4. Cleanup

My feet hit the pavement roughly, still not used to jumping out of a truck rather than sliding off my motorcycle. I thanked Applejack again for the ride, and for the seraphic scent of pancakes, bacon and grits I had woken up to at dawn that morning. I had rolled myself out of bed in one tangled confused mess, forgetting that she had stayed the night, and staggered into the kitchen to find her smiling, laughing and shoving food into my hands. She had even pulled me out of my apartment with a folded heap of syrupy pancake fresh in my mouth and dragged me to school on time. I was there before the bell even rang, for Christ's sake.

I slouched a bit as I blinked the sunlight from my eyes, touching my still messy hair with my hands. I glanced over at Applejack for the hundredth time that morning, loving the way she filled out the chest of my Wondercolts letterman jacket. It even had my damn name on the back, so I could not even hope to stare at her enough. I had lent it to her for the morning, seeing as how it was still quite cool after the storm. I noticed Rarity walking past the front doors, and she looked out towards me. Something must have stopped her mid-step, because she just stood there with this puzzled look on her face as I approached the entrance.

I told Applejack some kind of joke I don't even remember, before reaching up and fixing her still somewhat knotted hair. She shoved me off and stuck her tongue out at my actions, which only made me laugh harder. She covered up her messy hair with that same old cowboy hat she adorned so well, and we parted ways once we made it into school. She had told me she was supposed to meet Twilight and Fluttershy to go over some Math problems, and needless to say I was not interested in that garbage. It didn't seem to matter anyway, as just when I entered the school Rarity grabbed me by the arm and rudely pulled me into the stairwell, which luckily was empty but did faintly echo if you spoke too loudly.

"What are you doing?" Rarity asked me simply, though her tone seemed less than pleasant. I blinked a couple times and went to respond, but she cut me off, "Your motorcycle was here when I arrived, so why are you just getting here now?" I scratched at the back of my head and again went to respond, but she was faster, "Did you spend the night with Applejack? Did you try to seduce her?!"

"Rarity, one question at a time," I put up my hands to slow her down before checking the corner nervously and going on, "Look, the storm was really bad after baseball practise, so I asked Applejack if she wanted to stay over at my place, that's all."

"That's all?" She prodded again, knowing that something else was wrong considering my elevated mood and my evasive behaviour. "She's wearing your jacket, Rainbow. Whether you like it or not, people might talk. You don't want to hurt Applejack, now do you?"

"Relax Rare, no one is going to talk okay, we're just friends and friends loan each other clothes, right?" I played around with her suspicions, but she was not buying it. She just kept glaring at me, waiting for me to spill the beans the way I always did. I loved to talk about Applejack, that certainly hadn't changed, "Well, I mean there was this one kiss."

"This—what?!" She shouted loudly and I cringed as it reverberated at a deafening decibel around the stairwell. I blinked as the ringing in my ears subsided slightly, "You kissed her?!"

"Quite down, will you? Jeez," I gestured for her to keep her voice down, checking the entire stairwell once more to be sure we were still alone, "It wasn't really a kiss, I mean it was but it was like an accident, okay? We were lying in my bed, and—"

"She was in your bed?!" Her whispers were sharp and shocked, and she nearly grabbed and shook me to get the answers out faster.

"It didn't mean anything! We were just screwing around and," I clamped my hand over her mouth as I saw that look in her eyes that told me she was about to scream again, "Not like that. It was friendly, good-natured screwing around, like wrestling and talking and stuff."

"Wrestling isn't exactly what I choose to do with my good friends." Rarity pointed out into the palm of my hand, which I removed and shook out like her voice on my skin was disgusting. "Back to the kissing!"

"It was not kissing, it was one kiss and even that was, well like I said it just sort of happened accidentally," I tried to convince her, my eyes darting around the stairwell and my voice falling into a hush again, "We were just lying there and our lips just, just like lightly brushed against each other, okay?"

