Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, trying to think about anything but the straps that bound her to the wooden board. She cracked one eye open just wide enough to see Applejack, mouth full of the knives that would soon be racing though the air towards her.
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, trying to think about anything but the straps that bound her to the wooden board. She cracked one eye open just enough to see Applejack, smiling mouth full of the knives that would soon be racing though the air towards her. The things some ponies will do for love...
Rainbow Dash should have been working. Instead, she was napping, lying face down on a knotty old tree branch, her legs slowly swaying back and forth in the air beneath her. A passing wind rustled the leaves and brought a smell of apples to her snout. She could kick around some silly clouds any time, but there was one thing that could only ever be found on the ground. A distinct sound of hooves striking bark rang out somewhere nearby, jolting her awake.
Dash smiled at the sound and settled back down to enjoy the last few moments of clear, fresh air tousling her mane and the comfortable feeling of bark on her stomach. She suspected a farm pony would be over soon to interrupt her nap. She looked forward to it.
Suddenly, the branches above her violently shuddered as a gray and blonde bullet rocketed into the tree.
“Hey Derpy,” Dash called up to the mailmare above her, not bothering to lift her head up off of her pillow. “Whatcha’ doin’?”
Derpy made several failed attempts to extricate her head from between two snarled branches before smiling back down. “Hey, Rainbow Dash, I brought you your mail!”
“Isn’t mail supposed to be delivered to houses?” Dash asked, stretching and turning over onto her back. She winced at the sight of Derpy’s legs tangled in the tree’s branches. “Do you need some help?”
“Nope, I know what I’m doing. This happens at least once a week.” Derpy smirked and held her head up a little higher.
“And I did go to your house.” She switched her escape efforts to trying to flutter her wings free, but only succeeded in causing a pair of apples to drop onto her head. She kept smiling, oblivious to the fruit thudding against her skull. “But you weren’t there, so I knew you would be here at Sweet Apple Acres.”
Dash raised a brow at that. She hadn’t told anypony where she was going. “How did you know I’d be here?”
“Because you’re always at Sweet Apples Acres,” Derpy said, smiling innocently.
“I am not.” Dash’s face crumpled up. “I’ve only been here for a couple hours.”
“Well,” Derpy said with a grunt, the entire tree trembling as she finally managed to wrench a hoof free, “you’re here whenever Applejack is here.”
“So?” Dash turned away. She could go wherever she wanted. “I just like how apples smell.”
Derpy gasped and jumped, or jumped as much as her leafy captor allowed. “Oh, me too! Apple muffins are the best!”
“Whatever.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Can you just leave the mail at my house? I’ll check it later.”
Derpy's face fell. “Aww, but there’s one I really wanted you to see. It’s, like, the coolest thing ever!” she cried, waving her free hoof rapidly back and forth in the air to demonstrate just how cool it was.
“Oh yeah?” Dash’s ears perked up. “What is it?”
Derpy stuck her muzzle down into the mail bag hanging next to her head, rummaging around for a moment before reappearing with a sheet of paper stuck between her teeth. Messy, colorful letters and a dozen exclamation points were scattered randomly over the page. She opened her mouth, letting the paper fall loosely twisting and untwisting through the air.
Dash sat up quickly and grabbed the leaflet before it had a chance to float away. She read aloud, “Announcing Ponyville’s first ever official extreme knife throwing competition…” She looked back up at Derpy through squinted eyes. “Seriously?”
“I know, right?” Derpy hoof-pumped, rustling the leaves of the tree again. “Isn’t it the coolest thing ever? The signups are tomorrow at town hall.”
“No, no it isn’t,” Dash replied, resting her head back down onto her pillow.
Derpy’s mouth gaped open so wide Dash worried her jaw might come unhinged. “But I thought you liked sports and competitions and stuff?”
“Not lame stuff.” And knife throwing was decidedly very lame stuff. Throwing knives at a wall wasn’t exactly Rainbow Dash’s idea of a good time.
Derpy’s eyes swelled and her mouth wordlessly opened and closed. “Well—well your tail is lame stuff!” With that, she rapidly snapped out of the tree and took off into the air, her head still stuck between the pair of twisted limbs. She dragged at least a quarter of the tree’s branches, shaking in time with her beating wings, through the air behind her while she flew away.
Dash watched her for a moment before shrugging and settling back down to go to sleep. Her nap lasted a total of five seconds before violent shaking overtook the tree again, sending her sprawling over the side.
Sharp pain flashed through her back and stole her breath. She sucked at the air, finding herself sitting on her back in an apple bucket, her legs sticking up into the air. She wiggled her legs uselessly, tilting the bucket but going nowhere. She heard laughter to her side. Her ears drooped. Of all the ponies she could have humiliated herself in front of…
“Well, would you look at that, Zap Apple season came early!” Applejack said with another laugh.
Rainbow Dash’s mouth curved up into a smile at the sight of her friend, but she checked herself and scowled appropriately instead. “Whatever, just get me out of here. How’d you not see the blue pegasus with the awesome mane sleeping in the tree?”
“Who said I didn’t see you?”
Rainbow Dash tried and failed to keep her scowl in place. “Yeah, yeah. You're so funny.”
“I keep telling you not to nap in my trees.” Applejack extended a hoof that Dash gladly accepted, allowing herself to be pulled up out of the bucket. “This must be the fourth time this week. Why do you sleep here when you could be out sleeping on one of those fluffy clouds anyway? I told you I was going to be bucking these trees today.”
Rainbow Dash chewed on her cheek and glanced at the tree. Applejack did have a point. But that was assuming she didn't want to be bucked out of the apple trees. “…I like how apples smell.” The explanation sounded weak even to her own ears.
“Are you sure you aren't here just to see Big Mac?” Applejack grinned.
Dash froze, suddenly looking and feeling a whole lot more like Fluttershy than herself. “What? No, I—I, uh, no. Er, I, uh... I just like the way apples smell,” she finished lamely.
Applejack frowned and tilted her head to the side for a moment before smiling again. “I was just joking,” she said, walking up to the barrel. “I’m glad either way. It’s always nice to see you falling out of one of my trees.”
Dash brushed some dirt off her chest and pretended to be annoyed at the quip.
Applejack turned and hoisted the bucket up onto her back. “Hey, uh…” Her voice trailed away. Dash wasn’t certain, but she thought she saw a trickle of sweat slip down Applejack’s forehead.
“Hey,” Applejack began again, her smile not looking quite right, “you hear about that knife throwing competition?”
“Yeah, Derpy just told me about it. Looks dumb,” Dash answered, swooping over and grabbing the barrel in between her own hooves. “I got this.”
Applejack smiled at her like she knew something Rainbow Dash didn’t. “Thanks, sugarcube,” she said, resting a hoof on Dash’s shoulder.
“No problem.” She looked down at Applejack's hoof, lingering on her shoulder a bit too long before finally falling away. Applejack looked to her like she expected Dash to do something. "Uh, no problem?" Dash tried again, shifting on tense legs.
Applejack sighed and began walking away. "You’re not enterin’ then?” she asked over her shoulder.
Dash stuck out her tongue. “No way.”
Applejack stopped, indicating a spot on the ground next to the tree with her hoof. “That’s probably for the best.”
