and things went downhill from there

The mare looked around the shadowy room while she smacked her left foreleg with her right hoof to slowly bring it tingling back life. She could barely make out a few details from the dim light of the gibbous moon shining in the window, but she saw what she was after when she noticed that one corner appeared to be a bit darker than the others.

"So, am Ah really awake this time?" Applejack addressed the comment to the corner of the room, and she was not surprised to see a stygian form stir to life. The shade slowly detached itself from the other blackness and stepped into the wan light with its silvered hooves glinting.

As Luna emerged from the corner, the stars and nebulae in her mane and tail slowly flickered into life, adding their own faint glow to that of the moon. The alicorn's eyes gleamed impishly in the meager glimmer of her mane. "You are truly awake now, Applejack."

The farm pony flopped her head back on the pillow and tried to shake the pins and needles out of her left leg. From the corner of her eye, she watched the dark princess walk languidly up to the side of her bed and stop there to fix the orange mare with an open expression of amusement. Applejack patted the leg a couple more times.

"Poor Applejack," said Luna in an innocent, dulcet tone. "Are you making sure that it is still attached?"

"Maybe," replied the other mare. She quickly pulled her other hoof back and glared up at the alicorn. "What in the hay was all ... that?"

"That?" said the tall princess with a look of mock surprise. She tapped her chin with a gleaming hoof as if pondering on the earth pony's question. "Dear Applejack, I believe that was me winning our little bet." Luna remained standing on her rear hooves, but she leaned her front elbows on the bed, curling the hooves down so that she could rest her regal chin on her royal wrists. "I am still learning the modern nomenclature for such things," said the princess more seriously, "but I believe the accepted thing to say at a time like this is booyah!"

"Whoa now, hang on," said Applejack, squinting up at the gloating princess. "Ah seem to recall having an unseemly amount of cider last night," she said. "How do Ah know that wasn't responsible for the dreams rather than you?"

Luna gave a quick, half-frown and shrugged. "A fair point," she conceded. "Though I do not recall it being cider to which you said - to quote you directly - 'Ah bet ya couldn't give me more dream than Ah could handle, Princess.'"

"Well hey there, Luna. Ah certainly didn't expect to find ya here at our little shindig - especially not all the way down here in Ponyville."

The princess started and almost spilled the tall glass of sparkling cider over which she had been brooding. "Hello, Applejack," said Luna, quickly regaining her regal composure. "I am here because my sister insisted that I need to 'get out more'." Her tone made it clear that she disagreed to a point. "Alas, it always ends up being uncomfortable for me. I am so disconnected from modern ponies that small talk becomes difficult. Everypony wants to talk about their sports ball team, or some latest entertainer of whom I've never heard."

Applejack's encounter with the princess had not been entirely by chance. While the farm pony was not averse to parties, she also tended to grow tired of crowds very quickly, and she spied the alicorn when she'd been looking for a place to be alone for a bit. The tall princess had been staring distractedly into a flute of sparkling cider and - for lack of a better word - skulking in the shadows beside a pillar in exactly the way one did not do when they wished to attract attention.

"Well, under the circumstances Ah guess Ah don't blame ya for wantin' to be alone," said Applejack, "an' Ah thought I'd come over and be alone with ya, if that's okay."

"Yes, of course, this is fine," said Luna with an awkward grin, but it quickly faded into a long, glum sigh. "Well, it's not really fine at all," she admitted. "I came here to mingle, but instead I am standing off in the shadows and avoiding everypony."

Applejack took another swig of her cider, wiped her muzzle with the back of a hoof and winked at the princess. "Well technically ya kinda are minglin' now, Princess."

Luna's expression brightened. "Why, yes I am," she said. "Very well, let us mingle, Applejack. Would you like to talk about something that does not involve sports or entertainment?"

"Well, Ah could talk endlessly about apples," replied the other mare, "but Ah'm more interested in hearing more about you, Princess. Are ya still doing all that..." Applejack spun a circle with her hoof in an effort to elicit the right words, "dream ... stuff?" Luna quickly became more animated.

"Yes!" she said. "Most of my nights are spent monitoring dreams, and intervening when the dreams turn bad."

"That has to be hard," said Applejack pensively. "Ah mean, goin' from nightmare to nightmare has to be a bit of a strain on a mare."

The alicorn scrunched up the side of her face and shrugged. She took a delicate sip of her sparkling cider and said, "Not really. Most nightmares are much scarier when you are in them than when you are viewing them from the outside. Often when I rescue a pony from a bad dream and they get to see it from another viewpoint, they feel a little silly for having been afraid." The princess's eyes appeared to lose their focus for a moment as she took another sip. "You can learn a lot about ponies from their nightmares."

"Ah can imagine," agreed Applejack. The two of them stood without speaking for a time, sipping their ciders and enjoying the presence of somepony else who could appreciate silent time together. The orange mare almost took her leave when she saw that the party organizers were setting up a square dance, but she cast a sidelong glance at the princess. "Hey Luna, how come Ah never see you in any of mah bad dreams?"

The alicorn tittered and cocked her head at the orange pony with a bemused smile. "You don't have nightmares, Applejack."

"Ah do," protested the other pony. "Sometimes when Ah dream about buckin' trees, one 'em won't drop any apples." She saw the princess's disbelieving grin and doubled down. "Ah'm serious. When yer livelihood depends on apples, havin' trees that don't drop 'em is a scary thing." The orange mare could not maintain her serious expression long enough to finish the sentence though. "Who am Ah kiddin'? My dreams are all borin' ones about buckin' apples and pressin' cider."

Applejack tipped up her flagon and made a face when a single drop rolled out onto her tongue. "Aw shucks, empty again," she said. "Guess Ah'm gonna have to sneak back out there for a refill. Can Ah get ya one while I'm..."

Before the pony could finish, the princess held up a hoof in a universal "give me one second" gesture as she downed her own cider and then winked out with a muted "pop". A second later Luna reappeared, bearing refills for both ponies.

Applejack heard a confused waitpony in the distance say, "Hey, was that Luna?"

"Ah ain't never gonna get used to that teleport thing," said the orange pony as she accepted the fresh mug, "but Ah approve of the results." She raised her mug to the princess and took another sip. "Ah was serious when Ah asked why I never see ya in my dreams, though," Applejack continued. "Ah mean, Ah know ya mostly deal with nightmares an' stuff like that, but maybe ya could - I dunno - pop in and spice things up a bit in mah dreams. Buckin' apples every night gets a bit old."

Luna turned down her mouth and shook her head stiffly. "I cannot," she said. "I only liberate others from nightmares. When I try to meddle in the dreams themselves, the results can be ... unsettling."

Applejack swirled her cider while she considered the alicorn's words. "Not sure Ah follow," she said finally. "Are ya sayin' that everything ya touch turns to nightmares?"

"Not as such," said Luna. "But I suppose that word is probably as good a fit as any."

"Ah ain't afraid of no nightmares." Applejack shrugged. "Ah mean they can't be any worse than night after night of buckin' apples in mah sleep." She tossed back another deep swallow of cider. "Ya may not have noticed, yer highness, but Ah don't scare very easy. Ah bet ya couldn't give me more dream than Ah could handle, Princess."

Luna frowned slightly and cast quick, furtive glances in both directions. With a nod, she took a dainty sip of her cider, and then leaned closer to Applejack to whisper out of the side of her mouth. "How much?"

Applejack blinked. "Ah beg yer pardon?"

"How much are you willing to bet that I could not give you a dream that you can't handle?" asked the tall, dark pony, tilting her head in the other mare's direction. "I am willing to make a wager on that."

"Aw, c'mon yer highness, that's just a figure of speech. Makin' bets is the kind of things that common ponies do, not princesses."

"Oh?" said Luna. The alicorn smirked and took a long, unprincessy slurp of her sparkling cider without breaking eye contact with the earth pony. "If only there were a princess here with whom we could consult on the subject."

"Well, Ah guess in fairness Ah can only go on the princesses I know best," conceded Applejack. "Ah can promise you that Twilight would find the whole idea appallin'."

"Well, yes," agreed Luna. "But Twilight Sparkle can be..."

"A stick in the mud sometimes," promoted Applejack helpfully.

"I was going to say 'a bit too self-conscious', but she will grow out of it." The princess eyed Applejack with a slight frown of disapproval. "I can't believe you called her that." She bobbled her head, "But now that it's out there... Anyway, do we have a bet or not?"

"All Ah was sayin' is that Ah used the term 'Ah bet' as a figure of speech that ... uh, Princess, whatcha doin'?"

Luna had a hoof raised behind her ear and was looking left and right with a puzzled expression. "Pardon me, Applejack, but I thought I heard something," said the alicorn. "It sounded an awful lot like somepony being a chicken."

