One positive thing that had come out of their trip, Rainbow Dash realized, was that she hadn’t had a chance to really stretch her wings in years. She could scarcely remember a time when she had been able to soar as high and as far and as fast as her eyes could see.

Now, out in the open wilderness, she had plenty of open space for practicing her stunts, or even cruising at will.

She may have only had dead fields, cold weather, and an empty sky above her – not much to look at, sure – but at least she had room to breathe, regardless of how stale the air was, and all the space in the world to do it in. There were no stray arrows to cut her down over a blood-soaked battlefield.

Flying through the air and performing a few loop-de-loops, Rainbow Dash was regardless sure to keep her eyes open for trouble while also keeping tabs on Applejack far below. The country mare had been deathly silent ever since they left Apple Bloom’s grave mere days ago, and all through the journey across the dismal, decaying flats into the Canterlot Mountain lower hills.

Rainbow Dash knew where her friend’s heart was – she knew that place all too well – and had elected to give her the space she needed. She still had nightmares of Scootaloo’s death and feelings of guilt and helplessness that came with her failure to prevent it.

For Applejack, it stung all the worse with Apple Bloom being the last of her family.

Her entire family…

Now, she was the last Apple left, and Dash couldn’t begin to fathom such a feeling.

Rainbow Dash had never had much of a family. Her mother had died when she was a foal, and her relationship with her father had been an iffy one at best. She carried regrets over never burying the hatchet after learning about Cloudsdale’s fate, but if anything, her friends had become far more important to her then her own family.

Hay… Applejack had become her only real family by then. So AJ was everything.

Even if Dash had managed to beat Sombra single-hoofedly, beaten back his armies, given ponykind a future and saved the world, it would matter little if she didn’t have somepony to share it with.

We win this together or we go out together. There’s no middle ground.

She looked high above where the mountain they had to climb towered over them. It was the shortest and safest path to get to Canterlot without running into any of the corrupted armies of Sombra that were doubtlessly scouring the countrysides for them. However, while Rainbow Dash could easily fly rings around such annoyances and leave them in her dust, Applejack was completely grounded. Somepony heavy as her friend would wear her out in minutes, and by their estimations, it would take them a good five days to round to the other side of the mountain. Every minute was a precious one.

And every day is another day the city could get steamrolled, thought Rainbow Dash, hoping and praying that the gates still held.

It would really suck if we were the only two ponies left. Unless AJ or I grew another limb between our back legs, goodbye ponykind, she thought with a grim snicker.

It did make her wonder, though...

“So... I was just doing some thinking,” voice-broke Rainbow Dash as she skidded to a halt on the ashen soil. “Once we’re all done saving the world again, what do you plan to do first?”

Applejack paused and broke out of her staring match with the earth, looking up at the grinning Rainbow Dash. “Beg pardon?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Well… y’know. Once we do the whole ‘charge of the Awesome Brigade’ thing and totally kick Sombra’s mangey, smokey butt all the way to Cerberus’s doggy door, what did you have in mind on doing?” She threw her eyes to the sky, her fluff and feathers ruffling in elated thought. “First thing I wanna do is take a vacation… maybe take a break from all this awesomeness and see if I can dig up a bottle of cider somewhere and chug it all by myself.”

Applejack smirked. “Really got your priorities straight there, doncha darlin’?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, don’t you think the first thing we should be doin’ is figure out some way to get the Sun and Moon goin’ again? Shed a little light on this here dirtball and get some things growin’?” she asked, scuffing her hoof through the arid soil.

“Oh… yeah. Right...” muttered the pegasus.

“I mean, if you figure it right, even if we do somehow put a hoof through Sombra's noggin, that's only half the battle right there. It don't matter ifwe win if we ain't got nothin' left after that....”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and frowned. “Sheesh… kill the buzz, why doncha?”

Applejack stared levelly at her. “Rainbow...”

