Ballad of Autumn Dreams

Chapters

Spring
Summer Part 1
Summer Part 2

Spring

The Spring of an Old Friendship

Snow hung heavy on the ground all over Ponyville. It piled on top of houses and trees, transforming the entire landscape into something pristine and beautiful. With its white ‘frosting’, Sugarcube Corner looked even more like a gingerbread house than usual and even the tree housing the Library had a nice festive look to it. The trees of Sweet Apple Acres, lined up in their rows with their bare brown trunks sticking out of the snow, held a tranquil quality that could only be found in the winter time.

Applejack looked over all of this from the hill overlooking her farm, a little smile playing across her face. Winter was always her favorite time of the year. As much as she honestly enjoyed working the farm, planting and tilling in the Spring, tending and growing in the Summer, and then harvesting and cleaning in the Fall, this time of rest when the land fell into a deep sleep to rejuvenate itself for the new growing season always held a special place in her heart. There wasn’t any time for that now though.

Snapping out of her thoughts with a soft sigh, Applejack shook her head for a moment before looking down at the plow-ponies who were hard at work clearing the farms of snow. Today was the last day of Winter, when Ponyville held its annual Winter Wrap-Up to make way for the coming Spring. As usual, Applejack was in charge of making sure the farm was ready to begin growing food for the coming year. Following the success of the previous year’s Winter Wrap-Up, her friend Twilight Sparkle had been put in charge of organizing the entire thing and, thanks to her careful planning, everything was running far ahead of schedule.

As her eyes scanned over the farm once more, she noticed something seemed out of place. Glancing about, she saw it again, a speck of cyan amidst the white and brown landscape.

“Why, if Ah didn’t know any better, Ah’d say that was...” She began to say, squinting her eyes for a better look. “Rainbow Dash!”

Gritting her teeth angrily, the earth pony began to slide herself down the snowy hill, hopping off at the last second to begin galloping towards where she’d spotted the pegasus. Upon drawing nearer, she found her friend laying out in one of the leafless apple trees just as she’d expected.

“Rainbow Dash, what the hay do you think yer doin’?” She asked, giving the tree a hard buck that knocked the pegasus right out of the branches. “Ain’t you supposed to be up helpin’ the other pegasi clear up the clouds? Ya know, doin’ yer job?”

Rainbow Dash picked herself up from the ground, rubbing her head with a hoof before shooting a glare at her friend. “Ow... what was that for, Applejack? I was just taking a little break, that’s not a crime. Besides, it’s not like that’s going to take a while. I’ve got plenty of time.”

Applejack gave a little groan but bit back her initial reply, trying to keep her growing frustration out of her voice as she spoke up again. “Now sugarcube, Ah know ya’ll think yer pretty fast and all, and that, thanks to Twilight, this year’s Wrap-Up’s a mite bit ahead of schedule. But that’s because everypony’s doin’ their part. We all gotta work together for this, Rainbow, and that means you too.”

Even as she was getting berated by her friend, Rainbow simply waved it off and flew back up to her branch, closing her eyes again. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve already heard this whole lecture from Twi and Fluttershy. At least, I think that’s what she was trying to say... anyways, I’ll have the sky cleared up in a few.”

“You... you didn’t think that maybe they had a point?” Applejack said, the calm mask she’d been wearing quickly slipping. “Ah mean, ya’ll only had one of the most important parts of the whole thing. Without you breakin’ up those clouds, the sun ain’t gunna be able to shine down and melt the snow so we can plant the crops we need. But here you are... sleepin’ on the job!”

At this, the pegasus’ eyes opened again and she pointed down to the farmer pony with a frown. “Hey, the greatest flier in all of Equestria, the pegasus who will one day join the Wonderbolts, does not sleep on the job. I was napping. There’s a difference.”

Applejack stood there staring at her friend for a moment before turning away with a sigh, shaking her head slowly. “There ain’t no hope for you, Rainbow. Y’all wouldn’t know a decent day’s work if it came up and bit you on the backside.”

There was a fluttering of wings as Rainbow Dash hopped down behind the earth pony, her eyes narrowed into an angry glare. “You care to say that to my face, AJ?”

Though anger still flashed in her eyes, the orange pony gave her friend a little smirk as she turned around, stepping right up to the pegasus. “Ah said, y’all wouldn’t know a decent day’s work if it came up and bit you on the backside.”

“Oh yeah?” Dash said, her wings flaring up aggressively as she got right up in Applejack’s face. “I can work just as hard as you can, if not harder. Bucking a couple of apple trees? Psh, I can do that in my sleep.”

“Is that so? How’s about we make a little wager then. You come down to the farm and help out during this entire season, from plantin’ all the way to Applebuck season. If ya’ll can do it and do a good job of it, then Ah’ll let you ‘nap’ in mah trees whenever you want.”

“Nice try AJ, but that’s a lot of work for something as simple as that. I mean, I do that anyways. You’re going to have to throw something else in if you want me to agree.”

Applejack thought this over for a few seconds before replying. “Ah’ll give you mah hat if’n you win, and you can sleep in the trees whenever you want. That good enough for you, Rainbow?”

“You’re... hat? Really? Huh, you must be pretty serious about this whole thing if you’re willing to put that at risk. You never go anywhere without it.” Dash said, her eyes widening a bit at this offer before a look of caution came over her. “What happens if I lose, not that I’m going to of course, but what if?”

“Heh, then you’ve got to go into Ponyville and tell everypony that you can’t handle the work. That yer mouth was makin’ promises your legs couldn’t keep.” Applejack said with a sly grin. “Or, if you’d prefer, ya’ll can come back next season and do it again.”

As her friend finished speaking, Dash gave the matter some serious thought. On the one side, if she went through with this and won, Applejack could never again tell her off for napping at the farm and she’d get the hat. While she’d probably give that back anyways, it was the image of this that mattered. On the other hoof though, if she somehow managed to lose, that would be a huge blow to her own image. She’d be the laughingstock of the entire town forever. Even Scootaloo wouldn’t be able to put a positive spin on the news. Well, actually she’d probably still be able to do that, but that wouldn’t matter to anypony else.

“Alright, you’ve got yourself a bet. Don’t come crying to me once you lose.” The pegasus responded with a cocky smile.

“Heh, Ah don’t think there’s any need to worry about that.”

With that, the two mares spit on their hooves and put them together to seal the bet, each giving the other a confident grin, certain that they would be the one to win.

“Well, Ah’ve got to get back to work. The ground ain’t gonna clear itself. Meet me back here tomorrow by sunrise and we’ll get this bet goin’. We’ve got a lot’a work to be doin’, so you’d best get plenty of sleep. Yer gonna need it.”

The pegasus simply gave her a little smirk in return before the two parted ways, their previous argument mostly forgotten in the light of this new competition.

________________________________________

Light flowed across all of Equestria as Celestia’s sun rose to mark the start of a new day. In the small town of Ponyville, the Winter Wrap-Up had wrapped up on time, leaving the skies clear and all the snow and ice melted away. Over at Sweet Apple Acres, an orange earth pony was watching the orb of fire slowly rise in the sky with an irritated look, tapping a hoof on the ground impatiently.

“C’mon now, Rainbow... where are ya?” She muttered to herself, looking up in the sky for any sign of the rainbow maned pegasus. “Ya should’ve been here an hour ago...”

Before too much longer, she spotted a cyan colored blur shooting through the sky toward the orchard, her friend gliding down to a stop beside her. The pegasus’ normally unruly mane was even more so than normal and she was sporting a glower on her face, though it was nothing compared to the look Applejack was giving her.

“Ugh... hey, AJ.” She said with a little yawn.

“Don’t y’all ‘hey, AJ’ me. Yer late Rainbow Dash. Ah asked ya to be here before sunrise and look! We’ve already lost a good hour we coulda been usin’ to work.”

“I was tired! What sort of pony gets up this early in the morning anyways? Besides, if this time is so important, why didn’t you just go ahead and get started without me?”

“Ah wanted to, but Big Macintosh said Ah should wait here fer you to show up while he and Caramel went ahead and got started. Now let’s get goin’. The two of us got a lot of work ta do if we want to catch up.”

“Fine, fine... ugh, why’d I even agree to this stupid bet in the first place...” Rainbow said, shaking her head to try and clear away some of the drowsiness as she gave another yawn. “So... what exactly are we going to be doing today? All the apple trees still look pretty dead to me, so I don’t guess we’re going to be harvesting anything for a while.”

“They ain’t dead, they’re resting. There’s a difference.” Applejack said with a little smirk before starting to head off through the trees. “C’mon, Ah’ll explain along the way.”

Rainbow Dash began to follow along with her as the earth pony explained what they were going to be doing for the next couple of days. “Well, Ah know we’re called Sweet Apple Acres, but that ain't all we grow here. Apples don’t grow year round, after all. During the Spring, we plant other things. Carrots, celery, grass, that kinda thing. That’s what we’ll be doin’ today, plantin’ the seeds after Big Macintosh and Caramel finish plowin’ the fields.”

“That’s it? I had to get up this early just to plant some seeds? I thought this was supposed to be hard work. Several other ponies do that too and don’t seem to have much trouble with it.”

“Yeah, well they don’t have to plant entire fields of seeds. Besides, if you’re lookin’ fer somethin’ a might bit tougher, why don’t ya’ll try pullin’ one of the plows? That ought’a live up ta what you were expectin’.”

“Hmm... you know, I think I might just do that.” Rainbow replied, thinking this would be a great way to one up her friend by doing something the farmer pony couldn’t. “After all, how hard can it be?”

Applejack gave her a little smirk in reply but said nothing as they walked on. Before too much longer, the two ponies came upon a vast expanse of flat land, almost half of it already tilled into neat rows by the two ponies they could see at the far side. Rainbow Dash’s heart sank a bit at the sheer size of the field, though she did her best to keep this hidden from her friend as the earth pony stepped forward to call out to the plowponies as they drew nearer.

“Big Macintosh, Caramel, one of you ponies mind steppin’ out and givin’ me a hoof with the seedin’ fer a bit? Rainbow here reckons she can handle plowin’ and wants ta give it a shot.”

As the two colts finished off their rows, Caramel gave a rather dubious look to Big Mac. Getting a nod from the red earth pony, he stepped out from his plow to let Rainbow Dash take over.

“You sure you’re up for this? It’s a lot tougher than it might look.” He said as he walked past the pegasus.

Dash gave him a cocky smile and nodded as she walked up to the plow. “I can handle it. I’ll have this field finished up in ten seconds flat. Watch me.”

The colt continued to look fairly skeptical but gave a little shrug and headed over to help Applejack gather up the seeds they would be planting. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash stepped up to the plow she was supposed to be pulling with a somewhat confused look. She’d seen the plows used during the Winter Wrap-Up, almost like little push carts with a blade on the front, but this didn’t look anything like that. After a bit of trial and error, she managed to put on the harness attached to the huge metal plow without it interfering with her wings.

That done, she turned to gaze out at the long way ahead of her and gave a little gulp before getting started with her task. She began to pull against the harness around her, digging her hooves into the ground with gritted teeth... and the plow moved maybe an inch. Gasping a bit, she stopped to catch her breath, turning back to glower at the plow.

“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be, huh? Well, I’m not going to let you win that easily!” She muttered before taking a deep breath and giving it another go.

Rainbow’s muscles strained, her legs ached, but as she took a step forward, she could feel the plow sliding through the ground. Another step, and another, and she slowly began to make her way across the field. It was hard work, harder than just about anything she had ever tried to do in her life. Every step was a battle and her entire body seemed to be screaming in protest, but she refused to give in. Thankfully, she didn’t have to bother too much with keeping the plow straight as she didn’t think she could get it to turn even if she wanted to. Finally, she made it to the end of the row and slumped down to the ground, breathing heavily but wearing a proud grin at her accomplishment.

“Nicely done, sugarcube. Not quite ten seconds, but still good. Honestly, Ah didn’t think ya had it in you but you sure showed me. Now, ya’ll just need to turn that thing around and get started on the next, oh, twenty or thirty rows.” Applejack called out to her.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped at that. “T-twenty or thirty rows? Er, I mean, that was fun and all, but I don’t think it’s quite my style. Yeah... how bout I just stick to planting seeds instead so Caramel can get back to work.”

Her friend chuckled a bit at those words but gave a little shrug. “Whatever you say, Rainbow.”

Gratefully, the pegasus unhitched herself from the plow and handed the harness back to the colt before making her way over to where Applejack was sowing seeds from the bag she was carrying with her. Taking up the bag left behind by Caramel, Rainbow Dash began to mimic her friend’s actions, scattering the seeds upon the freshly tilled earth. She worked alongside the earth pony for a while before finally speaking up.

“You know, I think I see why you don’t pull one of the plows yourself now. Those things are so heavy, I don’t see how even Big Mac can do it.” She said, shaking her head slowly as she turned to watch the two colts for a second.

“Nah, that’s not it at all, Rainbow. Ah pull the plows sometimes, when Macintosh is sick or injured or somethin’. Shoot, before Caramel came down here to help out, Ah was out there everyday, plowin’ right beside mah brother. It’s just that... well, the colts have always been the ones ta do all the plowin’. That’s the way mah pappy ran things and his pa before him. It’s just the way things are done.”

“So... you’re saying you don’t have trouble pulling that thing around?” Rainbow asked, a frown forming on her face. “That those two only do it because that’s how things are supposed to work?”

“Now, Ah never said that.” Her friend replied with a little chuckle, glancing over to the pegasus. “Course Ah have trouble pullin’ it. That thing’s heavy! Ya get used ta it though and ya get stronger so it’s not so bad anymore.”

Rainbow mulled over these words as they went back to their work. If what her friend had said was true, then experience must be all she lacked. She knew she was at least as strong as the orange pony, she’d never lost a hoof wrestle with her ever. Then again, she’d only ever won a few times...

Time passed as the two ponies moved up and down the rows, sowing the seeds as they went along. Though it wasn’t particularly hard work, as Rainbow had pointed out before, it was extremely tedious and dull. By the time they were halfway across the field, the pegasus had resorted to counting the number of steps it took to get down each row to pass the time. Before too long, her hooves and back were aching as well from the slow walk she had to do in order to properly spread the seeds out.

“Ugh, can’t we take a break yet? I’m bored out of my mind... anything would be better than this! I’d rather listen to one of Twilight’s lectures than keep going...”

“Quit yer complainin’, Rainbow. Ah promise we’ll take a break fer lunch before too much longer, but ya got ta stick it out til then. Unless ya’ll would rather call off the bet right now.”

“Huh, as if! I’m still going to win this thing.” Rainbow said, though she made a point not to complain out loud again.

Finally, after what had seemed like far too long for the blue pegasus, they finished off the final row. Applejack looked out over the field for a second before nodding and turning around to face the other three ponies, Big Macintosh and Caramel having grabbed seed bags of their own to help out once the plowing was finished.

“Well, that’s that. Ah reckon we can have us a nice, big lunch now. Heh, Ah’ll even fix up some cold apple cider ta go with it.” The orange pony said, giving a wide smile as two of the other three cheered at that while Big Macintosh merely gave a nod.

As they began to make their way back towards the house where Granny Smith most likely had a good meal waiting for them, Rainbow Dash grinned widely as she flew alongside her friend.

“Whew, I’m glad that’s over! I’ll admit, it was a bit tougher than I’d thought it would be, but nothing Ponyville’s number one pegasus couldn’t handle.” She said, pulling a little loop in the air before landing again beside Applejack.

“Glad ta see yer all full of energy, Sugarcube. Ya’ll shouldn’t have any trouble once we start workin’ on the next field then.”

Applejack gave a little smirk as her friend stopped dead, a look of shock on her face. It doesn’t take much longer before they all arrive at house, where Granny Smith has indeed set out a nice big meal for them to enjoy. Rainbow Dash soon regained her composure after filling up on delicious food and cold cider, and she even found herself chatting and joking around with Caramel, a pony she normally wouldn’t have thought to spend much time with. As it turned out, he was actually a rather nice colt and the two got along quite well.

After this short break though, it was soon right back to work for the four of them. The two colts once again took on the harnesses and began to pull the heavy plows across a new field while Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed behind with the seed bags. Though the boredom and aches set in once more, the pegasus pressed on anyways, determined not to show any signs of weakness.

It wasn’t until the sun was beginning to set to make way for Luna’s night that their work was finally completed, the second field completely planted as the first had been. Exhausted and worn out after a long day of work, Rainbow Dash had to nearly drag herself along as she followed Applejack back to the house.

“Not bad fer yer first day, Rainbow. Ah bit slow at first, but that’s ta be expected. You’ll definitely get better as the season goes on. Now, Ah expect ta see you here again tomorrow, bright and early. Best get yerself a good night’s rest so you’ll be ready. See ya then!”

“Yeah... see you then.” The pegasus replied, yawning lightly.

She waved goodbye to her friend before flying off towards her cloud home, so tired that she had barely made it to the bed before she fell right asleep.

________________________________________

The sun was already making its way up the sky by the time Rainbow Dash flew in to land beside an impatient Applejack on the second day of their bet.

“Yer late again, Rainbow.” The earth pony said with a stern look to the tired looking pegasus. “Bright ‘n early means before the sun rises, not a good deal after.”

“Aw, come on Applejack. I’m still beat from yesterday. Besides, we can’t have much more to plant, right? With those two fields from yesterday, there’s no way you, Big Macintosh, and Caramel could handle much more all on your own.”

“That may be so, but we’ve got more ta do today than just plantin’. Now we’ve gotta take care of the plants too ta make sure they grow. Today we’re goin’ ta plant the last field and then get ya’ll started on waterin’ and tendin’ ta the seeds.”

“Ugh, how long’s that going to take?” Rainbow asked, giving a little groan at the news.

“That depends on how fast we can get it done. Prob’ly most of the day, I reckon.”

The pegasus gave a sigh at that before nodding her head slowly. “Well, I suppose we’d better go ahead and get to it then. I’d like to finish up before it gets dark today...”

Her earth pony friend gave a little chuckle at that but nodded and began to lead the way toward the field they’d be working today. As she followed along, Rainbow Dash did her best to try and ignore the fact that she was still beat from the previous day’s work. As the field came into view, they could see that Caramel and Big Macintosh had once again gotten a head start on tilling the land. The pegasus watched the two stallions pulling along their plows for a few seconds before turning to her friend.

“Hey, AJ... mind if I take another go at pulling one of the plows?”

“Hm? Well, Ah can’t see a reason why ya couldn’t.” Applejack said, though she looked a bit puzzled. “Though, Ah find mahself a bit confused as ta why ya’ll would want to do a thing like that. Yesterday weren’t enough for ya?”

“Heh, maybe my mind just wasn’t in the game yesterday. Besides, the only way I’m going to get any better at it is to keep on trying right? It’s just like practicing a new trick.”

Looking somewhat amused, the farmer pony gave a little shrug and motioned Caramel to stop after he finished up his current row. Once again, the yellow pony shrugged off his harness to hand over to Rainbow before going to help out Applejack with the seeds. Feeling the weight of the harness on her again, the pegasus took a deep breath to try and focus herself. With that, she began to pull against the plow, starting to make her way across the field.

Just like the day before, it was incredibly hard work, especially as the aches from then returned with new friends. Still, she gritted her teeth and pressed on, determined to at least finish up one row before giving the job back. Finally, she made it, the plow turning over the last few feet of earth.

“I... think that’s enough for one day... phew...” Rainbow said, taking a few deep breaths before giving her friend a little grin. “Alright, it’s all yours again Caramel.”

After passing on the plow, Rainbow took up her seed bag again and began to get to work as she had the day before. Applejack slowed down for a moment so that the two would be working side by side down the rows before turning to glance over at her friend.

“Now what was that all about? Ah know what you said about wantin’ ta get better, but still, Ah thought you didn’t want ta have to work that hard? Heh, sometimes Ah don’t understand ya’ll at all, Rainbow.”

“Hey, I never said anything like that. I’m not afraid of any work, no matter how hard it is. Besides, I thought the point of this bet was to show that I can handle the work anyways. And there is no way I‘m going to let some piece of farm machinery beat me.” Rainbow said with a little chuckle.

Applejack gave a little laugh at that and the two went back to their work. Unfortunately for the pegasus, planting the seeds was just as boring as it had been the day before, and the knowledge that there was more work to come afterward didn’t make it any easier. Still, despite the tedium of it all, the two ponies made good progress and it wasn’t long before the last row was finished and it was time to move on to the next task of the day, the four ponies splitting up into two groups to make the job go faster.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack took the field that had just been planted while the two stallions headed towards one of the others. As they went to grab the watering cans they’d be using, the pegasus glanced over to the two ponies walking away before turning back to her friend.

“Hey, AJ, are your brother and Caramel... well, you must have heard the rumors. I mean, they do spend an awful lot of time together. Nothing wrong with that or anything, I was just wondering.”

Applejack let out a little sigh and gave her friend a pointed look. “Ugh, not ya’ll too Rainbow. They ain’t like that. Caramel has a marefriend over in Appleoosa and Big Macintosh says there’s a pony in town he’s been seein’. Fer that matter though, how about you? Found yerself a good marefriend?”

“You know as well as I do that I’m not a... a... a fillyfooler, AJ! That’s just a rumor some pony started back at flight school that I’ve never been able to shake off. I like stallions just as much as you do.”

“Exactly mah point! It’s just a rumor, it don’t mean nothin’. Jus’ like the rumor about Caramel and mah brother. Not too many ponies know this, but Caramel ain’t from around here. He helped out up in Appleoosa at one of tha farms there. There was an... an accident one day and his brother got hurt bad. The doctors did all they could, but he didn’t make it... Caramel’s always been a bit, well, clumsy and he blamed himself fer what happened. Got real depressed from what I’ve heard. His parents sent him down here, hopin’ that a change of scenery might do him some good and take his mind off’a things.”

Rainbow Dash had fallen silent during the story, watching the sad look that crossed her friend’s face as she talked. “Woah... I had no idea, Applejack. I mean, I knew he wasn’t from around here, but I didn’t know he’d come down because of something like that...”

“Yeah. Like Ah said, not too many ponies know all this. We decided it might be best not ta make a big deal over it all. Still, that’s why those two always seem to be spendin’ so much time together. Big Macintosh is jus’ makin’ sure Caramel’s fittin’ in alright and isn’t beatin’ himself up too much over it. Anyway, er... Ah guess this jus’ goes ta show that ya can’t trust everythin’ ya hear. Now, we’ve got work ta be doin’, so let’s get goin’.”

With that, the farmer pony led the way towards a little well where they could fill up the watering cans. Rainbow followed the directions she was given, still thinking over what she’d been told. Looking at Caramel, she never would have guessed that something like this had happened to him. He’d always seemed rather cheerful, albeit kind of clumsy at times. Unlucky was more like it. Things just seemed to go wrong around him or even if he was just in the area.

Before too long though, the pegasus was distracted from these thoughts as she found that there was indeed something worse than sowing the seeds. Watering the rows was an arduous process that took absolutely forever. The can seemed so very small after she’d had to head back to fill up three times before they were even halfway done with the field. Her attempt to speed up the process by dashing from the well back to the field was met with failure as she spilled a good deal of the water along the way and had to return even earlier than before.

Once they had finished up with their field, they met up with the two stallions at the house for lunch and a bit of a break. Just like the day before, the food was absolutely delicious and Rainbow was left feeling a lot better than she was before the break. As the four ponies headed back out to work, Applejack told Big Mac and Caramel to take care of the farm equipment that had been left out while she and Rainbow took care of the last field.

By the time they had finished up with the watering, the sun was once again on its way down and the shadows were growing long. All relief that Rainbow had felt after lunch had vanished to be replaced once more by a set of aches and pains in her legs and neck. Still, her friend was looking quite pleased with what the job they had done and she let herself smile a bit as well.

“Heh, yer gettin’ better, Rainbow. Still gotta work on gettin’ up on time, but once ya’ll start workin’ ya do a mighty fine job of it. We’ll make a farmpony of you yet.” The earth pony said, grinning over to Rainbow Dash.

“Wish I could say I felt like I was getting better. I feel even worse off than I did yesterday. Still, I am not going to let this beat me. No way. I’m going to be right here until the last apple falls, that I promise.”

“Yer just not used ta the work yet. Give it a couple’a weeks and ya’ll won’t have no problem doin’ the work. Heh, glad to hear that yer not plannin’ on givin’ up though. Ah’d hate fer this ta be too easy. And Ah’m gonna hold ya to that promise.”

As the two continued on toward the house, they saw Big Macintosh and Caramel standing out front waiting for them. Applejack’s face fell as she saw the rather sheepish look of the smaller, yellow pony and the look of resignation on the larger red one. Looking from her friend to the two stallions, Dash gave an awkward chuckle before taking a step back.

“Um... I think I’m just going to go ahead on home and get some rest for tomorrow. See you later AJ!”

“Yeah, see you then.” The earth pony responded before giving a little sigh and addressing her other helpers. “Now, what happened this time?”

Even as she was flying out over the orchard toward her cloud home, Dash could hear her friend’s shout, causing her to wince a bit.

“You what?! How the hay do you lose a whole plow?”

________________________________________

The next few days passed in much the same manner at the farm. Rainbow Dash’s duties now consisted of watering and tending to the seeds they’d planted, but that alone still managed to eat up most of the daylight. In addition, the job failed to grow any less tedious and the counting game she’d made up to pass the time grew old fast. To relieve herself of the boredom and aches of their task, she turned to chatting with her friend, something she realized that they didn’t actually do all that often.

Sure, she and Applejack had been friends since shortly after Dash had arrived in Ponyville, but they were generally too caught up in some competition or other to actually take the time for just small talk. As they worked their way up and down the rows, the two mares talked on a variety of topics, from the rather disappointing ‘best night ever’ at the Grand Galloping Gala, to Pinkie Pie’s last party, to the various adventures the six of them seemed to wind up in fairly often. Normally not much of an idle talker herself, unless it involved the Wonderbolts or her own aerial tricks, Rainbow still found herself enjoying the conversations with the orange earth pony, even if it was mainly to make the time go by faster.

Still, despite being able to deal with the work for the most part, the pegasus could never seem to make it down to the farm on time. Day after day, Dash would wake up later than she’d meant to and then have to deal with her friend’s pointed look and comments that if somepony would show up on time, maybe they’d be able to finish up their work earlier.

On the sixth day of this, Rainbow Dash found herself again running late as she flew into Sweet Apple Acres to find Applejack waiting in the usual spot.

“I know, I know. I’m late.” The pegasus said with a sigh before her friend could say anything. “Can we just skip this part? I’m way too tired to argue right now.”

“Heh, Ah didn’t say a word, Rainbow.” Applejack replied with a little chuckle. “Though, Ah was hopin’ ta talk with ya’ll about that. Ah think Ah might just have a way to fix yer problem wakin’ up on time. We’ve got a spare bedroom nopony’s usin’ that yer welcome ta have while yer workin’ here. That way, there’ll be somepony there ta make sure ya’ll get up on time.”

Though surprised at first by the offer, it did make sense as Rainbow thought about it. “Hmm, that might not be a bad idea, actually. I don’t know though, it wouldn’t feel right intruding in somepony else’s house like that. Not knowing I’m going to be staying there for a couple of months at least.”