“Why’s that?” Dash asked, unceremoniously dropping the bucket onto the ground.
“Oh, it’s nothin’.” Applejack’s shot her a sidelong glance. “I just know how much you hate losing.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dash asked, her eyes narrowed.
“I’m enterin’,” Applejack replied, puffing out her chest a little, “and I plan on winnin’.”
Dash jumped into the air, hovering in close to her friend’s face. “I could beat you at any stupid little knife throwing competition.”
Rainbow Dash searched her friend’s face for some sign of sarcasm or deceit, but only found a smile. “Fine!” she said. “I’ll do your stupid little knife throwing thing, and then I’m gonna win, and then I’m gonna rub it all over your face.”
Applejack leaned forward until their snouts were nearly touching, still smiling. “Oh yeah?”
Her friend’s warm breath tickled Dash’s cheek. She took a deep breath, taking the chance to enjoy the sweet smell of apples that forever seemed to follow the farm pony wherever she went.
Abruptly, Applejack licked the tip of Dash's snout. Dash jumped backwards, suddenly becoming uncomfortably aware of how close Applejack’s muzzle had been to her own. "What the hay?" Dash cried, her face flushed.
Applejack chuckled. "Oh calm down. I was just playin'. Don't pretend like you didn't like it."
Dash's eyes swelled to bursting before darting backwards. “I, uh, I’ve, uh…” She desperately searched the farm for an excuse to leave without looking like she was running away.
Applejack frowned and sighed. “Let me guess, all the sudden you gotta do something that you didn’t have to do two minutes ago?”
“Uh… yeah?” Dash tried.
“Best be off then,” Applejack said shortly, turning to the apple tree.
Dash lingered for a moment to watch Applejack buck the tree. She opened her mouth to ask if she’d done something wrong, but closed it again when Applejack’s hooves violently struck the tree, leaving a pair of gashes in the bark. She raised herself into the air and began gliding away, not sure where she was going.
“See you tomorrow!” she called down.
Applejack waved back up at her. Rainbow was too far away to say for sure, but it looked like she was smiling again.
_________________________________________________
Rainbow Dash angled her head down quickly, shooting through a cloud and bursting it into a shower of sparkling dew. She paused to survey her sky. Not a single cloud left. Thanks to her, Ponyville would be having another bright, shining afternoon. She dove in the direction of the town hall, winding calmly free in the air over little houses. Knife throwing must have been more popular than she had thought. There were at least fifty ponies gathered in loose circles around town hall.
She landed hard on the road, kicking up dust and spreading her wings wide in a dramatic pose. For a few short moments, all eyes were on her. She smirked and ignored the no-doubt impressed looks she received as she trotted towards a pair of tables in front of the entrance. An older gray earth pony stallion with a silvery mane sat behind one of the tables, dully sifting through a stack of papers.
Rainbow Dash looked over the crowd, sizing up her competition before turning to the stallion. “Hey, what’s up?”
The gray stallion looked up at her for barely a second and grunted, returning to his work.
“Okay…” Dash continued, “is this where I sign up for that knife throwing thing?”
The stallion frowned and examined her over a little pair of glasses resting on his snout. Apparently deciding there wasn’t already enough gray in his image, he had fastened a gray collar and bowtie around his neck. “Mm hmm,” Mr. Gray answered, picking a paper off the stack and sliding it across the table with a quill, “just fill out this entry form.”
“Okay.” Dash picked the quill up in her mouth. The form asked for basic information: name, date, allergies, blah, blah, blah. She scribbled away at the paper as fast as she could and slid it back across the table.
She closed her eyes and smiled, imagining Applejack’s reaction when she lost. Her eyes would open wide in amazement, and her jaw would drop all the way down to the ground.
“Oh Rainbow Dash,” she would say, stumbling over her words, “that was so cool. You really are the most awesome pegasus ever.”
“I know,” Dash would reply, casually flipping her hair to the side. Then she would lean in close to Applejack’s muzzle. “You’re pretty awesome too.”
Applejack would blush, overcome with emotion at being flirted with by her long-time crush. “Who is your partner?”
Dash blinked. “Huh?”
“You left the partner space blank. Who is your partner?” Mr. Gray repeated, pointing to an empty line on the paper.
“I don’t have one,” Dash said, letting the irritation at having her daydream interrupted show in her voice.
It wasn’t the first time she had gotten distracted by daydreams about Applejack. But it wasn’t like she was some filly pining after her first crush, even if Applejack technically was her first crush. Just like when she imagined she was flying with the Wonderbolts, she would live it out someday. She just needed to wait for the right moment. If everything went well with this knife throwing thing, she expected that moment would come very soon.
“Are you even listening to me?” Mr. Gray drawled out each syllable in a dull monotone with just the slightest hint of annoyance.
“Huh.” Dash blinked, realizing that Mr. Gray had been saying something to her. “Oh, uh, yeah. No, I wasn’t.”
Mr. Gray’s eyelid twitched the same way Twilight’s did every time Dash knocked over one of her bookshelves. “I will keep it brief this time then. You cannot sign up without a partner.”
“What?” Dash said, rising into the air. “That’s ponyfeathers! I don’t need a partner.”
Mr. Gray closed his eyes and took a deep breath, another move Dash was certain she’d gotten from Twilight before. He seemed like he was probably a bit of an egghead too. Maybe they were related.
He opened his eyes and let out his breath in a long, whistling sigh. “As I just explained, if you do not have a partner, you do not compete. Those are the rules.”
Dash rose higher into the air and opened her mouth to object when the pencil pusher abruptly waved her back down, closely inspecting a yellow clipboard sitting on the table.
“Hmm… your name is Rainbow Dash?”
Dash dropped back on the ground, rustling her wings. “Yeah, what’s it to ya’?”
“There is one other contestant in need of a partner,” Mr. Gray said, frowning down at the clipboard. “Apparently, she has pre-signed up with you in case you needed a partner. One Miss…” He lowered his face down close to the clipboard, eyes narrowed to slits. Those glasses didn’t seem to help him much.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Dash cut him off with a wave of her hoof, scanning the crowd again. “Sign me up with her.” She noted with a little niggle of worry that she hadn’t seen Applejack anywhere yet.
It didn’t surprise her that someone had already signed up to be her partner. It surprised her that there had only been one. She was something of a local star after all. It didn’t matter who she was paired with though, she would win regardless.
“Okay then,” Mr. Gray said, slowly scratching at the paper with his quill. He slid another paper across the table.
Dash groaned and planted both hooves into her face. "Seriously? How long is this gonna take?"
“Just sign this waiver, and I will take you over to the waiting area to find your partner.”
Dash dropped her hooves and eyed the newest form suspiciously. “What’s a waiver?” She didn’t like the way that word felt on her tongue.
“It just means that you agree not to sue if anything goes wrong. But you look capable enough,” he said with the smallest of smirks. “I am sure you will be just fine.”
Rainbow Dash paused, decided that was a compliment, and scribbled her name out on the bottom of the paper.
“Very good,” Mr. Gray said, gathering up the papers, stamping them, and neatly stacking them together with the rest. He smiled at his orderly little stack, the first smile Dash had seen on his face, before standing up. “Let us see if we can find your partner.”
Dash followed him at a close hover while he wandered through the crowd. He was taller than she had expected. “The rules are simple…” Mr. Gray began.
