A normal sleepover. More or less.
On the outskirt of Canterlot, a hold truck enters the gateway of Sweet Apple Acres and stops in front of the farm barn. It is around eight o'clock in the middle of the summer and the sun already started his descend. The temperature is hot, but not too much. Inside the truck there are two eighteen years old girls, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Applejack cuts the engines of the vehicle, and both sigh relieved.
The evening has been quite rough. The day started nice and normal. The whole group of best friends went to the beach, as usual, and had a great time. Toward the end of the afternoon, however, a turtle has been affected by magic. Or rather, magic affected a plant that the turtle ate, transforming the animal into something huge (two times bigger than a bear) and fast. Scared and confused, the mega-turtle caused a rampage on the beach. The girls spent an hour chasing it until they managed to bring it back to normal.
“Here goes another victorious day for us,” Rainbow Dash boasts. “Sometimes, I ask myself if we’re too awesome.”
Applejack can’t help but roll her eyes as she straightens her Stetson hat on her head.
“Ah’m just glad we were able to help the poor beast without attractin’ too much attention. It’s not every day we face somethin’ as dangerous as that.”
“Yeah, that turtle was really aggressive although it wasn’t completely its fault. A chance Fluttershy was here.”
Both girls open the car’s doors and get out. Applejack feels pain in her right flank and she winces. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Rainbow Dash.
“Is everything alright AJ?”
“Ah’m fine. Ah’m just a little sore from the fight. Nothin’ to worry about.”
Knowing her friend is the most honest person she knows, Rainbow Dash doesn’t think more of it.
“If you say so.”
They walk toward the front door each carrying a backpack with an additional sports bag for Rainbow Dash. Applejack takes out her keys and unlocks the door.
“Thanks for giving me a ride and inviting me for a sleepover. My parents have their poker night tonight and they are always loud,” Rainbow Dash says as they enter the house.
“My pleasure sugarcube. As ya know, Granny Smith an’ Big Mac are at the Annual Agriculture Festival with Winona an’ Apple Bloom is on a camp trip with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, so we have the house all fer ourselves.”
“Is that why me losing the bet implies to work on the farm tomorrow?” Rainbow Dash asks with her arms crossed and a frown.
Applejack smirk as the girls put their bags on the couch of the living room.
“Maybe…Besides, it’s not mah fault ya fell from your surfboard first and lost the bet who, might Ah remin' ya, was your idea.”
“Ugh! Please don’t remind me.” The bitter taste of her loss is still fresh in Rainbow Dash’s mind.
Applejack laughs. They enter the kitchen.
“Do ya want somethin’ to eat Rainbow?”
“No thanks. I’m full after that nice restaurant we went to. Although, I wouldn’t mind some of your family's famous apple cider.”
“Ya bet our apple cider is the best, but Ah can’t open a bottle from the cave fer free. We may have some left from the batch we keep for ourselves though. Wait here.”
Applejack walks out of the kitchen, open the door to the basement and walk down the stairs. She reappears a few minutes later with a large bottle with the logo of Sweet Apple Acres and the inscription ‘Soft Apple Cider’. This is the non-alcoholic version. The farm also produces alcoholic cider. However, Granny Smith only allows Big Macintosh to drink it. It is not the case for Applejack and (obviously) Applebloom. So pretty much every alcoholic bottles are sold. The only time Rainbow Dash talked about trying alcoholic cider, her parents, who are generally super cool, gave her a long serious lecture that convinced her to forget the idea.
When Applejack enters the kitchen with the bottle, Rainbow Dash lets out a ‘Sweet’ before her friend fills two pitchers that they drink with great pleasure.
“Best…cider…ever.” Rainbow Dash proclaims.
“Yeup. Granny Smith always says the work and love we give our apples are what makes the difference.”
Applejack fills their pitcher a second time and they drink it just as fast. She then puts the bottle in the fridge while Rainbow Dash quickly cleans the pitches in the sink. The two girls then take back their bags and climb the stairs to go into Applejack’s bedroom where they put their bags next to the door.
“Hey Rainbow, do ya mind hittin’ the shower first while Ah prepare the room fer the sleepover?”