“Don’t worry about it, sugarcube. Ah’ve already asked the rest of mah family and not a one of them has a problem with this. If yer still not comfortable with it though, Ah won’t hold that against you. Heh, not like Ah’m gonna force ya’ll ta forfeit the bet or anythin’ cause of it. Though, you’ll still need ta find some way ta make it here on time.”

“Well, I suppose... I can’t make that kind of decision like this though. Give me some time to think over it and I’ll get back with you on that.”

The earth pony nodded to her friend before starting to head on out towards the fields as usual. “Alright, Ah won’t pressure ya on it. Give it some good thought, but try not ta take too long though. Now, let’s get ta work.”

With that, the day passed as the others had before it, though Rainbow Dash spent a good deal of time thinking over what her friend had offered to do for her. The more she thought, the better an idea it sounded to her. Still, something just didn’t seem right about it all and it took her a good while to figure out what that was.

When it came down to it, she didn’t feel comfortable staying at somepony else’s house simply because it wasn’t hers. She would be living with somepony else and therefore subject to their rules, not her own. In her own home, she had the freedom to ultimately do as she wished, while if she took up Applejack on her offer, that freedom would be taken away.

This thought frightened the pegasus at first, though she soon shook it away with a chuckle.

“Come on, Rainbow Dash. This is Applejack we’re talking about here.” She told herself. “It’s not like she’s going to have hundreds of little rules to follow or anything. I’m sure it’ll be fine and this will all work out for the better.”

With that out of the way, Dash’s mood brightened considerably, despite the near constant aches in her neck and back from the repetitive pouring of the watering can. She even started up a conversation with Applejack again, though neither of them brought up the idea from that morning, instead electing to discuss their friend Pinkie Pie’s latest confectionery masterpiece.

“Ah just don’t get how she managed ta get that many apples all into a single cake. Ah mean, with all the other ingredients, where’d she find the room for ‘em?”

“Heh, yeah. Still, it was great! Probably one of the most delicious apple cakes I’ve ever eaten. You know... I think she’s starting to compete with your family with this one, AJ.” Dash said with a grin to her friend.

“Hmph. Say what ya’ll like, but Ah don’t care how good a baker Pinkie is. Her cake’s got nothin’ on mah cousin Apple Strudel’s, er... apple strudel.”

Rainbow Dash gave a little laugh at how defensive the farmer pony was over her family’s cooking before taking a look up a the sky, the sun now well past the halfway point. “Geez, is it already getting that late? I think I’m starting to get why we never see much of you during this part of the year. All this work must keep you pretty busy. Especially without yours truly here to lend you a hoof.”

“Ah reckon yer right about that. It’ll get better once the plants begin ta grow. They need a lot of attention this early on, but later ya don’t have ta worry nearly as much, unless there ain’t been much rain scheduled lately. Speakin’ of which, how’re you managin’ ta spend all yer time here and still keep up with the weather team.”

“Eh heh... well, I’m kind of on break at the moment. There really isn’t all that much work most of the time so it wasn’t hard to find a pegasus to take my place. If I ever wind up having some extra time every day, I’ll probably go back and pick it up again.”

“Ah see. Well, you just make sure ya take some time to yerself every so often so ya don’t burn out. Ya’ll are no help ta anypony if yer too tired to do anythin’.”

“Hey, you’re the one who’s got me working all day long without any breaks. I haven’t even been able to practice any new tricks or anything since before the Winter Wrap-Up! How am I supposed to impress the Wonderbolts if I’m spending all of my time working like this?”

“Heh, Ah guess yer startin’ ta see what you got yerself into. Remember, ya’ll can always call off the bet, if ya’d like. And besides, maybe the Wonderbolts’ll hire you on as their own private gardner.” Applejack said, giving a laugh at the look Rainbow Dash gave her at that.

Time continued to slip by and it wasn’t too much longer before they were once again making the trek back to the house, even the farmer pony glad to be done for the day. As the building came into view, Dash finally decided that she had indeed made up her mind and it was time to let her friend know.

“Hey, AJ... I think I will take you up on that offer you made this morning. If you’re sure that you don’t mind having me take up that room, I think that would help solve my oversleeping. Or, you know, you could just let me go ahead and take advantage of that sleep in the trees promise I’m going to be winning anyways.”

“Heh, you can sleep on yer own time, Rainbow. Still, Ah’m glad ya’ll decided ta go with this. Ah really think it’ll be best fer the both of us. Ah’ll be able ta make sure you wake up on time fer work, and ya’ll won’t have ta fly nearly as far ta get here. Plus, there’s Granny Smith’s cookin’ every day. That’s got ta count fer somethin’. So... Ah guess ya’ll need ta go grab yer stuff from yer house?”

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment before shaking her head. “No, not really. I don’t need a whole lot from day to day. Mainly just a bed to sleep on, and I’m good to go. Besides, if I need anything, I can always go grab it faster than you can say Sonic Rainboom.”

“Ah reckon yer right about that. In that case, come on in and Ah’ll show you where you’ll be sleepin’.” Applejack said before opening the door and leading the way into the Apple Family home.

Dash hesitated for just a second at the door before once again shaking off her unfounded fears and following after her friend. She had been inside of Applejack’s house a few times before, so it didn’t come as a surprise when she saw the walls covered with pictures of the members of the Apple Family. A few of them she could recognize on sight from the times when they’d come down to Ponyville for reunions, but she was fairly certain that even Applejack herself didn’t know who all of them were, though she’d be wrong about that.

A section of the wall was devoted to Applejack’s immediate family and hanging in the center of it was a group picture of five earth ponies. A smiling yellow mare, delicately holding a tiny foal, was standing next to a large, tan stallion who, despite his rather intimidating size, was wearing a soft, joyful expression. His gaze was turned to his son and daughter, the first giving a rather shy smile into the camera while the latter gave a beaming smile from under a hat that was far too large for her.

Hearing her name being called, Rainbow Dash blinked a bit and hurried after her friend. Before too much longer, a door was opened and she got her first glimpse of where she would be staying for quite a while. It was a fairly small room, at least compared to the bedroom back at her cloud home. Still, it would be plenty big for a single pony. Although it looked as though nopony had used this room in a good while, it was still just as spotless as the rest of the house, ever ready for the time when it would be needed.

“So? What do you think?” Applejack asked as her pegasus friend looked around the room. “Ah’m sure it’s nowhere near as fancy as the rooms you’ve got up in that castle ya’ll call home, but Ah hope it’ll do.”

“Yeah, this will do just fine. Like I said, I don’t need too much and it’s got a bed, so that covers that. Besides, this is plenty nice for me. Heh, I certainly won’t mind living here for the next several months.” Rainbow Dash said with a wide smile before giving a yawn. “Hmm, I think I’ll skip on dinner for tonight and get a head start on sleep. Thanks again for letting me stay here and all that.”

“You’re quite welcome, sugarcube! Ah’m glad ta hear ya like it.” Applejack said, returning the smile. “Though, are you sure yer not gonna regret missin’ dinner later?”

“Nah, I’ll be alright. That was a pretty big lunch, and I’m too tired to eat right now anyways.”

“Well, if you’re sure... g’night then, Rainbow. Ah’ll be wakin’ ya’ll up bright n’ early.”

“Night, AJ.”

________________________________________

“Rise and shine, Rainbow!” Came the call early in the morning, accompanied by several loud knocks at the door.

Rainbow Dash gave a little groan but began to roll out of the bed, despite feeling that it was far too early in the morning to be waking up. The fact that after a few years of sleeping on a cloud, using the bed felt about the same as trying to sleep on a rock didn’t help much either. She had tossed and turned for a good while after laying down to get some sleep, trying to find a comfortable spot and generally failing at it.

She gave a little yawn as she stretched out her legs and wings, wincing softly at the fresh aches from her muscles. She was feeling more sore that morning than she had been for the last few, though it wasn’t much worse than some of the times when she’d had to make a fairly hard landing after one of her tricks went bad. Nothing she couldn’t handle, the pegasus thought.

“Alright, alright, I’m up!” She called out as the knocking started again, grumbling to herself as she made her way to the door.

Opening it up, she saw Applejack standing there and looking far too cheerful for such an early wake up. The earth pony gave a little grin as she spotted her sleepy looking friend.

“Good ta see yer awake, Rainbow. Now come on, we’ve got a lot’a work ahead. It’s just gonna be three of us today cause Caramel’s helpin’ out Carrot Top with her garden.”

“Ugh, alright... give me a second to get ready then and I’ll be right out.”

As she stepped back into her room, Rainbow Dash briefly considered hopping back into bed again but decided against it. That would just tick off Applejack and the last thing she needed right now was for her friend to be mad at her. She was already starting to regret not having dinner the night before, especially since it looked like they’d be passing on breakfast as well.

“Hmm... maybe I should let AJ know that I really could use some food.” The pegasus mused quietly to herself as she did on occasion. “Nah, I can’t do that. That’d make me look weak, and I’m definitely not a weakling. I’ll just eat a big lunch to make up for it.”

Giving a little nod to herself at this decision, she finished up getting ready for the day, which didn’t take long at all, and was soon following her friend back out toward the fields. Along the way, Applejack went over how they would be dividing up the work to both her and Big Macintosh who had joined them on the way out the door.

“Now, since there’s only the three of us and three fields, we’re each gonna have ta take one. That’s gonna make things mighty slow, but we’ll manage. Big Macintosh, ya’ll know when ta come in fer lunch. Same fer you, Rainbow, but Ah can call you when it’s time, if you’d like.”

The large red pony gave a nod at her words and began to head on towards his assigned field. Dash on the other hand, blinked for a second before turning to face her friend.

“Wha... oh! Yeah, sure, that’s fine with me.” She said, stifling a little yawn before giving a wide grin.

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her response before replying. “Ya’ll sure you can do this? Ah don’t mind splittin’ the fields fifty-fifty again.”

“Nah, it’s cool. I’m still just a bit drowsy, but I’ll be just fine once I get started.”

“If you say so, sugarcube... well, once you finish up, that’s it fer the day and yer free to head back to the house or do whatever else you want until night falls. Ah’d better get goin’ now. See ya later fer lunch!”

The earth pony gave a little wave before walking off towards her field. Rainbow returned it, waiting until her friend was out of sight before drooping a bit. As her stomach grumbled in protest, she gave a little grimace but shook it off.

“Ugh, I haven’t even started yet and I’m already beat. Today’s going to be a long, long day...” She sighed before heading to her own field.

The first row or two went by without too much trouble. Before too long though, the pegasus was already straining to keep going. The constant tilting of her head to water the seeds, along with the slow walk from one part to the next was putting a constant strain on her already aching muscles, and having to walk back and forth from the well every few minutes wasn’t helping much either. In addition to that, she had nopony there to talk with and nothing to occupy her and help stave off boredom.

Only about a quarter of the way in, Dash actually had to take a short break to keep from collapsing. She sat down beside the well for a few minutes, glaring down at her watering can as if this whole thing was somehow its fault. As she rested up for a moment though, an idea slowly began to come together in her mind of how she could make this far easier and quicker. In fact, she had to laugh at the fact that it had taken her this long to figure it out.

Setting aside the watering can, she wouldn’t need it for this, Dash spread her wings out wide and took to the skies. Looking around for a moment, she spotted what she needed and grinned, flying over to gather it up. Before too long, she had a fairly nice looking cloud at her hooves, ripe with rain and ready for the task ahead.

“Heh, I can’t wait to see the look on AJ’s face when she hears I’ve finished the entire field before lunch. And this is so much easier than trying to use that old tin can.” She said with a little chuckle, looking over her handiwork.

With that, she pushed her cloud into place above the row she was working on and gave it a light tap. Rain began to pour out from the fluffy white object and she slowly pushed it along to water the entire row of plants. This wasn’t nearly as hard, and it used a different set of muscles which meant that the pain she’d been feeling all morning had nearly vanished, or at least wasn’t getting any worse.

Some time later, Dash was still grinning widely, well over half the field watered just as well as if she’d been using the watering can. She couldn’t help but feel fairly proud of her idea and how well it was working. She’d managed to come up with a way to not only speed things up, but allow herself to keep going beyond what she probably would have been able to. With her sore muscles and an empty stomach, she was fairly certain that she wouldn’t have been able to last much longer doing things the old way.

A loud shout rang out over the farm, coming from a familiar sounding voice. It was so sudden and loud that Rainbow Dash nearly fell out of the air in surprise. Looking down, she spotted Applejack glaring back up at her with a furious look on her face.

“Rainbow Dash, what the hay do you think yer doin’?”

“Wha? A-AJ, I... I just thought...” Dash sputtered, taken completely by surprise by her friend’s anger.

“You thought? Ah’ll bet ya’ll just wanted ta take tha lazy way out. That ain’t how we do things here on mah farm! Hay, if Ah’d wanted a rainstorm, Ah’d have asked you fer one. What if ya’ll had overwatered the plants? Or if ya’ll lost control of it and wound up with a big storm right over tha crops? What would’a happened then, Rainbow?”

Rainbow Dash was devastated by this outburst from the earth pony. In a few short seconds, all the thoughts she’d had about this being a clever idea were torn to pieces. While it was true that she had done this to make the job easier and finish up faster, the fact of the matter was that it turned out to be the best way for her to do it. Hungry and sore, she couldn’t have gone on with the watering can and this had been a solution to that problem. Still, that wasn’t enough for Applejack it seemed.

“I...I...” Rainbow Dash began, struggling to find the words to say as she felt her heart plummeting.

Nothing came to her, no way to respond to the accusing glare of the earth pony. Turning her face aside, she left the cloud behind, a faint rainbow trail briefly hanging in the air as she dashed back toward the farmhouse.

Applejack was still furious even as she watched her friend fly off from her ranting. She barely even noticed as her brother approached to stand at her side. After a few moments though, she began to calm down, an almost worried look coming over her as she realized what she’d said and done.

“D-do ya think Ah might have been a bit harsh on Dash there, Big Mac? Ah mean, maybe she really meant well and was just tryin’ ta help...” She said uncertainly, turning to glance at the red pony.

“Eeyup.” He replied simply, giving a nod.

“Aw horseapples, what was Ah thinkin’...” She said with a sigh, mentally giving herself a few good bucks. “Rainbow Dash’s mah friend and... Ah had no right ta go explodin’ on her like that. Ah reckon Ah’d better go talk to her ‘n apologize...”

“Eeyup.” Big Macintosh repeated, ever a pony of few words.

With that, Applejack began to slowly traipse her way back toward the farmhouse after her friend, thinking all the while on what she was going to say. She still felt that she was in the right about this, but simply shouting at the pegasus probably hadn’t been the best way to go about it. Lost in her thoughts, it wasn’t long before she was standing in front of the door to Rainbow Dash’s room. Taking a deep breath, she gave a sturdy knock.

“Rainbow Dash? You in there?”

No answer came back, so she knocked again and called out a bit louder this time. “C’mon Rainbow, we need ta talk.”

“Go away... Don’t want to talk...” A voice called back this time, though the door remained shut.

Applejack gave a little sigh of relief, having started to worry that Rainbow Dash had flown back to her home. If that had happened, there would be no way for her to get a chance to speak with the pegasus. Not for a while at least.

“Look, sugarcube... Ah shouldn’t have shouted at you like that, and Ah’m sorry. Now, please, let me come in so Ah can talk with you about it.”

For a few seconds, she heard no reply. About the time that she had started worrying that her friend was simply going to remain silent, Dash spoke up again.

“O-okay... If you really want to so bad, you can come in...”

With another little sigh of relief, though she was still somewhat dreading what might happen next, the orange pony carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside. Once she was able to see inside the room, she noticed the pegasus sitting down on the bed, head held low. As she stepped a bit nearer, Applejack could see that her eyes looked awfully shiny.

“Thanks, Rainbow. Have... have ya’ll been cryin’?”

“Of... of course not.” The pegasus replied, quickly turning her head away from her friend. “I don’t cry. Especially not over something as small as this.”

The earth pony winced a bit at hearing this blatant lie before letting out a soft sigh and trotting over to the bed. “Rainbow Dash... Ah’m sorry fer what happened. Ah shouldn’t have snapped at you. Not without at least hearin’ ya out first. It’s just that, well... Ah assumed ya’ll were bein’ lazy and jus’ doin’ it ta get out of the work. And... there are other reasons Ah got so mad, but you couldn’t have known...”

Rainbow Dash gave a barely audible sniff before turning back to face Applejack, her eyes dry though she still seemed to lack her usual confidence. “I wasn’t doing it to try and skip out on the work. Well, I started because it seemed faster, but I still actually thought I was helping out and that it was a good idea. I’ve... been feeling terrible all day so far. You were right, I should have eaten something last night, and I’ve had to deal with that. Plus, my whole body has been so sore lately, but even more so today. Pushing the cloud around though... I could do that without having to worry about it... ugh, and now I’m complaining about it, to you of all ponies. As if I hadn’t messed things up enough for one day...”

“Ah... Ah had no idea, Rainbow. Why didn’t ya’ll just say somethin’ bout it? If Ah’d known ya’ll weren’t feelin’ well, Ah’d have offered ta split the field with you or somethin’.” Applejack said, lowering her head to give her friend a gentle nuzzle.

“And ya’ll ain’t messed nothin’ up, sugarcube. Ah jus’... Ah overreacted a mite bit. It’s jus’ that mah whole family are earth ponies, you know? We ain’t got no magic or wings or weather powers, just our own selves and a good feel fer the land. Still, we’re some of the best farmers in all of Equestria. Mah pappy always said that this is because we ain’t got nothing special. We have ta work hard and we’re better for it.

“Now, Ah had a hard enough time jus’ lettin’ Twi use her magic ta help out last Applebuck season, but Ah was kinda desperate then. This time... well, like Ah said, Ah jumped ta conclusions. There’s no way ya’ll could have known though, and Ah shouldn’t have shouted like that. Ah’m sorry, Rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash was silent as she listened to her friend’s words. Even after the earth pony had fallen silent, she still said nothing for a moment. Finally, she leaned over to give a short little nuzzle back.

“Apology accepted, AJ. I... guess I haven’t really given you much reason to think better of me though, have I. To tell you the truth, the first thing I thought when I had the idea was of going to gloat to you once I had finished up early. Maybe I owe you an apology or something...”

“Nah, ya’ll don’t owe me nothin’, sugarcube. It was mah own stubbornness that caused this whole thing. Ah should’ve been more acceptin’, or at least talked with you first.”

The two ponies fell silent for a while, simply sitting there beside each other. The silence was broken by a slight feathery sound as Dash stretched out her wings before starting to get up.

“Well, I think that’s quite enough of this mushy stuff. I guess we should probably get back to work if we want to finish up by tonight.” The pegasus said, giving a small laugh as her stomach gave another little rumble. “Although... maybe I should see about getting something to eat first.”

Applejack blinked at her friends words before chuckling softly and nodding. “Heh, Ah reckon you’re right. Ah’m sure Granny Smith won’t mind fixin’ you up a little snack fer now, though it might be time fer lunch already. And yer right about that, we’re gonna have ta work hard ta finish up today. Though, ya’ll sure you don’t want ta take tha day off ta get some rest?”

“I’m sure. I’ll feel a lot better after lunch. I’m going to have to figure out something for tonight though, cause I don’t think that bed’s going to work out for me. Maybe pull in a cloud to use or something... er, if you don’t mind of course. It’s your house after all.”

“If ya’ll think it’ll help, then Ah ain’t got a problem with it. It ain’t gonna rain in the house or nothin’ though, right?”

“Of course not! I’m the captain of the weather team, remember? I think I know the difference between making a rain cloud and a bed cloud.” Dash said with a laugh as the two began to walk out of the guest room.

True to Applejack’s words, they found that lunch was about ready and decided to hold off until then. A few minutes later, they were seated before quite a nice spread. While not forgotten, both ponies seemed to have gotten over the events of that morning and were once again talking and joking over lunch. Finally, after eating their fill of the delicious food, they headed back out to finish up their work.

“You know what? I think this whole thing has been worth it just for Granny Smith’s cooking. That pony can do some amazing things with food.” Rainbow Dash said with a wide grin.

“Heh, she sure can.” Applejack agreed with a nod before turning to her friend. “Well, do ya’ll think yer feelin’ good enough ta take on the rest of that field by yerself, or should Ah come over ta help?”

“I’ll be fine on my own. What happened this morning was just a fluke. There’s no way a little field like that could get the better of me!” Rainbow said before noticing the earth pony’s look. “Eh heh... although, if by some chance I start feeling a bit off, I’ll be sure to find you and ask for help.”

"Good enough fer me, sugarcube. Ah’m off then. See ya’ll tonight!”

“Yeah, see you!”

With that, the two of them parted ways and picked up where they had left off. Rainbow Dash still felt the aches and pains from that morning, but without the addition of hunger, it didn’t seem nearly as bad anymore. Certainly nothing she couldn’t handle at least. It still took her longer than Applejack to finish, but she managed to do it and that night, when she was getting settled in to her newly formed cloud bed, she couldn’t help but smile a bit at the fact that she had managed to beat her own weariness.

________________________________________

The cloud bed seemed to have done the trick and, while the work still left her feeling quite tired and sore, Rainbow Dash woke up each morning feeling refreshed and ready to start the day. Well, as much as she could at least, considering that Applejack continued to wake her up far earlier than she was happy with. The fact that her muscles seemed to be adapting to the strains of the job helped out as well, and she was very careful to not go skipping meals again or trying to take an easy way out of the job.

A little over a week had passed since the fields had been planted before the first signs of life began to sprout up. As she looked down at the little green shoots, the pegasus felt a little burst of pride that she normally associated with pulling off a new trick, or putting together a particularly nice piece of weather work. Knowing that she had planted many of these plants that would one day go on to feed the residents of Ponyville left her with a feeling of fulfillment at a job well done and she wondered if this was how Applejack felt all the time.

As for the earth pony, Dash was finding that she truly enjoyed talking with her as they worked. Now that Caramel was back, they had gone back to splitting into teams of two to work the fields, which meant that she was once again having plenty of time to converse with her friend. Still, with spending all of her available time at the farm, she was starting to miss her other friends, and if she didn’t have time to practice anymore, she’d never make it into the Wonderbolts! One morning, she had finally brought this up with Applejack, and the orange pony’s response had been quite surprising.

“Ya know, ya’ll have a good point there, Rainbow. Tell ya what, since you’ve been doin’ such a good job around here, Ah’ll let ya have the day off. The three of us can handle things here.” The farmer pony said, giving her friend a little smile.

“Ohmygosh, really? Thank you so much, AJ! I mean, if you’re sure you don’t mind me going off today.”

“Heh, Ah’m sure. We’ve been doin’ this fer a couple’a years without ya, so Ah think we can handle one more day.” The earth pony said with a chuckle. “Besides, it won’t be long before the plants are big enough and we’ll have a lot more free time. So, go on and have fun, sugarcube.”

“Well, if you’re sure...” Rainbow Dash began before giving her friend a bright smile. “Thanks, Applejack. I guess I’ll see you later then!”

The pegasus waved her goodbyes to Applejack before spreading her wings and taking off, flying out toward Ponyville. After working for the past several days straight, having a day off was sounding like a wonderful idea. The only problem now was how to spend it. Thankfully, that question was partially answered for her when a familiar voice called out her name as she flew over the town.

“Ooh, Rainbow Dash! Down here, down here!”

Looking down for the source of the voice, Dash spotted a bright pink pony with a poofy mane bouncing around and waving to try to get her attention. A grin on her face, she banked and came in for a quick landing beside her friend.

“Hey Pinkie Pie! Geez, it feels like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I know! I’ve been looking for you everywhere after you just up and vanished. I thought Princess Celestia was good at hide and seek, but she’s got nothing on you! Though, you might not want to tell her that, or she might banish you, and then I’d never get to see you again! Oh, that reminds me, pranking’s not as fun without my best prankster buddy there with me. That’s why I wanted to find you!”

The sudden verbal barrage slammed into the pegasus, but Dash, who was quite used to it by now, simply gave a little chuckle. “Sorry about that, Pinkie Pie. I didn’t mean to disappear on you all, it just kinda happened. Though, I shouldn’t have been that hard to find. How hard were you looking?”

“Not hard to find? Do you know what I’ve been through?” The pink pony said, her eyes going wide. “I mean, I’ve asked everypony in town about it! I went to talk to Fluttershy about it first, but she said she hadn’t seen you either. Then I got kind of worried and went to go see Nurse Redheart, because you might have hurt yourself badly or something, but you weren’t there either. I kept trying to beg Twilight to cast a super-duper-prank-buddy-finder spell, but she kept saying there was no such thing, which shows how much she knows. Seriously, I thought her talent was magic, and she doesn’t even know about those? Anyways...”

The story continued on and Dash began to tune out most of it, as most ponies found themselves doing if they happened to get caught up in one of Pinkie Pie’s stories. The words came back to her though as her friend seemed to be wrapping it up.

“...and then I had a big green patch in my coat, but at least I was safe from the mean old hydra. The princess was so happy that I found the lost diamond earring though that she gave me a lotion that would fix it. And what do you know, it worked! So that’s why I’m happy to see you today!” She finished up, beaming at Dash in the way that only Pinkie Pie could.

“Wait, what?” The pegasus asked, blinking a bit before shaking her head with a laugh. “I’m glad to see you too, Pinkie Pie. Applejack finally gave me a day off, and I was trying to figure out how I should spend it.”

Pinkie Pie tilted her head with a puzzled look for a moment before giving a gasp. “Oh, of course! You were helping out Applejack on her farm, weren’t you? Boy, do I feel silly now. That’s the last place I would have looked, cause I would have found you there! Anyways, I found you and now we can go have fun, right?”

The excited pink mare managed to pull a goofy looking pair of disguise glasses seemingly from nowhere and put them on. Dash gave a laugh at her friend’s antics and shook her head slowly.

“You are so random, Pinkie Pie. That sounds good to me though! Got any good pranks in mind?”

“Hmm... oh, I know the perfect pony to go prank. I think I know just what to do too. Come on, Dashie, let’s go!”

“Heh, you aren’t even going to tell me who it is first?” The pegasus said, raising an eyebrow but following after her friend anyways.

“Nope! You’ll see when we get there!” Pinkie replied in a sing song voice, bouncing along happily as she led the way.

Rainbow Dash gave a sigh but couldn’t help but chuckle along with the pink pony as they walked through town. Since her friend didn’t seem to have any plans on letting her know, she began to try and guess who it might be that they were going to prank.

“Hmm... Is it Rarity again? No, we just passed her shop. It could be Twilight or Spike, but the library is over there and we’re going the wrong way for that. Er... Lyra or Bon Bon maybe?” Dash said hesitantly as they neared the edge of the town, grasping at anything she could come up with.

“Nope! None of the above, Dashie.” Pinkie said with a giggle.

“Ugh... can’t you just tell me who it is, Pinkie Pie?”

“Aw, but that would spoil the surprise! Besides you’ll see soon enough!”