Applejack lowered her head and pawed the ground. "Them's fightin' words, Princess," she snorted. "Fine, ya want a bet, ya got a bet. Ah'll bet ya five of my best, home-baked apple pies that ya can't give me a dream that Ah can't handle. Ah'm talkin' about one of them 'wake up in a pool of sweat' nightmares. Ah'll even buck fresh apples for it in the mornin'."

"Very well," said Luna with a nod of approval. "I accept a payment in pies as a fair tender when I win." The alicorn cast an imperious look down toward Applejack. "On the minuscule chance that I do not win, what do you demand in payment?"

"The same," said Applejack, buffing her hoof on her chest. "Ya show up at the farm bright an' early to buck apples an' make pies." The mare examined her hoof and blew off an imaginary mote of dust. "An' don't ya worry yerself none about the buckin', Luna. It's all in the technique, so even a delicate thing like yerself with them scrawny princess legs can do it with a bit of trainin'."

"Scrawny, indeed," said Luna as her eyes gave a little flash. "Oh, it is on." The alicorn kicked off one of her silver shoes, spat on her hoof and raised it.

"Okay, ya beat me fair an' square," said Applejack. She lifted her foreleg slightly from her eyes so that she could see the alicorn leaning on her bed. "Them sweat-soaked sheets don't lie. I'll set to bakin' them pies for you in the mornin' because an Apple always pays their debts."

"Thank you, Applejack," said Luna with a gracious bow of her head. She started to rise from the bed but Applejack forestalled the move.

"Hold up," the orange pony said quickly. "Ah got questions if Ah can keep ya for a couple more minutes."

"Of course," said the princess as she settled on the edge of the bed again. "What did you wish to know, Applejack?"

"Them dreams..." said the other pony, trailing off in thought. "Was any of that stuff real?"

"They were all dreams," said Luna. She brushed back her twinkling mane and grinned almost shyly. "I am rather proud of the third one."

Applejack nodded and bunched up some of the damp bedsheets between her hooves while she thought. "What was with all the weird dreams before the one at the end?" she asked.

Luna tapped her chin with a hoof pensively. "Well, to be honest, those were partly me having some fun. Their main purpose was to serve as a slight-of-hoof to get you off balance, but I was also testing a few things on you to see what really made you nervous." The princess grinned and shrugged. "In fairness, it was Celestia's suggestion to toss out a couple of weird ones to - in her words - 'soften her up'."

"Wait, ya got yer sister involve in this?"

"Well, yes - of course," said Luna, looking shocked that the pony was surprised. "My sister has a long history of making wagers." She grinned. "Though not so much recently because she has gained a reputation for sometimes," she paused and gently tapped her muzzle in thought, "exploiting loopholes."

"What kind of loopholes?"

Luna rolled her eyes. "The next time you are having tea with my sister, ask her about the wager with the Countess of Prancelvania - I am sure she would take great delight in repeating that tale to somepony else."

Applejack yawned into her hoof, but waved her other one at the princess to stay for just a bit longer.

"Ah guess my last question is how ya managed to figure out the one thing that might scare me," she said. "Of all the monsters and disasters and nightmarish things ya could have thrown at me, how could ya know the one thing that would make me wake in a sweat?"

"Oh that," Luna tapped her hooves together and looked down with a tinge of guilt. "I have to give the credit where it's due. Twilight Sparkle is the one who told me about your aversion to needles."

"Twilight?!"

"She arrived at the party with Celestia after you had already left for the night," explained the alicorn.

Applejack shook her head and frowned in disappointment. "An' she just came right out and told ya that, huh? Some mares just can't keep a secret."

"She didn't, at first," said Luna. "Twilight Sparkle was actually quite appalled when I mentioned our wager, until..." Luna coughed daintily into her hoof. "I might have accidentally mentioned your 'stick in the mud' comment to her."

Applejack laughed and shook her head again. "Accidentally," she said with a scoff. "Ah guess mah big mouth done me in again," The orange pony pointed an accusing hoof at the other mare. "Ya princesses play dirty though, Luna."

"We do," the alicorn agreed. She pushed herself up from the bed and turned to leave. "You learn a few tricks over the centuries, Applejack." The tall princess stood and stretched sensually before turning to leave. "I must go now - I am sensing nightmares that need my attention." She glanced back over her shoulder and cast an enigmatic grin and wink toward the earth pony before she melted into the shadow again. "Sweet dreams, my little pony," she said, and her light chuckle faded with the flicker of her mane.

Applejack lay awake for almost an hour after the princess left, staring at the dim ceiling beams that were just visible in the weak moonlight. It took a bit for her to admit to herself that she was a little afraid to go back to sleep. "Ah feel like a silly filly after a bad dream," she scowled. The mare tossed and turned a few times before she finally resorted to counting apples.

The pony had just lost track of her count when the bedroom door slammed open and Rarity burst into the room. The white unicorn was preceded by a hovering bottle that seemed to be the focus of her concern. She was wearing the flattering, flank-hugging bathrobe she had received for as a gift, and her face was set in the adorable pout that usually meant she was going to whine disproportionally over something trivial.

"Applejack dear, have you been using my mane conditioner? I just bought it last week and now it's over half gone!"

Applejack sat bolt upright in bed, blinking in the murk of her room.

"Goldarn it, Luna," she cussed, smacking her thigh angrily with a hoof.

She sighed, punched her pillow back into shape and then lay down again. "Aw, whatever," she muttered. "Still a couple hours to dawn, and Ah'm kinda curious where this one's goin'."

The pony could see the silhouette of buttes and spires against the sky, and far off in the distance she saw a dark stone ramp spiraling lazily up to a large, floating island of rock. The stars visible under the stone path made it uncomfortably apparent that nothing supported it. Applejack felt her stomach lurch when she realized that they were likely standing on a similar island to the one floating in the void overhead, and she was suddenly glad that they were not visibly near an edge.

What had made the breath catch in the mare's throat, though, were thousands of glowing squares slowly drifting hither and fro, just over the surface of the ground. To Applejack, they looked like windows with nebulous, glowing auras for frames. She could see the flicker of movement in most of them. A distant, hushed cacophony of sounds from the glowing portals was all that broke what would otherwise have been an oppressive silence in that strange landscape.

"What is this place?" said Applejack in a reverent whisper. She turned to the princess when she spoke, and her jaw dropped. The tall alicorn's body was wrapped in a soft, pale blue aura that made her stand out from the starry background. On the other hoof, though her mane and tail blew in an imaginary wind, Applejack could not tell where they ended and the starry sky began. The earth pony pointed at the glowing princess, but whatever question she'd been contemplating vanished from her tongue when she saw that she was wrapped in her own faint orange glow.

"This," said Luna, sweeping her right hoof in a large arc, "is The Nexus of Dreams." She leaned closer to the gaping orange mare and used her left hoof to gently push the other pony's mouth closed. "Or, as I call it back in Canterlot," she added with a mischievous gleam in her eye, "my office. Don't mind the auras - you will get used to them."

Applejack took a few, tentative steps forward, turning her head left and right as she tried to take in her ethereal surroundings. "Is this where dreams come from?"

Luna shook her head. "It is not the source of dreams. The Nexus of Dreams is The Dream. Everything here is part of The Dream - including us." At the other pony's blank stare, the princess scrunched up the side of her face in thought and then spoke slowly as if she were simplifying the explanation as much as possible. "It is the embodiment of every dream that is, was, or ... shall be."

Applejack's eyes went even wider. "Yer blowin' mah mind, princess," she said. "Are ya sayin' that you can find dreams here that ain't happened yet?"

"I might - in theory," said Luna, laughing lightly, "if I had another couple of thousand more years to study The Nexus. I fear the future is revealed to me at the same speed as it is to other ponies for now, Applejack."

The orange pony looked around herself again before a seed of realization sprouted deep in her gut. "Wait, all them floatin' squares are other ponies' dreams," she said. Before Luna could answer her, Applejack trotted over to a green-bordered one that was floating by at her height. As she neared it, she could begin to resolve sounds emanating from the portal. She heard the distinct shriek and laugher of a filly and colt, and as she peered into the portal she saw the latter chasing the former around the yard with a water-spewing garden hose.

"Wait..." called Luna, raising a hoof pointlessly as the other mare dashed past her toward a blue-glowing portal.

"Hey, it's Rainbow Dash," said Applejack excitedly as she peered into the portal. "And there's ... what in the hay is Twilight wearin'...?"

Luna brushed the portal away with a quick blush and an imperious wave of her hoof. "It is impolite to pry into the dreams of others without cause," she said primly. She gave a flick of her head to direct Applejack away, but the other pony hesitated.

"Ah was just wondering if all them colours mean something," said Applejack.

Luna gave a curt nod. "They do," she said. "The red dreams are nightmares. I think you know what the blue ones are. Green frames are happy dreams." She swept another hoof in an arc encompassing most of the nearby frames. "I am pleased to see that most of them are in shades of green. A princess can learn a lot about the state of the kingdom from the colour of its dreams."

