Honesty and Loyalty Chapter 7: Appledash part 1

The cyan pegasus struggled to open her eyes against the bright light that was above her. The air tasted clean and pure as in entered her mouth.

“A… A-am I dead?” she spoke out.

“No Miss Rainbow Dash, you’re in the hospital.”

Dash leaned up to see a light brown unicorn next to her looking over some papers. She looks around to see that she’s lying in bed in a small room. To her right she sees the morning sun rising through the window.

“T-the hospital, how long have I been out Doc?”

The Doctor flips through the papers he was levitating. “About two days, you have good friends, any longer in that cave and you wouldn’t be waking up.”

At the word cave, Rainbow Dash remembered back to what happened, the Timberwolves, the cave-in… the kiss.

“Applejack… Where’s Applejack?”

 “Don’t worry she’s fine, had a nasty bite but she’s okay. She’s in the next room.”

Rainbow Dash breathed a breath of relief.

“Now” the Doctor said as his horn glowed to open the door. “I believe you have some vis-“

“Dashie!” the pink hyperactive pony yelled as she rushed over to Dash’s bed, leaving a dazed unicorn on the floor.

“Pinkie I-”

“Dashie we were so worried we lost you two! We thought you and AJ were gone!” Pinkie cried into Rainbow’s mane, her own mane was dull and flat.

Rainbow looked up from the crying pony to see that Fluttershy had walked into the room.

“What happened?” she asked as she tried to calm down Pinkie.

“Oh it was terrible Rainbow, when we found you two we thought we were too late” Fluttershy said, wiping tears from her eyes. “When you told me to look for help.”

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The yellow coated pegasus was flying at full speed through the pounding rain, the bushes and trees flew past her in a blur of green. Nothing was going to stop her from reaching help.

“Help, anypony help me!”

Fluttershy continued to fly faster despite the storm. Lightning flashed but she ignored it.

“Twilight!”

She suddenly stopped as she heard a faint whisper on the wind call out. “Fluttershy!”

The pegasus turned her heard in the direction of the voice and began flying even faster. The voice continued to call her name and she flew as fast as she could towards it.  Fluttershy rushed through an approaching bush and was met by a familiar purple unicorn and blue alicorn which, in her haste, she almost collided with.

“Twilight! Rainbow, Applejack, cave, help!” the pegasus yelled in between breaths through the rain.

“Whoa Fluttershy! Calm down and tell me what happened” Twilight said.

“Yes, what are thou so worried about?” Luna joined in.

“R-rainbow D-dash and A-applejack are trapped in a c-cave, we must hurry!”

The unicorn’s eyes widen at the news and said “Quick, show us the way!”

Fluttershy nodded and soon found herself rushing through the forest once more, but this time with help. The storm was picking up, the wind howled louder and the rain pounded harder. The tiny sound of panicking animals was listenable only to the pegasus.

“I’m sorry” she whispered as she flew back to her two trapped friends, leaving a trail of tears behind her, blown by the strong wind that was slowing her.

When she arrived back at the cave, the rubble was piled high and the storm had reached devastating conditions.

“Twilight they’re trapped in there, there must be something you can do!”

The purple unicorn nodded and soon her and Luna were levitating rocks away from the cave in a desperate matter. Fluttershy helped as well, hovering over and taking rubble away little by little.

“We must hurry; they probably don’t have that much time left!” Twilight yelled as she continued levitate rocks away.

By the time enough rubble was cleared away to enter the cave; Fluttershy rushed in.

“Applejack! Rainbow Dash!” she screamed, waving her hoofs around in the darkness.

A light suddenly appeared behind her; she whirled around to see Twilight with her horn glowing and producing a white light.

“Need a light?” she asked with a smile.

Fluttershy smiled back and she continued to trek into the cave.

“Rainbow Dash? Applejack? Oh please be okay.”

The group walked further into the cave before she saw them. Lying on the ground, eyes closed were the bodies of her two friends. Without speaking a word Fluttershy rushed over to the two.

“Applejack? Rainbow Dash?” she asked, her eyes beginning to tear up. “Please, please don’t be dead.”

They were both still and made no sound, but were in each other’s arms and had two big smiles on their faces.

Twilight slowly trotted over to the two, she wasn’t about to give up hope. She put her head on the chest of Rainbow Dash and listened.

Thump… Thump

The unicorns frown quickly grew to a smile at the sound she heard. “She’s alive.”