Dash grumbled a bit at that, but it was all in good humor. Before long, the buildings fell away behind them, to be replaced by grass and bushes as they began following an all too familiar path. Indeed, as the barn and farmhouse came into view, along with a sign reading ‘Sweet Apple Acres’, her suspicions were confirmed.

“Oh... heh, it’s Applejack isn’t it.” The pegasus said with a little grin, turning to look at her friend.

The pink pony simply gave her a wide smile before glancing around surreptitiously and heading toward the barn. “Come on, this way! I’m going to need your help setting this all up in the barn. Oh, try not to let Applejack or anypony see you though. Ooh, this is going to be so good! I just know it will be the best prank ever!”

Not hearing a no, Rainbow Dash assumed that she was right, chuckling softly as she carefully snuck her way into the barn after Pinkie Pie. Eager to see just what her friend had planned, she followed along with the directions she was given. Several minutes later, Pinkie announced that they were finished, leaving Dash to look on in confusion at the bizarre contraption they had put together.

“So... what exactly is this thing supposed to do?”

“Hee hee, you’ll see Dashie.”

**************

Applejack was still hard at work on the fields when she heard the sound of somepony coming nearer. She looked up to see who it could be and saw her rainbow maned friend running full speed toward her, looking fairly panicked. The pegasus stopped beside her and tried to catch her breath.

“Woah there, what’s wrong sugarcube? Ya’ll look mighty frightened. Did something happen in town?” She asked, shocked by the sudden appearance of Rainbow Dash.

“N-no. I mean, maybe, but not in town. I asked Dashie to help me out with something in the barn, but now it’s gone terribly wrong!” Came a voice that was most definitely not the pegasus’.

“R-rainbow Dash? What happened to you? Ya’ll sound just like Pinkie Pie...”

“I am Pinkie Pie! Well, I guess I’m really Rainbow Dash now, but I’m still me too. Huh, that’s kind of confusing actually... anyways, we don’t have time for this! You need to get to the barn and help us try to fix things before we’re stuck like this! Forever!”

“Wait, if ya’ll are Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, then that means...” The farmer pony’s eyes widen and she gives a quick nod. “Yer right! We need ta get there right away. Ah don’t know what Ah can do ta help, but Ah’ll do mah best!”

With that, the two ponies galloped off at full speed for the barn. Applejack threw open the doors, looking around for any signs of what had happened. The inside of the barn looked about as it normally did, though there was an odd machine taking up a good chunk of the floor space. She thought it looked kind of like those things she’d seen down in the basement of the Library, what Twilight had called her ‘lab’. Standing beside it was a pink pony who’s look of shock matched her own.

“Pinkie-- Ah mean, Rainbow? Are ya’ll alright?”

“No, I’m not alright! I... I didn’t know I was going to get stuck like this! How am I supposed to join the Wonderbolts if I don’t have wings? Or be captain of the weather team, or fly, or... or anything?”

“D-don’t worry, Ah’ll try and fix this, sugarcube...” Applejack said before turning back to the pegasus now known as Pinkie Pie. “What happened and how can Ah help?”

“Well... the machine worked the first time, but it broke right after making us each other. So, now I’m stuck as Rainbow Dash and she’s stuck as me! Usually when things break though, a good hit can get them working again. Dashie and I need to be in our spots when that happens though, so we need someone to hit the machine.”

“Ah think Ah can do that. Ya’ll sure that’s gonna work though?”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice! If this doesn’t work, then we won’t be able to switch back and then I’m going to have to learn to fly and Dashie is going to have to learn to bake.”

“Alright then, ya’ll both do what you need to and Ah’ll do mah part. Jus’ let me know when Ah should go for it.”

The pegasus gave a nod and headed over toward the machine, the pink pony doing likewise. Each of them stepped into one of the large chambers and turned back to look at Applejack as a little gate closed to keep them inside.

“Okay, do it now!” Came Pinkie’s voice.

Applejack didn’t need to be told twice. Spinning around, she gave the machine a good, hard buck. Suddenly, there was a loud popping sound and confetti shot everywhere. The orange pony jumped nearly a foot into the air, her eyes wide.

“What the hay...” She began before another sound caught her attention and she looked to see the two ponies in the machine rolling on the ground laughing. “W-what’s goin’ on you two?”

“Heh, you should have seen the look on your face! It was priceless!” Rainbow Dash said, her voice still coming from the pink pony as she wiped tears of laughter from her face.

“Yeah! Hee hee, that was so much fun.” The other pony giggled.

As Applejack watched, the two of them reached up to pull off what she could now see were just wigs, one pink and poofy, the other rainbow colored, and neither of them all that good now that she noticed. In fact, now that she wasn’t nearly as panicked, she could see that neither of the ponies even had their proper cutie mark, just crude drawings of them.

“Ah... Ah don’t even... what the hay’s going on?” She said, her eyes starting to widen as she realized what just happened. “Oh... consarnit you two! This was all just one of yer pranks, weren’t it? Well, it ain’t funny!”

As the earth pony watched the two of them step out of the machine and begin washing the dye from their coats and realized just how worked up she’d gotten though, she began to chuckle softly.

“Well... alright, maybe it was a mite bit funny. Ya’ll two had me right worried though. Ah didn’t know what Ah would do if ya’ll really were stuck like that.”

“Aww, sorry Applejack. I didn’t mean to really worry you or anything. Well, maybe just a bit, to make the reveal all the better. Maybe it was a bit much though...” The now freshly pink pony said, turning her head to remove the false wings even as Dash was washing the invisible ink off of her own.

“It’s fine, sugarcube. No harm done. Though, mah heart’s still goin’ so fast.” She said with a laugh. “Ah might just have ta take a bit of a rest before headin’ back out ta work.”

Pinkie Pie brightened up considerably as her friend seemed to be taking the prank quite well. “Okie-dokie-lokie! I proclaim that prank a huge success then. Yay! Although, it does take a whole lot of work to get right... funny, but I think I’ll just stick to hoof buzzers. Thanks for being such a good sport, Applejack! I’ll get right to work on getting all this cleaned up!”

“Yeah, me too. With the two of us, your barn should be back to normal in no time!” Dash said with a grin.

With that, the two ponies set about pulling down their construction, Applejack lending a hoof as well instead of just watching them. With all three of them working, it didn’t take long at all before the barn was right back to the way it should have been. After she had somehow put the last of the materials into her saddlebags, Pinkie began to head out of the barn, waving goodbye to her friends.

“Well, I’ve got to get going. I’ve got parties to plan and cakes to bake! See you later, Dashie, Applejack. Try not to work too hard! Remember, all work and no play makes... I don’t remember the rest, but it’s not good.” She said, thinking on it as she walked out. “Was it all work and no play makes for a sad day, or winter stay...”

After giving their own goodbyes to the pink pony, Rainbow Dash and Applejack turned to each other. The pegasus was still chuckling softly as she grinned to the orange pony.

“Heh, hope you didn’t mind that too much AJ. I met up with Pinkie Pie in Ponyville, but even I didn’t know what we were going to do til we got here. Still, that was great!”

“Ah don’t mind one bit, Rainbow. Heh, Ah can take a joke as good as the next pony. Though, Ah’m gonna have ta work a bit harder ta catch up after this...”

“Hmm... I know you said I could have day off, but I could help you finish up if you’d like. I mean, it is kinda my fault you’re running behind.”

“Ah’d be most appreciative of that. Ya’ll don’t have to if you don’t want, but Ah certainly wouldn’t say no to some help.”

“Sure thing then! I’d be glad to help out.”

Applejack gave her friend a wide smile before nodding and starting to head back out toward the field, the pegasus following alongside her.

“Heh, you know the thing that worried me the most when Ah heard the news from Pinkie Pie? That ya’ll had lost yer wings, Rainbow. Ah know how important they are to you and Ah didn’t know how you would take losin’ them. Ah jus’ knew it wouldn’t be good and that ya’ll would need somepony there to help.”

“Hmm... I hadn’t really thought about something like that before.” Dash said, turning her head a bit to look back at her wings. “Yeah, if something happened and I lost them or couldn’t fly or something... that’d be pretty devastating. Flying is my life, always has been, and if I lost that... well, I’d need all the help I could get.”

They walked on in silence for a moment before the pegasus spoke up again. “I hope something like that never, ever happens to me, or any pegasus. If though... if something did happen, then I would definitely want you there for support, Applejack. Maybe, with a friend like you, I’d be able to pull through it.”

“That’s mah hope too, Rainbow. Though, like you say, if...” The earth pony trailed off for a moment before taking a breath and continuing. “Ah’d be there for you in a heartbeat, ta do whatever Ah can ta help.”

Again, the two fell into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Rainbow gave a little laugh and shook her head.

“Well, now that we’re nice and depressed, how bout we go get some work done.”

“Heh, sounds good ta me. Race ya there.”

“Oh, you’re on!”

________________________________________

Though she never did manage to get any flying practice done during her time off, Rainbow Dash had still had quite a bit of fun and considered it a good day. After the excitement of that day though, things fell back into the normal routine around the farm for the next few days. Applejack woke her up early in the morning, they watered the plants, took a break for a big lunch, continued working the fields, and then went to bed shortly after sunset. Under the ponies’ care, the plants continued to grow larger day by day. Finally, Applejack declared that they were big enough to not need such careful tending every day, so long as it rained pretty regularly.

Without as much work left to do around the farm, Rainbow Dash found herself with a lot more free time to spend as she pleased. Or she would have, if she didn’t have weather team duties to catch up on. Still, that wasn’t a particularly difficult job and she still had plenty of time to practice her tricks or just hang out with her friends, though she did insist on being the one to put together the rainclouds over Sweet Apple Acres when they were called for. Applejack continued to wake her up early in the mornings for some reason, though it wasn’t quite as hard to do anymore and that did give her extra time to be out and about.

As for the earth pony, Applejack too was taking this time to catch up with her friends, having pretty much vanished from Ponyville for the past two weeks or so. There were still things to do around the farm, mending tools and buildings, checking up on the crops to make sure they were growing well, and even starting to look over the apple orchard since the trees were beginning to leaf out again. She got Rainbow to help out with the tasks that the pegasus could help with, but some things just required more experience than what the blue pony had and she did those herself.

The scenery around Ponyville began to grow green once more as the Spring days passed, the weather growing warmer as life emerged once more from the ground. While perhaps it did not carry the same tranquility as Winter, there was something to be said for these times as well. Ponies began to spend far more time outdoors, tending to their own gardens or simply enjoying the beautiful weather put together by the pegasi and Celestia’s sun.

During the occasional times that their friends were busy with their own jobs, Rainbow and Applejack often found themselves hanging out with each other since they both had roughly the same time off. Often it wound up leading to some form of competition and it wasn’t uncommon to see the two ponies racing through the apple trees up at the farm or around the outskirts of Ponyville. As the days grew longer, and the beautiful white and pink blossoms began to bloom upon the once bare apple trees, so too did their friendship grow and flourish in the beauty of the Spring.

Summer Part 1

A Summer of Hopes

As the seasons fade from Spring to Summer, the vibrancy and life that had grown during the former became sharper. Longer days and the Summer sun brought a brightness to everything, the green color of the leaves and plant life growing more vivid and beautiful as time passed. Flowers that had begun to appear throughout the Spring were now in full bloom, lending a wonderful fragrance to the air and a splash of color to the scenery. Little critters were out in abundance and the sound of birdsong greeted the ponies of Ponyville as they frolicked and played in the wonders of the day, while clear skies and beautiful stars greeted those who preferred Luna’s night.

At Sweet Apple Acres, the apple trees were now in full bloom and the first apples would be appearing before too long. The crops that had been planted a few months back were growing strong now and the harvest was approaching steadily. For now though, there was still some time to go before then and Rainbow Dash continued to pull together small rainstorms every few days to water the fields.

Despite whatever she may have thought before, the pegasus found she was actually enjoying her time at the farm. Sure, the early mornings weren’t exactly her favorite things in the world, but she could live with that. Apart from that though, there was a feeling of pride, of a job well done that came with watching the progress of the crops she had helped to plant and grow. And then, there was the time she was able to spend with Applejack. They had quite a lot of things in common, probably why they had become friends in the first place, and she quickly found herself enjoying their conversations as more than just ways to distract herself from the work.

Nothing much seemed to be going on around town as time passed, no major adventures for her and her friends to take part in. Still, life was far from boring for Dash and it looked like the Summer was going to get far more interesting following the arrival of a special letter from a particularly friendly mailmare.

“What’s that you’ve got there?” Applejack said curiously as she walked into the room, looking at the letter Rainbow Dash was holding.

“I don’t know. I was just about to open it and find out.” The pegasus replied, quite curious herself.

Dash didn’t get too many letters since everypony who would think of writing to her lived in the same town. Well, except for her parents, but they didn’t talk much anymore, and that worked out better for everypony. Carefully, she broke the seal and unrolled the scroll to read.

As her eyes roamed over the words, they widened and a look of shock, confusion, and excitement all at once came across her.

“Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh! I... I don’t believe it!” She said, nearly dropping the scroll in her excitement.

“What is it sugarcube?” Applejack asked, tilting her head a bit at Rainbow’s reaction. “Somethin’ good, Ah can see that much.”

“Oh yeah! It’s... it’s from the Wonderbolts! They’re coming to Ponyville in a few weeks to see me perform, maybe even to give me a spot on the team! I didn’t know they even did this kind of thing. This is so awesome!”

“That’s great news, Rainbow! This could be yer chance ta have yer dreams come true.” The earth pony said, giving a smile that matched the one worn by her friend.

“I know! I’ve always hoped this would happen and now it is.” Rainbow said before something occurred to her and she turned toward Applejack. “Oh, but I’m going to have to work that day...”

“Heh, ya’ll can have that day off. Ah don’t think that’ll be a problem at all.” Applejack replied with a laugh.

“Thank you Applejack! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” The pegasus said, positively beaming at her friend.

“Hey, Ah know just how important this is to you, Rainbow. What kinda friend would Ah be if Ah made you work through it? Though, ya’ll might have ta work extra hard the next day ta make up for it.” The orange pony said with a little chuckle.

“It’s totally worth it! This is going to be so great... I’m going to have to practice extra hard to make sure I can nail my best tricks. Eheh, after work of course.” Rainbow said, spotting Applejack’s look.

The earth pony gave a laugh and shook her head, smiling widely to her friend. “Ah’m only kiddin’ sugarcube. Now, let’s get workin’ so ya’ll can have plenty of time to practice yer flyin’.”

**************

For the rest of that day, and indeed for the next several days, the upcoming tryout was all Rainbow Dash could think about. However, after her initial excitement began to wear off, another feeling began to set in, one that she was only too familiar with. It was nervousness, and fear. What if she messed things up again, like she did during her routine at the Best Young Flier’s Competition? Or worse, what if she did her very best and the Wonderbolts just didn’t think it was good enough...

Whenever her mind touched upon those topics, or similar ones, she tried to distract herself by going over her tricks again in her mind, thinking through what she could do to improve them. A nice side effect of this was that by the time of the tryout, she would have her routine completely memorized, which left only her flying skills to be put to the test.

Nearly all of Rainbow’s free time was spent flying around to practice her tricks. As soon as she was let loose by Applejack, she would head out to the field she normally practiced over, or the lake if the trick was particularly risky. Despite a few minor setbacks, she was doing extremely well, capable of pulling off all of her tricks with few errors. Still, even though everypony who happened to come by and watch her perform told her so, she continued to push herself to make it even better. Good wasn’t good enough, it had to be perfect for the Wonderbolts.

While she had grown stronger during her time working at the farm, this was another matter entirely. Dash’s constant drive to improve herself began to take a toll on her body, sore muscles beginning to protest against the constant use. Once again, she started to have trouble waking up in the mornings, Applejack sometimes having to call for her three or four times before she would emerge from her room, grumpy and sore after a rough night’s sleep.

About a week after she had received the letter, Rainbow Dash woke up after a particularly bad night. She had tossed and turned all night, dealing with nightmares that were far worse than usual. Though she couldn’t remember any details, one had something to do with her doing so badly at the tryout that the Wonderbolts had revoked her rights as a pegasus and she had woken up just before her wings were removed. Still shaking slightly, she followed Applejack out of the house, her friend trying to make light conversation but being met with only curt answers or nothing at all.

Her mood did not improve at all as the two ponies went about their various tasks of the day. If anything, it grew worse and seemed to be infectious as it wasn’t too long before Applejack was in a rather sour mood as well. Several times throughout the morning, the earth pony had had to snap at her friend for making mistakes that were either dangerous or shouldn’t have been made at all. They had even come close to getting into a shouting match more than once as time dragged on.

All in all, Rainbow Dash was quite glad as she was left with just one more task for the day, putting together the rainclouds that would cover the farm and water the crops. For one thing, it meant she was almost finished and could go practice some more. For another, it meant that she no longer had to be around Applejack any longer.

The pegasus began to pull clouds together to form a solid grey mass in the sky, grumbling to herself as she did so. She was so caught up in her irritation and anger that she didn’t notice that the clouds, which should have been a light grey shade, were rapidly growing quite dark. It wasn’t until there was an ominous rumble of thunder and the rain began to pour down that she realized she’d forgotten one of the most important rules of the weather team. Never put together something like a storm while angry.

Just like any other form of art, a pegasus put a bit of themselves into the weather they created. Normally, this simply served to make their work look incredible and have more life to it than the kind of weather that would form over, say, the Everfree Forest. Of course, this also meant that negative emotions such as anger or jealousy could have a profound effect on whatever the pegasus put together, as Dash was seeing with her storm which was rapidly growing out of control.

Lightning crackled from cloud to cloud, though even as Rainbow Dash fled to the ground to avoid being struck, she knew it would only be a matter of time before it would make it’s way down. As the gusts of wind howled and the downpour grew even stronger, Applejack made her way out of the barn, holding her hat on with one hoof as she stared up at the clouds with wide eyes.

“R-rainbow, what’s... what’s goin’ on here? Ah know Ah asked fer a storm, but this is just too much! If this keeps up, we’re gonna lose the crops and maybe even some of the apple trees.”

“Applejack, I’m so sorry! I... I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this.” Rainbow Dash shouted over the storm, her eyes wide and fearful.

“Save yer apologies fer now, sugarcube, we’ve got bigger problems. Can’t ya’ll break it up or... stop it or somethin’?” Applejack said as Big Macintosh and Caramel appeared, having dropped whatever they were doing to see what was going on.

“No, it’s too big now. I can’t control something this size. I... I suppose I might be able to try something to slow it down or break it apart, but I don’t know. With that lightning...”

“Well, you can’t just stand around doin’ nothing. None of us can. Come on, Big Macintosh, Caramel, we need to get tarps out over the crops, secure the barn and house, ya’ll know what ta do. Rainbow, do somethin’ about that storm if you can. If not... let’s just hope you can anyways. Move it ponies!” Applejack said, steeling herself up as she took command in the face of this disaster.

Her brother and Caramel did as she said, though the smaller pony was visibly trembling. Together with Applejack, the three earth ponies began to pull large tarps out of the barn, hauling them toward the fields to try and cover up the crops from some of the worst of the storm. Unfortunately, as soon as the tarps were unfolded, that plan began to fall apart. The wind was just too strong and, though they kept their grips on the fabric, it was still flapping wildly in the wind.

As they were fighting with that, Rainbow Dash had taken to the air again, trying to take calming breaths even as she dodged around the clouds to avoid any lightning. Against something like this, one pegasus alone didn’t stand a chance, but she didn’t have time to go get any others or the storm she’d put together would wind up tearing Sweet Apple Acres apart. Still, there had to be something she could do, and she began to try everything she could think of to break apart the clouds.

Despite her best efforts though, for every cloud she kicked away or got separated from the main thunderhead, more continued to get sucked into the mass and the storm grew and grew. Gritting her teeth as yet another of her attempts failed, Dash flicked her mane out of her eyes and flew right back into the clouds again. She couldn’t just give up, not while those three ponies below were counting on her. She had to stop this monster she’d created.

Down below, things were going a bit better for the earth ponies. They had finally managed to get half of the tarp down, Caramel tying the ropes to stakes which were driven into the ground. Applejack and Big Macintosh each had one of the other corners and were struggling to hold them down so that he could come around and finish those off as well, starting with Applejack’s. The wind was terrible though and it was taking all the strength they had just to hold on and keep the tarp from flapping loose again.

After yet another failed attempt at putting a stop to the storm, Dash headed back down toward the ground to let the other three know that she needed help with this. Before she could say anything though, there was a loud snap as one of the ropes holding down the tarp broke under the strain. Caught by the wind, the entire tarp began to shift and blow around, the severed rope now whipping viciously through the air. Before anypony could do anything except stare on in horror, the rope blew straight toward Big Macintosh, slamming into the stallion’s side with a crack loud enough to be heard over the storm. The red pony was thrown off his hooves by the force of the blow, landing in the mud where he lay, completely still.

“Oh Celestia, Big Macintosh!” Applejack called out, racing over to her brother.

She looked over the fallen pony for a moment before turning back to the other stallion there.

“He’s hurt bad. Gonna need somepony’s help fast... Caramel, run and go get Nurse Redheart!”

Caramel didn’t move at all, didn’t even act as if he had heard her. He was simply staring at the scene unfolding around him with wide, terrified eyes, apparently completely oblivious to the deadly rope still lashing through the air around him. The pony seemed to be completely paralyzed with fear.

“Caramel, get down!” Came a voice from above, followed by a speeding blue blur that knocked the yellow pony to the ground just in time to avoid the rope as it whizzed past at head height.

The shock seemed to be enough to break whatever trance had fallen over the stallion as he blinked and quickly got back up onto his feet, backing out of reach of the severed rope. Looking from Big Macintosh on the ground and Applejack beside him to Rainbow Dash where she was picking herself up from the mud and seemed to falter once more.

“I... I...” He tried to say before Applejack cut him off.

“There ain’t no time, Caramel! Ya’ll need ta get ta Ponyville and get Nurse Redheart!”

“After you’ve done that, gather up as many pegasi as you can.” Rainbow Dash added on hurriedly. “I need all the help I can get.”

The colt still looked absolutely terrified, but he nodded and bolted off toward the town. After he left, Applejack took another look down at her brother before getting back up. After a quick look around, she found a cloth that would at least keep some of the rain off of him and laid it over the red stallion.

“Ah’m sorry, Big Mac, but Ah’ve still got a job ta do. Ah’m sure ya understand...” She said, hesitant to leave his side while he’s injured but still turning away toward the runaway tarp. “Rainbow! Ah know Ah asked you ta take care of that storm, but Ah can’t do this all by mah lonesome.”

“R-right! Just tell me what you need me to do!” The pegasus gave a nod in reply.

With that, the two set about trying to get the tarp back under control and staked down. It was hard going, far harder than it had been with three ponies working on it. The driving rain and howling winds didn’t make things any easier on the two of them. Somehow though, they finally managed to get the first tarp pinned down and, despite a brief, anxious moment where it looked as if the ropes might snap, they held.

Applejack gave a little sigh of relief, though she didn’t have time to rejoice just yet. There were still two other fields to cover and this was just a temporary measure. If something wasn’t done about that storm... Her thoughts are distracted by the arrival of Nurse Redheart, followed shortly thereafter by Caramel and a flock of pegasi ponies along with some of the stronger ponies from town.

As the nurse pony immediately rushed to Big Mac’s side, looking him over before calling over two ponies to help her lift him up onto a stretcher and haul him back toward Ponyville, the others began to divide up into groups. Applejack led one group of the land-bound ponies, leading them toward one of the remaining fields while Caramel led the second. Rainbow Dash took command of the fliers, putting in action a plan to cut the storm into several bits all at once, breaking it up faster than it could grow back.

Slowly, the tide had turned. Thanks to the efforts of all the ponies, the last two fields were covered over and the storm was worked down to a size where it would blow itself out before too much longer. Apart from some minor cuts and bruises, and a lot of discomfort from the storm and the mud, nopony else was injured and, soon enough, they had all huddled inside of the barn for shelter rather than brave the walk back into town.

The pegasus ponies really knew what they were doing. While they were unable to disperse the clouds entirely, the storm blew itself out in a little under an hour. The ponies that had helped during the emergency trickled out the barn, heading for their homes, but Applejack made sure to personally thank each and every one of them.

“Hey, it’s not a problem. What hurts Sweet Apple Acres, hurts all of us. Giving help during a time of need is the least we can do.” One of the ponies replied to her thanks, giving her a little smile before leaving.

Soon, the last of the helpers had left, leaving just Applejack, Caramel, and Rainbow Dash in the barn, each dreading what they might see once they step outside. Before that happened though, Applejack knew there were things she needed to speak to the other two about now that the townsponies had left.

Before she had a chance to say anything though, Caramel stepped up. “Applejack, I... I’m sorry. I let you down, all of you. And, I know we’re going to need to have a talk, but I can’t right now. I have to know... if he’s alright.”

As she looked at the yellow pony, still trembling somewhat with his wide, teary eyes, Applejack’s heart melted for him and she gave a little nod. With no need to be told twice, the stallion shot out of the barn toward Ponyville. That left just the pegasus in there with her.

Although all of the adrenaline had left her body a while ago, Rainbow Dash still seemed to be stuck in a fight or flight mentality. As she stood there nervously, her wings rustled and shifted continuously as she hoofed at the ground. This was far worse than any mistake she had ever made before. She had never lost control of a storm like this and today it may have cost her friend dearly, possibly even more so than just the damage to the farm.

As her friend turned to look at her, Dash knew that it was all over. Their newly strengthening friendship, the good times here at the farm, it was all gone. Next to this, the incident with the raincloud a few weeks ago looked like nothing. At that moment, the one thing that Rainbow Dash knew for certain was that she had messed up bad and that she couldn’t stand to hear the anger and hate that she knew would be in her former friend’s voice.

The guest room at the house wasn’t far enough to run. Her own cloud house wasn’t either. She would just keep flying and flying and flying until she crossed the very borders of Equestria, maybe not even stopping then. The barn doors were still wide open, she could see the clearing skies through them.

Unable to face her friend, Dash bolted.

Or she would have, had something not grabbed hold of her tail and pulled her crashing back to the ground.

Turning her head to look behind her, she saw that Applejack had caught her tail in her teeth and was currently holding onto it.

Once certain that the pegasus was grounded for now, the orange pony spat out the sopping tail before giving her friend a little look. “Ah ain’t lettin’ you fly off this time Rainbow Dash. We’ve already done that once, and Ah’m afraid ya’ll won’t let me catch up this time. Now, Ah jus’ want ta know... what happened, Rainbow?”

Looking into her friend’s green eyes, it was like a floodgate burst inside of Rainbow Dash. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t keep the tears from gathering in her own eyes and soon she found herself sobbing uncontrollably, tearing her eyes away from Applejack’s.

“I... I don’t know. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I... was just so mad... at you, at myself, at the whole world. And... I lost control. The storm just fed off my feelings and... and it kept getting bigger and bigger. It was a stupid mistake and... now I’ve messed up everything. Big Mac’s in the hospital, the farm’s probably in shambles, and there’s no way you can’t hate me for this. Ugh, and now this is the second time you’ve seen me fall apart like this... I’m so pathetic...”

