The mare doth protest too much, methinks
Fanfic by englishwitch
Disclaimer: The following is an entirely fan-created parody. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, it’s characters and all other affiliated merchandise are the intellectual property of Lauren Faust and Hasbro. Please support the official MLP: FiM show.
I make no profit, or money at all, for the production and distribution of this fanfiction.

Chapter 1

Twilight paced the library floor nervously, moving back and forth in front of her small work desk. For the twentieth time she griped the stacks of parchment with her magic and straightened them out again, even though they had been perfectly organised and straight the first time. "Oh." She grunted in frustration, glancing at the clock. Thirty seconds to go. Her heart started pounding faster. She turned to straighten up her desk again.

A strong leg wrapped around her shoulder and pulled her close. A warm cheek nuzzled her own and Twilight felt her nervous jitters settle a little.
"C'mon now sugarcube." Applejack whispered gently into her ear. "It's gonna be fine."

A knock rapt suddenly at the door. Twilight jumped almost a foot in the air. "Oh Celestia, they're early!" A second later the small clock chimed the hour. Twilight took a deep breath, laughing nervously. "Okay, they're on time."

Spike opened the door for her, shaking his head and smiling. He hadn't seen Twilight this worked up since she was afraid of being tardy sending a report to Princess Celestia. This event was a little more amusing.
"Come on in girls." He said cheerfully enough, stepping back to give them room.

"Thanks Spike." Pinkie cried as she bounced past him.

"Thank you Spikey dear." Rarity said sweetly as she walked by. Spike watched her go past with a goofy grin on his face.

"Thank you." Came the quiet voice of Fluttershy, Spike didn't hear. He was still staring at Rarity.

His train of thought was derailed by a tough hoof knocking on his head. "You got any idea what this is about?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"You're gonna find out in a minute." Spike said in confusion. "Why ask me now?"
Rainbow just rolled her eyes. "Don't try and use your logic against me. I just wanted a heads-up is all." She flapped past and sat on the floor between Fluttershy and Rarity.

Twilight stood by the stairs, Applejack stayed nearby. She looked out nervously, biting at her lip and kicking at the floor with one hoof. "Th- thank you all for coming." She said in a shaking, nervous, voice.

"My dear." Rarity exclaimed. "Whatever is the matter?"

"Nothing!" Twilight jumped in, too loud and too quick to be convincing. She took a deep breath and started again. "Nothing is wrong Rarity." She said in a marginally calmer voice. "Something is right." She glanced, quickly, at Applejack, who smiled encouragingly. Twilight, emboldened by this, continued, "You are all my dearest and closest friends, as close to me as family, and I wanted you all to be the first to know." She was interrupted by a coughing from the back of the room and she smiled nervously. "Well...second. Technically Spike was the first to know. It was kind of impossible to keep this from him."

"Not that she didn't try!" Laughed Spike from the back. Twilight's horn glowed and the contents of her waste paper basket dropped over Spikes head.

"As I was trying to say." She continued with a sigh. "You're my friends and I...we wanted you to be the fir- second to know." She faltered again. She'd thought through this situation a hundred times, with a hundred different results but all of them had her speaking her piece clearly and eloquently.

Applejack sidled closer to her, Twilight looked at her and she nodded. That same encouraging smile eased Twilight's worries.

"Since I moved here I've gotten to know you all so well and over the last few months I got to know one of you better than everypony else." She took a second to take a deep, shaking, breath. "And that friendship has blossomed into something more. So today...what I'm trying to tell you...Applejack and I...We'reacouplenow!"

There was a second of silence, couple with confused expressions.
"Come again darling?" Rarity broke the silence.

"We're a couple." Applejack responded, wrapping her leg around Twilight and pulling her close. "We're marefriends."

Simultaneously Rarity and Pinkie started jumping on the spot (Pinkie significantly higher).
"Congratulations!"
"We Gotta Have A PARTY TO CELEBRATE!!!"

Fluttershy clapped her hooves together and Rainbow Dash leapt into the air.
"oh how wonderful."
"WHAT!"

The silence fell like a lead weight. One by one, the ponies turned to look at Rainbow Dash. She hovered above the rest of them glaring at Twilight and Applejack angrily.

