“Rainbow, can you hold up a tick?”

“You aren’t getting tired, are you?” Rainbow Dash smirked as she landed in the center of the dirt road, looking back over her shoulder at the earth pony.

“Matter o’ fact, I am,” Applejack said, walking over to sit down on the grassy bank next to the road.

“Well, it’s not my fault you haven’t earned your wings yet.” Rainbow Dash stuck out her tongue.

Applejack looked away. “Rainbow, I think we might need to be havin’ a talk about that.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings once, propelling her over onto the grass next to her girlfriend.

“Rainbow, I can’t keep doin’ this. I reckon the five of you got things handled well enough, ‘specially when you get Discord to help y’all.”

“Come on, Applejack. You do lots of stuff!”

“I know I do!” Applejack snapped, before she relaxed. “But I know you girls don’t really need me. I’m gettin’ old.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Come on, you’re the same age as I am.”

“That ain’t what I mean and you know it. I’m forty, Rainbow. Granny Smith wasn’t much more’n twice that when she kicked it.” Applejack’s head drooped. “I don’t wanna keep doin’ this, Rainbow. I wanna settle down and have a family, like we said we would. Like you said we would.”

“And we totally can! But if you don’t keep doing this—”

“It ain’t gonna work. I’m just not cut out for it anymore. Maybe be I never was.”

“Don’t say that!” Rainbow Dash’s hoof cut through the air. “You’re every bit as awesome as me and Twilight.”

“Am I? Maybe I was once, but you two kept goin’ and ain’t never looked back.”

Rainbow Dash gulped. “But if you don’t keep trying, you’re going to die,” she said plaintively.

“Plenty of ponies do. Ain’t no medicine that can stop old age.”

“But there is! All you have to do is—”

“Somethin’ I can’t,” Applejack finished. “I’m good at leadin’ ponies and settin’ a good example, but magic? I ain’t never had the head for that. I ain’t never done more’n any other earth pony, and less’n most.” Applejack shook her head.

“So what? You’re just going to give up?”

“Ain’t been a day I was happier in my life than when you got that horn of yours on your pretty little head.” She reached up to touch the blue horn that poked out of Rainbow Dash’s unruly mane. “But I’m never gonna be an alicorn. I reckon that there ain’t no need to throw the other half of my life away chasin’ after somethin’ that ain’t gonna be.”

“Thrown away? Your life has been wasted?” Rainbow Dash snarled.

Applejack smacked her hoof into the grass. “That ain’t what I meant! I’m proud of what we’ve done, but I wanna do something else now. You know, get married, have a life together.”

“But we have a life together!”

“Rainbow, fightin’ monsters and rulin’ Equestria ain’t a life, it’s two of ‘em, and not one of ‘em’s mine.” She scooted closer to her girlfriend, setting a hoof on her shoulder.

Rainbow Dash jerked away. “No. I’m not just going to sit here and watch you die like my dad.”

“Rainbow, it ain’t your choice.”

“Then what is?” Tears ran down her cheeks. “Maybe I don’t want to settle down and get married, did you ever think of that?”

Applejack gaped. “Rainbow, you promised—”

“I promised that we’d never be apart! That we’d be together forever! You’re the one who is breaking that promise, not me! You’re committing suicide!”

Applejack scowled. “It ain’t suicide to want to live now, Rainbow!”

“No!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “You’re not doing this to me. You can’t make me watch you die. If you’re not even willing to try, then maybe—maybe I don’t want to be your girlfriend anymore!”

“Rainbow, I can’t—”

“Yes you can! You’re Applejack! You’re the most awesome pony in all of Equestria! Of course you can!”

“I’m not going to keep tryin’, Rainbow!”

“Then I’m not either!”

Rainbow Dash lurched off into the clouds; moments later, a crash of color split the heavens, and the grass flowed with the power of the shockwave. Applejack sat there for a long time, watching as the rainbow trail vanished over the horizon, tears streaming down her cheeks.

When the last bit of color fled from the sky, she wiped her face clean and walked home.