It's More Than Enough
It really was bittersweet.
The fact hadn’t exactly struck Rainbow Dash just yet. It took a not-so-cold morning wake-up call to get her to realize that the last Winter Wrap Up really was the last Winter Wrap Up. Instead of waking up at the crack of dawn to help melt the snow and help with the animals, Rainbow Dash woke up well past the sunrise to an already bright, sunny sky. It didn’t help that her bed was half empty, either.
“Hmmph, where did that mare go?” Rainbow Dash blinked the lingering feeling of sleep out of her eyes as best as she could, then sat up and stretched her wings out at her side. It’s not like they lived in Ponyville anymore. There was no real farm to take care of – not unless the garden counted as a farm. Why was Applejack even awake so early? Her side of the bed was cold, which meant that she had to have been out of it for a while.
There was no invitation from Ponyville to help bring Spring – not this year. Rainbow Dash felt off, as if she looked behind her too suddenly, there would be nothing but the vast emptiness of dreamscape. Like she would wake up again, in bed next to Applejack with the soft silence of snow outside their window. The relief of being awoken never came.
Twenty years. And for what? Rainbow Dash huffed as she dragged herself out of the bed. She glanced at the winter jacket hanging limply on the coat rack, and at Applejack’s very own jacket next to it, then walked out of the bedroom. She hadn’t been expecting to see… nothing. The living room was empty, and the kitchen seemed like it hadn’t been used apart from a single mug sitting in the sink. Frowning, Rainbow Dash continued to explore the house and sat at the coffee table, hoping that Applejack would be coming back from tending to the garden soon.
Rainbow Dash leaned on the table and gazed out the front window, hoping for a glimpse of Applejack among the white snow, except, there was no Applejack, and there was no white snow. Her stomach gurgled, and she blew a stray strand of her mane away from her face. She never ate by herself if Applejack was around, and she knew that Applejack was around. Somewhere.
She shook the faint hunger away as best she could and opened the door. It was strange, still. There was no sudden gust of freezing temperature. There was no wind to blow loose powdery snow into her face. There was only the unmistakable soft, chilly breeze of spring. The subtlety of what was given to her versus what she had been expecting forced a shiver down Rainbow Dash’s spine and through her wings.
A glance around revealed what Rainbow Dash had been hoping to see. Applejack was sitting on the edge of the porch in a blindspot from the house windows, staring vacantly to the right of the sun. Rainbow Dash furrowed her eyebrows and walked slowly over to her. She planted a soft, quick kiss on her cheek and rested her chin on the orange mare’s shoulder. At least that got Applejack to smile.
“I missed you in bed when I got up,” Rainbow Dash murmured teasingly. “Was I really that bad?”
Applejack shifted slightly to allow Rainbow Dash to nuzzle in closer. “Sorry. I just couldn’t sleep.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. She looked up at Applejack, who kept staring off into the distance. That look in her eyes only meant one thing. “What are you thinking about?”
“What?” Applejack blinked and looked down at Rainbow Dash, who lifted her head and returned the gaze. “Whaddya mean?”
“Come on, I can tell. I’ve known you for so long, AJ,” Rainbow Dash reminded her. “That look on your face? You’re thinking about something, and you’re not happy.”
Applejack hesitated. Her mouth opened slightly as no words came out before she clamped it shut and sighed. “You’re right, Dash. I am thinkin’.”
She ended the sentence there, but Rainbow Dash didn’t respond. She knew better at this point. Applejack just needed some time to think. It was a careful balance that she had figured out after many years of loving and learning Applejack. Her emerald green eyes flicked around as she searched for the words, and her hoof raised to adjust the brim of her hat ever so slightly.
“I just… Well, you know. I know you ain’t stupid, Dash.” Applejack chuckled mirthlessly and gestured around them. “There’s no snow. That means that Twi’s magic invention worked.”
“Yeah, but, isn’t that a good thing?” She wasn’t even sure of it herself, at least not entirely. “Remember what we said last year?”
Applejack snorted and looked down. “Yeah, I remember. It is a good thing, I guess. Means that now we don’t gotta worry about doin’ it ourselves. But I just… What if this is just the beginnin’?”
Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just… I know it ain’t really the same thing, but it scares me, Dash. All this magic stuff.” Applejack grimaced and looked to the side in the same direction as before. In the direction of Ponyville. “Big Mac and Sugar Belle have already started to hire unicorns to help with harvest and stuff. It… it ain’t that big a deal, but it’s all changin’,” she explained, still not facing Rainbow Dash. “I dunno, I guess I just never expected magic to take over like that all of a sudden. Hay, I still like to do all the gardenin’ with my own two hooves. I feel like it’s just the right way, y’know? Earth ponies are supposed to be the ones who deal with the darn earth. It’s tradition.”
Applejack stared furiously into the distance, although Rainbow Dash knew she was mostly just upset at herself for thinking like that. She knew that the earth pony was set in her ways, and while some small changes for the sake of efficiency were easy to accept, Rainbow Dash couldn’t truly imagine how a big change like that must feel. “I get what you’re saying, AJ. I was afraid at first too. I guess I was worried about what the weather magic meant for Cloudsdale, you know?
“I haven’t even lived there in so long, but it was still something that worried me. Pegasi are supposed to do weather stuff.” Rainbow Dash snorted in amusement and smirked. “Hay, my whole thing was awesome flying and cloud-busting! What would I have done if weather patrol wasn’t a thing? Probably something less awesome. But my point is, I get how you feel, and I know it sucks. Like, it sucks beyond freaking sucking! But Twilight is just doing what she thinks is best and hey,” Rainbow Dash shot Applejack a patient smile, “I dunno about you, but I trust that mare with my life.”