"You can't be a couple. You're both MARES!" Rainbow yelled at them. Twilight felt the urge to shrink back, but Applejack was holding onto her tighter than before. Everyone else gasped at Dash in shock.

"Why, Rainow Dash," Rarity said in surprise. "Whatever do-"

"Course we can!" Applejack interrupted. "Just 'cause we're Mares don't mean an orange in a bushel of apples. We love each other."

Rainbow flipped in the air. "I'm gonna be sick." She growled angrily. She turned to the others and stared as she noticed their expressions for the first time. "You're not serious?" She demanded of them. "They're Mares! They can't be a couple. It's wrong! It's disgusting! Two mares! It's-"

"RAINBOW!!!!" Applejack shouted at the top of her lungs. "You're gonna wanna stop talking before I get real mad."

Rainbow glared at her, She clearly had a lot more to say.

Before she could open her mouth however Fluttershy spoke up, as up as she ever managed. "Rainbow, how can you say such things? Love is always beautiful, no matter who its between." Rainbow gave her such a harsh glare that Fluttershy shrank back and hid under the table.

Rainbow looked around the room, at their shocked faces, which only seemed to make her angrier.

"Rainbow." Came a nervous voice. Rainbow turned to look at Twilight. Twilight shrank back slightly but tried to stand her ground. She put on her bravest look and looked up at the cyan pony. "Rainbow, I don't know what I expected when I asked you all here. But I didn't expect this." She started to tremble but Applejack helped just by being close. "I never thought one of the ponies I called my friend would have such an...an offensive and close minded attitude...and..." She hesitated. Tears rose in her eyes. She didn't want to say what she knew she had to say next. "And if that's how you really feel...if you can't accept us for who we are, or who we love...well I guess we didn't know you as well as we thought we did and..." The tears rolled down her cheeks. "And I'm not sure I want to be friends with anypony who thinks such horrible things." She turned and wrapped her forelegs around Applejack who wrapped a loving hoof around Twilight and nuzzled her cheek soothingly. Applejack's eyes never left Rainbow Dash, they both burned with the same intensity.

Rainbow looked slowly around the room. The others looked surprised, shocked and even a little disgusted with her. Except Fluttershy, who simply looked nervously from under the table.

Rainbow looked shocked, then appalled, then confused, then angry. All in the space of a few seconds. "FINE!" She yelled furiously. "You have fun with your mareosexual freaks! I don't wanna be friends with perverts anyway!" She flew over to the door. "If you guy's wise up an stop being tail-lickers you let me know so I'll know when its safe to turn my flank on you again!" She shot out of the library, slamming he door behind her with such force several books fell off their shelves.

The silence was so heavy is seemed to have weight, and it sat very heavily on everypony's shoulders. The only sound was Fluttershy crawling out from under the table.

Rarity finally realised her mouth was hanging open and raised a hoof to push it closed.

Pinkie sniffed loudly. Her mane and tail hair had fallen flat and straight against her body. "Dashie?" She whispered with a sob.

Twilight slowly pulled herself out of Applejack's hold. She glanced at the door, looking shaken. "I've never seen Rainbow Dash act like that." She said. She looked at Applejack. "I didn't mean to upset anyone...have we done the right thing?"

"Of course you have!" Pinkie jumped in before Applejack could say anything. Her hair was poofing back up. "No one and nothing should ever stop anypony being happy. Not even a big meanie-bo-feenie hatey McHater pants like Rainbow Dash."

"Pinkie has a point." Rarity said firmly. She looked surprised that she'd said that. "If Rainbow Dash can't accept the two of you as Marefriends in love than that is her problem. Her problem, not yours."

Twilight managed a slight smile. Applejack nuzzled her cheek a little more. "They're right sugarcube." She said gently. "I never woulda thought Dash would act like that but that’s her apple ta bite."

Twilight's smile was a little more genuine now. "Thank you girls."

...***...

