Enjoy :)

Applejack has been fortunate to never have experienced racism in her life. She had grown up in a community where everyone was human. Her family was huge so most of the people in her hometown knew her and they were the same race.

Now, her parents taught her to respect and value all walks of life. Applejack grew up knowing that Mages and Aerians were only different by looks, but were not better or lesser than humans.

As she got older, she had grown out of her naive innocence and experienced the world outside of her small town.

The first time she had ever heard a racial slur being spoken was on tv. After asking her parents what it meant, they had sat her down. They explained racism and slurs that humans had given Aerians. They explained to her that although slavery had ended about a century ago, certain ugly beliefs had still stuck and been shared by humans towards Aerians and Mages in Equestria. Society was systematically against them since they were considered minorities in Equestria. They were looked down upon to some humans even if it wrong to think so.

After that, Applejack has become an avid supporter of racial equality. She didn't talk about it nonstop, but when the subject did come up, she would make sure to boldly state her support for wanting equality for all.

Then, her mom died. Applejack and her dad, Jackson moved to Canterlot. One of the most diverse places in Equestria. All kinda of people lived there. Applejack went to a high school that at first, had been diverse yet the students weren't integrated.

Only after Applejack and her friends decided to change that, did the other students begin to mix and unite as a school. It was amazing.

However, the best part the fact that she met her girlfriend there, Rainbow Dash. The spunky, loud and energetic athlete had caught Applejack's eye her first day there and the two had been inseparable since.

Their relationship blossomed beautifully and by their senior year, the two were the power couple of the school. Where one went, the other usually followed.

Rainbow was everything Applejack needed and wanted. She was kind, funny, silly, obnoxious, protective, stubborn and more. She was also an Aerian. She had been born in a city full of winged people. Rainbow's childhood best friend, Fluttershy, was also an Aerian.

Rainbow Dash was proud of her race. She used her wings to get around any chance she could. Applejack loved Rainbow and was very much educated and well acquainted with Aerians and the many cultures within the community. However, she had never witnessed firsthand the racism against her girlfriend's people that were claimed to have been an issue. Until, one day she did.
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Applejack was staring at the tv screen, eyes wide, her jaw hanging open. She couldn't believe her eyes.

An Aerian had been killed in public by a human police officer. It had been recorded by a witness as they cops unfairly arrested and then used unnecessary force, which led to a brutal death that could have been prevented. Applejack watched the videos of the protests that had risen up due to the death of yet another Aerian person's murder.

People of all races were angry. Protests rose up in almost every city and town in Equestria, chanting for change. Many protests for violent as after the cops showed up. People were hurt, tear-gassed, beaten, arrested.

Even innocent bystanders that had no involvement in the protests were treated like dangerous criminals. Kids were injured.

Applejack shook her head. She was in shock.

Something out of the corner of AJ's eye made her look away. Rainbow walked into the living room. She looked like she had just woken up from a nap. Rainbow let out a big yawn, a hand scratching her head.

"Hey." Rainbow sleepily greeted. "What cha watching?"

Applejack could only point at tv. Rainbow sat down beside AJ, looking at the tv screen. When she realized what she was seeing, Rainbow sighed.

"Yeah. That's been a thing going on." She said. "You would think people would think that we're all equal by this day and age. I guess we're still living in segregation times, or whatever they think it is."

Applejack wrapped an arm around Rainbow's waist. Rainbow immediately leaned on AJ's shoulder. The two sat there, listening to the commentary the reporters were giving. The videos showed of people running away from bullets and tear-gas canisters, humans and mages using themselves as shields to protect the targeted aerians.

Rainbow was a part of that group. An aerian.

Applejack turned her head and looked at Rainbow Dash.

"Have you ever been discriminated against like this because of your wings?" She questioned.

Rainbow lifted her head. She looked up at AJ, nodding.

"Yeah, but it never got violent. It was only a racial slur, dirty look, or intentionally avoiding me when I was out with my uncle. Nothing really extreme, thank goodness."

Applejack let the words sink in. She nodded in acceptance.

"Ok."

Rainbow smiled and pecked her on the cheek.