Silence met these words as Dash tried to pull herself together with no success. The sudden feeling of a pair of legs wrapping around her neck caused her to tense up for a moment before she realized that Applejack had pulled her into a tight hug.

“Rainbow Dash, Ah don’t hate you. Ah won’t say ya’ll didn’t make a mistake, but Ah forgive you. That’s what friends do...” The earth pony said softly as she held her friend.

Held in the embrace, the pegasus was hesitant at first, unused to displays of emotion around her friends. Before too long though, she was leaning gently against Applejack, sobbing softly as she let out emotions she had been keeping bottled up for quite some time, afraid to let anypony else see them for fear that they might lose respect for her if they saw. Applejack gave little comforting nuzzles to her friend as she held her.

Finally, Rainbow Dash’s tears began to dry up and her sobs ceased. Applejack released the pegasus and took a step back. Now that her friend seemed to have calmed down a bit, it was time to talk.

“Ah want ya’ll ta know, Ah’m not angry at you, sugarcube. Ah’m worried. Ah ain’t never seen you like this before. What’s wrong, Rainbow? Does this have somethin’ ta do with that tryout you’ve got comin’ up?” She said softly.

Rainbow hesitated for a moment before giving a little nod, turning away. “Y-yeah... I... I’m so nervous, AJ. No matter how much I practice, I’m scared it’s not enough. What if I mess up, or they don’t like me? It... this has always been my dream... What if I’m just not good enough...”

“Rainbow, ya’ll ain’t got nothin’ ta worry about. Ah’ve seen yer tricks and they’re amazing. Ya’ll jus’ need ta have a bit more confidence in yerself. Besides, if Ah recall, you saved those ponies once before, right? That’s gotta count fer somethin’. When you get out there and perform for them, the Wonderbolts’re gonna love it.”

“You... you really think so?” Dash said, though she still seemed afraid to truly get her hopes up.

“Course Ah do, sugarcube. Yer the best young flier in Equestria, right? Got the award and everything. And, even if somethin’ does go wrong and you don’t make it in, well, ya’ll jus’ keep on tryin’ until you do. Put that stubbornness of yours ta good use.” Applejack said, cracking a little smile. “Jus’ remember, Rainbow, we’re all here for you, Twi, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and me, no matter what.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I... I can’t let this get to me. I’m Rainbow Dash, the one and only. Fastest flier in Equestria.” The pegasus said, a small grin appearing that, though shaky, was still more like her normal self. “And I am going to join the Wonderbolts! Thanks, AJ. I’m just going to keep practicing even harder.”

Applejack gave her friend a wide smile upon seeing her cheering up again. Though, at the mention of practicing, she raised an eyebrow at Dash, quickly putting a hoof down over her tail as the pegasus looked ready to run off. Finding herself caught yet again, Dash turned back to the orange pony with a little look.

“What is with you ponies and grabbing my tail?”

“Gets yer attention, don’t it?” Applejack said with a little chuckle before turning serious once more. “Now, that’s somethin’ else Ah wanted ta talk with you about. Not the tail thing, but yer practicin’. Ah know ya’ll want ta do the best you can, but Ah’m worried yer pushin’ yerself too hard.”

“Pushing myself too hard? No way! I have to do this, Applejack. No matter how good a flier I may be, there’s always room for improvement and my show needs to be absolutely perfect for the tryout. Besides, I... I can handle it. No problem.” She said, though her mask of confidence seemed to be slipping a bit.

“Yer a terrible liar, ya know that?” Applejack said, shaking her head slowly. “Ah can see it jus’ by lookin’ at you, Rainbow. Yer hurtin’ yerself by doin’ this. Ya’ll were getttin’ better, workin’ faster and gettin’ up on time with no problem and now look at you. This ain’t healthy sugarcube.”

Rainbow Dash seemed to wince a bit at this but looked up at her friend and retorted. “You’re the last one who should lecture me on this kind of thing, Applejack. Overworking yourself, why does that sound so familiar...”

“Heh, maybe ya’ll have a point with that. Ah learned mah lesson from that though, and Ah sure ain’t gonna do somethin’ like that again. Well, probably not. Still, Ah know what that’s like and Ah don’t want ta see ya’ll do that ta yerself.”

“Ugh, I told you, I can handle it! I used to practice like this all the time. Okay, not quite as much as this, but still, my point stands.”

“Rainbow, stop bein’ such a stubborn little filly and listen ta me! If ya’ll keep up like this, you won’t be doin’ any flyin’ at all cause you’ll be in the hospital. What’re yer chances of joinin’ the Wonderbolts if you can’t even show up ta yer own tryout?”

Dash cast about for a reply for a moment before giving a little sigh. “You’re right, again. These past few days have been terrible. It’s just like when I first started working with you. If I don’t practice though, then how will I ever be good enough?”

“Confidence, sugarcube, remember?” Applejack said, giving her friend a gentle nudge as it looked like she was falling back into her gloom. “Think positive and make good use of yer time ta practice, just take breaks too.”

At the touch, Rainbow looked up to her friend again and nodded. “Alright. I’ll try to keep positive. And I’ll make sure I don’t push myself too hard.”

Applejack gave her friend a warm smile and a nod. With that, the two fell into silence once more. Finally, Rainbow Dash spoke up again.

“Hey, AJ, can I ask a favor of you?”

“Sure thing, Rainbow. What c’n I do fer you?”

“Well... normally self-confidence comes naturally to me. Heh, it’s not hard to be confident when you’re as awesome as I am. With this though... I haven’t felt like this since the Best Young Fliers Competition. Would you mind helping me out when I practice?” The pegasus asked, quickly continuing as she spotted the look in her friend’s eyes. “Or even just hanging out together while I’m on break. I mean, I know you’re not able to be up there to help me practice flying but... having a friend like you around will help a lot. You’re really good at helping me keep confident about myself, Applejack. And... I may be fine now, but what about tomorrow? Or the next day?”

Applejack just listened to Rainbow’s words before giving her a wide smile. “Course Ah will, Rainbow! Ah mean, when Ah can get away from the farm, Ah’d be more than happy ta help you. If ya’ll want me watchin’ yer practice, then Ah can do that too. Heh, we already kinda do that anyways, when the others are at work and all.”

“Heh, yeah, I suppose we do. Thanks, AJ.”

“Don’t mention it, sugarcube. Now, Ah suppose we’d best be headin’ straight fer Ponyville.”

“Hm? Why’s that?” Dash asked, her eyes going wide as she remembered what had happened not too long before. “Oh no, Big Mac... I can’t believe I nearly forgot. I’m so sorry Applejack, I didn’t mean to keep you here!”

At the mention of her brother’s name, Applejack gave the slightest of winces, a chink appearing in the armor of strength she’d been displaying though she shrugged it off. “Don’t worry about it, Rainbow. This was important too, and Ah’m glad Ah took the time. Still... we should probably hurry.”

“Y-yeah, we should. Um... why don’t I fly you to the hospital. It’ll be faster than running.”

“Ya’ll can do that?” Applejack said, blinking at her friend as the pegasus nodded. “Well... alright then. Come on, let’s get goin’.”

With that, the two ponies left the barn, shutting the doors behind them. As Rainbow Dash looked around the farm, seeing the damage the storm had left in its wake, she winced a bit. After the talk with Applejack, she’d nearly forgotten that this was all her fault and seeing it all first hoof made her want to break down again. However, she remembered that wince from her friend and realized that she needed to stay strong for now, for her depending on what they found at the hospital.

Turning back to face her friend, Dash’s wings spread out as she flew up from the ground. After a quick circle around, she lowered down to grab hold of the earth pony, wrapping her forelegs around her middle. Straining herself just a bit to gain altitude, she began to fly off toward Ponyville as fast as she could.

For Applejack, that trip was one of the most frightening experiences of her life and she knew right as her hooves left the ground that that was where they should be, not hanging free up in the air like this. Still, she did her best to hold still and let Dash carry her, trying not to think too hard about what might await them. Then again, thoughts of what would happen if her friend’s grip slipped didn’t help much either.

Soon, though not nearly soon enough for the orange pony still holding on for dear life, the hospital came into view and Rainbow began to head toward the ground. Thankfully, this wasn’t one of her rather common crash landings and the two managed to land on their hooves with no problems.

“Th-thanks.” Applejack said, somewhat shakily as she turned to her friend. “One thing though, sugarcube. Remind me ta never do that again.”

Despite the situation, Rainbow Dash chuckled softly at that. It died off fairly soon though as the two entered into the hospital. Nurse Redheart emerged from a side hallway shortly after they entered, looking up as she spotted them. Applejack wasted no time in walking up to her.

“H-how is he?” She asked anxiously.

“Well... there was some minor internal injury and a few bruised ribs.” The nurse pony said before a little smile appeared on her face. “But he’s going to be just fine. If it were anypony else, it would have been far worse. Your brother’s quite a tough pony though. He’s not going to be in any condition to work on the farm for a while though.”

Hearing this, a relieved smile crossed Applejack and she gave a quick nod. “Ah see. Thank Celestia and Luna both. And you too, Nurse Redheart. Kin Ah see him?”

“Of course. He regained consciousness an hour ago and Mr. Caramel has been in there talking with him. It’s the second room on the right.”

“Thank ya kindly, Nurse Redheart.” Applejack said, dipping her head to the nurse pony before heading in the direction she’d indicated.

After getting confirmation that she could go too, Rainbow Dash followed her, still feeling quite nervous about just how Big Macintosh might react to her. As they reached the door, Applejack turned to her friend.

“Would... would ya’ll mind waitin’ out here fer just a moment, Rainbow? Ah’d like ta talk with mah brother in private fer a moment.”

“Of course not. Go right ahead, AJ. Just let me know when you’re finished.” The pegasus replied.

The orange pony nodded before opening the door and stepping inside. Caramel looked up at her from where he sat next to the bed. Without needing to say a word, he into her eyes before standing up and leaving the room. Now alone with her brother, Applejack walked over to the bed where the red stallion was propped up and looking at her.

“Hey there, Big Mac...”

“Hey, Little Jack.”

“Heh, Ah thought Ah outgrew that name a while ago. Ah might not be as big as you, but Ah ain’t little no more.” Applejack said with a soft chuckle.

“Hmm, that’s true. You’re always going ta be my little sister though, like it or not.”

“Ah suppose so. How’re you feelin’?”

Big Macintosh gave a little sigh before answering. “Ah’ve felt better. It still hurts a bit, but it’s not too bad. Ah’m more upset about not being able to help out. Miss Redheart said that Ah might not be able to make Applebuck season this year. Hopefully Ah’ll be better before then though. Hate ta leave you alone for that again.”

“Don’t worry about that. Ah’m sure... sure you’ll be just fine by then. Besides, Ah’ve got plenty of help with Caramel and Rainbow Dash there ta help out. Just don’t push yerself too hard until yer sure yer better.”

“Heh, Ah know, Ah know. How’s Rainbow Dash doing? She doesn’t blame herself for all this, does she? Ah’ve been getting enough of that from Caramel. Poor pony’s dead certain that it’s his fault Ah got hit. Everything from not tying the ropes well enough to just being bad luck. Ah’ve tried to tell him otherwise, but Ah’m not sure he’s listened.”

“Yeah, Rainbow’s pretty upset about what happened. She was in a pretty bad state back at the farm, that’s why...” Applejack began before falling silent.

Big Macintosh seemed to understand what was troubling her as he immediately spoke up. “Don’t you even think it, Applejack. Ah know full well that you just did what you had to, what our pappy would have done in your place. Ah understand completely, so you don’t need to beat yourself up either.”

“Yeah, Ah... Ah suppose...” Applejack responded, though she didn’t sound entirely convinced. Still, she did her best not to let that show at all as she stood beside her brother. For a second, she thought of hugging the injured pony but decided against it, giving him a gentle nuzzle instead.

“Ah’m glad yer alright, big brother. When Ah saw you lyin’ there on the ground, Ah was so worried...”

The red pony gave a soft nuzzle back but said nothing. The two stayed there in silence for a moment, both feeling relieved that they even could just be there together. Finally, Applejack glanced toward the door and pulled back from the bed a bit.

“Well, Rainbow wanted ta come see how ya’ll were doin’ and Ah told her Ah’d let her know when she could come in. Guess Ah’d better go tell her then.”

With a nod from Big Macintosh, she headed over to the door and pushed it open. Looking out, she saw that Rainbow Dash was still standing right outside, looking exceedingly nervous. Upon spotting her friend looking out at her, the pegasus straightened up and looked right at her.

“How is he? Is everything alright?”

“He’s doin’ just fine. Ya’ll can come in now, if you want.”

“Alright, thanks.” Rainbow said, nodding before walking toward the doorway.

“Do you want me ta step out or anything? Ah don’t mind.” Applejack said as the pegasus passed her.

“No, it’s alright. He’s your brother after all. I’m not going to ask you to leave the room. Besides, I’d... kinda prefer if you stuck around.”

“Of course, Rainbow.” Applejack said, nodding and closing the door again before following her friend back into the room.

Rainbow Dash walked in but stopped a good ways away from the bed, looking nervously at the pony laying in it. As she took in the bandages and wrappings around Big Macintosh, pain filled her eyes and she fidgeted around for a moment, not quite meeting his eyes. Finally, she spoke up in a shaky voice.

“I’m sorry, Big Macintosh, about all this. I messed up bad and now you’re hurt because of it. I... apologies just don’t seem like enough for this, but they’re all I’ve got...” She said, looking quite distraught, though she held herself together better than she had back in the barn.

“You don’t need to apologize, Rainbow Dash. Ah know you didn’t mean for any of this to happen. As far as Ah’m concerned, this was all just a big accident and nopony holds the blame for it. These things happen. The important thing is that you move on.”

The pegasus nodded slowly at his words. She looked away for a moment with a shake of her head as she felt her eyes threatening to water up again, trying to play it off so that nopony would see. Once she was sure that she was keeping calm, she began to speak again.

“I’m glad you’re not... that you seem to be doing well.”

“Eeyup.” Came the reply, eliciting a slight chuckle from the rainbow maned pegasus.

With that, the three ponies stood around for a bit, making idle chat occasionally but spending the bulk of the time in silence. Finally, after a good while of this, Applejack gave a little sigh and glanced out of a window.

“Well, Ah reckon we’d better go on back ta the farm and see how things are up there. Ah’ll probably be back later tonight. Ya’ll be sure ta get some rest, alright?”

“Alright. You take care of yourself, little sister.” The red pony responded with a nod as Applejack began to leave the room. “Hey, Rainbow... make sure she doesn’t work herself too hard.”

Dash gave a light chuckle at this but nodded. “Sure thing, Big Mac. Take care!”

The pegasus followed after her friend and the two began to make their way back toward Sweet Apple Acres. They traveled on hoof this time, the earth pony having learned her lesson about flying with the trip into town. As they walked though, Applejack seemed to stumble a bit at one point and, when Rainbow turned to see if she was alright, she noticed that her friend was shaking slightly.

“Woah, AJ... what’s wrong?” She asked, looking concerned.

“It... it’s nothin’. Ah jus’ tripped is all.” Came the response, though it wasn’t very convincing. Still, Dash just gave a bit of a shrug and let it pass, though she decided to keep watch and make sure her friend was doing alright.

Before too long, they had made it back to the farm and got right to work. The first thing to do was to remove the tarps and see how the crops had fared. It took a bit of effort with only the two of them, and the fact that Applejack didn’t seem to be entirely there didn’t help much either. A few times, Rainbow had to repeat herself several times before the earth pony responded. Despite all this, they eventually managed to finish up.

Thankfully, it looked like most of the plants managed to endure the weather without much damage. After the last tarp was removed, folded, and set aside, it appeared that they had lost about five percent of the total crops. In addition, a quick flight around the orchard showed Dash that about six or seven trees had been felled by the strong winds. With the minor property damage added in, it really wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Still, a lot of extra work was going to be needed to fix up these problems.

Throughout it all, as Rainbow Dash helped her friend inspect the farm and start doing light cleanup work, she noticed that something was definitely troubling the earth pony. Applejack had made a few minor mistakes that were still uncharacteristic of her and she didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her surroundings.

After finishing up as it began to grow dark, the two fixed themselves a light dinner as Granny Smith still hadn’t returned from her trip with Applebloom to go see Big Macintosh. Once they had finished eating and cleaned up, Applejack said a quick good night to her friend and began to head off toward her room. Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to let her just walk off though.

“Hey, AJ, hold up for a moment.” The pegasus said, heading over to join her friend as the earth pony turned back to face her. “We need to talk. What’s bothering you so much?”

“Ah already told you, Rainbow, Ah’m fine. Nothin’s botherin’ me.”

“Don’t give me that. You know that’s not true just as well as I do that that’s not true. Even I could see that you’ve been out of it all night. What’s wrong?”

“Ah said nothin’s wrong! Ah’m jus’ tired is all. Now, if you’ll excuse me...” Applejack said, turning to begin walking again only to find that Rainbow had flown over her head and was now blocking her path.

“Applejack, you’ve been telling me to open up and not bottle these things up, so now it’s your turn. Trust me, I’m here for you.”

The orange pony hesitated for a moment at these words, trembling ever so slightly. When she spoke up again, a lot of the confidence and strength in her voice had faded.

“Ah... Ah can’t do this anymore, Rainbow. Ah’m so tired now... always havin’ ta be the strong one fer everypony else. Here at the farm, with mah friends, even fer the ponies of Ponyville...” She said shakily, glancing over to a trophy that stood on a little stand nearby. “Most dependable pony. Sometimes, that feels more like a curse than a blessing... Ah’ve always got ta be the one ta hold strong when other ponies can’t. It’s been that way since Ah was left in charge of the farm the day mah parents... passed on. But Ah... Ah...”

Applejack clenched her teeth and looked down at the floor, her hat hiding her face from view. To Rainbow’s surprise, she spotted what looked like tears leaking out from behind the hat’s brim, even as her friend continued to speak.

“Ah was in that barn fer over an hour, Rainbow. When mah only brother was in the hospital who knows how hurt? He may have been dead fer all Ah knew! Ah should have been the very first pony there ta see him, stayin’ right by his side the whole time. But... Ah stayed here ta take care of the farm instead. Ah left him in the mud so Ah could see to the crops...” She continued on, now starting to shake with obvious sobs.

Rainbow Dash took advantage of a pause to get in a word edgewise, looking a bit nervous again as she tried to console her friend. “Well... he didn’t blame you for that did he? You just did what you had to do at the time. I’m sure he could understand that.”

“No, he didn’t. He... he said the same thing you did, Rainbow. And Ah know Ah did what Ah was supposed ta, kept mah cool and took care of things first. But... Ah can’t keep this up. Ah get scared or upset or hurt just like everypony else, but Ah can’t show it cause they need me ta be the rock they can lean against fer support. Nopony asked me ta do this, but it’s just the way things are and... and... when Ah’m fallin’, when Ah need support, who can Ah turn to? Ah’m there fer others, but when it’s all too much, what am Ah supposed ta do with nopony there fer me?”

“You’re wrong about that, Applejack. There is somepony there for you.” Rainbow said, giving her friend a little smile and gently putting a hoof to her shoulder. “I... I didn’t know you felt like this, AJ, or I would have told you this before. I may not be able to be strong all the time, but I can and will be when it counts. There’s no way I would leave a friend hanging.”

Applejack didn’t respond for a second, and when she did it wasn’t with words. For the second time that day, the two ponies found themselves in an embrace, although it was reversed this time, with the earth pony sobbing as the pegasus comforted her.

Several minutes passed before she began to pull herself together again, sniffing softly as she let go of her friend and raised a hoof to wipe at her eyes.

“Th-thank you, Rainbow Dash. Ah really needed ta... ta do this. Ta let somepony know.”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for, right? To be there and to look out for each other, in good times and bad.”

“That they are, sugarcube, that they are... um, some of what Ah said might sound kinda harsh, but I don’t really blame nopony else for this. It ain’t like anypony’s asked me ta do this, it’s just the way Ah am. Still, it really gets ta you, pushin’ aside yer emotions so you can be strong fer others...”

“I’m here for you, AJ. If you need somepony to talk to, or just to be there for you, then I can do that.”

“Thank you...” Applejack said, giving a faint smile.

Seeing that smile was enough to bring one to Dash as well and the two friends hugged briefly again. With that, the orange pony gave a little yawn and shook her head a bit.

“Well, Ah suppose Ah should be headin’ ta bed now. It’s gettin’ late and we’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

“Yeah, that might be a good idea.” Rainbow said, giving a yawn herself before looking to her friend. “So... you sure you’re alright now?”

“Yeah, Ah’m feelin’ a lot better now. Honest.”

“Alright then. Have a good night, Applejack.”

“You too, sugarcube. See ya’ll in the mornin’.”

With that, the two ponies headed to their respective rooms, sleep coming easily for the both of them.

____________________________________________________________

“Phew, that weren’t so bad.” Applejack said, shaking her head and flinging water everywhere as she stepped away from the water barrel. “Yer turn now, Sugarcube.”

“Heh, I knew I should have given you something harder.” Rainbow Dash said with a little chuckle before giving it some thought. “Hmm... how about Dare.”

“Well gee Rainbow, they might as well call it Dare or Dare when yer playin’.” The earth pony said, rolling her eyes.

“Hey, it’s the logical choice. I mean, I can handle any dare I’m given with no problem. Why wouldn’t I pick it?”

“Ah fine then. Give me a moment ta think of somethin’. Ah thought this was supposed ta be fer you ta take a break though...”

It was a few days after the storm up at the farm and the two ponies were sitting together in one of Ponyville’s parks, taking a moment of rest after another of Dash’s practice sessions. True to her word, Applejack had been showing up to these sessions to watch her friend fly about through her tricks again and again and to provide support for the pegasus. And, for her part of the bargain, Rainbow had been taking these little breaks to cool down and relax.

Without their usual competitions to occupy them, the two friends had taken to chatting during these breaks or sitting there in silence, simply relaxing in each other’s company. One day though, when their other friends had been able to join them, Twilight Sparkle had suggested that they play a game to occupy them, voting on Truth or Dare. While that idea went over well enough, until Pinkie Pie had somehow managed to bring every other pony in Ponyville into the game, it had really struck a chord with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. A somewhat competitive game that required little to no strenuous physical activity fit perfectly with what they were looking for. From that point on, the game became a fairly regular fallback for whenever they got too bored.

“Ah think Ah’ve got somethin’.” Applejack said suddenly with a little grin. “Ah dare you... ta pick Truth next time.”

“What? That’s not fair... You can’t do that!”

“Heh, Ah don’t see why not. The rules say that if you choose Truth, then you have ta answer a question truthfully and if you pick Dare, then ya’ll have ta do what Ah say. And Ah say you’re gonna pick Truth next time.”

“That... that... no, that just doesn’t seem right. I think you’re cheating.” Rainbow Dash said, frowning at this turn of events.

“Well, do you want ta go get Twilight and see what she says? Ah’m sure she’ll know all about this, or have a book that does.”

The pegasus had to ponder this for a moment, deciding if it was worth getting the studious unicorn involved. “You know what, I think I’ll pass on that. Fine, we’ll do it you’re way then. That makes it your turn again though.”

“Why, so it does. Ta be fair, Ah’ll pick Truth this time. How’s that?”

“Sure, that works. Let’s see... Ah, I’ve got it. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?”

“Ah geez, Rainbow... ya’ll gonna pull that one out on me? Yer just gettin’ revenge fer that dare, aren’t you... and Ah’ve got ta answer honestly...” The earth pony said, muttering to herself for a moment before giving a little sigh. “Well, gettin’ beaten by that braggart Trixie and the whole poison joke thing come ta mind, but Ah suppose they’re not the most embarrassing things. Alright, here goes...

“When Ah was still just a little filly, just after Ah’d gotten mah Cutie Mark, Ah was dead certain there was a monster livin’ in our apple orchard. When Ah looked out mah window at night, Ah thought Ah saw it movin’ about between the trees. It got ta the point where Ah was almost too afraid ta go out and buck the apples down even in the daytime. Well, one day Ah said enough was enough. Ah couldn’t be in charge of the farm if Ah was too afraid ta go outside, so Ah decided Ah’d do somethin’ about this monster.
“One night, when Ah saw it movin’ around out there again, Ah got up out of bed, grabbed a rope, and headed out ta confront whatever was out there. Put mahself tagether a nice lasso first, though Ah had no idea what Ah was doin’ at the time, but soon enough Ah found mahself in the middle of the orchard. Now, it was real dark cause of the clouds coverin’ the moon, so Ah couldn’t see things too clearly. Still, Ah was sure Ah saw somethin’ movin’ nearby, so Ah took mah lasso and... well, do ya’ll remember what happened when you tried ta use one back at the Iron Pony competition? Like Ah said, Ah had no idea what Ah was doin’ then.

“Course, it was just mah luck that at that very moment, the clouds over the moon passed by, givin’ enough light to see by. Even from where Ah was tied up, Ah could see that the ‘monster’ was really just a colt from back in town who’d been sneakin’ onto the farm. Better still, it was somepony who... well, maybe Ah had a bit of a crush on him, you know? Anyways, once he’d finished laughin’ his tail off, he finally helped me down, though Ah was so embarrassed Ah ran right back to mah room. The story spread like wildfire and Ah didn’t live that down fer a good while. There’s still some ponies that bring it up occasionally...

“And that’s that. Whew, guess Ah got a bit carried away there.” Applejack said with a faint flush, taking a breath before looking at her friend. “Heh, Ah half expected you ta be dyin’ of laughter at this point.”

“Well, it wasn’t really all that embarrassing, actually...” Rainbow Dash said with a little shrug. “I was kinda hoping for something a bit more.”

“Hey, it was pretty embarrassin’ at the time. Anyways, that’s mah turn down, now it’s yours. Heh, and Ah’m gonna make sure ta get you back fer that one.”

“I’d like to see you try. You can’t ask the same question the pony before you did, it’s in the rules.” Dash said with a little smirk, having planned for just this occurrence.

“What? That... actually, Ah do remember somethin’ like that.” The orange pony responded, frowning for a moment before getting an idea. “It’s a good thing Ah’ve got somethin’ else in mind. So, go ahead, take yer pick.”

“Ugh, you know what I’m going to pick, since you made me.” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “Truth.”

“Gotta follow the rules, sugarcube. Now, what was the first competition you ever lost and how’d it happen?”

“Is that all? Hah, that’s no trouble at all. There aren’t very many of those to begin with, and certainly none that are all that bad.” The pegasus replied with a confident grin. As she thought on it though, her face suddenly fell as the memory of the first loss came back to her.

“Oh... I’d nearly forgotten about that. Um, can I pass on this one? I know, I’ll just do another three dares or so, how’s that?”

Applejack chuckled at seeing her friend trying to dodge the question and shook her head. “No can do, Rainbow. You said truth and Ah asked you yer question. Now, you’ve got ta answer, and truthfully.”

“Fine...” Dash said sullenly, giving a little sigh before going into her story. “Back at flight school, my friend Gilda came up to me one day and decided to make a bit of a bet with me. She was certain that she could get a date before I could. Well, there were only like, what, two or three other griffins there? Of course I said yes. Besides, there was somepony I’d already been wanting to ask out for a while. The only problem now was how I was going to do it.