A chill ran down Applejack's back, chasing her out of her deep sleep. Barely conscious she reached out a leg for Twilight, to hold her close and feel her warmth. Instead of her loving mare Applejack found her hoof touching empty bed. Her eyes opened now and she looked blearily around the room. Spike was asleep in his bed, Peewee was cosily resting in his nest and Owlowiscious's perch was empty. There wasn't any sign of Twilight. Applejack felt that chill again and finally noticed the window to the balcony was ajar. Applejack gripped the blanket around her and stepped outside.

Twilight was staring up at the night sky, lost deep in thought. Applejack approached, not very silently, but Twilight didn't seem to hear. With an expert whip of her neck, spin and twist Applejack threw the blanket up into the air and wrapped the warmth of woolly blanket around the both of them. Applejack shuffled close, feeling how cold Twilight had become. She must've been out here for at least an hour, probably longer.

"Thank you." Twilight said in a half-distracted voice. She leaned her head on Applejack's shoulder.

"What's wrong sugarpie?" Applejack said softly.

Twilight sighed and nuzzled Applejack's neck for a few seconds before talking. "It's Rainbow Dash." She said with a sigh. Applejack tensed slightly but nodded. Twilight continued, "I just...never thought she'd react like that. She's usually so, to use her word, ‘cool’ about everything. She seemed like a modern, forward thinking, open minded pony. Sure she can be stubborn, impulsive and jump to conclusions but she's always willing to hear ponies out and change her ideas and opinions if she's wrong. I never, in a thousand years, would've thought she'd have such an old fashion idea about mareosexuals."

"Old fashioned nuthin." Applejack said, keeping her volume low but somehow making her passion and attitude still as powerful as ever. "Granny Smith is old fashioned but she was still best mare at great uncle Strudel's weddin to great uncle Schnitzel. He became our uncle Schnitzel after the weddin by the way, ah know the rumours about us farm ponies." She waited, hoping Twilight might at least smirk but there was nothing. Well, it hadn't been a good joke. "Dash is just ignorant. If she's gonna have that attitude then it's her problem. There ain't no excuse for ponies thinkin like that these day's." She sighed and looked up at the half moon that was still holding Twilight's attention. "Ah don't wanna lose no friend over this but I ain't gonna change cause we ain't in the wrong here. If Rainbow Dash wants ta talk and learn and change that attitude then I'd be glad to sit down and help her. But if she ain'nt gonna change, if she ain't willin to get rid o that ignorance...then she ain't the pony I thought she was and she ain't no pony I wanna be friends with."

Twilight said nothing for some time. Applejack felt the warmth of her body and the rhythm of her breathing. The lavender scent that rose from her hair always made Applejack feel a stir between her back legs. Now was not the time to build on those feelings.
"Me too." Twilight said finally. "I never thought I'd lose a friend after it took me so long to find some but..." she sighed heavily. "Well, if Rainbow can't change, if she can't accept us..."

Applejack silenced her with a kiss. She knew what Twilight was saying and she agreed with her. Twilight leaned into her, sharing the passion that was burning between them. When the kiss broke Twilight let out a shaky, satisfied, sigh.
"C'mon sugarcube." Applejack whispered. She blew gently onto Twilight's ear, knowing how it drove the mare wild. "I'm wide awake and need some tirin out." She wrapped her hooves around Twilight and pulled her close as they lay onto their sides. The blanket was discarded, despite the cold of the night. They were keeping each other warm, very well.

...***...

Twilight sighed contentedly as the warmth of the sun kissed her face. The birds were singing above her head and she was wrapped cosily in her blanket. Slowly her eyes fluttered open to great the day. She was surprised for a second to find herself on her balcony rather than her bed. The her smile grew as she remembered why she'd fallen asleep on the balcony in the first place.

Then Twilight noticed the height of the sun and realised it was long past opening time for the library. Jumping to her feet she almost fell over as her legs became tangled in the blanket. She panicked, rolled, kicked and jumped. Finally free Twilight hurried inside, barely taking a second to smarten up her appearance before running down the stairs into the library.

Spike smiled down at her from the top of the ladder, pushing several books back onto the shelves. "Morning Twilight." He said in his charming voice.

Twilight looked around, everything seemed to be in order. That was good. "Is everything okay Spike?"

