> Appledash > by pegasister16 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > A sudden realisation > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1.) It was an Autumn day in Ponyville and Rainbow Dash trotted through the town with a smile. Everypony she met greeted her warmly. She saw many of her friends pass her by, yet none of them seemed to interest her. No, today she had her heart set on one pony- Applejack. She quickened her pace as she thought about Applejack. The more she thought about the golden coated mare, with her soft blonde mane and cute Stetson hat, the more she wanted to be near her. She couldn’t understand why she was suddenly having these feelings towards her friend. Sure, they were close, very close, but she was never THAT desperate to see her. Feelings aside though, she was still happy to see any of her friends, so she hurried on down to Sweet Apple Acres. Meanwhile, Applejack was busy towing the last cartful of apples into the barn. Winter was coming and there were few good apples left. If they wanted to make any profit over the next few months before winter wrap up they’d need to collect as many Apples to sell as possible. Each cart had natural preservatives sprayed on them using the secret apple family recipe so that they would last longer. “There we are! Ah reckon that’s about a whole barn full there!” Applejack smiled to herself. Winter was the season of warm apple pies and pastries- they usually went down well with the pony folk. All of a sudden, there was a flash of colour behind her, and out of nowhere stood Rainbow dash. Applejack spun round quickly. “Oh hey Rainbow dash! Ah didn’t see you there! Is there anythin’ ah can help you with?” “Hey Applejack!” Rainbow smiled, feeling almost excited being in the very presence of Applejack, “I was just wondering… umm… is there anything I can help you with…?” “Oh, well, ah was jus’ about to take off actually. But if you like, you can come with me an’ maybe help me buck a few extra apples?” “Haha, that’s what you call ‘taking off’?!... I mean… uh… sounds great, sure!” Dash said, realizing that teasing might not be the best approach with this mare. They walked slowly together up to the Apple family orchard. Applejack chatted away to Rainbow Dash about the history of the orchard. “This here apple orchard, all 10 acres, has been in mah family for, ah reckon, nearly 3 centuries! Mah Gran’pappy had it, and his gran’pappy, and his…” Rainbow Dash listened intently to every single word Applejack said. Gazing into her emerald green eyes as she spoke. Normally, this sort of thing bored her, but today, something was different. Talking to this beautiful mare, all by herself, she liked it. And then it hit her. She had a crush on Applejack. > Coming to terms with things. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2.) Rainbow Dash began to panic. Applejack? Seriously? She always knew she was a filly fooler. She had never had any attraction to the other stallions and colts. She would get teased in school because of this. Thankfully, all of her friends now knew about her sexuality and they were ok with it. But Dash never suspected that she'd fall for one of her best friends! Applejack stared at her for a minute. "You OK there sugarcube? You've been awful silent the whole way up." Rainbow suddenly realised how long she'd been gone. "Huh? Oh yeah!" She quickly shook her head. She was just imagining everything. It's not like Applejack was particularly attractive. What with her long blonde mane and her cute cowgirl hat. Not to mention those adorable freckles on her cheeks. She wanted to reach out, to touch them... "RAINBOW!" Applejack said again, "You've been staring at me like that for ages now... you ok?" Dash quickly shook the thoughts out of her head. She wasn't going to let them ruin her day. "Oh, yeah I'm fine! Sorry AJ, I spaced out there for a minute I guess!" She said, blushing slightly. "Good! Because your gonna need all the energy you can get! We still got 12 more trees to buck! I was gonna leave 'em 'cos the apples on 'em are a little soft. But now your here, I got an extra helpin' hoof!" "A little soft?" Dash asked, plucking an apple from a tree. Most of the bad apples had fallen from the trees amongst the Autumn leaves, but this apple had stayed on. It was still ripe and crunchy. "They're perfect! ...just like you..." "Uh... come again?" Applejack said looking a mixture of confused and embarrassed. "I said um... They're perfect! There was no need to leave them!" "Oh, ok... that's what I thought y'all said... alrighty! Lets get started!!" The two ponies spent the rest of the afternoon collecting apples. Applejack kicking them off the trees with her back hooves, and Rainbow Dash flying around catching them in buckets. By the end, they had twice as many apples then Applejack had expected they would collect. "Ah'll get Big Macintosh to collect them later in the cart, just leave 'em buckets on the hillside." Applejack said smiling. Rainbow Dash loved the way AJ smiled. She was so cute so- "Come on Rainbow Dash, lets be going!" They headed off down the hill back towards the barn. Rainbow Dash knew she should be flying off to go and collect Scotaloo from The Crusader's tree house, but for some reason she wanted to stay a little while longer, just to be