"Ah bet," said Applejack. She leaned slightly to her left and squinted past the tall princess. "What's that white square back there? How come it ain't one of the colours like the other ones?"

Luna winked and cracked an inscrutable, lopsided grin. "There is one way to find out," she said cryptically as she stepped to the side and indicated toward the portal with another quick motion of her head.

Applejack cast an askance look at the princess as she took the royal's hint and cantered past her toward the white square. The mare wondered if she would live long enough to understand the workings of this enigmatic princess. Had the princess not just scolded her for looking into dreams before tacitly inviting her to do exactly that? The moment that the orange pony peered into the white portal, she understood.

Inside the white portal stood a glowing, orange pony with a yellow mane and hat, standing on a stone plane and peering into a white portal in which stood a glowing, orange pony with a yellow mane and hat, standing on a stone plane... She turned excitedly back toward the princess.

"Hey, that's me!"

"Hey, that's me!"

"Hey, that's me!"

"Hey, that's me!"

The echoes faded quickly, but it still startled Applejack. She pushed back her hat and whirled back toward the portal.

"What the hay?"

"What the hay?"

"What the hay?"

"What the hay?"

Luna tapped Applejack on the shoulder, and when the mare turned, the princess held up a hoof to her lips. "We should move away from here," she whispered.

"...from here."

"...from here."

Once they had walked a few dozen paces from the white portal, Applejack dared to speak again in a hushed voice. "Was there somethin' wrong with that one?"

"No," said Luna with a shrug. "But the echoes were very distracting." Applejack snorted at that, but she walked in silence beside the princess for many minutes, taking in the sights as they went. After some time, it became apparent that the seemingly random gaps between the boulders and small buttes on the jagged island were actually part of a road ... of sorts. They stopped as they rounded the edge of a particularly large boulder, and Applejack spied something tiny and blue glowing in the distance.

Princess Luna frowned slightly as she looked between her companion and the small blob of light in the distance. The tall princess finally sighed. "Applejack," she said, "might I ask a small favour of you?"

"Ah suppose," said the orange pony aloofly. "Mah slate's pretty full right now, Princess, but ah might be able to fit ya in for somethin' quick."

Luna's mouth turned up into a wan grin that did not quite make it to her eyes. "You are not the only pony with me in The Nexus this night," she said. She pointed toward the soft glow in the distance. "Little Thunder Wing is alone here, and I think he would appreciate a friendly pony to talk with for a short time. I must take my leave to attend to some important tasks."

"Aw, the poor little guy's all alone?" said Applejack, holding a hoof over her heart. "Of course Ah'll go an' keep him company," she said. The princess surprised the orange mare with a respectful, spread-wing bow of thanks before launching herself into the dark sky.

It only took the earth pony a minute to canter over to the distant glow, which slowly resolved itself into a little blue pegasus colt as she neared.

The colt obviously saw her approaching because he was sitting motionless, eyes locked on her while he held a forgotten, oversized toy block between his hooves. As Applejack drew nearer, she saw he was building a ring around himself, taking blocks from a loose pile of them scattered around outside his little wall.

"Hi," she said, stopping just outside of the colt's construction.

"You're not Princess Luna," said Thunder Wing. Now that she could see him up close, Applejack noted that the colt was a slightly lighter shade of blue than Rainbow Dash, with a tawny mane.

The mare doffed her hat and knelt politely on one leg. "Applejack, at yer service," she said. "The princess had some things to do and asked me to come and keep ya company for a bit."

"Hello Applejack," said Thunder Wing in a very somber tone. He put his brick on one of the lower parts of his wall, frowned at it critically and then bumped it a couple of inches to the left. "Are you dreaming too?"

"Ah suppose I am," said Applejack after a moment of thought. She had not really considered that earlier, but based on what Luna had said, it made sense.

"Will you help me build my wall?"

"Of course ah will," said Applejack. "Just tell me what ya need and ah'll get it for ya."

They worked together for a few minutes, with their only exchanges being about bricks.

"This one?"

"No, that one."

"Ya mean this one?"

"No, that that one."

Applejack helped the colt to complete two full rings on his wall before she paused and leaned an elbow on a medium-sized block. As she interacted with the colt, she was struck by his very serious demeanour. The mare was also a little puzzled by his single-mindedness about building a wall. "This is a mighty fine fort yer buildin'," she said, "but it looks like ya ain't leavin' yourself a door to get out," she said amicably.

The colt looked left and right around himself and then shrugged. "Naw," he said in the same, dull monotone he'd been using since she arrived. "I don't want anything getting in or out. It's my fortress of sol... uh, not letting anything in or out."

"Fortress of solitude," offered the mare.

"Yeah, that," said the colt, nodding solemnly. "Could you please pass me the block you're leaning on, miss?"

Applejack picked up the block and lifted it over the wall to the colt. "So, little pardner, are ya buildin' a wall to protect all them fillies from you, or to keep somepony out?"

Thunder Wing did not answer at first. He gave the block that the other pony had given him a long, critical look before he set it down beside himself and began rearranging some of the pieces already in the wall. "I'm keeping bad stuff out," he said finally.

"What kinda bad stuff?" asked the mare as she sensed a new opening in their conversation. As his fortress grew taller, the colt's armour seemed to be lowering. "It must be pretty big an' bad if ya need to build such a tall wall."

"The bad stuff that makes me sick," said Thunder Wing in the same matter-of-fact tone. "The thing that makes it hurt to breathe, and makes my tummy sore and pukey all the time, and makes it so that I'm too weak to go out and play and just want to sleep all the time."

"Oh!" said Applejack, clasping her hooves to her muzzle in horror, "ya poor little feller!"

"It's okay," said the colt. "It doesn't hurt when I'm asleep, and I sleep all the time now. I was having really scary dreams, but Princess Luna brought me here and I don't have them now." The young pony cocked his head and held a hoof up to his ear. "I think the wall needs to be higher," he said calmly. "I can still hear my folks crying."

If one had been listening very closely, they might have heard the audible sound of the mare's heart breaking. Though she was not one to shed tears, Applejack's voice sounded unusually thick when she spoke again.

"Thunder Wing," she croaked, "can Ah give ya a hug?"

The colt appeared to weigh the request. "Okay," he finally replied the same, flat sober tone. He put down the block he'd been cradling and reared up on his hind legs, holding his front legs up over his head.

Applejack reached over the block barricade for the colt, but in spite of her best efforts, she managed to dislodge a couple of the blocks with his rear hooves as she lifted him over the wall. If Thunder Wing was bothered by the unintentional act of vandalism, he showed no reaction to it.

"Ya poor thing," said Applejack softly as she hugged the little colt tight to her chest and gently rocked him back and forth.

"I hope this helps you to feel better," said the tiny pony. "You're really nice, and I hate to see you sad."

"This helps ... a bit," said Applejack as she clung to him tightly. The mare heard a soft scuff of hoof on stone from behind and turned quickly, still clutching the colt. Luna stood a few paces away, quietly watching the interaction of the other two ponies.

"I have returned," announced the princess needlessly. "I did not want to interrupt this moment, but time is growing short, and I need for Thunder Wing to accompany me now."

"Luna." Rather than releasing the colt, Applejack clutched him a little tighter and half-turned protectively from the tall princess. "He needs our help. There must be something we can do for him."

The shook her head and maintained a neutral expression. "I'm sorry Applejack, but everypony who can help him has done everything within their abilities. He is beyond the power of any pony to help him now."

"It's okay, Miss Applejack," said the colt. His voice was slightly muffled as the talked through the larger pony's chest fur. "I'm not afraid to go with Princess Luna."

"It's not okay," said Applejack, giving him a squeeze. "There must be something we can still do."

"Applejack," said Luna sternly. "His time in this dream is over. It is time for him to move on to the next dream."

"I don't like the sound of that," said the orange pony darkly. "What exactly are ya sayin', Princess?"

Luna tilted her head slightly, and her expression turned a little cooler. Her eyes bored into the other mare, and when she spoke it was in a slightly clipped, disapproving tone. "Applejack, you are one of the smartest ponies I have met. You know exactly what I am saying."

"He's so young," protested Applejack. "It ain't fair."

"It's okay," said Thunder Wing again. "You can put me down now. I'm ready to go. I'm not afraid."

The orange mare gave a long sigh and squeezed the colt a final time before she reluctantly lowered him to the ground. He shook out his mane, flexed his wings and then turned to address the dark mare.

"I am ready to go now, Princess," he said calmly.

"You can call me Luna," said the alicorn.

"I am ready to go now, Princess Luna."

Luna sighed. "Just Luna," she amended.

The colt looked perplexed for a moment and then shrugged. "I am ready to go now Princess Just Luna."