Fluttershy who had been observing what Twilight had done, moved to Applejack and did the same.

Thump… Thump

“They’re alive!” Fluttershy screamed in delight.

“Yes Fluttershy they’re okay for now, but we need to get them out of here. They need serious medical help and neither of us can give it to them.”

Fluttershy agreed and picked up Rainbow Dash while Twilight levitated Applejack. They looked at each other with a smile and then headed out of the cave.

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Tears and a wonder of emotions flooded Rainbow Dash when Fluttershy ended her story. She could only think of one thing to do at this point; she leaped forward and hugged her friend.

“Thank you (sniff) Fluttershy” she said in between gasps of tears. “Without you, I wouldn’t have made it.”

Pinkie, whose mane had re-inflated to its natural curly state, decided to join in on the hug.

“Oh, you guys, that’s so sweet” she said before grabbing a tissue from out of nowhere and blowing her nose.

The three remained locked in the hug before a soft cough interrupted. They looked towards the door to see the doctor standing there, looking un-amused towards Pinkie Pie.

“Oh hi Doc, sorry about my friend here, she can be a bit excited umm… all the time” Rainbow Dash grinned.

“That’s quite alright Ms. Dash. Anyways, I came here to tell you that Ms. Applejack is awake and wishes to see you.”

Dash nearly jolted up at the name of her loved but was stopped by the blue aura of the Doctor.

“Now easy, you need to take it easy and no flying. Take slow steps and use your friends for support.”

The cyan pegasus seemed disappointed at the ‘no flying’ part, and was not pleased about having to be helped by others, but obeyed and slowly got up from bed. As soon as her hooves touched the floor, she realized why she should listen to the doctor’s advice, two days in bed without moving can be really devastating to your muscles. Fluttershy quickly got by her side as she noticed her muscle tensing, while Pinkie Pie moved towards Rainbow’s other side. The rainbow maned pony slowly but steadily made her way to the door along with Pinkie and Fluttershy at her sides.

“Like I said Ms. Dash, she’s in the next room, right across from yours.”

Dash nodded and walked across the hall and opened the door.

The inside of AJ’s room was the same in turn of color and design. Floor was the same, window was the same, and even the decorations were the same. The only thing different from hers was the orange cowpony on the bed with a purple maned unicorn standing beside her.

“Oh dear Applejack, they really need to clean this place better” Rarity said, she was levitating a duster and was removing some dust spots from everything.

“Tis fine Rarity, Ah don’t mind. Y’all don’t need to clean the whole room… four times...”

Applejack looked over to the door from Rarity, to see two of her friends helping a certain cyan pegasus. At the sight of her beloved, she immediately blushed a deep red.

“R-rainbow Dash, h-how are y’all feelin’?”

“I’ve been better, but also I have been worse, how about you?”

“Ah’m j-jes dandy.”

Rainbow and the rest of her friends moved closer to the left side of AJ’s bed. It was not until that moment that Rarity realized that Rainbow had entered. She stopped her fifth room cleaning, let the duster fall to the floor and freaked.

“Oh my! Rainbow Dash, I’m so sorry not to notice you. I must ask you, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine Rarity, what are you two doing in here?”

“Oh I was just talking to our dear friend Applejack here about making a dress for her, so she could cover that scar. And a specialized applebucking dress to offer support on the area near the scar, so nothing nasty happens to her while she works. But the missy by my side refuses to use a dress, because she thinks it ‘doesn’t go with her style and that the other one would bother her to work on the farm’ instead of helping her, and that she doesn’t need it.”

Rainbow looked down to AJ’s leg to see a long scar stretched 3 inches across on her leg where the Timberwolf bit her. The pony cringed as she remembered the moment.

That’s my fault, I’m so sorry Applejack

“Ah already told you Rarity, Ah don’t need some dress to cover up a scar. It’s not like Ah care ‘bout it. Besides, Ah told y’all once, n’ Ah will tell you twice, it will get between me and mah job!”

“Well you are most certainly NOT going to get out without me making you a dress, so for the sake of your work, I will design a form fitting dress, even though I hate doing that kind of clothes, so that nasty scar on your leg won’t be noticeable and it won’t get in the way of your work. Talking about it, I just got a new order of an experimental porous fabric that it’s supposed to create a coat-like effect and it can be used all day and all night long. You won’t even notice it! It would be like a second skin.”

Applejack sighed and decided to lose this battle, it was useless to keep fighting anyways, and she had more important things to do at the moment. “Okay Rarity, y’all go n’ do what you wanna do.”