“Not at all. I’ll be as quick as lightning.” Rainbow kneels in front of her sport bag in which she put her things for the sleepover. She opens it and takes out her pyjamas, a toothbrush and a hairbrush before running off toward the bathroom.
Once inside, Rainbow Dash puts her things on the counter of the sink and begins to remove her clothes starting by her shirt. During this time, in Applejack’s bedroom, Applejack took out a mattress from the closet in the corridor that she lay down next to her bed for her friend. She walks toward her closet to gather her own pyjamas when she accidentally steps on one of Winona balls. This abruptly send her foot behind her, making her lose her balance and land hard on her side. The one that is sore since the battle earlier. This cause a new jolt of pain to strike way stronger than the other one. A loud cry of pain escapes her mouth.
Back in the bathroom, Rainbow Dash is now naked and about to enter inside the shower when she hears a loud Thud and Applejack scream.
“AJ?” Rainbow Dash immediately puts on a towel around her body, puts back her necklace around her neck and activates the geode before disappearing in a blur of rainbow colors, her super speed allowing her to reach Applejack bedroom in less than half a second. She finds her friend laying on the ground, groaning painfully.
“Applejack, you’re alright? What happened?” She asks running to Applejack’s side and helping her sits against the wall.
“Ah fell on my side. Nothin’ special. Just give me a few minutes.” The pain in her flank still hasn’t decreased and makes it hard to breathe.
Rainbow Dash raises her eyebrows, sceptic. Like her, Applejack is far from being a softie, so she wouldn’t have screamed like that if it was nothing.
“Then why did you scream?”
“Ah’m not sure. Probably because of what happened when the mega-turtle almost crushed that kid an’ me.”
Rainbow Dash frowns, remembering that part of the battle. The mega-turtle walked toward the wooden dock under which a kid took refuge. Applejack ran to help him, but the kid was too scared to move, and the mega-turtle was charging them. Applejack pushed the kid toward Sunset Shimmer and took the blow, sending her crashing on the sand. She seemed fine when she stood up.
“I remember. Why didn’t you tell us if you were hurt?” Rainbow Dash scolds worried.
“It’s just a tinglin’. Ah didn’t think it was anythin’ serious.” Having grown up on a farm, Applejack is not the kind to complain, even more about things she doesn’t see as important.
“We should check it out.” Seeing her friend doesn’t do it, Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes. Typical Applejack. When she has an idea, she sticks to it. “Don’t be so stubborn. You could be seriously injured.”
Applejack can’t deny Rainbow Dash has a valid argument. Her flank does ache a lot even if her breathing is less frantic. In addition, Rainbow Dash eyes tell her she won’t back down and Applejack doesn’t want to lose any more time arguing.
“Fine,” she surrenders reluctantly.
Applejack begins to remove her shirt, but it causes the pain to increase, making her groans. Seeing this, Rainbow Dash helps her to slowly remove it while making sure it doesn’t touch her flank. While Applejack puts her t-shirt on the ground on her left, Rainbow Dash is momentarily distracted by the sight of Applejack upper body only covered by a orange bra and her necklace; revealing muscles acquired by her years of work on the farm, her natural strong body and her orange skin. She feels her cheeks heat up and looks away shyly.
‘Come on, now is not the time so focus,’ Rainbow Dash mentally scolds herself. ‘Even if the view is attractive.’ She adds hiding a smile before looking at her friend's wound.
On Applejack’s flank there is a black stain larger than a tennis ball. Both girls eyes become wide as they examine the injury. There don’t seem to be any blood, but the skin is completely scraped. No wonder it hurt so much since the fall. Applejack raises her fingers slowly and wince again as soon as she touches it.
“Horseapples. Ah owe ya an apology Rainbow. Ya were right.”
“For once, I wish I was wrong.”
Applejack chuckles despite the pain. “Ah kinda feels ridiculous now. Could ya go get a medical aid kit? There’s one in the bathroom. First cabinet, top shelf.”
“Got it.” Rainbow Dash responds standing up before running off, this time without using her magic.
