# A Delicate Balance

## by JapaneseTeeth

### Confined Love

No. No. This isn't how things are supposed to happen. I was supposed to get some kind of closure! I didn't work up the nerve to tell her everything just to end up even more uncertain! I thought that I'd finally be able to find out exactly where I stand with her. Ugh, I don't know if I can take much more of this. Though, I guess it really is unfair to expect her to give me a straight answer that quickly. Especially after I took so long to work through everything. Still, I just wish I knew something.

Who e'er rigg'd fair ships to lie in harbours,

And not to seek lands, or not to deal with all?

Or built fair houses, set trees, and arbours,

Only to lock up, or else to let them fall?

—Confined Love,

John Donne

Rarity furrowed her brow with such intensity that if she were aware of her own expression, she would have worried that the furrows might become permanent. “Pinkie, for the last time, we are not throwing a 'Congratulations On Telling Applejack Your Feelings' party!” She telekinetically snatched the rolls of streamers from Pinkie's grasp and tossed them up to Rainbow Dash, who hovered near one of the library’s high windows, keeping an eye on the road for any sign of Twilight.

“Aww, why not?” Pinkie plopped down, crossed her forelegs, and began to sulk. “I could totally get everything together in like ten minutes. I even have an extra cake we could use!”

“We cannot have the party because we do not know if the situation merits it. Think for a moment, Pinkie. What happens if Applejack doesn't give Twilight a favorable response? Do you really think she would feel at all happy if she were rejected and came home to a giant 'Congratulations' banner? Her poor head would explode.”

“Oh, right.” Pinkie scratched her head for a moment, like she saw smart ponies doing when they were deep in thought. “Well, if it didn't go well, a party would be a totally awesome way to cheer her up!” She stood and began bouncing up, trying to grab her party implements out of Rainbow Dash's grasp. “I could make a cake that says 'Condolences' and everything.”

Rarity sighed. “Pinkie, you're completely missing the point. If Twilight gets turned down, she isn't going to feel like partying. If anything she'll probably send us out and go back to moping.”

“Why are we even here if she's just going to kick us out anyway?”

“Because if the worst happens, she'll need the support. I told her that I would be there for her if she needed it, and I intend on following through.”

Pinkie snorted. “I still think that we should have a party. She should be able to think about something fun!”

“You guys are such downers,” Rainbow Dash grumbled from her lookout post. “Maybe Applejack said 'Yes'.”

“Ooh! Can I have a party if they're a couple now?”

“I suppose.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “I doubt I'd be able to stop you in any case.”

“Great!” Pinkie rubbed her hooves together in anticipation. “If I go really fast I could totally put together a custom cake to celebrate the occasion. Let's see, it needs be appropriate for the occasion, so I can shape it like...like a book! A book with Applejack's hat sitting on top of it! Wouldn't that be just perfect!?”

“Yes, yes, it would be very nice,” Rarity admitted. “Do you really think you have the time to throw something like that together on such short notice?”

“I hate to break it to you guys, but I don't think it's gonna be a problem.” Pinkie and Rarity looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was hovering next to a high window. “Twilight's coming down the road,” the pegasus continued. “Looks like she's alone.”

Twilight's thoughts were disturbingly muddled. Applejack's answer (or non-answer, as the case happened to be) floated around in her head, turning everything it touched into a confused slurry. Some of that made sense; she didn't know whether to be happy or sad, depressed or relieved. It even extended to her body. She felt so light that her hooves barely tapped the ground as she trotted along, yet at the same time she felt as if she had swallowed a bowling ball. What really annoyed her was the way that the uncertainty was leeching out of the relevant part of her mind and messing everything else up. Was she hungry or tired? If she picked up a book, would she want a comedy or a historical epic? When tomorrow rolled around she got back to work on her studies, or work on piecing her schedule back together? No matter what question she asked, her brain refused to answer. It would take time for everything to settle.

She opened the library door and immediately found herself face to face with Pinkie Pie.

“Hey Twilight! Do you want a cupcake? I've got both chocolate and—”

Rarity nodded, and Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie's tail and towed her away. Rarity nervously approached Twilight, and tried her best to sound like she didn't already know the answer to the question she was asking. “So, how did things go with Applejack? I, uh, can't help but notice that she didn't accompany you back here...”

“It went...” Twilight searched the morass of thoughts in her head for an adequate word. “...alright.” She slumped onto a seat at the table, due to either fatigue or a need to steady herself. She wasn't sure which.

“Only 'alright'? I didn't realize that 'alright' was a potential result. I don't suppose you'd mind filling me in on Applejack's answer...You know, whether she was, ah, receptive to your proposal.”

“That's just it. She doesn't know.”

“She doesn't know!?” Rarity inhaled so sharply that she almost fell over. Behind her, both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash's eyes nearly exploded from their sockets. “How can she not know!? The entire reason you went over there was to tell her! You've been stressing about this for weeks! What happened? Did something else come up? Did you get cold hooves? I've got half a mind to drag you back out there myself and not budge until you take care of things!”

“Huh?” Twilight tilted her head, confused at her friends' confusion. Then something in her mind finally clicked. “Oh! No no no, that's not what I mean! I told her. I told her everything. What I meant was that she didn't know how to respond to it.”

“Oh. I see.” Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. “That makes so much more sense.”

“Don't scare me like that!” Pinkie glared at Twilight so hard that her eyes came halfway out of her face. “I thought that you had freaked out again and not told her, and then you'd be all depressed again and then I'd have to go get like a bazillion cupcakes to cheer you up and then you'd be happy for a little bit until the sugar wears off and then it would be even worse—”

Rarity cleared her throat and Rainbow Dash once again dragged Pinkie out of the way before landing next to Twilight. “So, what did Applejack say? It couldn't have been that bad.”

“Well, the first thing she told me was that we would still be friends. She wasn't angry about it or anything.” Twilight massaged her temples, trying to stave off the inevitable headache. “But when I asked if she'd...you know, she just said that it was too much for her and she needed some time to think about it. It's so frustrating that I didn't get an answer, but I can't be mad at her for that. I mean, it took me weeks to figure out how I felt. I can't blame her for not being able to get her feelings out so quickly. It's not quite the answer I was hoping for, but at least I know she doesn't hate me now.”

“Obviously that's not the answer you wanted.” Rainbow Dash chuckled and ruffled Twilight's hair. “What was the answer you wanted?” She affected an exaggerated drawl. “'Oh, Twilight, Ah thought you'd never ask! Ah've dreamed of this day ever since ah met yah!'”

Twilight glowered. “It would've been nice, yes.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head and put a foreleg around Twilight's shoulders. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but this is real life, not one of those books Rarity is always reading.”

“Hey!” It was Rarity's turn to glower. Rainbow Dash ignored her.

“But seriously, at least she didn't say 'No'. You've still got a chance, right?”

“I guess so...” She sighed. “But there's still a chance that she might turn me down, too. Even if we are still friends, it just won't be the same.”

“Twilight, dear...” Rarity pried Rainbow Dash's leg from around the purple unicorn. “Things have already been different between you ever since you realized that you had feelings for her. In fact, things were probably starting to change before you were even aware of them. But you know as well as I do that change doesn't have to be a bad thing. Even if she doesn't share your romantic inclinations, I'm sure things will be fine between the two of you.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie chimed in. “Besides, the way that you're friends with other ponies changes all the time anyway. It would be totally boring if it didn't! I mean, look at us, even. You told us how you felt about Applejack, and now we're all helping you out with it. It's almost like we're even better friends now!”