"Uh-huh." Spike smiled as he slid down the ladder and to the floor. "Miss Cheerilee took out a history book for school and Bonbon brought back that recipe book. She said ‘Sorry’ that some of the pages are stuck together with caramel and left some bits to have it cleaned."

Twilight nodded and saw the book on her desk. "What's that smell?" Her stomach growled as if repeating the question.

"AJ made hayseed flapjacks for breakfast." Spike answered. "There's some left, you want a couple?"

"Yes please, and some tea."

"Coming up." Spike answered as he rushed down the stairs into the kitchen.

Twilight sat at her desk and glanced at the book Bonbon had borrowed. The damage didn't seem all that bad. A quick treatment with her stain removal spell would take care of it. She put the bits aside to be returned to Bonbon later. She then remembered Bonbon lived with Lyra, and they had both lived in Ponyville alongside Rainbow Dash for years. Twilight decided to have a talk with them later and see if they ever had any trouble from Dash.

Twilight's attention was diverted again when she noticed a hastily scribbled note on top of her pile of parchment. She recognised the slightly messy scrawl of Applejack's mouthwriting.

Twi.
Had to get to the farm, we got repairs to make to the barn today. Sorry I didin't wake ya to say goodbye but ya just looked too adorable to disturb.
If ya can't make it to the farm today I'll see ya at Pikie's 'Applejack and Twilight are a couple now, aren't they perfect together?’ party
Before I left I gave ya a kiss goodbye, you can borrow it for now, but I want it back : )
My love,
AJ

Twilight smiled, trying to suppress a foalish giggle. Applejack's grammar needed work but her spelling was getting better. She would remind her again the word was 'Didn't' and not 'didin't'. At least she remembered the apostrophe this time.
‘She actually wrote ‘Ya’. Not ‘You’.” She smiled. “And a little smiley face.” The mare was just too adorable for words. And Twilight knew a lot of big words.

If she found time she would stop by the farm but she did have things to do today, mostly making sure Pinkie didn't go over the top on their party. She was more excited than usual over the prospect of making a party for a new couple. She'd hired the town hall and invited everypony in Ponyville. She'd even sent invites to Princess Celestia and Luna, her parents, Shining armour and Cadence. It was actually very helpful in Pinkie's random way. It saved Twilight and Applejack the time and stress of announcing their relationship to everypony else they knew. Just telling her closest friends had been hard enough for Twilight.

"Breakfast Twilight." Spike called. He staggered up the stairs, balancing a large tray on his head. Twilight's horn glowed and she took it from him. The flapjacks smelled delicious.

...***...

Twilight walked down the street, enjoying the warm day. All of Ponyville seemed infected with happiness. Maybe it was her imagination, or maybe everyone was excited for a big Pinkie Pie party. The invitations had almost certainly gone out already. Ponies were smiling at her. A few yelled out a friendly 'Hello' Others a hearty 'Congratulations' and a 'well done.' or two.

"Twilight? Hey Twilight?"

Twilight smiled at the familiar accent and sweet voice of Applebloom. She turned to the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were running to her excitedly.

"Hello Applebloom. Aren’t you helping on the farm today?"

Applebloom looked embarrassed for a second. "We was. But Applejack let us go early after we, kinda, made a hole bigger."

"Bigger?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Well..." Applebloom looked at Sweetie Belle , the filly was a little dirty and had strands of hay in her hair. Twilight began to piece together what might have happened. Applebloom continued. "We was on the roof, trying to get Roof-fixin cutie marks. Then Sweetie Bell fell and the little hole in the shingles ended up being a Sweetie Belle sized hole."

"Lucky that hay bale was underneath." Scootaloo said in a very relieved tone.

"It would have been lucky." Sweetie Belle e sulked. "if it hadn't been the used hay pile."

Twilight had been wondering what that smell was. She decided to say nothing, but she did slowly shuffle a little more upwind from Sweetie Belle .

Scootaloo turned back to the subject on her mind. "Anyway, Twilight, we all got these invitations from Pinkie Pie." She delved into her small saddlebag and pulled out a large piece of square paper, bright pink and bordered with many hearts and balloons.

