> All I Wanted
>  by AJtheRaven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> All I Wanted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

       Rainbow Dash hurtled towards the ground over the east orchard of Sweet Apple Acres, her wings tucked close to her body, her cheeks rippling from the g-force. Power rippled through her muscles as she gritted her teeth, urging herself to fly faster. The colors of the rainbow flashed before her eyes as the cone of light that signaled the beginning of a Sonic Rainboom began to flicker into existence. Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, orange. 
Wait. Were there supposed to be two oranges?
Rainbow blinked and forced her watering eyes to peer past the shimmering colors forming around her sleek body, searching for the other flash of orange that she had seen. 
There. A short distance away, Applejack was standing in the middle of the orchard, sorting through a barrel of crisp, shiny apples. Either she hadn't noticed Rainbow yet or was studiously ignoring her. Although the second option was certainly a possibility, Rainbow decided to assume the former, because Applejack tended not to notice anything or anypony else when she was working. You could wave one of Rarity's frou-frou dresses in front of her and she wouldn't even bat an eyelid. 
Dash's lips curled in a smile. The Sonic Rainboom could wait. This opportunity was too good to miss. 
"Heads up!" she called, even though she knew it was far too late for Applejack to dodge, despite her incredible reflexes.
Applejack glanced up, her eyes widening. "What th' -"
Rainbow pulled out of her Rainboom at the last possible second and used her momentum to slam into the orange farmpony, wrapping her hooves around her midsection and locking their back legs together. 
The pair of them tumbled across the orchard for a good twenty feet, kicking up a roiling cloud of dust around them, before finally coming to a halt at the base of a wizened apple tree in a heap of cyan and orange. Applejack's hooves were wrapped around Rainbow's chest as tightly as Rainbow's were wrapped around hers, probably due to sheer shock. Her golden-blonde tail was curling over the pegasus's back, and her mane had come undone, wavy strands of it intertwining with Rainbow's own polychromatic tresses. Her freckles were stark white against her orange coat, as per usual when she was startled. 
"Did you see that?" Rainbow giggled from her proud perch atop AJ's strong, warm, slightly dusty body. "I was about to do a Sonic Rainboom but then I bailed cause I saw you and thought it was, like, the best opportunity ever, and then BOOM! I crashed into you and we skidded twenty feet! You shoulda seen the look on your face..." Still smirking, she rested her head against Applejack's neck and then glanced up in surprise. "Oh, wait. You're still here."
A pair of bright-green, furious eyes stared back at her. "Ah should say Ah am!" Applejack snorted in her pronounced country accent. "Ya dagblamed pegasus, what in th' hay do ya mean by comin' in here and scarin' th' livin' daylights outta me?! Ah was workin'!" Rainbow Dash could feel Applejack's chest heaving with fury beneath her. 
"Work, smhurk," Rainbow scoffed airily, waving a hoof. "I mean, all you do is work. What about spending time with your best friend?"
"Well, Winona has her own work t' do too, ya know," Applejack protested, a hint of a mischievous twinkle in her eye. 
"Hey!" 
"Jus' teasin, jus' teasin'." In a rather deft move, Applejack slipped out from underneath Rainbow Dash and rolled over so that Dash was beneath her. Applejack was quite a bit smaller than Rainbow Dash, but she was sure as hay a lot more agile. "Now, what do ya have t' say fer yoreself?" Her grass-green eyes were stern, but the corners of her mouth were twitching. 
"Um, your mane smells good?" Rainbow suggested hopefully. 
Applejack rolled her eyes and sharply swatted Rainbow's stomach with her tail. "No. Ah meant an apology."
"Oh, like a 'sorry'?" Dash scrunched up her muzzle. "Eh. I don't think so." She reached out a hoof and gently brushed Applejack's withers, one of her few ticklish spots. As Applejack whooped with surprise and then involuntarily convulsed with laugher, Rainbow took advantage of her momentary distraction and rolled out from underneath Applejack's body. She got to her hooves and ruffled her wings. "Whew.  One point to me. Rainbow Dash - one, Applesnack - zero!"
"Oh, shut yore gob." Frowning, Applejack rolled her powerful shoulders, glancing with disdain at her loose mane. "Look, ya made mah mane come undone."
"Casualty of war." Rainbow winked. 
Applejack raised her hind legs threateningly as if preparing to buck Rainbow in the face. "Ya wanna see a real casualty o' war?"