“Thanks.” Twilight smiled. “It's just that I thought I'd have the answers I needed by now. I guess it's not that simple.”

“Romance is never simple, Twilight,” Rarity said with a chuckle. “Rainbow Dash was right about that, at least. Life isn't as simple as a book, after all. You can never really know how things are going to turn out.”

“Which is why you just gotta go for it!” Pinkie punched the air for emphasis. “Although I guess you kinda already did. Well, that just means you can just relax now, right?”

“Relax?” Twilight spoke as if she didn't recognize the word.

“Yeah, Twilight. Relax.” Rainbow Dash patted her on the head. “You already did everything that you could do. Chill out a bit.”

“But I don't know what I'm supposed to do...”

“That's exactly it, Twilight,” Rarity said. “You don't have to do anything. The matter is on Applejack’s hooves now. All you can do now is wait for her answer and trust her to do what's best for the both of you. You've been so high-strung for the past few weeks that you deserve to not have to worry about any of that. Make yourself some tea, curl up in bed, read a nice book, and try to push this whole matter as far out of your mind as possible. It's Applejack's turn to do the thinking. As for us...” She nodded at Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. “We should probably get going. Now that we know everything went well, there isn't really anything for us to do here except help you second-guess yourself, and that's the last thing you need.”

Twilight nodded. “You're right. This is something I should try to handle myself anyway.” She watched her friends head out the door, or in Pinkie's case, get shoved in the general direction by the other two. “And before you go, I just want to thank you all again for helping me get through all of this. I don't know if I'd have been able to do it without you.”

“You're welcome, Twilight,” Rarity said with a nod. “Get a good night's sleep tonight, okay?”

“Okay.” Twilight returned the nod. “Goodnight.”

Applejack crept slowly up the stairs, the chocolate box between her teeth. The last thing she needed was for the prying eyes of her family to focus on it and start asking questions. She couldn't lie to them, obviously. Even if she wanted to, she doubted that she possessed the capacity. That and she couldn't explain anything to them until she had some vague idea of her own feelings.

She stopped at the top of the stairs and took a quick stock of her family's surroundings. The light outside told her that Big Macintosh was still out closing up the barn, and the sound of running water in the bathroom told her that Apple Bloom was brushing her teeth. That just left Granny, and out of all her family members, Applejack was least apprehensive about telling her, mainly because she probably wouldn't remember any of it by morning. She made a break for her room, and made it.

She deposited the chocolates in her dresser drawer and tried to push the issue from her mind. She had other responsibilities at the moment, like getting her sister to actually go to bed on time. Applejack emerged from her room just as Apple Bloom exited the bathroom.

“You all cleaned up, Apple Bloom?”

The filly nodded. “Yup.”

“Brush your teeth?”

Apple Bloom responded by exhaling a minty fresh breath at Applejack's face.

“Use the little filly's room?”

“Yup.”

“Alright, time to hop in bed then.” Applejack shooed her sister towards her room and almost mechanically began to tuck her in. “You have a good day today? You didn't give anypony love poison this year, did you?”

“Nope, I learned my lesson. No way am I tryin' to set up anypony again. That don't end well. We just made another card for Miss Cheerilee and left it at that.”

“Well, I'm sure she appreciated you guys not tryin' to set her up with anypony.” Applejack chuckled as she finished fluffing Apple Bloom's pillow. “Big Macintosh probably does too.”

“Yeah, Cutie Mark Crusaders Matchmakers didn't really work out.” Apple Bloom snuggled against her blanket. “We should leave that stuff for grown-up ponies like you.”

“Like me!?” Applejack's face suddenly felt uncomfortably warm. The thought crossed her mind that maybe Apple Bloom knew more than she let on. “Why would you think I know anything about all of that?”

“I dunno.” Apple Bloom shrugged. “I just figured that when you get older you know more about it.”

“Yeah, it's not that simple. I don't know much more about it than you do. I ain't got any”—she stopped herself—“I ain't got much experience with those kinds of things.”

“Why not?”

Applejack chuckled. “Even if I thought I could come up with a decent answer to that, it'd take so long to explain it that you'd be up past your bedtime. Now it's time for you to go to sleep.” She leaned over and gave her sister a kiss on the forehead. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Applejack ambled downstairs and cycled through her evening ritual. Put away the dishes, check to make sure the windows were closed, make sure Granny Smith hadn't wandered out of the house, sweep the kitchen, and all the other usual end-of-the-day chores. She was in the middle of wiping the table off when Big Macintosh returned.

“Hey, Big Mac. You have a good day today?”

“Eeyup.”

“No love poison this time around?”

“Nope. Got a couple more cards, though.”

“Well, obviously. You've probably got cards from like half the mares in town by now.” As far as she knew, it wasn't an exaggeration. Her brother had gotten dozens of cards over the years. It was almost a pity that he was too cripplingly shy to even consider giving a response beyond a nervous nod and a courteous word of thanks. Sure, after last year's debacle, she had caught him hanging around Cheerilee a few times —she had even seen them going out for lunch once— but even that seemed an uphill battle for him. Applejack bit her lip as she watched him wipe his hooves on the mat, wondering if she should ask the question that was nibbling at the back of her head. “I guess you aren't, uh, following up on any of them?”

“Nope.”

“Um, if you don't mind me asking...” She tried to keep her face from flushing, even though she knew he probably wouldn't notice anyway. “...why don't you? I mean, I'm sure you've gotten some attention from some really nice mares. How do you know that you don't want to, uh, pursue any of them?”

“I dunno.” He stared off into space for a moment. Applejack wondered if he was really in as deep in thought as he looked like he was. “I guess it's mainly that I don't know them very well.”

“So if you knew them better, you might want to go out with them?”

He nodded. “I'd want a very special somepony that I could be friends with. What's the point of it if you don't enjoy spending time with them?”

“Ah, I see.” She decided not to press the matter. She felt lucky to get that much out of him, and if she followed up he might suspect something. “Thanks. I think I'll be headin' to bed now. Goodnight.”

She returned to her room, closed the door silently behind her, and opened the drawer. The box of chocolates was still there, staring up at her, daring her to open it up. For the first time, she noticed the card bound to the box by the ribbons that held it shut. She swallowed as she slid it out. It was a Hearts and Hooves Day card; doubtlessly it had come with the chocolates. There were no words on it, just a stylized image of two ponies nuzzling inside a large, red heart. She took a deep breath and opened it up. Her throat tightened as she read the words Twilight had written in it.

“For my friend.”

She held the card against her chest for a moment before placing it gently back into the drawer. Whatever she and Twilight were now, they were still friends. She'd have to remember that. For tonight, that was enough. This matter was too important to make at the end of a long day, and if she wanted to give Twilight a meaningful answer, she'd need to sleep on it.

She glanced back into the drawer. One chocolate before bed couldn't hurt.