The princess blinked, and then in spite of herself, the corner of her mouth turned up into a grin. Even Applejack felt the workings of a tiny smile forming on her own muzzle.

The colt took a couple of steps toward the princess and then stopped, looking quickly back at Applejack. "Can my new friend come too?"

Luna looked at orange mare, and then shook her head at the colt. "No, Thunder Wing, I am afraid she cannot go where you were going."

"Can't she come with us part way?" insisted the young pony. "She can come with us until the part where I have to go on alone."

One side of the princess's face turned down into a frown, and she bit her lip with indecision as she considered the request. She glanced up at Applejack and then shrugged in defeat. "Very well, she can come with us until you have to go ahead on your own."

As Luna turned to leave, Applejack moved up to walk in stride with her while Thunder Wing pranced along between the two adults. They walked without speaking for a bit until the colt broke the silence.

"Princess Just Luna..." he began, but Applejack stopped him with a quick poke in his ribs.

"She meant that ya can just call her Luna," she said in a loud whisper.

"Oh!" said Thunder Wing. "Luna, what's this next dream going to be like?"

"I do not know," said the princess, "but it is said to be a place free of hurt and sorrow."

"Will I still be sick there?"

"No," said Luna. She glanced down at the little colt. "There is no sickness in the next dream."

The colt seemed to consider this, and he went silent again for a bit. "Will there be ice cream?"

"Yes," said Luna. Applejack glanced over at the princess because she was certain she'd heard the other pony's voice break slightly, but the other mare's expression remained neutral. "I am sure there will be ice cream," said the alicorn. She turned left abruptly and led them down a tight path that Applejack would not have noticed if Luna had not taken it.

The path was not long, but it wound tightly through the rocks and under a few oddly-carved stone arches. They were the first unnatural stonework that Applejack had seen since she had arrived in The Nexus, and she wished that she could have spent some time examining them. Shortly they arrived in a small clearing, a few steps from a low stairwell that led to an odd doorway.

Luna stretched out a wing and gently pressed it to Applejack's chest, stopping the other mare in her tracks. "We go no farther," she said. The three of them stood in silence for a few moments. Luna simply stared blankly ahead, but Applejack and Thunder Wing both took in the odd sight. A finely-hewn staircase rose up seven steps to a small platform, in the middle of which was a free-standing arch. The arch was lined with fine tracery and pictographic runes that meant nothing to Applejack. Light radiated from its centre, and the interior churned with a swirl of iridescent clouds.

Thunder Wing squared his shoulders. "I guess this is it," he said. He turned and bowed to the princess. "Thank you, Luna."

"You are welcome, Thunder Wing," said the princess with a polite dip of her head.

The colt turned to Applejack. "It was really nice to meet you," he said. He reached up and let Applejack give him a final embrace. As soon as she pulled him close, he tilted his head up and whispered, "I think Princess Luna needs a hug too. She seems really sad."

"Ah bet," said Applejack with a soft, dry chuckle.

As soon as the mare released him, the colt bounded off to the stairs and stopped at the bottom of them. He turned back again. "Princess," he said, "before I leave, can I wake up once more to say goodbye to my folks?"

"You already said goodbye," said Luna, "it is your parents who still have to say goodbye to you, Thunder Wing." Applejack almost missed it when the princess cast a quick glance at her before she addressed the colt again. "They will learn how to say goodbye ... in time."

"Will I see them again?"

"Yes," said Luna.

Satisfied, the young pony turned and slowly picked his way up the stairs, one step at a time, stopping to marvel at them with each pace. When he finally reached the platform at the top, he turned to face the two mares again. Applejack was sure that he was going to ask another question, but the colt simply raised his right hoof in a big, exaggerated wave and then loped through the portal.

And just like that, he was gone.

"Princess Luna," said Applejack slowly. She looked over at the princess who was staring impassively at the empty portal. "Will Ah be goin' through that portal too?"

"Yes," said Luna softly. She turned and met the orange mare's gaze. "Eventually all of us will, Applejack, but now is not your time. Not today."

Without warning, the princess's eyes flared as bright as the sun. Applejack let out a yelp of surprise and threw up her leg to protect her eyes from the glare. She blinked and peeked around the edge of her leg to find herself looking into the mid-morning sun that found a crack in her drapes.

Three things occurred to Applejack at that moment: the dream was over, she was in her own bed, and she had slept in very, very late.

To Chapter 4: Without A Leg To Stand On

Chapter 1: Buck Luck

Even though the wooden buckets hanging from it were empty, the yoke weighed heavily on Applejack's shoulders. She was tired and a little sore from a full day of harvesting apples, but it was the kind of aches and weariness that felt right for a working pony like herself. The burn of her fatigued muscles reminded the mare that she had put in an honest day's labour.

The last tree of the evening loomed before her with its lush leaves rustling in the wind, and its branches drooped slightly under the weight of ripe, red apples. The pony halted a few steps from the trunk and knelt before it, not in reverence, but to shimmy out of her yoke. She wiggled free of its grip and then stood again, twisting her neck to elicit an appreciable pop from its joints as she rose.

"All right, tree," said the orange pony. "Here's the way I see it. I'm about out of bucks to give today, so there are two options; you drop your apples now and save yourself some bruised bark, or we can do it the hard way." She pawed the ground with a hoof and finished with, "Ah aim to end this one way or the other ... if you catch my drift."

The tree responded by standing firm and mute, as trees are prone to do. The nearest thing that Applejack could interpret as a reply from it was a rustle of wind through its leaves, and a dapple of late-afternoon sunshine shimmering through its canopy. The pony snorted and cocked her hat forward on her head. "Ah figured that would be your answer," she said grimly. "Okay then, it looks like we'll have to do this the hard buckin' way."

The farm pony reached out one of her mud-encrusted hooves and scratched an almost imperceptible X in the bark near the base of the tree.  After a quick inspection and nod at her choice, she turned and expertly unloaded a thunderous two-hoofed kick to the centre of the X. The tree shuddered under the blow, and though it rained down a few leaves, all of the apples remained firmly attached to their branches and merely bobbed tantalisingly over her head.

Applejack frowned with disapproval as the shaking tree gradually stilled, and a single apple partially detached. The lone fruit looked for a moment like it was going to drop, going as far as to slowly twist around one-hundred and eighty degrees on its thread of remaining stem before it stopped.

"Really?!" Applejack cocked her head and grimaced up at the lone, taunting fruit. She wanted the other apples as well, but this one had made it personal. The pony sighed and wound up for another kick. "Ah just want this done with so I can go have myself a nice, hot shower," she said wistfully.  As the mare readied for her next kick, Applejack closed her eyes and imagined the steamy heaven under a jet of nearly-scalding water. She could almost feel it already blasting away the aches and muck of a long day.

It was Rarity who had introduced the orange mare to one of the few decadent indulgences that the farm pony allowed herself.  The unicorn had all-but kidnapped the earth pony one day and dragged her - protesting the whole way - to the spa in town where they had (in the unicorn's words), "The most glorious showers. Trust me, dahling, this shower will leave you feeling - and smelling - much better than washing in the creek like an uncivilized churl."

Rarity had spoken truly, and the next day Applejack had marched into town and returned with a contractor pony that specialized in shower installation. Granny Smith had objected at first ("What next - flush toilets? Don't go soft on us, Applejack!"), but the elderly mare came around quickly, and showed that she could drain the hot water tank like nopony else on the farm.

Applejack could picture the shower in her mind's eye. Rarity was there. The white unicorn was standing under the hot blast of water with her head thrown back, and her pert mouth opened daintily in absolute bliss. Strands of purple mane draped alluringly over her silken white shoulders, while rivulets of water coursed down through the thick, foamy shampoo on her chest. A cloud of steam rose up around the white mare and time slowed down as she shook her head, fanning out her lustrous mane and sending up a spray of water. The ivory pony glanced over at Applejack out of the corner of a shockingly blue eye and beckoned the other mare over with a shy smile.

In her time-dilated vision, Applejack saw herself slowly sliding into the frame from the left, with hooves gliding effortlessly along the tile, plowing a row through the standing water. She watched herself gracefully hip-check the white pony and send her sailing out of the frame with an adorable expression of shock and despair as her perfectly-manicured hooves scrabbled for traction.

"Applejack!"

"Sorry, Rarity, but this is a one-pony shower," cooed Applejack as the gloriously sweltering blast of water knocked the hat from her head and hammered on her tired shoulders like a hot masseuse.

"Applejack!" repeated the voice that, on further reflection, sounded nothing like Rarity.

"Not now, Apple Bloom. Yer big sis is havin' a moment," said Applejack without opening her eyes.

"Can you have yer moment later? We need ya at the house," insisted the filly. "Miss Rarity is there."

