Rebuilding a Rainbow

The colt's figure leaned in closer to Rainbow's ear and she squirmed, trying to free her forelegs from beneath his hooves. She was unsuccessful at this, due to the stallion's strength which made her believe he was in good physical condition. "Come on Rainbow think!" Her thoughts shouted as the figure leaned in even closer and she turned her face away from him which is when she noticed her free back legs. "Ha! Gotcha now!" Her thoughts screamed triumphantly as she lifted her two back legs and bucked where the sun doesn't shine.

"Ah! Sweet Celestia! Ow!" The stallion whimpered as he fell over in pain from Rainbow's bucking.

"Ha! I gotcha! Hows that feel you bastard!" Rainbow taunted as she got to her hooves and glanced over at the stallion once more.

"That's the last time i try to scare you," the stallion groaned, turning over to face Rainbow's house.

Rainbow watched his movements and noticed his turn towards her home. "Now lets see who you really are," she mumbled as she jumped and let her wings take her to the other side of the cloud. She hovered by the stallion, pushed the goggles he was wearing off his face and got a good look at him. Suddenly, Rainbow's angry face softened into a more surprised expression for just a moment before the angry one took over once more. "What the buck Soarin!" She yelled frustratingly as she let herself land on the cloud before him.

By now the cyan mare figured she might as well let Soarin into her home, her version of saying, "I'm sorry i bucked the living day lights out of you."

"Can you hurry up! I still have to do those dam wing-ups Spitfire is making me do before it gets too late!" Rainbow complained as she stood holding the door open from with her forehooves.

"Well i'm sorry if i'm still recovering from your bucking!" He yelled back at her as he walked extra slowly through the front door and she closed it behind him.

"Well, you shouldn't have done that! I thought you were some stranger!" Rainbow said in her defense as she slipped the saddle bags off her back by the cupboards to start putting her things away.

"I was just trying to get a few laughs out of you," he mumbled as he sat on the couch.

Then why were you leaning in towards me?" She asked, popping her head out from behind one of the cupboard's doors.

"I was trying to let you see my face, so that you would realize it was me," he responded with a shrug, glancing to her.

"Did you not notice it is pitch black outside?!" She yelled to him as she finished up putting her things away.

"Well...i did, but well i forgot that you couldn't see in the dark without night goggles," he mumbled, sheepishly as he ran a hoof through his mane, embarrassed. On his neck hung a pair of night goggles that he had used to spot and tackle the cyan mare.

Rainbow chuckled, flying over to land beside him on the couch. "Your lucky your cute because you have absolutely no brains," she added through her chuckles, not thinking over what she had said before she did.

"Hey! You said i was cute!" Soarin announced, pointing his right hoof at her with a smirk on his face.

"No i didn't! I was just about to do some wing-ups!" Rainbow said, her cheeks tinted a slight shade of red as she noticed her mistake and jumped off the couch then into wing-up position.

"Yes you did!"

"One...two...three!"

"You can't yell over me! Or change the subject! You think i'm cute!"

"Four.....five....six!" Rainbow screamed on with each wing-up as Soarin continued to taunt her and make her cheeks grow even darker shades of red .

"Fifty-eight!" Rainbow yelled tiredly between her pants.

"A bet you really liked when i pinned you back there, huh?" Soarin yelled, over her exhausted groans and panting.

"Fifty...nine!" She yelled and then rolled onto her back, her wings laying fully out at her sides. They were too sore to be tucked back in.

"What happened to sixty?" He asked with a chuckle, looking down at her from the couch.

"Screw sixty! Spitfire....won't.....know...the difference...anyway!" She mumbled between her heavy breathing.

"Oh come on! Sixty wing-ups is easy!" Soarin said, with a smirk.

"Yeah? Then...you...you do...them!" She mumbled on, whiping the sweat from her forehead with her right forehoof.

"No. I don't have to," he taunted, the smirk still on his face.

"I hate you!" She groaned and pulled herself up into a sitting position.

