The sun dipped low on the horizon over Ponyville. Applejack fumed. She wasn’t going to let one stubborn tree make her miss her apple quota again.
THUNK!
Unit #63, whom she personally called Terrance, yielded another third of a bushel.
“C’mon... Jus... One more...” Applejack said, lining up her shot. “I can’t have Big Mac pickin’ up my slack any more...”
THUNK, went her hooves.
Wung-shh, went Terrance.
Ptptptptptplop, went another mere third of a bushel of apples.
Applejack sighed. “I’m never gonna be a real help at this rate...” she grumbled.
“Looks like you’re helping to me.”
Applejack turned to the voice. Rainbow Dash relaxed on a nearby cloud.
“‘Sup,” Rainbow said, waving a hoof. “You ready?”
Applejack looked at her yield, knowing Big Mac would have to make up the difference. Again. She went very still for a few seconds then sighed, lifting the basket to her back.
“Lemme put this away.”
“Cool,” Rainbow replied. “I’ll wait for you out front.”
“See you there,” Applejack said with a nod.
Returning to the barn, she dropped off her basket and Big McIntosh noted the amount, marking the proper fields in the farm’s ledger. Just as well- Applejack’s math didn’t work so well on paper. Show her an orchard and she could work out what needed to be done; just don’t show her the orchard in written form.
“Doin’ better,” Mac said. “Yer almost there.”
“Yeah?” Applejack asked, tilting her head back.
Mac nodded. “Eeyup.”
Her mood lightened for a moment. Then she noticed the other bushels that Mac had bucked and that lightness faded, returning her to her previous grim demeanor.
“But I still got a ways, don’t I?”
Mac blinked at her, his expression neutral. He sighed. “Eeyup,” he replied, softly.
Applejack nodded. “I’m goin’ to hang out with Rainbow Dash,” she said.
She turned to leave and felt her brother’s forehoof on her back. Applejack turned to him, raising an eyebrow.
“Apple Bloom’s been askin’ questions,” he said.
“And?” Applejack said. “She’s always askin’ questions.”
“About you, sis. About what you get up to. Especially when you come home with those-”
Applejack turned her face down sharply. “Don’t,” she said. She shrugged off Big Mac’s hoof and left the barn. “Don’t wait up,” she said over her shoulder.
She met Rainbow at the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. Together, they walked to the train station.
~
They used to just travel one stop up the Friendship Express Line, but things had gotten complicated. So, now they went two stops up.
Applejack had the bits for the trip, even with the whole family tight on funds. She felt she was partially responsible for that tightness since she couldn’t buck enough. She was good at sales- Mac preferred her at market, but sales only worked when you had enough product.
Shaking her head, she cleared away her nagging doubts about how much she could or couldn’t buck. She’d get there. She knew she would. Now wasn’t the time to think about that stuff.
Applejack glanced at Rainbow, who sat next to her, bopping her head along as if she was listening to music only she could hear. She looked so calm. Applejack wondered if she ever looked that relaxed headed out on these trips. She certainly didn’t feel it.
Gazing outside, she saw the moon hanging full and bright with its shadowy Mare looking down on Equestria. Applejack shivered. That Mare in the Moon shadow always gave her the creeps. Ever since she got her cutie mark, whenever she’d look up at the moon, she got a twitch on par with Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense. It’d gotten bigger since she was younger, which was weird because she wasn’t afraid of the Mare, per se. The thing just... made her gut tighten like she was about to get in a fight. Fitting attitude to have on these little outings of hers and Rainbow’s.
Rainbow started humming softly, swishing her head back and forth slightly. Applejack smiled, glad for the company. Rainbow used to meet Applejack where the train stopped, since she could fly faster than the steam engine. But on the last few trips, she’d rode along with Applejack. She didn’t say why and Applejack didn’t ask, they just started sharing a cab.
Granted, ever since they started taking these trips, they’d always share a cab back. Mostly they had to share because Rainbow had to focus on holding tissues in place. Or Applejack would hold the tissues in place while Rainbow took a roll of paper towels from the bathroom. They’d giggle a lot on the way back, dabbing at well-earned injuries.
They didn’t giggle on the way in.
~
“Whatcha think?” Rainbow asked, indicating the bar with an incline of her head.
“Looks skeezy as all hay,” Applejack said, looking up at the tilting sign that read: Rusty Nail.
“Yep! Great isn’t it?” Rainbow said.
Applejack nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Inside, there was a distinct smell. If she was younger, Applejack would have thought it sweat. Watching the firm-looking stallions and intense-looking mares slam back cider, the last few months experience told her what that smell really was: aggression. Everypony here was wound a little too tight and trying a little too hard to unwind. She knew the feeling.
Since she looked old enough, Rainbow went to the bar and ordered for them while Applejack found an out of the way corner. A few minutes later, Rainbow joined Applejack in the corner and the pair toasted their bottles and sipped. As she drank, Applejack took in the Rusty Nail.
It didn’t just smell like aggression. It smelled like sick. The furniture was third hoof and heavily abused. The walls were covered in so much graffiti it doubled as paint. Everypony here looked like they were too drunk, too tired, or too angry to be anywhere else.
Staring out at this bar, Applejack wondered for the first time since Rainbow and she started doing this why they were still doing this.
Rainbow tapped her shoulder, breaking the reverie. Applejack turned and Rainbow nodded at a particularly surly looking mare who was focused on a game of darts. Applejack looked her over. She had a red coat, gold mane. Her cutie mark was a pickaxe. Her forehooves were chipped and she had a few scars above them.
Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at Applejack and said, “Her?”
“Looks like a start,” Applejack replied, turning to her drink.