with this entrancing mare. "It's turned mighty chilly tonight, 'ey Dash?" "Here, I'll warm you up!" Dash giggled, wrapping her arms round AJ's shoulders and rubbing up and down. Applejack laughed and they began to playfight rolling down the hill in the twilight hours. They laughed and shrieked as they rolled faster and faster. They landed at the bottom of the hill, Rainbow Dash lying on top of Applejack. Both of them were covered in mud and leaves, and both were heaving to get their breath back. They gazed deep into eachothers eyes for what seemed like hours. Rainbow had to use all of her strength to keep from kissing her tempting, soft lips. She stared a little while longer. "Well, ah should really be goin' it's gettin' awfully dark. Applebloom had a detention after school for missin' some homework, an' ah'm sure you'd better be gettin' to Scootaloo-" "AJ. I don't know if you feel the same way but... I have a crush on you." "Oh... Rainbow Dash... 'ah... 'ah really gotta go..." And with that she pushed Rainbow away and rushed downhill towards the farm. Dash looked on after her in sadness, part of her wanted to go after her, but she knew she should just leave her alone. With a huge feeling of sadness and embarrassment, she flew away to pick up her baby sister. > Who am I...? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3.) Big Macintosh sighed as Applejack sped past him crying. Mares. He could never understand them. "Ah guess ah'll have to go pick up Applebloom from school then!" he cried after her. With that he left the barn grumbling to himself as he did so. Applejack sat on her bed for a very long time. She just sat there thinking. Replaying the scene in her head over and over again. Rainbow Dash standing above her smiling, her magenta eyes sparkling as she said it; 'I have a crush on you....'. Applejack running away and breaking Rainbow Dashes heart. She was distraught. Was she attracted to colts? Not really. Filles? She wasn't sure. Rainbow Dash wasn't ugly, and it wasn't like they wouldn't make a cute couple. Applejack knew what the real issue lay in herself. She was afraid. Afraid to accept that she was a filly fooler. Afraid that she wasn't good enough. But most of all, she was afraid of loosing Rainbow Dashes friendship. Applejack looked at the photo's on her nightstand. One was of the apple family standing proudly outside their orchard. Another was at one of Pinkie Pie's parties, but her favourite was of herself and Rainbow Dash lying on the ground at the fall weather friends competition. She laughed at how foolish they were back then, and how much they had fought. In the picture Dash had just tackled her and they were on the floor fighting. Because of their anger toward each other they had lost the race. Everypony else had beaten them! Applejack didn't want to fight with Rainbow Dash again. She just couldn't let it happen. So, summoning all of her strength together, she stood up off her bed and went to find Rainbow and apologise. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash sat on her soft cloud bed and cried into her pillow. She had forgotten how long she had been there. Was it hours? Days? Weeks? Dash had no clue, and what's more, she didn't care. She never wanted to leave her bedroom. She hadn't eaten anything for a while but she wasn't hungry. She just sat and sobbed. She pulled a picture of Applejack off the wall and sighed. She was so embarrassed. She should have known confessing her feelings was a bad idea. Suddenly there was a knock at her door. "Umm Rainbow Dash? I thought I might bring you something to eat, you know, to cheer you up a little!" "Oh, uhh, thanks Scootaloo, just leave it on my nightstand." She sniffed. "Do you want to talk about what's bothering you...?" Scootaloo hesitated to ask. "No, Scoots, I'm fine, REALLY." Dash said, a little crossly. "...You sure...?" "NO SCOOTALOO. GET OUT!" Rainbow yelled, throwing a pillow at her baby sister, before continuing to wallow in her own self pity. "I WAS ONLY TRYING TO HELP!" Scootaloo cried, before running out of the room. Dash felt guilty about yelling at Scootaloo, but she would make it up to her later, if she could ever summon herself to get out of her bed... > On or off? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4.) Applejack was about to go outside when she was stopped by someone. "An where do ya think y'all are goin' at this hour? Applejack, you been whimperin' in your room for 3 and a half hours now! It's one in ther mornin'!" Granny Smith exclaimed. Applejack stopped dead. "Haha... oh... yeah, ah guess I should keep track of mah timin', sorry Granny Smith, ah'll do my uh... thing in the mornin' then!" Applejack hurried off to bed without another word. She was an adult now, not a little filly, but Granny Smith just didn't see her that way, plus she was tough- if anypony thought she was senile, they had better think again! Applejack curled up into her bed, feeling a mix of emotions. The last thing she saw was a photo of Rainbow Dash. "Don't worry Dashie, we'll figure somethin' out, ah promise." And with that her eyelids fluttered closed and she drifted off to sleep... "MORNIN' SLEEPY HEAD!!" Applejack woke up with a start, something was jumping up and down on top of her duvet! "Applebloom! What the heck are y'all doin' here?! Can't