She lifted a hoof, waving it frantically with a grimace. “Yeah, yeah, I know… you're right,” she said, stepping in-time with her friend. “Wouldn't kill ya to have a little optimism here, though, right?”

Applejack's ears folded, and a look of guilt crossed her brow. “Sorry… I didn't mean to be a nervous nancy.”

Sighing heavily, Rainbow shrugged. “No, it's okay. You're not wrong. I can barely remember what real grass under my hooves felt like…”

“Or the sunshine in a flowery meadow...”

“Yeah… or a warm spring breeze...”

“Mmmm...” Applejack purred with a smile. “Remember the days when the apples first started gettin' ripe?”

Rainbow Dash shuddered in elation. “Or when the dandelions started popping up?”

“Hay, I even miss rainy days in April...”

“Hot cider, straight from the cask...” Rainbow said, licking her lips free of drool.

“Rainbow?”

“Hm?”

“Your wings…”

The pegasus blinked and looked back at her erect appendages. She bit her lip and chuckled nervously.

Applejack smirked in that alluring way of hers. “Cold out here?” She turned and flicked her tail playfully across the pegasus’s muzzle. “Or did my cider just give ya that good a time?”

Rainbow could feel her cheeks turn a deep scarlet. “Eheheh… right.”

Silence. Applejack's brow began to knit in worry.

“You didn't hurt yourself, did you?”

“Huh? Who? Me? Pfft! Nah! No! Noooonononono! Never! Uh-uh!” Rainbow insisted, flexing her muscles a few times to demonstrate.

Applejack blinked curiously, and the two carried on in silence up the rocky path that appeared and vanished in equal measures up into the bitter heights. Dash lost track exactly of how long they had been quiet and how many times she had had to take to the sky to rediscover the path, but she would have bet on it being nearly an hour as they navigated the terrain.

It’d be approaching the equivalent of nighttime soon, and the pegasus's stomach was protesting its lack of nourishment. It would be time to pack it in before too much longer. A number of caves a few hundred feet up the slopes seemed like ideal places to hide.

“Fifteen minutes,” she said, landing next to the earth pony as softly as she could manage, “then we can call it quits for the night.” She looked up at the mountain that towered over them, easily above the clouds, had there been any.

“Right,” Applejack said breathlessly, pausing before hopping up another platform of rocks and scaling a steep incline. Rainbow, meanwhile, kept her hawk like eyes open for tumbling pebbles.

“So,” her friend said, grunting up another layer of stone, “what brought all that on? Do you have any plans 'sides ridin' the hero wagon?”

“Huh?” Dash was caught off-guard by the question…

... or she could have been paying too much attention to the way her aurastone glinted off the sweat on Applejack’s legs.

“What you were talkin’ about awhile ago. About plannin’ things and such.”

“Oh… that. Yeah.” She smiled and averted her eyes. “I just figured… maybe you might start… maybe looking for somepony. Like… y’know, a stallion… and stuff.”

Applejack launched herself up another layer of rock and nearly lost her balance.

Rainbow’s quick hooves clamped over her flank to stabilize her and saved her friend from a nasty tumble down the side of the mountain.

The pair shared an awkward pause before Applejack cleared her throat and gently wriggled her cutie marks out of her grip, while Rainbow was on the receiving end of a mental shellacking of her own conscience.

“M-me? N-no… not really, no,” Applejack said. A few quick hops up the side of the mountain, and the duo stood at the entrance of a yawning cave mouth.

There was a long pause.

“Ummm… why? W-were you thinkin’ somethin’ like that?”

“Me?” squeaked Rainbow. Her ruby eyes glinted off the orange light that passed through her vision and into the cave. She was quick to follow. “Well… no, not really. Nothin’ like... that anyway,” she said with a shrug. She pounded the dirt off her hooves and wandered into the cave. “I just figured that… you know, with...” Rainbow winced. “With you losing your family and all, I thought maybe starting one might kinda be high on your bucket list or something.”

