcast.

“Hey, hope I’m not late,” she said, out of breath.

“No, you’re fine,” I answered. “How was track?”

“Good,” she panted.

I was expecting a bit more of an explanation of some sort but she just left it at that. I mentally shrugged it off. It was probably just because she was out of breath.

“Want a drink? I’ll buy,” I offered.

She looked up at the clouds as if completely ignoring me, but she looked down right after and answered, “Nah, I should probably just stick with water.” She held up her water bottle and took a swig.

A nervous knot tied itself in my stomach, although surprisingly, I wasn’t as nervous as I had expected to be. I guess I was just fed up with all this waiting. Today was the day I was going to confess to her. I had decided it a couple days ago, which is mainly why I wanted to have this coffee date with her.

I was sick of feeling so horrible lately. It was trivial that I couldn’t just express my feelings. Twilight was right, even if Rainbow Dash didn’t feel the same way towards me, there’s no way she’d ever hate me or think of me any differently. That’s why I ultimately swallowed my fear and decided to just go for it.

The clouds started to clear up a bit and the sun shone in patches on the ground.

“Hey, Applejack. There’s been something I kind of want to talk to you about,” Rainbow Dash said, not meeting me in the eye.

I looked at her curiously. She was acting strange; something clearly was bothering her. She fiddled with her water bottle nervously and her eyes darted around.

“What is it? You can tell me anything,” I assured her.

She glanced up at me, only to look away quickly. “Um, well lately I’ve been thinking and I… I kind of…”

I raised my eyebrow. I hadn’t seen her this nervous in a while.

She rubbed the back of her neck. “I think I may have feelings for…”

My eyes widened and my heart suddenly skipped a beat. Wait a second. Was she… confessing to me?! Suddenly a flame of hope flickered inside of me. What if she’s liked me this whole time, but I never realized it because I was too caught up in my worry about me liking her? A tiny smile played at my lips. I waited eagerly for her to finish.

“…Big Mac.”

…

What…?

In that moment, I think everything inside of me just stopped. I can’t even describe it. I felt like every part of me in that moment was just gone. My stomach fell to the floor, my eyes glued to Rainbow Dash in disbelief. My mouth went dry. I didn’t know what to do, what to say, how to feel. How was I even supposed to react?

She looked up at me expectantly after I didn’t say anything. I showed little emotion, but behind the façade I had died. I said absolutely nothing. At this point, Rainbow Dash started to get nervous.

“Applejack?”

I looked down, eyes dry and burning from lack of blinking. I couldn’t move; no, I didn’t want to move. I literally did not want to do anything. I just wanted to sit there and fade away.

“Applejack? Fuck, you’re mad aren’t you? I’m sorry, but this is why I wanted to tell you first because obviously you’re not okay with this.”

How could I have been so stupid? What could have possibly made me think that she was going to confess her feelings toward me?

Rainbow Dash waved a hand in front of my face. “AJ, please say something.”

My fists tightened. Anyone would have been able to see this coming. I’m such a moron. That’s the only reason she’s been hanging out with me so much lately— so she could talk to Big Macintosh. I’m such a moron…

Suddenly, I slammed the table with my fist and spun around, burying my face in my hands. I couldn’t keep it in anymore, and started sobbing into my hands.

“Applejack, fuck I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d take it this hard,” Rainbow Dash said. She got up and came over to me.

I pushed her away angrily, not meeting her in the eye. “What the fuck makes you think I’d be okay with that?!”

“Woah, Applejack, it’s not like we’re dating or anything. Jesus, I get it. I’ll stay away from your brother.”

“No, you don’t fucking get it at all. Date my brother. I don’t care. I don’t give a single crap. Do whatever the hell you want, and stay away from me!” I yelled and stormed away from the table, letting angry hot tears run down my face.

I didn’t look back at her, but I knew she wasn’t following me. She was probably standing there in shock, watching me run away. I didn’t even care. I was beyond pissed off. I couldn’t see because of how enraged I was and from the amount of tears flowing from my eyes.

I wanted to throw up. I wanted to die. I didn’t look where I was going. I didn’t know which way was home, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to lay down somewhere and die.

Eventually I found myself in the forest. I couldn’t really see but I felt the leaves and soft ground under my feet and the air was always cooler in the forest. I stumbled my way over to a tree and collapsed, hugging myself as I curled into a ball. A stick was stabbing me in the ribs, and my head landed pretty hard on a rock when my feet gave out under me.

I didn’t care. Let me be in physical pain, why would I care what happened to me?

I let the apathy wash over me and I closed my eyes. Darkness shrouded me and I was left with silence and the drumming of my pulse throbbing in my ears. The ground was wet. How trivial it all was. Falling in love, having your heart broken. Why do we humans have such fragile hearts and bodies? Maybe we have fragile bodies so it’s easy to die when our fragile hearts have broken.