"You can't just go around accidentally kissing your friends, Rainbow Dash," She explained in a scolding tone, waving her finger around at me, "What did she do?"

"That's just it! She pulled away and acted like it didn't even happen," I felt my voice faltering with disappointment and hurt, but shrugged it off and went on, "At first, anyway. Then she like, hugged me. It was kind of nice."

"I told you, she's trying to let you down easy!" Rarity touched her forehead and scrunched up her face just to imagine how awkward it had been, "You're not going to bring it up, are you?"

"Of course not," I scoffed, shoving my hands into my pockets and frowning. I hated talking about it, I mean when I had been lying there it was like the happiest moment of my life, but Rarity was making me think about how Applejack must have felt. It made me feel really guilty and selfish and horrible. "Applejack is my best friend, I'm not going to ruin that just because I'm in—" I stopped myself, chewing my words over carefully. If I actually said it out loud, that meant that it was true. Instead, I substituted the word for one that seemed less incriminating but equally true, "Considerate, inconsiderate."

"Well good," Rarity seemed to agree, and she began to leave but briefly paused, "Listen, I know this is hard for you, Rainbow Dash. I am truly sorry that it can't seem to work out the way you wish."

"You and me both." I growled as I acted aloof, flipping my multi-coloured hair like nothing could bothered me. I followed her out of the stairwell, but she seem to dislike the silence as much as I did.

"So," She continued on, looking around a bit as we entered the main hallway, though we were far enough away from anyone else that they could not have heard us, "How was it?"

"How was—?" I suddenly realized what she must have been asking about, and felt myself blushing a bit as the memory of the kiss came back to me. I let out a heavy sigh as an uncontrollable smile broke my attempt at subtly, "It was awesome."

Rarity laughed a bit at my response and shook her head, finding me somehow amusing. She continued walking with me until we found our way to the rest of the group. The bell for first period rang before I knew it, and I helped Applejack and Twilight clean up this mosaic of papers scribbled with Mathematics and strewn about on the floor. Once or twice I had accidentally touched Applejack's hand, and every time she nervously pulled away or averted her attention. Maybe Rarity was right, maybe I had put her in an awkward place, maybe she did feel like she had to let me down or something. I hadn't been expecting her to feel the same anyway, but it was still disappointing.

I didn't get to see much of Applejack for about a week, I was busy with some of my other teams and she had to study for this important Mathematics test. I would actually be willing to admit that I missed her. Sure, we hung out with the rest of our friends and still even managed to joke around like usual, but something had definitely changed. I even caught her looking at me a few times, like she was trying to figure me out or something.

I didn't tell anyone else about the kiss, and from what I could tell Applejack didn't either. She was probably still trying to forget it even happened honestly, and I suppose that was fine. But still, somehow even just seeing her made me go nuts with not only that same lust, but with this aggravating anger or frustration too. Usually with me, if I saw something that I wanted, I did everything in my power to get it. But I couldn't do that with Applejack, I didn't want to screw us up or make her uncomfortable or whatever.

What made it worse what that even though she seemed different in a way, she had also gotten more physical with me: she would put her arm around me to mutter something funny, she would adjust the batting helmet on my head if it was crooked, She would grab my hand or link our arms if she ever told me to follow her, she even came up behind me and put her hands on me when she was showing me how to get more power behind my swing. Maybe I was just overreacting, I mean we had always been good friends, close friends. It was stupid, I mean come on I had a million more important things to deal with than some silly crush, so why was I obsessing? God, I was such a moron sometimes.

Before I knew it, we were playing our first real baseball game. We were the home team, which suited us best seeing as how this field was familiar and all. I wasn't worried of course, with Applejack on our team the opponents really didn't stand much of a chance. The team had learned a lot from her too, and I was confident that we would be on the top of our game when it counted. I slipped my white mitt onto my hand, feeling my fingers fill the holes perfectly. I leaned against the fence in our dugout, waiting for the rest of the team to show up. As captain, I had to come out here first and make certain the field was ready, the equipment was in good repair, all that boring crap. I grabbed a baseball that had been sitting on the bench beside me and began tossing it lightly into the air. Up and down, up and down, the seams spun around and blurred into the off white of the familiar object. I extended my fingers again to catch the ball, but nearly jumped as someone else snatched it from above me.