ya see ah need some sleep?" "Well... Big Macintosh told me that you're takin' me to school today seein' as he had to pick me up from school las' night." came her sheepish reply. "Urrgh! Sorry Applebloom, ah completely forgot! Remind me that ah owe Big Macintosh." "Uh... ok. Now hurry up or ah'll be late for school!" Applejack hurriedly dropped Applebloom off at school. She needed to leave quickly- she had buisiness to attend to. "Applejack...?" a friendly faced magenta coloured pony with a fluffy pink mane stood behind her. "Oh! Mornin' Miss Cheerilee, sorry ah can't stay an' chat today ah'm runnin' a bit behind schedule on the farm an ah-" "Oh Applejack! You look terrible! Did you have a rough night?" "Erm... well.... ya'll could say that ah suppose..." "Will you be alright?" "Yes siree! Nothin' a little extra sleep an' a shower won't fix!" "Oh.. ok... if you're sure..." "Yes, thank ye! Ah'll be seeing you later!" "Alrighty then, take care!" Applejack sighed, Cheerlilee was nice, but Applejack didn't have time for her. She needed to fix things up- fast! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack ran through Ponyville as fast as her hooves could carry her. She knew one pony who was intelligent enough to help her with her problems- Twilight. Twilight sat in her library amoung countless numbers of books. Spike was dusting the bookshelves and she was trying to come up with some ideas of a letter she could write to the Princess this week. The perfect idea had just come into her head when out of the blue, an orange pony came crashing through her door. "AHHH!!! Applejack!" Twilight screamed as Applejack came skidding through her library, knocking piles of books flying. The pony skidded to a halt before clumsily falling over at the unicorn's feet. She quickly adjusted her cowgirl hat before speaking, "Sorry Twilight, ah'll clean it up, ah swear! But there's somethin' ah'm gonna need help with first... if ya'll don't mind...?" Twilight sighed, "Fine. What do you want?" So Applejack explained the whole situation to her, about how Rainbow Dash had confessed that she had a crush on her, about how she had just left her without even giving her a proper reply. "Oh Applejack! You shouldn't have run away like that! What are you going to do?" "Ah don't know..." Applejack sniffed. "Well... do you like her...?" "Oh of course I do Twilight! I've had a crush on her since the moment we met!" "Well why did you run away then?!" Twilight said, sounding more and more confused. "Speakin' truthfully Twilight... I don't know if ah'm ready to accept the fact that ah'm a filly fooler." Applejack flushed bright red. "Oh Applejack, we love you either way! It's okay with us if you go out with Rainbow Dash!" Twilight said comfortingly. "Really? Oh ah've been such a fool!" "Well, you need to go and find Rainbow Dash and confess your feelings for her!" > True feelings > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 5.) The next day Applejack woke up bright and early. She stopped off at the flower shop on the way to Twilight's house to buy a bouqet of flowers for Rainbow Dash. She was nervous and excited at the same time. She was really hoping Rainbow Dash would forgive her. She arrived at Twilight's house at 8:00 sharp. "Oh hi Applejack!" Spike answered the door, "Those flowers for me?" he asked hopefully. "Sorry loverboy! They ain't!" Applejack laughed, "Is Twilight here, 'cos ah-" She was cut short by a voice at the side of the library. "I'm over here!" Twilight shouted in excitment. Applejack and Spike turned their heads to the left to see Twilight floating in a hot air baloon. "What in they hay are y'all doin' in there?!" Applejack exclaimed. "Rainbow Dash lives in cloadsdale, remember? You're going to need to go up in this to get to her!" Applejack gulped, "Um... uh... okay...!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "How the hay do ah fly this thing!" yelled Applejack as the hot air baloon swerved side to side in mid air. The baloon did a massive loop and she nearly fell out! "Haha... ah meant to do that!" She yelled to staring passers by. However, after a lot of practice, Applejack got the hang of flying. She expertly flew up to Dashes cloud home in cloudsdale.With a gulp, Applejack flew over and knocked on the front door. Scootaloo quickly came and answered it. "Oh Applejack! Thank goodness you're here! Rainbow Dash hasn't left the house for days now! I'm really worried about her!" Guilt began forming in the pit of Applejack's stomuch. This was all her fault. "Hey... maybe you could let me in to talk to her... you know, see what's up with her an' such?" "Ok, I was just heading off to school anyway, see ya!" AJ waved a quick goodbye to Scootaloo before stepping into Rainbow Dashes house. It was brightly coloured and very homey. Applejack went up the stairs and saw Rainbow Dashes room almost instantly. All over the bedroom door were pictures of the 'Wonderbolts'. AJ knew how much Rainbow Dash longed to join them. It made her smile, it was kind of sweet, she thought. She hesitated a moment before knocking on the door. "Ugh! What is it NOW Scootaloo?" She heard a moody voice from behind the door. The door opened and there stood Rainbow Dash. Her Magenta eyes were puffy and swollen from crying, her choppy rainbow hair was a