"Think I'll pass." Cocking her head, Rainbow stared up at the position of the sun. It was still fairly early on in the afternoon. "I have some time before my afternoon nap. You want me to help around the farm?" Truth be told, this question was prompted only by her feeling of guilt for her tackle earlier, as epic as it may have been.
Applejack's eyes brightened. "Ya mean it?" 
"Sure I do." Rainbow bent down and used her teeth to pick up Applejack's hat from where it had fallen during their tumble. "I'm a mare of my word."
"An' what word is that? Awesome?" Applejack fired back wittily, her eyes glinting with mischief and her muzzle creased in a sly grin. Bantering with Rainbow Dash was always entertaining.
"You betcha." Rainbow trotted a little closer and settled Applejack's Stetson atop her ruffled bangs, unobtrusively sniffing in Applejack's heady apples-and-nutmeg-and-earth scent. She smelled like hard work. Her magenta gaze roved over Applejack's face, taking in every detail. The faint sheen of sweat that creased her brow; the freckles that were splashed across her nose; the vibrant emerald irises, flecked with barely visible streaks of gold that glittered like little pieces of the sun if you looked hard enough.  
Those same jade eyes stared back at her, soulful and full of warm strength, only an inch away from Rainbow's face. Rainbow's heart seemed to miss a beat. She hadn't been this close to Applejack in a long, long time...
When Rainbow was a filly, Applejack had been her best friend. But when Rainbow was a teenager, Applejack had been, well... the mare of her dreams. 
Yes, Applejack had been everything that Rainbow Dash had ever wanted out of life. She was the only mare in town who could even hope to compete with Rainbow's awesomeness. She was loyal, kind, understanding, and funny. Not to mention hotter than the sun itself (don't tell Celsestia). 
But then life had happened. Rainbow had gone back to Cloudsdale to attend Flight School, while Applejack had remained in Ponyville and undertaken the burden of caring for the family farm. Rainbow had convinced herself that her crush on Applejack had been nothing more than a passing fancy and left it at that. Besides, AJ had never given the slightest indication that she was anything but straight. Even when she finally did return to Ponyville, a fully-fledged adult, Applejack had only been her best friend. No romantic feelings there. 
Or so she had thought. Now, standing so close to Applejack, Rainbow's pulse began to race, and her throat felt dry. Surely... surely she hadn't still been in love with Applejack all this time. Right?
"Sugarcube? Yore mouth's been flappin' like a fish's fer more'n a minute now."
Dash yelped with surprise and hastily snapped her jaw shut so hard that she nearly bit her tongue. "What? Staring at you? No way! I mean - er, flapping my mouth? I - I don't think I was doing that... heh..." She made a sad attempt at a casual chuckle. 
"Well... if ya say so." Clearly, Applejack didn't want to argue the point any longer; she was impatient to get back to work. You could see it in the way she was shifting her weight from hoof to hoof. "Now look, Ah got a lot of stuff t' do..." She blew a few strands of flaxen mane out of her eyes. 
Fortunately, Rainbow Dash took the hint. "Oh, um, okay. What do you want me to do?"
"Well, fer starters, don' fly at me from the sky like somethin' possessed no more. An' second, Ah need some help sortin' th' good apples from th' bad uns. Why don't ya jus' follow me..." She spun in a circle and trotted off, her tail swishing lazily behind her. 
Rainbow, however, was rooted to the spot. As she stared dumbly at Applejack's ash blonde mane rippling around her shoulders beneath her trademark cowpony hat, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was making a huge mistake....
Of course. Of course. 
Rainbow Dash knew what she needed to do. 
A wave of nervousness churned in her stomach. She forced it down and stepped forwards on a mad impulse, holding her head high. "Applejack. Wait."
"Yeah, R.D.?" Applejack glanced over her shoulder, streaks of sunlight reflecting off her mane and making it shine like a curtain of pure gold. 
The pegasus took a deep breath. There was no backing down now. "Um, well... it's Hearts and Hooves day in a week."
"Ah know. Rarity ain't been able t' stop talkin' about it fer a whole month now. What's your point?"
"Well..." Rainbow shuffled her hooves awkwardly and stared down at her hooves. "I was wondering i-if you'd like to be... my special somepony." 
A thick, oppressive silence fell over the air. Rainbow, feeling almost stifled by her embarrassment, wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Surely Applejack was now trying to figure out the most polite way to reject her. 
But when she finally dared to look up, Applejack didn't look angry, or even shocked. In fact, was that... happiness shining in her eyes?