"Well howdy there, Dash." Applejack was leaning her shoulder against the fence, playing with my baseball, "I didn't expect you to be out here so early."

"Somebody's got to be captain, it's an important responsibility you know," I leisurely replied, watching her spin the object in her fingers. It made me wonder just how good she was with her hands after all, but instead of asking I decided to take it away from her, "Give me that back."

"What, the baseball?" She asked as she raised one eyebrow, noticing the way I pouted that she had taken my play thing from my grasp. That must have peaked her interest. She turned it again and tossed it quickly and caught it once more, "I reckon you'll hafta come and take it."

"A.J., come on," I tried to play it cool, gesturing for her to just toss it back.

"What? You can't expect me to just give you whatever you want just 'cause you're my captain, y'know." Applejack made some unconcerned face as she popped the ball up into the air and did some fancy handling. Her words made me shiver to hear, teasing me with what I really wanted.

She spun the ball over the back of her hand and flipped it into the air, rolling it over her arms and sending it several feet above her. I didn't know how she learned such odd techniques, but I imagined it must have come from goofing around in the apple orchard. I was on my feet at once, finding her display some act to try and outdo me. With me you see, everything was a competition. I nearly tackled her as I tried to reach to grab the now plummeting ball, but her body moved against mine, turning us around in some twirl that gave her the advantage. She snatched the ball from the air above me again, taking it out of my clutches.

I struggled to try and get around to and take it back, but she merely chuckled and held it a few inches from my fingertips. Not one to be outdone, clearly, I grabbed onto her shoulders and pulled myself closer, but could not hold myself high and reach up at the same time. Instead, I wrapped my arm around her neck and jumped a bit, my thigh brushing against her hip until just the tip of my finger touched the ball. She pulled away a bit until we stepped out of the dugout and started laughing at the ridiculousness of our own antics.

"Uh, guys?" Applejack went still and let me down as she heard someone speak to us, and I used her moment of hesitation to jump up and grab the ball from her, landing squarely in front of her and sticking my tongue out in triumph. She looked back over at me and laughed a bit, shoving me for being such a cheat.

"Heya girls, sorry 'bout that, y'all know how this rascal can be." Applejack chuckled a little more as she adjusted herself and went to address the group of our friends which I had just now noticed had arrived.

"We came to say good luck, so good luck!" Pinkie Pie squealed in excitement as she bounded around a bit. Clearly this is why I didn't usually invite her to my games.

"Yes, we do wish you well," Rarity looked sternly at me as I clasped my newly recovered ball in my gloved hand and returned the dull expression. She was always getting into my business when it came to Applejack, making sure I didn't screw it up or whatever, "Though I hardly see what's so fun about running around in the dirt with a little ball and some sticks."

"Oh, Rarity, It's mighty kind of you to stop by when you ain't so much for sports." Applejack accepted her appearance as selfless and flashed her a genuine smile.

"It's not so much the sport, darling, as it is the running around, the throwing things, the hitting things," Rarity began to list off as Applejack and I shared knowing smirks, finding her explanation kind of hilarious, "Oh, and the unimaginative uniforms."

"Rarity even brought these cute little Wondercolt ears and tails to wear in the stands!" Pinkie Pie cheered as she shook her tail around and spun about randomly. "And Fluttershy was practising her cheering all the way here!"

"Um," Fluttershy cleared her throat and tried to make something that might have resembled a cheer if said into a megaphone, "Yay!"

"Nice work Fluttershy, you're getting better." I congratulated her as I clapped my hand on her shoulder, which I think frightened her a bit.