But Rainbow wasn’t listening. She was too busy swiveling her head around, searching for a familiar orange coat in the clustered groups of colors surrounding her every side. Every second she didn’t find Applejack, the nervous itch in her stomach grew.
Then she saw her. Applejack sat in the shade of a tree at the edge of the square. Dash smiled and rushed forward, bee-lining around groups of ponies to meet her, leaving behind a confused Mr. Gray. Realizing what she was doing, she stopped and lowered her smile into a smirk. She raised her head and chest before continuing at an easy trot.
“So,” Applejack said with a smile when she drew near, “you actually decided to show up, huh?”
In spite of herself, Dash smiled back, smirk forgotten. “I’d never miss the chance to see you.” Dash’s eyes widened as she realized what she’d just said and quickly corrected, “Y-you lose! See you lose. Heh, yeah…”
Applejack chuckled. “Yeah, I guess we’ll just have ta’ see about that. I’m guessin’ you didn’t bring a partner?”
“Ah, there you two are.” Mr. Gray appeared beside them, breathing heavily, saving Dash from answering. “Miss, uh, Applejack, your partner has finally arriv—”
“Wait,” Dash interrupted, earning another Twilight-like sigh from Mr. Gray. “Who’s your partner?” She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d somehow been betrayed. Maybe she shouldn’t have expected her to, but Applejack hadn’t even asked her if she wanted to be her partner.
“Uh…” Mr. Gray’s eyes shifted between the two mares. Applejack winked, smiling like she’d just done something clever.
“…You are,” Mr. Gray finally answered.
“Who?” Dash asked, twitching her ears and searching through the knots of ponies around them for the perpetrator.
Somehow, Mr. Gray found a way to deadpan his expression even further. “You,” he said, pointing his hoof at her.
Realization sparked in her head as her eyes followed where his hoof was pointing. “Oh.”
She relaxed and pretended to cough, but her muscles immediately drew tight again. This brainless cousin of Twilight’s would ruin everything. Applejack and Mr. Gray were saying something to each other about rules, but Dash couldn’t hear. She needed to stop it, and she needed to stop it now.
“No way!” Dash shouted abruptly, drawing stares from ponies standing nearby. “I am not partnering with her.” Dash pointed her hoof down where Applejack stood. “Anypony but her!” She noticed Applejack’s ears droop a little.
The corners of Mr. Gray’s mouth dropped into a practiced scowl. “You have already been entered together. All partners are final.”
“I’m not partnering with her,” Dash repeated, scowling back at him.
“Then you both forfeit,” Mr. Gray said simply.
Rainbow Dash turned around and sat on her haunches. “Fine,” she said, crossing her forelegs over her chest.
She felt a hoof on her shoulder. “Rainbow, come on,” Applejack said quietly. “Surely you’d rather be my partner than lose without even tryin’, right?”
Dash fought down the urge to remind her friend not to call her Shirley and instead focused on the feeling of Applejack’s hoof on her shoulder. Applejack must have thought this was about their stupid rivalry. She couldn’t possibly understand how important it really was.
“No,” she said, adamantly hunching her back.
“If we’re partners, we’ll have to spend every day together practicing,” Applejack cooed, using a voice Dash had only ever heard her use while selling apples.
Every day. Dash glanced at Mr. Gray, looking as stone-faced as ever.
“Fine,” she muttered, suppressing the excitement rising in her voice, a new plan taking shape in her head. Actually, when she thought about it, she would rather be Applejack’s partner than do a lot of things.
“Alright then,” Mr. Gray said, distractedly, “I have already explained the rules to both of you. All competitors will meet here in exactly one week for the official showing. You will have that time to prepare.” With that, he marched back over to his precious paper stacks.
Applejack trotted around Dash’s side so that they were face-to-face. “Ah, stop being such a sourpuss,” she said, an infectious smile spread over her face. “Look at the bright side. Who could beat a team made up of the first and second top athletes in Ponyville?”
“Heh, you’re right,” Dash said, uncrossing her forelegs. This was definitely okay. “Wait, are you admitting that I’m the top athlete in Ponyville?”
Applejack smirked. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, sugarcube. Wanna come over to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow afternoon and start practicin’? We should be done fixin' up the barn's loft by then.”
“I guess,” Dash said, shrugging with expert nonchalance.
“All right then. See ya’ tomorrow.” Applejack tipped her hat before walking off in the direction of her farm.
“See ya’.” Rainbow Dash watched Applejack’s tail flick back and forth as she walked off. She quickly turned away when Applejack looked back, focusing on everything but Applejack’s backside. When Applejack was finally out of sight, Dash allowed herself a small giggle and took off towards her own home.
Rainbow Dash spiraled down, twisting round and round in a circle though the air, her stomach lurching and mane rippling. She soared towards the empty field she’d seen Applejack standing in, pulling in and out of tight corkscrews that were sure to impress any ponies who might be watching. Especially orange farm ponies. She spotted Applejack standing on a little hill beneath her, busy tying one of Rarity’s ponyquins to a long, wooden board, its legs spread out over the wood.
“Hey, AJ,” Dash called out, somersaulting into her landing on flaring wings. She frowned when she looked up. Applejack hadn’t even turned around to see her landing. “Uh… what are you doing?”
Applejack tightened one final strap before turning around. “Just settin’ up our practice dummy.”
“Practice dummy?”
“Uh huh.” Applejack trotted past her to a stool standing a few feet away from the board. “No time like the present, I reckon. Let’s get started.”
Dash hovered over to her, grimacing. “I guess.”
“You wanna go first?” Applejack asked, pointing to a set of large, silver knives sitting on the stool, shining in the sunlight. They were some of the biggest knives Dash had ever seen, about the same size and shape as one of her ears.
“Eh, sure.” Dash looked back and forth between the knives and the ponyquin. Shrugging, she picked up one of the knives in her mouth, frowning at the metallic taste and lining herself up with the board. She let out what she assumed sounded like a fierce battle cry and charged straight at the ponyquin. Suddenly, her momentum halted and she felt herself being yanked backwards.
She turned around to see Applejack spitting her colorful tail out of her mouth. “Sugarcube, just what in the hay are you doin’?”
“Staphin’ phe phonyphin,” Dash said, talking around the knife.
Applejack facehoofed. “First of all, it’s knife throwin’, not knife stabbin’. Second, you’re supposed to be trying not to hit the ponyquin.”
“Whasph phe phoint of phat?” Dash asked, one brow raised.
Applejack’s eyes got all squinty in that cute way they always did when she thought Rainbow Dash was acting silly. “Have you ever been to a rodeo? Seen a professional knife thrower?”
“No, phwhy?”
Applejack sighed. “Alright, guess I should’ve explained what we were doing before.” She pointed at the board. “I thought one of us would be tied up to that board while the other throws knives at it.”
“Wait, what?!” Dash cried, letting the knife fall to the ground, eyes opening wide. Sure, she was a daredevil, but she wasn’t stupid. Usually. “Are you crazy?”
“No,” Applejack huffed, “if we practice enough, we’ll be fine. We might as well decide now who’s gonna be throwin’.”