Dear: APPLEBLOOM
You are invited to:
APPLEJACK AND TWILIGHT ARE A COUPLE NOW, AREN'T THEY JUST PERFECT TOGETHER?
Party
To be held at:
TOWN HALL
at:
2:00pm until WHENEVER!!!
From your hostess Pinkie Pie

"Sho ish id tloo" Applebloom asked with her teeth still gripping the invite. She put the paper on the ground and repeated herself. "Is it true? You an ma sis are a couple?"

Twlight felt a twitch on her face as her smile faltered slightly. After Rainbow Dash's reaction she wasn't sure how Applejack's family would react to the news. She hoped it wouldn't be bad.

"Yes. Yes we are Applebloom." She said with a smile.

"So...y'all luv each other?" Applebloom asked, sounding unsure. She wasn't angry and wasn't shouting, so Twilight took that as a good sign.

"Yes." Twilight felt her smile growing. "Yes we do. Very much."

Finally Applebloom smiled. It was so wide Twilight could count her back teeth. "That's awesome!" She laughed. "It's so cool when a pony finds their special somepony." Then her expression turned serious and she scooted closer to Twilight and whispered to her, "If y'all hurt her, you'll have me to deal with."

Twilight managed to stifle a giggle at the thought of the tiny filly trying to be threatening. "I understand Applebloom." She managed to say with a straight face. "And don't worry. I'd never do anything to hurt Applejack."

Applebloom broke into smiles again. "Awesome." She said. "Thanks Twilight."

"You're welcome Applebloom." Twilight said with a nod. "It's nice that you're looking out for your big sister." She turned to leave but Scootaloo spoke up, sounding a lot sadder.

"Is it true Rainbow Dash doesn't like you two together?"

That made Twilight freeze. Then she looked at the young purple haired filly. "Where'd you hear that?"
Scootaloo kicked the invitation on the ground with her hoof, it flipped over and Twilight saw more had been written on the back.

Everypony is invited except Rainbow Dash!
Unless she stops being a big Meanie-bofeany, McMeanie pants and stops hating mareosexuals and starts accepting that its cool Twilight and Applejack love each other.
If she can't do that then she can't come to the party.
And, you know what, no more cupcakes for her from now on. HA! Take that Dashie. Only you shouldn't be reading this, because I'm not making an invitation for you. Unless, of course, someone show's you an invitation. Then you might see what's written here. But I don't think anyone would show you an invitation because that would just be mean, to show somepony an inviation to a party they know that pony isn't invited to is the meanest of meanie things a meaniepony could ever do. Oh I hop-

The page ended there and Pinkie had been forced to stop writing in mid speech. Twilight wondered if the same thing was written on the back of all the invitations. They looked hand made. How and why Pinkie had copied the same speech on the back of every invitation was one of those questions Twilight chose not to dwell on because it wouldn't lead to answers, only a headache.

Then Twilight noticed Scootaloo was looking up at her expectantly. She hesitated. Rainbow Dash was a hero to Scootaloo, what would this do to the young filly to learn the pony she looked up to, above anypony else, held such awful and ignorant beliefs? She couldn't destroy the image of a filly's hero but she couldn't lie to her. That would just make things worse.

Twilight sighed and decided to just be truthful. There was no avoiding it, Scootaloo would see or hear the truth sooner or later. "That's true." She said in a low voice. "Rainbow Dash... she doesn't approve of mareosexual relationships."

"What's mare-o-" Sweetie Belle began, she was interrupted by Applebloom.

"It's fancy talk for Gay." She said in a matter-of-fact voice. "It's when two lady ponies are in love with each other."

"Oh." Sweetie nodded. "So what is it when it's two boy ponies?"

"Stalliosexual." Applebloom said.

"What are you, an encyclopedia?" Scootaloo said with an annoyed grunt. "I can't believe Rainbow Dash has a problem with two ponies being in love just because they're both mares." She shook her head slowly in disbelief. "Are you sure?" She looked at Twilight, who simply nodded slightly.

"She said some very hurtful things. There was no mistaking that she didn't approve of our relationship."

"But that's awful." Scootaloo said, shocked. She hung her head. "I always thought she was cool."