bird's nest. She stood and stared at Applejack for a minute. "Oh... it's you. Well, what do you want?" She said angrily. Applejack stood and stared blankly for a second. She hadn't planned this out at all! What on earth was she thinking? "I uh... I came to apologise!" She said, holding a crumpled boquet of flowers out to Rainbow Dash. "Oh... thanks... I guess. But there's no need to apologise! You don't love me, simple as that!!" "But Dashie, ah do! The only reason ah ran away that night is because ah was shocked, an' ah couldn't accept the fact that ah was a filly fooler!" "And just what's so bad about that?! I had to put up with homophobes like you in cloud school too! What does the world have against me?!" With that Rainbow Dash broke down and cried. "Nothin' suagrcube." Applejack said, holding her close, "Absolutely nothin'." Dash looked into her friend's green eyes and held her gaze. Slowly, she inched forward and kissed her. Applejack kissed back- with passion. > Finally together. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 6.) "W-wait... are you sure you want to do this...? This isn't because you pity me... is it?" Rainbow asked, feeling slightly unsure. "Dashie, ah am the element of honesty, an ah want to do this, with you, and you alone." Applejack's reassuring smile was all Dash needed to see. With that she kissed her again and they fell on the bed. Laughing, they carressed each other and began rolling around on the bed. They had never been happier. 20 minutes later... The two ponies lay together in blissful silence. After a long moment of holding each other, Rainbow Dash finally broke away. "Ok Applejack," She breathed, "That was awesome, I forgive you." Applejack laughed, "Good, but what do y'all think this means for us? Where do we go from here?" Dash kissed AJ softly then broke away, "Well... I have a crush on you, and you have a crush on me... what do you think?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack and Rainbow Dash walked through Ponyville together. It was time to come out and tell everyone they were dating. Rainbow Dash was fine with this, but Applejack was afraid. What if everypony rejected her? After all, she had heard what some of her family and friends had said about same gender couples- and it wasn't very nice. But she knew she had to do it. "Come on Rainbow, there's somepony who's helped me a lot through all this an' ah think she needs to know firsthand." Twilight was delighted, "I'm so so happy for you guys!! This is great! And you're just so perfect for each other!" She started jumping up and down in excitement and squeeing. The two mares just stared at eachother awkwardly. "Okee dokey then... Twi... we got lots of ponies to see about this so we'll catch ya later..." Rainbow Dash said as they both backed slowly out of the room. When the Apple family found out they were very supportive. Big Macintosh hugged his sister for a long time. "I'm so sorry ah doubted you sis. Ah thought you were jus' being mareish when you ran into your room that night. I guess ah should've gone after you..." "That's alright. You sure you're ok with this...?" Applejack asked hesitantly. "Eeyup!" Big Mac said with a grin. Pinkie Pie's reaction to the news was the best. She squee'd and said; "OHMYGAWRSHICAN'TBELIEVEIT!!IMEANIKNOWYOUTWOWEREGOODFRIENDSANDEVERYTHINGBUTINEVEREXPECTEDTHIS!!!!! THIS CALLS FOR A PARTYYYY!!!!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thankfully they understood most of what she said and the next day they had a massive party. Applejack was surprised at how supportive the citizens of Ponyville were. Some of Dashes old 'acquaintances' from cloud school were there too. "So uhmm... Rainbow Cra- Rainbow Dash, we're all really sorry about how we were to you in high school... your relationship with Applejack is actually kind of...sweet." One of the colts said to her. "That was very big of you, and at least I'm in a relationship, unlike you!" Rainbow laughed. She decided that one small apology wasn't going to make up for years of torture in cloud school. But at least she was bigger than the bullies now. The party drew to a close and the couple were asked to go onto the stage. "I've never really been good at speeches..." Rainbow Dash began, "But I wanted to thank you all for being so supportive and-" She was cut off short by Applejack- who had drunk a little too much. "Oh blah blah blah! Gimme some sugar!" And with that they had a long kiss on stage. Rainbow Dash was embarrassed but she didn't stop, this was of course, the mare she loved. > Twilight's letter to the Princess. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Epilogue- Twilight's letter. The party was over and Twilight rested in her library. She suddenly remembered that she still hadn't written a letter to the Princess! Luckily, she knew just what to write about. "Spike! Take a note." Spike sighed, "Ok Twilight. Make it quick." "Dear Princess Celestia, Sometimes you can be unsure of yourself. This week something important happened to Applejack- she accepted herself. It took her a while, and as a result; she nearly lost someone very close to her. Sometimes it's important to be true to yourself to get the things you really want. Accept yourself and others will accept you too! Your faithful student, -Twilight Sparkle."