"You don't hate me, you like me!" He taunted on.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and searched her mind desperately for a few words to shut him up. "I was just pointing out that....you had lots of muscles? Yeah! Muscle, you know because you and athlete and all. I admire that, i don't have any," She finally said, flexing her forelegs to show him the little arm muscle she did have.

He chuckled as he glanced at her forelegs and said, "You don't call someone cute if you are just admiring their muscles. Nice try though, almost didn't catch the spaces between your words when you were clearly trying to think of the next one." He then lept off the couch and grabbed her right foreleg. "Your doing it wrong anyway. If you really wanted to show your muscles off you would have to raise you shoulder up closer to your ear, it makes them stick out more," he explained as he fixed the foreleg's position that he was holding.

"Don't touch me!" Rainbow said as she pulled her right foreleg from his grip and rotated her shoulders a bit, but she put her foreleg right back where it was after.

"At least let me fix your other one!" He argued as he shifted his position slightly and began to fix her other foreleg.

Rainbow didn't complain as he fixed her other foreleg, but she did move her shoulders around a bit more once he was finished.

"See now you look like you have a lot more muscle then you did before," Soarin said as he flew in front of her and looked at her forelegs.

Rainbow nodded and mumbled softly as she lowered her forelegs and reached back to massage her wings.

Soarin smirked and then landed before her. "But, it still looks nothing like mine," he added as he balanced himself on his back legs and lifted his forearms from the ground. He then flexed his forearms as he had explained to her just before. "See?"

Rainbow groaned and stomped her hooves down on the ground. "I hate you!" She yelled once more as her wings stood straight up on her back. "You know they are sore and you just had to do that didn't you!" She continued as she tried to coax her wings down so that they wouldn't hurt as much from the exercise she had done earlier.

Soarin laughed as his hooves feel to the floor once more and he began to defend himself. "Well how was i supposed to know that your forearms were sensitive?"

"It's not my forearms!" She turned to yell back at him, her wings settle down thanks to her coaxing. "You know what it is!"

"Yeah, i do it's the muscles," he admitted between his laughs.

"Would you stop laughing? It's not funny," Rainbow complained as her wings finally fell and she tucked them in with a slight whimper. She then looked away from her wings and back at him, watching as he chuckled on angrily. She thought quietly as she glared at him and then finally a smirk wiped her angry expression away. "I guess your right i do need a sense of humor," she said as she walked towards him and wrapped her forearms around him. "I'm sorry," she mumbled as she hugged him tighter.

"Oh, yeah...um a-apology accepted," he stuttered, his shoulders fidgeting slightly behind him.

"You shouldn't accept my apology that easily," she said as she nuzzled into him slightly. She then moved to lay against her couch and laugh as his wings popped up from where he had tucked them away. "I knew that's why your wings were up that morning!" She yelled between her laughs.

"That isn't funny," he mumbled as he tended to his wings, angry.

"Oh, come on! Where's your sense of humor now?" Rainbow taunted as she glanced back at him.

"Leaving, as soon as these dam wings go down," he mumbled, his wings falling slowly as time passed.

"Just remember to lock the door on your way out," she said as she started towards her stairs. "Oh yeah! Goodnight!" She added as she started up them, glancing back at him with a smirk.

Soarin stuck his tongue out at her as she walked away and then tucked his fallen wings back in. "You know there is no use in locking your door when anypony could just trot up and kick it down!" He yelled up after her as he locked and then walked out the door. It closed as he took to the sky.

Next Day

"Rainbow Dash!!!" A voice screamed from below Rainbow's floating home.

Rainbow shifted slightly at the screaming and ended up laying on one of her outstretched wings. "Ow!" She complained and pulled herself up to a sit, so that the wing wouldn't be bothered and cause her more pain.

"Rainbow Dash, lets go! Ah don't hav all day!" The voice screamed on.