Dash looked at the ponyquin, imagining it was herself tied up, spread-eagled on the old splintered board. It didn’t look good. On the other hoof, when she imagined Applejack tied up there... “There’s no way I’m letting you tie me up while I’m getting knives thrown at my face. Those things are big enough take off one of my hooves!”
“The thrower should be the more experienced—”
“I am experienced!” Dash declared, rising into the air.
“Okay.” Applejack pointed down at the knife Dash had spit on the ground. “Mind provin' it?”
Dash picked up the knife and shot a quick glare over her shoulder before facing the board. All she had to do was hit anything but the ponyquin. No problem. She tilted her head and then forcefully threw her entire body to the side, forelegs reared, back legs swiveling. She jerking her head and released the knife into the air.
She smirked as she watched it soar through the air, spinning towards the board. She turned to face Applejack, waiting to hear the thud that would toll out her victory. But her smirk faltered when the thud never came. Turning back around, she found that the knife had fallen lamely on the grass, just in front of the board.
Applejack trotted up beside her. “That really wasn’t that bad, you just need to—”
“I got it,” Dash retorted sharply, picking up another knife. "I can figure it out."
Except that she couldn’t. The knives absolutely refused to go anywhere except where she didn’t want them to. The next knife landed somewhere past the board. And, to Dash’s ever increasing frustration, so did the next two after that.
“Are you sure you’ve done this before?” Applejack asked, watching her stomp back to the stool for the fifth time.
“Yeah, I’m just a little rusty, that’s all,” Dash said, picking up the final knife.
She lined herself again, steeling her face. She narrowed her eyes at the ponyquin. It wasn’t even a fair match. It was just some stupid piece of plastic, and she was the fastest flyer in Equestria. She spotted Applejack watching her in the corner of her eye. She was not going to make a fool of herself in front of that mare.
Planting her hind legs firmly on the ground, digging deep into the dirt, she whirled herself around in two full circles. At the end of the second, she snapped her head to the side so violently her neck cracked, sending the knife tearing through the space between her and the board. A dull thud rang out over the field. Dash’s face lit up and wings flared at the sound.
But her face immediately darkened again when she saw the ponyquin. Sticking out of the dead center of its chest was her knife. Dash stomped on the ground and cried out in frustration before plopping down onto her haunches.
She blamed everypony but herself. The stupid knives that wouldn’t fly straight. Her stupid mouth that wouldn’t throw straight. The stupid sun that kept getting in her eyes. The stupid ponyquin that insisted on being impaled in the chest, and, especially, the stupid Applejack that had insisted they do this in the first place.
“Hey,” she heard Applejack say behind her, “it wasn’t that ba—”
“Whatever. Like you can do better!” Dash shot, jumping into the air. She grunted as she yanked the knife out of the ponyquin's chest and then quickly gathered up all of the ones that had fallen on the ground. When they were all lying between her legs, she threw them down on the ground in front of Applejack's hooves.
“Okay…” Applejack shrugged and picked them all up into her mouth at once. Rainbow moved off to the side and sat down on the grass, smirking. At least she had hit something. Applesmack probably couldn’t even manage that.
Applejack stood perfectly still for several seconds, staring at the ponyquin. Her gaze turned terrible, like she could will the knives into the board just by glaring at it. She stood that way for what Dash figured must have been at least a full minute, quietly staring down the ponyquin. Just as Rainbow opened her mouth to ask when she was going to start, Applejack spun around in a circle. One knife went spinning up into the air, flying so fast Dash lost sight of it as soon as it left Applejack's mouth. Then, leaving behind an echoing strike, it almost instantly reappeared in the space between two of the ponyquin’s legs.
Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell open. No way…
Applejack passed her a smug, knife-filled smile, looking more like a timberwolf than a pony, before spinning around in a circle again, launching another knife between the ponyquin’s limbs. She spun over and over in quick succession, sending a knife at the board with each spin.
When she stopped, a knife had been neatly stuck between each pair of the ponyquin’s legs, not leaving a single nick or a scratch. Applejack turned back to Rainbow, a cool smile on her face. “How do you like them apples?”
“That… was…” Dash pumped her wings and stretched her forelegs into the air, “awesome! How did you do that?!”
Applejack’s cheeks tinted red as she looked away. “Aww shucks, that was nothin’. I used to throw knives at rodeos all the time. You should see some of the tricks I used to do.”
“That was so not nothing!” Dash cried, swooping in next to her friend. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! Where did you learn to do that? I've never seen anything like that before."
"Well, I guess it was Granny who first showed me how," Applejack said, scratching her head. "But we don't throw much anymore."
"Why not?"
Applejack shrugged. "I don't know. It's been cut from most rodeos. I guess there isn't much point any other time. I'm surprised I can even still do it."
"Well, you should do it way more often." Rainbow Dash smiled. "That was so awesome!"
Applejack mirrored her smile. “Heh, thanks. Uh, you don’t mind if I’m the one throwing then?”
“Are you kidding me?” Dash raised her hoof up straight in the air. “I’d mind if you didn’t throw.” She elected not to mention that it was probably for the best if she didn’t accidentally stab Applejack in the chest while an entire crowd of ponies watched. Or any other time.
Applejack met her hoof in a quick hoof bump. “Alright then. I’ll just go grab those knives—”
“I got it!” Dash interrupted, jumping past her. She quickly gathered up all of the knives and smiled when she laid them down. “Do it again!”
Applejack chuckled as she picked them up. When she turned away to prepare to throw again, Dash let her smile fall. It couldn’t possibly have been going any worse. She’d made herself look like a total idiot. It seemed like she couldn’t do anything but embarrass herself around the other mare. Any other time she could be completely cool. It was just Applejack that transformed her into a stumbling foal.
“Somethin’ wrong, sugarcube?” Dash’s head snapped up at the question. Applejack was passing her a frown.
“…It’s nothing,” Dash said quietly. Applejack’s brows crumpled up and her frown tightened.
Dash inwardly groaned. “It’s just…”
Applejack smiled helpfully.
“You’re so much better than me at this…” Dash finished, looking down and away.
Applejack dropped the knives and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “It’s nothin’ to feel bad about. I told you, I’ve been doin’ this for years. You did really well for this being your first time.”
“Really?” Dash asked, her ears perking up.
“Yeah,” Applejack answered with an easy smile, “that was a perfect bullseye. I’ve never seen anypony get a perfect bullseye on their first try before.”
A smile spread across Rainbow’s face. “Heh, it was pretty cool, wasn’t it?”
“Sure it was,” Applejack said, nudging her in the chest. “Now how about we keep practicin’ and I give you a couple pointers.”
“Yeah, that’d be awesome!” Rainbow Dash said a little too loudly, hopping up onto her hooves.
Applejack stood in front of the board, straightening her back. “Knife throwin’s all about your stance. You just gotta…”
Rainbow Dash nodded and smiled. But she wasn’t listening, too busy enjoying the sound of Applejack’s voice to listen to the words.
Applejack paused to wipe her hooves on the doormat. She scraped them back and forth along its fibers, wincing at the unfamiliar sensation. She looked up at the blue sky, its brilliantly shining sun weighing down on her brow. Did Rainbow Dash really have to clear every cloud away? In the very least, she could leave a few drifting by the farm. She wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead with her hat, praying Rarity wouldn't complain, and pushed Carousel Boutique’s door open, signaling the shrilly door chime.