Twilight knew from many long, arduous experiences that the harder she tried to not think about something, the harder it became to think about anything else. Tonight was no different. Not that she hadn't put up a valiant effort. She already knew that sleep was out of the question, but that hardly mattered. She had survived her fair share of late night study sessions, and this would be no different. It was just as well, really. She hated to admit it, but she hadn't exactly prioritized her studies over her new-found romantic pursuits and now had to play catch-up. If it served as a mental distraction, that was a nice bonus.

Unfortunately for her, it didn't last very long. Maybe the particular studies she had been neglecting were of under-average difficulty. Maybe her romantic difficulties were so trying that they made her schoolwork seem simple by comparison. Maybe her head was just too fatigued to realize the utter lack of effort that she was putting into it. Whatever the case, Twilight had somehow finished all of her work in record time and now she needed another distraction.

Maybe she could feed Owlowiscious. She checked his bowl. Full. Spike must have fed him already. Oh well, surely she could find other things to do. Like put that massive crate of How-To books she had ordered up on the shelves. Sure, they hadn't really helped her much, but maybe somepony else could use them. She telekinetically dragged the box out from behind the shelves where she had stashed it, and it slid out far easier than it should have. Spike had been quite industrious. A quick survey of the shelves confirmed it; everything was already in place. He had even taken the time to update the card catalog.

She glanced over to where he was sleep. If not for the risk of waking him up she'd have given him a kiss on the forehead, or at least ruffled his spines or something. She made a mental note to thank him for all of his hard work in the morning. Come to think of it, she should do something with him soon. Perhaps maybe take him out for lunch sometime and give him a nice big garnet or something as a reward for his hard work. Ever since that whole Applejack thing started, she felt like she had hardly talked to him.

She yawned. Fatigue was beginning to overtake the crazy swirls of random emotion that had ruled her brain for the past few hours. Without the stress keeping the cogs spinning, her thoughts were starting to grind to a halt. Even without some non-Applejack-related matter to keep her occupied, she'd probably nod off within the hour. Her bed was calling. She curled up as if giving herself a hug. As sleep claimed her, a final thought drifted through her head.

I wonder if Applejack is thinking of me right now. . .

Applejack had assumed that a good night's sleep would have given her a clear head with which to approach the Twilight situation. And it would have, if not for the fact that the whole “good night's sleep” thing had been an utter failure. She had gone to bed at the usual time, and spent the next three hours staring wide eyed at the ceiling, trying to think of anything but what Twilight had told her. It was, of course, an utterly futile effort.

Every time she closed her eyes she could only see Twilight's face. The unicorn's speech echoed in her ears, over and over. She must have listened to it a dozen times. It had grown more and more fractured and disjointed as she tried to force it out of her head and push herself into a dream. The phrases jumbled together, filtering themselves through her subconscious.

“Something was different about you. . . I think I'm in love with you. . . I didn't want to ruin our friendship. . . I want you to be my Very Special Somepony. . . It was starting to drive me crazy. . . I'm in love with you. . . I want you. . . I was so afraid of what you might say...”

Applejack very nearly screamed in frustration. In fact, she would have, if not for the presence of mind to remember that her family members were all sleeping in the adjacent rooms. She had settled for a prolonged groan into her pillow and a midnight (or more like three in the morning, but close enough) cup of tea. She could still scarcely believe it. A day ago, Twilight had simply been a friend. A friend who was having a bit of a stress-related freakout, but a friend nonetheless. Now everything was upside down.

She opened the drawer. The box of chocolates and card proved that everything had happened. She could still taste the caramel residue sticking to her teeth. She flipped the card open once again, and silently mouthed the words to herself.

“For my friend.”

She crawled back into bed.

That's right. She's still my friend. That won't change. I promised her that much.

She closed her eyes and finally drifted off to sleep.

Twilight awoke to two annoyances. The first was the sun. In her haste to get into bed, she had neglected to pull the curtains shut, and now a big, fat, sunbeam was focused right on her eyelids. The second was the sound of a distant rapping on the library door. She eased herself out of bed. The good news was that all the tension from the past few weeks was gone. The bad news was that all of her legs felt like jelly as a result. She looked at the clock. Then she blinked and looked again to make sure her eyes weren't lying. It had probably been years since she had slept that late. She shook the sleepiness out of her eyes and wobbled downstairs to find Pinkie engaged in a losing battle with her self-control over a large plate of cookies on the table.

“Good morning, Twilight!” She waved. “Spike let me in. You don't mind if I have some of these cookies, do you?”

“Of course not.”

“Awesome!” Pinkie scooped up half a dozen of them and shoveled them into her mouth. “Thmks!”

“So what brings you by this fine morn—, er, afternoon?”

Pinkie swallowed her mouthful and held up a large, pink box with far too many ribbons binding it shut. “I brought you some cupcakes! You know, to celebrate! Or console, maybe. I'm still not entirely sure whether what happened last night was good or bad. I kinda thought you'd be up for cupcakes either way.”

“Well, I might not have gotten the answer I had hoped for, but that was a long shot to begin with.” Twilight started gingerly untying one of the ribbons with her magic. “But I did manage to tell her, and as far as I can tell, she didn't react too badly, so I suppose we can say that it went well.”

“Then it's a celebration!” Pinkie pulled a large, multicolored chest out of her tail, and punched a large red button that sat on the front of the chest where the lock would normally be. The lid popped open, releasing an enormous explosion of confetti and a triumphant fanfare. Pinkie leaped to her hooves and began to bounce back and forth in time with the music, which cut off rather abruptly, leaving her dancing with no backup. “Aw...” She smacked the chest, which released a few more notes before going silent. “Guess I musta forgotten to wind it all the way before I brought it over here. Sorry about that. I wanted to do a full song, but I didn't have time to put one together.”

“No, no, that's quite alright.” Twilight chuckled. “I appreciate the effort. Can you help me open this?” She gestured at the cupcake box. “You kinda put a lot of stuff on it.”

“Sure, no problem!” Pinkie grabbed one of the yellow ribbons in her teeth and yanked it. Every other ribbon on the box spontaneously popped free. “There you go.”

“Thanks.” Twilight looked into the box and made a noise somewhere between a gasp, a laugh, and a groan. “Pinkie, isn't putting me and Applejack's cutie marks on the cupcakes going overboard a little?”

“Why? I thought it was fitting.”

Twilight opened her mouth to explain, but was distracted by Spike suddenly emerging from the kitchen, wearing his frilliest apron.

“Good morning, Twilight. Or afternoon now, I guess,” he said. “What was the deal with that music?”

“We're celebrating!” Pinkie waved him over. “Come have a cupcake!”

“Cool!” He scurried over to the box. “What are we celebrating?”

“We're celebrating the fact that Twilight finally told Applejack that she loves her!”

“Oh, okay, that sounds— wait, you what?” He froze mid-reach. His head slowly turned to face Twilight, the whites of his eyes twice as large as normal. “Y-you and Applejack?”

“Uh, yes...” Twilight flushed and chuckled nervously. “I kinda have a bit of a crush on her.”

“Yeah, and after weeks of freaking out about it, she finally got around to telling her last night!” Pinkie resumed her bouncing. “Isn't that great!?”

“That's why you were acting so weird!?” The dragon's face showed nothing but shock and a little bit of offense. “You were all worked up because of that!? Why wouldn't you tell me!?”

Twilight's awkward smirk shifted to clear discomfort. “You didn't know?”