She quickly finds it in the bathroom and runs back to her friend. In the bedroom, Applejack waits patiently focusing on an image of her family to ignore the pain when Rainbow Dash comes back. Applejack noticed the first time Rainbow Dash only has (besides her necklace) a towel covering her body from her chest to the middle of her thigh, but she didn’t think much of it on the moment. Now, she can’t help but look at her and her uncovered light blue skin. Having spent days at the beach in bathing suits, she can easily imagine her slim and athletic body due to all the sports she plays. She always been a good runner. Rainbow Dash kneels just next to Applejack, putting the medical kit on the ground before opening it. Being this close when Rainbow Dash wears nothing but a towel while herself is shirtless makes her cheeks heat up, even if she won’t deny liking this. She then shakes her head, forcing herself to focus on her injury.
“The color of the wound means there’s bad blood under the skin. Ah have to remove it first before treating the wound,” Applejack says.
She takes out a small needle from the medical kit and clean it. She uses the needle to pierce the extremity of her injury while putting a cotton tissue just under. She keeps another cry of pain inside her mouth by gripping her teeth together as the needle pierce the injured flesh. Rainbow Dash puts her hand on Applejack’s shoulder and gently squeeze it, her way to comfort and encourage her friend. After a few seconds, blood start to flow onto the cotton tissue. They wait a minute, to be sure all the bad blood is out. Once done, Rainbow Dash gives her a paper towel on which she puts the needle and cotton tissue before setting it on the floor. Applejack tries to take long breaths to calm herself. Never in her life as she felt so much pain.
Rainbow Dash takes out another cotton tissue on which she pours antiseptic to clean the wound. Seeing her friend in pain, she wants to help in any way she can.
“We still have to clean the wound. Do you want me to do it? I promise it will be quick.”
“If ya want. Ain’t gonna make it less or more painful, so better get done with it.”
Rainbow Dash nods and gently rub the cotton tissue against the wound. Again, Applejack wince and grips her teeth to keep her groans of pain from coming out even if it hurt a bit less than the needle. Nevertheless, she doesn’t move, allowing Rainbow Dash to quickly finish cleaning the wound (like she promised) before putting the cotton tissue with the other one and the needle on the paper towel on the floor.
“I also have a cream in my bag that will help you. Wait a second.” Rainbow Dash rushes to her sports bag and comes back with a tube of cream that she handles to Applejack. “Here, I use it since childhood and it’s effective. It soothes the pain and accelerates the healing process.”
Applejack takes the tube and look at it. She doesn’t recognise the name, but if Rainbow Dash says it’s a good cream then she trusts her. She gives it back to Rainbow Dash who opens the tube and lets a drip fall on her finger.
“This cream needs to penetrate the skin in order to work, so we can use a good amount of it but not too much either.” Rainbow Dash explains before applying the drip of cream on the wound.
She moves her fingers in a circular motion. It stings and hurt a little, but damn does it also feel good. The cream is hot at the beginning before becoming cold and the pain decline gradually as the minutes goes by. Rainbow Dash movements are firm, but in a way also soft just like when she cleaned the wound which surprises Applejack. After five minutes, Rainbow Dash removes her hand, and both can see there isn’t any cream left on the skin. The wound is now blue instead of black. Rainbow Dash then takes out a sticking plaster with a square bandage large enough to cover the injury. She rips open the plastic in which the bandage is and puts the bandage on the wound gently before securing it with a sticking plaster. The best way to describe the work Rainbow Dash did is quick and efficient.
“Well Ah’ll be. Ya really impress me,” Applejack admits while cleaning her hands with a disinfectant wipe from the medical kit.
“You know you can always count on me.” Rainbow Dash replies also cleaning her hands with a disinfectant wipe. “Besides, I’m used to this. Do you know how many times I hurt myself?”
“As reckless as ya are, Ah stopped countin'.”
Rainbow Dash chuckles nervously. “Me too, but that’s not the point. I learned a long time ago how to do this kind of thing.”