"So I was reading over your batting order," Twilight spoke up with this piece of paper in her hands, and the words sounded foreign to her mouth as she spoke them. Leave it to Twilight to brush up on baseball statistics and stuff before a game, "Applejack's fourth in the line. Doesn't that make her the, the cleanup hitter?"

"Somethin' like that I s'pose," Applejack shuffled nervously as they talked about her. We had put her in that spot since she had the most physical strength out of any of us, she even hit harder than most of the guys on the boy's team. "Rainbow here bats second, so I reckon I won't be cleanin' up nothin' if she don't get on base."

"Count on that much," I pointed a thumb at myself as I gave out this cocky grin. Me with the most hits, there was no doubt I'd be early on in the batting order. "I would have been first, of course, but the girls like me to give a pep talk at the beginning of the game, so I can't spend all my time on the bases."

"I thought it was 'cause if you're the first batter you get this big ol' head and swing at anythin'?" Applejack teased me with a poke, and I frowned at the truthfulness of the statement.

"Whatever," I groaned as I stretched out my arms lazily, "You girls better go and find seats, stands are filling up pretty quick and the game's about to start."

"You're right. Good luck you two!" Twilight Sparkle smiled at us and she gave us two awkwardly formed thumbs-ups. "Score a lot of, um," She thought for a second to remember the right word, "Runs!"

"Plannin' on it." Applejack chuckled as she saw them off, walking them to the gate and waving at them until they had returned to the stairs towards the stands. By then, the rest of the team had begun to assemble, jogging over from the trail that lead to the change rooms. Applejack turned back to me and grinned, moving closer, "Beg pardon."

"Hey!" I whined as she grabbed the ball again from my gloved hand. I could feel the way her hand moved around inside my own, though the leather of the glove made it difficult to feel correctly. I scrunched up an annoyed face as she showed me the ball in her hand, gripping it the way she did when she threw her forkball.

"Pitcher touches the ball first Dash," She reminded me of the truth as she grabbed her own glove and took me out onto the field to greet the rest of the team, "'Sides, we gotta warm up with a few catches 'fore the game starts."

The beginning of any game seems inconsequential. I learned that rather quickly as I spent so much of my time playing them. All anyone really cared about was the outcome, and like in any movie, show, book or what have you, all the important stuff goes down in the last few moments. Of course, maybe there was some truth to that. At the start, we had been diplomatic and flipped a coin, which ended up giving the first at bat to the guest, putting us on the field first. But soon enough it didn't even seem to matter. Here we were, anyway, the game charging on like we had raced to the top of the ninth inning. The score was in their favour by one run, but the bottom of the ninth was our chance to pull it back up. Applejack had been pitching one hell of a game, and managed to strike out almost all of their batters throughout their order. Still, we had let two runners hit home and this last hit gave them a third, leaving us behind with only two runs. But with a score like 2-3, it should not have been hard to pick it up and take the win, right?

There was still a runner on third, but the other bases were empty and Applejack intended to keep it that way. I could see the exhaustion draining her, and if I had counted I knew she must have been going on towards a hundred pitches, which was kind of normal for a game where she pitched the whole time and threw around three balls to each hitter, three outs per inning. We didn't have a backup pitcher to help her out, and she was not the type to back down at the most crucial time in a game anyway. But as her last official pitch rolled off of her fingers, perhaps she did not feel so confident about leading us to victory.

The bat smacked it clean through the air, sending it soaring through the great blue sky like some sprinting cloud. The hitter dropped the bat and went running, but no one on the team gave one damn about her while there was a runner on third, who took off towards home. I was at my usual position on third base, and it really pissed me off to see the runner making their way home with a clear shot. I heard the ball get caught in the outfield, marking their second out of the inning. But still, the runner approached home to tag their forth run, and our outfielder had only just thrown it back, her arm not nearly what I wished it was. The ball was slow and the arc was high, and the more I watched it, the more I realized just how poor of a throw it was.