Rarity seemed very happy with this statement and levitated up a sketch book, starting on the design.

Rainbow Dash looked to AJ and could read her eyes. They needed to talk about something not too obvious, but not too random either.

“Umm hey, where’s Twilight?” Dash asked.

Pinkie Pie was the one to answer. “Oh yeah, Twilight had to go on a super duper important trip to Canterlot for some reason. She’ll be back tomorrow.”

Rainbow looked back over to the Doctor who was looking at some papers. “How is Applejack Doc? Is she gonna be ok?”

The doctor shifted some papers and very surprised replied. “Dear Scott! I…”

The whole group went pale and held their breath.

“Oh, wait, these are from another patient” The doctor corrected with a nervous chuckle “Well… it looks like you’re not the one who’s pregnant…”

The ponies sighed in relief.

“How’s her leg.” Said Rainbow Dash

After checking some more papers he announced “Oh she’ll be fine, that scar however will be permanent, but luckily won’t affect her work with applebucking and carrying heavy weights. However I must tell you not to do any of the things I mentioned before for some days.”

“Ha!” Applejack yelled. “See Rarity, Ah don’t need some working dress for mah wound.”

The white unicorn looked up from her sketch book and said “I’m sorry darling, did you say something?”

Applejack facehoofed and said “Ugh, never mind.”

The Doc looked un-amused at being interrupted and continued. “Well as I was saying, Ms. Applejack needs her rest so it’s time for visitors to leave.”

“WAIT NO!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash both yelled.

Everypony looked at them with odd looks.

“Look, I see that you two want to be close and look after one another, but you both need your rest, so whatever is that you need to talk about, you will have to do it another time.”

The two ponies hung their heads low at the disappointing news.

“But hey, don’t worry. Tomorrow we’ll be moving you two to a double bed room. That way you’ll be closer. Now, if you excuse me, I have to tell the good news to the new young mother… Sweetie Be…”

Rarity’s eyes contracted until they had the size of two pins, her mane sprung in smaller curls and the sketchbook fell to the floor.

“No, wait… Sweaty Body. Oh yeah, now I recall, she’s the aerobics instructor.”

Everypony looked at Rarity, who was still paralyzed, Pinkie Pie picked up the sketchbook and Fluttershy helped her walk out of the hospital.

The two remaining ponies agreed on the doctor’s decision. Dash said goodbye and made her way back to her room, now able to walk without her friend’s help.

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Rainbow Dash sat upright in her bed, the warm rays of the setting sun were absorbed into her mane from the nearby window; they felt good. She looked to her right to see her love fast asleep in her bed. They had moved the pegasus to her room first thing that morning, but Applejack was asleep, and is still asleep now.

“Ms. Rainbow Dash?”

Dash looked in the direction of the door to see the doctor. “Yes?”

“You have some visitors, should I send them in?”

She nodded.

The doctor left and not ten seconds afterward, the door opened once again to reveal a familiar purple unicorn.

“Oh hi Twili-” Dash said but was cutoff as her friend rushed towards her.

“Oh Princesses, are you okay Rainbow?  I was so worried about you and Applejack. Oh I’m such a bad friend. I should have been here sooner but the princess kept me in Canterlot for the night. I had-”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down Twilight. Don’t beat yourself up, I’m fine, Applejack’s fine, we’re both fine.”

“What the hay are y’all talkin’ ‘bout? Ah’m tryin to sleep her- oh howdy Twilight, when did y’all get here?”

Both ponies looked over to see Applejack had woken up, her mane was bedridden and messy.

“Oh Applejack, I’m glad to see you, how are you?” Twilight said as she walked over to her bed.

“Ah’m fine thanks to y’all n’ Fluttershy”

“You’re my friend, I couldn’t just leave you”

The two stared at each other for a few seconds. The tension could be cut with a knife, Applejack knew what she was going to ask. Twilight looked back around at Rainbow Dash, who was just staring out the window to her left. Twilight supposed she wasn’t going to turn around soon, so she took the advantage, she returned her gaze to Applejack and spoke in a soft voice.

“So… Applejack, what happened in that cave between you two? Did you…?” she whispered with a raised eyebrow.

“Shhh! Not here while she’s next to us!” shushed the orange pony, putting a hoof in front of her mouth. She signalized to her friend to get closer.

“Sorry, sorry”

“But Ah can say that us two don’t have to keep our feelings from each other anymore” she said with a blush.