Rainbow sighed, already knowing who the voice belonged to as she got off her bed and poked her head through the clouds that made up her wall. When she built her home she found no need for a ton of windows, since she could just do this where ever a window was needed. "What do you want Apple Jack?" She yelled down, so that the farmer pony could hear her.

"For ya' to get your lazy flank down here!" Apple Jack screamed up to her.

"Okay!" Rainbow responded, not even bothering to argue back when she knew she was lazy. She pulled her head back into her home, looked back at her wings and sighed as she walked down stairs, opened them and set off towards Apple Jack.

"Whats that sugercube?" Apple Jack asked as she watched Rainbow fly down towards her, her mouth moving.

"Nothing," Rainbow said, speaking up so that her friend could hear her this time.

Apple jack tilted her head as she watched Rainbow land and slowly tuck her wings back into her sides. She didn't know why the mare was babying her wings and quite frankly she didn't care. All she was concerned about was getting her promised time in with Rainbow so that she could get back to all the work she needed to do on the farm before Granny Smith noticed and scolded her. She, as everypony else in her small social group has volunteered their time to try and get Rainbow back to her old self. They had even gone to such lengths as planning out who got to deal with the mare and when, today just so happened to be her day as well as the week before Winter Wrap-up. So, Apple Jack not only had to bake and sell as many apple treats as she could to pay off the Apple family's deb from the winter whether, but she also had to deal with stubborn Rainbow Dash.

Apple Jack had been far too busy this week to even plan something to do with the mare as the other ponies had been doing, so she had to think up something to do with the mare and fast! She thought as the two walked together, Rainbow interrogating the mare, attempting to figure out why Apple Jack needed her this morning.

"So, are you gonna tell me why you wanted me now?" Rainbow asked, as she trotted besides Apple Jack.

"No," Apple Jack said flatly as she walked on, doing her best to think up something through Rainbow's aggravation.

"Why not?" Rainbow asked. "I didn't even have a chance to eat breakfast this morning!" She complained as she glanced around the town and the small wagons that some ponies were selling things out of.

"Ya should of eaten that already, it's late," Apple Jack replied as she glanced to the wagons and ponies around them. At one wagon she spotted her siblings, attempting to sell some of their apple treats already. She sighed, knowing she should be at least helping them sell if she wasn't baking for them back at the farm, but she couldn't because she was on Rainbow Dash duty.

"Look, it's your brother and sister!" Rainbow pointed out as she noticed the Apple family's wagon. "Mind if i stop and buy something off them before we go to where ever your taking me?" She asked, glancing back at Apple Jack for a moment.

"Fine, go right on ahead. We have ta sell all those treats anyways," Apple Jack replied as she glanced to her cyan friend and then watched her trot off towards the cart. It was then, as she took off after Rainbow that the perfect plan for her time with Rainbow popped into her head.

She was going to let Rainbow buy and eat her treat then take her back to her farm so that she could help Granny Smith and her make the treats her siblings were selling. She figured she could have her haul the apples in from the barn while she and her grandmother baked, since Rainbow never really did any cooking which meant she probably was no good at it. While doing this Rainbow would be exercising, which she noticed she needed to do just by how easily she won that hoof wrestle against her a little while ago. Then, maybe Rainbow would get back to her flight training above Ponyville and she would have successfully helped her friend. Sure it was a stretch, but it was good enough for Apple Jack at the moment.

Rainbow had bought and eaten her treat in the time it took Apple Jack to think her whole plan over and was now waiting to be led to where ever it was they were going. "Um, you still with me Apple Jack?" She asked as she noticed her friend empty stare.

Apple Jack nodded, and glanced over at Rainbow. "Sine ya' all done with that there treat, we can keep going to ma farm," She said as she started trotting off once again.

"So that's where we're going!" Rainbow said happily, since she had figured out where they were headed. She then started following after her friend again, eager to find out why she was needed at the farm.

Apple Jack glanced back at Rainbow as they arrived in front of the barn. "Rainbow sit here while ah lug all these apples in to Granny Smith," she said as she opened the barn doors and began walking in.