“I decided to try for a secret admirer thing, leave him a little note or two before going up and actually asking. Had it all planned out so that nothing could go wrong. I wrote the note and was going to hand it to another friend of mine who would then pass it on to the next pony and so on until it finally came to him. Unfortunately, the teacher caught me trying to pass it on. She took the note and then... decided to read it aloud in front of the class...”

By this point in her story, a blush had begun to appear on Rainbow Dash’s face and she looked down a bit before continuing. “Like a complete foal, I had, you know, put his name on it and everything, so it was pretty obvious what was going on. By the end of it, everypony was laughing at me. I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t even think of asking anypony else out, which meant that Gilda won the bet pretty easily.”

Applejack was chuckling softly as the story was finished up, earning herself a glare from the pegasus. Still, after a moment she gave her friend a curious look.

“So... what happened with him? The colt that note was for?” The earth pony asked.

“Well... have you ever seen any of the stuff I’ve written?”

“Hmm... no actually.”

“Yeah, there’s a good reason for that.” Rainbow Dash said and left it at that.

“Oh...” Applejack said before fading into silence for a moment. “Well... should we start up another round or go grab some lunch?”

“I think lunch.” Dash said with a slow nod. “Yeah, definitely.”

“Sounds good ta me.”

With that, the two ponies stood up and began to head back toward the farm, passing several other ponies out enjoying the beautiful day. As they walked along, Applejack spoke up again.

“Are you still sure you’re not bored doin’ this every day? Ah didn’t think sittin’ around talkin’ was really yer thing.”

“Of course! I mean, I would rather take the time to keep practicing, but you’re right about needing to take breaks. Besides, I do enjoy these times.” Rainbow replied with a grin. The best thing was, it was entirely true. Since they had started, she had begun to look forward to the breaks with Applejack, even when they just sat around and said nothing. Simply being in the presence of her friend seemed to have a calming effect on her, comforting her and helping to drain away all the tension and nervousness she’d been feeling, leaving a warm happiness in it’s place.

The Wonderbolts tryout was growing ever nearer, only a few days left until she would be giving her all in front of her life long heroes, yet she wasn’t nearly as worried about that. Her practices had been going great, especially since Applejack had started showing up to watch them and Rainbow Dash knew that when the day came, she could look down and see her friends cheering for her and those beautiful green eyes looking up at her, and she would do her very best...

“Uh... everything alright, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, giving Rainbow a puzzled look.

Rainbow Dash blinked a bit as she realized that she had apparently spaced out in the middle of the street while her friend walked on. “Huh? Oh, um... yeah, I’m just fine. Sorry, guess I got caught up in a daydream or something.”

She gave a little chuckle and hurried to catch up to her friend, though at the back of her mind, she wondered why, if everything was alright, she felt a blush upon her face...

**************

“Well, that sure was a mighty fine lunch.” Applejack said with a grin as she lay out in the shadow cast by one of her apple trees. “How come ya’ll never told me you could cook so well?”

“Aw, come on AJ. It was just a sandwich, that’s not cooking.” Rainbow Dash replied from the branch she was relaxing on, though she gave a rather pleased smirk at the compliment. “Besides, with nopony else to fix up meals for me, I’ve had to learn a bit.”

“Huh, Ah never thought of that... Ah reckon mah point still stands though, sandwich or not. It was good and that’s what matters.”

After the two ponies had made it to the farmhouse, they found that Granny Smith was once again out visiting Big Macintosh, leaving the two of them on their own for lunch. Rainbow had offered to put something together, since they were planning on a light meal anyways, and she’d fixed up a couple of sandwiches for the both of them. Now, finished with their meals, the two were out relaxing in the orchard.

“Ah wonder what the others are up to. Seems like we don’t get ta see them nearly as much now.” Applejack mused, looking up at her friend in the tree.

“Yeah. I feel kinda bad about that, like I’ve deserted them or something. Which I know isn’t true at all. If they needed me, I’d be there in a heartbeat. Still...”

“Ah know just what you mean, sugarcube. Things keep gettin’ in the way though. There’s the work here at the farm, then yer practice sessions, plus the fact that everypony else is busy with their own jobs. Guess this just ain’t a good time fer us ta get together.”

“I’d say we should go into town now and see if anypony’s available, but that’s not going to work. Pinkie’s been working on that huge party she’s been planning, Rarity’s got a deadline to meet, Twi’s... actually, I have no idea what Twilight’s doing. Haven’t seen her around much lately.” Dash said, frowning a bit at this.

“Hm... that’s true. Wonder what she’s been up to...”

“No idea. Probably locked herself in her lab for some study or other she’s working on.” The pegasus rolled her eyes a bit at this before giving a sigh and continuing. “Even Fluttershy’s too busy taking care of that sick rabbit of hers to hang out.”

Applejack nodded with a little frown. “Well, at least we’ve got each other, right?”

“Yeah, that’s good at least.”

Once more they lapsed into silence, two friends simply enjoying a warm summer’s day in the outdoors. After a few minutes of this though, Applejack gave a sigh and shook her head.

“Ah can’t do this, Rainbow. Ah feel Ah should be... doin’ somethin’ productive. Not just sittin’ around here.”

“Relaxing can be productive sometimes. I mean, sometimes you just need to sit back and wind down, right?”

“Ah suppose...” Applejack said before glancing up at her friend with a little smirk. “Ah didn’t take you fer the type ta just sit around doin’ nothing though, Rainbow. Ain’t you the one always tryin’ ta rush about and do things?”

“Well... yeah, I guess you’re right. This is different though!” Rainbow said, intending on leaving it at that until the look Applejack gave her persuaded her to explain. “I mean... we’re not doing nothing, right? We’re hanging out. I can always make an exception for hanging out with my best pal, right?”

“Heh, Ah reckon yer right about that.” Applejack said with a chuckle, though she started to get up anyways. “But Ah can’t just sit around right now. Ya’ll want ta help?”

“Sure, sounds good to me.” The pegasus replied, jumping from the branch with a little flap to slow her fall as she landed. “What do you need me to do?”

“Ah know it’s a bit early, but Ah was thinkin’ of startin’ ta set up the baskets under the trees. Just do a bit now and we won’t have ta do that much again later.”

“Alright. Lead the way then.”

As the earth pony led the way to the barn, she couldn’t help but smile a bit at the difference in her friend now than from how she was before the bet. This time last year, she would bet a fair deal of bits that Dash wouldn’t even think about giving up time she could be spending relaxing to help out. At least, not with something like this that wasn’t absolutely vital. While this did mean that Applejack was now in quite a bit of danger of losing the bet, she didn’t really care. This change and the time they’d spent together more than made up for that.

Soon enough, they had reached their destination and, as Dash helped her pull out stacks of baskets, she started to explain what they were going to do. It was fairly simple, just set a couple of baskets under each tree so that they could catch falling apples, and it wasn’t long at all before they were going about this work.

About half an hour passed and Applejack was on her way back to grab a few more baskets when she spotted Rainbow Dash and Spike standing around by the barn and talking. The pegasus looked either puzzled, intrigued, or both while the little dragon just look worn out.

“What’s goin’ on, you two?” She called out curiously, walking toward them.

“Oh, there you are Applejack. I’m glad you showed up.” Spike said, turning toward her as she approached. “I was just explaining to Rainbow Dash, but Twilight wanted to see all of you at the Library. She said it’s really important.”

“Twilight? Ah’ll be there just as soon as Ah clean up here. What does she want ta see us for?”

“Um... she wouldn’t tell me. Said it had to wait until you all arrived.” Spike said, though something about the way he was fidgeting seemed off to the earth pony.

She shrugged it off and turned to Rainbow. “Ya’ll go on ahead, Ah’ll finish puttin’ these away and meet you there.”

“Alright. See you there then!” The pegasus said with a nod before turning to Spike. “Here, hop on. It’ll be much faster that way.”

“Sorry, no can do Rainbow. I still need to go tell Fluttershy.” The baby dragon replied, giving a slight sigh.

“Oh... well, then I guess I’ll see you there too.” Dash responded with a little shrug before taking off toward Ponyville.

As she flew, Rainbow Dash began to ponder why Twilight would call them together like this. Maybe it had to something to do with why she’d been missing for the past couple of days. Or, maybe it was an Elements of Harmony thing. Oh no, what if Nightmare Moon had returned! Starting to fear the worst, she sped up even more.

“Hiya Dashie!” Came an excited voice from right ahead of her, accompanied by a waving pink pony.

“Ack, Pinkie Pie, watch out!” The pegasus called back, trying to stop herself without hitting her friend.

Unfortunately, she was going far too fast to just stop and had to veer off to the side, crashing into a handy pile of barrels. Pinkie Pie quickly hopped over to where she’d crashed, peering at the rainbow maned pony amid the barrels. Rainbow gave a little groan and sat up, more shocked than injured.

“Oh no... are you okay there, Rainbow Dash? I knew my tail was twitching, but I didn’t think you were practicing your tricks or I would have warned you.”

“I’m fine!” Dash said, shaking her head a bit before putting a hoof to it. “Takes more than that to keep me down. Though... do you have a twin sister you haven’t told any of us about?”

“No, silly. At least, I don’t think so... ooh, what if I do and nopony told me about her? We could be the best of friends! Oh, unless she’s my evil twin... Why do you ask though?”

“Oh, no reason.” Rainbow said, blinking a few times until she could only see one pink pony. “So, what did you want Pinkie? Cause I’m kinda in a hurry here to get to the library.”

“Um... I don’t know. I guess I forgot.” Pinkie Pie said with a little giggle. “Oh, thanks for reminding me though! I was so surprised at seeing you again that I nearly forgot I’m supposed to be at the library too. I wonder why though... What if Twilight’s throwing us a surprise party! That would be so great!”

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here, Pinkie.” Dash said with a slight chuckle, getting back to her hooves. “Well, if we’re both supposed to be there, then let’s go ahead and get started. Don’t want to be late or anything.”

With that, she took to flight again, going a bit slower this time though so that her earth pony friend could keep up. Though, she couldn’t help but suspect that wasn’t necessary. Her pink friend had an odd habit of somehow managing to keep up no matter how fast she went.

It didn’t take long before they had arrived at the large tree that served as both library and as a house for their friend Twilight Sparkle. Two other ponies were already standing there, the unicorn Rarity giving a little toss of her well groomed mane as she turned to watch their approach, and the pegasus Fluttershy, who seemed to be looking quite nervous about all this.

“Oh there you two are. We have been waiting forever for you to arrive.” Rarity said with a disapproving look.

“Um... it’s only been a few minutes since we arrived from the spa, Rarity.” Fluttershy said softly, looking down as the unicorn’s attention was turned to her. “I mean... I guess that is a while...”

Seeing this reaction, the white pony gave a little sigh and smiled to her friend. “You are right, Fluttershy. Still, there is such a thing as punctuality. It isn’t proper to keep a lady waiting after all.

“For that matter though, Rainbow Dash, where is our dear friend Applejack? I would have thought she was with you. After all, the two of you have been nigh on inseparable these last few weeks.” Rarity said, turning toward the cyan pegasus.

“She’s still back at the farm putting away some things before heading here.” Rainbow answered before blinking and turning back to look at Fluttershy. “Wait, what are you doing here Fluttershy? Spike said he was headed to your cabin to let you know.”

“Oh, um... I was with Rarity at the spa and... well, he didn’t seem to notice me. I guess that’s understandable, I’m not too noticeable...” The shy pony responded, her voice fading out as she talked.

“Do not ever say that about yourself, dear. It is not your fault that he seems to get... distracted quite easily when I am around. With all the time he spends looking at me, it is no surprise that he would miss somepony else in the room.” Rarity said, shaking her head a bit before giving her friend a little smile.

“I see... well, I guess we’ll just have to wait for Spike and AJ to show up then.” Dash said with a little shrug.

While they waited, the four friends began to talk about why Twilight would call them all together like this. It turned out that none of the other three knew anything more than Rainbow Dash and their theories grew wilder as time passed, thanks largely to Pinkie Pie’s contributions. Before too much longer, Applejack came into view, running full speed toward them, slowing down to a trot as she drew close.

“Sorry Ah’m late ya’ll.” She said, coming to a stop beside Rainbow Dash before greeting each of her friends with a nod. “Hey Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity. So... anypony here know what’s goin’ on?”

“We were just discussing that when you showed up. Oh, I do hope that Spike does not take too long to get here. I am just filled with curiosity now as to why our mutual friend Twilight Sparkle would call us here so suddenly. That isn’t like her at all.” Rarity said.

Luckily, they didn’t have long to wait. Soon, the little dragon walked toward them, grumbling softly to himself. As he stopped in front of the library, he shot a little glare toward Fluttershy, who let out a soft ‘meep!’ and looked down at the ground. Seeing this, Rarity gave him an angry look of her own.

“Spike, that is not how you treat a lady! It is not her fault you did not pay attention.”

“Yeah, y-you’re right, Rarity.” Spike said, already looking a bit sorry for his actions as he turned toward the cowering pegasus. “Sorry Fluttershy. I’ve just... I’ve been kind of worried about this. Twilight won’t tell me what’s going on and that’s got me all on edge.”

“It... It’s alright Spike.” Fluttershy said, looking up a bit again.

“Well, in that case I’ll go ahead inside and let Twi know you’re all here.” The dragon said, opening the door and heading on into the library.

While they waited for him to return, Rarity turned to face the farmer pony with a little smile. “So, Applejack, how are things going at the farm? It seems like we haven’t really had a chance to catch up for some time.”

“Heh, Ah guess we haven’t, huh. Things’re goin’ great actually, now that we’ve cleaned up from after that storm. It’s kinda odd, but even though Ah’ve got another pony helpin’ out around there, Ah seem ta be busier than ever since Rainbow Dash here started workin’ with me.” Applejack said, glancing over to the cyan pegasus with a little grin. “Not that Ah mind at all. These last few months have been real nice.”

Rainbow Dash gave a little chuckle and grinned back. “Oh yeah, they certainly have been. Working at Sweet Apple Acres has been a lot more fun than I would have thought.”

Rarity blinked a bit at their answers, glancing from one pony to the other as a little smile began to form. Applejack and Dash tilted their heads a bit at this, giving her a curious look.

“What are ya’ll smilin’ at?” The orange pony asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Rarity replied, the smile still present. “I was just thinking that you two seem to be getting along quite nicely. It is always nice to see a pair of good friends growing closer. I just hope you won’t forget about the rest of us in the meantime.”

Before either of them had a chance to ask her what she meant by this, a bright purple flash from through the window caught all of their attention. Accompanying the flash was a loud thumping sound, causing the door and windows to rattle. All five of the ponies looked to each other in varying degrees of surprise. The only one who didn’t seem too fazed by any of it was Pinkie Pie.

“Ooh, that’s it! I remember what I was going to ask you Rainbow, but it looks like Twilight might beat you to it.” The pink pony said excitedly.

At that point, the door suddenly burst open, a rather wide eyed Spike stepping out, quickly slamming it behind him. Each of the ponies tried to say something all at once, but it was Rarity who managed to beat out the other voices.

“Spike! What in Equestria just happened in there? One second everything is quiet and then there was a flash and a dreadful noise.”

“Er... it’s nothing to worry about. Twilight’s just... having some trouble with her research.” Came the dragon’s response, though once again something seemed wrong with it. “Um, Twi’s let me know what’s going on. She’s been working on some new magic and... well, she needs something for her studies. She said she’s really sorry, but she can’t go with you to help you get it.”

“Ah see... what does she want us ta go get?” Applejack asked.

“Well, um...” Spike hesitated for a moment, looking exceptionally nervous. “You see, there’s this flower that is absolutely vital to the spell but nopony around here supplies it. You’re going to have to go get it... from the Everfree Forest...”

It was clear why he had been hesitant to say that as there was an immediate outburst from the gathered ponies at this news. Throughout it all, a rather meek voice had been trying to catch Spike’s attention with no luck. It took her actually walking up to Spike before the others realized that Fluttershy was trying to say something and fell silent to let her speak.

“Um, Spike... is Twilight alright? I mean, not that I don’t like talking with you but... I had thought she would be here to talk with us. Has something happened?”

Spike gulped a bit at this before replying. “No, nothing’s really happened. She just... this is a really tricky spell and she has to be there to monitor it at all times or else it could go wrong and that would be very bad. If she could, she would be out here talking with you all.

“So... is this alright with all of you? I know Twi wouldn’t ask something like this of you unless it was really important.”

“Of course, Spike. If Twilight needs help, then Ah’m gonna do what Ah can ta help out. Even if it does mean goin’ into that... unnatural place.” Applejack said, suppressing a shudder as she thought about the forest.

“I’m in too! There’s no way I’d say no to something like this.” Rainbow Dash said, immediately following Applejacks’ speech.

“Ooh, this sounds like it will be fun! Besides, the Everfree Forest isn’t so scary anymore. I mean, sure there’s all kinds of nasty monsters in there. Manticores, Ursas, Cockatrices... all kinds of things that just love to munch on ponies, but--” Pinkie Pie said brightly, though a group glare cut off her words. “I mean... I’ll go with you.”

“Please, Pinkie Pie. It is hard enough to say this without thinking of all the horrible things we might run into.” Rarity said with a little shiver. “Still, I can’t walk out on our friend, so I will do this.”

Everypony’s attention turned to Fluttershy who backed away from the attention, looking away. “Um... well, I mean... it’s so dark and scary in there...”

Applejack stepped closer to her, giving a kind smile. “It ain’t a problem, sugarcube. If ya’ll don’t want ta go, then you don’t have to. We won’t think less of you for it.”

“N-no, I’ll go.” Fluttershy said, taking a deep breath and giving a little nod. “I won’t let my friends go in there on their own. What if you run into something that I could have helped with? I... I can’t let that happen.”

“Well, that’s settled then. We’re all going to go.” Dash said, looking to her friends who each nodded with a little smile. “In that case, how about we go ahead and get started then?”

“Now hold on just one moment, Rainbow Dash, before you go running headfirst into this.” Rarity said sternly, turning toward Spike. “Do you know what this flower looks like? Maybe a picture or something for us, hm?”

“Huh? Oh, right!” Spike said, digging around for a moment before producing a sheet of paper with a brightly colored flower on it. “Here, this is what you’re looking for. It shouldn’t be hard to find, but it only grows in the deeper parts of the forest.”

Nopony looked all that excited at this news, but Rarity nodded and grasped the paper with her magic, horn glowing softly as she levitated it over to her.

“Well... thank you for your help, Spike. Do take care of Twilight for us, won’t you?” She said, looking to the baby dragon who quickly nodded. “Very good then. I suppose we had better get started now so we don’t keep our friend waiting for us.”

“Good luck, everypony!” Spike called after them, waving as the five ponies began to make their way toward the Everfree Forest.

A few short minutes later, the party had reached the edge of the forest, pausing there for a moment. In varying degrees of fear, they stood there and looked through the trees, into the darkness that seemed far darker than it should have been considering the time of day. Even Pinkie Pie seemed strangely subdued as she was faced with the prospect of entering into this spooky place, though it was Fluttershy who seemed to be the worst off. The yellow pegasus was cowering behind Rainbow Dash, wings locked firmly to her sides. While the others only had a vague knowledge of the sorts of beasts lived in the Everfree Forest, she alone knew exactly what they might run into in there and that knowledge was not comforting at all.

“Well... Ah suppose this is it. Anypony that wants ta back out, now’s yer last chance. Once we’re inside, there ain’t no goin’ back.” Applejack said.

Nopony moved at all, each determined to go through with this to help their friend out despite the dangers. The orange pony gave a little nod at that and began to lead the way into the forest. As they began to walk along the path through the trees, avoiding any patches of poison joke along the way, a flower they knew all too well, Fluttershy timidly sped up for a moment to catch up with Applejack.

“Um... Applejack, I was just thinking and, if you don’t mind, maybe we could go see Zecora first? I mean, it could save us a lot of time if she has some of the flower we’re looking for on hoof. Or... even if she just knows where some is.”

“Hmm... you know, that’s a mighty fine idea sugarcube.” Applejack said, nodding slowly. “At the very least, it couldn’t hurt ta go check, right? Everypony in favor of that idea?”

The other ponies all voiced their agreement and the timid pegasus gave a little smile at having her idea accepted. With that, they took a slight detour to head toward their zebra friend’s house.

After their initial mistrust of the striped equine, the ponies of Ponyville had begun to value her expertise on herbal remedies and natural cures. Even Applejack had swallowed her pride a few times to go ask for help with a few troubles at the farm, whether with the trees or with somepony there. Though Zecora still lived way out here in the Everfree Forest, she had been accepted as a citizen of Ponyville.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like they would have her help with this task though. As the five ponies approached her house, they could see an odd, rather spooky looking mask hanging on her door. Thankfully, the zebra had also thought to include a note beside it, written in Equestrian for those who couldn’t understand the mask’s meaning.

To those who here have come to find, the solution for a pressing bind. Or those who come as friendly guest, seeking only a place to rest. I regret to say I made a choice, to leave and seek another’s voice. To my own land I must roam, for an occasion known as going home. And now to those who read this rhyme, I shall return in one month’s time.

Zecora

Applejack finished reading the note before turning to the others with a puzzled look. “Now what the hey does all that mumbo jumbo mean?”

“It means, dear Applejack, that our zebra friend has left to return to her own homeland. It looks like we shall be on our own for this journey. Alas, I had been hoping it would be this simple...” Rarity responded with a little sigh.

“So... I suppose we should keep going then, since we’re going to have to find this thing all on our own.” Rainbow Dash said glumly, to which the others all agreed.

All except for Pinkie Pie, who had procured a notepad from somewhere and was hastily jotting something down in it. They all gave her an odd look, though it was Rainbow who spoke up again.

“Um... Pinkie Pie? What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m just writing this all down. I mean, if Zecora’s gone away on a trip, then that means she’s got to come back at some point, right? I want to make sure there’s a super amazing party waiting for her when she gets here!”

At this response, the four other ponies blinked for a moment before starting to chuckle a bit and then laughing outright, soon joined in by Pinkie herself. Something about worrying about such a thing in a situation like this tickled them to no end. The simple mirth of the moment helped to ease away a lot of the tension that had been building on their trip, leaving the ponies in a much better mood as they continued on their way, still with the occasional chuckle.

However, as the time passed, with still absolutely no sign of the flower, that mood began to fade. Though she hadn’t mentioned it to anypony else, Applejack was beginning to feel rather lost. Everything looked the same in the forest, so it was hard to tell for sure, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were going in circles. Not much later, she frowned as they came across a cliff face that felt oddly familiar.

“Well shoot, Ah guess it ain’t this way neither. And Ah was sure we were nearly there...” She said, shaking her head as she walked to the edge of the cliff, followed by everypony else.

As they looked out over the edge, that feeling of familiarity seemed to grow stronger, along with a faint fear. While the orange pony pondered this along with where they should go now, a soft cracking noise suddenly jogged her memory. This was the ledge that had collapsed while they were hunting down the Elements of Harmony, where they had very nearly lost Twilight Sparkle.

“Oh hayseed... Everypony, get back! The cliff’s about ta fall!” She called out, taking a quick hop back from the edge.

At the warning, her friends all acted immediately, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy taking to the air while Rarity jumped back as well. Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to have noticed though and was still intently looking down below.

“Hey, I think I see--” The pink pony began before letting out a cry as the ground crumbled beneath her, sending her into a free fall toward the river far below.

Suddenly her fall was halted as somepony caught her. At the last second, Applejack had managed to lunge forward and grab the poofy pink tail and was currently digging her hooves into the ground to keep from being pulled over as well. With a bit of effort and help from everypony, they soon had their friend back up and on solid ground again.

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you, Applejack!” Pinkie said, turning to give a huge hug to her savior. “If you hadn’t caught me, then I’d have to go to the hospital at the very least. And you can’t put together parties from inside the hospital. Although... hey, maybe then I could have thrown a get-better-soon party for your brother! Ooh, and all the other ponies there too!”

Although Pinkie Pie seemed to have gotten over the potentially fatal experience rather quickly, Applejack wasn’t so lucky. As she listened to Pinkie talk, she could still feel her heart racing, though she put on a little smile.

“Ah’m just glad yer alright, Pinkie Pie. Ah thought we’d nearly lost ya’ll there fer a moment...”

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had been glaring a bit without realizing it as she watched Pinkie Pie and Applejack. After a couple of moments, she blinked, catching herself in the act and shaking her head a bit, wondering what in Equestria had come over her. Pinkie Pie was only hugging her friend, something she did quite often really, so why was it making her feel this way? Almost as if she were jealous...

The pegasus was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice the others trying to get her attention until Applejack called out her name for the third time, causing her to blink suddenly and look up.

“Huh? Oh, sorry about that. What’s up?” She asked.

“Heh, Ah was startin’ ta think ya’ll might have up and left the buildin’, Rainbow.” Applejack said, giving a slight chuckle. “Anyways, Pinkie Pie said she thinks she saw what we’re lookin’ for down below. Do you mind goin’ down with Fluttershy ta check it out? Ah think it’s best if we all stick in groups.”

“Oh, yeah that makes sense.” Dash said, having just been wondering why she couldn’t just go on her own. “We’ll head on down and be back before you know it.”

With that, she and Fluttershy flew down the cliff, gliding down toward the ground below. As promised, it wasn’t long before they flew right back up again. Dash was carrying something brightly colored in her mouth, though as soon as she landed again, she spat it out at Applejack’s feet with a little grimace.

“Ugh, that thing tastes terrible... Is this what we’re looking for? Cause if so, I vote somepony else gets to carry it back. Blech...” She said, starting to rub a hoof across her tongue to try and rid it of the foul taste.

“Hmm... Ah can’t say fer sure. Rarity? Ya’ll got that picture, is this what we’re after?” Applejack said, turning to the white unicorn.

“Why, I do believe it is! Let me see... yes, it is an exact match. Well done you two.” Rarity said, giving a smile to the pegasi who both looked mildly proud on their achievement. “And have no fear about the taste, Rainbow Dash. I might not be as powerful as Twilight Sparkle, but I think I can handle holding onto the flower until we get back to Ponyville.”

With that, she turned to face the colorful plant, a faint glow forming around her horn. Nothing at all seemed to happen though. Despite the fact that Rarity was indeed using her magic, as evidenced by the look of concentration she was now giving and the light coming off of her horn, the flower just sat there. Finally, after a short while of this, she released the magic with a soft gasp, glowering at the flower.

“I... I don’t understand. Telekinesis is one of the first tricks a unicorn learns, it should not be this difficult.” The unicorn said with a frown, turning her gaze on one of the rocks littering the ground and soon lifting it up with her magic. “Hmm, it is still working. So... something about this flower seems to be stopping my magic.”

“Wait, is that even possible?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking incredulously at the inconspicuous flower.

Rarity gave a little nod as she replied. “It is quite rare, but still possible. I have heard of a few gems and materials that have such a property, but never of a plant such as this. I cannot help but wonder what our friend is planning on doing with this flower. Surely it can’t be much help as a spell component if it blocks out magic.”

