You had never seen anything like it before. The lights, the sounds, the atmosphere, it was like being at the Wonder Bolts show all over again! Except this time, the show was taking place in your own home.

Three and a Half hours earlier…

You sat at a wooden table in the middle of the library as Twilight Sparkle levitated two cups of tea just above her head as she walked. She gently set the white cup down in front of you before taking her own seat across the table. She simply looked on at you as you lowered your head and stared into your tea cup. Your nerves were fried and your mind was working a million times faster than it normally should. Not ten minutes ago, Twilight Sparkle had come fourth and told you the truth about your errand, and how Rainbow Dash being sick was a complete and utter lie.

“I don’t understand… Please, Start from the beginning again?” You look up at Twilight with pleading eyes. She sighed just as she was about to take a sip from her tea, setting the cup down and turning to face you with a look of neutrality on her face.

“Alright. Rainbow Dash felt bad for what happened during your visit with the Wonder Bolts and what happened on the way to her weather crew meeting, so… after you stormed off, she came to me and the others with a plan to make things up to you.”

“And that plan was…?”

“A party.”

“A party?”

“Yes. A party for you. The plan was that Rainbow would pretend to be caught in the storm and get sick. She would then send you out on a pointless errand that would only grow more convoluted until she was ready for you.”

You sat there, thinking, pondering and taking in all the information that Twilight had just given you. Yes, Rainbow Dash had lied, but it wasn’t a bad lie was it? Apparently she did it under the nicest of intentions. But why not just tell you out right? Did she think you would say no? You had never been to a party that did not involve dressing up and standing around while your parents talked to their stuffy, high society friends.

“So… She wanted to throw me a party because she felt bad about what happened?”

Twilight drank her tea and nodded without responding.

“So then, what was your guy’s part in all this? Why did she send me to each of you?”

“After you visited us, we were to report over to her at your house, that way she knew how much time she had left to get ready before you returned.”

You nudge your tea cup with your hoof and sigh. “This is all very well thought out… “

“Rainbow went to a lot of trouble to make sure you didn’t find out… she planned for everything. Well… except for me having such a big mouth…” Twilight’s ears fell against her head as she looked away. Obviously she felt upset about giving away the surprise. You couldn’t help but feel bad for the purple unicorn.

“Hey… it’s alright. I’m still surprised. I mean… no one has ever thrown me a party before. Besides…. If anyone should be feeling lousy it’s me.”

Twilight looks up from her tea. “Why do you say that?”

“I haven’t exactly been the best pony friend…err…. Friend… to Rainbow.” Your voice trails off as you look down at the floor. “I'm sort of sensitive about some topics… and I tend to over react sometimes… it’s not a quality I’m proud of… “

For a moment, the two of you simply sit in silence, unsure of what to say to the other. After a few moments of ruminating, Twilight finally breaks the tense silence.

“She’s crazy for you. Like, Wonder Bolts level crazy. You’re all she talks about since she met you.

You look up. “Really”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“Well… she said she really liked me… and we almost kissed… but, I didn’t know she liked me like that…”

Twilight smiled again. “Well, she does. You should be proud. A lot of ponies on both “teams” would do back flips just to get the chance you have.

You hadn’t realized that. As beautiful and nice as Rainbow Dash was, you never considered that she might be quite the catch. Suddenly, everything you had been told, about how she cared about you, what she was willing to do, and how she thought of you made more sense.

“Are you saying she…”

Twilight raised a hoof in the air. “I don’t know a lot about relationships, but I do know that you don’t want to go jumping to that right away.”

“Oh… right.” You blush and bit your lower lip, looking around the room.

“I do know that she really cares about you. Are you mad at her?”

You shake your head. “No, I mean I was a first, a little. But after hearing all this… I just feel… happy. I’m happy that she did all this for me…. It means a lot… it’s more than anypony has ever done for me…”

Silence again. After another few tense moments, it is you who chimes in. “When’s the party start?”

Twilight looks over at the clock that hangs above the library door. “It’s not until 5:00pm... so about, two and a half hours from now? Sorry, the job was supposed to get more and more challenging so you would stay out longer… Guess now that you know the plan it’s kind of moot to keep running errands…”

“Well… not really… I mean… you’re the only one who knows that I know… “

Twilight finished off her tea and eyed you suspiciously. “What are you suggesting?”

You simply shrug. “Well… If this is supposed to be a surprise… why not give Dash a surprise?”

Twilight grinned. “I’m listening…”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Ya’ll want me to do what now!?” Applejack stood in her family’s barn sorting apples as she did every day around noon before lunch. No matter how many good apples were harvested, you could always count on having at least several saddle bags worth of rotten ones. The worst part was that if she didn’t find every single apple, if she even left one bad one in the bunch, then every other apple in the batch could go bad just by being in contact with the original rotten one. It was an important process that could potentially tip a harvest in both directions depending on how thorough she was. But now that process was interrupted by an incredibly unusual request from Twilight Sparkle, and a Pegasus that she was sure Rainbow’s newest flame.

“All we need you to do is tell Rainbow Dash that everything is going as planned.” You nod in agreement with Twilight

.

Applejack shakes her head and goes back to sorting the red, green, and yellow fruit. “Nope, Nuh-uh. You may be one of Mah best friends Twilight, but ah can’t lie, y'all know that.”

“But it’s a good lie! It’s one that will make Dash happy! You were perfectly fine going through with this when Dash asked you to do it anyways!” You understand her hesitance; being the element of honesty meant that she could not possibly tell a lie. But this was important to you, and you wanted her to know that.

“Dash didn’t ask me to lie about nothing. She simply said to keep hot hooves here busy. No lying, no nothin.”

You and Twilight exchanged glances. She had a point. Technically, Dash never asked her to lie about anything. All she had to do was stall you, keep you busy so that she could have as many precious minutes as she needed to complete her surprise party.

“Besides… why should ah help ya?” Applejack tossed an apple on the ground and gave you a dark look. The apple she dropped rolls over to you and taps against your hoof. It is cold, but not as cold as the look on Applejack’s face. You had no idea where her hostility was coming from, but from Twilight’s long winded sigh, you’re guessing that she did.

“Applejack… please… not this…”

“Yes, this!” Another apple is tossed to the ground, landing in the hay covered floor of the barn. Even with a couple inches of soft straw to break its fall, the apple falls with a loud and heavy thud. You lean over and whisper into Twilight’s ear.

“I’m lost. What’s going on here?”

Twilight sighs and turns to you, but before she can speak, an apple lands at your feet, this time with a splat and it breaks apart into mushy parts.

“You stole Rainbow from me!”

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