Rainbow sat on the pure white cloud that served as a temporary resting spot, looking at the distant horizon that was cutting the landscape in two: The visible part, the one she could easily see and the non-visible part, what was beyond the border, what she could just guess about.
She should have been clearing the skies as the schedule for the next week was only sunny, but she wasn’t feeling like working. Her thoughts were in a completely different place, closing out everything else but the most important thing in the world.
And that thing sure wasn’t bucking some stubborn clouds so that the beams of the sun could reach the ground.
No, it wasn’t even near that. Her thoughts were on a much more important thing. Or a much more important pony, to be exact.
This had been the case for a good week. She had been unable to take her thoughts off that certain mare, not like she would have wanted to, but it was starting to cause damage to her schedule. She had started being late from meetings and scheduled events, she had had some serious trouble with concentrating and she had found it extremely hard to behave normally when around Applejack.
Yes, it was Applejack. She had fallen for the farm pony. But why not? Applejack was strong, she was honest, she was beautiful and they seemed to find a certain level of connection every time when they talked or even met.
But on the other hoof, Rainbow wasn’t sure if Applejack felt the same. She had seen some hints, or at least she though so, but it could have just been her imagination that was running overdrive due to this sudden wave of emotions.
Deep down she wanted Applejack to feel the same way. And if you want something over everything in the world, you mind will start to form up fake pictures, fake memories, fake notifications that it feeds to you and you buy it, because it seems so much better than the other possible options.
She was afraid. Not like scared afraid, but still afraid. What if Applejack didn’t feel the same way? What if Rainbow made herself look like a complete fool? What if everything went wrong? What if her friends didn’t like her anymore if she revealed the truth?
She was usually so brave. She would face the death itself with no second thoughts. But now, when all she needed to do was to say three small words to another pony, she was too afraid to even open her mouth.
A sharp voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing? These clouds should have been cleared by now! We need to have a perfect sunshine so that the grand town picnic can be arranged just as planned!”
It didn’t take a genius to know who the source of the sound was. Who plans every single event of the town? Nope, it’s not the Mayor.
Rainbow looked down from the edge of the cloud. Twilight was standing on the ground, a slightly angry look on her face.
“I… Uhh… You know, I ain’t feeling too well. Might be hitting the cold or something…” The excuse was a pathetic one and Rainbow knew it. But it was worth trying.
“You’re hitting the cold in the middle of the summer? When the sun is shining almost non-stop?” Twilight’s voice had that certain tone of suspicion on it.
“Yeah, you know, the skies aren’t just as warm as the ground is and when you are flying so fast, the wind kinda creates this cold feeling and stuff…”
The look on Twilight’s face remained the same. Rainbow knew that her excuses weren’t the best she could do.
“Are you sure it’s cold? I mean completely absolutely sure that it’s cold and you can’t clear these clouds and I’m going to have to alert the whole rest of the weather team from their vacation to handle this?” The tone of Twilight’s voice was almost stabbing the insides of Rainbow.
“Yeah, I’m completely absolutely sure,” Rainbow answered, spicing up the answer with a nice coughing fit quickly after she had stopped speaking.
“Well, if you say so…” Twilight said, turning around and heading towards the distant Ponyville.
“You better go and rest, Dash. Don’t want the cold to get worse, huh?” she added in a cold tone, without even looking back. Rainbow knew that she’d have to apologize later on.
But that was only later on. Now there were much more important things going around in her head.
She needed a break from all this. She needed to relax, to sort her thoughts and to find a way how to deal with this.
The best way for her to relax was flying, but knowing that Twilight and the rest of the weather team would spend the whole day clearing the skies, she decided to give up on that idea.
The second-most-relaxing thing was spending some quality time with her friends.
But which one of them?
Twilight was no option. She’d start asking about the cold, find out it was a fake and force the truth out of Rainbow.
Applejack would have been an option, but Rainbow didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of her love.
Rarity was an option, too, but Rainbow was kinda trying to avoid being used as a model for such a lame thing as fashion. It was cool sometimes, amazing outfits and all, but the waiting was the part that was killing her. She was born to be wild, to move. It was outright cruel to force her stay in the very same spot for hours.
Fluttershy could have been a good company, but she was busy practicing with her birds. They were supposed to sing at the picnic and she was just too busy trying to fix every single out-of-tune note that came out of the pecks of those winged little things.
But Pinkie Pie was the perfect answer. She was fun to be with, she sure had a lot of energy to consume and was never too busy for some good time with a good friend.
Plus, the fact that she was a master baker made Rainbow’s mouth water. She had skipped breakfast due to the fact she wasn’t feeling too hungry, but she would never say no to a sugary treat with a crown made out of frosting.
So, she jumped up from the cloud and headed off towards the best bakery of the town.
----»«----
As Rainbow entered the always-so-cheerful atmosphere of the Sugarcube Corner, the smell of freshly baked cake made its way into her snout. Mr. and Ms. Cake seemed to have an order to fulfill and judging by the smell, the result was going to be delicious.
But she wasn’t here to judge the cakes the Cakes baked. She was here to get some emotional support from her friend in the form of pulling off some mighty nice pranks on innocent residents of the town.
She walked over to the desk that served as a counter and knocked on it three times. A secret code Pinkie had taught her.
Soon enough Mr. Cake appeared from the kitchen, wearing the always-so-classy brownish apron he just happened to like to wear.
“Yes?” he simply asked, sounding a little nervous.