As I laid there, I hoped nobody would ever find me. I wish they’d just let me die.

~ ~ ~

I woke up in my bed Monday morning. Right, everything had been a dream… I’d been having night terrors like these for a while, and lately it’s been the same dream over and over again. It was exhausting, mentally and physically.

I was starting to fear that this dream would come true. Rainbow Dash certainly had been spending more time with Big Mac lately, but perhaps that was just a coincidence. Whatever the case, clearly I was worried since my subconscious kept giving me these recurring night terrors.

The worst part was, though, I wasn’t truly sure what I was so scared of. Was I scared that Rainbow Dash would actually turn out to have feelings for Mac, or was I more scared that if that were the case, I would actually resort to something like suicide?

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. No, suicide is a cowardly move, and I could never do that to my family. I forced myself to get out of bed and to get ready for the day. Another day at school.

~ ~ ~

After school, the gang decided to get together for lunch at the café. I wore a light jacket and got some hot tea, deciding against hot cocoa. It reminded me of my dream and I wanted to do everything in my power to make sure it didn’t actually come true.

At first it was just small talk like usual but when the chatter slowed down a bit, Rainbow Dash seemed to make her move.

She was fiddling with her drink cup and looking at the table when she asked me, “Hey Apples, how’s Big Mac and everyone doing?” She looked up at me and took a drink.

It was then that my fears had been confirmed… Or at least, my fears that she might have had a crush on my big brother. Sure, it was normal for her to ask how my family was doing, but never before had she specifically asked about Big Mac, unless he had been sick or hurt or something in the past. I knew it. She was interested.

At that moment, strangely, I actually felt a bit angry. It pissed me off, quite honestly, that she basically used me to get closer to him. She’d been hanging out with me a lot lately, and it was really only just to find a way to be with Big Mac without it being suspicious.

I bit back my angry feelings and nodded casually. “They’re all doing fine. Everyone’s pretty busy I guess. Applebloom and I have schoolwork, and Big Mac’s real busy on the farm.”

I had hoped that maybe expressing that he was really busy would get her to step off a little bit, but in fact it did the opposite.

She looked a little excited and leaned forward a bit. “I could help out, you know! I mean, I’m pretty strong and durable, I could totally help out Big Mac with some chores on the farm.”

Unintentionally, I glared at her. I clenched my jaw slightly and my gaze flickered elsewhere; in fact, it landed on Rarity. She was staring at me with a strange look, almost a squint actually, but I couldn’t pinpoint what she was thinking or feeling.

The other girls actually seemed a little bit surprised at what RD said, because Rainbow Dash never offered to help out, especially if it was manual labor. I didn’t know if they knew what was going on, but I didn’t really care. I didn’t want Rainbow Dash hanging out on my farm with my brother.

“Thanks for the offer, but we’re good, really. He has Caramel to help him out and we can’t really afford paying for another worker,” I said bluntly.

Rainbow Dash looked a bit confused. “Oh, but I’d do it for free—“

“I said we’re fine,” I said coldly.

Unfortunately, the girls all noticed that, including Rainbow Dash who looked a little hurt and confused. I took a drink of my tea and looked away, sulking a bit. I didn’t really care what the girls thought. They could assume that I’m PMS’ing or that maybe there was something going on in the family. As long as they didn’t realize what I was actually feeling, I didn’t really care what they thought.

“Applejack, you okay?” Fluttershy suddenly asked.

I looked over and saw all the girls had concerned looks. I resisted rolling my eyes. I sighed and decided to lie.

“Sorry, I’m just… a little on edge. Sorry guys…” I said, genuinely sorry for expressing the bad attitude.

The girls seemed to be pleased with the answer and a couple smiled at me.

“Well you know we’re always here to help,” Fluttershy said sweetly.

Pinkie piped up. “Yeah! But for now, let’s just all enjoy our drinks and each other’s company!”

Pinkie’s optimism actually made me smile, and I agreed to toast to that. I noticed, however, that Rarity kept glancing at me. I wondered what her deal was, but put it off for now and just decided to try and enjoy the rest of my time with the girls. I tried to ignore the fact that my heart was slowly breaking again.

The group hung out for a little while longer but eventually we had to part ways. The group got up to leave and I was about to head my own way when suddenly Rarity walked up to me.

“Applejack, would you mind coming over to the Boutique for a little bit?” she asked. “I want your opinion on this new dress I made.”

I had a feeling that this wasn’t the case at all. “Why?” I asked, unsure about her true intentions.

“The dress has more of a rural style… I was thinking your opinion could really help,” Rarity said, looking at me expectantly.