“One moment please, and I’ll be right with you,” Rarity called out. Applejack followed her voice to the back of the store, where she found the unicorn fussing over Pinkie Pie, or, more accurately, a frilly dress flowing over Pinkie's flanks. The unicorn levitated several pins, dancing them around her head. “Pinkie Pie, will you please hold still for just one moment while I fix these measurements? If you’re going to come to dinner with me, you absolutely must dress appropriately.”
“I am holding still,” Pinkie replied, twirling, bouncing, and generally doing everything but holding still.
Rarity groaned, causing the floating pins to shudder, rolling her jaw back and forth. Applejack eyed the shaky pins cautiously for a moment before clearing her throat loudly to draw her friends' attentions.
“I said just one moment,” Rarity shot over her shoulder, not turning around.
“Hey, Applejack,” Pinkie said, smiling and waving at her. “Me and Rarity are playing dress-up. I saw a sombrero in the closet if you wanna play too.”
Applejack fidgeted with the brim of her hat. “Eh, no. Actually, there’s something I need to talk to both of you about.”
“Hmm?” Rarity hummed, turning around. “Oh, sorry, Applejack. I didn’t see you come in. I suppose now is as good a time to take a break as any.” She narrowed her eyes at Pinkie for a brief second before turning back to Applejack, all smiles. “Would you like some tea?”
Applejack crinkled her nose up at the offer. “No thanks.”
“Ooo, I want some tea,” Pinkie said with a little bounce. “And hot chocolate too!”
“You just stay right where you are,” Rarity hissed, her voice like ice, but the corners of her mouth twitched in the barest hints of a smile. “I won’t have you spilling chocolate on your new dress before we’ve even had the opportunity to show it off."
"So," she said, turning back to Applejack with a wink and a playful smile, “how’s practice going?”
Applejack fumbled around with her hat some more. “I don’t know. That’s what I came here to talk to you about.”
Rarity cocked one eyebrow. “What do you mean you 'don’t know'?”
“That happens to me all the time,” Pinkie said, nodding like a school teacher. “I’ll just stop and look around and then I’m like, ‘What am I even doing right now?’”
Applejack sighed. “No, it’s not that.” Whatever that was.
“Then what’s wrong?” Rarity asked.
“I really don’t know.” Applejack shrugged. She wasn’t even sure what was supposed to be happening, really. “She’s acting the same as she always does.”
“Pinkie Pie!” Rarity shouted at the party pony, now enveloped in a shining, blue aura. “Stop bouncing or you’re going to crinkle the seams. Do you want to go to dinner with me or not?”
Pinkie froze in the air, her mouth half-open.
Rarity turned back to Applejack. “Well, she wouldn’t this early I suppose. You’ll just have to take things up a notch, so to speak.”
“Hmmm...” Applejack didn’t respond.
“What’s wrong?” Rarity asked.
“Isn’t this all a little crazy?” Applejack asked, looking back up. “I mean, how is this even supposed to work? Wouldn’t something a little more, eh, traditional work?”
“Well, duh!” Pinkie said, breaking through Rarity’s magic and jiggling her flank up and down. “It’s totally crazy. That’s the whole point.”
Rarity sighed in Pinkie’s general direction before answering, “Yes, I’ll admit it is rather eccentric, but if you want to catch a special fish you don’t use ‘traditional’ means. If you want to catch a special fish, you must use a special lure.”
Applejack chewed the inside of her cheek. “That actually makes sense. I think.”
“Good, now off with you,” Rarity said, pushing her towards the door. “I’m sorry for being abrupt, but I must finish this dress tonight.”
Applejack found herself being shoved outside and the door closed behind her before she even had a chance to reply. She heard Pinkie’s muffled laughter, along with another sigh from Rarity.
“Special fish, huh?” she said to herself.
She turned and trotted towards Sweet Apple Acres. She couldn’t help but smile at the analogy.
Rainbow Dash tried twisting her foreleg around to test the strap’s strength, but it held her leg firmly in place. She couldn’t do much more than squirm against it. She fidgeted back and forth on the board and her wings fluttered open and shut, begging to be set free. Something in her body, some primitive instinct forever fearing entrapment and loss of the sky, revolted against the straps holding down her stomach and chest.
“Could ya’ stop wigglin’, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, spitting out the strap she’d been trying to fasten.
Dash groaned and held her free foreleg out straight along the board. “This stinks. Can’t we wait and do this later?”
“Sooner or later, we’ve gotta practice doing the real thing,” Applejack said, tying the next strap. “Might as well be sooner.”
Applejack leaned down to fasten the straps that would bind her hind legs. Dash’s face flushed as her friend’s warm breath brushed fleetingly against her thigh, going to work on the straps. Dash leaned back, resigning herself to her fate and trying to forget that she was bound, flightless, to a wooden board.
The last few practices had gone well enough, even if they hadn’t consisted of much more than Rainbow Dash cheering Applejack on from the sidelines. On the one hoof, she was happy to finally get the chance to do something other than imitate Fluttershy. On the other, Applejack would soon be throwing deadly, sharp knives right at her head that were actually big enough to take off her head.
“Is this what every team’s gonna be doing?” Dash asked, willing herself to think about other things.
Applejack snorted, sending vibrations up Dash’s leg. “I don’t think any other team is gonna be doin’ this. I even had to get special permission just for us to.” She stood back up, finished.
Dash tested the strength of the straps again. She could barely move. If she had to suddenly fly away, like in the off chance that a knife came flying at her stomach, she would be helpless. “You’ve done this before, right?”
Applejack chuckled. “Where’ve you been the last week?”
Dash, unable to facehoof, settled for rolling her eyes. “No, I mean actually done this with a live pony, not just a ponyquin.”
“Well…” Applejack’s eyes shifted away.
Dash’s chest tightened, choking her throat. “Well what?” she asked, her voice a little higher pitched than normal.
“I’ve never done this with an actual pony,” Applejack admitted. “But you’ve seen me practice. I haven’t hit the ponyquin a single time.”
Dash was silent for several moments before replying, her voice shaky, “Let me out.”
“Wait a minu—”
“I said let me out!” Dash struggled uselessly against the restraints, her breath coming faster and faster in shallow gasps.
“Just listen to me for—”
“Now!” Dash yelled at the top of her lungs, wasting what little air she had left.
She writhed in the straps, her chest heaving with painful breaths. Her heart pounded so hard she was certain it would come crashing through her skin at any moment. It was pointless. The straps had her trapped. Why wasn’t Applejack letting her out? Why did she agree to this? Stupid, stupid, stupid. She knocked her head against the back of the board, pushing against the bindings with all her strength, her vision blurring.
Suddenly, two shining emerald eyes filled her view. “Hey, hey, sugarcube. Just take a deep breath.”
Dash’s muscles stilled as she lost herself in Applejack’s eyes. She inhaled slowly, the smell of apples filling her snout and warmth spread throughout her chest. She realized that Applejack was pressing up against her, hooves on her shoulders, easy heart beat contrasting and comforting her own.
“Are you feelin’ okay?” Applejack cooed, embarrassingly similar to a mother hen.
Heat flooded into Dash’s cheeks from somewhere deep in her chest. “Uh, yeah…” She looked away.