Applejack slowly stands up, followed by Rainbow Dash. Her flank doesn’t hurt anymore. When she touches the bandage with her hand, the pain is minimal and bearable. As long as she doesn’t put pressure on the injury during the following days, she’ll be fine. Applejack then takes Rainbow Dash hands.
“Then it’s a good thin’ ya were here. Thank you Rainbow.”
Applejack takes a step forward and presses her lips against hers. It isn’t their first kiss, but unlike the others this one is more than a simple peck. Their hearts begin beating faster and a warm feeling is spreading inside their bodies. They breast are pressed against each other and would be touching if it weren’t for Applejack’s bra and Rainbow Dash’s towel. It is not the case for their arms and upper part of their torso, however. Both can feel the skin from the other and the heat radiating from it. The towel around Rainbow Dash begins slipping, adding to the eroticism of the situation even when the kiss end.
Rainbow Dash then begins to feel incredibly nervous, so she takes a step back and tighten the towel around her chest. She then scratches her neck nervously.
“Well, if you’re good a better go back to my shower. I still have…sand…in my panties…euh hairs. I mean hairs.” Rainbow Dash took a step toward the door with each word before running off toward the bathroom before Applejack can say anything.
Applejack stands here, bewildered. It’s not like Rainbow Dash to act like that and it worries her. It’s not like it was their first kiss, so why did she react like that? Worse, Rainbow Dash running off like that from their…contact…kind of hurt Applejack feelings. She sighs.
She then notices the tube of cream and medical kit is still here alongside the paper towel with the two cotton tissues and the needle and decide to clean it up. She puts the tube of cream back in Rainbow Dash sports bag and goes into the kitchen where she throws the paper towel and cotton tissues in the trash can and clean the needle, with an hydroalcoholic solution and soap, and her hands before going back to her bedroom. She puts back the needle in the medical kit and close it. Since Rainbow Dash is in the bathroom, Applejack puts the medical kit next to the trunk at the bottom of her bed. On the trunk, she puts her cowboy hat and her necklace. She then takes out her pyjamas from her closet and sits on her bed, waiting.
Things between her and Rainbow Dash are undefined to put it simply. Being a lesbian is nothing new to Applejack, she discovered being gay years ago even if she never expected to one-day fall for one of her best friends. They always had a particular relationship. They both have a competitive side and on several aspects they are similar, even if Applejack acts more maturely while Rainbow Dash is more of a go-getter. However, while their relationship hasn’t changed, recently there seems to be something new. She isn’t sure when that feeling first appeared, and it isn’t what led to their first kiss, but Applejack was sure there is something between them. Could she have misinterpreted the signs?
The door of the bedroom opens, revealing Rainbow Dash in her pyjamas. The T-shirt is white with a cloud and a multicolored lightning is on her chest, red sleeves, a red line around the neck and two red lines at the bottom of the T-shirt while the pants are blues with sparky spots. She seems a bit more relaxed as she dries her rainbow-colored hairs with a towel.
“I’m done with the shower AJ.”
“Okay, Ah’ll won’t be long.”
Applejack takes the medical kit and walks pass Rainbow Dash, deciding the discussion can wait a little bit. After a day at the beach, she too needs a good shower, even if it means changing the bandage Rainbow Dash just made.
While Applejack takes her shower, Rainbow Dash puts the clothes she wore today inside her sports bag and her necklace in one of the bag side pockets before sitting on the bed. The shower helped her calm down. She finishes drying her hair and put the towel on the only chair in the room. She thinks about what happened earlier and sigh, feeling bad about her reaction. So pathetic.
They never planned that kiss at that party last month. It happened during that game with a bottle, but Rainbow Dash had already begun seeing Applejack…differently. They never did things like holding hands or feeding each other and never will. Neither of them is interested by that ridiculous mushy stuff. However, they regularly do activities together just the two of them like surfing or playing video games. Rainbow Dash never thought being gay before all that. Nevertheless, she accepted it and she know how she feels about Applejack. It could lead somewhere, a part of her hope it does, but it could also have bad consequences for their friendship and the group if it goes wrong. This possibility is what holds her back and it makes her mad. Mad at herself for being such a coward, and mad because of what she may be missing.
