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"Ready?" Rainbow Dash quirked up an eyebrow at her buffalo friend.

"Yes." Little Strongheart lowered her head and pawed at the dusty ground.

"All right. On your mark..." The pair settled into position. "Get set..." Both butts were stuck up in the air. "....aaaaand LAST ONE TO APPLELOOSA HAS TO TELL BRAEBURN THEY HAVE A GREAT BIG HUGE CRUSH ON HIM!!!" The cyan pegasus hollered at the top of her lungs.

Little Strongheart squealed and brought her hooves up to her mouth, frantically glancing back at the herd of buffalo at Rainbow Dash's loud proclamation. "Rainbow Dash! That is not the least bit funny! My elders could have..." But by the time she turned around, the winged pony was already a blue wing-flapping dot in the distance, and all you could hear was outrageous cackling.

"GEEZ, 'HEART! DO YA NEED ME TO SAY 'GO' TO GETCHA STARTED?" the echo hollered back to her.

Rainbow Dash was pushing her wings as hard as they would go, smirking to herself as the dry plains zoomed past underneath her. Sure, it was a dirty trick she pulled on her buddy, but nobody ever said the race had to be fair. So she had to do what was necessary to win! "Hahaha..." the filly started giggling to herself again, then took a deep breath and hacked loudly. She wheezed and gagged a few more times and took another deep breath to clear her lungs. "Ugh! What is with this dusty air! I can't even...huh?" Just then, she looked down and saw a huge swirling cloud of dust spiraling up towards her in the sky.

"Whoa!!!" The pegasus did a barrel roll out of the way of the growing tornado of dust, and then extended her feathers to gain wind underneath her wings. She flew up higher, right above the cloud, and gazed down into the eye of the storm. Right at the bottom of all that swirling dust was Little Strongheart! The buffalo's line of vision was focused straight ahead, and she was pounding her lanky legs as hard as she could onto the earth, kicking up large clots of dirt, which was spraying into dust as they got caught up in the wind behind her!

"Well I'll be..." Rainbow Dash smiled, surprised at the bulky creature's strength. It seemed like her distraction didn't keep Little Strongheart at bay for long! So she dipped lower to the ground, this time flying beside her friend so as to not get choked up by the dust again. But no matter how hard the cyan pony flapped her wings, she could not pull out ahead and beat the buffalo. And she couldn't flat out run; she'd surely lose then. They were evenly matched.

"You better get ready to lose, Rainbow Dash!" Little Strongheart taunted from inside her tornado. "There is no way to beat this warrior!"

The filly gritted her teeth. She could not handle losing, or even tying. What could she do? Then a lightbulb went off inside her head and she smirked. If you can't beat 'em, play dirty. "You're sooo right," she began, shouting at the top of her lungs over the wind, "But you do realize that if I lose, I have to tell Braeburn you looove him. Remember?"

Suddenly the cloud faded away, and Rainbow Dash looked back to see Little Strongheart sitting frozen in the middle of the plains, her brown eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. Laughing wildly, the pony then called out, "And if you lose, you gotta do it yourself! Hahahaha!!!" She flew on, the railroad tracks outside of Appleloosa's city limits coming into view. She was going to win! Yes, yes, yes! Suddenly, she felt two pairs of legs wrapping themselves around her neck, and a heavy weight being thrown into her back. Rainbow Dash went down, her body sliding into the dirt and her chin colliding hard into the ground, and she and the body that latched onto her went rolling and tumbling across the land in one dizzying whirlwind of dust.

After flailing around, still careening from the momentum of the race, the pair of bodies smacked into the railroad tracks and went flying into the air, before landing gracelessly with a loud "WHUMP" on the edge of town. The air cleared around them, and everything felt perfectly still.

"S-sorry, R-rainbow..." Little Strongheart heaved, lifting herself up on wobbly legs, then collapsing onto the ground again. She was panting heavily. "The fear of telling Braeburn about my crush on him filled me with great strength. I caught up to you and tackled you so that you could not win and neither one of us would get to Appleloosa..." Her tone was sorrowful and disappointed.

Rainbow Dash said nothing. The wind had been knocked out of her from the tackle, and all she could do was lay on her back with her chest sucked in and her eyes wide open. She still felt like the world was standing still.

"Rainbow Dash? Oh, Rainbow Dash!!!" The startled buffalo scrambled over and placed her hooves on the filly's chest. She pumped it up and down a few times. "I am so sorry! I fear I do not know my own strength!" After a few seconds, the cyan pony wheezed loudly, flailed away from her friend, and rolled over to her belly. She coughed and took several deep breaths, and when her breathing was somewhat under control, she turned and glared at Little Strongheart. "You... great big oaf! Don't you...know how... heavy... you are?! Geez! Almost... killed me... you're so heavy..."

Little Strongheart sat with her ears down and accepted the scolding from the pony. When she was finished, the pegasus raised herself to her hooves and shook out her rainbow mane. "Guess neither one of us won that race. Maybe next time. I'll admit, you're quite the runner!" She commented, trying to make the little buffalo feel better. "And all of that just so you wouldn't have to talk to Braeburn!"

"Who doesn't want to talk to me?"

Both buffalo and pony turned in shock. Standing right behind them was a honey colored pony, wearing a stiff brown denim vest, and brandishing a single piece of hay from his lips. "Howdy, Rainbow Dash," the bright stud tipped his cowboy hat to his cyan brethren. Then he turned his gaze onto the shivering buffalo behind her. "You don't want to talk to me, Little Strongheart? And why is that, li'l darlin'? Did I do somethin' to offend yer herd?" Braeburn cocked his head to the side in wonderment.

Little Strongheart's eyes widened. She looked deep into Braeburn's emerald pools and melted, a flaming red blush covering her cheeks. She looked down quickly in an effort to hide her face. "N-no, Braeburn." She whispered it so softly, it was only an octave above a peep. "Nothing like that. It was something I didn't want to tell you."

The stud stepped closer to the buffalo, lowering his head as well. "Why can't you tell me? I'm not supposed to know something?" he questioned. Little Strongheart "meeped" and hid her face with her hooves. There was a long, awkward silence, and all that was heard was the hooves clicking from the residents of Appleloosa.

"That's right!" The pair jumped and looked up. Finally Rainbow Dash spoke up and scooted over in front of the pony. She nodded her head confidently. "There is a biiig secret that YOU can't know about. And there's only one way for you to find out."

Braeburn raised an eyebrow. "Uh...okay...and that is?"

She grinned hugely. "Ya gotta kiss me."

Little Strongheart's face went blank.

To be continued...