“Is Pinkie home?” Rainbow asked. She could swear that she saw a slight relief on his face when she didn’t order anything.
“Yes, I believe she is. She should be in her room by now,” Mr. Cake answered before rushing back to the kitchen to fulfill the apparently stacked-up orders.
Rainbow thanked even though he couldn’t hear her anymore and went upstairs, leaving the beautifully decorated café below and entering the more home-like second floor.
Pinkie actually had two rooms. The second-floor room and the special attic hideout. But judging by the noises, Pinkie was in her regular room.
The room was on the very other side of the house. Rainbow didn’t quite like the long hallways of the house. You never knew where the twins were and for some reason they believed that her mane and tail were made of candy.
So, almost every time when she came to the house they would immediately be circling her, trying to sink their sharp little baby teeth into her mane. It would have even been tolerable, but when they got saliva all over it, ugh. It was hard to get off.
Rainbow made sure that the hallway was clear and all the doors were shut before dashing towards the so distant-looking door.
After good three seconds she had reached the door, still completely clear of any incoming attacks.
She sighed out of relief and knocked on the door. Never interrupt Pinkie. She had learned that lesson the hard way. You really don’t wanna know how many of those cupcakes she can stuff into her mouth.
For her slight surprise, Rainbow could hear Pinkie calling her in immediately. No hiding stuff into the closets, no swallowing the stash of cupcakes she had found two days ago, nothing like that.
Rainbow opened the door. The room was just like it had always been. Pink and disturbingly delicious-looking.
“Hi Dash! What brings you here?” Pinkie asked. She had the usual grin on her face, pure white teeth showing. How she managed to keep them in such good condition was beyond Rainbow’s level of understanding.
“Just wondering if somepony would like to go pranking…” Rainbow said in an inviting tone. If somepony was going to come, it would be Pinkie.
“I would! I would!” Pinkie raised her hoof up and literally jumped up in the air.
“Well, get your pranking supplies out of the closet, we are about to take over Ponyville!”
Pinkie immediately ran over to the small closet that withheld their awesome supply of pranking supplies. They had everything. Invisible ink, a wide range of water-soluble colors that did no harm to what—or who—they would paint, loads of some good ol’ classics and most importantly, a pair of creative minds.
They grabbed only the necessary, packed them into a small bag and headed off to the town.
----»«----
The pranks had been good. They had caused some confusion around the marketplace with their rubber carrots, had arranged a fake street maintenance at the main street, causing the unluckiest residents of the town to either wait for a couple of hours or take another way around and painted Granny Smith with a bright pink color Pinkie had managed to find from some shop in Canterlot. It had been such a cracker to see Granny wake up and walk to the kitchen—to the front of the whole Apple family—with a brand new coat color.
Though, Rainbow did have some minor thoughts about the last one. What if Applejack didn’t find it funny? What is she was mad at Rainbow? What if she didn’t like her anymore, even as a friend?
The thoughts were back, continuing with their obsession of driving her crazy. The afternoon with Pinkie had managed to keep them out but as soon as she had started thinking, using her brains, they had found a way to interfere her thoughts.
She would need some help. She couldn’t withstand all these thoughts. She had to find somepony who was good with such things.
“Are you okay Rainbow? You have been standing there for a minute now. It’s looking kinda weird…”
Rainbow snapped out of her thoughts and turned to face Pinkie. The pink pony had been smiling all day and the smile wasn’t going anywhere as the day was starting to turn into night.
“Actually, Pinkie, I’m not feeling too well…”
“Ooh, are you cold? Is it like cold cold or just like breezy cold? Does your stomach hurt? Is it because of the cupcakes? Did you eat too much? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Pinkie immediately started bombarding Rainbow with questions, jumping on her and pinning her to the ground.
“No, Pinkie, it’s not like that. I’m fine, but I’m not. It’s, like, inside me…” she answered, pushing Pinkie off of her and getting up before the pink pony would get another of those sudden energy spikes.
“Are you in love?” Pinkie asked, still grinning, after getting up on her hooves. Rainbow didn’t know how that was even possible, but she could swear that Pinkie’s mouth had just got a bit bigger, showcasing the perfect white smile.
“Uh, I guess I am…”
“Ooh! Who is it? Do I know her? Or is it a him? Where did you meet this pony? Did you meet her here? Of, but if it was a him then I just mmm mphh…”
The only way to stop the flow of speech was to stick a hoof to the mouth of the pink pony. Whilst it wasn’t feeling very nice, your hoof getting all soaked up in saliva, it was still better than having to listen to the speech. Rainbow had tried once. It hadn’t been cool anymore after Pinkie had spoken for two hours straight.
“Yes, Pinkie, you do know her. Yes, it’s a her. And please, stop asking so many questions. I need your help!” Rainbow said.
Pinkie stopped talking into Rainbow’s hoof and concentrated fully on her. Rainbow thought that it was safe to remove the hoof from Pinkie’s mouth by now.
“As I said, I need your help. I love this one pony. I just don’t know what to do!” she repeated now that Pinkie was concentrating.
“Is it Applejack?” Pinkie asked.
“Yes it… What? How did you know?” Rainbow was honestly surprised. Pinkie had knew all the time?
“Well, it was just a lucky guess. Plus, I have seen the way you look at her. Your eyes tell everything.” Pinkie’s grin was just growing and growing.
“Well, that’s not important right now. I need help? What should I do?” Rainbow asked. She was starting to regret telling to Pinkie. The grin of hers was not too comforting.