“Ah don’t know, but Ah reckon she’s got somethin’ in mind fer it, or she wouldn’t have asked us out here.” Applejack said, looking down at the flower. “Though, without yer magic, Rarity, somepony’s gonna have ta carry this thing.”

“I call not me.” Dash spoke up almost immediately, shaking her head quickly.

Nopony else looked ready to volunteer for a while until a meek voice spoke up. “Um, if... if nopony else wants to, then I can take it. Sometimes I have to bring worms or medicine to some of the animals, so bad tastes don’t bother me so much anymore.”

Hearing her words, everypony flashed her a grateful smile, though Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. Still, Fluttershy had volunteered and she didn’t seem to fazed as she picked up the flower delicately with her teeth.

“Thanks, sugarcube. Let’s head on back quick as possible then, so we can deliver this ta Twilight and you won’t have ta carry it any longer than necessary.” Applejack said.

That said, the five ponies began to make their way back along the path they had followed to get there, moving as fast as they dared to go while still remaining quiet so as not to attract the attention of anything that lived in the Forest. The two pegasi remained grounded for the entire trip back, thanks to a combination of low hanging branches and fatigue. At least, that’s what Dash assumed about Fluttershy, knowing it to be true for herself.

Finally, after a good while of walking, light began to break through the trees up ahead and the ponies emerged into the warmth of Celestia’s sun, though it had sunk considerably during their trip. Still, nopony could quite help but crack a smile as they left the gloom of the forest behind them.

“Oh, it does feel good to finally be free of that dreadful place. I hope I never find myself going into the Everfree Forest again.” Rarity said, glancing back at the treeline and shaking her head.

“Yeah, I know just what you mean, Rarity. After being cooped up by the trees for so long, all this space feels great!” Rainbow Dash said, stretching her wings for a moment before hopping into the air.

Rather than taking off as she expected, she found herself fluttering frantically to keep aloft. After a short few seconds of hanging in the air, she fell to the ground with a soft thump.

“Rainbow! Ya’ll alright?” Applejack said, rushing over to her and followed by the others. “What happened?”

Rainbow Dash picked herself up from the ground and shook her head a bit before giving a soft chuckle. “Oh wow, must be more tired than I thought... Yeah, I’m fine. I guess I just overworked my wings today and they need some rest.”

A collective sigh of relief came from her friends and the orange pony chuckled along with Dash as she replied. “Heh, well how about ya’ll don’t scare us like that again? It ain’t healthy ta get all worried twice in one day.”

“Hey, it’s not like I chose to let that happen. Still, I think I’ll stick to walking for now.”

Applejack nodded at that, though as her eyes fell upon Fluttershy, who was still holding onto the flower, she realized they should probably get moving again. Though the kind pegasus wasn’t saying anything, her eyes had begun to water a bit from the terrible taste.

“Well, if yer alright, then we should keep goin’. Ain’t much farther now.” Applejack said, turning an leading the way back into Ponyville.

As she said, it wasn’t much farther to the Ponyville Library and soon enough the five friends were standing in front of the tree. Raising a hoof, Applejack knocked loudly on the door. When there was no reply for a while, she made to push open the door and just head inside when Rarity stopped her.

“Applejack, you can not just barge in there like this.” The unicorn said disapprovingly.

“It’s a public library, Rarity. Should still be open this time of day. Besides, Ah think we count as a bit more than just the public, bein’ Twi’s friends and all.” Came the orange pony’s response.

“Well, that is true, but it is also her home. Certain respects must be paid in these circumstances. Allow me.” Rarity said, stepping up to the door and giving a light knock of her own. “Twilight Sparkle, we have returned with the item you asked us to go and get. May we come inside?”

For a few moments more, there was no reply. Finally, the door opened to reveal Spike standing there, looking incredibly glad to see them.

“You found it?” He asked immediately, looking quite relieved as Rarity nodded. “Oh thank goodness... I don’t think Twilight can hold it back for much longer. Um, do you mind if I go ahead and take it in to give to her?”

“Oh... well, I... I suppose so. After all, that is why we brought it here in the first place.” Rarity said, a little startled by the dragon’s response. “May we come in and see our friend though? Or is she still busy?”

“Er... I can ask, but I think she’s still pretty caught up with things at the moment.” Spike said, somewhat nervously even as he carefully took the offered flower from Fluttershy. “I’ll be back in just a second.”

With that, the dragon headed off, closing the door behind him. Rarity blinked a bit before turning toward the others.

“Well, that was fairly strange, was it not? Is it just me, or did Spike seem fairly... panicked?” She said, looking puzzled.

“Ah’ll say. Somethin’ seems off about this whole thing. Ah’ve been feelin’ it since he first came ta the farm ta get Rainbow and me. Ah wonder what’s goin’ on here...” Applejack responded.

“Um... I don’t know... I think we should trust Twilight on this.” Fluttershy said softly. “I mean... we’re her friends. Why would she try to hide something from us?”

“Yeah, I agree with Fluttershy on this one. Twi’s given us no reason not to trust that she knows what she’s doing.” Rainbow Dash said with a nod.

“Ah suppose that’s true... still, Ah can’t shake this feeling...” Applejack said, turning to Pinkie Pie. “Yer bein’ mighty quiet, Pinkie Pie. What do you think?”

“Hm?” The pink pony said, blinking and turning to face Applejack. “Oh! Well, I think you might be right. I’ve had this weird twitchy-witchy feeling all day and it’s been getting stronger since I got to the library. Don’t know what it means, but I think it has something to do with Twilight.”

“Well, perhaps we should put this up to a vote, hm? See who all believes we should question Twilight about this or just leave it alone.” Rarity said, her words accompanied by nods and agreement from most of the other ponies.

“Woah, hold on just one second.” Rainbow Dash said suddenly. “Are we seriously going to do this? Plot behind our friend’s back? I don’t know about you ponies, but that seems wrong to me.”

Silence greeted these words as everypony there thought about what the pegasus had just said. Finally, it was broken by a little sigh from Applejack.

“Ya’ll have a point there, Rainbow Dash. This ain’t right at all. Twilight’s our friend, and we should trust her more than this. She’ll let us know what’s goin’ on when she’s good and ready, right?”

The other ponies gave their agreement and before much longer, the door was once again opened by Spike.

“Um... Twilight says she’s very sorry, but she can’t really have any visitors at the moment. She needs to have her full concentration on the magic right now. However, if anypony is interested, Twi can join you for lunch tomorrow.” The dragon said, sounding as if he was simply relaying somepony else’s message.

“Oh, I see...” Rarity said with a little sigh before giving the little dragon a small smile. “Well, that sounds wonderful to me at least. I shall be there tomorrow. Please offer dear Twilight Sparkle my fondest wishes that her research go well.”

“Of course, Rarity.” Spike replied with a nod. “Sorry about all this. It must seem kinda rude to you, but all I can really say is that Twilight’s been under a lot of pressure with this whole thing. I hope she’ll finish up tonight and get some good rest by tomorrow. Thanks, all of you, for getting that plant. That should be just what she needs.”

“It’s quite alright Spike. I quite understand Twilight’s quest for knowledge and how it can consume her at times. Still, I do worry about her sometimes, as I’m sure we all do.” Rarity said, turning to face the other ponies who nodded in agreement.

“I’ll be sure to let her know.” Twilight’s assistant said with a little smile. “Well, I should probably go help her out and make sure everything’s going alright. Hope you have a good rest of the day, everypony. Thanks again.”

With that, the baby dragon gave a little wave before closing the door again. Rarity turned back to the other four ponies with a soft sigh.

“Well, now that this has been taken care of, I suppose I had better get back to the boutique and keep working on that order. Will you girls be able to meet up for lunch tomorrow?” She said.

“I should probably be going back to check up on the injured animals. I left Angel Bunny in charge but... well, his bedside manner is kind of... um, not good. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and he is getting better.” Fluttershy said. “Er... I mean, I’ll be there tomorrow...”

“Oh, I’ll definitely be there! Though, that means I’m going to have to put my party plans on hold, but that’s okay. Friends come first right? Besides, it’s kind of like a party when we all get together, just without the cake or balloons or streamers or games. Hmm... I know, I’ll bring a cake along. Then it will be a party!” Pinkie Pie said bouncing around excitedly.

“Ah can’t think of a reason why Ah wouldn’t be able ta show up. Ah’ll be there.” Applejack said with a nod.

“Heh, guess I have to go too in that case. Can’t practice without somepony there to watch, right?” Rainbow Dash said, chuckling softly. “Nah, I’d have been there anyways. It’ll be nice to see Twi again, and maybe find out what’s been going on.”

“Then it’s settled! We’ll all meet up for lunch tomorrow.” Rarity said brightly. “Well, as I said, I must be off. Have a good day, girls. Until tomorrow.”

As the unicorn headed off, the others all said their goodbyes and did likewise, each pony headed off in different directions, save for Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were both going back to the farm. The sun was setting before too much longer as they walked along and talked.

“Well, Ah reckon that was more than enough excitement fer one day.” The earth pony said with a chuckle, shaking her head.

“Yeah, I think you’re right about that. Still, it was good to be able to see everypony else again, even if it meant taking a trip into the Everfree Forest.” Dash replied.

“Indeed it was, sugarcube. Ah’ll have ta remember ta try and make more time ta spend with them.”

“Definitely.” Rainbow said with a nod.

As they walked along the path, the pegasus decided to give her wings another go. Flaring them out, she gave an experimental flap, but found that they still didn’t seem ready to support her weight. Applejack noticed this and gave her a look tinged with concern.

“Everything alright, Rainbow?”

“Yeah, I... I think so.” She responded, frowning lightly. “It’s just weird that this is happening. I mean, I’ve gotten really tired before, to the point where I could barely fly, but this feels... different? I dunno, maybe I’m just imagining things.”

“Ya’ll have been goin’ at it pretty hard. Maybe you just need time ta rest up?”

“That’s probably it. In fact, I think I might just hit the cloud when we get back. Been a long, long day AJ...”

“Heh, that it has, Rainbow.”

Before long, they had reached the farm and, after saying their goodnights, each pony retired to their own bedroom. Rainbow smiled happily as she flopped out upon the cloud she’d been using for a bed, resting on the fluffy material. For a few seconds at least.

Without warning, the pegasus found herself sinking through the cloud to land on the floor with a thump. Blinking in confusion, she sat up again, looking around herself.

“Huh... that’s odd.” She mused to herself, shaking her head a bit before hopping up and trying again.

It didn’t work out the second time, or the third, and as she found herself once again lying out on the floor, Rainbow was starting to feel quite annoyed.

“Come on now. Stop doing this to me and just let me get some sleep!” She said, glaring at the cloud.

Despite her words though, the cloud still didn’t seem capable of supporting her own weight. Grumbling softly to herself, she stood up once more and hopped up onto the earth pony bed in the room. It was just as uncomfortable as she remembered, but she was feeling too tired by this point to really care. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, she finally drifted off to sleep.

____________________________________________________________

Summer Part 2

“A-Applejack!” Came Rainbow Dash’s voice early the next morning, soon followed by the pegasus herself rushing down the hall.

The orange pony blinked and looked up from her light breakfast as her friend rushed in. “Hm? What’s all the fuss about, sugarcube?”

Dash looked as if she had rushed out immediately after waking up as her mane was even messier than usual and the feathers of her wings were in disarray. The thing that really caught Applejack’s attention though was the panicked look she was wearing.

“Rainbow Dash? What’s wrong?” The earth pony said, starting to sound worried.

“It... it’s my wings. I don’t know what’s going on, but they’re not working.” Rainbow answered, glancing back as she frantically flapped the limbs but to no effect. “Nothing like this has ever happened before and I don’t know what to do. What if I can’t fly anymore?”

“Woah, calm down there.” Applejack said, backing away a bit to avoid getting hit by her friend’s wings. “Just tell me what’s goin’ on. Ya’ll were tryin’ ta fly in the house? Maybe there just ain’t enough room in here or somethin’.”

“I told you! My wings. Don’t. Work. Remember how they were feeling weird after we got out of the forest? Well, it’s like that only even worse. Now I can barely get a few inches off the ground before getting tired and having to land again. I knew they’d be a bit sore from having to sleep on that bed again, but still, this shouldn’t be happening.”

Applejack was feeling rather overwhelmed by all this. This was a pegasus problem, not something she had ever had to deal with before, and she didn’t know what to do or say. Still, she had to try and help out as best she could, for her friend.

For Rainbow Dash.

“Um... maybe ya’ll overworked them after all. Do you think nurse Redheart might know somethin’ that will help? And I thought you didn’t like ta sleep on that bed, what happened ta the cloud? Maybe ya’ll just slept wrong or somethin’... the important thing is just ta not panic, Rainbow.”

“Well... yeah, I suppose it might be best to let her take a look.” Rainbow said, trying to take her friend’s advice and calm down a bit. “And I would have slept on the cloud like usual, but I couldn’t. Every time I tried, I’d fall through it.”

“That’s mighty strange... might be good ta ask Twilight about it too then. Whether somethin’ is wrong with yer wings or not, ya’ll should be able ta stand on clouds, right?”

“Y-yeah...” Rainbow Dash said, panic giving way to a look of dejection as she slumped down beside her friend.

Applejack leaned down to give her a soft nuzzle and a kind smile. “Cheer up, sugarcube. Ah’m sure you’ll be just fine. Now come on, let’s get you some breakfast and then go to see nurse Redheart. Though, yer fine ta go by yerself if you’d prefer.”

“You can come along if you want to, AJ. I think I’d kinda like that actually.”

As if on cue, Granny Smith came into the room with a fresh plate of food for the pegasus, placing it on the table with a kindly smile before heading back. Though she was still feeling rather down, the wonderful smell soon reminded Rainbow that she was indeed hungry and she soon began to eat alongside her friend.

Once they had both finished, the two ponies began to make their way back into Ponyville proper. As they walked, Applejack did her best to try to keep her friend’s mood up, and it did seem to be working a bit. Rainbow Dash didn’t seem quite as miserable as she had over breakfast, though she still looked rather down. The pegasus’ frown grew deeper as the hospital came into view and they stepped inside.

Even this early in the morning, nurse Redheart was sitting at the front desk, looking over some papers when the two walked through the door. Hearing them approach, she looked up with a small smile.

“Oh, welcome back Applejack, and you too Rainbow Dash. I’m sorry to say, but Mr. Big Macintosh is probably asleep at this moment. I’m afraid it’s still too early to be allowing visitors.” The nurse pony said.

“That’s alright, nurse Redheart. Ah was actually here fer a different reason. Or rather, mah friend here was.” Applejack said, giving Rainbow a gentle nudge.

“Hm? Oh, right... um, I seem to be having some... troubles with my wings.” Dash said with a little sigh. “I was kind of hoping you’d be able to take a look and see if there’s something wrong or anything.”

“Of course. Would you mind following me then?” Redheart said, stepping out from behind the desk and leading the way to an empty room. “Now, what sort of troubles do you mean? How long have they been going on?”

Rainbow Dash hesitated for a moment before following the nurse pony, giving a little glance to her friend that prompted the earth pony to follow along as well. At the questions, she thought for a moment before speaking up.

“Well... I can’t seem to fly anymore. Whenever I try, my wings start to feel really strained and I have to land again almost immediately. That’s if I’m even able to get off the ground. This started happening after my friends and returned from the, um... Everfree Forest...” Dash said, almost whispering the name and giving a little wince at nurse Redheart’s reaction.

“The Everfree Forest? Good heavens, what were you ponies doing in there in the first place? Although, I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised. By friends I take it you are talking about Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and the two of you? You ponies seem to have a knack for getting into trouble.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled faintly at that before wincing again as the nurse pony stretched out her left wing to get a good look over it. “Well... Twilight wasn’t with us then. She had asked us to go get this flower thing for some spell or other she was working on and couldn’t come along.”

Applejack, who until that point had been silently standing nearby, stepped forward a bit. “You know, Rainbow... Ah don’t know if this is important or anything, but ya’ll looked like you were havin’ problems inside the forest too. On the way back, after you had found that flower, I mean.”

“Oh yeah, that’s true... I just thought that was fatigue or something. Though, I’ve been through worse before and had no problems...” The pegasus said thoughtfully.

“Hmm... well, Rainbow Dash, I must say that I’m rather interested in this flower that Twilight sent you to find. I’ll have to ask her about it at some point... in any case though, I can’t seem to find anything wrong with you. Both of your wings are in almost perfect condition and, as far as I can tell, you appear to be in great health. There’s no reason I can see as to why you would be having your troubles.” Nurse Redheart said, shaking her head slowly.

“Oh, I see...” Rainbow responded, torn between relief that she wasn’t injured and worry about what else could be causing this. “Thanks for taking a look, nurse Redheart.”

“You are quite welcome. I’m sorry I’m not able to be much of a help though... perhaps your friend Twilight Sparkle might know something? She is probably the most learned pony in all of Ponyville, so maybe she’s heard of something like this before.”

“It’s not a problem. And we were going to try asking her next.” Dash said with a nod.

“Well, I wish you good luck then.”

With that, the three ponies headed back into the lobby, Applejack and Rainbow Dash walking back out of the hospital. Turning to her friend and seeing the look on her face, Applejack put a hoof gently on her shoulder.

“Come on, Rainbow... Twilight’s bound ta know somethin’. She’ll be able ta tell you what’s happenin’, Ah’m sure of it.”

“I hope you’re right, Applejack...” The pegasus said with a soft sigh as they began to make their way toward their friend’s treehouse.

Arriving at their destination, Applejack stepped up to the door and gave it a hard knock. As the day before, there was no response and she soon gave another one.

“Twi? It’s Applejack and Rainbow Dash.” The orange pony called out. “Ah know it’s early, but we need yer help with somethin’!”

A few moments passed before the door finally opened to reveal a bleary eyed Spike.

“Hm? Applejack? What’s going on?” He asked, rubbing his eyes for a moment before suddenly blinking. “Oh no, it’s happening isn’t it...”

“Wait, what’s happening?” Rainbow Dash cut in, stepping into the dragon’s view.

Spike looked around fearfully for a moment before responding. “Zombies! Twilight keeps saying it will never happen, but I know they’re real!”

The two ponies blinked and stared at him for a moment before Applejack shook her head with a little sigh. “There ain’t no zombies, Spike. We’ve got a different kinda problem here. Do you mind goin’ ta get Twilight? Rainbow Dash and I need ta ask her somethin’.”

“Oh, phew...” Spike said, looking relieved. “Sure! Why don’t you two step inside for a moment while I go get her?”

Applejack looked over to her friend for a moment before nodding and stepping through the door. “Thank you kindly, Spike.”

“Yeah, thanks...” Rainbow said, following her friend inside.

“Don’t mention it. Twilight should be here in just a second!” The baby dragon said before heading off to find the unicorn.

True to his word, the two ponies didn’t have long at all to wait before their purple friend arrived, a small cup of some steaming liquid floating beside her. Unlike her assistant, Twilight Sparkle looked quite bright-eyed, even this early in the morning, and she gave them both a bright smile as she drew nearer.

“Good morning, Applejack, Rainbow Dash. It’s good to see you again.” She said cheerfully.

“Um... yeah, good mornin’, Twi...” Applejack said, her eyes locked on something that seemed off about their friend.

It was Rainbow Dash that actually pointed it out though.

“Is that... the flower we went to find yesterday?” The pegasus asked, staring at the brightly colored plant currently resting in their friend’s mane.

“Hm? Oh, um, yes it is. Thank you so much for going to get it. It turned out to be exactly what I needed for my research.” Twilight said with a smile.

“But... yer still able ta use yer magic...” Applejack now spoke up, glancing from the unicorn’s glowing horn to the floating cup with a confused look. “Rarity said it was blockin’ magic from workin’ around it. And with it that close ta yer horn...”

“Oh, she noticed? Yes this plant does block out magic, which is what I was hoping for. Still, even though it’s a bit harder, I’ve found I can still use my magic a bit, even while wearing it.”

“Then why would you wear it at all? Ah’m afraid Ah don’t understand...”

Twilight began to look rather nervous at this question, though she spoke up anyways. “Um... that’s... well... that’s kind of what I need to talk with all of you about today over lunch. Do... do you mind if I postpone the question until then? I don’t think I’m quite ready yet...”

“Nah, of course not! Ah didn’t mean ta make you uncomfortable or anything... anyways, Rainbow had somethin’ she wanted ta ask you about.” Applejack said, prompting her friend.

“Oh, that’s right! Um... something’s been really weird since we got back from the forest yesterday. My wings don’t seem to be working anymore, or at least not well. I can’t keep myself up off of the ground for very long at all without getting really tired. Nurse Redheart said that she can’t find anything wrong, so we thought we should ask you.” The pegasus said.

“Really? Hmm...” Twilight said, looking curious as she thought for a moment. “Tell me, Rainbow Dash... have you tried to put together any clouds since then? Or... anything like that?”

Rainbow blinked at this, wondering what it had to do with anything. “Well... no, I haven’t. Well, there is the cloud bed I’ve been sleeping on. Last night, I kept falling through it for some reason.”

“Is that so... incredible, I’ve heard theories, but I didn’t think about something like this... well, I think I might know what’s going on. One last question though, did you come into contact with this flower yesterday? For an extended period of time?”

“Yeah... I was the one who brought it up to the others. One of the nastiest things I’ve ever tasted too.” Dash said, giving a little grimace at the memory of the taste. “But what does that have to do with what’s going on?”

Twilight gave a little sigh at Rainbow’s answer and nodded. “Just as I thought... you already know that this flower negates magic, right? Well, some ponies are starting to think that unicorns aren’t the only ponies with magic. They say that a pegasus pony’s ability to fly and work with clouds and weather is also due to magic, as well as earth ponies’ skill at working the ground. When you carried this flower in your mouth, it must have started to weaken your magic, and therefore your flying as well. Thankfully, this should only be temporary, though I’m sorry it happened to you. If I’d known...”

“That... that little flower is what’s causing all of this? Keep it away from me!” Dash said, backing away a bit from the plant in Twilight’s mane. “How long will I be like this?”

“Well, yeah, but you should be fine. So long as you don’t bite it or anything.” Twilight said with a soft chuckle, though she frowned a bit at the question. “I don’t really know. I’d say probably a week at the very most, depending on how long you held it.”

At these words, both Applejack and Rainbow Dash blinked before looking to each other and uttering the same word.

“Fluttershy!”

Twilight looked at her friends in confusion at this reaction. “I... don’t think I understand. Did something happen to Fluttershy?”

“Well, I only held the flower for a short while. Like I said, it tastes really nasty, so I didn’t want to keep it any longer. Fluttershy agreed to carry it the rest of the way back.” Rainbow Dash said, looking worried for their friend. “If it’s done this to me, I can’t imagine how much it’s affected her.”

“Oh dear, you’re right! Come on, let’s go see her immediately!” Twilight said, her eyes widening.

With that, she placed her cup down and, along with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the three ponies began to rush toward their friend’s cottage, hoping that nothing had happened to the timid pegasus.

**************

“Hey, Fluttershy! Are you home?” Rainbow Dash called out, knocking on the door to their friend’s cottage.

With no answer forthcoming, she was starting to grow rather worried. The three of them had rushed here as quickly as possible, her and Applejack having to slow down a bit so they wouldn’t leave Twilight behind, but it was obvious that something was not quite right as they had approached. For one thing, the scores of birds and small animals that usually inhabited the area around the cottage weren’t there which is probably what led to the next oddity, the complete lack of sound in the area. Normally, there was always birdsong filling the air near Fluttershy’s home, but now it was completely silent.

“Please, if you’re in there, open up.” The cyan pegasus said, giving another knock.

This time, the door opened and Dash gave a little sigh of relief, a small smile crossing her face.

“Thank goodness. We were starting to get a bit worried. There’s something we need to talk... about... Fluttershy...” Rainbow said, her words trailing off as she realized that it wasn’t their friend who had opened the door.

Hanging onto the door was the white rabbit who seemed to live with Fluttershy, Angel Bunny Dash thought she remembered their friend calling him. Normally, the rabbit seemed to have an extreme dislike for everypony else, even the pegasus who took care of him, but today he simply looked worried.

Looking first to the three ponies at the door, Angel tilted his head toward the inside of the house before scampering in that direction. Rainbow Dash blinked a bit at this before turning to face her friends, each of which looked about as puzzled as she felt.

“Um... I guess we should follow him in then? Maybe he knows where Fluttershy is.” She said, the others nodding in agreement.

With that, the three ponies walked into their friend’s home, glancing around. Nothing seemed particularly out of place, at least as far as they could see. The little houses and perches that filled a good portion of the cottage were still all there, though nearly all appeared to be empty. In fact, apart from Angel and themselves, and a plant or two, there didn’t appear to be any other living things in the room.

“That’s odd... where are all the animals? And Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash said, looking around and seeing no sign of the pegasus.

“That’s a mighty good question...” Applejack responded, frowning lightly. “Fluttershy? Ya’ll in here sugarcube?”

Though there was no reply to the question, a soft thumping noise from the upper room caught their attention. It almost sounded like somepony moving around...

“Hmm... I was starting to think that maybe she isn’t here, but somepony definitely is. Come on, let’s go check it out.” Twilight said, turning and starting to climb the staircase in the room.

The other two followed her, but soon found that the door leading into Fluttershy’s bedroom had been locked. Standing right up next to it though, they could clearly hear a few quiet sniffs coming from within.

“Fluttershy, are you in there? It’s me, Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are here too. We’re all worried about you, so please open the door so we can see if you’re alright.”

“P-please go away... I... I can’t let anypony see me like this.” Came a soft reply from within the room. “Besides, if... if I open the door, you will just run away like the rest of them did. They... they ran from me, all of them. After everything I’ve done for them! How dare they--”

Their friend’s voice, which had grown louder and harsher, suddenly dropped off with a quiet whimper and the three ponies outside the door could barely hear her continue speaking. “N-no... I can’t think like that. They’ll just run away forever if I do...”

“Please open up. We’re your friends, we won’t run away no matter what. Something might be wrong and I need to talk to you about it. Please, Fluttershy?” Twilight said, growing more worried after their friend’s outburst.

Silence greeted her for a few seconds before the door finally cracked open. Almost dreading what they were about to see, the three ponies peeked through the gap. When they caught sight of their shy friend, they each gave a soft gasp.

Fluttershy looked completely normal, though even with her face averted it was obvious that she had been crying recently.

“Oh, Fluttershy. Thank goodness, I was getting so worried.” Twilight Sparkle said in a relieved tone, though she still looked fairly concerned. “What happened though? Why did you lock yourself in your room?”

Fluttershy looked away from them shyly, scuffing a hoof against the ground as she spoke. “I... I don’t really know, Twilight. After we left your house, I was feeling so tired that I just wanted to come home and get some sleep. But... I couldn’t do that. The animals still needed my help. And Angel Bunny was being... uncooperative and... I... I don’t know what happened. I was so frustrated... I think I may have closed a cabinet a bit harder than I meant too...