Twilight could hardly contain her excitement, but she somehow did.

Rainbow Dash looked over to her two friends as they whispered to each other about something.

Wonder what they’re talking about

She turned her attention back to the window but was stopped a few seconds later as a  Knock sounded on the door.

“Come in” she yelled.

The door opened to reveal two iconic ponies. One was pure white with a long flowing mane of different colors, and the other was a dark blue with a mane that seemed to match the stars.

“Princess Celestia and Luna!” Rainbow Dash said with wide eyes.

 “Princess!” Twilight yelped as she jumped up from where she was and bowed to them “What are you two doing here?”

“I was worried for what happened to your friends, I came to give my care.”

“And we have also arrived to show thee that we care for them as well” Luna spoke.

Rainbow Dash was still stunned to see them here and looked over to Applejack to see the same look of big eyes and an open mouth.

“No offence princess, but why waste your time with ponies in this small town?”

“Nonsense, I come and look after all my little ponies, especially the friends of my most faithful student.”

The pegasus looked over to see the unicorn beaming with pride.

“I’m so sorry we failed the quest for the stone, Princess. I will personally go look for it as soon as possible.”

Celestia shook her hoof in a nonchalant manner “Oh, that won’t be necessary my dear student.”

All other ponies in the room looked up at her and said “What?” in unison.

“Sister, what do thou mean? Luna asked.

“Oh, he he” she giggled, rubbing the back of neck nervously. She cleared her throat and, unable to see directly into her student’s eyes, she looked towards the roof and carelessly said “Ehem . I might have already had the stone in my power all along, after all.”

All ponies once again shouted “What?” in unison.

“But Princess, where was it?” Twilight asked.

“Under my royal bed of course, so I could remember where it was easily” she said with a grin on her face, her eyes looking away from the ponies.

She regretted asking that as she facehoofed herself.

“Sister!” Luna spoke in a serious tone, backing Celestia up against a wall with her horn almost piercing Celestia’s chest. “We need to have a talk.”

Celestia’s pupils contracted as she looked at her student, terrified. Sweat drops rolled down her forehead and the smile turned into a grimace. Luna’s horn glowed blue and a second later, they were gone.

“Well that was strange…” Dash spoke.

“Y’all don’t say…” Applejack answered.

“Well it’s getting late you two, I better go before Spike gets mad at me for being late again. He’s my assistant but he can get really bossy now and then. I’m a grown mare for Celestia’s sake!” Twilight said.

Dash looked to the right to see that the sun had just set on the horizon and darkness had covered the land.

“Oh, yeah, well take care Twilight” she said goodbye.

“Yeah, take care. Come back soon y’all hear? Ah wouldn’t mind a lil’ bit of company these days.” AJ joined in.

The unicorn waved goodbye and said “Well, you will have Rainbow Dash by your side, that should be more than enough!” she said grinning, her horn glowed and she was gone.

“What did she meant by that?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

Applejack shrugged in response and looked away.

Silence filled the air moments after the lavender unicorn left, neither pony spoke a word.

Come on Rainbow, talk to her, now’s your chance

The pegasus obeyed her mind and slowly and hesitatingly got out of bed and walked over to her friend. Halfway there she stopped and said to herself “ Uh… thinking this thoroughly, maybe this isn’t the best moment to talk about it”

She turned around and went back to the bed. She hopped in and covered herself with the blanket, it was fairly hot inside the hospital, but as a pegasus, she was accustomed to clouds, that were comfier and warmer. She never felt cold when she was walking or trotting on the ground, but she needed warmth when she was sleeping, that’s why she hated when she needed to sleep on the ground and made herself a cloud house.

There were only two situations where she liked the ground:

a)      Sleeping at Fluttershy’s cottage, because since she was also a pegasus, she always had several covers.

b)      When she slept in the same bed with Applejack, on the clubhouse. She was so warm and comfy. Maybe… maybe they could sleep together once again, one of these days, maybe tomorrow, if she could gather enough strength to talk to her that is.

“Sugarcube?” Suddenly asked the orange earth pony.

“Yeah AJ?”

“What happened?”

“What do you mean?” asked worried the rose-eyed pegasus.

“Ah know y’all came here a spell ago. Ah can sense y’all, n’ hear yer hoofsteps.”

“Uh… Umm… It’s nothing to worry, I was worried about you and went to ask you how were you feeling, but you seemed asleep so I thought it was better to leave you sleeping.” “Good one, that should get me off the hook”

“Oh… ok. Thanks fer worrying Rainbow, but Ah’m okay.”