Applejack turned to address her sister. She blinked when she noticed that Apple Bloom seemed to be occupying the same space as the tree had been earlier. "She ain't usin' our shower, is she?"

"What? No," said Apple Bloom, casting her sister an odd look. "Leastwise, ah don't think so - why would she be doin' that?"

"No reason," said Applejack quickly. She rubbed one of her aching shoulders. "So why is Rarity at the house?"

"She came out to do some final fittin' on yer dress for tomorrow," said Apple Bloom in a tone that made it clear she didn't think she should have to be explaining this to her sister.

"She's fittin' my... what now?" The shower in Applejack's imagination abruptly turned cold. "Why would Rarity be fittin' me for a dress?"

Apple Bloom let out a short groan of frustration. "Ugh. It's for the family hoedown at the school tomorrow. You remember; the one you promised you'd go to with me because Big Mac ain't much for wearin' dresses these days?"

Applejack frowned. "Ah remember the hoedown," she said, "but not the part about it bein' tomorrow." The mare pushed her hat back with a hoof as she thought. "Ah don't remember nothing' about a dress. You know I ain't much one for gettin' up all fancy and stuff, and ah don't think I'd have agreed to that."

"It was all right in the waiver you signed," said Apple Bloom. Her voice cracked in frustration. "The one I brought home from school for you to sign so that me an' you could go to the hoedown."

"What waiver? Ah didn't sign no waiver ... did I?"

"Wrong, sis, wrong," said Apple Bloom tersely. The filly whipped out a coiled scroll and gave it a shake to unfurl the lengthy waiver. The impressively long parchment unrolled between Applejack's legs and continued unrolling behind her. The filly popped on a pair of wire-rimmed reading glasses and two-hoofed through the scroll before stopping to point at a section near its middle. "Under Section Thirty-Seven B of the waiver, signed by one Applejack, it states quite clearly that all mares shall dress appropriately for the hoedown." The filly jabbed a hoof further down on the scroll. "You can read it for yerself sis, in this facsimile copy:  'I, the undersigned, shall agree to wear a froufrou dress to the hoedown in accordance with and as governed by the school fashion committee, et cetera, et cetera ... fax mentis incendium gloria culpum, et cetera, et cetera ... memo bis punitor delicatum!' It's all here!"

"Whoa now, hold up there little sis," said Applejack, glaring at her younger sibling. "You know darned well I wouldn't sign no waiver sayin' I had to wear a dress, and especially not a froufrou dress." The mare tilted her hat forward combatively and harrumphed. "There ain't no dress, is there? There's no hoedown, no waiver, and you ain't even my sister. Ain't that right ... princess?"

Apple Bloom tossed the scroll into the air where it vanished into a cloud of dust with a muted "pop." The filly's expression turned cool and she eyed her big sister critically for a moment before a flash of light gleamed in her left eye...

...and Applejack found herself lying in bed.

To Chapter 2: Of Things Lost

"It's all so weird," said Rainbow Dash. "I don't know how it happened. I mean, she was just a close friend, and then I woke up one morning and ... she wasn't. Just like that. I started daydreaming about her in ways a pony isn't supposed to think about another mare." The blue pony's muzzle twisted into a bitter grin. "That's pretty messed up, huh? I guess you probably wouldn't understand though."

"I understand a lot better than you think," said Twilight Sparkle quickly. When the other pony tossed her a quizzical look she hastily added, "As the Princess of Friendship, I have made a point to research all kinds of friendships."

"That makes sense," said Rainbow Dash glumly. "Does your research tell you how to tell if another pony likes other mares?"

"Oh," the alicorn said again. "You don't know if she likes other mares in ... that way."

Rainbow Dash shook her head and sighed. "I like her so much, but I don't want to scare her away." She laughed bitterly, matching her earlier grin. "Hey, how are you doing today? Did you catch that game last night? By the way, I like you in the way that mares usually reserve for stallions. What a crazy world it is, huh?" She gave an enthusiastic pump of her right hoof. "What's say we race a couple laps around the ring track?"

"If she's as close a friend as you say, you must have some idea of where her orientation lies," said Twilight Sparkle in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. "Surely you must have seen some hints that led you to think, at least subliminally, that she might be receptive."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "That's not the kind of thing I talk about with my friends ... obviously. I mean, I'm talking to you about it, but you're a professional." The blue pony waved about with her right hoof as if trying to pluck words out of the air. "I want to tell her, but I don't know how.  I mean, in your professional opinion, how would you feel if one of your friends dropped something like this on you?"

"I'd be ... flattered, and honoured that they felt that strongly about me," said Twilight Sparkle, "but I don't think I'd end my friendship with them even if I didn't feel the same way." The alicorn put a wing around her friend's shoulder, led her back over to the loveseat and insisted that she sit there again. "I think you need tea after all."

The pegasus was going to decline, but she could hear by the tone that the princess had switched into "Momma Twilight" mode, and she knew better than to argue.

The alicorn disappeared off to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with two steaming mugs of tea - her other cup had long since gone cold. "Like I said, I have some books on this subject," Twilight Sparkle said brightly as if the conversation had never paused.

"I don't need a book," said the pegasus sourly. "I need a shrink to tell me that I shouldn't feel this way about one of my best friends. It's weird and unnatural. I'll lose a friend and become a laughing stock."

"It is not unnatural, and you would not be a laughing stock," said Twilight Sparkle sharply. "Nobody is laughing at Lyra and Bonbon."

"That's because they're freakin' adorable," said Rainbow Dash, "but they're a special case."

"No they aren't." The princess pressed on. "Other than being adorable, I mean. Not all ponies are born to feel lov... to have the same special feelings for others. Some mares are born to be with other mares, and stallions to be with other stallions. Some will never develop that kind of feeling for another at all."

"Boy, that would make my life easier," muttered the blue pony. "Sometimes I think it would be nice if a pony could just turn off her feelings." She took a sip of her tea and glared into the distance while that thought hung in the air between them.

They sat quietly for a time before Twilight Sparkle broke the silence. "Do you really wish you didn't have feelings like that?" asked the princess finally. "I know there are books for that too, but they deal in the kind of magic I'm not prepared to use. Zecora might have something that could help, though."

"No," said Rainbow Dash after a few moments thought. "I don't want a potion. I don't want to ever stop feeling this way about my friend because it feels amazing. I would rather feel this about her even if I know that nothing could ever..." She left the thought unfinished.

Twilight Sparkle jumped on the hanging thread. "You don't know that she's doesn't feel the same way about mares," she said. "Is it someone I know?"

"Ya ... sure," said the pegasus.

Twilight Sparkle's eyes went wide as her mind raced through the list of potential mares it could be. She knew it had to be another pegasus because Rainbow Dash had let a comment slip earlier about flying loops around the track. She had also said that it was somebody that the princess knew.

"Fluttershy?!"

"No," said Rainbow Dash adamantly. "Please don't even suggest that to her or anyone else. If it ever got back to her she'd disappear into her house and never come out again."

"OK," said the alicorn. "If it's not Fluttershy, then who is it?"

"Twilight Sparkle," said the pegasus, poking her friend in the ribs with a hoof, "what did I tell you the first time you asked me that today? What makes you think my answer has changed?"

"You told me that it was none of my concern," said Twilight Sparkle sadly, but her mind began to race again. The pegasus had told her something else at the time too, hadn't she? The alicorn pushed that question to another part of her mind while she continued. "It's just that if I knew who it was, I could make an excuse to meet her for brunch - being a princess has its benefits. Then I could ask a few subtle questions to get a feel for whether or not she shares your orientation."

Rainbow Dash stared at Twilight Sparkle in disbelief for a second before her face twitched. A moment later she erupted into a torrent of laughter, clutching her chest as waves of mirth rolled over her. "You?" she said between guffaws. "Subtle?" The blue mare wiped a tear from her eye and then doubled over as the princess tried to sputter a rebuttal, trigging a redoubling of the laughter.

"I can be subtle," said Twilight Sparkle petulantly. She crossed her hooves over her chest and glared at the other mare, but it only triggered the pegasus again. This time Rainbow Dash literally rolled over onto her back and howled to the point of tears.

"You really have a way of cheering a gal up," said Rainbow Dash as she finally regained her composure and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Hey, I don't suppose you have a book on how to tell your folks they'll never have any grand foals."

"Ah, parents," said Twilight Sparkle with a grimace. "I know that pain all too well. At least I have a brother who has done his part to carry on the family line. That hasn't stopped them from keeping my baby furniture and toys for when I add to the royal line."

Rainbow Dash rolled over onto her side and propped herself up on an elbow. "Why haven't you?" she asked.

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "Because I haven't met the right special somepony yet, mom," she said in a longsuffering monotone. "Besides, maybe Cadence is the odd princess out. I don't seem to recall either Celestia or Luna working to expand their line."