“No, of course I didn't! I thought you were just worried about some sort of assignment or something. I can't believe you didn't tell me what was going on!” He snorted and stomped into the kitchen. A moment later, he reemerged, stomped over to the box, retrieved a cupcake, and returned to the kitchen.

“Spike, wait!” Twilight called after him, but was answered only by a door slam. “Ugh, I can't believe this.”

“Yeah, he took one of the vanilla cupcakes,” Pinkie observed. “I always pegged him as a chocolate guy.”

“Not that! I can't believe that I never told him. I thought he'd have figured it out or heard us talking about it or something.” She groaned. “Now I feel like an idiot again. I've totally been ignoring him. And he's been working so hard lately, too.”

“Sooooo, time for me to get going, then?” Pinkie asked with a sigh. “I'm guessing you're going to want to patch things up with him.”

“Yes, that would probably be best. He's totally right anyway. I left him out of the loop and I owe him an apology and an explanation. I'd like to get things smoothed out as soon as possible.”

“Alright, I guess I'll be on my way then.” Pinkie balanced the musical trunk on her back and headed for the door.

“See you later. Thanks for the cupcakes. You're right, I really needed a pick-me-up.”

“I thought so.” Pinkie said with a smile and a nod. “See you later!”

Applejack gave tree number forty-seven (also known as Stockton; all the trees had their own names, but Big Macintosh had always said that it made the paperwork neater to do it by number) a solid buck and watched the apples tumble into her baskets with a satisfying patter. At least something was going well today; if she kept this up she'd be done with this field within the hour and she could get a head start on tomorrow's work. But that was a cold comfort. As she towed the baskets from the tree and loaded them onto her cart, her thoughts were elsewhere. She wanted to give Twilight an answer, of course. Anything else would do her friend a great disservice. The problem was that she had no idea where to even begin.

She could hardly even remember the last time she had ever received any romantic attention. If she went back to her school days as a filly, she could recall a vague memory of somepony nervously offering her a Hearts and Hooves Day card before losing their nerves and scuttling away. Who it had been, she had no idea. She had been flattered, of course, but nothing else had come of it, and since then the most romantic pursuit she had made was deciding to give Rarity's book recommendations a try. The thought had crossed her mind that some day things would fall into place and she'd stumble across a nice stallion and raise the next generation of the Apple Family, but even then she wasn't exactly making an effort. Taking care of the farm kept her busy enough.

Applejack towed the apple cart to tree number forty-eight (also known as Bogart). This was why she enjoyed working the farm so much. There wasn't any problem that couldn't be solved with good, old-fashioned hard work. None of that annoying thinking stuff. At times it was almost cathartic. She channeled all her frustration into her back legs and kicked the tree as hard as she could manage. Once again the apples tumbled into their baskets. But this time, there was an additional noise: a surprised squeak. Applejack ambled around to the other side of the tree and suppressed a smirk. One of the baskets, instead of apples, contained Fluttershy.

“You okay, Fluttershy?” Applejack said, trying not to laugh.

“Yes, I'm just a bit startled is all.” The pegasus tried to extricate herself from the basket and failed. “I, uh, I seem to be stuck.”

“You sure do, sugarcube.” Applejack grabbed Fluttershy's forelegs and began to pull. “What were you doin' up in one of my trees anyway?”

“I was just checking on the birds and warning them not to build nests in the apple trees until after you harvested them all.” Fluttershy came free of the basket with a pop. “I didn't realize you'd started harvesting already.”

“Eh, it's alright. Just tell me next time, okay.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said with a nod. “So, uh, how are you doing today?”

“Honestly, I'm not quite sure.” She began to retrieve the apple baskets and drag them toward the cart.

“Why is that?” Fluttershy picked up the least full basket and hovered slowly behind Applejack.

“Well, it's— You know about that whole thing with Twilight, don't you?”

“Oh.” Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, I know all about that. So she finally told you?”

“Yeah, she came by last night and told me everything.” Applejack groaned as she poured a basket of apples into the cart. “Then she asked if I'd be her very special somepony.”

“Oh my.”

“'Oh my' is right. I have no idea what I'm gonna tell her.” Applejack finished depositing her basket and took a seat on the ground. “I mean, Twilight's a great friend and all, but I dunno if I'm ready for somethin' like that, especially with her.”

Fluttershy poured her own basket into the cart, watching the half-dozen apples roll into the pile. “Why don't you just tell her that you aren't ready then? I'm sure somepony like Twilight would understand.”

“That's just the thing.” Applejack took a seat on a soft-looking patch of grass. “I don't want to tell her 'No' when there's a chance that it might work. I mean, Twilight is a really nice, carin', and smart pony, and I really do enjoy spendin' time with her. I wasn't really payin' attention to it before when she was always comin' by, but lookin' back on it, it was really nice to have her around. She was always real helpful and it was just fun havin' her there, even if we were doin' stuff that's usually real borin'. My first thought when she asked was that it was crazy, but now that I think about, Twilight would actually make a pretty good marefriend, and I don't want to turn her down just cause I was surprised, you know?”

“I guess,” Fluttershy mumbled. “But if you don't think you're ready for that, maybe it's still best that you don't. I mean, you still can if you wanted to, of course, but it's a pretty big step, isn't it?”

“Yeah, it really is.” Applejack plucked an apple out of the cart and took a bite. “I like Twilight a whole lot, but I don't know if I want to make things all romantic just because she wants to for some reason. I'm still not even sure why all this happened. If she just suddenly got a crush on me outta nowhere, what would happen if we decide to do the whole couple thing and then her crush goes away? I don't think that'd be pleasant for either of us. I just wish I knew if it would work out. I'm real flattered that she likes me like that, but then again it just seems so out of nowhere. I mean, it's just like I can only think 'Why me and not somepony else?'

“We just don't have all that much in common or anything. I could understand it if she had a thing for, I dunno, Cheerilee. She's more into books and smart pony stuff like that. Twilight's one of the most intelligent ponies I know. I mean, she's Princess Celestia's personal student! Why on earth would she be interested in me, of all ponies?”

“I don't know.” Fluttershy shrugged. “Oh, um, not that I think you wouldn't make a great marefriend or anything. I just, uh...I understand what you mean.”

“It's okay, I know what you meant.” Applejack said with a smirk. “This whole thing is so complicated it's drivin' me nuts. Twilight's a great pony and I'm really kinda honored that she'd want me to be her very special somepony, but I just don't know if we're all that compatible in that way.”

“Well, in that case, maybe it's good that you're taking it slow. You wouldn't want to get yourself caught up in something that might end up hurting both of you.”

“I know that, but at the same time I don't want to miss out on something that could be really great just cause it caught me off-guard.” She sighed. “I wish I could just take some more time to think about it, but I don't want to leave Twilight hangin' just because I can't make up my mind. Especially after everything she's been through already.” She stood up and tossed the apple core over her shoulder. “Oh well, I guess I still got a bit of time to give it some thought. I should probably get back to work anyway. Just because I got stuff to think about doesn't mean I can slack off.”

“Yes, I should probably go back to checking on the birds as well.” Fluttershy took to the air. “Are you going to be over in that field?” She pointed. “I wouldn't want to get in your way again.”

“Nope, that one isn't gonna get harvested until next week. You sure you don't wanna finish up this field first? I'd hate to knock any of your feathered friends out of the trees.”