“Uh, yeah alright. I’d love to help,” I said.

~ ~ ~

“Take a seat, darling,” Rarity said, going towards her cabinet and getting out two tea cups.

I sat down, watching her. I knew this wasn’t about a dress at all, and I had been wondering the whole car ride what was up. I guess I was about to find out finally.

She filled our cups with tea, handed one to me, and then sat down across from me. I took a sip and looked at her. She took a moment before saying something.

“I know, Applejack,” she said seriously, meeting me in the eye.

My heart leapt and I raised an eyebrow. “Know… what?”

Rare’s lips twitched into a small smile. She looked down at her tea cup. “I know you’re in love with her.”

My heart leapt again just hearing those words. I looked away, heart beating fast and my mind racing. I don’t know what else I was expecting. Rarity had an intuition for these kinds of things.

“Why don’t you just tell her? Darling… it’s killing you,” she said sympathetically.

I felt a painful lump in my throat but I held back the tears. I took a deep breath and met her in the eye again. “I can’t,” I said, my voice cracking unexpectedly.

Rarity said nothing, but just looked at me as if expecting me to say more. I didn’t. Instead, I looked away again, my eyes darting around the room. Eventually, Rarity got that I wasn’t going to say anything else, so she took the liberty herself.

“You should at least tell her, privately, that you don’t like the thought of her being with your brother,” she stated.

I looked up in slight surprise at her.

“Come on, it’s obvious she likes him. We both know that. That’s why you got so defensive at lunch today,” she said.

I nodded slowly. “I know… But I can’t do that to her. To either of them. It’s not fair to them that I say they can’t be together simply because of my jealousy.”

The lump in my throat came back but this time I couldn’t hold my tears back. I covered my eyes with my hands and sobbed quietly into them. Rarity scooted over to me and hugged me, bringing me in close to her. I didn’t resist, but I didn’t hug her back. I didn’t want to get tears on her clothes.

She shushed me softly, calling me names like “darling” or “honey” that were surprisingly calming to me. She laughed softly; the sound of her laugh calmed me even more, to the point that I actually stopped crying.

That was one of Rarity’s greatest powers. No matter the situation, she calmed me and made me feel so loved. Well, except of course whenever we were at each other’s throats, but I mean in situations like these where I needed her.

“You have to tell her. Even if she doesn’t return the feelings, you have to tell her, Applejack. It’s the only way you can finally take this load off your shoulders,” Rarity spoke calmly.

I finally shifted myself and put my arms around her, returning the hug now that I was no longer crying. I think I felt her smile, but maybe that was my imagination. Eventually, I pulled away, wiping my eyes.

“Rare… Are you okay with, you know, me?” I asked.

She looked a little confused at first but then understood. “If you mean your sexuality, dear, then of course I am. I love you no matter what; I’m certainly not that shallow to where I’ll judge you based off who you like. I mean, you put up with my constant moaning over not having a boyfriend,” she smiled.

That got a little chuckle out of me, and she seemed relieved to see me lightening up a little bit. After a moment, I sighed and shook my head. “What should I do?”

“Like I said before, you need to tell her. Please, Applejack. It hurts me so much to see you like this. You’ve been slowly getting worse and worse as the year has progressed and it kills me inside to see you, the strong and independent woman I know, to deteriorate like this,” Rarity said.

I looked up at her curiously. “How long have you known?”

She shrugged lightly. “I caught on a little while ago. You’re not that great at hiding it, dear, no offense.”

I smiled sheepishly. “Well, Twilight knows too. I told her. I’m not sure about the other girls. I don’t really want them to know yet.”

Rarity nodded. “I understand that.”

“Do you think…?” I trailed off.

Rarity raised an eyebrow, expecting me to finish.

“…Do you think I should tell the group about me? I mean, that I’m interested in girls…” I asked.

“I think that’s up to you. You should do it when you’re ready.”

I nodded. “Okay, yeah. Thanks Rare. For everything, really. You… you help me more than you know,” I said genuinely.

She smiled. “Of course, darling. Anytime, really.”

I smiled, so glad that Rarity was not only a great friend to me, but also able to see through my façade and try to help me through my struggle. Now that she and Twilight knew, maybe it was time for me to do what Rarity said… Maybe I should finally tell Rainbow Dash.

I suppose I could try. But sometimes trying is much easier said than done.

~ ~ ~

Later that evening, I was having dinner with my family. It was a delicious dinner of steak, carrots, and green beans. I jabbed my fork into a steamed carrot and popped it into my mouth, savoring the flavor.

The conversation had come to a little pause so I decided to say something, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“So Big Mac, I’ve seen you talking with my friend Rainbow Dash quite a bit lately… You two got somethin’ going on?” I asked with an eyebrow raised, trying to look more curious than prying.