"You make a good point," said Rainbow Dash. She rolled off the loveseat and stood by the desk, shaking out her mane. "I feel better after a good laugh. You know what would make me feel even more better? Let's get out of this stuffy library and go for a fly."

"It's not stuffy," protested Twilight Sparkle. The princess began to raise her usual arguments against leaving the library unattended, which Rainbow Dash shot down with her standard counter-arguments. Their ritual verbal dance continued all the way out the door, with the pegasus winning as she always did.

"I always win," the blue pony had said once, "because I know that the harder you fight it, the more it means you need to get out for a fly, so I argue even harder until you come to your senses."

When they emerged into daylight and kicked off for the sky, Twilight Sparkle admitted that her friend had made the right choice, as usual. The other pony's demeanor brightened immediately once she had the wind under her wings and a breeze blowing through her mane. As they lazily circled over Ponyville, letting the air currents govern their route, Rainbow Dash played her normal role of tour guide. She pointed out things that might be lost on somebody who did not typically see the town from the air.

"Looks like Pinkie Pie is planning something big," she said, pointing down at the earth pony who was arranging pies to cool on an outdoor rack. The little pink mare caught sight of her friends and greeted them with a broad wave. Twilight Sparkle gave an absent wave back, but her attention was focused more on her flight partner. The blue mare was talking up a storm while she grinned and pointed her hoof toward interesting sights on the ground.

The princess only processed every third or fourth word, nodding when she sensed that the other mare was looking for a response. In the meantime, her brain was reeling as she poured through their conversations from earlier in the morning, trying to pick up something important that she knew she had missed. Rainbow Dash had told her that she knew the other mare. She tried to think of who the pegasus had been giving a lot of her attention to lately, when a snippet of conversation floated across her memory.

"OK," said the alicorn. "If it's not Fluttershy, then who is it?"

"Twilight Sparkle," said the pegasus, poking her friend in the ribs with a hoof, "what did I tell you the first time you asked me that today? What makes you think my answer has changed?"

The princess's wings missed a beat when realization struck her like the Pony Express to the side of the head; she did know the mare that had Rainbow Dash love-struck. She floundered for a moment, plunged a few feet, and then recovered enough to hover in place while she settled back into a proper wing beat.

The pegasus swooped down and hovered beside her friend with an expression of concern. "Whoa, dude, are you okay? Do you need to land for a bit?"

Twilight Sparkle nodded furiously. She looked around and pointed at an open patch of grass on the side of a steep hill to their left. "There. Let's land there," she said.

"That's our reading spot," said Rainbow Dash as she dipped to follow the other pony. "I didn't bring a book with me, and I don't see you carrying any."

The two ponies alit on the grassy patch and spent a few moments settling their wings into place before they sat on the warm turf. Twilight Sparkle's face broke out into a sly grin as she looked over at her friend.

"I didn't bring a book," she said cryptically, "but I happen to know about a book that might cheer you up."

"Since when would a book cheer me up?" demanded the pegasus, rolling her eyes. "I don't know who you think you're sitting beside here, because I'm not a big reader."

"Oh, I don't know about that," said the princess, stifling a laugh. "I was going to wait for your birthday, but I have it on good authority that a certain Daring Do may have another book on the way," she continued in a singsong voice.

"NO WAY!" gasped Rainbow Dash, sitting up suddenly in shock. "I thought she was taking a hiatus from writing. Wait, I'm her biggest fan. How did you find out about this before me?"

"As a librarian, I get lists of upcoming books from the publishers," said Twilight Sparkle airily, polishing her hoof on her chest with an affectation of false humility. "Its street date isn't until after your birthday, but I pulled a few strings with the printers." She looked carefully in both directions as if looking for anybody else in earshot, then sidled over until she was right next to the other pony. The purple mare held a hoof up to the side of her muzzle, leaned in close and whispered, "being a princess has its perks, you know."

"Ohmygosh omygosh omygosh," burbled Rainbow Dash as she rubbed her hooves together with glee. "You were right, this did cheer me up." She grinned mischievously. "My birthday isn't that far away, and since you've spoiled the surprise, you're allowed to give me an early present."

"We'll see," said Twilight Sparkle as she stifled a yawn with a hoof. The alicorn stretched her wings to their full length, but only retracted one while leaving the other draped around the other pony's shoulders. The move was not lost on the pegasus.

"Uh ... Twilight ..." said Rainbow Dash hesitantly as she glanced back and forth between the wing and the mare attached to it.

"I can skip the next couple of steps if you want," said Twilight Sparkle, "because I know that it is me you've been talking about, and I already told you 'yes' back at the library."

Rainbow Dash sat bolt upright and put her hooves on her hips. "Wait, what? How could you possibly come to that conclusion?"

"Isn't it?" asked Twilight Sparkle with a tremble of uncertainty.

The pegasus glowered and crossed her hooves over her chest. "You think that just because I've fallen for a mare who's a friend and you're a mare who's a friend that somehow I must be talking about you?"

Twilight Sparkle hesitated. "It seemed pretty obvious when I said it..."

Rainbow Dash leaned into her friend and rested the side of her face against the taller pony's chest, but she still wore a pouty face of disapproval. "Ya, fine, whatever. It is you," she said, confusion showing openly on her face, "but that was a pretty risky guess."

"You told me it was me." Twilight Sparkle gave a rueful smile and blushed slightly. "You told me three times, actually, but I am a little slow on the uptake."

Rainbow Dash pushed herself away and blinked at the alicorn. "I told you?" she demanded.  "When did I tell you?"

"Every time I asked you who it was, you said my name."

She scrunched up her face in thought and then laughed. "Huh. I guess I did. I must have been trying to give you a hint." She looked up at Twilight Sparkle's face in time to see the alicorn stick out a tongue at her.

"Or maybe you are just terrible about keeping secrets," teased the princess.

Rainbow Dash laughed again, more heartfelt and like herself than she'd sounded all day. "Are your feathers still ruffled over that?" she said.

Twilight Sparkle simply stared ahead with a blank expression, but her sternness was belied by the extra squeeze she gave the pegasus with her wing hug.

"Ugh. Now I feel stupid for not just coming to you in the first place," said Rainbow Dash in a more serious tone. "I mean, I didn't know you were into ... mares. I've seen you checking out the flanks on more than one stallion."

The princess gave the other pony another squeeze with her wing. "I told you earlier that ponies are born to love in different ways," she said. "I am one of those mares who keeps their options open." She gave the pegasus a slightly tighter hug with her wing. "I was really happy for you when I thought you had found a special somepony," she continued, "but I admit that I was a bit crushed too. I've had feelings for you for a long time." She cast a rueful smile at the other pony. "I guess I should have said something too."

"Ya, that would have sucked for you if I'd found someone else," said Rainbow Dash. "'Cuz you'd have lost out on a real catch. Hey - is this the part where we're supposed to get all kissy and stuff?"

"I guess, if you ... mph!" said Twilight Sparkle, but was it hard to finish the sentence when she suddenly found herself flat on her back with a pegasus mouth planted firmly on hers. It was a long, lingering kiss that had been waiting too long for a quick peck to be sufficient. 

When Rainbow Dash finally drew back, she looked pensive for a moment and then burst out laughing. "The others are going to have a field day with this," she said. "I can just imagine what Rarity will have to say about it."

"Brace yourself, because she'll be fitting us both for wedding dresses," said Twilight Sparkle dryly. "If I know Pinkie Pie, she already had it figured out," she added. "I would not be surprised if that's why she was baking celebratory pies."

Rainbow Dash nodded emphatically in agreement. "It's downright creepy how she just seems to know these things before we even do. At least this should stop Fluttershy from trying to play matchmaker for me."

"It's touching how much all our friends care about us," said Twilight Sparkle. She smiled briefly before her expression melted to a wistful grin, and she looked down in thought.

"I feel like we're forgetting somepony..." began Rainbow Dash, but the other mare simply shook her head and shrugged. All through it, Twilight Sparkle still wore a sad-looking grin. Rainbow Dash frowned. "I ... kind of hoped this would be a happier occasion for you," she said.

"I haven't been this happy since I was accepted into the school of magic," said Twilight Sparkle, but she looked down and rubbed her front hooves together. "I can't think of any other pony I'd rather be with right now or ever, but you know me, and how my brain works."

"You're thinking way too far ahead," said the pegasus.

"I don't know how long an alicorn lives..." said Twilight Sparkle. She looked back up and met the other pony's gaze, but to her surprise, Rainbow Dash's face bore a cocky grin.

"Eh, I've got it all planned out," said the pegasus as she stepped off the other mare, letting the princess sit up again. "I just have to earn my horn before it becomes an issue. If you can earn your wings, I can earn a horn. Besides," she leaned in and gave her new lover another quick kiss, "I have the best coach a mare could ever hope to have for that."