“And... and then they were running everywhere. Trying to get away. I... I tried to calm them down, but it was like they couldn’t understand me anymore. They were all so scared and... it was all my fault... The worst thing though was... was...” She broke off here with a little sniff, turning her watery eyes toward the three of them. “Do you remember what happened that night at... at the Gala? I was so scared that it was going to happen again and... I didn’t want to lose any of my friends here, so I locked myself up in my room. So I couldn’t hurt them, or anypony... But now you know what happened and you made me open the door, so now you three are going to hate me too...”

Twilight Sparkle blinked, caught by surprise by the verbal barrage from their normally quiet friend. Still, it was obvious that Fluttershy was in serious pain and she couldn’t just leave the pegasus like this.

“Fluttershy... none of us are going to hate you, no matter what happens. You will always be our friend, and we will always care about you.” Twilight said softly, taking a step toward the pegasus only to have her back away a bit in response. “I’m sure this is all just a misunderstanding or something. They’ll all be back in time.”

Fluttershy shook her head at this though, looking down. “N-no, I don’t think they will... you didn’t see how scared they were, Twilight. Scared of me... just like they would be with anypony else. Er, no offense...”

“None taken. I know you have a special way with animals after all. Wait...” Twilight said, frowning as a thought occurred to her. “You said that they couldn’t understand you and... and that they seemed afraid? Oh no... I-I’m so sorry, Fluttershy. This is all my fault. First Rainbow Dash, now you...”

“Oh no, Twilight. This isn’t your fault at all, it’s all mine. After all, you weren’t here then, so you couldn’t have had anything to do with it.” Fluttershy said, shaking her head again.

“No, it’s that flower. The one you carried? It... it cancels out magic and with you carrying it around for so long, you probably got a giant dose of it. Rainbow Dash is unable to fly or walk on clouds at the moment and you... but...” The unicorn began to look puzzled, trying to sort all this out. “But that’s not caused by anything magical, it’s your special talent... I think I need to do some research into this...”

“Now hold on just a minute.” Applejack said suddenly, stepping up and looking to Twilight. “Ya’ll are sayin’ that that flower there caused all this? Made Fluttershy lose her touch with critters? That thing’s dangerous, Twi! Ya’ll need ta get rid of it before it hurts somepony else!”

“I... I know, Applejack. I didn’t realize it would cause this much trouble, and I’m so sorry for sending you all to get it unprepared. But I can’t get rid of it, that would be far worse...” Came Twilight’s response.

“What? Confound it Twi, why can’t you...” The earth pony began before trailing off at her friend’s beseeching look with a little sigh. “Ah know, you’ll tell us at lunch... It better be a good reason though, after what that thing’s done ta poor Fluttershy...”

Twilight nodded slowly before turning back to Fluttershy. “I’m really sorry, Fluttershy... I didn’t think something like this was even possible, and if I’d known... I would have made sure to warn you all about it ahead of time. It... it should wear off in the next few days though.”

The yellow pegasus’ lip trembled for a moment as she turned away. “E-even if it does wear off, that doesn’t change the fact that they all hate me now... Besides, what if... what if it is just magic? What if I’m forcing them to like me... that would be even worse...”

Seeing their friend again on the verge of tears, the other three ponies were at a loss for what to say. At about that moment, Rainbow Dash felt a hard kick to one of her hind legs.

“Ow! Would you cut that out?” She said, turning to glare at the little rabbit who had been prodding and nudging her since the door had been opened. “What do you want?”

Now that he finally had her attention, the rabbit began to pantomime something, waving his arms about frantically. Rainbow just stared at him though, having no idea what he was trying to say. Seeing that he wasn’t getting through to the pegasus, Angel put a paw to his face before deciding to do things his way. With a quick hop, he grabbed onto the rainbow colored tail, using it to help him get onto the pony’s back. From there, he took up a spot right on top of Dash’s head, much to her annoyance.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Get down from there you--” The pegasus began but was cut off by Fluttershy of all ponies.

“A-angel Bunny? What... what are you doing here? I thought you ran away with the rest of them...”

The rabbit answered with a quick shake of his head, causing his caretaker to give a soft gasp. “So... you’ve been down there all by yourself? What did you do for dinner, or... or breakfast?”

A disinterested shrug was all she got in return, though her eyes widened at this. “Y-you didn’t? Oh dear, that won’t do at all... I think I have a carrot around here somewhere...”

Angel gave a little bunny sigh and shook his head slowly. Twilight Sparkle, though, was looking from the rabbit to Fluttershy with a little smile. Finally, she stepped forward and gently tapped the pegasus to get her attention.

“Fluttershy... you were worried about it all being magic and, in a way, I suppose it is. But, it’s a different kind of magic than you were worried about, one that no power I know of can ever take away. The magic of friendship... If you were truly forcing the animals to love you, then wouldn’t Angel Bunny have run away too? But he stayed, because he cares about you... The others may have run off for now, because they were scared, but they will be back. You just need to give them time and they’ll return.”

The yellow pony blinked and quickly turned to face Twilight. “Do... do you really think so?”

“I do.” The unicorn replied with a little smile, to which Fluttershy gave a soft smile in return.

“Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt or anything...” Rainbow Dash spoke up, shooting a little glare up toward the top of her head. “But would you mind telling your rabbit buddy here to get off my head?”

“Hm? Oh, I’m sorry Rainbow Dash.” The timid pegasus said, blinking as she noticed that Angel was still upon his perch. “Um... do you mind getting down from their, Angel Bunny? Please? I don’t think Rainbow Dash wants you to use her head as a seat any more...”

The rabbit rolled his eyes a bit, but did as he was asked, hopping down from the cyan pony’s head and making his way over to Fluttershy. With a little smile, the pegasus leaned down to give him a gentle nuzzle which he returned, reassuring her that there were no hard feelings about this. The other three ponies looked on, glad that their friend seemed to be feeling better now.

Finally, Twilight spoke up again. “I should probably be getting back to the library before too much longer... are you going to be alright, Fluttershy?”

“I... I think so, Twilight.” The yellow pony said with a nod. “Thank you...”

“You don’t need to thank me, Fluttershy. It’s my fault you got into this mess in the first place, after all. I’m just glad you’re feeling better. Oh, um... you probably aren’t going to be able to fly for the next few days either. That’s what happened with Rainbow Dash at least...”

“That’s alright. I’m not much of a flier anyways. I can make do on the ground.”

“Alright. Take care of yourself, okay?” Twilight said. “See you later on for lunch?”

“Sure, I’ll be there.” Fluttershy replied, smiling to her friend.

With a smile back, Twilight turned to face the other two ponies in the room. “Sorry again about all of this, you two. If I had known any of this would happen... I should look into things more before sending my friends off to get something...”

“It’s fine, sugarcube.” Applejack said, shaking her head with a little smile.

“Yeah, no worries Twilight. So long as I’m able to fly again by the tryouts, I’ll be just fine.” Rainbow Dash said.

The unicorn gave each of them another little smile before nodding and starting to make her way back down the stairs, waving goodbye to them both. With that, Applejack turned to Fluttershy.

“Welll, Ah should probably be gettin’ back ta the farm. There ain’t nopony there ta take care of the chores at the moment, so I’ll need ta get a head start on that if I want ta make lunch today.”

“Oh, okay. Don’t work yourself too hard, alright? Um, I mean... I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, right?” Fluttershy said, her voice fading down toward the end.

Applejack just chuckled though and nodded. “Sure thing. Ah’ll make sure ta pace mahself. Ya’ll take care.”

Rainbow Dash looked between her two friends for a moment before making a decision. “Hey, AJ... do you mind if I stay here for a bit? I mean, if Fluttershy doesn’t mind of course. I figure she could use a friend around after all this, right?”

“Hm? Oh, no problem sugarcube. There ain’t all that much ta do, so Ah can handle it.” The earth pony said with a nod. “See the two of you at lunch then, or before if you decide ta come back Rainbow. Til then, take care.”

“Heh, sure. See you then, AJ!” Dash said with a grin, waving to her friend as she headed down the stairs and back toward the farm.

Fluttershy smiled softly and nodded as Applejack left. With that, just two pegasi left in the room, and Angel Bunny, she turned to face Rainbow Dash.

“Th-thanks, Rainbow Dash. I probably could use a friend right about now.” She said softly.

“Then why didn’t you say anything? I’m sure both Twi and Applejack wouldn’t mind taking some time off to stay here with you.” Rainbow said, blinking a bit.

“Oh, well... I didn’t want to inconvenience them...”

“Fluttershy... if you want something, you should just ask. It’s not like anypony’s going to get mad at you just for asking. The worst thing that would happen is that they say no and that’s it.”

“I-I know, it’s just... I’d rather everypony else be happy, you know? I don’t mind too much...”

“Yeah, I understand. Still, you should spend some time taking care of yourself. Do things you want to do, rather than just what everypony else does.”

Fluttershy gave a little nod at that but said nothing. The two ponies fell into a rather awkward silence, one not sure what to say to fill it and the other too meek to speak up. Finally, Angel Bunny gave the yellow pegasus a little thump to prompt her to say something.

“Um... you and Applejack seem to be getting along pretty well.” Fluttershy said softly.

“Hm? Oh, yeah! I tell you, for the first few days I wasn’t sure this would work out, but it’s been great!” Rainbow Dash said, giving a huge smile. “Never thought we’d hit it off so well, but it turns out we’ve got quite a bit in common. Hanging out with AJ’s been some of the most fun I’ve ever had.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear...” Fluttershy said with a nod, smiling back to Rainbow for a few seconds before speaking again. “So... have you asked her yet?”

Dash blinked and tilted her head a bit in confusion. “Huh? Asked her what?”

Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to look confused, though her eyes widened after a moment. “Oh dear! I-I just assumed... I thought you two... eep!”

The yellow pegasus cowered down a bit and clamped her mouth shut before she could say anything else. Rainbow Dash watched her in growing confusion, trying to understand what her friend was saying.

“What did you assume? Come on, now I have to know!” Dash said with a light laugh.

Fluttershy just shook her head though and refused to say anything, eliciting another roll of the eyes from her rabbit friend.

Rainbow Dash looked at her friend suspiciously, curiosity eating away at her.

“So... after all that, you’re not going to tell me anything?” Rainbow asked when it was clear that no reply was coming. “Ugh, couldn’t you give me a hint or something then? I’m dying to know now.”

That seemed to spark something in the timid pegasus. Though she still refused to meet Rainbow Dash’s eyes, Fluttershy mumbled something in reply. As close as they were though, it was too quiet for Dash to hear.

“What was that Fluttershy? I didn’t catch it.”

“I... I said...” Fluttershy said before again mumbling too quietly for the other pony.

Rainbow Dash gave a little sigh and shook her head before looking directly at her friend. “You’re going to have to speak louder than that if you want me to be able to hear you. It’s just like cheering, you have to speak up.”

By this point, the yellow pony was practically radiating nervousness. A faint blush tinted her face pink as her eyes roamed from Rainbow Dash, around the room, to the door, and then back to her friend. Finally, she took a deep breath, steeling herself.

“I thought you and Applejack were... were... eep!”

Rather than finish what she was saying, Fluttershy looked away and tore out of the bedroom, quite a bit faster than anypony had ever seen her run before. Dash was left alone in the room, blinking as she tried to process what had just happened. She turned to look at the door her friend had just run through, a mixture of confusion and incredulity on her face.

“What just happened here?” She asked after a few seconds, shaking her head slowly. “Geez, what got into her? Ugh, and I still don’t know what she was going to say!”

After waiting for a short while to see if Fluttershy was going to come back once she realized that this was her own house, Rainbow gave a little sigh and began to head on down the stairs, deciding to head back to the farm for now. She could help out with the chores, and maybe Applejack would have some clue as to what Fluttershy had been talking about.

**************

“And then she just ran off without another word. I tell you AJ, it wasn’t like Fluttershy at... well, actually it was just like her to do that, but still!” Rainbow Dash finished saying, having told Applejack of the odd event at Fluttershy’s house.

The earth pony had been hard at work putting more baskets under the apple trees when Rainbow had arrived and the cyan pony had decided to help out as she talked. Now though, Applejack placed down the basket she was carrying before turning to face her friend.

“Huh, that is mighty strange... What was she tryin’ ta say again?” Applejack asked.

“She kept going on about how she’d thought you and I were... something, but she never finished it. That’s when she just shot off out the door.” Dash said before blinking and tilting her head a bit at her friend. “You okay there, AJ?”

The orange pony’s eyes had widened at this news and she was just staring at Rainbow Dash as her mind went over what she had just heard. Fluttershy seemed to think there was something between her and Rainbow Dash but... that idea was almost laughable. Neither of them looked at other mares like that, after all. As the earth pony thought though, she remembered that Rarity had seemed to notice something back when they met up in front of Twilight’s treehouse. Was it possible that their friends could see something they couldn’t?

At about that point, Applejack realized that her friend had asked her something and she blinked before looking up. “What’s that? Oh, yeah Ah’m just fine. Ah don’t know what she could have been talkin’ about, sugarcube.”

“Hmm... did you know that you make a really weird face when you’re lying?” Dash said, glancing over at her friend suspiciously.

“What? Ah do not!”

“Huh, I guess you really didn’t know that...”

Applejack sputtered for a bit at this before shooting a glare toward her friend that was just for show. “Ya’ll gonna keep foolin’ around, Rainbow, or are you gonna help me with these baskets? Harvest’s comin’ up before too long and it ain’t much longer after that before Applebuck season.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m helping.” The pegasus said with a little grin, grabbing another basket and taking it to the appropriate tree.

They didn’t get a chance to talk much after that, the work forcing them to spread out amongst the orchard. Before too much longer though, Rainbow Dash grabbed the last stack of baskets from in front of the barn, dragging them off to place down. Once those were finished and she headed back to the barn, Applejack was waiting for her with a wide smile.

“Well, looks like that’s all of them. Thanks fer the help Rainbow. Woulda taken about twice as long without you.” The farmer pony said.

“Heh, no problem AJ. Looks like we finished up just in time to make it to lunch too.”

“That we did. Now come on, let’s get goin’ so we’re not late.” Applejack said, turning to head toward Ponyville with Rainbow by her side.

As the two of them approached the cafe where they were going to be meeting up with their friends, three other ponies were already there waiting for them. Pinkie Pie bounded out with a huge smile to greet them while Rarity was a bit more graceful, nodding her head lightly as they approached. Fluttershy stood a short ways back, taking care not to make eye contact though her face flushed a bit as she spotted Rainbow Dash. In fact, the only one of their friends who didn’t seem to be there was...

“Where’s Twilight?” Dash asked, looking around and noticing a distinct lack of the purple unicorn.

“She hasn’t arrived yet.” Rarity responded, taking a look around as well. “Oh dear, I do so hope she shows up before too much longer. I am dreadfully curious as to what’s been going on.”

“Yeah, me too! I never got a chance to ask her my question and, even though I’m sure I already know the answer, I want to make sure.” Pinkie Pie said, though her face fell just a bit. “I hope she’s doing alright though. I haven’t seen her all day...”

“Twi’s doin’ just fine, Pinkie. Rainbow and Ah saw her this mornin’. Oh yeah, and so did Fluttershy.” Applejack said, turning to the timid pony.

“Oh, um... yes, she did seem to be doing pretty well.” Fluttershy said shyly, looking down.

“Well, that is certainly good to hear. I suppose there is not much more we can do right now besides wait for Twilight Sparkle to arrive.” Rarity said, the other ponies nodding along with her statement.

Luckily, they didn’t have long at all to wait. Only a minute or so after the white unicorn finished talking, Twilight Sparkle came into view, running toward the cafe. As she noticed her friends watching her, she slowed down and gave them all a smile as she walked up.

“Hey everypony. Sorry I’m late... I was helping Spike clean up a bit and lost track of time.” The purple pony said.

“Don’t worry about it, Twilight. It’s not really late, and besides, we got here right before you.” Rainbow Dash said with a soft chuckle.

Applejack glanced at the unicorn with a little frown before speaking up. “Ah see ya’ll are still wearin’ that flower... Ah hope you know what yer doin’, Twilight...”

At Applejack’s words, Rarity had looked over to Twilight and noticed the flower resting in her mane for the first time, her eyes lighting up.

“Oh, my! Twilight, darling, you look splendid. It compliments your mane perfectly! In fact...” The white unicorn’s voice faded out as she began to lose herself in thoughts of the perfect outfit she could put together to match with the flower. “Hmm, maybe something like... oh no, that would look dreadful. Perhaps though...”

“Er, Rarity? Ah don’t think this is the best time fer that.” Applejack said, startling the unicorn from her reverie.

“Hm, what? Oh, you are quite right Applejack. I’m afraid I can not truly help when inspiration strikes, and that flower... I did not notice back in the forest, but it truly is gorgeous.”

Twilight had been watching this exchange with mild amusement, though as she spoke, a trace of nervousness showed itself. “Well... this flower is a pretty big part of what I wanted to talk to you all about. Especially after... after recent events concerning it. Before we get started on that though, how about we grab a table and order lunch? I don’t know about all of you, but I’m feeling pretty hungry right now.”

The other ponies nodded and voiced their agreement before the group headed into the cafe, picking out a table that would be large enough to seat the six of them comfortably. After placing their orders they chatted lightly about the events of the past few days, catching up with each other now that there wasn’t quite as much tension as the last time they had met up. Before too long, their food arrived and Applejack turned her attention to Twilight.

“Well, now we’re all here and together, ya’ll mind explainin’ what’s been goin’ on, Twilight? Ah’m mighty curious as ta why yer keepin’ that flower despite how dangerous ya’ll know it is.” The earth pony said.

The purple unicorn bit her lip for a moment at the question before giving a nod. “Alright. I still don’t know if I’m ready for this, but I did promise to tell you... Here goes then.”

Twilight paused for a second to take a deep breath before continuing. “Do you remember that party a couple of months ago, when I... I kind of lost control over my magic?”

Applejack nodded along with her friends, thinking back to that night.

**************

Pinkie Pie had thrown a party in the Library where Twilight lived, though she couldn’t remember just what it had been for. Knowing Pinkie, there didn’t really need to be a reason. The festivities were in full swing when the purple unicorn had suddenly staggered off, complaining about a terrible headache.

Before anypony could help get her someplace to rest though, objects began to lift up and fling themselves across the room, surrounded by the tell-tale glow of a unicorn’s magic. The glow began to surround Twilight as well and she too lifted up into the air, turning to face her friends as the magic built up around her, keeping the other five ponies away.

Thinking back on what had happened reminded Applejack of just how terrified she had felt that night as she looked into Twilight’s glowing eyes. For the first time since she hadmet the purple mare, she felt afraid of her friend. Afraid that the unicorn would actually wind up hurting them all... If it hadn’t been for the timely arrival of Princess Celestia, who knew what might have happened to them.

Placing herself between Twilight and her friends, the princess had born the brunt of the magical storm surrounding her pupil, keeping it from harming anypony else. After only a few minutes, the energies had died down as Twilight sank back to the floor.

After seeing to Twilight, who had fallen into a deep sleep, the princess had comforted the frightened ponies, reassuring them that their friend was going to be alright but needed to be taken to the palace to recover. With that, the alicorn had teleported both herself and Twilight away and it was several days before the purple mare had returned to Ponyville.

**************

Applejack gave a little shiver at the memory but nodded to her friend. The fact that Twilight had brought up that night didn’t bode well at all and, from the way the other ponies around the table were looking, she wasn’t the only one feeling worried.

“Well... it happened to me again a few weeks after I got back from Canterlot. I had just finished tidying up the library when books started to fly off the shelves again. About a minute later, I woke up again, laying on the ground with the library in shambles. It’s happened three more times since that one, each of which was longer than the last. The worst thing is that there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to when they happen now. I’d be going about my daily business and then suddenly I’d lose control. Luckily, it’s never happened out in public or with anypony else around, but still... what if it does? I don’t want to hurt anypony...

“That’s when I started looking into this. Pouring myself into the research to try and find out why this is happening. Unfortunately, none of the books I read through had anything to say on the matter. In fact, I couldn’t find anything at all until just recently when I found something about that flower. That book, supernaturals, mentioned that there was a plant that grows in the Everfree Forest that could nullify magic. I didn’t know if it would work, but at least it was worth a shot.”

“The rest, I guess you kind of know. I asked for all of you to meet up at the library so that I could see if you would help me. At the worst possible time though... it happened again, right then. That’s why I wasn’t able to talk with you myself, or go with you. I couldn’t risk hurting any of you. Thankfully, this flower does seem to have done the trick. It’s too early to know if it’s going to stop the episodes completely, but it has definitely weakened my magic considerably, so hopefully that will help even if I do lose control again.

“I just... I hadn’t thought about how it would affect other ponies who came into contact with it. And for that... I’m truly sorry, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy...” Twilight said, looking sadly to the two pegasi. “And to all of you, for putting you into such danger without warning you.”

As Twilight finished up, the other ponies simply sat there in silence for a few moments, processing what they’d just heard. Pinkie Pie was the first one to react, turning to face Twilight with an eerily serious look for the party pony.

“Twilight Sparkle, I just have one question to ask you.” She said, her tone of voice causing the unicorn to wince a bit and expect the worst. “Have you or have you not messed up a major spell recently?”

The question caught the purple mare completely by surprise and she blinked a bit before responding. “N-no, not really. If anything, my magic has been working too well. Besides, I haven’t attempted any major spells lately and what I have done has all worked out perfectly.”

“Oh...” Pinkie responded, a frown crossing her face. “Drat, foiled again... I was sure that was what had happened. Guess I can cross that from the list then. That only leaves a few more options though...”

With that, the pink pony turned her gaze toward Rainbow Dash, the look on her face implying that the two of them needed to have a talk once this was all over. The pegasus simply looked back in confusion, though not nearly as much as Twilight Sparkle seemed to be feeling.

“Wait... that’s it? You... you don’t have any problems or questions about any of what I told you?” She said.

“Of course not, silly! You’ve got the pretty flower now, right? You said that will make it all better, so I believe you. After all, if anypony would know about this kind of thing, it would definitely be Twilight Sparkle! Besides, you’re doing okay and everypony else is doing okay, so it’s all okay, right?” The pink pony said brightly before looking thoughtful. “Ooh, you know what this really calls for?”

“Let me guess... a party?” Twilight asked flatly.

Pinkie Pie’s eyes went wide at that as she stared at her friend. “Woah, you can read minds now too? That little flower is amazing! I want it, can I have it? Please Twilight? Pleeeease?”

While the hyper pony was making pleading eyes at Twilight, Applejack spoke up. “Uh, sugarcube, do ya’ll really think this is a good time fer a party? Ah mean... this doesn’t seem like somethin’ you’d want ta attract attention to.”

“Well, duh.” Pinkie said, rolling her eyes a bit as she turned to face Applejack. “Every time is a good time for a party!”

“No, Pinkie, I think Applejack is right. What if this doesn’t work? What if it happens again while I’m at the party? With all those other ponies around... somepony’s bound to get hurt. I think it’s better if I play it safe for now, until I know it works.” Twilight said, shaking her head sadly.

“Aww... okay then Twilight, if you’re sure. I’ll just have to give you a rain check on that party then.”

As a lull occurred in the conversation after this, it was Rarity’s turn to speak up. “Unlike Pinkie Pie here, I’m afraid I do have a question about this, Twilight. Two, in fact. The first involves that flower of yours. You said that it has effects on other ponies... what did you mean by that?”

“Oh... well, like I said, this plant nullifies magic. For a unicorn, that would cause the weakening or loss of their magic for a short time. Pegasi on the other hoof, lose the ability to fly and to manipulate clouds and weather. At least, that’s what I had thought, after hearing from Rainbow Dash...”

Twilight gave a little sigh as her eyes fell on Fluttershy and she continued. “Fluttershy though... while she lost her flight as well, it also seems to have taken away her ability to communicate with animals.”

Rarity’s eyes widened at this and she too turned to face the timid pegasi.
“Fluttershy, darling, is this true?” She asked, answered by a little nod from the yellow pony. “But... that’s part of your talent, isn’t it? Your cutie mark, the thing you can do better than anypony else... why would it affect that?”

“I don’t know. Honestly, it doesn’t make any sense to me either.” Twilght responded, shaking her head. “It just shows that I need to do a lot more research into this, especially now that it has affected two of my best friends...”

“I see... Well, I suppose that helps to lead into my next question then. Did you try to send a letter to Princess Celestia? I’m sure that she would be more than willing to help out her prized student, after all.”

“N-no, I didn’t...” Twilight said, looking away. “The princess and I... we don’t talk much anymore. I still send her my friendship reports but... since that night, something seems different about our relationship. When I was in Canterlot, it was like she was deliberately avoiding me. I don’t know what’s wrong, but she doesn’t seem to be as open as she used to be... Maybe she’s upset that... that I lost control like that. Or she thinks that I’m not worthy of being her pupil anymore. If that is the case, then I have to try and take care of this on my own.”

“Twilight... I know that you and Princess Celestia are close, and it is odd that she would try to avoid you...” Rarity said, leaning over and placing a hoof gently on the purple unicorn’s shoulder. “And I can understand just where you are coming from but... maybe you should ask for her help anyways. Whatever is happening could be exceptionally dangerous to you or maybe even to somepony else.”

“I... you’re right, Rarity. The risks are just too great. Still... I don’t think I can do that. Not yet...” Twilight said with a little sigh. “If this doesn’t work though, if it happens again... I’ll write to her. I promise that.”

“Well, you just be sure to do what you think is right. That’s all anypony can ever ask of you.” Rarity said, giving a little smile to her friend.
Twilight returned the smile before turning back to her friends. “Well... does anypony else have a question they’d like to ask?”

Rarity and Fluttershy shook their heads in response. Pinkie Pie took a moment to think about it before doing likewise.

“Well, it is a lot to take in. Still, like Pinkie Pie said, I trust that you know what you’re doing. If you say that it’s alright now, then that’s good enough for me.” Rainbow Dash said with a little smirk.

At that, Twilight turned to Applejack to see what the farmer pony had to say. “How about you, Applejack?”

The earth pony was silent for a moment before she gave a little sigh. “Ah’m not sure Twilight. Ah can kinda understand why you need ta keep that flower around, but knowin’ that yer just carryin’ around somethin’ that dangerous... Ah’d be lyin’ if Ah said that didn’t worry me a bit. Still, Ah suppose it’s better than the alternative. And you’ve given me no reason not ta trust yer judgement, so Ah’ll trust you on this one too.”

Twilight’s smiled at this as she nodded, prompting a smile from the orange pony as well. “Thank you, all of you. I didn’t really know how you’d react to this and... I guess it was kind of silly of me to worry so much. I should have known better than to think this would tear us all apart.”

She gave a smile to each of her friends, the other five ponies returning it. With that, the topic turned to lighter topics as they finished off their lunch. By the time when they had to go their separate ways again, everypony was in great spirits, joking and laughing amongst themselves as they bid their friends farewell.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack began to make their way back to the farm, talking over what they had just heard.

“You know, Ah never would’ve thought it was somethin’ like this. Though, Ah guess this does clear up a lot of questions about what’s been goin’ on...” Applejack said, musing on this for a moment before noticing that Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to be paying attention. “Somethin’ wrong, sugarcube?”

“No, no... at least, I don’t think so.” Dash said, shaking her head a bit as she turned back to walk with her friend. “It’s just... I could have sworn I saw Pinkie Pie watching us. When I looked again though, there was nopony there.”