Silence pervaded as the words died on both mares’ tongues. Gleaming stones shone a soft light on the cave walls. Stalactites clung defiantly to the ceilings of the cavern as it expanded into a wider chamber deeper in the undermountain, and the limited glow of the stones did little to extend the sight lines of the two ponies to the other end.

Nothing moved in the limited light. So far as both could tell, they were alone in the cave.

Applejack sighed and let her back legs drop, releasing her saddlebags with a tug of the tie around her neck before sifting through her packs. As Rainbow might have anticipated, it was a glistening red apple that she produced.

She wasn’t sure if it was her friend’s predictability or the way Applejack so greedily devoured her ration, but it made Dash chuckle uncontrollably.

The earth pony looked at her, and the duo paused and shared a laugh before Rainbow produced her own apple and proceeded to chow down.

All was quiet for the time being, and a silence like neither had ever shared before loomed around them.

Rainbow looked up and around. Gradually her eyes began to readjust to the darker-than-midnight space. Her aurastone illuminated the faint outlines of rocks, boulders and shelves, but little else of interest. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like the fangs of a great predator, ready to come crashing down on both mares any moment. It might have creeped her out if she hadn't seen far worse in her life already.

“I woulda thought so too...”

Rainbow looked up and over at Applejack's shadowy form, dimly lit by the red rock slung to her chest. Through the darkness, she thought she saw her friend's eyes shimmer in the thin lighting.

“Huh?” she asked.

“Th-thought about a family, I mean,” the cowgirl clarified, turning her head away.

“Oh! Right… that.” Rainbow chuckled nervously. “I-I just… y'know, you never seemed to really be interested. It always looked like you were more into… well, helping everypony instead of finding some dude to be chill with.”

“Heh… well, somepony needed to hold down the fort.”

Rainbow blinked. “Really… that was it?”

Applejack stared.

“I mean, you were putting aside everything that mattered to you just to make sure that everypony was taken care of?”

The cowgirl looked at the damp ground. “It's not like I was the only one.”

“You were the only one putting your whole life on hold though. I mean… everything you cared about…”

“Not everything I cared about, darlin'...”

The pegasus blinked as Applejack looked back up at Rainbow and snuggled in closer against her. The feeling of her warm cheek pressing against her neck just beneath chin.

A warm smile crossed Dash's face, and took the offered pillow of Applejack's golden mane. The two shared space for several moments more, and the tension and chill in that moment melted away like Winter Wrap-up.

Rainbow Dash wasn't sure how long the two of them had laid there; all she was sure of was that they must have lost consciousness at some point. A warm body was curled up next to her, breathing softly, and her eyes flew open on instinct.

Jerking upright, Rainbow's heart was beating at a million miles an hour as she flinched away from the source of admittedly pleasant heat, and made to alert Applejack to the intruder.

Ooooooh…

Shaking the glitch out of her head, Rainbow rubbed her hoof over the aurastone on her chest, bringing the soft glow to life. Sure enough, Applejack laid next to her, still sleeping peacefully wrapped up in her hooves. Memories of the previous evening flooded back to the surface, and the pegasus sheepishly grinned to herself.

Dash snuggled into the soft blond mane again, and nuzzled the soft tresses, before being rewarded by a satisfied moan.

“Nice nap?” she asked softly, brushing a wing over her sleeping companion.

“Mmmm… best I've had in a long ol' time,” the cowgirl cooed, nuzzling closer to the pegasus's warm form. Through the dim light, her green eyes opened and a yawn escaped her lips. “What time is it?” she asked.

“'Bout midnight, if it makes a difference.”

“Nnnngh...” Applejack draped her tail over her face. “What's lights-on so early for, then?”

“Oh, sorry.” Rainbow quickly breathed on her necklace, drowning out the light, and snuggled against the cowpony. ''I was gonna go get a drink. You want anything?” she asked, motioning towards the saddlebags.

Another yawn. “I'd kill for some oats, I reckon.”

“Comin' right up!”

Dash was gone for mere seconds before returning with the canteen and bag of oats. Applejack quickly set about quieting her stomach while Rainbow silently quenched her thirst.