Applejack trotted slowly back to Rainbow and swept off her hat, holding it against her chest and scuffing the ground with her forehooves in a manner that could almost be described as shy. Although her eyes were bright with joy, her manner was still hesitant. "Darlin', Ah can't lie. Ah think - Ah think Ah've been in love with ya fer a while now."
"Whoo-hoo!" Ecstatic, Rainbow shot up into the air and performed a couple of lightning-fast flips. "Yes!" Then she abruptly halted and flew back down to the ground as a thought struck her. "Hang on, why didn't you tell me earlier? We could have been dating ages ago."
"Ah - Ah dunno. Ah was... scared, Ah guess. Ah mean, this ain't the kinda thing ya jus' tell somepony without givin' it some deep thought, first."
"Of course you can just tell somepony," Rainbow snorted. "I did, didn't I?"
"Yeah, an' Ah'm willin' t' bet it was after a good five years of deliberation. Am Ah right?"
That stopped Dash in her tracks. Applejack knew her too well. "Alright, alright, laugh it up."
"Mighty kind o' ya t' offer. But Ah want t' finish tellin' ya first." Her forehead creased in thought, Applejack continued to speak in her slow, deliberate way. "Ah kinda figured ya wouldn't like me back. Ah mean, after Ah saw ya checkin' out that one stallion at th' Wonderbolts show -"
"Soarin," Rainbow interjected. "Also, I wasn't checking him out. Well, I was, but not 'cause I thought he was hot. It was just because he was a Wonderbolt. And, to be honest, I kinda figured you wouldn't like me either."
"Rainbow, honey, Ah can't remember a day when Ah looked at a stallion harder'n Ah did a mare. Ya jus' never asked, is all."
"Well, neither did you," the cyan pegasus pointed out cleverly. 
"Touché." Rainbow opened her mouth again, probably to compliment her own awesomeness, but Applejack reached out and shoved a hoof in her mouth. "Jus' listen. What Ah'm tryin' t' say, Rainbow, is that Ah'd be honored t' be yore date this Hearts an' Hooves Day."
"You... you would?" Rainbow whispered disbelievingly. Somehow, despite everything that Applejack had just told her, she hadn't really thought this moment was going to happen. 
"As sure as shootin'." A faint blush had risen to Applejack's cheeks, but her eyes were sparkling. "There's jus' one thing ya gotta do first."
Rainbow's grin faded. "Oh, horsefeathers. Don't tell me I have to go have a talk with Big Mac before I can date you. He's gonna crush me!"
"Don' be silly. No, ya have to ask me th' right way first."
Wait, what? Dash blinked. "Um, I thought I just did ask you? 'Will you be my special somepony?' I'm pretty sure that's a question."
"Technically, ya stated it," Applejack reminded her. "But that ain't important. Dash, yore mah best friend. An' Ah'd trust ya with jus' about anythin'. But this is mah future ya got in yore hooves. If this date goes well, it could lead t' another an' then another and then another an' then who knows what else? Mah point bein' that if Ah'm gonna trust ya t' be mah marefriend, yore gonna have t' prove that ya can be a good one. Ah don' jus' wanna be some trophy for ya t' show off. Ah wanna be sure Ah mean more t' ya than that. An' so if ya wanna take me on this first date, yore gonna have t' ask me right."
"What?" Rainbow exploded. "What are you talking about? Applejack, I know you're traditional, but this is ridiculous. I already asked you, and you accepted! And of course you mean a lot to me! You're my whole world! I - I don't know what else I can -"
"Dash. Dash, calm down." Applejack stepped closer and wrapped her hooves around Rainbow's neck, pressing their foreheads together. "It's th' easiest thing in Equestria. Ah jus' wanna hear ya say somethin' real simple. An' once ya say it, Ah'm yores. Hearts an' Hooves Day is a week from today. Seven days. That's plenty o' time fer ya to think about it. Alraght?"
"But..."
"Please, darlin'," Applejack murmured, closing her eyes. "Fer me."
Rainbow growled, frustrated. She could never say no to Applejack when she adopted that low, begging tone. Or ever, really. "Okay. I'll try."
"That's mah gal. Tryin's half th' thing, ya know." Applejack flashed her a smile. 
"If you say so." Rainbow smiled back. "Well, I guess I should go and think about this then... catch you later!" Her wings rippled with power as she rose into the air and - 
"AAAAACK!"
Applejack bit down hard on her polychromatic tail and yanked her out of the sky. "Now hold on a pony-pickin' minute," she scolded her firmly, spitting out her tail and planting a hoof on her chest. "Ya promised t' help me on th' farm and yore not gettin' out o' it. You can think later. Fer right now, there are plenty o' apple buckets with yore name on 'em, missy."
Rainbow Dash winced and gingerly rubbed her tail. "Geez, AJ. Gentle much?"
"Not when yore around." Applejack stood back and let her get to her hooves. "Now come on. Time t' buckle down an' git started."
Shaking her head ruefully, Rainbow flicked her a tail a couple of times to make sure that she could still move it and then followed Applejack deeper into the orchard. 

