Rainbow Dash was over at Twilight’s, as there was no good way of adding clouds to the sky. Twilight was reading a newspaper aloud, as she had done yesterday with the assembly manual for a chair, to make a point about the meaning of reading.

“‘Cloudsdale stallion Bob killed under mysterious circumstances’... hey, Rainbow, come check this out.”

Rainbow came over and read the line, muttering it to herself as she read it. “Nope, I don’t know a thing about that.”

“Are you sure? Because I remember—”

“No. Why would I know anything about that?”

“Okay, if you say so....”

They stood in silence for a moment. All the books were sorted, everything was clean, Twilight didn’t have any studying to catch up on.

“You know, I think we should treat Rarity better,” Twilight said.

“Really? I think we treat her just fine.”

“No, we don’t. We don’t even notice her most of the time.”

“Well, she never really does anything either. She just stands around in the world and doesn’t contribute.”

“Still, we should treat her like everypony else. I mean, we all love each other equally and all that, so....”

“Weeelllll...”

“What? You mean you actually like Rarity a lot less? Because it just seems random to me. If you actually like her a lot less, then that’s fine, it’s just if you don’t, then why are we....”

“No, no, not that, it’s... it’s about...”

“Yeah? Come on, you can say it.”

“Well, I’ve always... I guess I can tell you this, since... you’ll keep it a secret, right? And you’ll believe me?”

“Yeah, I can keep secrets. There was that one episode about it.”

“Well... I... no, never mind.”

“Come on, Rainbow. If you’re using that many ellipses, it must be important.”

“I love Applejack.”

“So? We all love her. She’s one of our best friends, and—”

“No, like... in a romantic way.”

“I... you... really?”

“Yeah.”

“For how long?”

“...Sssiiince I met her, preeetty much....”

“But why didn’t you ever tell her?”

“Well, I didn’t wanna, ‘cause... what if she said no? Then there would be this... bad feeling between us forever.”

“Well, you have to tell her sometime. Especially if your worst case scenario is just some vague ‘bad feeling’.”

“I know, but... when? When is the right time to tell her? Will she say something?”

“Well, clearly, after all this time, she won’t. You’ll just have to go and tell her.”

“I just... I don’t wanna. We’re gonna be awkward around each other forever.”

“If you don’t try, you’ll never know.”

“I can clearly live with that. So what if I don’t try?”

“Well, also, the plot will come to a grinding halt.”

“What plot?”

“The... shit, you’re right. Yeah, you need to do this.”

Applejack was waiting by the front entrance to Sweet Apple Acres when a certain cyan pony she knew came up to her.

“Hi, Rob! Here’s your cube.”

Rob took the tesseract she was holding out and disappeared to the fourth dimension. Two seconds later, Rainbow Dash came up to talk.

“‘Ey, Rainbo’! Whatchy’ bein’ her’ f’?”

“Well....” Rainbow dusted the ground with a hoof. “I kinda....”

“Yeah? What is it?”

Rainbow closed her eyes tightly, which looked a little weird from the outside. But this was the time she finally had to do it. For the sake of the show, if nothing else. It was March and there was no way she was waiting until the next Valentine’s Day. And then she opened her eyes again.

“I love you, Applejack.”

“Well, ah course you do, you’re mah best friend. Well, along with—”

“No, I mean like... in a romantic way.”

“Yeah, real funny, Rainbow. Actually, that was a pretty shit joke. Now what’d you really come over here for?”

“No, really. I’m in love with you, AJ. Since the fourth time we met, I’ve liked you way more than any other pony I’ve known.”

“What.” Applejack’s jaw dropped. No, not that far. Yeah, about there.

“Look, I’ve felt this way for a long time and I had to tell you, so... I’m sorry. If you can never think of me the same way again, then... well... I’m sorry, okay? It’s just that it’s March and I was too scared on Valentine’s Day and I’m not gonna wait to reveal it anymore.” Rainbow started to turn around to depressedly walk away, but Applejack turned her head back and sexually assaulted her into a brief kiss.

“But...” Rainbow said.

“Ah’ve been waitin’ for you to say that forever. Ah just never had the courage either.”

“You... you do....”

“Yeah, Rainbow. Ah do love you. Ah just feel so bad for hahdin’ it....”

“Hey, I did the same thing. I’m just glad we found out now and not when we were a lot older....”

“Heh. Yeah.”

There was a few seconds of silence.

“I wanna fuck you,” Applejack said. “Like, right now.”

“Same here.” Next Chapter: Chapter 14: This Damn Youth Policy Estimated time remaining: 17 Hours, 40 Minutes