Applejack had calmed down as she had begun to clean up.  As infuriating as Dash could sometimes be, Applejack was sure that she wouldn't let her down.  The apple family would need help getting the farm in running condition again and replanting enough of the trees that hadn't been destroyed to have a decent harvest.  She hadn't expected to see Dash again so soon.

There was the soft thud of a rushed landing.  "Hey AJ, what the hay happened here?  What crashed over there?"

"Rainbow... yer kiddin' me right?  You..." Applejack stopped herself.  She could feel a powerful anger building inside her.  She had every right to be upset at the cyan pegasus for what she had done, but then to come back and act like nothing had happened... it was enough to make her want to do something she'd regret.  She glared daggers at Dash for what seemed to be an eternity as Dash slowly shrunk back and looked hurt.  What was going on here?  It was like nothing HAD happened.  There was nothing in her eyes but innocence.  She came to check on her friend and was asking questions about the scene in front of her.

"Rainbow ah... ah think you'd better go."  Even if Rainbow Dash was completely innocent, Applejack couldn't fully suppress her anger.  This was all Dash's fault, and she couldn't even get any answers out of her.  Especially not now that she seemed to have forgotten the whole incident.

---------------------------------------------------

"Where's Spike?"  Dash asked, looking around for any sign of the baby dragon and seeing nothing but books.

"He's over at Sugarcube Corner helping Pinkie with some kind of secret project."

"Oh, okay.  Cool then.  So it's just you and me here?"

"I'm pretty sure.  So now, what exactly is so important that it couldn't wait for just a few minutes?  And why in the wide world of Equestria couldn't you tell Applejack about it?"

Dash let out a long sigh.  "Okay Twilight, I need you to stay calm and listen to me.  I know I'm not the element of honesty, but I swear what I'm about to tell you is true and I need you to believe me.  I ALSO need you to keep everything I'm about to say a secret, and I know you'll understand why.  Are you ready for this?"

Twilight sat still, remembering the last time she tried to keep a secret and how that turned out.  This seemed a lot more important.  The purple pony put on a very serious face and stood up straight.  "Okay.  I'm ready."

"Twilight, I am the fastest flier in Equestria.  I know I can be a little smug about it, but it really is true.  It's also true that you are the smartest pony I've ever met, and the princesses aside you've got the most powerful magic I've ever heard of.  Working together, we did the impossible."

"Dash I'm getting really confused here.  What did we do?  Teleport from Sweet Apple Acres to here?  That's not all that impressive.  I mean I guess it kinda is, most unicorns probably couldn't manage it, but it's far from impossible and doesn't require you to contribute at all."

"No, Twilight, not the teleport just now.  Before that... er... AFTER that I guess."  She paused and took a deep breath.  "Twilight... I'm from the future.  Using your crazy egghead powers and awesome magic, and my even MORE awesome speed, we were able to send me back in time."

"W w... what?" Twilight managed to stammer.

"I know, it's crazy.  I can hardly believe it myself.  But after getting a good look at Applejack I'm sure of it.  And you told me that as soon as you understood that, you'd understand why we can't tell people about this.  Disrupting the space lime continue or whatever.  If we change the past, it wrecks the future."

The gears were visibly turning in Twilight's head.  "Okay.  So that leaves a very important question.  Why did you come back at all?"

This time it was Dash's turn to slip into thought.  "Because I had to, because I already did.  If I try to understand or explain it any better than that I'm going to hurt myself trying.  You're the egghead."

There was a very long silence before the spark of understanding flashed across Twilight's eyes.  "You came back... because you came back?"  Dash nodded.  "So what's happening right now happened.  And then later once I had worked out the details of what makes time travel possible, I knew I had to send you back in time so that you could talk to me about it, so that I could start thinking about time travel, so that I could send you back, so that you could show up and give me the idea in the first place?"

Rainbow Dash stood still, looking confused.  "Um... yes?"

"So we caused a stable time loop, and I suppose I'm worried that disrupting it might cause some sort of paradox.  I have to develop time travel and send you back to close the loop.  And we had to get away from Sweet Apple Acres, because YOU were about to show up there wondering what just happened and you didn't meet yourself when YOU went there."

"Um... also yes?"

Suddenly realizing that she was about to invent TIME TRAVEL, Twilight Sparkle lost herself in a fit of giggling and hopping and glee.