***

DAY ONE:

Next morning, Rainbow trotted briskly over to the front door of Sweet Apple Acres and knocked sharply. It opened within a few seconds and Applejack popped her head out, looking adorable in a faded white apron, bearing a smudge of flour on her muzzle. Or powdered sugar. Whatever it was, Rainbow wanted to lick it off. "Good mornin' an' welcome t' Sweet Apple Acres, how can Ah help ya - oh, Dash! Gosh, yore here early." Indeed, Rainbow Dash had made an effort to impress her by getting up before dawn, knowing that Applejack admired a pony who could show their commitment by waking up early. 
Rainbow cracked up. "Oh Celestia, you sounded like Twilight!"
Applejack flushed a deep red. "Shaddup. There ain't nothin' wrong with bein' polite."
"Yeah, except when you sound like one of those telephone people that you call to complain about stuff to."
"Says th' mare who looks like one o' them fancy butlers. Nice tuxedo ya got there... rose in th' buttonhole an' all. An' did ya slick yore mane back?"
Now it was Applejack's turn to laugh. 
Dash bore the indignity in reluctant silence. "Alright, can I please just do what I came here for already?"
Applejack wiped away a tear of mirth. "Ah'm listenin'. Go ahead, shoot."
Rainbow took a deep breath and withdrew a very fancy, very expensive heart-shaped box of chocolates from behind her back. "Will you be my date for Hearts and Hooves Day?"
Applejack eyed the box flatly. "Rainbow, Ah don' even like chocolate."
"Holy Luna are you kidding me?!" Rainbow shot forwards and grasped Applejack's forehooves pleadingly. "Okay, first of all, who doesn't like chocolate? And second, do you know how much this thing cost?"
Disappointment flickered in Applejack's eyes as her mood suddenly swung from cheerful to downcast. "Look, Ah gotta go," she declared brusquely. "Ah'm makin' breakfast. Come back tomorrow." Without waiting for a response, she slammed the door in Rainbow's face. 
The pegasus flinched and turned to leave, feeling dejected, after a few moments of waiting to make sure that Applejack really wasn't coming back. What had she done wrong? Well, apart from not checking to make sure that she liked chocolate, of course. 
Seriously, how had she been Applejack's best friend for so many years without knowing that she didn't like chocolate?
The chocolates... Rainbow groaned and smacked her forehead. "Oh, I'm a bucking idiot." When Applejack had told her that she didn't like chocolate, instead of apologizing, Rainbow had complained about the price. That was it. She'd been selfish. 
"Stupid, stupid, stupid..." She unfurled her wings and soared into the sky, cursing her own idiocy. She was going to have to return tomorrow with something really special to make up for this. 
Rainbow shrugged to herself. Oh, well. Then, in one fluid motion, she plucked off the box's lid and shoveled all of the chocolates into her mouth at once. At least now they wouldn't go to waste. 