Applejack returned the smile, albeit a bit weakly. “Well, I reckon you’re right. And I do trust her. I know she’s doin’ her best. Can’t imagine what it’s like tryin’ to rule Equestria by yerself. Dunno how she does it, but then again, it’s Twi.”
“Yeah! And she’s not alone, she has Spike, remember?” Rainbow Dash nudged Applejack gently and leaned into her. “And us. Official Friendship Council!”
“Heh, you’re right. I guess it’s just somethin’ we gotta get used to.” Applejack breathed in deeply and exhaled, wrapping a hoof around Rainbow Dash. She pulled her in closer. “It’s just gonna take a while. You know how I am with change.”
Rainbow Dash did her best to fight back a frown; she didn’t want to make her wife feel worse. “Yeah?” Her voice cracked with the beginning of a tease. “Well, lots has changed between us, and you’re still here.”
Applejack shrugged, although a tiny smirk crept up the side of her mouth. “Well, I’m just real stubborn. I could just be too stubborn to leave ya and go back to Sweet Apple Acres.”
At the mention of what once was her home, the taunting smile on Applejack’s face wavered and disappeared before Rainbow Dash even had the chance to shoot back with her own comeback. Applejack sighed, turned away from Rainbow Dash and leaned on the banister of the porch. “Don’t think I even could if I wanted to.”
The place where Applejack’s hoof was once wrapped around Rainbow Dash felt empty. Rainbow Dash fur tingled like the air had been sucked out from next to her as Applejack inched away slightly. “Why?”
“Like I said before, Mac’s got all them unicorns helpin’ with the harvestin’ now, and he’s good at managin’ the business on his own. He doesn’t need me,” Applejack muttered as she dropped her head onto the wooden railing. “I’m afraid that nopony’s ever gonna need somepony like me again. Everythin’ I can do can be done with magic. That’s why I used to be so against it! If I’m bein’ honest, I still don’t like it, but things change.”
Birds chirped around them. Rainbow Dash’s ears flicked at the familiar song of spring, and she noticed Applejack deflate just a little bit more. It wasn’t often that the farmer would express her sadness like that, which made Rainbow Dash frown uneasily. Tentatively, she closed the distance between them and wrapped Applejack in a tight hug. “I need somepony like you,” she whispered. She shut her eyes firmly and hoped she was helping. Applejack tensed at the touch, then relaxed into it. The sudden weight falling into Rainbow Dash’s hooves almost made them topple over, but she managed to keep upright.
“I’m serious,” Rainbow Dash continued, not letting go of Applejack, who buried her muzzle into Rainbow’s neck. “Look, I can’t lie to you. Maybe they can do all that farmy stuff with magic now. But you know what? You’re a real pony, you can’t replace that. So, to Tartarus with that! You’re everything I want. You’re everything I need. No magic can replace you here. With me.”
Applejack wrapped her hooves around Rainbow Dash and squeezed tightly for a moment before releasing her and craning her neck back to look at her with a big smile. “You’re gettin’ all sappy on me, Dash. Darn it, you’re gonna make me cry!”
“You? Cry? Yeah, right. Don’t pull my hoof.”
“I ain’t lyin’, Dash.” Applejack blinked a tear away to emphasize her point. “I woke up today feelin’ all sorts of afraid about the future, and about all the changes and what that meant for me. For us.” She bit her lip and looked into Rainbow Dash’s eyes. “It… You helped me realize it don’t mean nothin’. Well, it does, but not in any way that’s important to me now, ‘cause you? You’re the most important thing to me, sugar cube. And you ain’t changin’ because of this magic.” Applejack’s faint smile returned. “I know things’ll never be the same out there but.. you and I are the same. And I just know we’ll never change, despite what the world around us does.”
Rainbow Dash pursed her lips. “Is… Is that enough?”
Applejack sighed, her freckles pressed upward in that same, unsure grin. “Sugarcube, you’re more than enough. It’ll be hard to get used to, definitely, and it ain’t the same type of belonging, but bein’ with you’s all I can ask for.”
The sun beat down on them, and despite the cool chill, Rainbow Dash found herself overheating. How was she supposed to respond to that? She’d never even heard anypony ever say anything that sweet and—Celestia forbid Rarity found out she had even thought it—romantic.
She wanted to say the three words that everypony says. I love you. But Rainbow Dash knew it wouldn’t be enough. There were no words she could say that expressed how Applejack made her feel. She was young again, laying eyes on Applejack on the day she realized she loved her. It was like… like falling in love all over again! Maybe it wouldn’t be enough, but it was the only thing she could think of saying. “I love you, Applejack.”
Maybe Applejack felt it too. Her cheeks reddened as she smiled widely, and there was something in her eyes that Rainbow Dash couldn’t quite place, but it wasn’t new. It was something she’d seen before, many springs ago. Applejack put a hoof on Rainbow Dash’s cheek and leaned down to kiss her. It was warmth, it was comfort. It was everything that Rainbow Dash loved about Applejack, and it felt much shorter than it really was. When the mare pulled away, the world disappeared around her. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Rainbow Dash leaned forward and kissed her again before she even could.
Sure, seasons came and went, just like traditions and customs. The world moved forward, and some ponies got left behind. So, what was the important stuff? Rainbow Dash knew exactly what it was, for sure this time. She didn’t even have to think about it. It was right in front of her the whole time.