Big Mac looked a little bashful and he shrugged and said nothing. He didn’t really need to, because the rest of my family perked up right away.

“You’ve got yer eyes on a girlie, do ya?” Granny Smith said and teasingly elbowed Big Mac.

He looked a little flustered and shrugged. “I dunno. I mean, sure, I think she’s real cute but she’s AJ’s friend. It’d be weird if we dated.”

“Aww, you two would make the cutest couple!” Applebloom said.

Big Mac looked over at me both expectantly and apologetically. “I’m sorry AJ. I guess there’s nothing that gets past your eyes…”

“Don’t be sorry,” I said, trying not to show my jealousy. “I don’t blame you for crushing on her…”

“Aww come on, Applejack! Let Big Mac date Rainbow Dash! You gotta admit they’d be the cutest,” Applebloom said. “Hey! What if you guys got married? Then maybe Scootaloo and I could be like half-sisters or something! Although Scootaloo isn’t really her sister but she…”

Applebloom continued babbling, and Big Mac shook his head, still looking a little bashful. He turned to look at me.

“That wouldn’t be… weird for you, would it? If I… asked her out,” he asked timidly.

I took a moment to think. Of course it’d be weird for me, even if I didn’t have feelings for Rainbow. And I’m not sure I could even stand the thought of her being with my brother, and having to watch them or even just know they’re together… The thought of my brother getting what I want the most. But then again, I loved my brother more than anything and it would be unfair of me to do that to both of them when clearly they both had feelings for each other…

I buried my feelings deep down inside of me and said what I said next before I thought twice about it. “Mac, you’re my brother and I love you, so I want you to be happy. If you think you want to ask Rainbow Dash out, then I think you should go for it.”

I thought I was doing a pretty good job of lying, but unfortunately, no matter how good the lie is Big Mac is always able to tell. I could see it in his eyes, and through the fact that he just nodded in response.

The rest of dinner wasn’t very exciting, and soon we all rinsed off our plates and headed to our individual rooms to get ready for bed. Before I closed my door to change, Big Mac stepped into my room like I expected he would.

“Hey,” he said. “I appreciate what you said at dinner, but I know you’re not okay with it… I won’t ask her out, it’s okay.”

I smiled weakly at him. “No, Big Mac, it’s okay. Ask her out. It just might be a little weird for me at first but it’s fine, really. I meant what I said and I want you to be happy.”

He smiled back. “Well, alright. Don’t worry too much. Even if we do start datin’, there’s no promise that it’ll last very long.”

I chuckled a little bit, and that seemed to make him happy. He left to go get ready and I closed my door and changed into my pajamas. As I got into bed, I looked out my window at the sky and sighed.

Okay, Applejack. You’ve got to do one of two things. One: you bury your feelings forever and realize that you’ll never be with Rainbow Dash and carry on with your life with a fake smile until you get over her… Or two: you confess your love for Rainbow Dash and just get it all over with… But if I do that, she might get hung up on that and not date Big Mac, and I’d feel horrible if I ruined that for the both of them…

As I tossed and turned in bed, these choices ran through my mind. Eventually, I fell asleep to these thoughts, and a restless and agitated sleep followed.

Chapter 14

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Chapter 14

Big Mac and Rainbow Dash started dating near the end of October. The big reveal was on the Saturday before Halloween. Twilight, Pinkie and I were out walking around town, doing some light shopping when we noticed Big Mac and Rainbow Dash sitting at a table at Bon Bon’s Café.

Pinkie crept up behind them, suddenly popping up and screaming, “Hi guys!!”

As expected, it scared the crap out of Big Mac and RD. Twi and I followed and approached soon afterward.

Pinkie gasped loudly. “Are you two going out?! Eee! Aww, you guys are so cute together! You know, I started suspecting something was up when Rainbow Dash started talking more about you and…”

Pinkie kept rabbling on while blushes had already formed on RD’s and Big Mac’s faces. I walked over to Pinkie and pulled her away, pinching her lips together to shut her up.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to intrude,” I apologized.

Rainbow Dash breathed a little laugh. “It’s okay. I’m a little embarrassed, I didn’t expect you guys to see us here…”

“Well is it true?” Twilight pried. When they looked at her and didn’t give an answer, she asked again. “What Pinkie said… Are you two dating?”

Rainbow Dash blushed and looked down, rubbing the back of her neck. “Um, yeah…”

She exchanged looks with Big Mac and the two laughed a little. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. They must have only started dating a couple days ago because they were obviously still a little bashful around each other. It normally would have been pretty cute, but at this moment I was beyond jealous.

“Awww!” Pinkie squealed.