“I’m not gonna make you do anything you don’t wanna do,” Applejack said, pulling away. Rainbow Dash pushed forward on impulse, trying to prolong the intimate touch, but the straps held her back. Her skin suddenly felt very cold.
“But,” Applejack looked her straight in the eyes, “I would never have even considered doing this if I thought there was any chance at all that you could get hurt. I will never hurt you. Do you understand?”
Rainbow Dash nodded.
“Say it.”
Dash blinked stupidly. “Say what?”
Applejack stepped forward until their muzzles nearly touched again. Dash wondered what it would be like if she wasn’t being held down, if she could just reach her head forward a single breath and meet her friend’s lips.
“Say you know that I’ll never hurt you.”
“I know that you’ll never hurt me.”
“Do you want me to untie you?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head.
“Okay.” Applejack tapped her on the shoulder. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”
Dash watched her turn around and walk up to the stool, picking up the knives. Mercifully, Dash’s breath and heartbeat held steady, like Applejack had imparted some of her strength to her. Applejack stood still with the knives in her mouth. It was the same stance Dash had seen her make at least a dozen times before, but it was an entirely different experience to be on the receiving end of that focused, fixed, almost angry stare. She had the uneasy feeling that Applejack could see through her.
Abruptly, Applejack began to turn. Dash braced herself against the board. Applejack spun around, once, twice, and then stopped. Then everything stopped.
Time stood still for a moment and then started again, slower than before. The knife spun through the air towards her as if in slow motion. She could see every little etch in the blade’s edge, every glint of reflected sunlight on its shining surface. At the very last moment, she screwed her eyes shut.
A dull thud reverberated next to her head and the entire board shook. She cracked her eyes open just wide enough to see a knife sticking in the wood beside her, less than an inch away from her snout. Four more thuds followed in quick succession, and knives appeared in each gap between her limbs, as if from nowhere. Her eyes opened slowly, her gaze never moving off that first knife.
“Heh, told ya’ you wouldn—” Applejack’s smirk fell when she neared the board. “Are you alright?”
Rainbow Dash didn’t respond, too fixated on the knife to even realize she was being spoken to.
“Hey, Rainbow!” Applejack shouted, waving a hoof in front of the pegasus’s face. “Please answer me...”
Dash couldn’t think about anything but the knife. If it had landed just one little breath over, it all would have been over. She wouldn’t even exist anymore. Dash felt herself fall forward as the straps holding her forelegs came undone.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…” Applejack whispered, wrapping her in a tight hug.
All at once, everything came back into focus. Dash wrapped her forelegs around her friend, returning the embrace. “That was so cool!”
Applejack stiffened. “What?”
“Did you see that?!” Dash grabbed on tighter as a delayed burst of adrenaline pounded through her legs. “That knife was like that close to hitting me! It was so awesome!”
“You… you liked it?” Applejack moved to pull away, but Dash held her close, still lost in the exhilaration of sweeping past death.
“That was the coolest thing I’ve ever done!”
Applejack chuckled. “That’s great and all, but would you mind lettin’ go of me?”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash looked down, noticing for the first time what the soft, warm thing she had been holding onto was. Letting out an embarrassed squeak, she released her friend from between her hooves. “Uh, sorry. I guess I got a little, uh, excited.”
“No problem,” Applejack replied, leaning in to undo the rest of Dash’s straps. “You ready to get down from there?”
Dash jerked to the side, moving away from the pony untying her. “No way! Let’s do it again.”
“What?” Applejack looked at her like she’d just suggested they go knock Granny Smith’s walker out from underneath her.
Dash spread her forelegs back into place to be tied. “Come on.”
“Alright… I guess if you say so,” Applejack said with a shrug. “You’re crazy though, ya’ know that?”
Dash smirked while Applejack retightened the straps. “Crazy awesome.”
Rainbow Dash sat down in her place behind the judge’s table and watched the announcer, Mr. Gray, trot back onto the stage. Applejack had told her his name at some point, but it had been about as dull as his fashion sense, and she’d instantly forgotten it. He kept swallowing and clearing his throat while he talked. Not all ponies were as cut out for the spotlight as she was.
Besides that, he looked about the same as he did when he’d signed her up one week earlier, and just as excited too. She had to wonder what the organizers had been thinking when they’d put him in charge. “All right everypony,” he called out, his tone as flat as a pancake. “Let us thank, uh, Miss Lyra and Miss Bon Bon for that, uh, delightful performance.”
He clopped his hooves lightly on the stage. The crowd followed suit with some equally light clopping, clearly unsure how excited they were supposed to be about the ‘delightful performance’. Ponies filled the entire town square and even crowded into a couple side streets, all centered around a small, open air stage, empty save for a handful of bullseyes and targets. More a testament to how little there was to do in Ponyville on a Monday afternoon than to the popularity of the sport.
Dash hadn’t actually bothered to watch the other team, but she knew it couldn’t match her and Applejack. Being an amateur competition open to the public, nearly every team that had gone on so far had put on pitiful shows. Most barely even knew how to throw, completely missing their targets. There had been more than one close call with knives flying out into the crowd, caught at the last second by standby unicorns. The few who actually knew what they were doing opted for shows of accuracy or speed, but none had the confidence to throw their knives at a live pony.
“Next up,” Mr. Gray continued, looking down at a piece paper, “is Miss, uh, Applejack and Miss Rainbow—”
A cymbal crash sounded through the square so loudly Dash’s teeth vibrated. She saw Pinkie Pie, standing along with Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy near the front of the crowd, excitedly bouncing up and down and blasting a pair of cymbals together.
“—Dash,” Mr. Gray finished before ambling off the stage and joining the other judges by their table in front of the stage.
“You ready?” Applejack asked, turning to Rainbow.
Dash passed her partner her most confident smile. “Whenever you are.”
Applejack looked down. “There’s something I really need to tell you first. I changed the—”
“Later!” Dash said, racing up onto the stage. Applejack had been bothering her about some change she’d made to the board all day. Dash had let her know in so many words that she couldn’t care less, but she just wouldn’t let it go.
Applejack sighed and quickly followed her up. Dash set about dragging the standard targets and bullseyes, creaking and scraping, off to the side of the stage. Then Applejack pushed their makeshift target from the side, a large circular board standing upright on a small platform that Applejack had made in her barn, onto center stage. Murmurs flitted from mouth to mouth through the crowd.
Dash winked at her friends in the crowd as she pushed herself back against the board, spreading her forelegs almost instinctively. The confused murmurs grew louder. Applejack quickly fastened the straps over her stomach and chest before moving on to her legs. After several dozen practices, Dash was almost beginning to feel at home tied onto the board. Besides, she couldn’t complain about the excuse it gave her to have almost-intimate contact with Applejack. Though Applejack seemed to be going much faster than usual this time, and she, silent, avoided all of Dash’s attempts at eye contact.
With the straps set, Applejack stepped back. Suddenly, Dash felt the uneasy sensation of falling, noticing with a start that her legs were rising into the air and her head sliding down to the side. She realized that it wasn’t her, but the entire board that had moved. “Whoa! Applejack, what the hay is going on?”