“No, I was almost finished with this field anyway, and there didn't seem to be any birds, so you shouldn't have to worry about that, at least.” She fluttered over to Applejack and patted her on the head. “Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do the right thing.”

“Thanks.” Applejack adjusted her hat, and headed for tree number forty-nine.

“Really? I can order anything I want?” Spike's mouth watered as he stared at the menu in his claws.

“Anything you want,” Twilight answered. “Consider it part of my apology for neglecting you for the past few weeks.”

“Alright!” He grinned and flipped right to the dessert section and motioned for the waiter. “I'd like the Super Size Banana-Split Sundae. Go heavy on all the toppings, especially the fudge. You wouldn't happen to have crushed spinels, do you?”

“I'm afraid not,” the waiter answered.

“Eh, just as well. I brought some topaz bits along just in case.” He handed the pony his menu. “Thanks.”

The waiter turned his attention to Twilight. “And you, miss?”

“I'll just have a daisy sandwich and water. That's all.”

The waiter nodded and headed back inside.

“But really Spike, I'm so sorry for not telling you earlier. I was so worried about that whole thing with Applejack that I've been ignoring you. You've been working so hard lately, and I haven't been paying any attention. I just wanted you to know that I really do appreciate all the hard work you've been putting in at the library. And while I’m at it, I’m sorry that we couldn’t go out to lunch yesterday. I was just still trying to get my thoughts in order.”

“Don't worry about it.” Spike waved a dismissive claw. “I do feel a bit left out because you told, well, pretty much all of your friends about it and didn't even think about mentioning it to me, but I guess it's okay. I mean, I knew you were really freaked out about something, I just didn't know exactly what it was. And honestly, you don't exactly handle stress all that well, so it doesn't really surprise me that you weren't thinking all that clearly about it. After what happened last time, I think if all you did was ignore me a bit, I think you did alright. So apology accepted.”

“Thanks.” Twilight sighed in relief. “After everything that's happened, if you got mad at me I don't know what I'd do.”

“Don't worry about it.” Spike cleared his throat. “But really, you and Applejack? I don't think I'd ever have seen that one coming. There are a couple other ponies I would have thought you'd be more interested in. Like, uh, let's see—”

“Let me guess, Cheerilee?”

“Well, I was going to say the Mayor, but yeah, Cheerilee makes even more sense. Hmmmm...” He stroked his chin for a moment. “So if you and Applejack start going out, does that mean you'll get a discount on Sweet Apple Acres' baked goods? Because they have this really awesome pie that—”

“Spike!” Twilight glared at him.

“What?” Spike held up his hands. “I'm just trying to look on the bright side. If you two are a thing now, doesn't it mean that you're going to be hanging around the farm a lot? I just want to figure out how this is going to affect me.”

“I really haven't thought that far ahead.” Twilight rested her chin on her forelegs. “I don't even know if we'll even be a couple. All I did was tell her how I felt, and now it's up to her to decide what happens now.”

“Do you have any idea when she was going to get back to you on that?”

“No, unfortunately.” Twilight sighed. “I kinda wish I had asked her about that, but I figured she had enough on her mind already. At first I thought she would have gotten back to me yesterday, but I guess she needed some more time.”

“Well, that stinks. At least you're doing pretty well.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Twilight narrowed her eyes.

“I'm just saying that it's gotta be pretty stressful to be in your situation, you know? Just putting yourself out there and not knowing when Applejack's actually going to give you an answer, having to sit by and do nothing with your entire friendship on the line, not knowing when you'll even be able to talk to her again, having that uncertainty hanging over your head all the— awesome, my ice cream is here!” Spike licked his lips as the waiter set an enormous bowl on the table, filled with a pile of ice cream as big as his head.

“Yeah...” Twilight mumbled to herself. “I've been trying not to think about that.”

“And for you, miss.” Twilight didn't even notice her sandwich being placed on the table.

“Oh, come on, Twilight.” Spike's voice was muffled by the copious amounts of ice cream in his mouth. “It's not that bad. Applejack isn't the type of pony to keep you waiting for too long. Oh, almost forgot the topaz.”

Twilight tried to focus on her sandwich. Anything to keep the doubts from creeping back into her head. She had been doing pretty well at having a normal day thus far, and she would fight to keep it that way. At least she had smoothed things over with Spike. That had to count for something. She forced herself to take a bite. It was surprisingly tasty. Maybe things would be alright. She just had to make sure the pressure didn't get to her. At the moment, she had nothing to worry about. The sun was out, the air was warm, the breeze was cool, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was too nice to fret over anything. Twilight let her gaze wander into the street and recognized a familiar face.

“Hey, Rarity!” Twilight waved.

“Oh, hello, Twilight!” Rarity bounded over to the table and took a seat in one of the extra chairs. “How are you doing, dear? Are you feeling alright?”

“I'm doing a bit better than I thought I would be. I managed to get through yesterday, I actually got a good night's sleep last night, and I haven't had a nervous breakdown yet.”

“Well, good for you,” Rarity said, half-seriously. “I know it can't be easy for you.”

“It isn't, but it's a different kind of difficult, I guess. It's really frustrating to have gone through all that trouble to confess to her and then not get an answer. I just feel so powerless. It's like I feel like I should be doing something, but there's nothing I can do.”

“That's just the nature of relationships, I suppose. It was inevitable that at some point the weight of it would be on Applejack's shoulders. This is between the both of you after all.”

“I know, I just wish that I could get it all over with. I can only keep my composure for so long. I mean, what if she takes as long as I did to figure everything out? Even if she goes twice as fast, that's like two whole weeks without any answer! And it's not like I'll be able to talk to her or anything in the meantime. I don't know if I could go for that long without being able to talk to her. And it's not like we could all go out as a group or anything either. Like when we have our next Pony Pet Playdate it'll be even more awkward than it's already been! How on earth are we even supposed to talk to each other with this hanging over our heads. I mean, it’s already been a whole day and a half! Maybe I should just go back over there and—”

“No, bad Twilight!” Rarity gave Twilight a playful rap on the forehead. “Stop that. I realize it must be infuriating, but one day is not all that long. You know as well as I do that Applejack fully intends to give you an answer as soon as she thinks she can. You trust her to give you an honest answer, don't you?”

Twilight rubbed the spot on her head where Rarity had bonked her. “Yes, yes, you're right. She promised that she’d give me the best answer she could. I just wish I could do something other than wait. It's like waiting to get your grade on a test back. You know there's nothing else you can do, but you can't help but worry about it.”

“Well, in that case, the only thing you can do is try to direct your attention elsewhere.”

“I know; I've been trying my best, but I'm running out of stuff to keep myself occupied. I spent yesterday cleaning the library and teaching myself how to make a souffle, but I can only make so many of them before it starts to get boring.”

“I see.” Rarity tapped her chin with her hoof. “Why don't you come by my boutique and help me out? I'm working on some new designs, and you could model them for me. Dressforms are all well and good, but it's always better to have a real pony try them on. Then I can see how the fabric flows when you walk and such. There's nothing more frustrating than creating a beautiful design only to realize that when somepony is actually wearing it makes them look like a frog when they walk. Well, aside from my sister visiting the shop, but she's in school at the moment and will probably busy with homework all afternoon. In any case, it's always nice to have somepony else's opinion on the design.”