Rainbow grinned, took a breath, and rose from her stool. She walked like she was headed for the bathroom and wobbled impressively, looking much drunker than she had a few seconds ago. She slammed into the red coated mare just as the other pony was about to throw her dart. It went wide, burying itself in the wood rather than the dartboard.
“Hey! Watch it!” the red mare growled.
“Soooorry,” Rainbow slurred. Applejack smiled slightly, amused at how good Rainbow was at this part.
“What’s your buckin’ problem?” Rainbow continued, somehow making her eyes go in different directions as she looked at the other mare. Rainbow was really good at this.
“Right now? You,” the red mare said, getting in Rainbow’s space. “You wanna make somethin’ of it?”
“I dunno, do you?” Rainbow challenged, her eyes lining up and sparking.
The occupants in the bar quieted, their movements getting slower in anticipation. Applejack felt it too. Her blood started to pump, her pupils grew bigger- it was so close.
The red mare glared, took a breath, and let it go. “Beat it kid,” she said, turning back to her game. “This ain’t a foalsitting service.”
Click.
“And I ain’t no foal!” Rainbow cheered as she launched at the mare, slugging her in the back. The mare reared, whinnying a challenge that Rainbow was all too ready to meet.
A stallion got up to stop them, but Rainbow nailed him in the eye with a knee. He staggered, flared his nostrils, and was about to retaliate, when Applejack tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned.
“Howdy.”
She kicked. Hard. He flew across the room.
She may not have been able to buck apples as well as Big Mac, but she could buck a grown stallion like a filly could toss a horseshoe.
Applejack heard glass shatter and saw the red mare swipe at Rainbow with a broken bottle. Rainbow laughed, hopping and moving around her chosen opponent easily until another pegasus, green with a dark blue mane, tackled her out of the air.
Applejack darted under the pegasi and kicked the bottle out of the earth pony’s grasp.
“You want some?!” the red mare roared.
“Darn tootin’!” Applejack answered.
The fight went on.
It lasted twenty minutes before cops showed up, grabbing ponies left and right. In the confusion, Rainbow and Applejack were able to sneak out the back. They weren’t just brawling; they were underage and brawling. They’d been there to fight, not land in jail.
Once outside they tore off at a solid run and didn’t stop until they were blocks away. Panting, they grinned at one another. Then Applejack spotted a shard of glass in Rainbow’s feathers.
“Don’t- Don’t move,” she cautioned.
Rainbow froze. They’d done this dance before.
Applejack bit down carefully as she pulled the shard out. She kept her tongue well in the back of her mouth, then tossed the shard at a garbage bin. It shattered against the wall, its remains tinkling into the dumpster.
Applejack stared.
“Wow,” Rainbow said, examining her wing. “I got lucky. That was only in my contours. Can you imagine if I’d gotten it... in my primaries...”
Rainbow looked at Applejack and followed her gaze to the spot above the dumpster.
“Dash...” Applejack said.
“Yeah?”
“I think...”
“We should stop doing this?”
Applejack looked at her brawling buddy, cocking her head.
“Yeah, well, not like it isn’t awesome bucking around bars and such,” Rainbow said, now checking her feathers intently for debris and potential damage. “Getting a little cider, getting some dodging practice in, but... I’m starting to count up too many close calls.”
“Yeah,” Applejack said. She checked herself over too. She had a scrape near her cutie mark, but was otherwise good; earth pony tough as always.
“Why’d we start this anyway?” Applejack muttered.
Rainbow shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Applejack frowned. “That don’t make sense.”
“You’re the one who said we try it!” Rainbow retorted.
Applejack pushed air through her mouth. “Yeah, well... Maybe I was dumber then.”
“And you’re so smart now?”
Applejack looked at her cutie mark: three apples. Not a pair of legs or a horseshoe. She knew from hoof to bone that she was supposed to help her family with the farm. So what if she wasn’t the best applebucker yet? She was still top-notch at sales, she knew the orchards better than Mac, and even Granny admitted Applejack was the best baker in the whole Apple family. She may not bring in the same stock as Mac, but she was still just as important to Sweet Apple Acres. Why, if she got seriously hurt on one of these nights…
Applejack blinked and realized how dumb she’d been.
“Not really,” Applejack replied, looking back at Rainbow. “I’m just not thinkin’ with my legs any more.”
Rainbow shrugged and exited the alley to walk back to the train station.
“So what now?” she said. “I kinda like... hanging out together. Y’know?”
Applejack snorted. “Yeah. You’re good company. Good pony to have at my back in a fight.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Thanks.”
“Welcome.”
They came into view of the train station shortly, the moon shining on it. As Applejack looked at the station, she realized they weren’t really all that far from Ponyville. Sure, it was two stops, but the night had ended earlier than they intended so...
“Hey,” Applejack said. “Race you back.”
“Huh?” Rainbow stopped in the street, staring at her.
Applejack grinned. “Race ya back. If you can keep up on the ground!”
Applejack wheeled and launched into a steady run that would parallel the tracks back home.
“Oh, you’re so going down!” Rainbow crowed, hopping briefly in the air before landing to gallop along her friend.
As they ran home, Applejack knew she’d lose. Rainbow couldn’t resist using her wings for more than five minutes. She’d take off and get ahead. Applejack would yell at her. They’d laugh.
“C’mon Dash! Thought y’said you were the fastest pony around! You’re laggin’ behind!”
“Says the giant earth pony with the legs of lead!” Rainbow fired back, picking up her pace so she matched Applejack.
“Just means they don’t shake t’pieces like yer little sapling pegasus legs,” Applejack retorted with a laugh.
“Small and speedy, that’s me!” Rainbow took to the air ever so slightly and rocketed ahead a few pony lengths.
Applejack laughed as she called out Rainbow for taking to the air.
Author's Note
As always, thanks to Jess for editing.