“Ask her out!” Pinkie shouted. Rainbow was afraid that somepony had heard her, but luckily they were in the path leading from Sweet Apple Acres to Ponyville. It was almost always deserted at this hour.
“But I just… I just can’t! It’s so hard!” she shouted back. She didn’t mean to shout at Pinkie, but rather answer with a shout.
“Well, if you can’t say it, do it some other way. Send her a card and some beautiful flowers, maybe. But you have to do it. It only hurts once and all of a sudden you are enjoying the sunset together.” Pinkie answered.
“Well, I think I could give it a shot…” Rainbow was still hesitating a bit. But if Applejack didn’t like her, it would hurt for more than once.
“Well, I say that you should give it a shot. You deserve her, Dash.” The look on Pinkie’s face started getting more and more confronting as the grin started getting smaller and smaller, still maintaining the dimensions of a mighty good one.
“Gee, thanks Pinkie. You’re a true friend,” Rainbow said and hugged Pinkie. She really didn’t believe she was doing it. She was hugging Pinkie just like that.
“Hey, you’re welcome. I’m your friend and I’m here to help you!” Pinkie answered. Rainbow was glad to have such a great friend.
Rainbow pulled off from Pinkie, breaking the hug. It was getting late and she had a long and painful day ahead tomorrow.
“I think I better get home. Getting a little sleepy and all…” she said, yawning to boost the expression up a bit.
“Well, I’ll see ya tomorrow! I guess!” Pinkie cheerfully shouted before starting to bounce towards the distant town.
Rainbow was about to turn and go home as well, but after a second she decided that she wanted to be sure.
“And Pinkie, I’d like you to Pinkie promise that you won’t tell anyone!” she shouted to the distant pink dot that stopped mid-bounce, performed a series of silly-looking moves, waved at Rainbow and kept on bouncing.
Rainbow smiled. Pinkie was so random.
She looked at the dot until it had disappeared, turned around and dashed towards her home. She wanted to hit the hay as soon as possible.
The cloud house she lived in was not too far from the Sweet Apple Acres. It was only a couple of minutes of high-speed flying and she was standing in front of the huge cloud door of her house. It only took a gentle push and the door was open, granting her access to the awesomely decorated house that belonged to her.
It was kinda lonely to live all alone in such a huge house. She had many rooms she almost never visited and loads of empty space all over the house.
But the most interesting thing about the house at this hour was the location of her bedroom. She didn’t even bother to eat anything or to take a shower or to even brush her teeth like Colgate always told her to do. She just wanted to get some sweet, sweet rest.
The bedroom was big, just like the rest of the house. Plenty of room for somepony else to crash in. Even the bed was big enough for two to share.
As soon as she reached the soft cloud bed, she just fell limp and let the bed do the catching. The softness embraced her, allowing her aching muscles to have a deserved rest.
It was no long until she was well asleep, dreaming of a certain mare, judging by the happy smile she was wearing.
Applejack looked at the distant horizon that was splitting the landscape in two, creating a beautiful scenery between the borders of the parts. The light of sun was giving its own little boost to the view, making it even more worth watching.
She should have been working. The apples weren’t going to come down by themselves any time soon, and when they would, it would be too late to start selling them. The fact that Big Mac was busy planting the new seeds and keeping the traditional Apple Family market stall up wasn’t sure making her job easier.
But still there she was, not paying a single though towards the almost-perfectly red apples in the trees. She had way more important things rolling around in her mind right now.
For some reason she had not been able to concentrate almost at all lately. She had started getting late from meetings and things like that and she even was late from the schedule with the apple-bucking of this year.
In addition to this, she had not been able to get her thoughts off a certain mare.
What was it in that certain mare that was so interesting? Sure she was cool, beautiful and a great friend, but Applejack just wasn’t capable of understanding the feelings that she felt towards the certain rainbow-maned pegasus.
Yes, she had fallen for the athlete. But she had nothing to complain about. Rainbow was a great friend and seemed to understand her a bit better than the others.
But there was a single thing bothering Applejack, trying to push the nice things back and make her worry.
What if Rainbow didn’t like her? What if Applejack screwed everything up with her silly feelings and they would not be friends anymore? That would be a tough blow for her.
But no matter how much she wanted to, no matter how hard she told herself that she would have to do it, she just couldn’t go there, face the unavoidable and say the three simple words. It was just too hard.
She let out a little sigh, adjusting her hat for a bit so it blocked all of the beams of the light, causing a pleasant darkness to fall over her eyes. She needed time to sort things out. She closed her eyes and let her thoughts wander.
But whenever one needs time, something tends to happen and disturb you.
And not long after Applejack had shut her eyes, a smaller pony appeared in front of her, looking curiously at her bigger sister.
“Applejack, you okay? Shouldn’t ya be doing the work?” Apple Bloom asked, getting a bit closer to her sister, trying to see under the large brown hat. After a quick peek she could easily see that Applejack was well asleep. That wasn’t acceptable. There were still apples left in the trees and the sun had only just started to set. Apple Bloom noticed her chance.
“Applejack, wake up! Ya got work to do!” she shouted as loud as she could, causing the orange mare to rapidly wake from her slumber and actually jump up in the air. The sight was hilarious and soon enough Apple Bloom was lying on the ground, laughing loudly, causing her sister to blush a little.
“Apple Bloom, what in tarnation was that all about?” she asked, desperately trying to save the situation.