***

DAY TWO:

Curled up on top of a cloud, Rainbow waited with bated breath for Applejack to come to the front door. A few seconds ago,  the pegasus had left a thin, rectangular package on the doorstep of Sweet Apple Acres, rung the doorbell, and shot up into the sky so that she could watch the scene unfold from above. 
The door opened and Applejack stuck her head out, holding a half-eaten apple in one hoof, her eyes darting left and right before finally settling on the package at her hooves. Scrunching her eyebrows suspiciously, she picked up the package and ripped it open with her teeth to reveal a framed and signed poster of Rainbow Dash as a member of the Wonderbolts reserve team, sitting proudly amidst a horde of other Wonderbolts members.  
Applejack stared at the poster in silence, her eyebrow twitching. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, couldn't take it any longer and burst out of her cloud, zooming down to the ground and skidding to a stop in front of the farm pony. "Isn't it awesome?!" she squealed, her eyes shining with unshed tears of joy. "That was the best day of my life! I got to rub elbows with the actual honest-to-Celestia Wonderbolts for the first time!! And then Spitfire personally gave me this poster!!! It was kinda a big sacrifice to give it to you, since it's, like, my most prized possession, so, um, you're totally welcome, but - OW!" 
Applejack had just thrown what remained of her apple at Rainbow's head, her mouth set in a thin, unamused line. "Are you crazy?" Rainbow shrieked, massaging her forehead after the apple smashed into it and then bounced away onto the ground behind her. "What the hay?! What was that for?"
"That was fer you bein' a goshdarn fool!" Steam was practically rising out of AJ's ears, and her eyes glinted with fury. "Dash, jus' stop an' think fer a moment. Yore comin' here t' try to prove that ya care about me, by givin' me a giant framed poster o' yoreself? Ya always have t' play t' th' gallery, don'tcha."
Rainbow didn't quite know what that last comment meant, but she suspected it wasn't a compliment. She did, however, understand everything else. Her ears drooped and she lowered her head, her enthusiasm suddenly quenched, realizing that she had messed up yet again. This time, she'd been more focused on showing off than on getting Applejack a meaningful gift. "I didn't think about it like that," she murmured quietly. "I... I just wanted to make up for the chocolate yesterday by getting you something really awesome. I guess I got carried away."
Applejack's eyes softened a little. "Aww, Rainbow, Ah'm sorry. Ah shouldn't have said any o' that. Ah'm just a little... surprised, is all. Ah thought ya woulda figured it out by now. Ah promise it's easier'n ya think, sugarcube."
Rainbow sighed, her tail drooping. "If you say so."
"Ah do. An' since when have Ah ever been wrong?"
A spark of mischief suddenly flared in Dash's eyes. "Well, how about that time when -"
"Don' answer that question." Applejack stepped forwards and placed a comforting hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "Jus' go home an' think a little more, alraght? Ah know ya can do this."
"Thanks, AJ," the cyan pegasus muttered. The vote of confidence was reassuring. A tiny bit. Flicking her tail, she shot up into the sky, her flight patterns lacking their usual showiness in her disappointment. "See ya later." 
Applejack watched her go and then, after making sure that nopony was watching her, picked up the poster with her teeth and gently dragged it inside the farmhouse. Sure, it hadn't been what she was looking for, but she still thought that Rainbow looked incredibly hot in it. 

***

DAY THREE:

Rainbow Dash sucked in a huge breath, released it, and then launched into her monologue. "Hi Applejack I thought about yesterday and I realized all of my gifts were pretty selfish, and I remembered that what you were looking for is proof that I care about you and not just me, and so I bought you something - well, I bought it for me too, but that's 'cause I thought we could go together - I got us two tickets to go see The Star Mare tonight, you know, that really popular musical in Manehatten, that one you said you wanted to go see a few months ago...  and I thought we could maybe go out for dinner first, and then we could go stargazing or something after, and it's gonna be the best night of our lives! Whaddya say?"
Applejack cleared her throat apologetically. "Real sweet an' all, sugarcube, but... Ah have a farmin' conf'rence Ah can't miss tonight."
Rainbow growled in frustration and slammed her hooves over her eyes. She'd messed up again. Why, oh why, hadn't she checked with Applejack before buying the tickets to make sure that she was actually free?
The farmpony came forward and wrapped her strong hooves around Rainbow's slender frame, the wavy ends of her mane leaving behind faint trails of moisture on Rainbow's coast as though she had just taken a bath. "Ah'm real sorry, Dash. Ah'd come if'n Ah could. This conf'rence could help drum up a lotta business fer th' farm. That's why Ah gotta go."
"I understand," Rainbow lied hollowly. "Don't worry about it. Have fun at your conference thingy. I'll come back tomorrow." Without waiting for a response, she took to the air and flapped up into the cloud belt, settling moodily on a gray cloud rippling with rain that perfectly matched her temper. 
The world was conspiring against her. She was sure of it. 
Feeling more world-weary than she ever had in her life (and then feeling a rush of panic -I'm too young to be world-weary!), Rainbow rested her head on a particularly lumpy mass of cloud and huffed miserably. She'd spent a fortune on those tickets - that rock guitar she'd seen in the window of Ponyville's music store was now a hundred and fifty bits further away. Worse, she was now a day nearer to Hearts and Hooves Day, and she was no closer to finding out what Applejack wanted her to do. 
At least Rainbow had two tickets. One for herself, and one for her bad mood.