"I can help!" Rainbow offered as she followed after Apple Jack even though she had just told her to sit.

"No, it's fine. Ah can get them all in faster by mahself," Apple Jack said as she started piling some apples into a wagon.

"No you can't! Apple Jack, i'm the fastest in Equestria! So, i can totally get these inside to be baked waaaay faster than you can!" Rainbow bragged as she started piling some apples into the cart as well.

"Ah can do it mahself!" Apple jack argued as she started piling apples into the wagon at a faster pace.

"Yeah, but if i do it those treats will be done much faster!" Rainbow argued, picking up her speed with the apples as well. "And while i'm doing this you can help your granny in the kitchen so that everything moves faster!" Rainbow added with a proud smile at how good her plan seemed to be.

"I guess that would work," Apple Jack began as she stopped piling the apples. "But, are ya sure ya want ta lug all these apples around?" She asked, glancing to Rainbow who was still piling apples.

"Of course! I'm a future Wonder Bolt, this is nothing!" Rainbow responded as she finished filling the wagon and started to pull it off behind her. She had the harness placed below where he wings rested so that they would be disturbed before her practice later toady.

"Fine, ah guess ya could do it," Apple Jack said as she took off to the kitchen, moving faster than Rainbow since she wasn't lugging apples behind her. A smile graced her muzzle as she walked along. "Rainbow's competitiveness is so easy ta take advantage of," she thought as she walked into the kitchen and started to help her granny.

"This....is...the last one!" Rainbow huffed as she slipped out of the harness, and dumped the wagon she had been pulling. "And thank Celestia! Now i know why Big Mac is so, um big!" Rainbow continued as she glanced over the treats that were cooling on the side.

Apple Jack chuckled at Rainbow's words, but stopped when Granny Smith nudged her for thinking so badly.

"Ya shouldn't complain missy, Big Mac does much harder worth than that everyday!" Granny Smith added, looking away from Apple Jack and back to her work.

"Hey! I didn't mean it like that!" Rainbow defended as she glanced to the orange colored pony and then back to the treats with a sigh as she said, "Yeah, i really shouldn't, since Big Mac doesn't and he works hard!"

"Yeah, ahm sorry Rainbow," Apple said, and glanced up from her work to look at what Rainbow. She followed her gaze to the treats and said, "Why dontcha just take a treat for all your hard work," with smile.

"Thanks!" Rainbow said and then grabbed an apple twist off the cookie sheet it was rested on. "Is...so..hot!" She complained as she chewed it carefully.

"That's why it's there sugercube," Granny Smith added as she glanced at Rainbow for a moment and chuckled a bit.

"Well it's all gone now," Rainbow said with a shrug and then looked back to Apple Jack. "Anyway, i gotta get going to practice, so i'll catch you around later Apple Jack," She continued and then headed out the door as Apple Jack said goodbye.

Rainbow sighed as she looked up at the sky then at her wings and opened them with a whimper. They were still really sore, but she decided not to complain, since Big Mac never did and he worked a lot harder than she had yesterday.

She flew silently to her home to collect her things for practice and then went to the academy where she was greeted by Spitfire who sat in front of the doors, glaring at her.

"Did you do those wing-ups cadet?" She asked, pushing the goggles she was wearing off her face so that they dangled from her neck.

"Yes i did!" Rainbow announced as she tucked her wings away carefully and then pranced up to the flame colored mare. "But, i'm guessing your not going to take my word for it. So, i'll just have to show you in practice, which should be starting now," she continued to say with a smirk.

"Yeah, it should be," Spitfire said as she opened the front doors and headed inside.

Rainbow smiled and went inside, trotting by Spitfire all the way to practice.

"That's the last time i ever try to jam three days of work into one," Rainbow mumbled to herself as she walked out of the training area at the academy. She was definitely sore from all her wing-ups last night and had a hard time getting through practice, but all that mattered is that Spitfire didn't know that. She kept her complaining inside and stallioned up for the whole practice, which seemed to satisfy Spitfire enough that she lifted her threat off of Rainbow's cyan shoulders and even admitted she did a good job today.