“I don't know.” Twilight scratched her head. “I don't really have that much fashion sense, you know. I don't know if I'd really be all that helpful.”

“That's not the point, Twilight.” Rarity shook her head and chuckled at her friend's obliviousness. “I just want to give you something to do while you wait. I know what I'm doing; if you give me bad advice I can just ignore it. Maybe I could even teach you a thing or two about dresses. If you don't have any fashion sense, I'll have to give you some.” She turned her attention to Spike, whose face was buried in the ice cream bowl, slurping up the melted remnants of his sundae. “Spike, would you like to come with us?”

He withdrew his face from the bowl and whipped his tongue out, licking up the layer of ice cream that coated his face. “Of course, Rarity! I can be your pincushion any day!”

“It's settled, then!” Rarity clapped her hooves together. “As soon as you two finish your lunch, you can meet me at the boutique and we'll get started.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Twilight said. “I'll see you there.” With a smile, she turned back to her sandwich.

“Alright, Apple Bloom. What's the first thing you do when you're preparin' to buck a tree?”

“Ummmmm...” The filly's face contorted as she tried to make herself look deep in thought. “Oh, I know! You kick it! Like really hard!”

“Nope!” Applejack shook her head. “First thing you do is check your list to make sure you're buckin' the right trees.” She pointed at a checklist hanging from the side of the apple cart. “If you're not in the right field, the apples might not be ready yet. And if they're not ready yet, we can't use 'em for anything.”

“Okay, check to make sure you're in the right field, got it!”

“Good.” Applejack nodded. “What's the next step?”

“You kick the tree really hard!”

“Oh, really?” Applejack shook her head. “Tell me, what would happen if you went and bucked that tree right there?”

“All the apples would fall down, of course!” Apple Bloom said, her voice thick with incredulity that her sister would ask her something so obvious.

“And where would they land?”

“Duh! They'd land in the—” Apple Bloom thrust a hoof at the foot of the tree, and promptly noticed that there was nothing there but dirt there. “Oh. Baskets. Right.”

“Yup. You gotta remember to put the baskets out, or you'll end up wasting a bunch of time pickin' up all the apples.” She gave Apple Bloom a gentle shove in the direction of the cart. “Now go get the baskets.”

“Right away!” Apple Bloom hustled over to the tree and began arranging the baskets between the roots.

“Good job spacing the baskets,” Applejack said. “Gotta make sure that you can catch all the apples. You know what to do now?”

“Do I get to kick the tree?”

“Get buckin'!”

“Awesome! Watch this, sis! You won't ever see anypony else buck a tree this well!” Apple Bloom rushed at the tree. As she approached she planted her front hooves in the dirt skidding to a stop just short of the tree, swinging her body around. With a loud grunt, she drove both hind legs into the trunk. The tree shuddered slightly, and released perhaps half a dozen apples, one of which landed square on the top of Apple Bloom's head. “Ouch!” She rubbed the sore spot. “Well, that didn't go quite like I wanted.”

“You made a great effort,” Applejack said with a chuckle. “You're still just a filly. One you get a bit bigger you'll be knockin' apples all over the place.”

“I doubt it,” Apple Bloom snorted. “I was practicin' all day yesterday and it didn't do anything. Maybe I'm just not good at applebucking.”

“Well, this is the first year you're really tryin' it, after all.” Applejack patted her sister on the head. “Nopony gets it right away. You shoulda seen me the first time I tried applebuckin'. I'm pretty sure I missed the tree altogether.”

“Really? You used to be bad at it?”

“I wouldn't say bad. I'd just never done it before. When you're tryin' something new you can't expect to get it totally right. You just gotta be willin' to learn when you mess up rather than givin' up.”

“Did Big Macintosh have a tough time learnin' to applebuck?”

Applejack smiled. “When he was teachin' me how to buck apples, he told me about his first try.”

“Did he miss the tree, too?”

“Nope, just the opposite problem, actually.”

Apple Bloom tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“You know that weird lookin' tree in the corner of the south field?”

“You mean the one with the big dent in it?”

“Yup. Who do you think put that dent there?”

Apple Bloom thought for a moment before beginning to giggle. “You mean Big Mac did that?”

“He said he's lucky that the tree didn't keel right over.” Applejack ruffled her sister's mane. “At least you can say that you didn't almost kill the tree. I know it might be tough now, but if you stick with it I'm sure you'll get it figured out.”

“You got that right!” said a voice from above. Applejack and Apple Bloom looked up to see Rainbow Dash lounging on a cloud a short distance above their heads. “The first time I tried the Buccaneer Blaze, I just about embedded myself in the side of a mountain. Practice makes perfect, you know.”

“Hey Rainbow Dash!” Apple Bloom waved back. “What brings you by?”

“Oh, I just thought I'd drop by to see how you were doing.” She winked. “Just wanted to see if you make any progress in your little thing with Twilight after she—” She stopped herself as she noticed that Applejack was violently shaking her head and pointing at her little sister. It was too late.

“What happened with Twilight?” the filly asked. “Did it have something to do with when she came by the night before last?”

Applejack's eye twitched as she shot a glare up at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus smiled sheepishly and avoided making eye contact. Applejack groaned and turned her attention to her sister.

“Yeah, it did have somethin' to do with Twilight. I don't want to hide anythin' from anypony, but it's...really personal. I dunno if I should tell you now.”

“Why can't you tell me?” Apple Bloom asked. “Did you and Twilight have a fight or something? What happened? Is there anything I can do? I can totally handle it.”

“Listen...” Applejack put a hoof on Apple Bloom's shoulder. “I ain't gonna lie. I'm not sure if I should tell you this, but it's somethin' that might end up affectin' you, so I'm going to try to explain. But first, I need you to promise me that you won't go tellin' anypony. And I mean any pony. No tellin' Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo, no tellin' your teacher, no tellin' Big Macintosh or Granny Smith, you don't tell anypony about this unless I give you the okay first, got it?”

Apple Bloom nodded with as much solemnity as she could muster.

“You better be serious, cause if you tell anypony, I'll tell Pinkie that you went and broke a promise, and I know you don't want that. So do you promise to keep this quiet?”

“I promise.”

“Okay.” Applejack cleared her throat. “Well, when Twilight came by, she told me that she had a crush on me.”

“A crush?” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “What's that?”

“You don't know what a crush is!?” Rainbow Dash guffawed loudly from her cloud. “I know you're just a filly, but you've seriously never had a crush before? I'd have thought that at least somepony in your class would have gotten hit with one.”

“You be quiet!” Applejack called up. “I'll get to you in a minute. Just let me explain it myself, okay?” She turned back to Apple Bloom. “A crush, huh? It's kinda hard to explain. Basically, it's when you suddenly start to care a whole lot about a certain pony, and want to spend a lot of time with them. And it makes you feel kinda weird, like you start to be afraid that they might not like you, or that they might not want to spend time with you and you start to try really hard to make sure they like you and want to be around you.”

Apple Bloom blinked a few times as her brain processed the information. “So that's how Twilight feels about you?”

“I guess so. So she confessed it to me and asked if I'd be her very special somepony.”

“Are you gonna do it?”