A little time passes before Applejack comes back in her one-pieced blue pyjamas with light purples apples and a series of pink buttons on the front. Her blond hairs are loose (which is quite rare) and already dried.
“It feel good to be clean uh?” Rainbow Dash asks jokingly.
“Ya bet it does.” Applejack answer putting the towel she used on the chair too before sitting on the bed. The room is silent during a minute until Applejack speaks up.
“Damn Ah hate that kind of silence.”
“Yeah, me too. AJ, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s mah fault sugarcube. It's me who must apologize if Ah went too far, makin’ you uncomfortable or worse. It wasn’t my intention an’ Ah would never have done it if I suspected you wouldn’t like it. Ah’m sorry Rainbow.”
Applejack has a guilty expression on her face. Rainbow Dash doesn’t even need to see it to know her friend is sincere.
“It’s not that I didn’t like it,” Rainbow Dash confesses. “Still, I shouldn’t have run off like that without saying anything. It just…I’m not sure where we stand exactly. We never really talked about all this and …for me, it…it’s…not nothing.”
Rainbow Dash is now blushing madly. Same for Applejack who understand the meaning behind Rainbow Dash’s words. Gently, she puts her hand on Rainbow Dash’s knee.
“Ain’t any different for me. And yer right. Ah realize now that by not telling how we felt, we weren’t honest with ourselves and each other. The truth is…Ah like you Rainbow. A lot an’ Ah don’t mean in a friendly way.”
Both girls are still blushing madly when Rainbow Dash raises her hand and put it on Applejack's hand. She still feels the same nervousness from earlier, but this time don’t let it stop her.
“I like you a lot too. Don’t mean in a friendly way either. I’m just nervous, perhaps a bit scared.”
“Scared?” Applejack asks surprised. “Why?”
Rainbow Dash looks away and gulps nervously. Normally, she would never admit being scared of something, but something in the back of her mind tells her she should. Just this time.
“Because everyone knows how a romantic relationship can change things, especially inside a group of friends. If it doesn’t work, I don’t want to risk damaging our friendships both between us and with the rest of the girls. It means way too much to me. That’s why I ran off earlier. It was the first time things were going this far between us and I wasn’t sure how to react.”
Applejack nods, showing she understands what Rainbow Dash is telling her.
“But if you ever tell anyone I said I was scared, I’ll deny everything and paint your hairs blue as a punishment.” Rainbow Dash quickly adds with a very serious look on her face.
“Don’t worry, Ah promise to be as silent as a drunk rooster a Sunday mornin’,” Applejack promises chuckling before looking down at their hands. “Ah don’t think there’s anythin’ to worry about. Two years since all the magic craziness came into our lives. The seven of us went through everythin’ together and we learnt so much. Nothin’ can break our friendships anymore.”
Rainbow Dash smiles, knowing what Applejack said is true. She gently moves forward, resting her forehead on Applejack’s. Their cheeks still as red as tomatoes as they close their eyes. Somehow, this feel even more intimate than a kiss. They stay like this a good minute, enjoying the moment as the sunset cast his last rays of light on them through the window.
“Besides, what’s to say it wouldn’t work between ya and me,” Applejack adds.
“You’re right.” Rainbow Dash admits. “I guess you can’t truly know before you try. And I want to give us a chance. So, what do you say cowgirl?”
Applejack chuckles at this nickname Rainbow Dash gave her. She didn’t like it at the beginning, but now she finds it cute.
“Same as you euh…”
Rainbow Dash opens her eyes to see Applejack trying to find a nickname to use.
“Euh…Ah’ll find you a nickname later.” Applejack says making them laugh.
They look into each other eyes with their forehead still touching and a smile on their faces. They slowly move forward and their lips meet again in a soft and gentle kiss. The kiss is short but convey all their feelings for each other and their will to embrace this new relationship between them.
“Hey, how about we make it official by playin’ a game,” Applejack proposes enthusiastically.
“You’re on. I know have Twister and a set of cards to play poker,” Rainbow Dash responds on the same tone.
They now have a new reason to make the most of this night, just the two of them together with the magic of friendship…and love.