"I'm sorry Scootaloo." Twilight said. She placed a hoof on the filly's head.

"Thanks." Scootalo said, still obviously disappointed. "Come on Crusaders. Let's go think up new ways to earn our cutie marks." She said without any enthusiasm. They walked off slowly. Twilight watched, her face long and solemn. All Scootaloo ever wanted to be was like Rainbow Dash. It was a terrible thing to have ones dreams damaged, especially at such a young age.

...***...

The bell above the shop door rang sweetly as Twilight entered Bonbon's candy store. There was the creamy smell of freshly made toffee hanging in the air and soft music came from the blue mare with a musical instrument cutie mark sitting behind the counter.

"Good morning Lyra."

"Good morning Twilight." Lyra said without looking up from her instrument. As well as playing the lyre she was using her unicorn magic to lift a quill to write down lines of music on a sheet of parchment.

From the back room of the store came Bonbon, a cream coloured mare with a cutie mark of three sweets in blue and yellow wrappers, dressed in an apron that was covered with a light dusting of powdered sugar. She smiled sweetly. "Hello Twilight. And may I add, congratulations."

"Congra-?" Twilight began, but spotted the corner of a piece of pink paper sticking out of Bonbon's apron. "Oh, yes. You got an invitation too."

"I think everypony did." Bonbon said. "We saw Pinkie running around this morning with the poor mailmare Derpy. They were rushed off their hooves to get to everypony in town. Right Lyra?"

"Hmmm." Lyra said non-committally. She was too absorbed writing down her latest composition.

Bonbon just shook her head and smiled. "So what can I get for you today?" She asked Twilight, her smile turned to joking amusement for second. "I just made a new batch of apple bon-bons if you'd like." She laughed lightly and held up a jar of small toffee balls coated in green powdered sugar. "But I hear you've been getting quite your fill of apples lately." Twilight managed a smile, then a light giggle. She had no idea Bonbon had this kind of saucy side.

She found it a shame to ruin the mood. "Actually, its kind of related to that. I didn't come to buy anything but I wanted to ask the two of you about...Rainbow Dash."

Lyra flinched on her stool, her lyre screeched out a bum note as one string broke. The hovering quill fell slowly to the floor. The two mares looked at Twilight with expressions of shock, then sadness.
"Come through." Bonbon said, pushing up a hatch on the counter so Twilight could step through into the back room. Lyra used her unicorn magic to flip the sign on the door to CLOSED before hopping off her stool and following on after Twilight and Bonbon.

The back room of the store was a combination of a large living room and open kitchen. The kitchen was slightly messy, still baring some of the signs of Bonbon's sweet cooking, a dusting of flour here and a few spots of toffee there. The living room was clearly more of Lyra's domain. Several sheets of parchment filled musical notes were lying in a heap on the coffee table along with several pots of ink and many quills that had been used until blunt. Many more balls of screwed up parchment had been left over the floor, kicked under the large, soft looking, sofa or into the general area around an empty waste paper basket. Many pictures of Bonbon and Lyra decorated the walls and there was a gramophone music player by the far wall, close to the stairs so the music would fill the whole house.

"Take a seat." Bonbon offered. "I'll make some tea."

Twilight nodded and sat on the sofa. Lyra placed her beloved instrument on the coffee table and started to remove the broken string with her magic. Twilight had a dozen questions already and was thinking up more. But she was a guest in their home and would wait until the two of them were ready to speak with her.

After a couple of minutes Bonbon brought in the tray of tea and Lyra rushed to clear a space on the table. "Sugar?" Bonbon asked. Twilight smiled and shook her head.

"Just a spot of milk please." She replied courteously. Bonbon poured the tea and Twilight took it in her magic. Lyra took hers black with a slice of lemon while Bonbon placed two sugars and a lot of milk into hers. There was a silence that would have been uncomfortable if the three of them weren't pretending that they were only quiet to take sips of their drinks.

"About Rainbow." Twilight said finally. Lyra flinched again while Bonbon looked like the sugar in her tea had really been salt.