“I'm not sure yet, that's why I don't want you to tell anypony about it. I don't want to make a big deal about it until I have this figured out, and I definitely don’t want to get Twilight worried by lettin’ everypony know about it.”

“Well, I think you should do it. I think Twilight's a really nice pony and she'd probably make a really good very special somepony for you.”

“Thanks, I'll keep that in mind,” Applejack said with a chuckle. “I just wish it were that simple. Anyway, I gotta talk to Rainbow Dash for a bit, so why don't you head back to the house and get started on your homework? We can get back to this tomorrow. And remember, don't tell anypony, okay?”

“Okay. See you later.” Apple Bloom nodded and galloped off towards the house.

Satisfied that her sister was out of earshot, Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash, who was occupying herself by bouncing a clump of cloud on her forehead.

“You really gotta work on filterin' the stuff between your brain and your mouth, you know that?”

“Sorry about that.” Rainbow Dash rolled off her cloud and glided to the ground. “I just got so excited that Twilight told you that I kinda forgot that she only told you. Don't worry, I didn't tell anypony else.”

“Good. That's the last thing I need on my mind. What are you doin' here anyway?”

“I just thought I'd come by and see how you're holding up. I was gonna check on Twilight to make sure that she wasn't freaking out, but turns out Pinkie and Rarity have her covered.”

“So she's doin' alright?” Applejack asked the question in a tone of voice that implied she didn't quite want to know the answer.

“She's... okay. She hasn't had a nervous breakdown yet, at least. She did pretty well yesterday, although I think her anxiety might be staring to set in,” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. “But that's not what I came out here for. We're still cool, right? I mean, I kinda wanted to tell you about stuff, but, you know...”

Applejack sighed, half in relief, half in frustration. “Well, I can't say I'm happy that y'all kept all this a secret and left me out of the loop, but I guess it was best that Twilight got to tell me everythin' on her own terms, so I can't be too mad about it. I'm just glad to hear I didn't go and drive her nuts.”

“Not yet, anyway.”

Applejack glowered at the remark. “So did you come out here just to make snide comments, or were you actually gonna do somethin' useful?”

“Relax, AJ.” Rainbow Dash threw a foreleg around Applejack. “Like I said, I'm just here to see how you're doing. I know you don't freak out quite as much as Twilight, but I mean, come on, after getting a bomb like that dropped on you, you gotta be a bit shaken up, right?”

“You got that right.” Applejack groaned and sat down, leaning against the side of the wagon. What she really wanted was to get back to work, but if her friend had gone to the trouble of coming out to the farm, the least she could do was give her a few minutes. “I thought about it all day yesterday and all morning today, and I still got no idea what I'm goin' to do. I don't want to keep Twilight waitin' any longer than I have to, but I don't want to rush things either. She deserves a real answer, and I can't figure one out.”

“So you haven't come up with anything yet?”

“What part of 'I don't have even a tiny clue' don't you understand?”

“Okay, Let me think of what we can do here...” Rainbow Dash paced back and forth for a moment before stopping to stomp her hoof. “Alright, the question you need to answer is whether you think Twilight would make a good marefriend for you, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Okay, let's do this Twilight-style!”

Applejack rolled her eyes. She could have used the time to get ahead on her bucking. “I swear, Rainbow Dash, if you're goin' to have me makin' a big old chart or something, we're pretty much done here. All that stuff just makes me more confused.”

“No no no!” The pegasus shook her head. “Maybe not quite that Twilight-ish. I mean that you should just try to approach it from a more... what's that word Twilight is always using for stuff like this? Relational? Nah, that doesn't sound right.”

“I think 'rational' is the word you're lookin' for.”

“Right, that! We have to be rational!”

“Dash, do you even know what that means?” Applejack asked, her waning patience evident in her voice.

“Of course, it means we have to be smart about it!”

Applejack resisted the urge to make a snide remark about the impossibility of Dash approaching anything in that manner, instead opting for a more neutral response. “And how exactly are you gonna do that?”

“It's simple.” Rainbow Dash held her head up. “You want to know if Twilight would make a good very special somepony, right?”

“Again, yes,” Applejack grunted. She felt like the conversation was already going in circles.

“So you just gotta think of what you think a good very special somepony would be like, and then see if Twilight fits that description. So if you could pick what you wanted the perfect marefriend to be like, what would you choose?”

“I dunno; I never really thought about any romantic stuff before.”

“Are you serious?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “You've never thought about what kind of pony you'd want to end up with? I mean, come on!” She lowered her voice a bit. “Even I think about that kind of stuff sometimes.”

“Really?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. Out of all her friends, she would never have thought that Rainbow Dash would have any interest in romance. “Why don't you tell me what your idea of the perfect pony is? Cause I really got no idea of that kind of thing.”

“Ugh, fine.” Rainbow Dash plopped down on her hindquarters. “Promise not to tell anypony?”

“Of course.”

“Well, he'd have to be awesome, obviously. It would be totally boring if he was boring. And he'd gotta be a really awesome flier, too. Somepony who could keep up with me and help me train and stuff.”

Applejack nodded. “I'm with you so far.”

“But he'd have to be kinda laid back too, you know? You can't be crazy all the time. So it would need to be somepony who knows how to chill a bit and just hang out when he isn't being all awesome and stuff. And also, I, uh... kinda have a thing for blue manes.” She crossed her forelegs and nodded in satisfaction with her description.

“So, basically your idea of the perfect very special somepony is... Soarin.” She wanted to smack herself in the face. She should have known that Rainbow Dash would have zeroed in on one of the Wonderbolts.

Rainbow Dash leaped to her hooves “Hey, there are tons of awesome, blue-maned ponies who are great fliers out there! Probably. And we're not talking about me anyway. It's totally your turn to say what you want your very special somepony to be like.”

“Hmmm...” Applejack closed her eyes to think for a moment. She had never even attempted to quantify her romantic interests before. Where was she even supposed to start? “Well, first of all, I'd want them to be somepony I enjoy spending time with.”

“Awesome!” The pegasus patted her on the back. “That's a great start. What else?”

“I guess I'd want them to be real dedicated and responsible. And to care a lot about family, I suppose. And it would be good if they'd be able to help out around the farm.”

“Okay, that last one is a bit specific, but I guess the farm is a pretty big part of your life, huh?”

“You think?” Applejack's voice was thick with sarcasm.

“Well, I don't want to go and tell you what to do...” Rainbow Dash gently nudged Applejack in the side. “...but it sounds to me like Twilight matches up pretty well with your idea of a great marefriend.”

“Really?” Applejack asked. Sure, Twilight fit some of the criteria, but that was true of a lot of ponies in the town. “I don't know if you've noticed, but Twilight isn't exactly a farm pony.”

“Okay, so she doesn't fit that particular thing exactly, but think of everything else. Twilight is like crazy dedicated to her egghead stuff, and she's usually totally on top of things. Have you seen all of her checklists? She's gotta be pretty responsible to keep up with all that stuff. And I know her family doesn't live around here, but I think she cares quite a bit about them. I mean, she obviously cares a ton about her big brother, just like you, and she's practically raising Spike. He's pretty much family to her.”

“I guess you're right,” Applejack admitted. “But still, Twilight is a city pony. She barely even goes outside, let alone workin' the farm.”