“Well, I’m happy for you guys,” Twilight said. I wondered if she was lying or not, knowing how I felt about her.

“Well it’s about time,” I contributed, hoping I was lying well enough. “I was getting sick of the googly eyes you were making at each other at the farm.”

Rainbow Dash shot me a look. “I do not make googly eyes,” she retorted.

I wondered why I couldn’t confess my love to her before they had started dating. Well, I knew why. The same reason I hadn’t told her at any other time. Because I was afraid. And because of my fear, here I was again forcing myself to swallow feelings of jealousy, guilt and anger simply because I couldn’t say six simple words to her face.

I guess the real question I was asking myself was, why can’t I just let go? It’s been months that I’ve harbored these strong feelings toward Rainbow Dash. At first, when I felt my blind passion for her begin to fade I thought maybe, with a mix of sadness and relief, that my feelings for her were starting to finally go away. But then I realized, with a pitiful knot in my stomach, that they hadn’t faded at all, I was just giving up. On her. On myself.

And yet here I still was. Wanting her. Longing for her. And why…?

~ ~ ~

It was Monday morning, two days before Halloween, and the group and I had gathered at our regular spot before school started. It was there that Rainbow Dash broke the news to Rarity and Fluttershy as well. I had kind of wondered whether or not those two already knew, via maybe Pinkie or someone texting them the news, but they feigned surprise regardless.

“I didn’t peg you for liking older guys, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity mused.

Rainbow Dash looked thoroughly embarrassed but couldn’t come up with a response. I didn’t even really think about it before, but Rarity’s comment made me think about their age difference. I suppose it wasn’t that big of a deal. Rainbow Dash would be eighteen in less than two weeks and Big Mac was twenty-two. Four years wasn’t too big of an age difference, especially with them both being adults— well, nearly.

I wondered for a moment just how long these two might actually end up together. Naturally, there’s not really any sure way I could tell but…

Dash is loud, and rambunctious, and always raring to go. Big Mac is more of a quiet and down-to-earth guy, a family guy. Dash dreams big, and Mac’s dream is to continue the family business by working on the farm all his days. Two such opposite people couldn’t be together for long, right?

Although, Clad would ideally have been a good match for Dash— both very sports oriented, same personalities, same egotistical attitude— and that only lasted a month. However, Clad was abusive… So I guess my argument is invalid. And Big Mac is the sweetest and gentlest guy I know so I guessed I had to rely on their opposites to be their ultimate end, huh?

But then again, opposites attract.

I suddenly realized everything that was going through my head and, realizing how absolutely absurd I sounded, I burst out laughing. Big Mac and I were practically the same person. So all these opposites that I was listing that I was hoping would tear them apart… It would be the exact same deal with me. Although, in my humble opinion, I would be a much better match with Dash than Big Mac… He’s too shy for her, and I can keep up with her competitiveness.

I realized suddenly that everyone in the group was looking at me strangely. I stopped laughing and blushed. “Uhm, sorry. I remembered something funny.”

“Warms my heart, Applejack, to know that my story was so enrapturing that you spaced out that much,” Rarity scoffed.

“Hey, I spaced out way before you started talking!” I retorted.

Rarity completely deadpanned me, and Rainbow Dash snorted in laughter, covering her mouth with her hand to keep from cracking up. I couldn’t help but smile a little. Her laugh was still adorable.

I felt kind of bad for making Rarity feel like I wasn’t listening— which, I mean, I wasn’t but she didn’t need to know that— but Rare and I get in these kinds of playful spats all the time so I didn’t fret too much about it.

Suddenly the bell rang and I realized with a frown that it was already time to go to class. Surprisingly, I started the school day off with a bit of a better attitude, and that made going to class a little easier and it managed to keep my mind off of Rainbow Dash for a little while.

~ ~ ~

After Psychology, Rarity let Rainbow Dash go ahead of us to meet up with the group and she held me back so she could tell me something. I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“What’s up, Rare?”

“Applejack, are you okay?” she asked with genuine concern.

I knew what she was referring to. I looked down and spoke quietly, somehow afraid that Rainbow Dash would still be able to hear us even though she was long gone. “I don’t know. Today wasn’t all so bad, but I know that when my mind has room to wander, that I’ll be feeling bad about this whole RD and Big Mac thing,” I answered.

“Twilight and I were talking last period, we were wondering if you wanted to spend some time with us after school today at Twilight’s house? And we would just all talk for a little bit,” Rarity offered kindly.

I thought about it. “I don’t know, Rare… I kind of have a lot of homework to do.”

I wasn’t lying, I really did have a lot of homework. But I was also feeling kind of wary. These talks, I had noticed, usually led to me crying a lot and one of them comforting me. That wasn’t exactly my fancy.