“So,” Rainbow said, licking her lips of the water she'd guzzled, “feel like getting an early start today?”

Applejack groaned in protest.

“Y'know I would,” she said with a pout. “But I'm still feelin' a little stiff from all that climbin' earlier.”

Rainbow chuckled, flexing her wings. “Bet you wish you had a pair of these babies.”

“I'd settle for a horn if it meant I could teleport.”

“I thought that was supposed to be a really hard spell or something.” Rainbow shrugged. “At least, that's what Twilight had always said, anyway.”

“She sure made it look easy enough. Then again, look who we're talkin' about.”

“Exactly.” Rainbow took another swig of water and looked at her friend again. “So, dream about anything good? Apple pie? Fritters?” She paused and smirked. “Mr. Right, maybe?”

Applejack looked up from her oat bag and at her. “Beg pardon?”

Dash shrugged. “I just thought since you were sleeping so good, maybe you were dreaming up something nice for a change. Some good squeeze, I figured could help 'ease your dreams',” she said with a snort and a chuckle.

The cowgirl rolled her eyes. “Get outta town.”

“What? I'm not making fun… this time! Honest!” Rainbow grinned and snuggled with her friend, which seemed only to serve to aggravate Applejack further. “I mean, you gotta have something to look forward to, right? Kids? Family? C'mon!”

Applejack snorted irritably. “There ain't gonna be any little apple seeds, darlin'.”

A pause.

“Huh?” asked Rainbow Dash, tilting her head.

Sighing, Applejack rolled her eyes at Dash and stopped. “My tail don't flick for stallions, darlin'. And last time I checked a mare can’t get another mare pregnant.” She fidgeted with her hooves a moment. “And I sure as heck ain’t gonna drag some poor colt into bed just so I can use 'im like that. If I'm honest with myself – and I always am – it'll be some gal I can love. Somepony I can get close to and settle down with.”

“Whoa...” Rainbow replied, eyes bulging. “You think you know a pony...”

“I thought you did know...” she muttered. “After that whole fiasco with Trenderhoof, I figured you'd probably put it all together...”

“Trender-who?”

Applejack paused and blinked. “Oh… right, that was with Rarity.”

Rainbow stared.

Freckled cheeks flushed noticeably, even in the warm, amber light.

“I coulda sworn it'd been you. It's been such a long time now...”

“Wait, you mean to tell me… Rarity figured it out before me?!”

Applejack shrugged.

Rainbow wowed to herself and quietly capped her canteen before stuffing it back into her saddlebags.

She sighed. “So, no...” She closed her eyes and lowered her head. “The Apple family dies with me, sugar. Sombra took that from me when he killed every one of my kin.” She snorted. “Another thing I owe him for when I see him, I reckon...”

Rainbow Dash bit her lip and looked over, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m… really sorry, AJ.”

“Don't...” Applejack winced and sighed. “Don't be sorry, sugarcube. It ain't your fault. You didn't mean nothin' by it.” She flashed a gentle smile. “I'm sorry I ain’t been the best company since we left the falls. I... I just keep thinkin’ 'bout… things I...” Applejack bit her lip and swallowed painfully. “...things I shoulda let go of by now...”

“No, it's okay.” Rainbow leaned in and pulled her friend into a feathery hug, stroking a hoof across her mane. “We're gonna figure out a way to fix all this… and send that slimeball, Sombra, back to whatever pit of Tartauros he crawled out of.”

Applejack managed a smile for a moment, before she snuggled her muzzle back into the crook beneath Rainbow's chin.

“I miss 'em all so much, Rainbow...” she whimpered.

The pegasus lifted her friend's chin and gave a comforting smile. “They're all happy now, AJ. Hay, Applebloom’s probably with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, none of 'em hurting or hungry or lonely...” She paused and smiled. “They're probably building a brand new Crusader clubhouse wherever they are, still trying to figure out their cutie marks.”