"Do we have cereal left??" She asked randomly.

Applejack thought for a moment. They were fresh out. Her little sister and her friends had visited the other day. They had eaten everything.

"Nah, we ran out. Wanna go with me to get some more??"

Rainbow nodded.

"Sure. Let's go."

Applejack and Rainbow got ready and left. The grocery store had quite a few people shopping that afternoon. Rainbow headed straight to the aisle where the cereal was. Applejack decided to find the dairy and fruit aisle. She picked what she needed and then went off to find her girlfriend. As she neared the cereal aisle, Applejack could hear a commotion.

She turned into the aisle and stopped.

Rainbow was standing there arguing with an older woman. The woman was standing a few feet away, talking to what looked like a cop. The cop was looking sternly at Rainbow.

Rainbow herself looked panicked and a bit angry. Applejack decided to take her phone out and start recording. If she needed the evidence of what happened, she'd have it.

She approached the three, making her presence known.

"Rainbow." She called, getting their attention.

Rainbow, the woman and the cop all looked at her. Rainbow seemed relieved.

"Hey." She said, happy to see her. "Thank goodness."

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

"What's going on?? You ok?"

"Miss, please walk away." The cop commanded. "This doesn't concern you."

Applejack frowned, not having expecting that.

"What happened??" She asked.

The older woman looked at Applejack.

"This girl stole a water bottle." She stated. "I saw her take it out and then put in her bag. I called a cop that was nearby to investigate."

That had AJ taken aback. Stealing?? Rainbow?? No way. That couldn't be true. AJ looked at Rainbow. The younger girl looked at the accuser, clearly offended by the claim.

"I did not!" She exclaimed. "Why would I steal a bottle of water?? It's mine."

"It's true." Applejack spoke up. "She brought it with her from home."

That did little to convince the two other humans.

"Can I see some ID?" The cop asked.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

"I left my wallet in the car. I can go get it."

The cop suddenly turned hostile. He reached out and grabbed Rainbow's wrist.

"I'm gonna have to take you into the station." He said.

Rainbow tried to move away, but the man was much stronger than her and restrained her easily.

"What??!!" Applejack shouted. "You can't do that. Let her go."

She walked towards the two, intending to physically stop the arrest. The cop pushed Applejack away. He had Rainbow on the floor in seconds. Rainbow grunted in pain as her cheek came into contact with the dirty floor.

"Ow! I hit my head! You can't arrest me!! This is illegal!"

"Stop resisting!" The cop shouted, jostling her into the floor.

Rainbow looked petrified.

"Please don't kill me." She begged. "I don't wanna die. Applejack!!"

The words broke Applejack's heart.

The cop didn't say a word as he handcuffed the upset teenager. Afterwards, he roughly pulled her up to her feet. Rainbow stumbled a bit.

"Sir," Applejack said, "it's illegal to arrest her like that. She didn't even do anything wrong and you can't even prove she did."

Rainbow looked on the verge of tears as the man led her away, pleading for Applejack to help her. Applejack was panicking as she was helpless to do anything without the situation possibly getting dangerous. She continued to record the whole thing, continuing to yell at the cop.

"You're gonna arrest a seventeen year old Aerian girl for no reason?? Do you not see what's going on in our country right now?? You're part of the problem! Racist people like you are what's wrong with the system!!"

All the yelling had gained a lot of attention.

The man was suddenly approached by another cop. An Aerian cop.

"What's going on here?" He asked.

The cop holding Rainbow grunted.

"This girl was apparently stealing a water bottle." He replied, attempting to look unbothered and confident.

The other cop raised an eyebrow.

"Apparently?? Was there a witness??"

The human cop nodded.

"Yeah. A woman got my attention, saying that she saw this girl take a water bottle out of her bag and drink from it before putting it back in her bag."

"It's mine!" Rainbow explained. "I brought it from home. Ask my girlfriend."

Rainbow jerked her head towards where Applejack was standing close by. Applejack approached the Aerian cop.

"It's true. We brought our own water bottles from home. Look."

Applejack got out her own bottle of water from her bag. She showed it to the cops.