***

DAY FOUR: 

You are like a shining orange star 
Your freckles are like stars too
How beautiful you are 
And totally awesome too 

I love you more than me 
So please let me take you out on a date 
And I promise you're going to see 
That our romance is totally fate 

I want to spend Heart's and Hooves Day together 
My love for you isn't phony 
You make me feel lighter than a feather 
Guess who's my favorite pony?
You 

Wow. Just wow. 
Staring down at the creamy, gold-edged sheet of paper that she had found taped to her front door when she'd gone out to feed the chickens, Applejack wasn't quite sure what to think. Rainbow Dash certainly had to be commended for trying, but Applejack almost wished she hadn't tried. Seriously, did Rainbow even know that she had rhymed 'too' with 'too'?
Her eyebrows crept higher and higher as she reread the poem, hoping that she could perhaps discover a positive aspect of it the second time around. 
Nope. It was simply too awful for words. 
A tender smile tugged at the corners of Applejack's lips. It was just like her Rainbow to try her hoof at something new without asking anypony else for help first. Boy howdy, Twilight would have been absolutely appalled to read this. 
Applejack shook her head fondly as she untaped the poem from her door. Her flaxen mane suddenly prickled, and she realized that somepony was watching her. She suspected that she knew who it was, too. "Dash, Ah know yore there," she called, her bright eyes scanning the sky for a flash of a familiar polychromatic tail. 
"No I'm not. I'm still sleeping," a raspy voice replied, seemingly from the middle of an immense puffy white cloud that was floating directly over Applejack's head. 
The farmpony chuckled affectionately and rolled her eyes. "Sure, honey."
"It's not me talking right now. It's the cloud. And it's wondering what you thought of the poem."
Applejack decided to refrain from pointing out that by using the words 'I' and 'me', Rainbow was inadvertently confirming that it was her. "It was... interestin'," she replied evasively, trying to avoid having to give her honest opinion while still telling the truth. It certainly had been interesting.  
"Interesting in what way?"
AJ's smile faltered. Great. "Well, uh, t' be honest with ya... it kinda sucked."
A grumpy huff emanated from the midst of the cloud. "Yeah, I kind of figured. Poetry is crazy hard. Still, at least everything rhymed, right?"
"Sorta..." Applejack swept off her hat and twisted it around her forehooves. "But ya kinda rhymed a word with itself, so Ah'm not shore that counts..."
"Everybody's a critic," Rainbow grunted. 
Time to boost her ego a little bit. "Still, it was a good try an' all, sugarcube. An' yore gettin' closer t' what I wanted."
"Really?" The cloud seemed to vibrate with glee. "Awesome! I'm totally getting the hang of this!"
Okay, maybe a little too much ego-boosting. "Yup. But ya ain't quite there yet. So if Ah were you, Ah'd hightail it outta here an' git back to work!"
"Well, I can tell when you don't want me around," Rainbow teased. She flicked her tail out of the cloud and pointed it in Applejack's general direction. "But I'll be back."
"Those old Terminaightor lines ain't gonna work on me, R. D."
A rather rude raspberry sound that was definitely Rainbow sticking her tongue out issued from the center of the cloud. Applejack stuck her tongue out in retaliation, despite knowing that Rainbow couldn't see it, and watched in contented fascination as the cloud gave a little shudder and then moved rapidly through the sky, the edges of Rainbow's flapping wings just barely poking out on either side. Applejack was looking forward to see what crazy scheme Rainbow was going to come up with for tomorrow. 