The ball was not going to make it. It would land several yards ahead of home plate and there was no way anyone could throw it fast enough to beat the runner, nor could the catcher run up and get it without losing the run to an empty plate. I was too far away myself, or else I would have gave it a shot, but not even the short stop was near enough to make it work. Besides, the amount of time it would take someone to catch the ball, take it out of their glove, turn around and toss it was way longer than the time it would take for the runner to clear the last several paces. If the runner made it in, we would be left with making up three runs in the last down to claim victory, something that seemed nearly impossible at our level of exhaustion, and with another run down our morale would plummet so low we might as well just give right up.

But Applejack was no quitter, I knew that well about her. I remembered this one time when her brother had been injured, it was harvesting season and she vowed to finish the harvest all on her own. She worked and worked for hours, days even, until her body physically succumbed to the exhaustion. Even then, in this delirious state of subconsciousness, she continued to carry buckets and buckets of apples out of the orchard. She was just crazy like that, and that same determination and diligence that I knew her for shone out now in our time of need.

Applejack cleared the distance between the mound and where the ball would fall, a mere step or two forwards. In that same stride, she leap into the air. But she did not raise her glove to the ball, no, she did something much more daring and desperate. She raised her right hand, a risk no pitcher should take, and snatched that baseball with her bare hand, turning around in mid-air and actually full-on pitching the ball right to the catcher before her feet touched the ground. It broke through the air the same speed as her fastball, and smacked into the catcher's perfectly positioned mitt barely an instant before the runner's feet hit the plate.

"Out!" The umpire shouted and gestured the call for the whole field to see.

Applejack blinked in surprise from her awkward position nearly on one knee, her right hand still extended at the end of her half-wind-up. She stood back up slowly as the crowd deafened us with their astounded shots and cheers. I could see the surprise present on her face, shocked either by her ambitious and ridiculous move or by the way the entire populous in the stands rose to their feet and shouted out her name. She shook out her hand and winced, looking down at it like it bothered her. Before I knew it, I was running full sprint up to the mound, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her perhaps a bit too violently.

"Holy shit, A.J., are you okay?" I looked at her right in the eyes as she stiffened up in my hands. I shook my head back and forth as I raised my voice a bit and heard it crack in a few places, "You must be freaking crazy, bare-handing a ball like that! You have to take better care of your hand as a pitcher, you could have really hurt yourself!"

"I'm fine, Rainbow. It just stings a little is all." She nervously replied, trying to pry me off of her and avoid all the attention.

"Stings? Here let me see it." I leaned forwards and grabbed her hand, pulling it close to me and inspecting the tenders of her palm. It was unusually soft despite the callouses that lined just below her fingers and traced her fingers. They were definitely the hands of a hard worker, but all the same she yanked them from my grasp and blushed at the contact.

"Rainbow, you're embarrassing' me! You're gonna make everyone think I'm hurt or somethin'." Her voice fell into a whisper as she tried to act like nothing was wrong. I didn't buy it, I mean that girl wouldn't ask for help if she had to run a marathon with one leg.

"Well are you?" I pryingly asked, asserting myself into her evasive gaze, "I shouldn't have to tell you that you can catch a ball much more easily with the glove, and it's one of the few protective pieces of gear you wear, now quit squirming and let me get a good look!" I grouchily prod at her hand again, testing the sensitivity of her nerves. She still wouldn't look at me, and something told me she was ashamed or thought I was actually angry with her. I let loose a smile to tell her otherwise once I realized she was fine, and stepped forwards until our eyes met at last. I just held her hand then, feeling the heat and strength in them. My tone went into a more lively one, and I allowed myself to compliment her though it made me blush to speak aloud. "But damn it Applejack, that was one awesome play. You really are something."

"You ain't gonna kiss me again, are you?" A crooked grin graced her face, and I felt my heart jump up into my ears and my face go scarlet. It was such a simple question, but she had shattered our unspoken agreement never to address it. I don't even think she realized how terrified she made me, jusst bringing it up!