“Well, sis, as you always tend to say, no sleeping on the work. Just remindin’ ya!” Apple Bloom answered, causing Applejack to realize that she was just digging her own pit.
“Well, as ah been working so hard all day long, ah decided to give myself a little break,” Applejack desperately tried, but being the element of honesty and all, she was bad at lying. Apple Bloom would pick up on her lie any second.
“Ah think ah should go and see how Big Mac’s doing around at the marketplace. See ya!” she said to Apple Bloom before running off, leaving her confused little sister behind. She hated lying to somepony, but seeing that there was no other way around, she decided to let it slip this time. She didn’t have time for Apple Bloom trying to prove something right now. She had way more important things rolling around in her head.
She stopped running only when she had reached the path that led to the town. She might actually even go and see how Big Mac was doing now that she was here. And maybe she could get some help to her little problem, as well. Her friends would surely be eager to help her with it.
But which one of them?
Rainbow was no option, of course. Applejack would just completely freeze and make herself look like an idiot in front of the mare.
Rarity could have been an option, but Applejack had heard some rumors that she was working on a big order and she surely didn’t want to end up as a model or a critic. She knew nothing about fashion, nor did she like trying on series of fancy clothes.
Fluttershy would have loved to discuss about it and she would never slip out a secret, but she was training her birdies for the big picnic Twilight was arranging and it was taking up all of her time. Applejack would just be in her way.
That left her to two options. Pinkie and Twilight.
Pinkie would have been a great company and definitely somepony who would keep a secret, but Applejack was kinda trying to avoid entering the café. Not because of Pinkie or anything, but rather because of the twins. She had made the mistake of bringing them some apple treats a couple of weeks back and now they thought that she was hiding them somewhere. It wasn’t a nice feeling when they were always trying to turn your coat upside down in hopes of finding something sugary to chew on with their sharp baby teeth.
Therefore, Twilight was her best option. She would definitely listen to her and knowing Twilight and her books, she would be able to help Applejack as well. Plus, Spike had gotten past the age of trying to look for hidden treats, so the library would be a safe place as well.
By the time she had come up with the solution she had reached the borders of the town. The marketplace was not far away, so she decided to go and see Big Mac before going to the library.
After a couple of minutes of walking she could see the marketplace and the familiar-looking stall with the familiar-looking red stallion behind the table.
“Hey there, big brother,” she said to Big Mac when she had reached the table. Judging by the amount of the apples left on the table, Big Mac had managed to sell quite a few.
Her brother just nodded to her, concentrating on counting the income. Bit after bit dropped into the large bag designated for coins as he was performing some fancy mathematics, and with a mighty amount of speed, as well. Big Mac had always been the genius of the family.
“Business going well, huh?” Applejack asked, trying to get her brother to say something.
“Eeyup,” was the simple answer. He sure wasn’t much of a speaker.
“Well, ah’ll be heading off to the library. Got some things to discuss with Twilight. See ya at the farm later on!” she said before starting to walk towards the library, leaving Big Mac to deal with the line of customers that had formed after her. Her big brother just nodded and started dealing with the apparently-annoyed customers that didn’t like waiting.
The library was pretty close to the marketplace. It was only a couple minutes of walking. On the other hoof, everything was close to everything in Ponyville. It was a small town after all and everypony knew each other. They had a great spirit in the small community.
But the couple of minutes sure weren’t too easy. Anything could happen even in such small amount of time.
After those couple of minutes, and a close call with a falling flower pot- and a falling box full of bubble wrap- Applejack finally managed to reach the door of the library. How could a single pegasus almost drop two items into her head in only a couple of minutes?
Applejack knocked on the door after hearing a distant “sorry Applejack” from the skies above her. Soon enough the door opened and Spike welcomed her in.
“Hi Applejack, what brings you here?” the little dragon asked.
“Just here to see Twilight. Ah have something to ask,” Applejack answered.
“Well, I think she’s upstairs. She said something about scheduling, so it should not be too important,” the dragon said, pointing a claw towards the stairs that led up to the second floor. Applejack simply thanked him and left him to do the chores he had. Must be really useful to have such a great little assistant helping you with all the things. Apple Bloom was quite helpful sometimes, but she had these days when she just didn’t want to do a thing.
Applejack walked up the wooden stairs. As soon as she had reached the wooden door that led to Twilight’s bedroom, she knew that there was no going back now.
She knocked on the door, hoping that Twilight would be busy so she wouldn’t have to go through all the awkwardness of telling about her feelings to somepony else. She was starting to regret even planning to do this.
But as she heard Twilight call her in, she knew that she had to do it. Otherwise she would have to figure things out by herself.
She opened the door, revealing the large bedroom, decorated with all things necessary for late night studying. A clever pony needs no sleep.
“Hi Applejack, what brings you here?” Twilight asked. It took Applejack some time to locate the source of the voice, but soon enough she saw Twilight in the very corner of the room, possibly putting some of her books in order.
“Twi, ah need help,” was all Applejack could say. This would end up being pretty hard.
“Uhh, yeah, I kinda understood that. What do you need help with, exactly?” Twilight asked with a bit of a puzzled look.
“Uhh… You happen to know anything about romance?” Applejack tried, hoping that Twilight would get the clue.
“Ooh! In fact, I think I just read a book about it. Hold on…” Twilight rocketed off towards the bookshelf next to her bed and started furiously looking for the one certain book. Applejack had no idea how Twilight could find anything in this house.