***

DAY FIVE:

The final notes of the acoustic guitar faded away into the air, melding with the sweet chirps of birds and the rhythmic swaying of the apple trees' leaves. Rainbow held her dramatic stance for a few seconds longer, standing on her hind legs with her head tucked against the guitar, before unslinging the guitar from her neck and dropping casually to all fours. "Well? What did you think?"
Applejack blinked and rubbed her eyes, looking more than a little dazed. "Uh... what..." She was still too shellshocked to offer a coherent answer. 
"I said, what did you think?"
Applejack shook her head to jolt herself out of her stupor. "Well, sugarcube, Ah'm real touched ya went an' sang me a whole song..."
"Yeah!" Rainbow pumped her hoof in the air. "I knew that would do the trick! I figured that poetry obviously wasn't cutting it, so maybe I could try a song instead, and I was totally right!! So you're gonna be my date on Hearts and Hooves Day?"
"... Ah didn't say that."
The pegasus seemed to deflate. "What?"
A small smile curled across Applejack's lips. "Darlin', yore good at singin'. Ya got a mighty fine voice. An' Ah appreciate th' effort, honest Ah do. But ya just ain't gettin' it. All this stuff yore doin' is way too fancy! That ain't what Ah'm asking for. Ah jus' want is that mah guitar?!"
Rainbow gulped. Busted. "Uh, this guitar? Uh, no, of course not! It's just a... random guitar... that I found lying in your barn..."
Applejack grabbed Rainbow's shoulders and tugged her forwards until their foreheads were pressed together. Her deep emerald eyes bore into Rainbow's soul which such intensity that Rainbow was surprised her face wasn't burning off. "Rainbow Danger Dash, right now yore middle name is more accurate'n it's ever been. An' not 'cause yore dangerous either. Nopony. Touches. Mah. Guitar."
Somehow, Rainbow found it in her to make light of the situation. "Wow, who knew you were so grabby?"
That was a mistake. Applejack's tail whipped around at lightning speed and swatted Rainbow in the face. "Dash, Ah'm warnin' ya -"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I'll give it back." Rainbow grinned as a tonight struck her. Maybe she hadn't managed to win Applejack over today. 
But she could still enjoy some quality time with her best friend. 
Applejack reached out to grab the guitar and Rainbow intentionally jerked it out of her reach. "But you're gonna have to come and get it first," she whispered, her amaranth eyes glittering wickedly. 
Before Applejack had even fully registered the comment, Rainbow Dash spun around and broke into a mad gallop across the orchard, the guitar slung over her back, running almost as fast as she could fly. A faint rainbow trail hovered in her wake as she used her wings to propel herself forwards. 
Applejack growled under her breath and bounded forewards, her muscular hind legs churning up a roiling cloud of dust around her and her mane shimmering around her shoulders like a golden halo. "Oh, you asked fer it," she murmured, the excitement of the chase coursing through her body. 

***

DAY SIX:

As Rainbow Dash stood on Applejack's doorstep the day before Hearts and Hooves Day, she couldn't help a wave of nervousness from rolling through her body. She'd already exhausted almost all of her ideas. Today was one of those last-resort plan days that almost never turns out well. And if she failed... if she failed...
Rainbow's throat constricted. If she failed, Applejack would still be her best friend... but she would probably  never be her marefriend. And living so close to the mare she loved while knowing that the only reason that the two of them weren't together was that Rainbow was a total screwup would be the worst kind of torture. 
"I'm not going to fail," Rainbow promised herself under her breath, holding her muzzle high and proud. "I can't."
Before she could allow herself to hesitate any longer, Rainbow reached out and knocked on the front door. 
Applejack opened it instantly, as though she had been waiting hopefully on the other side for Rainbow's knock. Gentle sunlight streamed in through her doorway and caressed her tumbling blonde mane, silhouetting her in pale, honey-colored light and bringing out the golden flecks in her jade eyes. "Mornin', sugarcube. What can Ah do ya for?"
Rainbow did not allow herself to be distracted by Applejack's beauty or adorable accent. No, she had her game face on now. And it was time to play her final card. 
"Did you sit in a pile of sugar? 'Cause you have a pretty sweet flank."
Pick up lines. The most desperate backup plan ever. 
A rosy blush permeated Applejack's cheeks. "Uh - what -"
"Oh wait, did the sun just come out? Or did you just smile at me?" 
The blush deepened. "Rainbow, Ah don't -"
"If you were a fruit, you know what you'd be? A -"
"RAINBOW!" 
Stunned, Rainbow Dash fell silent. She stared into Applejack's eyes and felt her heart sink into her hooves. 
Those green irises were full of annoyance. And sadness. And worse... 
Disappointment. 
Rainbow's wings drooped and she dropped her head, her eyes brimming with tears. She'd messed up yet again. And now she was out of ideas. "I'm a failure," she said softly, a single tear sliding down her cheek and splashing on the ground below her forehooves. "A failure."
Applejack looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Rainbow, angel, Ah gotta say Ah'm a bit disappointed. Ah gotta say, Ah thought ya knew me better'n this. But Ah know ya tried yore best, and -"
"NO, Applejack." Rainbow's eyes glittered with pure anger  "If I'd tried my best, then everything would have been fine!! But I messed up!!! Six days in a row, I MESSED UP!" Her anger suddenly abated and her shoulders slumped. "Some friend I am," she uttered hoarsely, her voice cracking. 
"Rainbow -" Her eyes large and concerned, Applejack stretched out a hoof to brush her shoulder. 
Rainbow Dash dodged it and backed away, her mouth set in a thin, hard line. "I gotta go." Angrily wiping tears off her cheeks, she shot into the sky and sped off, heading in a direction that could only be named 'as-far-away-from-Sweet-Apple-Acres-as-possible'. 
Tomorrow, she would go back and apologize. Tomorrow she would make things right again and beseech Applejack to find somepony else more worthy than Rainbow of her affections. 
But for now, it felt good to be angry. 

