“Ok, Dash, you can do it. Brave face. Brave face girl, c’mon,” Rainbow Dash sighed at the mirror. “Well, maybe?”

She looked down. Somewhere below, the love of her life was working. Ever since moving to Ponyville, one pony has consumed Rainbow Dashes mind. Rainbow couldn’t help it. She loved Applejack.

--

For months she tried to convince herself otherwise.

“I’m no Fillyfooler. I like boys,” she’d tell herself, as her mother had done so many times. “I wanna nice big stallion to come and....” She’d always stop there. She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. Even in her head. She loved girls. She was lesbian.

‘No!’ She’d think to herself. ‘I’m just.. I’m bi? Yea sure. That’s cool. I like colts as well... just not as much.’ At that point she’d sit down and mutter: “Or at all...”

At that point she couldn’t help but revert back to her past. Up in Cloudburne, where she lived for years before getting shipped off to Junior Speedsters Boarding School, her mother would lecture for what seemed like hours on the evils of same-sex relationships.

“Don’t you even think about it, Rainbow. Mares are meant to be with Stallions and Stallions are meant to be with Mares. That’s the way Celestia intended it, no matter what your father says, and that’s the way it’s going to be. Mares simply can not love other mares. Life doesn’t work that way.”

“But mom,” Dash would argue, “what if a mare couldn’t help it. What if, in her heart, she really love fillies?”

“Impossible! She’s simply trying to be rebellious. She’s trying to destroy the system. Mares can not love other mares. That’s the way Celestia intended it.”

Typically, Rainbow Dash would just sulk off to her room. Eventually she learned to never discuss relationships with her mother. It just ended with tears for everyone.

Today was different though. Usually Rainbow’s mind would split into two halves. One siding with her mother, saying that nopony, except those awful, queer, unicorn ponies, could love of the same gender. But then her other half would argue that there was nothing wrong with it, and that Rainbow should go with her heart. After an hour of arguing with herself, Rainbow Dash would eventually just give up and fall asleep. But today, her mother lost influence. Rainbow finally freed herself from her past. Those years of yelling just disappeared. Her mother’s tearful screams ceased to exist. Today, the constant conflict in Rainbow Dash’s mind disappeared.

Today, her heart won.

--

Applejack was working the southern end of her family’s farm. This suited Rainbow Dash just fine. It was far away from everypony, and she was still struggling to be brave. ‘C’mon Dash, you can do it. Just one simple question,’ she thought.

Rainbow Dash swooped down behind AJ. She, although trying to resist the perversion, couldn’t help but admire Applejack’s butt. But admiring her friend’s ass is not what she came here to do, ‘though hopefully I will in the future,’ Rainbow Dash grinned to herself.

“Hey Applejack?” Rainbow Dash called out. She was surprised at how weak her voice was.

‘C’mon, Rainbow, you can do it,’ she thought to herself. ‘What’s the worse she can do, say no? Ha! Not that she ever would. You’re Equestria’s best flyer. Unless... Maybe you aren’t? Maybe she’ll laugh at you. She’ll probably go off and tell everypony! It’ll be just like Jr. Speedsters! No!’ Rainbow shook the thought clear of her head. ‘AJ won’t do that. Nothing would be like Jr. Speedesters.’ The blue mare cleared her throat and spoke again:

“Hey! Applejack!” Rainbow shouted. Her friend was busy kicking apple trees, as usual. It seemed that harvest season lasts forever on the farm.

“Oh, hey there Rainbow. Nice of ya to stop by. What can I do ya for?” Applejack pushed her hat back and smiled at her friend.

“Well, I... uh.” Rainbow Dash was tongue-tied. It took her an hour to convince herself to go and find AJ, and now she was tongue tied. “I was wondering if you wanted to maybe sometime...” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. “hangoutbutlikemorethanweusuallydoinaspecialwaylikeadatemaybe?”

Rainbow Dash took a step back and lowered her ears. Applejack was just staring at her.

‘Oh no! It is gonna be just like Junior Speedsters! She’s going to laugh at me. She’s going to laugh at me and tell Twilight and Pinkie and everypony else. I never should have asked her. Why did I do it?’ Rainbow backed up a little more and coward, bracing herself for impact. Her oldest friend was going to laugh in her face, she knew it.

Applejack continued to stare. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do. She learned to expect a lot of things from Rainbow Dash, but she never expected this. This, to keep it simple, was different.

‘Oh, come on AJ. Ya can’t keep staring at her like that. Put on a smile at least.’

Applejack forced a half hearted smile. She tried to search for some sympathy, something to ease Rainbow’s pain. She couldn’t find it. Really, she was just confused. AJ sighed, casting her gaze down to Rainbow’s feet.

“Aw, Rainbow. I... I’m sorry.”

Rainbow Dash fought to hold back the tears. She expected it to happen, but she didn’t expect it to hurt as much. ‘Oh, I knew it! She doesn’t like me. It’s just like Harmony all over again. I’m sorry now, you fucking fillyfooler later.’

“Yea, whatever...” Rainbow said, defeated. Rainbow took a few more steps back. But Applejack put a foreleg around her shoulder, in sympathy. Rainbow Dash shrugged the sympathy gesture off. She didn’t want the sympathy. She really just wanted to go back in time and undo this.

“I’m not offended,” Rainbow Dash retorted. ‘Just hurt,’ she thought to herself. Maybe her mother was right. Perhaps her father was just a freak, and he passed on his freak genes to his only biological daughter. Mares couldn’t love mares. Stallions couldn’t love stallions. That’s the way Celestia made it.

“Sugercube, I can hear it in ya voice. I’m real sor-”

Rainbow Dash didn’t let her finish. She spread her wings and flew off.

“-ry...” Applejack finished to herself. “Colt, I sure do worry ‘bout that pony. I wouldn’t put it past her to go and do something stupid like. I better check on her later.” Applejack returned to work, vowing that she’d visit Rainbow Dash by day’s end. Right now, the blue filly just needed some alone time. But Rainbow, rash as she is, would need somepony to calm her down eventually. If Applejack couldn’t console her, she’d find somepony who could.

But for now, the apples needed her attention. Next Chapter: Chapter 2 Estimated time remaining: 34 Minutes