It was a warm summer afternoon in Ponyville. Soft, fluffy clouds lazily meandered overhead and the distinctive giggles of a certain pink pony could be heard wafting up from the lake shore where she was undoubtedly cavorting with a number of small foals. It was the perfect opportunity to rest and relax or generally enjoy the company of friends.

And so it was most unusual on this day to find a pony off by themselves lying on a grassy knoll just above the lake, staring up at a sky that contrasted quite harshly with their mood. More unusual still was to find that the pony in question was a rather distinctive blue pegasus.

Rainbow Dash was neither lazing nor napping on this day, though to some it might appear otherwise. There were no storms to be prepared, no skies to be cleared. No hydras threatened and no evil king that time had forgotten was poised to throw the world into chaos. At the moment she was in between adventures and though the sun wrapped her tightly in its warm embrace she found herself unable to succumb to its affections. So her eyes remained locked on the clouds as they danced to a tune few others could hear.

The only warning that her relative seclusion was ending were a few soft hoofsteps in the grass before a large brown hat swallowed her view. “Hey there sugarcube. Why the long face?”

Rainbow pushed the stetson out of her eyes with one hoof to glance over at where Applejack had thrown herself on the ground beside her. The usual band that contained her mane had been removed to let the sopping mess sprawl across the grass. She lay with eyes closed, legs extended to all sides, letting the sun slowly pull the moisture from her body.

With a sigh she dropped the hat back over her eyes. “I've been thinking AJ...”

“Must hurt somethin’ awful.” Applejack broke in with a snort.

“Ugh - I’m being serious here!” The hat hit Applejack in the nose but did nothing to diminish her grin. “We've been fighting monsters and stuff for years now and, ya know, it’s never been easy but we knew what we were supposed to do.

“But this Council of Friendship stuff. I mean, what are we supposed to do - tell everypony to get along? We have this huge castle from the Tree of Harmony, which is awesome and all, but are we supposed to treat every little fight among ponies as a ‘Crisis of Friendship’?”

Applejack plopped her stetson over her eyes before replying. “Ah dunno Dash. To be honest I don’t rightly feel up teh the task. Lookit me. Five years ago I was jus’ running a farm. Now we’re workin’ hoof-in-hoof with a princess teh help everypony. We can’t know where this is gonna take us. Jus’ gotta put one hoof in front of the other and roll with the bucks.”

“That’s the other thing. We almost didn't make it against Tirek. Who’s to say next time won’t be too much for us? What if there’s more of them or we’re not strong enough or I’m too slow or...” Sitting up with a sigh her eyes fell to rest on the grass before continuing. “I just… I don’t want to lose any of you.”

A slow chuckle escaped AJ’s lips and her emerald eye sparkled where it peaked out from under the rim of her hat. “Shucks sugarcube. I didn't know ya cared.”

Dash shot her a dirty look but she continued. “In all seriousness Rainbow, ah’ve thought about it myself. Ain’t none of us wanna kick it but we’re fightin the good fight - an it needs fightin.”

“But what if- ”

“Ain't no two ways about it Rainbow. You can’t run forward if yer too anxious to take a step. Ah know yer worried, but if ah was gonna go ah’d want y’all to have as much to remember me by as you could. Now giddy up, sugarcube. The others are waitin.” Standing up, Applejack took a few steps before turning to look expectantly at Dash.

A small smile played at the lips of the of the blue pony as she looked toward the lake where her friends had stopped to look up at the pair.

“You’re right AJ. Hey, race you to the water. Threetwoone go!”