I could not have uttered a word if my life depended on it, I just stood there with my mouth hanging ajar and my cheeks bright red, gawking at her. She must have just thought I looked hilarious, because she just chuckled a bit and turned away, going back towards the dugout as our teams switched to at bat. There was this horribly sinking feeling in my stomach, like that she thought I was a joke or something. My feet numbly moved beneath me as I left the mound I had tended to her on, and it felt like I was about to pass out from the stress and worry. My ears were ringing and my palms were sweating like nothing else, I had never felt so scared and uncomfortable.

I could see her a few paces ahead of me, removing her glove and tossing it onto the bench. The other girls were hitting her on the shoulder and praising her, I could tell, but as usual she just smiled and brushed it off. We were back at the top of the batting order I realized, as the girl who batted before me slipped on the protective helmet and adjusted it to fit better. That meant that I was second to bat, and that just made it even worse. I was never a nervous person, especially not while I was in the middle of a game. Competitive spots were relaxing to me, they were where I really excelled. But I did not feel so confident today, not right now anyway.

As I reached the dugout and kept my anxiety to myself, as well as my words, I realized that despite Applejack's amazing play on the field, the team was still less than certain to win. I slipped my fingers into some of the holes on the fence and leaned against it, peeking through the spaces between the wires to see the scoreboard. Bottom of the ninth and we were still a run behind, which meant pulling two more out of our asses to assure victory. It was as though I could feel just how many eyes were tracing the scores, because everyone else fell quiet and the stands were hardly different.

"What's with all the sour faces?" I heard Applejack's southern dialect roll off her lips, and we all looked over at her, "One run ain't nothin' to worry about. Y'all just worry about getting' on base, leave the rest to me."

"Applejack's right," I found myself agreeing with her before I even thought about it, "The first game we play lays out exactly how the rest of the season will go. I sure as hell don't want to be the kind of team that quits in the last inning, and if any of you think differently you might as well just pack up and ditch." The rest of the team looked at each other a few times, but no one made to move, "Bottom of the ninth, one run behind. Just one damn run, guys. This game is ours." I said simply as I shoved off the fence, grabbing my own batting helmet and snatching up a bat, swinging it over my shoulder.

I stood a few yards from home plate on-deck, watching our first batter make her way there and settle in. She was a fine batter, which is why she was first, if I knew her she'd be able to get on base easy. I rested my folded hands on the top of the bat as I squatted down in front of it, trying to steady my breathing as best I could. The opposing team was still getting into formation and their pitcher made sure to check that damn scoreboard once more, smiling about it like a bitch. I glanced over my shoulder as I saw Applejack step up beside me, placing her hands on her hips and speaking in that low voice I loved to hear.

"Just get on base, Rainbow. Cloudchaser's battin' after you, and she ain't a bad batter. I bet she can gettcha to second no problem, and with no outs we're lookin' pretty good." She reminded me, and I absently nodded. She took another breath as she looked out towards the pitcher, "This pitcher's been throwing breaking balls all over the zone at my every at bat, I think she knows that I can hit." She huffed a laugh and shook her head, but ended up peering down and meeting my eyes, placing a hand on my shoulder, "I doubt I'll be able to get a home run, but I'm sending you home at least, got it?"

"How do you figure?" I responded as I watched our batter swing, missing the ball by a fraction of an inch. I rubbed my fingers against each other irritably.

"Just listen close. Pitcher's gonna try and make me pop it up for an out, but I ain't gonna let 'em off so easy." Applejack suddenly leaned down real close next to me and covered her mouths in case anyone was watching, keeping her lips barely inches from my ear. "If all goes well, you should be on second when I get up to bat, so get a good lead. I'm aiming to hit that first ball nice and hard, so right when he pitches it you take off, steal third, and you just keep on goin'."

"Keep going?" I turned sharply to face her, surprised at such a bold request.