“Then it can be a sort of study session too, if you’d like. Don’t worry, we’re not trying to make you talk, we just want you to know that we are here for you to confide in and you can tell us anything that you’re feeling. If there’s anything that you want to get off your chest, specifically about Big Mac and Rainbow Dash dating, then you can unload on us,” Rarity said, adding a sweet little smile at the end.

I smiled in appreciation. “Alright, Rare. But nothing too heavy, okay? I’m sick of cryin’ in front of you two.”

She smiled again, laughing a little bit. “Of course, darling. You don’t even have to say anything about the matter if you don’t want to. Like I said, we just want you to feel comfortable talking to us.”

I agreed to hang out with them for a little while at Twilight’s place. We met up with the rest of the group after that, talked for a bit, and then when we decided to part ways, the three of us headed on our way to Twilight’s house where we would have our get-together.

~ ~ ~

At Twilight’s house, it started off as the study session that Rarity had promised but before long it turned into talking about my feelings again. I knew it would eventually, so I didn’t even bother complaining, I just didn’t want things to get too heavy. Besides, talking to both of them had helped before so maybe letting things out a little bit at a time would help me out.

“Applejack, I know you didn’t want to talk about this but… Have you thought about what you are going to do?” Rarity asked cautiously. We were all sitting at a wooden table in Twilight’s library. Twilight looked up from her homework, also waiting for an answer from me.

I fiddled with my pencil. Not quite knowing exactly what she was referring to, I asked, “About what?”

“About this whole thing. I firmly believed you needed to tell Rainbow about your feelings, but now that she and your brother are dating that might make things a bit… complicated,” Rarity said, lightly tapping her pencil eraser on her bottom lip.

I shrugged slightly. “There’s only one thing I can do. I have to keep it a secret still. Now that Big Mac and RD are dating, there’s no way I am going to try and break them up. That’s unfair to both of them and would be a very selfish thing for me to do to the two people whom I love more than anything. But you are right, Rarity. I do need to tell her eventually. And I will, but only if she and Big Mac break up. I just wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt of knowing that I caused some sort of rift in their relationship because of my feelings for her.”

Rarity looked at me and nodded. Twilight did the same, but she stayed quiet.

“I would expect nothing less of you dear…” Rarity said with a small smile. “I think that’s very respectful. It just kills me to still see you like this.”

I sighed. “I know but… There’s nothing I can do now. I was too late in deciding whether or not I would tell her, so I’ll just have to wait.”

I paused and thought for a bit. I furrowed my brow. “But even then, what if she is completely straight, like no interest in girls whatsoever? Wouldn’t it be better to just keep it in and save myself the embarrassment?”

This time, Twilight spoke. She shook her head. “No. I get where you’re coming from, but I think you’re looking at this the wrong way. It’s not about whether or not she has feelings for you too, or even girls in general. It’s about getting this load off your shoulders and just finally getting what you need to say out. Applejack, no matter what happens, she is your best friend and she will always be your best friend.”

Rarity nodded in agreement. “You can’t look at this in fear of what she is going to say when you confess. You need to think about yourself, Applejack. Keeping everything in will only hurt you more, and letting it out will only help you. I promise you, you have nothing to fear. Especially because it’s Rainbow Dash. Trust me, she wouldn’t ever judge you or hate you because of something like this.”

I took everything of what they said into consideration. Maybe they were right… Of course I wanted Rainbow Dash to return the feelings, but whether she did or didn’t it doesn’t matter… This thing that I’m doing to myself, constantly bottling up my feelings and hurting myself, it isn’t doing me any good…

And they were right. Rainbow Dash would never ever hate me for something like this. I suppose the confession could be a bit awkward but who cares…?

“Hey, I know of a way we can get rid of at least one of your worries, Applejack,” Rarity said.

I looked up. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re probably thinking that it would be easier to confess to her knowing whether or not she’s into girls, right?”

I thought about it. “Yeah… I guess that might make it a little easier.”

“Then let’s ask her!”

“Ask her?!” I exclaimed. “We can’t just straight up ask her if she likes girls!”

“Why not?” Twilight interjected.

“B-Because that’s awkward!” I said.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Fine. Then how about this? We can have another sleepover and Twilight can bring up Truth or Dare again, and I’ll make Rainbow Dash answer a Truth question and then I’ll ask her!”

I opened my mouth to respond, but when I thought about it, it was actually a really good idea. “Okay fine…” I finally gave in.

“Yeah! And it won’t be awkward because we ask each other a ton of weird stuff during Truth or Dare!” Twilight said.

I smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay!”

Rarity smiled contentedly and clapped her hands. “Good! Because I’ve been dying to know anyway ever since I met that girl.”