***

DAY SEVEN:

"So." Applejack regarded Rainbow in a stony silence, her eyes roving over the pegasus's red-rimmed eyes and trembling lower lip. Clearly she had spent much of the past day crying. "What are ya here for? Ya gonna sing me another song? Or get all angry an' then bail on me again?"
Rainbow flinched at the accusing words and hung her head. She knew how explosively she had behaved, and she had never been more ashamed of anything in her life. "No," she muttered, her voice raspier than usual. "I - I just wanted... to talk."
Applejack cocked an eyebrow, some of her anger dissipating in her surprise. "Well, Ah'm listenin'."
Rainbow cleared her throat apprehensively. She hadn't planned any of this beforehand, and had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth. Hopefully not more abominable pickup lines. 
Celestia's sun dipped down beneath the horizon as she began, splashing streaks of red, orange, and dusky purple across the sky as it sank. The eve of Hearts and Hooves Day had officially begun. 	"Applejack... today's Hearts and Hooves Day. A day for showing your special somepony how much they mean to you. And all day long, ponies have been doing just that. Octavia and Vinyl spent the whole day together improvising music. Lyra and BonBon are spending the day in Manehatten. The Doctor took Derpy somewhere really special in the TARDIS. Even Rarity and Fluttershy are going out to dinner as we speak. 
"But watching them, I realized something. I realized that all of those couples have something in common. They all love each other. And they've all said that to each other a million times. 
"AJ, I've never told you that I love you." The words tasted bitter on Rainbow's tongue, but she forced herself to say them anyway, knowing they were true. "Or, well, I tried. I tried to tell you in the stupidest ways possible, because I was too scared to just say the three bucking words. I tried to sing you a song, and write you a poem, and give you a poster. I thought I was telling you I loved you, but really all I was saying is that I love me. I thought I was treating you the way you wanted to be treated, but I was treating you the way Rainbow Dash would want to be treated."
She sighed and flicked her ears forwards. "I was a complete idiot, I know. But I've learned my lessons. The chocolates taught me that I can't be in a relationship unless I care about getting to know my partner. There are more important things than money - like making sure your marefriend is happy. The poster taught me not to get caught up in my pride. And all of my other screwups taught me that I need to put you first, not me." Rainbow lifted her head and met Applejack's gaze. 
"Applejack, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll totally understand if you don't even want to see my face again. But I understand now. I understand, and I'm sorry, and I love you. I love you so much.  And I hope you'll agree to be my date tonight, and every other night in the future. I may not be perfect, even if I am awesome. I can make mistakes, and I know I'm going to. But I can put you first. I can learn. I can try my very hardest to make you happy. And I'm gonna do all those things. Because when you love someone..." she swallowed, her throat dry. "Sometimes, it's better to be flawed than to be perfect."
The last of her words died away, fading suddenly into the darkening sky. Rainbow Dash set her jaw and stared down at her hooves. All she could do now was wait. 
And then...
Warm hooves wrapped around Rainbow's body and a pair of soft lips brushed against her muzzle. Dash could feel Applejack's smile against her cheeks. "Ya daft pegasus," she whispered softly. "Mah daft pegasus. That's all Ah wanted t' hear."