The two ponies fell asleep soon after that small talk.

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White light… once again that stupid, unnatural white light. Yet another reason to hate hospitals.

She liked to be woken by the sunlight, it felt different, like that was the way to wake up.

But she was stuck here, with the stupid, unnatural white light. “At least I’m with AJ” she thought. “Well… it’s not like I’m not thinking about doing other things with AJ…” she sat in her bed, looked to her left and noticed there was a window there. “What a nice view I have” she sarcastically said.

After a roll of her eyes and  an irritated sigh she turned towards her emerald-eyed friend. She looked like she was having a good and happy dream, given that goofy smile printed on her face.

“Lucky Applejack, I never get to remember what I dream… Well, except when I dream of you, that is.”

Suddenly the orange mare’s face cringed with pain as her leg made an unintended buck.

“AJ!” a weak desperate shout escaped from her mouth. She got rid of the blankets and she managed, weak as she was, to get to her friend’s side.

All the noise, along with the pain of the buck, woke Applejack up.

“G-gah… H-howdy Sugarcube… How did y’all s-slept?” She asked, trying as hard as she could to act like she was not in pain, but being the Element of Honesty she failed, making the cyan pony even more worried about her well-being.

“I’m okay, but I can’t say the same about you though…”

Applejack giggled a bit before wincing again.

“What’s wrong AJ? You were feeling better yesterday”

“Ah… Ah don’t know wholeheartedly, Ah reckon Ah’m a lil’ depressed. Y’all know me” She stated “Ah like to watch the sun rise n’ set, to be woken by the crow of the rooster, to work ‘til Ah can’t move anymore n’ sleep peacefully on mah bed after knowing Ah did the best Ah could fer the family. Here at this closed lil’ room Ah can’t do any of those.”

“Well, I can’t help you with that, but what I can do is…” Dash paused as she pondered what could she do for her, until suddenly she got struck with it. “I’m a genius! Twilight Sparkle my flank, I wanna see her coming up with this awesome idea.” “I can describe you what’s going on outside so you can feel like you’re out there!” Rainbow Dash proudly said believing that her obviously awesome idea would cheer up her orange beloved.

Applejack stared at her with a quizzical look. “Is this filly fer real?” She looked at her smug and confident face and answered her question herself. “Eyup… she’s fer real.”

She made her best to smile and answered “Well that is a jes dandy idea, Ah would love y’all to…”

“Okay, but I only have one condition.”

“N’ that is…”

“You can’t look towards me, in fact, you have to close your eyes, lay down, and let your imagination and your senses flow and merge.”

Applejack hesitated but soon obliged.

Rainbow sat and started “The sun bathes everything in it’s invigorating and warm light, the foals and fillies spent their time and energy rejoicing and playing under Celestia’s sunrays. A sweet cool breeze…” As she said that, the speedster pegasus swiftly and expertly flapped her wings generating a sweet cool breeze for Applejack to enjoy the moment and really get into it.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold yer horses Dashie” Applejack said, opening her eyes and pointing at Dash.

“What?”

“Since when y’all are better than Twi at story-tellin’ n’ describin’?”

“He, I guess reading too much Daring Do helps at something huh?” she  replied with a smile on her face.

Applejack chuckled “Ah reckon it does.”

“May I?”

“Continue missy.”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to talk, but found it stuffed with a pink hoof. She was about to scream, when she saw Pinkie Pie besides her, signalizing to shut up and heard an exaggerated

“Shhh!” The pink mare looked both sides and said “It’s not visit time yet, I managed to enter unseen, and I should remain undercover.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and the baker pony took out the hoof of her mouth. Now, free to talk, the rose-eyed flying pony said in a soft tone “Hi Pinks, what are you doing?”

“Oh, I just came here to be with you two and cheer you up! What were you doing?”

“Rainbow here was tellin’ me how beautiful the sight was through that window by yer side”

Pinkie Pie looked to her side uneasily and said “Applejackie… There’s a-”

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat.

Pinkie looked outside once again and continued “a beautiful day out there! Birds chirping, sun shining, everything is lovely”

“I know right? That’s why I was describing it to AJ” Said Rainbow Dash “and soon you’ll be out playing and running under the sunlight on a pretty day like today.”