That got a laugh out of me and Twilight, and we soon went back to working on our homework. Twilight decided to text the others and arrange the sleepover. We all agreed on having it this weekend, and that it would be a costume party. Since this Halloween was on a Wednesday, we wouldn’t get to stay up very late, plus Trick-or-Treating wasn’t much fun for a group of older teenagers, so we all decided on having our own Halloween party. It all worked out quite perfectly!

~ ~ ~

Halloween itself was pretty boring. I personally did not dress up or do anything because I had to study for a pre-calc exam the next day. What kind of teacher assigns an exam the day after Halloween anyway? I wondered how many of the other girls were studying like I was, since we all had the same exam.

Twilight was for sure. Fluttershy probably was, as was Rarity, although I can see her slacking a bit. I highly doubted Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were studying. They were probably out at some party getting drunk. I hoped for their sake that they had at least studied a little bit…

I passed out candy for the first half of the night, but Grannie Smith and Big Mac handed out candy the rest of the night, knowing I had stuff to study for. As always, Applebloom had gone out Trick-or-Treating with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. All in all, it wasn’t a very lively Halloween.

However, our Halloween party that weekend definitely made up for it. I went as a pirate because it was easy to do, cheap, and I actually looked pretty good in it. I got to show off some of my stomach which, might I add, was pretty well-toned due to the work around the farm I did.

Pinkie brought a little booze that I guess was left over from Halloween night. She made all of us screwdrivers, apart from Fluttershy who doesn’t like to drink. Mine was a little more potent than I’d have preferred but I wanted to get a little tipsy tonight so I tried to ignore the taste.

As usual, nobody else was home in the Sparkle residence. Spike was at his own post-Halloween slumber party and Twilight said her parents were out again on a business trip. I had stopped wondering what these whole “business trips” were anyway. I hadn’t seen Twilight’s parents in a really long time; I almost started to wonder if it was just her living here and taking care of Spike. It definitely seemed possible, and I knew Twilight was more than capable of taking care of herself and Spike without any parents.

I decided that was Twilight’s business and focused on the party. After a little while of just talking and having fun, we decided to play King’s Cup. I was pretty familiar with the game, but Pinkie refreshed everyone on the rules anyway before we began. It was a fun game, and a quick way to get us all a little drunker— except Flutters who was just playing with soda. After a while, though, even she agreed to try a screwdriver with “very little” alcohol, as she had emphasized to Pinkie. Halfway through the game, Pinkie and Rainbow switched to harder alcohol, and Twilight and I decided to drink hard apple cider. Rarity took it upon herself to put even more vodka in her drink.

After time, our King’s Cup game was coming to an end— there were only about four or five cards left— and it was my turn. I picked up a random card and… I got a king.

“Crap!” I yelled, possibly a bit louder than I intended due to the alcohol. It was the fourth and final king which meant…

“Ha! Applejack has to drink the King’s cup!” Rainbow Dash snorted.

I shot her a look. Rainbow had gotten the first king and dumped her entire drink in there, which was a couple shots of whatever-the-hell brown stuff she was drinking. Whiskey or whatever. Twilight had gotten the second one and put some hard apple cider in the cup. And Pinkie had the third king, dumping in a couple shots worth of Fireball whiskey in there. This was going to be disgusting. And probably get me way drunker than I wanted to be.

I thought of just drinking it as quick as I could and make gagging noises to show the girls how much pain they put me through. But then I got a different idea after looking at Rainbow Dash’s stupid, smirking face…

Taking the King’s cup, I glared at Rainbow Dash, and chugged the entire cup— slowly—, keeping eye contact with Rainbow the whole time. Yes, it was friggin’ awful and it took all my willpower not to gag but I felt like a god when I finished that cup of sludge.

“Holy shit Applejack!” Rainbow Dash laughed in awe.

Rarity and Twilight were both staring wide-eyed at me, and Rarity mouthed, “Are you okay?” to me. I gave her a thumbs up, despite feeling like I was about to throw up.

Pinkie was giggling and snorting uncontrollably. “Oh man, Applejack! You’re awesome!”

Her adorable laugh made me smile and laugh a bit, though I accidentally snorted. Oh man, I was already starting to feel it. This is where I had to pretend to be more sober than I was.

Once we finished the last of the cards, we put away the deck and settled down a bit. Pinkie was still laughing, and Rainbow was smiling like an idiot. I probably was too. I could tell Rarity and Twi were a little drunk too, and Fluttershy could have been a little tipsy.

“Now that we’re all good and honest, let’s play Truth or Dare!” Rarity suggested loudly. Hehe, yeah she was drunk too.

“Come on, don’t you think we’re getting a lil’ old for that?” I slurred.