But after a couple of seconds Twilight returned, carrying a small brown book in her magical aura.
“100 ways to confess your love, written by multiple authors. Here we go,” she said excitedly.
“Uhh… If you think a book will surely help, then let’s give it a shot. What’s the first way?” Applejack asked, eager to sort out her troubles.
“Well, this is an interesting book. You see, all the ways are the same…” Twilight said nervously.
“Well, what’s that way? It must be pretty darn good if it has been printed for a whole hundred times,” Applejack said. She had high expectations.
“Just tell him or her,” Twilight said with a small voice, hoping for the best.
Applejack just stood there. There was no other way? She’d have to go and confess her love without knowing a thing about the emotions of Rainbow?
Twilight saw the expression on her friend’s face. She decided that she had to help Applejack.
“Although, I think there is an alternate way, if you don’t want to tell it directly…” she started, hoping to catch Applejack’s attention.
“What is it?” Applejack immediately asked, perking her ears up.
“You could send him or her a card, a bouquet, a box of chocolates in the shape of a heart or something like that. Arrange a meeting to some place and surprise him or her,” Twilight said, hoping that she could help Applejack even a little.
“That’s it! Twi, you’re a genius! Ah’ll send her a card!” Applejack shouted excitedly, literally jumping up in the air.
“Oh, but one little thing. Could you deliver it? Ah’m kinda trying to avoid using the post office for a while…” she said as an excuse. She wanted to stay hidden until she could be sure that Rainbow felt the same things for her.
“Sure thing. But for that to happen I’m going to need to know what to say and who do I say it to,” Twilight answered with a teasing look.
“Okay. It’s Rainbow Dash. And could you decide the place? Ah can't think of anything too romantic right now... And don’t tell that ah sent it,” Applejack said.
“Okay. You have my word,” Twilight replied with a smile.
“Thanks, Twi,” Applejack said, relieved by the fact that she had managed to find a way to sort everything out. “Ah think ah should start heading back home. Chores to do and apples to pick and all…” she added, slowly shifting towards the door. Every minute would make the risk of getting caught off work again a bit more likely.
“Go ahead. I have some work to do, as well. See ya!” Twilight called after the orange mare that had dashed out of the door as soon as Twilight had said the first sentence.
Twilight just let out a little sigh, let a wide smile take over and went back to do the chores she still had to do.
----»«----
Applejack was trotting down the main street of Ponyville at full pace, trying to get back to the farm before anypony would notice. She had left her chores undone and the family needed some income. The farm was not in the top condition and it was always a good idea to have something in the case of the worst case scenario.
She swiftly made her way through the thick crowd that was having a look around at the stalls containing various supplies from foods and goods to woodcraft. No matter how tempting it would have been, she had no time to have even a quick look at the contents of the tables.
She just shifted her gaze back to the road, keeping up the pace and hurrying towards the distant farm. After a good five minutes of running she reached the first trees of the orchard. Judging by the position of the sun she still had some time before Big Mac would return from the marketplace.
After catching her breath a little she took a good look at the apple trees she was supposed to buck. But for her huge surprise, most of them were already empty of apples.
But as apples didn’t fall by themselves, at least not this early, Applejack decided to investigate this sudden relief from her task.
The best clue she had was the line of apples that was heading towards the barn. It didn’t take a genius to guess that the mysterious helper was hiding there. She silently snuck close to the barn door, trying to hear who this mysterious pony was. But after failing at this, she just simply walked in.
And the first thing she saw was the three playful fillies, also known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, throwing the apples into the barrels that were meant as a storage for the apples. Even if it first did look like playing around, every accurately-thrown apple made Applejack even more convinced about the fact that the three were actually helping.
She decided to simply go and ask. A thing she was not capable of doing with Rainbow, but could easily do here and now.
“Apple Bloom, what the hay is going on in here?” she asked, causing the fillies to wince a little.
“Oh, hey sis. We were just helping you with your chores. You know, as a surprise,” her sister answered, the other two boosting the answer with nods.
“Well, that’s really sweet of y’all,” Applejack said with a little blush. Her sister had pretty much saved her flank.
“Ah see you are pretty much done, so how ‘bout we all go inside and eat something? At least I am starving,” she suggested, gaining approving answers from the three who immediately ran inside, presumably towards the kitchen.
Applejack soon followed after them, still unable to think of anything else than the cyan mare of her dreams.
----»«----
When the sun was ending its cycle and the moon was rising, the whole Apple family was sitting in the nice and cozy living room, having the final discussions of the day. Soon enough the tiredness would take the best of them and force them to start getting to bed. Not that the topic of the discussion would have been interesting; It was basically just Granny Smith talking about the times before the siblings and the others pretending to listen.
The evening had been mostly slow and boring. The only notable thing that had happened was the little prank of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Painting Granny Smith pink might not seem like such a funny thing, but due to the lack of humorous events today, the whole family had had a mighty good time looking at Granny Smith who was trying to find the reason why she all of a sudden was pink.
And because the pranksters had been Rainbow and Pinkie, the color got off with a simple five minutes in a warm bath. No permanent effects, no nasty rashes, just some quality fun if you happened to have a sense of humor.
As Granny Smith ended her infamous story of her first time meeting the princess of the day, the whole family got up from their seats and started slowly heading towards their own rooms.