Applejack smiled widely, which made Rainbow smile widely, and as everypony knew, seeing her friends smile made Pinkie Pie smile a mile-wide smile. She cheerfully said “Soooo… who wants cake!” She pulled out a cyan cake with orange frosting details that read ‘Get better soon Appledash’.

“Appledash?” asked the cow-pony with a smirk.

“I couldn’t fit the two names. Don’t you like it? I think it’s a good mixed name, they complement each other perfectly, it’s like your names were meant to be one in this one awesome name.”

“Well, a cake is a cake, with full names or half names, it will end up in my stomach soon anyways.” Rainbow Dash said before slicing a piece.

They spent the morning talking and eating until Pinkie started having a combo. “E-ear flop… Eye flutter… Knee twitch! Oh no! Opening doors, somepony’s coming!” She cleaned everything, gathered the remaining things and put them on a plastic bag. She then jumped through the window on Applejack’s side saying “I was never hereeee!”

Applejack looked at Rainbow and said “Weren’t we on a second floor?”

“Yeah… but she’s Pinkie, she’ll be fin-”

She was cut mid-sentence by an opening door, revealing Nurse Redheart and Fluttershy, hiding behind her.

“Girls, you have a visitor, should I let her in?”

“Howdy Nurse Redheart. Of course y’all can let Fluttershy in, in fact, y’all can pay us a casual, non-professional visit sometime too.”

“Thank you Miss Applejack.”

“Please, jes call me AJ, or Applejack, drop the ‘Miss’ thingy.”

“Ok. I will pay you to a visit, later today perhaps, if not, maybe some of these days you could let me taste your famous apple treats.”

“Of course, no problem partner!”

“Now I will leave you three alone.” She said stepping aside, letting Fluttershy in.

As soon as Fluttershy entered the room, Nurse Redheart closed the door a bit harshly. Something that made Fluttershy jump up squeaking.

Rainbow chuckled at the sight and asked “What are you doing here Shy?”

“Oh, um… nothing, I was just umm… I just wanted to see you… D-do… Is it a bad time? D-do you want me to go?”

“Nah, don’t get all shaky, come here.  We’re fine, how ‘bout y’all”

“I-I’m… fine.”

“Still worried since that day?” asked the rainbow maned pegasus.

“Y-yes… I can’t take it out of my mind.”

Rainbow knew what she needed to do. She walked, as she could, grabbed her friend by the neck and dragged her towards Applejack’s bed.

Applejack knew what she was thinking and as soon as Fluttershy was at hoof-reach, she lunged forward and said “Group hug!” pulling them closer.

Fluttershy tensed up at first but then she let herself go and started crying.

After some minutes of unintelligible squeaks and words, they finally made out some words “Oh girls I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault.” After some more whining and whimpering she continued “I-if only I were strong-”

“Shhh… calm down Sugarcube, it’s not yer fault, N’ we are safe and sound, that’s all that matters now!”

“B-but… what about your leg? N-now you won’t be able to work, and your family will become poor and you will b-”

“Now, now, that’s not gonna happen. N’ besides Kicks McGee has been trough a lot more and took many blows before. N’ y’all heard the doc, Ah’ll be jes dandy.”

Fluttershy finally stopped her crying and sighed relieved. “Thanks girls… I feel so much better now.”

But Rainbow Dash knew it wasn’t true, she has known her since they were little fillies, she knew her, and she knew when she was ok and when she wasn’t. “Shhh Shy, calm down, calm down and stop crying please. I don’t like to see you crying, mostly because… well, even though it’s not exactly my fault, it is because of me. Stop crying, you’re making me feel bad and guilty.”

And with that the dams broke again “B-but Rainbow, I could have lost you that day, and with you, everything I hold dear! What was I supposed to do if you died? I don’t think you get it” She looked at Rainbow Dash in the eyes, sorrow and despair clearly printed in her gaze “You are my oldest friend, my best friend, my confident, my guardian, my savior, my… my…”

And with that Rainbow Dash got it, it all fell into place: Why she always cheered for Rainbow, why she always helped her when she was feeling sick, why she always listened to everything she said, even if she was talking all day about flying and the Wonderbolts, she would listen to every single word, but more important of all… Why she got the idea of kissing her so Rainbow could see if Applejack was actually the love of her life or not…

Fluttershy was in love with Rainbow Dash… Or that was what she thought, but Rainbow was sure it wasn’t the case. She needed to make Fluttershy realize her error, talk her into her senses, and she knew just the thing to do for Fluttershy both stop crying and listen to her.

But first… she needed permission.