The earth pony bit a smile, trying to suppress a laugh. “Yeah... I'd bet bits you're right.” She chuckled heartily.

The two descended into a long, euphoric laugh that dispelled the dismal dank darkness of the cave around them, filling the miserable chambers with mirth and jubilee. For the briefest moments, the world felt the slightest bit brighter between the two of them. Memories of Scootaloo's admittedly-humorous attempts at flight, Applebloom's clumsy and stubborn wrecklessness, and Sweetie Belle's merciless assault on her big sister's sanity were traded back and forth before the duo's tear-filled eyes met.

“Do ya think she’ll forgive me?” asked Applejack somberly, biting her lip.

Rainbow's eyebrows raised. “Applebloom?”

The cowgirl winced and shook her head.

“Oh...” Rainbow's ears pinned back against her head. “AJ… I'd bet anything she’d ask you to forgive her first,” said Rainbow Dash with a comforting smile.

“Yeah... reckon she probably would,” murmured Applejack.

The two friends sat for what felt like hours, drinking their fill and refilling their canteens with meltwater before reclining against the rock formation with their sleeping bags.

“Well, that drink sure hit the spot after such a big hike.”

“Speaking of hikes,” Rainbow said, raising her head and looking towards the ceiling of the cave, “how far do you figure we have to go anyway?”

Ear twitching, Applejack stared at the rock overhead and hummed to herself.

“I figure we’re almost halfway up. And when we get there we could camp out for the night and pick it back up in the mornin’.”

“Sounds good to me,” answered Rainbow Dash with a yawn, stretching her wings. “Although I still wish we had a unicorn so they could cast that wing spell thing, at least. It would make traveling a lot faster.”

“What, like that time Rarity had them fairy wings and used them to flaunt them around while y’all were panickin’ over that flight competition you won?” chuckled Applejack.

“Yeah, and miss pretty pants got too close to the sun so they burned out and I had to save her butt along with the Wonderbolts,” laughed Rainbow Dash. She shook her head with a smile on her face. “Good times. Back then... back then it was like we could save anypony, you know?”

“Yeah...”

“… yeah.”

The two sat there in silence, the little joy they had briefly now replaced with the familiar feeling of sorrow and loss. It was a feeling both had been carrying with them for over five years now. Rainbow Dash snarled and slammed her hoof against the ground. “Damnit! Are we ever gonna have a day when we don’t think about all this... lame depressing stuff?!”

“Kinda hard not too when everything around ya is dead or dyin’,” muttered Applejack, shaking her head.

“I know, but I don’t want to feel that way anymore! It’s been five years! I want to have some sort of happiness, or some awesome feeling! I wanna party! I wanna get drunk! Have sex even!” shouted Dash, her voice echoing in the cavern. She crossed her forelegs. “I’m not even asking for the glory days anymore... just for a moment where we don’t have to worry about what tomorrow might bring – if it even comes at all…”

An endless pause existed between the two of them, punctuated only by a soft, mournful sigh.

“... th-then do you wanna?” asked Applejack, turning around.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and looked at her friend next to her. “Wanna... what?”

“Wanna have sex.”

Rainbow wasn't sure if she'd heard that right, and was grateful she hadn't been drinking from her canteen at the time. A good portion of it would have been lost to the stone.

She was sure if she had the muscle power her jaw would have fallen straight through the mountain. She gazed at Applejack’s face to see if there were any signs of joking, but her face was as serious as... well as it usually was. For a moment, the pegasus believed half her brain had exploded and the other half was too busy putting it back together to comprehend what she was hearing.

“O-one more time?”

Applejack sagged down against the rock. “You heard me.”

Rainbow swished her hoof around in her head, picking at whatever fluff might have gotten lodged in her ear canal. But when she tested her voice, everything came through perfectly clear.

That only meant she'd heard right.

Applejack wanted to… to do the horizontal limbo. With her.

Right here. Right now.