After making sure that Granny Smith found her own room and her own bed, Applejack wandered off to her own room that was in close proximity of the rooms of the others. Immediately after entering the little private space of hers, she walked over to the bed and just fell on it, letting the hay-filled mattress do the catching. She made a couple of adjustment to the position she was on and shut her eyes.
And pretty much immediately when she let her mind relax the slumber took over, still keeping her thoughts in the cyan pegasus.
Chapter Three: Together They Are The Perfect Combo
Rainbow woke up to the feeling of something warm wrapping around her. For a second she though that it was actually a pony, but after her senses got a bit sharper, she noticed that it was something quite different, much to her disappointment. She groaned loudly and opened her eyes to see Twilight standing in front of her bed, casting her magic on Rainbow, holding her up in the air.
“Oh, you’re awake. Let me put you down,” Twilight said in a teasing tone, not a slightest bit of anger present. What was going on? Rainbow didn’t have much time to think about that as Twilight’s magical aura disappeared and she fell down on the luckily-soft cloud floor.
Rainbow didn’t have time to react, and seeing that she had just woken up, she ended up landing face first. This managed to amuse Twilight, judging by the little giggle Rainbow could hear. She quickly got up from the floor and tried to hide the small blush that had managed to form up on her cheeks. It was no use, though.
“Well, what brings you here, Twi?” Rainbow asked, trying to get Twilight’s attention away from her rose-red cheeks. This actually managed to work and Twilight got all serious.
“I need you to come to the northern cliff at sunset. It’s pretty important, so you shouldn’t miss it,” she said blankly, not giving a single hint what this all was about.
“Uhh… Okay, I guess I can come…” Rainbow answered, running a hoof through her mane. This was bad. Twilight had realized that she had lied. Twilight would surely give her a good lecture about “how not to lie to your friends”. She was doomed.
“Great,” Twilight said with a smile and turned around to leave. After a second she turned back, opened her saddlebag with her magic and floated out an envelope. She then let her magic to guide it to Rainbow’s hoof and when it had safely reached the cyan hoof, Twilight let her magic fade away, dropping the envelope down on the hood.
“There, you go, a nice card for you,” she said before turning around and once again activating her magic. In a bright purple flash she was gone and Rainbow was left alone to the large house, a nasty feeling of worry in the back of her head.
After some seconds of standing still and trying to figure out what had just happened, Rainbow decided that she should investigate the contents of the envelope before doing anything. They could answer some of the questions rolling around in her head.
She flipped the envelope around in her hoof, revealing the open side of it. It was not even sealed, seeing that Twilight had brought it by herself. Rainbow stuck her hoof in and pulled out a pinkish card with a big red heart in the middle of it. The heart had some black text in it, written in stylized hoofwriting.
You are the light in my life, The moon in my night sky, The sun that shines during the day, The day we share together.
Love.
Rainbow read the text out loud, actually blushing for a bit when she saw the last word. That one single word was starting to light up the hope inside her.
But the envelope had been brought by Twilight. Didn’t that mean that the card was also made by Twilight?
Rainbow quickly took another look at the card, trying to see even some hint of the writer. It was obviously written in Twilight’s style. This fact was starting to convince Rainbow more and more about the fact that Twilight loved her, until she flipped the card around and took a look at the back of it.
This card was written and delivered by Twilight Sparkle, by the orders of somepony else. Sorry Rainbow, no hints.
Rainbow felt both relieved and disappointed by the fact that the card was not from Twilight. Sure she was a great friend and all, but she just wasn’t exactly Rainbow’s type.
But now she had to find out who had sent the card. It could have been anyone. Many of the ponies of Ponyville were surprisingly romantic and lyrical and it could have been basically anyone. While the options weren’t exactly limitless, they were too big for Rainbow to go through in a day. The best way to find out who this mysterious pony that apparently loved her was, was to go to the northern cliff at sunset.
After a quick look out of the window Rainbow realized that it was already close to noon and decided that it was time for some quality time in the form of breakfast. She walked into the kitchen of her cloud house, grabbed a box of cereals out of one of the cloud cupboards, poured herself a bowlful and started chomping down some hay-based crispy circles, thoughts still not leaving her alone.
----»«----
Applejack woke up to the sound of something hitting the window of her room. She rolled around to her left side, perked her ears up, lifted her body up a little and tried to listen, but after hearing nothing she decided that it had been just some goofy bird or something and let her body collapse back to the soft mattress.
But after the sound repeated itself, she decided that it would be necessary to go and check what the source of it was. She groaned pretty loudly and forced her body to get up from the bed, causing her back to protest by sending a wave of pain through her body. She would have to do something about it later on.
She walked over to the window, moved the curtains out of the way and took a good look out, trying to find the source of the noises that had made her leave the wonderful world of dreams.
But after investigating the scenery behind the window for something like two minutes, she still saw nothing that could have made such sound. Whatever it had been it was gone now, and that suited Applejack just fine. She’d be able to return to the bed. Implying that she would still be able to return to the world of dreams, that is.
She turned around in order to perform an agile dive straight to the comfortable bed, but had to stop mid-turn as she found a pink face a bit too close to hers. And in this case, a bit too close meant that Pinkie had pressed her snout against Applejack’s.
“Hi Applejack!” Pinkie shouted, causing the orange mare to wince a bit. She had just woken up and her ears surely weren’t ready for Pinkie’s high-pitched shouting.
“Hi Pinkie,” she replied as soon as she managed to recover from the voice of her friend. “Wait, how did ya get in?” she added. She had not seen Pinkie come in.