"Rainbow Dash, it doesn't just work that way..." began Twilight Sparkle, but her gaze shifted out of focus and her wan grin became a little broader.  "... but maybe it can. I just remembered that I have a book for that!"

And they lived happily ever after. Mostly.

Although the castle library was never technically closed to the public, Twilight Sparkle had become very familiar with the ebb and flow of its customers. She knew that the odds were very slim that somebody would interrupt her studies, but if a visitor happened to stumble in during this normally dead time, they would have to resign themselves to seeing its keeper with an unkempt mane, bathrobe, and fuzzy slippers.

The alicorn entered the main library and approached her reading desk with a steaming mug of clover tea and a firm resolve to read the wretched book that lay in its centre. The author of the selfsame tome had given it to her at a book fair up in Canterlot almost a year earlier, but the writer's condescending demeanor and misguided take on the subject matter of the book left Twilight Sparkle reluctant to breech its pages. The pony sighed, set down her tea on the corner of the desk, and pulled up her reading chair.

A Treatise on the Scarcity of Friendship: Proper Stewardship of a Non-Renewable Resource.

Even the title of the book set the mare's teeth on edge. The thought of cracking the cover of the book filled her with mild despair, but she lived by the adage, "leave no book unread, no matter how painful or ignorant its contents." Twilight Sparkle firmly believed that there was as much benefit in reading bad research as there was in perusing sound studies; it was good to know what misinformation might need to be countered in the wild.

Twilight Sparkle had cleared her calendar and even chased away Spike for the day to eliminate all interruptions. Just as she was about to crease the book's virgin binding, though, she was interrupted by a polite, but firm knock on the library's main door. The princess was about to call, "Come in - we're open!" but quickly decided that it would be more polite to greet the unexpected guest at the door. Suppressing a guilty sigh of relief, she hopped down from her chair and trotted over to the main entrance.

She swung open the door and began her usual greeting. "Hello, and welcome to The Royal Ponyville Libra... oh! Hello, Rainbow Dash."

"Hi," said the pegasus. The pony outside the door had her hoof raised for another knock, but she quickly lowered it and stepped into the library as the princess moved aside. "I was, y'know, just in the neighbourhood and thought I'd stop by real quick to say hello." She glanced at the other mare's feet. "Nice slippers, your highness."

The other pony blushed slightly. "Thank you. They were a gift from Fluttershy." Twilight Sparkle patted a couple of wrinkles out of her bathrobe and brushed back an errant curl in her mane. "Sorry about my current state; I wasn't expecting any visitors today."

"Eh, you look fine," said Rainbow Dash with a quick, dismissive motion of her left hoof. She walked around the other mare and made a beeline to the reading desk. The pegasus glanced at the lone book on the desk and frowned. "Boy, that's got a lot of ... words on it." Then her eyes fell to the full cup of hot tea. "It looks like you were getting ready to do some reading," she said quickly and turned back toward the door. "I can come back later if now is a bad time."

"Now is a perfect time," said Twilight Sparkle reassuringly as she intercepted her friend and shepherded the blue mare back into the library. "I've been avoiding this book for so long that it can wait a bit longer. The only reason I have it is because the author insisted on literally shoving it into my hooves when I was up in Canterlot early last year."

"The author gave it to you for free? That was nice of her," said Rainbow Dash.

"You'd think so," replied her friend, "but she ruined that illusion very quickly." She cleared her throat. "I believe you will find this book invaluable," said Twilight Sparkle, mimicking the pretentious tone of the book's creator. "While I am sure you will eventually make a perfectly acceptable Princess of Friendship, you really could benefit from the proper guidance of an expert."

"Wow," said Rainbow Dash, gaping in disbelief. She pounded her right hoof into her left. "She's lucky I wasn't there to hear that."

"I'm sure," said Twilight Sparkle with a wry grin. She knew that her friend did not suffer fools gladly. Just as quickly, the librarian's expression turned serious. "Oh, but I'm an awful host when Spike is not around! Would you like some clover tea? I made enough for two cups."

The other mare shook her head emphatically and waved both of her hooves in declination. "I have to get back to work pretty soon. I just stopped in to say hi," she said quickly. Rainbow Dash glanced at her left foreleg. "In fact, look at the time; I better get hoofing it back to the job. So, uh, hi," she added brightly. The pegasus looped around the alicorn and trotted back toward the door.

Twilight Sparkle was unconvinced.

"Are you sure there wasn't another reason why you came by?" she asked, fixing her friend with a dubious look. "This seems like a long way to come just to say 'hi' when you could have dropped by after you were done work."

The other pony stopped in her tracks, sliding to a halt on the polished floor. She stood for a moment in deep thought before finally speaking. "Well..." she said hesitantly, slowly turning to face into the room again before lapsing silent for a long moment. Rainbow Dash drew a deep breath and released it slowly. She nervously traced a circle on the floor with her right hoof and said, "well, I guess there was one little thing. I mean, it looks like you're busy and stuff, so I can come back when you have more time. There's just this ... thing - that is, I was wondering if you might be able to, y'know, answer a couple of ... see, I've got this friendship question that - eek!"

She ended on a note of surprise when she felt a padded chair slam into her hindquarters, buckling her knees and landing the hapless mare in its depths before sliding her quickly up to the back side of the librarian's reading table. Rainbow Dash found herself cinched awkwardly up to the desk with Twilight Sparkle facing her from the other side. The royal pony was sitting upright in her reading chair with her hind legs crossed and her front hooves resting on the desktop. The princess's slippers and bathrobe had vanished, replaced by half-moon reading glasses perched on the end of her muzzle, with their gold chain looped casually around the back of the neck. The only other thing she was wearing was a huge, beaming smile.

"A friendship question, you say?" Twilight Sparkle waved her right hoof in a circle, pointing at the heaps and shelves of books surrounding. Her winsome smile morphed into something closer to a self-deprecating grin. "I may know a thing ... or two about the subject."

"Uh, ya," said Rainbow Dash dryly. She braced her front hooves on the edge of the desk and pushed her chair back with a noisy squeal of wood on polished marble. The blue mare leaned back in the lush seat, crossed her front hooves behind her head, and wiggled her butt down into the cushion. "Man, how did you score such comfy seats for the library?" She unhooked one of her hooves long enough to stifle a broad yawn. "A girl could totally catch a nap in this thing."

"Focus," said Twilight Sparkle tersely. She was standing now, with her back hooves on the chair and her front hooves planted on the desk. "You have a friendship question, and I have friendship answers. Are you having a falling-out with somepony?" Before Rainbow Dash could answer, the princess continued throwing out questions like a verbal machine gun. "Were you the subject of some gossip? Are you trying to come to terms with a frenemy? Are you misinterpreting friendship gestures from another species? Is Tank mad at you? Are you getting turbid signals from...?"

"Twilight, stop it!" said Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was pressing her hooves to the side of her head. "I don't even know what that last one even means!" The blue pony launched herself into the air and hovered in place as she was wont to do when she was trying to gather her thoughts. Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle gave a gasp of alarm and threw herself bodily on the desk with her forelegs splayed wide to protect her notes from flying away.

While the librarian carefully gathered up all of her pages and stacked them protectively under the large book, Rainbow Dash considered how to word her question.

"It's complicated," the pegasus said finally. "I've got this..." she paused. "I've got this friend."

"Yes?" prompted Twilight Sparkle when the other mare paused for a few seconds. The princess was sitting back in her own chair again with a quill and notepad at the ready. She scribbled out a couple of quick notations on the pad. "And you had a ... question regarding this friend?"

"Well, so, like, I was lying awake last night - I've been doing that a lot lately," said Rainbow Dash, gesticulating with a hoof at her quick aside. "Anyway, I finally realized that I couldn't sleep because I can't stop thinking about this friend." She tapped her hooves together nervously and bit her lip. "I tried counting clouds in my head to help me sleep - that usually works - but then I realized that they all looked a lot like the friend that I couldn't stop thinking about. Like ... a lot."

"I see," said the princess, nodding. She scribbled some more notes on her pad, muttering to herself as she wrote. "Clouds ... Friend ... obsession ..."

The hovering pony sighed again. "So I started thinking that if I couldn't stop thinking about this friend that maybe this friend was turning into something more than a, um, friend for me, and..." Rainbow Dash stopped and winced, jamming hooves in her ears against a squee that measured on the Richter scale.

"Rainbow Dash," exclaimed Twilight Sparkle as the quill and notepad clattered noisily to the desk. She pressed her hooves to her cheeks, pushing her mouth into a big 'O' of delight. "You're in love?"

The other pony's response was quick and adamant. She frantically waved her hooves in a defiant gesture and snapped, "I am not in love. Love is one of those mushy things that ponies in lame fairy tales do. I'm just in extra awesome friendship with somepony."