"You heard me, they're outfield shifts to third for defence when I'm up, so I'munna hit it straight past second. That means right after the pitch goes out, you keep your head down, y'hear? Unless you want a big ol' purple bruise to compliment that hair a'yours." She leaned against me for a second to tell me she was just joking, but this serious.

"But that centre fielder can catch anything A.J.,." I warned her, looking at the girl who they had positioned the farthest back.

"That don't matter Rainbow, she ain't half as fast as my hits and she throws like a girl, even if she does manage to catch it, she'll never be able to get it to home and I know your feet can outrun two or three passes back. Now, you in?" Applejack raised her eyebrow in question as our batter sent the ball flying, skipping across the ground a few times. I didn't watch the game though, I was too interested in that alluring sparkle in Applejack's eye, her confident smirk and her expectant gaze. I could never say no to her.

"Bet on it." I raised my hand between us and she readily clasped it with her own, an understanding closed between us. Our batter had made it to first as we expected, and it was my turn now.

"All right Rainbow, you're up. Make me proud." Applejack stood up with me and patted me on the back, watching me watch all the way to home before stepping back a few paces towards the dugout. After all, she was at bat soon herself.

I adjusted the helmet on my head by the small brim, feeling the weight. The bat was light to me though, and I easily twirled it around in my hand to psych myself up. As I crossed the plate to get to the right hand batting side, I looked down at the dusty thing, warning it with my gaze that I would be seeing it again soon. I extended my bat out a bit and got a good grip before I turned and gave their pitcher a blank and less than intimidated gaze, gesturing with my head for her to hurry up and toss the ball.

Just as I had silently asked, the pitch went off without much hesitation. These fastballs were nothing compared to what I had dealt with practising with Applejack, so hitting it felt almost like leisure. Still, the force of my hit sent it just past third base, and before they could even get a hold of the damn thing my feet were tapping first base. I looked ahead and saw that the other runner had made it to second rather easily too, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Cloudchaser was next, and I did not doubt her. We had some of our best batters at the beginning of the order, and she was good under pressure. I got a good lead as she swung, but ended up returning to the base as she missed the ball. The second pitch was called a ball, so by then I was just itching to move my legs. Finally, on the third pitch I heard that satisfying smack of the wooden bat against an airborne object. I made it to second and watched as my runner in front hit third, but due to the positioning of the hit, the pass to first had been too easy to pass up, and Cloudchaser was out.

If I was nervous about the run home before, all those feelings disappeared as Applejack took the plate. Her strong hands wrapped easily around the bat like she could choke the thing to death, and her advance to bat put us in perfect position to score. The stands called out to her, but she didn't listen. She was looking right at me, making sure I was ready. I slowly nodded and waited for her to get into her stance. Her feet shifted until they were correctly placed for optimal force, and her eyes shifted to the pitcher. The two of them looked at each other for a long few seconds, as if issuing a challenge to each other. My whole body trembled with adrenaline, and I bit at my lips in anticipation, watching Applejack's fingers play with the grip tape on the bat. The pitcher wound up, and my feet hit the dirt in full sprint.

I nearly jumped at the cracking sound that sprung from her bat as the ball flew off of it, and it was a good thing I had already started running or I might have been stuck by that goddamn rocket of a hit. She didn't even bother running much more than to simply move off of home plate, we both knew it would not matter. Me on the other hand, I was the freaking wind. The crowd was loud, but I could still hear the splitting of the air around the ball, and could even hear as it tipped off the grass and bounced, unhindered by any outfielder's mitt. I barely had time to glance back to measure how far from the ball their centre fielder was, and I really shouldn't have looked, because she had already grabbed it.

The cheering woke me up to my advance as the runner in front of me tapped home and I rounded third in a full sprint. I heard the outfielder throw the ball, and by the time I was half way to home I heard a baseman catch it. My feet were lost to me as everything but the glowing light of home base went black.