“Well, as you didn’t come and open the window I had to use the door. By the way, you really should have a mechanism to open your window faster. You never know when ponies want to visit you,” Pinkie answered with the always-merry tone of hers, wearing the same wide grin on her face.
“Uhh… I thought that the door was locked,” Applejack said with a blank expression. Pinkie had managed to confuse her once again.
“Well, it was locked, but it isn’t anymore!” the pink pony replied merrily, bouncing up and down while she said the sentence. How did that pony have that much energy?
“Well, uhh, did you have anything to tell me or did you just break in with no good reason?” Applejack asked, causing Pinkie to stop mid-bounce.
“Yeah, I actually did!” she answered before pulling out a decorated piece of paper that appeared to resemble a card of some kind. “Here you go,” she said while lifting Applejack’s left forehoof up and placing the card on it, still managing to maintain perfect balance. Applejack looked at the card; It had been originally white, but now the original color was buried under the layers of hoof-drawn pictures and something sparkly, probably glitter of some kind. All in all it was quite beautiful and mildly chaotic at the same time.
“Did you make this by yourself?” Applejack asked, flipping the card around in her hoof, still trying to figure out the purpose of it.
“Yeah, I did. But it’s not from me, it’s from somepony else. Somepony that apparently likes you. A lot!” Pinkie answered happily, bouncing next to Applejack and pushing her face closer to the card. “Read the text!” she excitedly demanded, pointing a hoof at the spot that was filled with hoof-written text instead of decorations and other stuff like that.
Applejack realized that she had no other option as Pinkie was already looking at her with those big eyes of hers, excitedly rubbing her hooves against each other. Applejack focused on the text and started reading it out loud.
You are the sun in my sky, The moon of my night, The wind that keeps my skies clear, I need you.
A Pony.
After she had finished the last line, she looked up from the letter and her eyes met Pinkie’s. There were even more questions rolling in her head, but she decided that it was no use to start firing all of them at the pink pony. She decided that it would be the best to take it easy and ask them one at a time.
“Pinkie, what’s the purpose of this all?” She started with the easy one.
“It’s an invitation!” Pinkie replied, managing to confuse Applejack yet again. The card had had nothing about invitations of any kind.
“Uhh… An invitation for what exactly?” she asked after double-checking the card, making sure that she was not asking a stupid question.
“A meeting at the northern cliff at sunset. Be sure to be there, you don’t wanna miss it!” Pinkie answered before turning around and starting to bounce towards the window behind Applejack.
“Uhh, Pinkie, what are you doing?” Applejack asked while taking a few steps back from the same window. But before she could ask any further questions, Pinkie flung the window open, jumped out of it and landed on a trampoline that surely had not been there yesterday, managed not to bounce back up in the air, simply hopped down from the trampoline, waved her hoof at the amazed pony behind the now-open window and started bouncing towards Ponyville with no signs of physical or mental harm caused by the jump.
Applejack just stood there, staring at the distant figure of the most random pony that had ever lived, her mouth open and her brains trying to process what just had happened.
But after a couple of minutes of processing, she had to settle for the same old explanation of her “just being Pinkie Pie”. Even Twilight had failed to completely explain the pink pony, so Applejack wouldn’t even have a chance.
She simply turned around and decided that it would be the best for her to simply go downstairs and make some breakfast as she surely wasn’t going to fall asleep again, not with the increased amount of unanswered questions in her head.
She walked over to the door and opened it, careful not to make too much noise as the others were probably still asleep. She stepped out on the hallway and started her long trip to the kitchen, still trying to completely process what Pinkie had said.
----»«----
Rainbow looked out of the window. The sun had started setting fast and was already getting dangerously close to the border of horizon. The time between the events of the morning and this moment had seemed like forever, but after all it had gone too fast for her to be prepared.
She jumped up from the couch she had in her living room, managing to tangle her hooves in the air and clumsily land on the thankfully-soft cloud floor.
She wanted to be ready for the meeting of the mysterious lover of hers, but she also didn’t want to be late. She had spent the whole day just thinking and lying on her bed, sofa, table, floor or whatever had happened to feel comfortable enough. She had paid some thoughts towards getting ready for the meeting, but she had always told herself that she would have plenty of time to do that later on.
And now, when it was later on, it was too late to do a thing.
But she was Rainbow Dash after all. She didn’t worry about getting ready. It wasn’t her thing. She would just go there and use her natural coolness. Her mane was still the same awesome one, no need for brushing. And it wouldn’t have gotten any better even if she would have brushed it, the messy style was somewhat natural to her.
She would need no make-up, that was more like Rarity’s thing. Wearing clothing while participating to a meeting was overrated. After all, regular clothes would just reduce her awesomeness.
After deciding that she was ready without further adjustments to her look, Rainbow quickly got up from the floor, dashed over to the door of the cloud house of hers, swung it open in one swift move, slammed it shut behind her and flew off towards the barely-recognizable dot near Ponyville, also known as the northern cliff.
----»«----
Applejack looked out of the window. The sun had started to set, but it was still safely above the horizon. She would have loads of time to prepare for the mysterious, and apparently romantic, meeting.
She jumped up from the bed of hers, landing on the floor with perfect balance. She then proceeded to walk towards the window to have a better look. Usually the beautiful scenery of the Apple family lands managed to sort her thoughts and bring some certain quality to them.