So, she was headed to the break room, where she figured that no pony would be, so she was safe to lounge on the couch and let her wings rest before she started the flight home. She was almost there when a light blue stallion planted himself in front of the break room's door and she let out a groan of frustration. "What do you want?" She asked, her voice still calm though she was annoyed with his presence.

"How was practice my favorite crash test dummy?" He asked with a goofy grin as he wrapped his forelegs around her and gave her a good squeeze. "I bet your wings loved it!"

Rainbow whimpered as he squeezed her and said, "I hate you!"

"Oh come on! Stop being so sour!" He smirked and squeezed her harder.

"OW!" Rainbow yelled as he squeezed her again.

Her scream quickly attracted most of the other pegasi that were roaming the hallways while they had a bit of free time. Rainbow noticed this quickly, since she was facing where the crowd had decided to gather and the looks they gave her made her embarrassed. "Um, S-soarin let g-go of me," she stuttered as she tried to escape his grip and the crowds looks.

"What's the matter a little sore?" He asked in a taunting matter which annoyed the cyan mare even more. So, she used her back hooves to twirl the two around, making Soarin face the crowd.

"O-oh, um yeah...s-sorry about that Ms. Dash," he stuttered and released her from his hold, flashing the crowd his usual big, goofy smile.

"N-no problem S-soarin," Rainbow stuttered on as she slipped through the break room's door and dragged Soarin who seemed to be frozen with that goofy smile on his face in behind her.

Outside the break room...

"Alright anypony who's been holding out on my payment because there wasn't enough proof cough it up!" Surprise yelled, hovering over the laughing crowd. Suddenly, about half the crowd looked up at Surprise and sighed, holding out twenty bits each. "Thank you suckers!" Surprise giggled as she grabbed all the bits and stuffed them into her saddle bags, triumphantly.

Back inside...

"Look what you did!"

"What i did?!"

"Yes you! You and your stupid hug!"

"My hug isn't what attracted all those ponies, your screaming did!"

"I was screaming in pain because of YOUR hug!"

"That's like blaming a pony for a fire when it is the match's fault!"

"No it's the pony's fault!"

"Match!"

"If the pony wasn't there then the match wouldn't have gone off and the fire wouldn't have started!"

"Well maybe if the pony had a sense of humor she wouldn't have screamed!"

"I thought we were talking about matches and fires!"

"No, that was just an example!" Soarin screamed back at Rainbow, annoyed at their pointless argument. "You are so lucky your cute because you have absolutely no brains!"

I have no brains?!? Oh, you shouldn't talk! If you weren't cute you'd be screwed because you have even less brains then i do!" Rainbow screamed back, a poor attempt at defending herself, but she couldn't help it. She was already angry that they were having a  pointless argument and him using her words just added to it. So, she just said the first thing her brain could think up, not bothering to think it over.

"You just called yourself stupid!"

"But, i said YOU were dumber!"

Surprise then opened the door and poked her head inside the room, angrily. "Can you two stop fighting and kiss already! All these ponies are asking for their bits back!" She complained.

"Okay," Soarin said with a smile as he pulled Rainbow closer to him, despite her resistance and kissed her right on the muzzle.

"Look everypony!" Surprise shouted as she flung the door open so that everypony could see the two kiss. "Now leave my bits and i alone!" She yelled on as she attempted to fly away, but fell because of the weight from the bits in her saddle bags. So, she stood up and walked off slowly a grin on her face. Once she was behind the crowd that was around the break room's door she stopped, glanced off into space and mumbled, "Suckers! You'd think they'd know by now not to underestimate the pie family's ability to break the fourth wall!" She chuckled and then continued to pull her prize off to a safe place.

Rainbow watched the crowds smirks and smiles as Soarin was pressed against her lips, but she didn't pull away or try to hide the blush on her cheeks. She figured as long as he was there she might as well let him enjoy it before she slapped him silly.