I remembered running so hard when Applejack and I had been racing, when I was just as determined to win. Back then though, she had let me have my victory, something this team would not do. It was so very important to me to appear to be the fastest that I had not even complained, but now, now it was actually up to me. I did not want to just be known as the fastest, I wanted to prove it each and every day, to the crowd, to my team, to myself, and to her.

I could almost make out the sound of another toss as it happened, and knew the ball was not far behind me. But by then I was a mere few feet away, and knew the only thing faster than running was sliding. I closed my eyes as I slid across the dirt, bits of gravel or pebbles kicking up into my face and against my arms. It was quiet as my body stopped moving against the ground, and for a moment I was not certain what had happened. It had all gone by so fast.

Above me, I saw the catcher's mitt. And in her grasp, the baseball. It all came down to the call now.

"Safe!" The sound of the umpires voice was music to my ears and I nearly screamed at the top of my lungs, that is, if I could even do anything at all.

The catcher moved out of the way with a downtrodden and furious face, but I could not care less. We had won, we had actually won. That might have meant more to me if I could stand up and cheer like the rest of the team, but for some reason my shaking body was not responding. I was smiling wildly, and managed to push myself up on my elbow, though it pained me to do so. Before I knew it she was standing over me, tossing her batting helmet off of her gorgeous blonde hair and putting her hands on me. I wanted to embrace her, to feel her around me even if it was awkward or uncomfortable or one-sided, but she did not look nearly as happy as I was, and it unsettled me.

"Don't try an' move Rainbow," Applejack's voice was quiet under the roar of the crowd, but her hands felt so good.

"We won, Applejack, didn't you hear?" I tried to tell her as I chased her worried gaze as she ran it all over my body, "Applejack?"

"Yeah, I heard. Here, hold on to me," She leaned forward and slipped her hand under my back holding me up as she pulled me off of leaning on my elbow. In a fright I grabbed her with my other arm, holding myself against her as she pulled my arm over my head and bend it at the elbow behind my head, taking a good look at the sore and dirty part of my arm.

"What do you think you're—" My eyes widened as I noticed what she was looking at. I could feel the blood tricking down my arm now that she had it propped like that, and I sat up better so she wouldn't have to hold me. "Shit, what happened?"

"You took that slide mighty hard," She cracked a smile as she inspected it, "But this here's just a scrape. Lemme have a look at your leg."

"My-my leg?" I looked down at my lower body and noticed now all the dirt, but worse, I noticed the blood seeping through my pants, which were pulled up by the slide nearly to my knee. "What the—?!" I stammered as I hurriedly scampered a foot away, though she grabbed my hysterical self and held me still.

"Relax, looks like you can move it just fine." Applejack told me gently as she had a better look, though the skin felt raw. By then, the umpire was leaning over me too and taking a look, and the cheering had slightly subsided. "Yeah, just a bad scrape, I think you'll be all right."

"Jeez, don't scare me like that," I sighed loudly and wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand, letting myself smile again at my accomplishment. "That was one crazy play, Applejack. How many of those do you have up your sleeve, anyway?"

"Seein' the toll that last one took on you, I'd reckon that's the last of them." Applejack laughed a bit and shook her head, noticing the way I was still beaming like a lunatic. "You did great, Rainbow."

She put her hand behind my head and leaned in, and for a second my heart stopped to imagine what she was thinking of doing. But as her head fell into the crook of my neck and she hugged me tightly, I relaxed and enjoyed what little affection she had for me. "T-Thanks, A.J."

She leaned back a bit and lingered in front of me, touching my forehead with her own and smiling softly. She glanced down at the mess I made of myself, "But you always gotta be the centre of attention, don'tcha?"

"You said you were bringing me home!" I reminded her as she pulled back and laughed a bit, nodding at the truth of the statement.

"I guess I did, didn't I?" She agreed easily, keeping that lopsided smile held up by her cheekbones, "From the look'a you I might even hafta carry you home tonight." Before I knew it, she pulled back away and instead slipped her arm under mine, helping me to my feet. "Come on you, let's getcha cleaned up. Give your fans a wave, will you?"