Applejack reached a hoof out, steadying the board. She looked away and rubbed the back of her head with her free hoof. “Well, uh… I tried to tell you this earlier, but, uh…”
“Yeah?” Dash pressed, though she could already tell she wouldn’t like the answer.
“Eh… the board’s gonna be spinnin’ while I throw.” Applejack winced and passed her a sheepish smile.
Dash took a deep breath, silencing the alarm bells ringing in her head. “Okay.”
Applejack’s mouth fell open. “What?”
“Okay,” Dash repeated. “I trust you.”
Applejack stood silent for several moments before wrapping her forelegs around Dash in a tight hug. Dash heard her sniffle.
“Yeah, but I really, really wish you would’ve told me sooner,” Dash said with a shaky laugh.
“I’m sorry.” Applejack squeezed her harder. “I swear I tried to tell you.”
“It doesn’t matter now.” Dash shrugged, or tried to shrug. “Now let’s blow em’ away.”
Applejack pulled back and brushed her lips lightly against Dash’s cheek in the barest of kisses and whispered, “Thank you.”
Dash’s eyes flew open wide. Did she—we just—I just— She tried to say something, but it got confused in the long journey up her throat and all that came out was, “Buh?”
Applejack laughed and nodded to her. Dash blinked rapidly, trying to get her thoughts in order and understand what had happened. She was still in too much of a daze to notice when Applejack grabbed one side of the board with two hooves and yanked it down with an audible grunt.
Rainbow Dash’s world turned into a smear of colors spinning and blending wildly together. She immediately regretted the hayfries she’d eaten that morning. Her stomach felt like it was going for a ride in a blender. She tried to focus on a single point, but each point flew all over her vision in incomprehensible circles. She gave up and resigned her thoughts to the whirling, obscure haze they had become.
Her heartbeat held steady though. A strange calm had come over her, the same one that came over her every time she lay strapped up to the board. She wondered if that calm came to everypony who trusted their lives to someone they cared for.
She heard shocked gasps and then silence from the crowd, leaving only the perpetual creaking of the spinning board. A distinct thud rang out over the stage. The wobbling board threw off all of her senses, and she couldn’t tell if it had been from a knife or something else.
Several more thuds followed the first and then silence again. The board began to slow, but Dash’s head was still reeling too much to see anything. Suddenly, the crowd burst out into cheering so loud she couldn’t hear anything over the inanimate roar.
Applejack’s grinning face appeared in the center of her vision. Dash blinked. At some point, she had stopped spinning, but it was hard to tell anything for certain with the ceaseless buzzing in her ears. The ground still seemed to be moving up and down, and she couldn’t quite focus on anything other than Applejack’s freckles.
“D-did we do it?” She choked out over the lump in her throat. It didn’t seem possible that it could be over so quickly. She had only been strapped down in what felt like seconds earlier.
Applejack nodded, smiling brightly. “I—we, we did it.”
It took all of two seconds for Rainbow Dash to forget her dizziness. As soon as she was out of the straps, she began performing victory somersaults in the air in front of the cheering crowd. It sounded like every pony in the square was excitedly clopping their hooves and yelling. Dash couldn’t spot her friends in the pulsing blob of ponies anymore, but she was certain she could hear Pinkie Pie’s shriek.
Dash continued indulging in the attention long after Mr. Gray trotted on stage to shoo her away. It finally took a tug on her tail by Applejack to get her to return to the waiting area with the other contestants. On the way back to their seats, it seemed like everypony Dash and Applejack passed had some congratulations or pat on the shoulder to give them, not that Dash minded. When the attention was finally directed back to Mr. Gray, he announced the next team. Rainbow Dash genuinely felt sorry for anypony who had to follow them.
Noticing Applejack leaning towards her, her mouth moving, Dash perked her ears up.
“Thank you.”
“No problem, I guess,” Dash replied, confused. “I didn’t really do anything.”
Applejack placed a hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “No, I couldn’t have done that without you. No pony else would’ve let me do that.”
“Oh…” Dash looked away, her ears growing warm. “I just, uh, know you’re, uh, really cool, you know.” She passed Applejack a smile she hoped looked right.
Applejack laughed, and the warmth in Dash’s ear passed into her cheeks.
Desperate for a change of topic, Dash decided to finally voice a question that had been lingering on the tip of her tongue since that very fist day of practice. .
“Hey Applejack…”
“Yeah, sugarcube?” Applejack said, tilting her head to the side. A cheer rose up from the now-excitable crowd, nothing like the one they’d received though.
Dash dully kicked at the ground with her hoof. “When I signed up, the guy said you already signed up with me…”
“Yup.” Applejack smirked. “I figured you’d probably be too airy to bother actually readin’ the rules.”
“Yeah…” Dash looked up, still shuffling her hooves. She probably should have smiled at the little jab, but her mouth had set itself in a frown. “But I wouldn’t have signed up at all if you never would have said anything about it…” Dash shrugged.
Applejack laughed again, though Dash thought she heard a hint of nervousness in it that time. “Well, I guess I just wanted to spend some time with ya’. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing!” Dash answered quickly, too quickly.
Another cheer rose up from the crowd. “But why all this?” Dash asked, waving a hoof in the air. “Couldn’t we have just played horseshoes or something?”
Applejack’s smile stumbled a little. “Maybe I wanted to show off a little. Or maybe…” Her face dropped, becoming the embodiment of earnestness. “Maybe I wanted to show you that you can trust me.”
“But I already trusted you,” Dash said, one brow rising. “You didn’t need to throw knives at my face for me to know that.”
“Then why are you hiding how you feel from me?” Applejack asked simply.
Rainbow’s throat tightened, cutting off her breath. She forced her jaw to work past the surprise that whirled down her back and up into her head, making standing difficult. “I—I d-don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Applejack sighed deeply, her eyes dropping as she shook her head. “You really don’t trust me at all, do you?”
“What?” Dash asked, feeling a sickening twist in her stomach. “I trust you. I swear I do.”
Applejack raised her head, a fire lit behind her eyes. She placed two hooves on Dash’s shoulders before the pegasus had a chance to back away. She looked Rainbow straight in the eyes, and Dash flinched beneath her gaze.
Just as she was about to pull back, Applejack let out another long sigh, the heat behind her eyes dying away. “I’m sorry, sugarcube. It ain’t fair to make you do anything you don’t wanna, no matter how much I might want ya’ to.”
She smiled at Dash, still holding onto her shoulders. “But you can trust me. You never have to hide anything from me,” Applejack said, her face so close that Dash could feel her breath tickling the tip of her snout. “I won’t ever hurt you. Do you understand that?”
Dash opened her mouth to answer when Applejack leaned forward. She grazed Dash’s cheek in a nuzzle more gentle than Dash would have thought possible from the rough ‘n tumble farm pony. Rainbow Dash froze, her mind void of any thought.
She didn’t say anything for a long time, frantically staring back at Applejack. Every muscle in her body screamed at her to turn and run, her wings gently flapping of their own accord. But she fought them back down, remembering the feeling of the small kiss when she’d been tied to the board.
“Maybe… there is something I’ve wanted to ask you for a while,” Dash said, quietly.
Applejack’s smiled widened. She nodded, willing Rainbow to continue. Another cheer rose up from the crowd. Dash couldn’t help but think it was some sort of sign.