"See? And y'all don't even sell this brand of water here. So how could we have stolen them?? Also, this guy never verbally said he was arresting her. Ah have video proof of it."

The Aerian nodded in approval. Applejack showed him the video. Once she did, the Aerian cop turned to the other, not looking happy at all.

"You legally can't do that! What's wrong with you?? Are you serious?"

The Aerian man gently pulled Rainbow out of the other cop's grasp, standing between the two. He started to scold the other man, anger in his voice.

"You seriously thought you'd get away with arrested someone for no reason?? Why her? Is it cuz she's Aerian??"

The human cop scoffed.

"She was resisting arrest!" He countered, obviously dodging the accusation.

It didn't need to be said why he had wrongfully arrested Rainbow Dash. Applejack then decided to call her dad and Strike. She told them to hurry and that they were ok but they needed an adult. She's explain when they arrived.

Not even fifteen minutes later, both Strike and Jackson was rushing into the store. A small crowd had gathered, watching.

Strike looked panicked when he saw Rainbow in handcuffs, panicked tears running down her face.

"Are you ok, Rain?"

Rainbow nodded.

"I didn't do anything wrong! This guy is just racist! He arrested me without a reason and he can't even legally arrest me. He didn't say I was under arrest or read me my rights so he can't arrest me anyway!"

"We're their guardians." Jackson spoke up. "What happened??"

After showing ID, the two men were shown the video Applejack took. Some other bystanders spoke up, telling them what they heard and recorded. Understandably, Strike was pissed.

"You tried to arrest a minor for something you have no proof of and used force when she couldn't show ID?? Are you fucking kidding me?? With everything going on in this country, you'd still be racist openly? And to a minor. Wow."

"I was just doing my job." The offending cop simply said.

Needless to say, Rainbow was released and the cop that had stepped in earlier to help the girls, promised to report the other officer. Rainbow was shaken, Strike having to calm her down. After that, Strike and Jackson agreed to go over to Strike's place. The cereal was the last thing on their minds.
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To say things were tense was an understatement. Jackson and Applejack didn't quite know how to act as they got into the house. Applejack was lex by Rainbow over to the couch. Rainbow Dash curled up on the sofa, emotionally exhausted. Applejack had her girlfriend's head on her lap, gently running her hand through the long hair.

Strike and Jackson sat down on the other sofa across from them.

"I'm sorry that happened to you girls." Strike sighed. "It was a real shitty thing. The nerve of some people."

"Don't be sorry." Applejack said.

She looked at Rainbow. Rainbow seemed distracted.

"Hey." She nudged Rainbow's foot. The other girl jumped.

Applejack apologized immediately. Rainbow looked around at everyone.

"It's fine. Um..... thanks. For not leaving me alone." Rainbow said.

"Of course Ah didn't leave ya. He was abusin' his power. You did nothin' wrong and he was being very forceful with ya. Are you feelin alright?"

Rainbow shrugged. "My head hurts a little." She replied, feeling where she had hit her head after being restrained.

"I'll get you some painkillers." Strike said, standing up.

There was silence as he went to get some medicine. He came back with with pills and a glass of water.

Rainbow took the pills, gulping down there water. She thanked her uncle, putting the glass back on the table.

Applejack held her hand, her thumb soothingly rubbing circles on the back of RD's hand. She watched Rainbow's face. She wished there was something she could do to make her feel better. What could someone say after something like scary like that?

"Do you wanna get some rest?" She settled on. "Ah could bring ya some ice cream from the fridge"

Rainbow slowly nodded.

"Can I just stay here on the couch? I-I don't want to be alone right now." She requested, looking up at Applejack, anxiety in her eyes.

"Of course." AJ said.

Rainbow grabbed a throw blanket from the arm of the sofa and got herself situated. When Applejack came back with two bowls of ice cream, Rainbow sat up and thanked Applejack, accepting the bowl.

Applejack sat down beside her, eating her own ice cream.

"Do you want to talk about it??" Strike asked, breaking the silence.

Everyone looked at Rainbow. Rainbow put down her spoon, cradling the bowl on her lap.

"I guess." She said, her voice suddenly small.