Rare shot me a look, which I didn’t understand at first. Oh yeah… This was for me. She was going to question Rainbow Dash.

“Well, I’ll go first since, besides Fluttershy, I’m the most sober one here,” Twilight said. Pinkie Pie, beside her, let out a loud laugh.

“Oh boy…” Twi said. “Okay, Pinkie. Truth or dare?”

“Umm… Truth!” Pinkie said.

“Hmm, okay. How many guys have you kissed?” Twilight asked.

“Hmm…” Pinkie pondered. “Seven, I think?”

“Wow, that’s kind of a lot,” Twi said with surprise. I was surprised too. I knew Pinkie had her first real make-out session in eighth grade, but I didn’t know since then how many she’d had. However, she might have just been counting little kisses too, not just make out sessions so I wasn’t really sure how to interpret her answer.

“Okay my turn!” Pinkie screeched. “Rarity! Truth or dare?”

“You know what? Dare,” Rarity said. I let out a tiny laugh. She never chose dare, especially coming from Pinkie.

“I dare you to kiss Applejack!”

What.

Rarity looked at me with wide eyes, and I returned the look. Suddenly, I burst out laughing. I have no idea if it was the fact that I was completely drunk, or that the very idea of kissing Rarity was just hilarious to me.

Suddenly, Rarity cupped my cheek with one hand and quickly came in to kiss me before I could react. I immediately stopped laughing when her lips touched mine and just sort of stared at her in surprise. I instinctively tried to pull away, but her hand kept me there. She let the kiss linger, before pulling away slowly. Everyone in the room was dead silent.

I blushed fiercely, as did Rarity. She huffed and ran a hand through her hair.

“There. Satisfied?” she asked haughtily.

“Oh my god. You actually did it!” Pinkie Pie burst out laughing, and basically started rolling on the ground.

“That was hot,” Rainbow Dash said. I blushed even more and shot her a look.

“Rarity, can you please go,” I grumbled.

“Gladly,” Rare said. “Rainbow Dash. Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” she answered immediately.

Rare rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. You always choose dare! Mix it up a little! I always choose truth, and I just chose dare so you have to choose something different too.”

“Ugh, fine,” Dash scoffed. “Truth.”

“Would you ever date a girl?” Rarity asked.

I held my breath. Here it comes…

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said casually and shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh,” Rarity said with surprise. “Well that was easy.”

Dash raised an eyebrow. “You guys know I’m bi, right?”

Nobody answered, and instead we shook our heads. Pinkie was still laughing, hanging onto Rainbow. I assumed she already knew. Her and Dash were pretty close, and I had no doubt that she would have already told Pinkie.

“Wait, I’ve never told you guys?” Rainbow Dash asked with confusion.

Twilight shrugged. “Nope.”

“Well, damn. I thought all of you knew. Yeah, I like both guys and girls,” Dash said.

“Well, I mean none of us are surprised,” Rarity said with a wry smile.

Dash smiled and shrugged. “I mean, I don’t really try to hide it.”

Trying to hide how god-damn relieved I was, I took a slow drink of my cider.

“So have you dated any girls?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Nah, but I made out with Vinyl Scratch once.”

I immediately sucked in air in surprise, but I just ended up breathing in a shit ton of apple cider, and coughed it all up. Fluttershy leaned over and patted my back while I was choking.

Rainbow Dash started laughing. “Oh man Applejack is wasted.”

“And so is my carpet…” Twilight frowned at the cider-soaked spot on her carpet. Pinkie let out a screeching laugh at her comment.

“I am not,” I growled once I stopped choking. In truth, I had never been as drunk as I was right then. I was amazed that I was still able to keep my balance throughout the whole game.

“Okay, dear. We’re going to stop drinking now…” Rarity said as she put one arm behind my back and took my drink with the other. I rested on her arm, glad to finally have something to lean against.

The others continued playing Truth or Dare, but I kind of zoned out and went into my thoughts as I leaned against Rarity’s arm. So, one of my questions had finally been answered tonight. Rainbow Dash does indeed like girls. So at least if I were to confess to her, I wouldn’t make a complete fool of myself.

My brief moment of happiness subsided when I remembered that her and my brother were dating. None of this would even matter if she kept dating Big Mac. Yeah, she liked girls, but she liked guys too. And more importantly, she liked my brother… More than me…

Before receding too far into my world of depression, I felt Rarity helping me get up and saw that the game had ended and everyone was going to sleep. Everything was basically a blur and the next thing I knew I was in a bed, and that’s all I needed to know. I glanced at the clock. It was a little past three in the morning. My eyes closed immediately after that and I fell asleep instantly.

Those Beautiful Magenta Eyes

by Upatree502

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14