“Really, Applejack? Really? Are you just trying to wiggle your way out of this or something? You know as well as I do that Twilight is totally smart enough to figure out a way to help out at Sweet Apple Acres.” Rainbow Dash shook her head in mock resignation. “Remember back when you tried to harvest the whole thing yourself, and she whipped up that spell that harvested a whole field at once? Or that time when she singlehoofedly got the winter wrap up back on track? I bet if you let her look at your schedules for a few hours, she'd get your productivity bumped up a ton.”

“I suppose...” Applejack never liked to admit when Rainbow Dash had a point, but she was actually making a surprising amount of sense. Either that or Applejack herself was starting to lose it to the point where Rainbow Dash sounded downright astute. She hoped it was the former.

“And even if she is useless on the farm, she totally fits all that other stuff that you said. You enjoy spending time with Twilight, don't you? You certainly weren't complaining when she started hanging out here more often.”

“Well, yeah...”

“See, four out of five pretty good, right? And I mean, come on. Isn't the fact that you enjoy her company way more important than whether or not she knows how to buck trees, anyway?”

“When you put it that way—”

“Great!” Rainbow Dash gave Applejack an emphatic shape. “Now that you've got that all figured out, you can go talk to Twilight and give her your answer!”

“Wait just a minute!” Applejack wrested herself free of the pegasus' grip. “I can't go ahead with this just because of that! Twilight might sorta fit that description, but so do a lot of other ponies! Like, oh, I don't know, Rarity. She fits all the stuff I said just as much as Twilight does. What the hay, even you fit it pretty well, and no offense, but I don't think that would work out particularly well. You ain't comin' on to me too, are you?”

“Well, uh...” Rainbow Dash shrunk back and turned her face away from Applejack. “Actually, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about...”

Applejack's pupils shrunk so much they were barely visible. “Uh, Rainbow Dash...?”

“I— I wanted to tell you earlier, but...” Her voice was so soft Applejack could barely hear it. “...but I...I...” With a loud snort, Rainbow Dash rolled onto her back and began to laugh, kicking her legs in the air. “Bwahaha, you thought I was actually confessing to you!”

“Wait, you— ARGHH!” Applejack slammed her hoof into the dirt. “What they hay were you thinkin', tryin' to pull that on me!? I swear if you do that again, I'm gonna buck all these trees usin' your head as a batterin' ram!”

“I'm sorry!” Rainbow Dash managed between gasps of laughter. “It was the perfect setup! I couldn't not do it!”

“You really had me goin' there for a second.” Applejack pressed a hoof against her chest, where her heart was still pounding rapidly. “If you had been serious, I think I mighta just keeled over. Were you tryin' to kill me or somethin'?”

“Nah, just trying to lighten things up a little. But seriously, if it was me and not Twilight puttin' you through this, what would you tell me? Be honest now. I'll know if you're trying to pull a fast one.”

“To be honest, I'd probably turn you down. Not that you aren't a great friend and all, but I just don't think it would work out. No offense, but I think I'd prefer you and I just being friends.”

“What if it was Rarity? Or Fluttershy? Or Pinkie?”

“I dunno; I guess I just like havin' them as friends, too.”

“But why?” Rainbow Dash tapped Applejack on the forehead. “Why are you actually thinking so hard about it when it's Twilight who asked the question. Is there something special about her?”

“Yeah, there is. She's the one who's actually confessed! If Pinkie went and confessed to me, well, I dunno. Maybe I'd give that some thought, too. I can't really say what I'd do in a situation that didn't actually happen.”

“Okay, let's try something different.” Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her forehead. “This is gonna sound kinda weird, but what do you think about Twilight, you know, physically?”

“Physically? I guess she's not in bad shape. She's a bit on a shrimpy side, but I considerin' that she spends so much time in the library I think she's doing pretty well—”

“No no no.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “That's not what I mean. What I'm asking is if you... if you find Twilight attractive.”

“Attractive?”

“Yeah, you know, have you ever looked at her and thought that she was pretty? And I don't mean like complimenting her on her hair or something. I wanna know if she ever, uh, turned your head, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh.” Applejack looked down at a rock and scratched nervously at her head. “I, uh, well I guess that she's pretty...”

“Is there anything specific about her? Everypony has something that they pay a bit of extra attention to. You know, like that mane thing I mentioned before. Don't worry, I'm not gonna tell anypony.”

Applejack swallowed. Rainbow Dash could just make out a slight blush on her cheeks. “Uh, well...I dunno. I guess that Twilight, uh, her...it's just weird!” Applejack said. “It's just a bit...specific, I guess. It just feels weird to talk about it.”

“I'm just trying to help you, Applejack. Come on, you can tell me. I won't breathe a word of it to anypony.”

“Ugh, fine.” Applejack said with a groan. “It's... it's her...” The last word was so quiet as to be inaudible.

“Sorry, I didn't get that.”

“It's...her neck.”

“Her neck?” Rainbow Dash couldn't hide the bewilderment in her voice.

“Yeah, it's weird, I know,” Applejack mumbled. “I don't know when it was, but there was some day I was talking to her about something and I just noticed the curves there, and the way her mane sort of hangs around it; I just think it's really cute. I know, it’s odd.”

“Okay, that's not too strange. When you said it was specific I thought that maybe you were thinking of her back left hoof, or that you had a thing for her nostrils or something.”

“Are you goin' somewhere with this?” Applejack asked. “I really do have work I should be doin'.”

“I'm just trying to help you figure out how you feel about Twilight, that's all.”

“I'm not sure how good of a job you're doin', cause now I'm even more confused. Just tell me what you think I should do.”

“Personally, I think you should go for it. You gave me all sorts of reasons why she'd be a good marefriend for you, and no reasons why she wouldn't, so you might as well give it a shot.”

“I know that.” Applejack dug at the ground. “I just don't wanna mess this up for either of us. Twilight risked a lot by being willing to tell me, and I don't want to let her down by messin' this up. The last thing I want to do is go and get her hopes up by tellin' her 'Yes' and then have the whole thing fall apart down the road.”

“Well, before I head out, I'm gonna give you the same piece of advice I gave Twilight: don't worry too much about how things could go wrong. I'm not the best flier in Equestria because I worry about crashing all the time. Sometimes you just gotta go for it, and if things go bad, things go bad. Sure, you might crash and burn, but you might not. If you want to go for it, you should.”

“But I don't know if I want to go for it.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I really can't help you with that. But when you do figure out what you want to do, just do it.” She turned away and started to flutter into the air.

“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack called after her.

“Yeah?” She looked back over her shoulder.

“I'm still not quite sure what I'm gonna do, but I do think I know how I can figure it out. Can you give Twilight a message for me?”

Rainbow Dash descended back to earth. “Sure thing. What is it?”

“I need you to tell her to meet me on the stargazing hill tonight at sunset.” She took a deep breath. “And I need you to tell her that I'll give her an answer tonight.”

Rainbow Dash smiled. “Of course. She'll be there.” She made to take off.

“Oh, and Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for coming to talk to me.”

“You're welcome.” Rainbow Dash leaped into the air, and a moment later was gone.

Applejack closed her eyes and leaned against the apple cart. She had given herself an ultimatum. No more waffling. She shook the thoughts out of her head and towed the cart towards the next tree. She only needed one more thing to make a decision. She needed to talk to Twilight.