"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh," babbled the alicorn, who was nigh panting in elation. She hopped from her chair in her excitement and pranced in a couple quick circles of glee. "What's his name? Who's the lucky stallion? Tell me! Telltelltelltell!"

"Twilight Sparkle," said the other mare, landing gracefully beside her chair. "Their name is not your concern."

The librarian frowned and rubbed her chin with her right hoof. "I think that I know most of the stallions up on Cloudsdale," she said pensively, "but I don't remember that name. Is he new?"

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and clapped a hoof across her forehead. "I mean I'm not going to tell you yet," she said. "I don't totally know if the feeling is shared, and I don't want word getting out if things don't work out because that would make it kinda weird for both of us." The blue pony pointed an accusatory hoof at the other mare. "And no offence Twilight, but you're terrible at keeping secrets."

"That's not fair," said Twilight Sparkle, but her defeated tone suggested that she acknowledged at least a small particle of truth in the other pony's words. "Letting one or two small secrets slip out does not constitute a general pattern." She sighed. "You don't have to tell me his name if you don't want to," she added sadly. "But you did say that you had a friendship question for me."

"Oh, ya," said Rainbow Dash. She shuffled her hooves on the marble floor and worked her jaw while she tried to formulate her question. "Well, it's just that ... which is to say, if I have these feelings for another pony and I don't know for sure the feelings work the other way - though they'd be totally missing out if they weren't - uh, what do I do?"

"Love..." Twilight Sparkle caught herself quickly when she saw the other pony casting a stink eye in her direction. The princess responded with a wan grin and started again. "This level of, uh, friendship is more Cadence's specialty," she said, "but I think I have a couple of books that could help."

"Well, duh," said Rainbow Dash, waving at the racks and stacks of books. "Of course you do. I think you've probably got books that haven't even been written yet."

That teased a snerk out of the princess. She pranced over to a nearby row of shelves and began walking slowly down its length, muttering softly as she glanced at the titles and rejected them. "The ABC's of Infatuation ... Stalking Made Easy  ... The Naughty Vicar ...Oh, here we go - Lov ... uh, Awesome Friendship for Beginners." She pulled the book from its spot and blew tentatively across the top to clear it of dust - not that any book typically had much time to gather that in her library. Twilight Sparkle cantered back to her reading desk with the volume hovering in front of her as she went. She cleared space on her desk with a quick sweep of her right foreleg and plopped the book in the middle.

Rainbow Dash stepped up to the other side of the desk and squinted down at the text.  "So it's all in here," she said, tapping the cover with a hoof. "It's not very thick."  Rainbow Dash shook her head and made no attempt to hide her doubt. "It seems like a pretty big thing to try and cram into such a small book."

"The author is very masterful at covering a lot of concepts with an economy of words," said Twilight Sparkle in a slightly sharper voice than she had intended, making the other mare jump back a step in surprise at her tone. One did not simply come into the pony's library and criticize her children - or 'books' as other ponies would call them. The alicorn flipped back the cover of the book and turned a few pages into it. "You seem pretty sure of your feelings, so I think we can safely skip the first chapter."

"Oh, I'm sure," said Rainbow Dash. She reared up and clamped her hooves to her chest. "My heart's thumping like mad just thinking about them right now!"

"About ... who was it again?" asked the other pony cagily.

"Twilight Sparkle," admonished Rainbow Dash sharply with a firm stamp of her hoof.

"Okay," said the other mare, bowing her head and lowering her ears contritely. "You can't blame a girl for being curious." She quickly recovered her composure and paged ahead some more before stopping at a section and glancing up at Rainbow Dash. "You're certain that it's not just a crush?"

"It's not a crush," replied the pegasus firmly.  "I'm not a filly anymore, Twilight. I think I know my own feelings. It's not my feelings I'm worried about."

"OK," muttered Twilight Sparkle. She turned a few more pages before she stopped again. "If you are sure of your feelings then I guess it's not infatuation either, right?" When she saw the blue mare's jaw set, she continued quickly. "Sorry Rainbow Dash, I'm just being thorough since this is a little out of my normal field of expertise." The other pony shrugged and shook her head, so the librarian dug deeper into the tome. She paused briefly at the next chapter before she blushed and furtively flipped an entire block of well-worn pages. "We definitely won't need that chapter," she said primly.

"Wait. Hold up," said Rainbow Dash, who had seen the page just long enough to catch the word "lust."

If the other pony had heard her, she gave no sign. "Here we go," said the alicorn. "This chapter covers the next steps." Twilight Sparkle flipped the glasses that had fallen against her chest back up onto her muzzle and quickly scanned through a few pages, humming softly to herself while Rainbow Dash watched nervously from the other side of the desk, hopping from hoof to hoof and glancing up and down between the book and the princess. After an eternal minute of reading, the mare clapped the book shut with a firm slap. "It seems pretty straightforward," she said with a curt nod.

"It does?" Rainbow Dash had jumped back again in a start when the book slammed, but she clopped nervously back up to the desk. "Then spit it out. What do I do?"

"First," said Twilight Sparkle holding up a hoof, "you have to meet him someplace where you are both comfortable. Make sure you have a good reason for it, like a picnic, or tea, or just to be somewhere that you and your friend both like to hang out."

"Find a place to hang out," repeated Rainbow Dash, nodding as if she were taking mental notes. "Then what do I do?"

"Then you talk," said the princess.

"Talk," said Rainbow Dash flatly. She scrunched up her face pensively, and then frowned. "I thought there would be more to it," she said. "What do I talk about?"

"I wasn't finished," said Twilight Sparkle, mildly scolding her friend. "You talk about your friend. Get him verbally engaged about something that interests him. While he's speaking, you slide in closer to show you are interested until your bodies - usually your flanks - are just touching to see how he reacts."

Rainbow Dash paced in a slow circle and fidgeted with her wings while she recited the next lesson. "Talk about their hobbies, then slide over and see how they react." She stopped and frowned again. "Wait, so how might they react?"

"Well," said the princess. She raised her left hoof. "If he pulls away from the touch then it means you are moving too fast - too fast even for you," she added quickly. She raised her right hoof. "On the other hoof, if he doesn't object to the contact, then move on to the next step."

"Gotcha," said the other mare. "If there's no flinch, it's a cinch. What's the next step?"

Twilight Sparkle blinked. "Good idea with the mnemonic," she said, but at her friend's blank stare she clarified, "rhyming to make it easier to remember."  She slowly circled the desk until she was standing by the blue pony. "Once you know he is not going to pull away, move in even closer."  The alicorn surreptitiously stretched out a wing and wrapped it around the other mare's shoulder, giving her friend a little tug with the wingtip while trying to look nonchalant about it.

"Hey," said Rainbow Dash with a laugh, brushing away the wing quickly. "I never took you for the cheeky type."

The princess grinned and winked at her friend before continuing. "Start to talk with him about your friendship," she said as she walked around the desk again. "Reaffirm your friendship with him. Let him know how much he means to you, and then tell him about your deeper feelings for him before you ask if he feels the same." She paused, and then continued in a more somber tone. "Just be prepared for him to say 'no'."

The blue pony rose up on her hind legs and thumped her chest solidly with her front hooves. "Hey, who would say 'no' to this?"

Twilight Sparkle grinned again and shrugged. "I'm just telling you what it says in the book," she said. She held up her right hoof. "And you said yourself that you didn’t know if it was reciprocated. In the unlikely chance he says 'no', let him know that you still want to be his friend, and tell him that you are open to talking about it if his feelings change."

"What if they say 'yes', though?"

The princess smiled. "Then you have yourself a special somepony, and a stallion has himself an awesome somepony."

Rainbow Dash reared up and clapped her hooves together excitedly. "This sounds way easier than I expected," she said with open glee. "I've totally got this." She trotted around to her friend and gave Twilight Sparkle a tight hug around the neck. "Thanks, Twilight. You're the best! I mean it!" Her friend returned the hug awkwardly, giving the blue pegasus a reassuring pat on the back.

"Go get him, tiger," she said, gifting her friend with a wistful smile. "Go make some lucky stallion's day."

"I've totally got this," said Rainbow Dash as Twilight Sparkle accompanied her to the door. "I even take back most of the things I've said about non-adventure books being useless!"

"Hey," said Twilight Sparkle, but the pegasus easily dodged her playful wing slap. "Just promise me that you'll introduce me to him as soon as he says 'yes'."

"Twilight, I promise that you will be the first to know when this goes down," agreed Rainbow Dash as she darted out of the room.

Twilight Sparkle closed the door behind her friend and was just turning away when she heard voices on the other side. She hadn't realized that Rainbow had brought anyone with her, and though she respected her friend's privacy, curiosity pulled her head back around to the egress.

She managed to catch a few words like "stop being a chicken" and "just do it, Dashie" before the talkers moved out of hearing range.