Would she even need anything to wear? She wasn’t the kind of pony who would wear all kinds of fancy clothes on a meeting. That was more like Rarity’s thing. She would not need any kind of make-up either. Again, she could imagine Rarity using it, but it just wasn’t for her.
All she needed was her beloved cowpony hat. She would never abandon it, and this case was not an exception. She walked over to the bed of hers, picked up the hat, flung it back on the top of her head and decided that she was ready to go. She took a final look out of the window and estimated that she had something like an hour to get to the northern cliff. Seeing that it was just outside Ponyville, she would make it there with no troubles.
She walked over to the door, swung it open, carefully closed it behind her and started peacefully trotting down the stairs, towards the mysterious meeting.
----»«----
Rainbow was flapping her wings as fast as she could, but no matter how hard she tried, she was desperately running out of time. She would either just make it or miss the meeting by seconds. But no matter what, she would be there.
The northern cliff was getting bigger and bigger as she got closer, revealing its total glory in a beautiful way. The cliff was extremely popular among young couples, as it gave an astonishing view at the sun setting behind the horizon, illuminating the hometown of the ponies. The rumors were that no place in the wide world of Equestria was more romantic.
And now that the meeting was being arranged here, Rainbow was starting to get even more and more nervous. Who was it? That was the main question. And no matter how hard she tried, she could not pick a single pony that could have given Twilight orders to write that card. Maybe it was only because of her emotions, but it was just a task too hard for her to complete.
As the end of the cliff was directly under her she brought her focus back to the real world and attempted to land without crashing and making herself look like an idiot. She started rapidly lowering the altitude, using her wings to go to the right direction and her hooves to create a more aerodynamic position. As she was just about to hit the ground, she opened her wings wide, lowering her speed dramatically and allowing her to land on her hooves without breaking any bones. At least something had gone well. The landing did manage to form up a small cloud of dust and dirt, however, but that wasn’t too important.
She brushed herself off a bit, knowing that she had some dirt in her fur, and started walking towards the said meeting point. For her slight surprise, there was nopony there. Had she been the first? No, it was not possible, as the sun had only just started disappearing behind the horizon. Had the other or others left her here because she was late? No, it couldn’t be that. She was only a couple of minutes late.
But what was she doing here? She had no idea. She simply walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked at the scenery in front of her. The rumors about it being beautiful had not been false. The buildings of the town were casting their silhouettes over the fields between them and the cliff. The glow of the sun was making its way behind the buildings, creating an amazing contrast against the dark houses and shops. And the final thing that made the scenery perfect was the fact how the forests near the town were positioned exactly on the sides of the town, allowing the sunlight to effectively hit the town and the town only. All in all, it was one of the most beautiful things Rainbow had ever seen in her life.
But still not as beautiful as Applejack…
Rainbow let out a silent sigh. She was alone. So alone.
She was about to turn around and leave when she heard sounds. They came closer and after a couple of seconds she could hear a familiar voice.
“Rainbow, is that you?”
----»«----
Applejack was trotting down the lumpy path, making her way up towards the northern cliff. The path had been in a worse condition than she had thought, making it difficult to travel. This was the reason why Applejack was desperately running out of time. She was going as fast as she could on the path, but apparently it was not fast enough, as the sun was already starting to disappear behind the horizon.
The cliff had some reputation among the young ones of the town. It had an amazing view over the hometown of the ponies and as the sun started to disappear behind the horizon, it created an incredible light-show with the dark silhouettes of the buildings of the town.
But now she would miss both the starting of this event and the mysterious meeting. What if the sender of the card had already left? What if she would never have such chance again? What if she would spend the rest of her life alone?
She shook such silly thoughts out of her head immediately. There was no reason to go all dramatic about this. It wouldn’t be too late. She would get there early enough.
As the path started getting wider and officially entered the area of the northern cliff, she concentrated only on the real world. Immediately when she could see the whole area she started looking for a pony, a pony that could change her life.
And there, dangerously close to the edge of the cliff, stood a pony, illuminated by the setting sun. The cyan fur looked even better as the lighting was ideal and the rainbow-colored mane was reflecting colors all around the place, creating a heavenly display around the mare that stood there, the mare of Applejack’s dreams.
She didn’t hesitate any more, she simply walked behind the mare and asked probably the stupidest question a pony has ever asked in the history of Equestria.
“Rainbow, is that you?”
----»«----
Rainbow turned around to face the mare of her dreams. She smiled a little and answered the obvious question.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Applejack seemed to be a bit embarrassed because of her question. Rainbow found this slightly amusing, but decided not to burst out laughing. That would quite possibly kill the mood.
“Beautiful sunset, eh?” she asked, seeing that Applejack could not come up with anything. Her voice was calm and full of comfort. That apparently managed to ease Applejack’s mind as she replied with the same tone.
“Certainly. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
At this point Rainbow didn’t even care about the questions in her head. At this point she didn’t want to know how Twilight had managed to arrange this. At this point she didn’t want to know what Pinkie had done with the trusted information. The only thing that mattered to her was the pony in front of her.
Without a second thought she leaned forward, slowly enough for Applejack to pick up on the hint. As their lips met, she felt the most fascinating feeling in her whole life. A feeling that was beyond the ones she had felt during the sonic rainboom, what she had felt when finally getting to the Wonderbolt Academy, what she had felt when saving her friends from certain death and winning the Best Young Flier competition at the same time.
That feeling was love.
And as the two ponies shared their special moment, the sun reached the ideal position and the beams of light illuminated the birth of a new, beautiful relationship.