"Yes." Bonbon said at last. She sounded nervous. She pulled the pink invitation out of the pocket of her apron and rested it on the table. "After these things Pinkie wrote, I guess Rainbow Dash didn't take the news of your relationship with Applejack too well."

"That's putting it mildly." Twilight said glumly. "And...well, based upon your reactions to her name, I suppose she hasn't been too...neighbourly to the two of you."

Lyra, never one to be shy, now looked like she wanted to be anywhere else in Equestria except for in this room and having this conversation. "She's...not as bad as she used to be." She said in a low voice.

Twilight's eyes widened. "'As bad'.'Used to be?'"

Bonbon nodded. "I suppose when she figured out we weren't going to break up, or move away, she lost some of her enthusiasm." She said in a low voice. "But she still throws some dirty looks our way sometimes. Then there's little things, some hate mail, and during last winter, when we had that heavy snow, ours was the only house with ice on the step. Lyra twisted her hoof badly in that fall."

"Nothing we can pin on Rainbow Dash." Lyra spoke up. "But we can't think it would be anypony else."

"But how did it all start?" Twilight asked. "When and why?"

Lyra shook her head. "Why is obvious. Rainbow hates Mareosexuals." She shuffled on the floor to sit closer to Bonbon. The mare nuzzled her cheek against her partners for a few seconds.

Bonbon was the one to continue. "When; it was shortly after we moved in together. Probably around the time the gossip stopped saying we were just room mares and confirmed we were a couple. As to how, Rainbow just burst into my store and started yelling terrible..." She stopped for a second as the painful memories were brought up fresh into her mind. "terrible insults. Saying no pony wanted any...any tail-licker perverts, in Ponyville. How disgusting...how filthy we were..." She had to stop and Twilight would have asked her to in another second. It was clearly upsetting the two of them too much.

"Girls. I'm so sorry. If I'd known-" She stopped, unable to know what to say next. What would she have done? Not be friends with Rainbow Dash? What good would that have done to ease Bonbon and Lyra's pain. It wouldn't have stopped what Rainbow Dash had done to them.

"No one knew." Lyra said. She wrapped her foreleg around Bonbon, rubbing her mane to comfort her. "She was always careful. Around everypony else she was the same Rainbow Dash you thought you knew. We weren't surprised when you became friends with her and we didn't blame you for it. We didn't blame anypony for being her friend, because nopony knew what she was really like."

"But still-" Twilight said apologetically.

Bonbon managed to recover herself slightly and nodded her head to Twilight "After a few months she started losing interest. She’s almost stopped sending mail, and she has stopped insulting us when no one else is around. She still throws dirty looks our way but that’s tolerable compared the things she said. She never comes into the store, so we hardly see her. In public we just avoid her and she seemed fine with staying out of our way."

Lyra took over the conversation at this point. "Actually, since she became friends with you and the other element bearers she's been so busy with all those strange adventures she seems to keep having with you she's practically forgotten about us."

"Practically." Bonbon muttered. "During the last winter wrap up a lot of snow mysteriously ended up falling down our chimney."

"But how could you stand this?" Twilight boggled. "How could you put up with it for so long? Why didn't you tell anypony?"

"We didn't think anypony would believe us." Lyra admitted flatly. "And we wouldn't leave. We wouldn't let her chase us away because, Dash aside, we loved it here. Everypony is nice to us, we have good friends, Bonbon has a popular store and I get lots of time to play and write my music. This is our home and one pony won't chase us away from a good thing."

"Oh girls." Twilight jumped off the sofa and trotted across the room to them. "I'm so sorry for what she did to you. I'm sorry she hurt you."

Bonbon turned and hugged her tightly. "It's not your fault Twilight. We can't ever blame you." She pulled back slightly and looked at Twilight with a serious look. "Just take our as a warning. Rainbow Dash hates Mares together. She'll try and upset you. She'll try and drive you and Applejack apart. But you have to remember all the good things. You'll have each other, you'll have all your friends, you'll have the whole of Ponyville on your side. Don't let her get to you and don't let her try and ruin all the good things about this place. Your love is stronger than her hate."

To Be Continued.

Authors Note: I know this might seem like a large departure in character for Rainbow Dash, but trust me, it all pays off in the end.