“B-buh… duuhhhh… w... what?! Wh-… you can't be… are you for real?!” squeaked Rainbow Dash, blushing madly. She was thankful for the darkness.

“Well… why not? Unless you… well, y'know...” Applejack shrugged. “Unless I ain't what you had in mind.”

“I… but… wh-where did that even come from?”

The cowgirl leveled a stare at her. “Well, if you want the truth of it, it was your idea. I was just tryin' to be helpful is all.”

“But… but… d-doing it? Like, right here?” Rainbow could scarcely believe what her ears were telling her brain.

“Well… why not?”

“Well… for one thing, wouldn't it be like… well, totally inappropriate right now?”

“How come?” Applejack frowned at her. “You said you wanted to… figured it sounded like now would be as good a time as any. You got anything better to do?”

Rainbow bit her lip, fumbling with her logic for several long moments. “I-I… well, fair point… but… I don't...”

Applejack fidgeted. “I don't figure how it could be any worse than throwin' a two-gal party. And I didn't think to bring no liquor… unless you're holdin' out on me,” the cowgirl said with a flat chuckle. “Hay, I figure we don't know if we'll even get another chance...”

Rainbow frowned and looked down at herself – what she could see of herself anyway – and hesitated.

“AJ… I…”

Applejack rested a hoof on her shoulder and brushed the spot between her wings, evoking a warm and inviting jolt up and down her spine.

“Sugarcube, it's okay...” she said softly. “I'm… I'm sorry I made it feel weird. I was just tryin' to help...”

“No, it's okay,” the pegasus said nervously with a grin. “It's cool. I just… I was just caught a little off-guard, that's all. I mean… I never would've figured you of all ponies to be up for… well, that kind of… messing around.”

Snorting, Applejack smirked and responded, “Says the mare who was complainin' about not feelin' happy.”

Rainbow smiled at her unsure.

Applejack's, in turn, faded, and she sighed. “I guess I… just wanna feel, even if it's just for a moment, like nothin’ in the whole wide world is wrong. I feel like… like even if we can't win… even if it's really hopeless, that we can at least have hope and joy… and each other, I guess. That no matter how hard Sombra tries, he can't take us away from each other, or how happy you make me feel...”

Nothing in all the armies she had faced had ever scared Rainbow Dash so completely.

“I... I don’t know...” She looked at Applejack, ruby eyes soft and reassuring. “I… I need some time to think about it...”

Applejack's smile faded slightly. “It's okay, darlin'. I'm a big filly – if you really ain't interested, you can just say so if you want. Don't need to beat around the bush about it.”

“I just… I'm not sure, AJ.” Rainbow looked her dead in the eye. “Don't get me wrong… you mean everything to me now. Every pony left in Equestria doesn't mean as much to me as you do… but…” She sighed. “If I'm gonna have a chance to stop Sombra… to give you a world and a tomorrow...” Rainbow forced an unsure smile. “Well, I can't do it without something waiting for me once we do win,” she said with a wink.

Applejack chuckled.

Dash leaned in, nuzzling noses softly with her dear friend. “I don't wanna regret rushing it… not with you. You mean way more to me than that...”

The cowgirl blinked and Rainbow swore she could see her cheeks glowing in the dark.

“Yeesh, darlin',” Applejack replied playfully, whacking the pegasus's rump with her tail. “If you ain't careful, you could wind up charmin' a girl.”

“Picked it up from an old Daring Do book,” she said with a giggle.

“Didn't figure you for a poetry-type none, anyway.”

The two shared in a warm chuckle and gazed into each other's eyes; for how long, neither was entirely sure. The silence was broken as Rainbow wrapped her wings around her friend and held her closely.

“We will have a tomorrow, AJ,” she reassured her friend, nuzzling into her intoxicating mane. “I wouldn't miss it for the world...”

“Yeah… I sure hope you're right about that darlin'...”

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRhNJ-AcIIw

Sorry it took so long, both me and Twilight have been very busy this summer. And before you ask, yes. There will be clop :)