She gulped. “I guess, uh, I’ve always kind of looked up you. Like, a lot. More than any other pony. You’re so strong, and, sometimes, I wish I could be that strong. But no matter what I do, you’re always stronger than me,” Dash blurted all in one breath. She wanted to get it out as quickly as possible before she had a chance to talk herself out of it. Applejack’s face remained cool and unreadable.
“It used to bother me,” Dash continued, too far gone to stop the embarrassing admission. “But then I realized something.” Dash smiled. “I realized that it was nice to always have something really great that I could work for. And you were my something really great. And, uh, I realized that I really like you, and it would be cool if I could go out with you sometime. Like, on a date, sort of thing.”
Dash sighed and looked down at her hooves. It had sounded so thoughtful and romantic all those times she'd rehearsed it in her head. But when she finally heard it said out loud, it just sounded blunt and simplistic. She didn’t know the right words to use like Twilight or Rarity always seemed to.
“Now I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Applejack closed her eyes and tilted her neck forward, pressing their foreheads together. “You’re the strongest pony I’ve ever met, and there’s nothin’ I’d like more than goin’ on a date with you.”
Dash didn’t respond. All she could think about was how easy it would have been to lean forward and find out what Applejack’s lips tasted like. And so she did.
Slowly at first, so slowly anypony watching wouldn’t have been able to tell that she was moving at all, she raised her head up, her eyes locked with Applejack’s. She kept going, waiting for Applejack to pull back, but she never did. When their lips finally touched, all Dash could think was how unbelievably soft Applejack felt.
Soon, she slowly pulled away again. She kept her eyes down, too scared to look up and see Applejack’s reaction. A hoof tucked under her chin and pulled her head up.
Applejack smiled. “I was wonderin’ when you were gonna get around to that.”
She leaned forward quickly, mashing her lips against Dash’s own in a sloppy, perfect kiss. Dash closed her eyes and melted into Applejack, breathing in deeply. She forgot everything around her except the smell of apples and the warmth passing between them.
When they pulled apart, Rainbow opened her eyes. She realized that she was standing in plain sight of an entire crowd of ponies. She quickly looked around. Most of them were too busy watching whatever was happening on stage, but more than a few were staring at her.
She ignored them, turning back to Applejack. “How long did you know?”
Applejack laughed. “For as long as you have, I reckon. You ain’t exactly the subtlest of ponies.”
Dash turned and scanned the crowd, looking for her friends. When she found them, they were looking back, but not nearly as surprised as she’d expected them to be. They all smiled and waved to her. Rarity was dabbing her eyes on a tissue and leaning against Pinkie Pie, who looked to be just on the verge of breaking into song.
“I guess everypony else knew too, huh?” Dash asked, turning back to Applejack. “Wait,” she stepped back, shaking her head, “if you knew, why didn’t you just tell me?”
Applejack looked down. “I’m so sorry, Rainbow. I wanted to. But I just hated the idea that you were too scared to tell me, and I wanted to show you somehow that you didn’t ever have to be scared of me.” Applejack lifted her head back up, frowning. “But no matter what I tried, you wouldn’t tell me on your own. So, I had to do something a little, uh, drastic.”
“A little drastic?” Dash repeated, biting back the anger that was threatening to rise into her voice. She’d been waiting for this for so long, she didn’t want to ruin it with another stupid fight. “Applejack, this was insane,” she said, waving her hoof through the air.
Applejack looked down again. “Well, it was Pinkie’s idea…”
Dash couldn’t help but smile a little at the revelation. “That explains a lot.”
“Yeah.” Applejack’s smile returned, and then fell away again almost immediately. “I’m sorry—”
Rainbow Dash threw herself forward without thinking. Applejack’s eyes widened, and then slowly closed again. Dash held on for as long she could, prolonging the embrace as long as possible. When she finally drew back, she could barely breathe, her hooves numb.
“Don’t you dare say sorry,” Dash said when she’d caught her breath, her voice nearly a whisper. “You’re right. I don’t think I ever would have told you if we hadn’t done this. Even if it was crazy, I had a lot of fun, and I really couldn’t be any happier than I am right now.”
Applejack opened her mouth for a moment before closing it again. She nodded, smiling.
Dash returned her smile. “I wasn’t scared, you know. I was just waiting.”
“We have seen a lot of, uh, great performances today,” Mr. Gray called out, still sounding about as excited as a foal reading an instruction manual. Behind him stood three raised platforms of different heights, but Rainbow Dash only saw the tallest one. “Now it is time to announce the winners.”
The crowd had thinned out since she’d last looked. There were only about half as many ponies now. She hadn’t watched a single one of the teams that came after her. She had one wing draped over her newfound marefriend. She just wanted to make sure she was really there, that she hadn’t just imagined the whole thing again.
“Third place,” Mr. Gray read from one of those pieces of paper he always seemed to have with him, “goes to Miss, uh, Lyra and Miss Bon Bon.”
Cheers rippled up from the crowd as the two mares trotted up to the stage, all smiles. After Mr. Gray had given them their ribbons, Lyra leaned over and pecked her partner on the cheek. Dash smirked as Bon Bon’s face lit up bright red. If that’s what a third place kiss looked like, she couldn’t wait to find out what a first place kiss felt like.
“Second place goes to, uh…” Mr. Gray fumbled with the paper a bit, squinting down at it through his glasses, “Miss, uh, Applejack and Miss Rainbow Dash.”
“What?!” Dash fell back onto her haunches.
Applejack nudged her flank. “Come on, sugarcube. Don’t be a sore sport.” She sounded disappointed too, but the crowd still cheered.
“Fine,” Dash grumbled, standing up. But as she walked side-by-side with Applejack up onto the stage, she couldn’t shake the smile that spread out over her face.
Mr. Gray handed them their ribbons with as little fanfare as was possible. Standing on her platform, Dash looked down at her ribbon, ‘2nd Place' stamped proudly on its face for everypony to see. Suddenly, Applejack leaned over and closed their lips together in a brief, apple-flavored kiss before pulling away. Dash smiled. Maybe second place wasn’t so bad after all.
“But who could’ve beaten us?” Dash asked.
Applejack nuzzled her neck, causing Dash to blush. “Doesn’t matter.”
Dash broke away from the nuzzle when she saw Mr. Gray begin speaking again. “And now for the winner.” Dash leaned forward expectantly. “First place goes to Miss, uh…”
“Who?!” Dash shouted impatiently.
Mr. Gray jumped and shot her a glare before turning back to the crowd. “First place goes to Miss, uh, Derpy Hooves and her partner, a, uh, banana nut muffin.”
”What?!” Dash yelled for the second time that day, though it was less of a question this time.
Her outburst was lost in the wild cheering of the crowd as Derpy made her way up to the stage. It didn’t quiet down until after Derpy had received her ribbon, and Mr. Gray was left holding the final ribbon, the banana nut muffin that was to be its recipient nowhere to be seen.
“Eh, where’s the muffin?” he asked Derpy, who was busy “ooOOoo”ing at her ribbon.
“Oh,” she said, giggling, “I ate it!” Several ponies in the crowd gasped.
Dash’s legs went numb. “How did we lose to that?”
Applejack leaned over and kissed her neck, tickling right below her ear. “I told ya’ already. It doesn’t matter.”