Applejack immediately placed her own bowl on the coffee table, giving Rainbow her full attention. Rainbow scooted over, wanting to be closer. Applejack rested her back against the arm of the sofa, bracketing Rainbow between her legs, letting the smaller girl lay her head on her chest.

Rainbow relaxed against her, letting Applejack smooth her hair. It felt comforting and grounding. She recalled her side what happened. Rainbow spoke with an air of disbelief and anger but also anxiousness.

"When the cop started to arrest me, all I could think of 'was this going to result in me dying?? Is this guy going to kill me and no one will stop him??' I was so scared."

Rainbow stared at the floor, needing something to focus on.

"I just..... I've never wanted my mom more than at that moment. I just started sobbing, begging him to not kill me, cuz for all I knew, he could kill me. It's not impossible. Applejack was yelling at him and I was so grateful for her being there. I didn't want to die alone."

Applejack didn't know when she started crying until she felt the tears streaming down her cheeks. She wiped them away, taking a calming breath.

"I would never let anythin' happen to ya." She promised.

Rainbow smiled.

"I know."

Strike stood up. He walked over to the two teens, his eyes on Rainbow Dash. He knelt down in front of her.

"I'm sorry that happened to you. I always feared that this would happen to you someday and it's just something us as aerians have to deal with. You and I have had this talk about what to do when being stopped by the cops, but I never talked to you about what to do any other time. However, we'll save that talk for another day. You just relax and rest today. How about we have a movie night?"

Rainbow nodded.

"Sounds great. Thanks, Uncle Strike."

Strike leaned in and kissed her on the forehead.

"Anytime, Champ. If you ever need to talk about this ever again, I'll always be there for you. I've had my own experiences with stupid, racist authority figures."

He looked at Applejack.

"Thanks for staying by her side. That must've been scary for you to witness. Good thinking to record the whole thing. Cops usually don't do too much harm when they know there's proof of it. Just remember, you have the legal right to video record an officer. Some officers will try to tell you otherwise, but just say you have a right to do so and stand your ground but keep your distance. It'll make them uncomfortable and that's the goal."

Applejack gave a small smile and a nod.

"Ah just saw online that if somethin' like that happens, ta record it. Of course ah wasn't gonna leave her alone. Ah didn't know what to do, but ah only knew to stand up for her and try ta get the cop ta listen to us. If it were to get dangerous, ah woulda had no problems getting physical, but ah couldn't do much."

Applejack sighed and returned to stroking Rainbow's hair.

"Ah was so scared for you, RD. Ah have never felt so helpless before. When you were begging that man not ta kill you, ah felt so angry and upset. It was frustratin' to be tryna explain what really happened, but it was like he already decided for himself what happened and treated you like a criminal. He was hurtin' you n' acting like you were some dangerous animal. You did nothin' wrong. Ah've never experienced or personally witnessed racism in mah life. Ah'm so sorry that this stuff happens to your people. It ain't right and so immoral."

Rainbow glanced up at Applejack's face.

"Thanks, AJ and don't feel bad. I guess you should just be grateful for your human privilege and I'll be more prepared for the next time it happens, since it's surely not gonna be last time this'll happen to me in my life. Now that I've experienced it, I can learn to deal with it better and I'll know what to probably expect."

That wasn't right. Rainbow shouldn't have to prepare for a next time. The incident shouldn't have happened. Racist cops shouldn't be a thing that exists. Racism shouldn't be an issue anymore. It wasn't fair. Racism should have died with slavery at the latest.

Applejack wasn't naive. Slavery never truly ended either. It just took on different forms and went underground. So, racism has too.

Applejack promised herself that she would never be so naive again. She had witnessed racism for herself and she hated it more than ever. She wasn't going to keep living in her little bubble anymore. She was from then on, an ally of the Aerian community.

She was angry. Hell, if anyone ever tried to hurt Rainbow like that again, she was gonna probably kick their teeth in. Applejack couldn't attack a cop, but she could always get away with shanking a civilian stranger, if she was careful. She wasn't scared to gut someone for her girlfriend.

So yeah. Let me know your thoughts :)