“Huh, that’s strange.” Applejack said, looking back for a moment as well before giving a little shrug. “Well, Ah can’t see nopony there. Maybe yer just imagining things, Rainbow?”

“Hmm... yeah, you’re probably right.” The pegasus said before tilting her head a bit at the odd way her friend was looking up at her. “Hey, AJ, what’s up? You’re looking at me all weird...”

The earth pony chuckled softly before pointing a hoof toward Rainbow. “Ah guess yer too caught up in yer own thoughts ta notice, but take a look Rainbow. Notice somethin’ different?”

It took Rainbow Dash a few seconds to realize what her friend was going on about. She was having to look down at Applejack, which meant...

“Oh my gosh! My wings... I’m flying again!” She said excitedly, looking back to see that she was indeed flying. “This is great! I didn’t think it would wear off so fast, but this is so awesome!”

“Heh, it sure is sugarcube..” Applejack said, laughing as she watched the excited pegasus fly around above, pulling little loops and spins as she reveled in the return of her flight. “Though, Ah guess that means you’ll be wantin’ ta go practice some more now, huh.”

“Oh yeah! I mean, if you don’t need me to keep helping at the farm.”

“Nah, we’re pretty much finished fer the day. Besides, only a few more days left til the tryouts. Ah suppose Ah can let ya’ll take a bit of a break ta get ready fer that.”

“Yes! Thanks AJ!” The pegasus said happily as she flew back in to pace her friend’s walking.

“Heh, don’t mention it, sugarcube.”

________________________________________

With her flight back in proper shape again, and thanks to Applejack’s lenient work schedule, Rainbow Dash began to practice harder than ever over the next few days. With the tryouts coming closer and closer, she wanted to be sure that she would do her very best. Still, at her friend’s insistence, they continued to have little breaks throughout the day to keep the pegasus from wearing herself out too much.

Finally, after a long time of anticipation and preparation, the big day came. Despite having had quite a hard time getting to sleep the night before, Dash woke up feeling well rested, physically ready to meet the day, and so nervous she was almost feeling sick.

“C-come on, Rainbow... you can do this. You’ve had plenty of practice and know exactly what you’re going to be doing. Now, you just have to do it in front of all of Ponyville and your childhood heroes, who are going to be judging you on how well you do.” She said into the mirror before shaking her head. “No, no, no! I can’t think like that. Just gotta... gotta go out there and do my best! Yeah...”

A knock on the door snapped her out of these thoughts and she headed over to open it, looking down to see Applejack’s little sister. “Oh, hey Applebloom. What’s up?”

“Mah sister told me ta come up and get you, Rainbow Dash. She’s fixin’ up a big breakfast and says it’s almost ready.” The little filly said, looking up to Rainbow.

“Is that so? Well, l’d better not keep everypony waiting then, huh.” Dash said with a little grin, doing her best to push down the feelings threatening to overwhelm her and leave her a trembling wreck. “Come on, let’s get going then.”

With that, the two ponies began to head down the hall toward the stairs that would lead them down to the dining area. As they walked, it was obvious from the way she kept glancing over at Rainbow Dash that the little filly had something to say. Still it took a few moments before she actually spoke up.

“Um, miss Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo says that yer gonna be real famous after today. Is that true?”

“Heh, of course it is. I’m probably the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria, and definitely the most awesome. After the Wonderbolts see me perform, they won’t think twice before offering me a spot on the team.” She said with a grin, partially for Applebloom and partially because she needed to hear it said out loud. “And no need to be so formal, kid. You can just call me Rainbow Dash, or Dash, or whatever really.”

“Well, mi-- ah mean, Rainbow Dash, when yer all famous... are ya’ll gonna have ta leave Ponyville?” Applebloom asked.

At the question, Rainbow Dash nearly froze up on the spot, having never thought of that side of things before. She didn’t have an answer for the filly as she didn’t have one for herself. In all honesty, that probably was what would happen, but could she actually do that? Leave Ponyville behind, along with all of her friends? Leave Applejack?

“I... I don’t know. I guess I’ll probably have to, since the team is located in Cloudsdale. I’m sure I’d have to move out there once I get in.” The pegasus responded after a moment.

“Oh...” Applebloom said, looking kind of sad at this news as they descended the stairs.

Applejack was waiting for them near the bottom, wearing a wide smile as she greeted the two ponies. “Hey little sister. Thanks fer wakin’ up sleepyhead here in time fer breakfast.”

“Hey, you know perfectly well that I need to be well rested for today.” Dash retorted, though she cracked a small smile.

“Woah, simmer down there. Ah was just playin’ with you, Rainbow.” The earth pony said with a light chuckle before noticing the look on her sister’s face. “Hey there sugarcube, what’s got you lookin’ so glum?”

“It’s nothin’...” Applebloom said, though that obviously wasn’t true.

Applejack seemed to have picked up on this as she raised an eyebrow at the filly before speaking again. “Nothin’, eh? Well, Ah think Ah might just have some news ta help cheer you up. Guess who’s comin’ home from the hospital today?”

This did the trick as Applebloom’s eyes widened and an excited smile appeared on her face. “Big Macintosh? He’s all better now?”

“Heh, he sure is. Nurse Redheart let us know that he’s doin’ well enough ta come home finally, though he won’t be up ta much work fer a while yet.”

“Yay! Big Mac’s comin’ home! Big Mac’s comin’ home!” Applebloom said happily, the gloom from before completely replaced by joy as she bounced away through the house.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack chuckled softly as they watched her before the pegasus turned her attention to her friend. “So, your brother’s getting released? That’s great news, AJ! I’m so glad to hear he’s doing better.”

“Heh, Ah know just what you mean, Rainbow.” The earth pony said with a wide smile, though it faded a bit as she continued. “Though... Ah got some bad news fer you. You see, with Big Macintosh comin’ home today... well, Ah kinda need ta be here ta help out and make sure he gets settled back in and all...”

Rainbow Dash puzzled over this for a moment before getting what this meant and frowning a bit. “Oh... so, you’re not going to be able to make the tryouts?”

“Ah’m afraid not, sugarcube.” Applejack said, shaking her head. “Ah wish Ah could, Ah really do, but...”

“It’s fine, AJ. I understand.” Dash said, giving her a little smile. “He’s family, and family comes first. You take good care of Big Mac today, alright?”

Hearing this, Applejack gave a weak smile back and nodded. “Will do, Rainbow. Thanks fer bein’ so understandin’...”

“No problem.”

In reality though, it was a big problem. Rainbow Dash had been counting on having all of her friends there to provide support for her, but now she was going to be missing her closest friend. The nervousness she’d been feeling earlier, which had never quite left, returned in full force and, though she continued to try and hide it, Applejack knew her well enough to notice.

“How ya’ll holdin’ up, Rainbow Dash?” She asked in a concerned tone. “Think yer gonna be alright fer the tryout?”

“Hm? Y-yeah, of course. I’m going to be just fine, AJ. Just fine.”

“Well, if you say so. Come on, Ah fixed ya’ll up a nice, hearty breakfast. Yer gonna need all the strength and energy you can get.”

With that, the orange pony began to lead the way toward the table where, true to her word, a nice breakfast had been set out for the pegasus. Though the last thing Dash felt like doing at that moment was eating, she did her best anyways, knowing that she needed to have a good breakfast before this. The rest of the ponies who lived at Sweet Apple Acres were also having seated around the table, all talking excitedly about Big Macintosh’s return. Rainbow didn’t join in as, though she was quite happy to know that the Applejack’s sister was recovering well, she had too many worries of her own to feel the same joy the rest of them felt.

Finally, after finishing up her food and sitting around with the rest of them, Rainbow Dash stood up to make her leave. “Well... I guess I should probably be heading down there now. Thanks for breakfast, AJ. Ya’ll say hey to Big Macintosh for me.”

Applejack chuckled softly as her friend slipped in a bit of the farmer drawl and nodded. “Sure thing. Good luck to ya, Rainbow Dash.”

“Yeah, good luck Dash!” Applebloom said, beaming over at her.

Even Granny Smith spoke up, giving the pegasus a rather creaky smile. “You get them, dearie. Show them what you can do.”

“Heh, thanks everypony. I’ll do my best!” Dash said with a little grin, her confidence boosted a little by this.

With that, she gave one last grin to her friend, which Applejack returned, before turning and heading out of the house and taking flight toward Ponyville. Her destination wasn’t in the town itself though. The day before, a pegasus work crew had flown in straight from Cloudsdale to begin putting together the stadium the tryout would be held in. They’d even added in a set of solid bleachers for the large number of earth ponies and unicorns that lived in Ponyville who might want to come by and watch.

As the stadium came into view and she landed to walk inside, it was all Dash could do to keep herself from shaking and to take the next step forward. It all came down to this, one last performance. If she pulled this one off, she would finally have achieved her lifelong goal of joining the Wonderbolts. The weight of this hit her hard, doing nothing to help ease the nervousness that was continuing to build.

A white coated, sunglasses wearing pegasus was standing watch in front of the entrance, since the stadium was supposed to be closed at the moment. As Rainbow approached though, he gave her a respectful nod, letting her through. Once inside, another pegasus, this one beige with short blue hair, flew over to greet her with a wide smile.

“Hey, great to see you Rainbow Dash! The name’s Star Spotter. I’m overseeing preparations here for the tryout today. There’s still some time before the Wonderbolts are scheduled to arrive, so if you’d please follow me, I’ll show you to the waiting room.” The pegasus said.

Dash nodded and followed after him, soon being led into a rather decently sized room containing a few cushions and a sofa in case she wanted to lie down for a moment. After leading her inside, Star Spotter turned to face her again before he left.

“Well, here we are. If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask. Any of the workers here will know how to find me, so just ask them and we’ll make sure to take care of whatever you need.”

“Alright. Th-thanks.” Dash said, nodding again to the pegasus before taking a seat on one of the cushions after he left.

Now began the worst part of any competition, the waiting. The anxiety and stress from before was nothing compared to actually being here and having to wait for the moment when she would be performing in front of all of those ponies. Having nothing to do but sit there and wait didn’t help to take her mind off things at all.

As time passed, way too slowly for her tastes, other ponies began to drop by. Members of the weather team, come to wish her good luck or to see how she’s doing, ponies she knew from around the town. Scootaloo came by for a while, her visit actually helping to cheer Dash up a bit. Something about the filly’s dead certainty that her hero could do anything seemed infectious, leaving Rainbow Dash feeling a bit more confident than she had been before the visit.

The stadium was already starting to fill up, Rainbow Dash could hear the noise of the crowd even from in her room, when her friends came by in a group. Pinkie Pie was the first one into the room, bouncing in with a wide smile on her face as usual.

“Hey there, Dashie!” She said brightly, hopping over to the pegasus as the others began to file in. “Are you excited about this, because I sure am! This is superly-duperly great! You’re going to finally get to join the Wonderbolts and everypony will see you as you fly out there and do your little twirls and loops and whoosh right up into the air, zooming around.”

The pink pony waved her forelegs around as she spoke, making sound effects as she played out Rainbow Dash’s routine, the sight of which caused the pegasus to give a little laugh. “Heh, yeah Pinkie, I’m excited. Though, I still have to go out there and actually do well enough for them. We can’t be sure I’m a Wonderbolt just yet.”

“Ah, details-schmetails.” Pinkie said, waving that matter away.

Twilight Sparkle stepped forward at this point, giving her friend a little smile. “So, how are you feeling, Rainbow Dash? Are you ready for this?”

“Heh, ready as I’ll ever be. I’m Rainbow Dash, I can do this with no problem at all.” She answered, again wearing a mask of confidence that she wasn’t actually feeling. “You’ll see. I’ll do so great, they’ll add me onto the team right here and now.”

Twilight gave a soft laugh at that and nodded. “Well, we’ll certainly be rooting for you, Rainbow. I’m sure you’ll do great.”

“That’s right, we’ll all be cheering for you, darling. We have the utmost faith in your abilities.” Rarity said with a dainty smile.

“Um... I’ve even been practicing my cheers a bit. Do you... do you want to hear one?” Fluttershy asked, shyly.

“Sure, I’d love to.” Dash said with a grin, turning to her pegasus friend.

“Okay. But... you, um, you might want to cover your ears first. It’s kind of loud.” The yellow pony said before taking a breath. “Yay!”

Rainbow had to admit that it was an improvement from her previous attempts, though a light breeze would still drown it out. Pinkie Pie on the other hand, turned to Fluttershy and shook her head.

“Aw, that’s not how you do it, Fluttershy. Here, let me show you.”

With that, the pink pony took a huge breath only to find Twilight quickly putting a hoof over her mouth.

“No! Not again Pinkie! Remember what happened last time?” The unicorn said, her eyes wide.

She only removed her hoof once Pinkie had nodded, the pink pony letting out the breath she’d taken in before giving her friend a little frown. “Aww, you’re no fun Twilight. Besides, the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ treehouse looks much better now that they’ve rebuilt it.”

Twilight gave a little sigh at that as Rainbow Dash laughed at her friend’s antics. Though it was far from gone, being around these four ponies was making her feel far less nervous and more at ease. Unfortunately though, it couldn’t last forever and, after several minutes of talking and joking around with each other, it was time for them to head on up to the stands, Dash’s show starting shortly.

Alone again, Rainbow began to pace back and forth in the room, waiting for the call for her to head on out as she tried to mentally psych herself into doing this. She knew she was good enough and she just had to show everypony else, show the Wonderbolts. It was all a matter of practice and skill and she had more than enough of both. Finally, a glimmer of hope broke through and she began to grin to herself as she stretched out her wings and legs, certain that she would be able to succeed.

At last, the call was given and she flew out into the open stadium, met by cheers from the audience. Looking around, she saw a sea of almost entirely familiar faces. It looked like the entirety of Ponyville had shown up for this, or close to it at least. In addition, there were a few pegasi she remembered from Flight School. And there they were, seated in a special stand where they would get the best view, the Wonderbolts. Though they were all in full uniform, Dash knew enough to be able to tell each member of the team apart from the others. The current captain of the team gave her a little smile and a nod, signalling the start of the tryouts.

With that, Dash went into action, soaring high up into the air as she began her routine. She was going to go all out for this, using ever trick in her book and even a few she made up specifically for this event. Once she had gone high enough, she turned around to look back down at the ground and the crowd below. The cyan pegasus hesitated for just a second before adopting a determined look and diving down to build up speed. At the last possible second, or so it seemed to the viewers, she pulled out of the dive, going right into her Super Speed Strut, a trick where she continued moving at flying speed while looking as if she were merely walking.

From there, she curved immediately into the slalom section of the stadium, refusing to allow herself to reduce in speed even the slightest bit as she hurtled through the cloud pillars. Still, she managed to make it all the way through without even the slightest bump into an obstacle, curving back up to begin the actual trick portion of the show. That was where things began to go wrong.

It started simply enough, she wound up coming out of a trick too fast and overshot her turn just a bit, winding up a few feet away from where she should have been. Like any good stunt flier, she was able to make it seem deliberate, but she knew full well that other fliers like the Wonderbolts would know she’d messed up. That one simple mistake began to unravel the confidence she had built up, paving the way for more.

As the nervousness began to make itself known once more, she started to make other small mistakes in her tricks. None of them were large enough to be noticed by most ponies, save for those that make their living pulling the same kinds of stunts. Rainbow Dash wasn’t even able to pull off the Buccaneer Blaze like she’d been planning due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was rapidly turning into a disaster and her having to constantly check to see how the Wonderbolts seemed to be taking it wasn’t helping much either.

The show went on though, Rainbow Dash doing her best to try and salvage what she could of her routine. By this point, she knew that there was one thing she had left that could turn this into a success. The thing that she was known for as being the only pony to ever pull off in the history of Equestria. The Sonic Rainboom.

Dash had known this might come up, but she had been hoping it wouldn’t. She had only pulled off the trick twice, and never when she was actually trying to. Both times had been accidents and, no matter how hard she tried in practice, she hadn’t been able to do it again. Still, after yet another trick went wrong, nearly sending her crashing into the audience, who clapped and cheered, thinking this was all part of some death-defying stunt, she knew she had no choice.

As the time came for her big finale, Rainbow rocketed up into the sky, gaining altitude rapidly. Finally, as high up as she felt comfortable going, she looked back down at the stadium far below her. This was it. This was the moment of truth and... she couldn’t do it. Dash hung there in the air for a few seconds, biting her lip as she looked over the crowd. If she tried this, she’d just crash and fall and they would all be there to watch her failure. But on the other hoof, she had no choice now but to try.

While she debated this with herself, the pegasus let her eyes roam over the crowd, still able to pick out faces she knew. After a few moments, they settled on all of her friends sitting there and cheering her on.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five?

Dash blinked to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, but no, she was there. Seated amongst her friends was a familiar orange pony, smiling up at her.

Applejack.

At that moment, as she saw those eyes locked on her, watching nothing but her, something clicked. A confident smirk spread across Dash’s face as she looked down at her best friend.

She could do this.

That was all she needed and Rainbow Dash began her dive. Down she flew, faster and faster, until a cone of air began to form around her.

The cone threatened to stop her dive. To send her shooting back up as she had been so many times during practice, but she pushed on anyways. She could do this, and she would do it.

For the Wonderbolts.

For herself.

For Applejack.

As Dash drew closer and closer to the ground, the cone continued to grow tighter around her until, finally, it exploded. A ring of rainbow colored light burst out from around Rainbow Dash as she shot forward, easily going twice as fast as she had been before, if not more so. Taking a glance back, she could see that her tail and mane had blended together into a solid rainbow streaking out behind her.

With a wide grin on her face, she pulled out of the dive, shooting back up into the air to form a huge arc over the stadium, a beautiful rainbow siting there in the air for everypony to see.

Finally, she approached the ground again, working to slow herself down before coming to a skidding land in the center of the stadium. After the Rainboom, the entire crowd had fallen silent as it watched her. Now, as she stood there, breathing heavily and watching the ponies in the stands, noise came flooding back. Cheers and applause rained down from all directions as the audience applauded the pony who had once again done the impossible.

Throughout it all though, Rainbow Dash’s eyes had fallen onto one pony and one pony alone, the orange earth pony seated with her friends, shouting and stamping her hooves like everypony else. With that, Dash took her bow before being led back into the waiting room.

**************

Dash paced back and forth in the waiting room for what felt like ages, restlessly awaiting something to happen now. She knew she should probably be taking it easy, laying down and resting up after all that she’d just done, but the adrenaline was still coursing through her and she couldn’t just stay still. With the absence of anypony else there to talk with, she was left with only her thoughts to keep her company.

Over and over again in her head, she looked back upon the performance she’d just pulled off and tried to imagine what the Wonderbolts might be thinking. She’d made mistakes, that much was certain, but were they enough to cancel out the successful tricks? Had she done well enough to make it?

Sooner or later though, the pegasus’ thoughts kept returning to her finale. She’d actually done it again, her third Sonic Rainboom. Yet she still didn’t know how. No, that wasn’t true... she knew exactly how she’d managed to pull it off. But that answer simply raised more questions. There was one thing Dash was certain of though, she needed to talk with Applejack.

Finally, her pacing was interrupted by a knock on the door. For a brief moment, Rainbow Dash hoped that it was somepony coming to tell her how she’d done, though that wasn’t likely at all. It took time for the members of the Wonderbolts to analyze a tryout and there was no way they’d finished up that fast, or probably would today for that matter.

She was far from disappointed once she opened the door however as standing there were her friends, all beaming excitedly to see her.

“Hey guys, what took ya so long?” Dash said with a grin upon seeing the five ponies there.

“We came as fast as we could, but the crowds were so thick it took forever to get here.” Twilight said, stepping into the room as the pegasus stood back to let her friends in. “That was amazing though, Rainbow Dash. I had thought your Best Young Flier’s performance was great, but this was easily the most spectacular show I have ever seen!”

“I know! You were super-duper-specially awesome today, Dashie! When you did that thing with the flip and the shoom and whoo, well even I was speechless!” Pinkie said, pantomiming some complex trick with a huge smile. “Oh, I’m going to have to throw the bestest party ever after this!”

After the pink pony had walked in, it was Rarity’s turn to enter and face Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash, I won’t even pretend to say that I understand the whole trick flying thing, but what I saw out there today... that was true art. Maybe a bit more... physical than most, but still a thing of extraordinary beauty nonetheless.”

“Oh wow, a Sonic Rainboom! I.. I still can’t believe it. I mean, not that I didn’t think you could do it, but still... this is so incredibly wonderful!” Fluttershy said with a smile to her pegasus friend, still a bit more excited than her usual timid self. “Were... were you able to hear my cheering?”

“Heh, I sure was, Fluttershy.” Dash said with a grin as she looked at all of her friends. “Thanks, all of you. It means a lot to me that you all came out here to support me in this.”

Her friends all smiled brightly at this, all save one. Applejack, who had entered in a few seconds after Fluttershy, gave an almost imperceptible wince at these words. Catching this, Rainbow Dash turned to face the earth pony with a little grin.

“Hey there, AJ. Glad to hear you made it! How’s Big Macintosh doing?”

“He’s just fine, and still as stubborn as always. He refused ta let me do anythin’ ta help and kept sayin’ Ah should be here rather than at home. Though, Ah have ta say that Ah’m mighty glad Ah took his advice. Ah only caught the end, but that were plum amazin’ sugarcube!”

If Dash had been feeling happy before, it was nothing to how she felt now. The cyan pony’s face practically glowed as she grinned widely to her friend following the compliment.

With that, the six ponies spent the next several minutes talking cheerily amongst themselves, going over the incredible stunts they had seen that day and how they thought Rainbow Dash was going to do. Twilight Sparkle and the others seemed to have very high hopes for her, though the pegasus wasn’t so confident. Still, four of her friends seemed to be having a good time, though Applejack still looked a bit troubled over something. Though the others didn’t seem to notice, Rainbow was able to tell.

“Oh goodness, look at the time! I must be off if I want to get anything done today.” Rarity said after looking up at the room’s clock. “Congratulations again, Rainbow Dash. I do so hope that you make the team.”

“Ooh, that reminds me! If I’m going to throw a party, I need to get baking right away! Sorry to just greet and run Dashie. I’ll be sure that your party is extra-special fun to make up for it!” Pinkie Pie said, waving to Rainbow before following behind Rarity.

“Thanks again for coming out here. And no worries, Pinkie Pie.” Dash said with a chuckle. “Guess I’ll see the two of you tonight at the party then.”

“I should probably be headed out as well, Rainbow. I promised Fluttershy I’d help her try and find some of the animals that ran off.” Twilight said, the yellow pegasus giving a little nod as well.

“Ah, okay then. You two have fun then. Or... I dunno, maybe you’ll have fun?” Rainbow said with a light laugh and a shrug. “Take care, Twi, Fluttershy.”

The two mares nodded and made their way out the door, closing it behind them. Rainbow Dash just stood there stiffly for a moment, looking at the door before glancing over to Applejack, who had stayed behind.

“They’re all gone now, right?” The pegasus asked.

“Let me check.” Her friend responded, opening the door and peeking both ways before returning with a nod. “Yep.”

At that, Dash promptly flopped over onto a cushion with a sigh of relief. At some point during their talking, the adrenaline had worn off, leaving the pegasus feeling the full effects of the crazy stunts she had pulled. Not one to show weakness, even in front of her friends, Rainbow had managed to keep herself upright the entire time.

“Phew, thank goodness. I mean, not that I don’t want to spend time with them or want my friends gone or anything. I just don’t think I could have lasted much longer.”

After a few seconds, she managed to pull herself up into a sitting position. Turning to face the orange pony, she gave her a little look.

“What’s on your mind, AJ? You’ve had this look on your face since you arrived. Is everything alright with your brother?”

“Hm? Oh... nah, everything’s just fine, like Ah said. It’s just...” The earth pony fell off for a moment with a little sigh. “Rainbow, Ah’m sorry. Ah should have been here the whole time. All that talk about supportin’ you and then Ah’m not there when ya’ll really need me...”

“Is that all? Come on, Applejack, you’re smarter than that. Big Macintosh needed you there, or you thought he did at least. That’s what matters. You weren’t here because you were helping out your family, and nopony can fault you for that.”

“Ah... Ah suppose yer right, Rainbow. Ah did what Ah had ta do, like always...” Applejack said with a little sigh.

“Besides... you were here when it really counted.” Dash said, smiling as she faced her friend. “I wasn’t going to do it. The Sonic Rainboom, I mean. I got way too nervous up there, thinking about how I’d never managed to pull it off when I wanted to. When I looked down and saw you watching me though... I knew then that I could do it. It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I just knew that, so long as you were there, I could do anything... and then I did.”

The orange pony looked over to her friend, a small smile of her own appearing. “Ya’ll really mean that, Rainbow?”

“Heh, of course I do. That’s why I was kinda hoping to get a chance to talk with you, so I could say thanks. Thanks to you, I might actually have a chance of making the team now.”

“Nah. Ah wasn’t here ta watch it, but it sounds like you did mighty fine anyways. That Rainboom was just icin’ on the cake, right?”

“Are you kidding me? I made so many mistakes, it’s a wonder they didn’t just cancel it right then and there.” Dash said with a slight chuckle, shaking her head.

“If you say so, sugarcube. Ah still think ya’ll must have done great and that yer just sufferin’ from a lack of confidence in yerself.” Applejack replied with a grin.

“Heh, you’re probably right about that. Guess we won’t know for certain for a couple of days though.”

With that, the pegasus tried to stretch out for a moment before laying down on her side with a little groan.

“Ugh, I hate this bit after a huge thing like today. I’m exhausted, sore all over, and I won’t even know if I made it until I get their answer... this stinks.”

Applejack walked over to stand beside her friend, wearing a little smirk.

“You know, Ah’m surprised at you, Rainbow. Lettin’ yerself be seen by somepony else like this... what happened ta the whole ‘Ah’m Rainbow Dash and Ah can do anythin’!’ bit?”

“You would have seen through that in a second, AJ.” Dash said with a chuckle. “We’ve hung out together far too much for me to try to pull that one on you.”

“Heh, Ah reckon you might be right about that.” The earth pony said, chuckling softly as well. “Though... do ya’ll think it’s a good idea ta let yer closest competition see you like this? Ah mean, Ah already know Ah’m the better athlete, but ya’ll could at least try ta pretend.”

“What? You’re talking to the Iron Pony here. I could still beat you in a race, right here, right now.”

“Is that so? Well then, ‘Iron Pony’, how about we test that? Right here. Right now.” Applejack said with a grin.

“You’re on! First one to get from the stadium to the farm wins. We’ll start right outside the stadium.”

“Sounds good ta me. Get ready ta lose again, Rainbow.” Applejack said with another grin, making her way to the door.

By the time she reached it though, there was a faint thump from behind, followed by her friend’s voice.

“Um... AJ? Could I get some help back here?”

“What do you need...” The orange pony began, turning around and falling silent.

Rainbow Dash was flopped out across the cushion. From the looks of things, she’d tried to get up, only to fall over again. As she saw this, Applejack couldn’t help but crack a smile, chuckling softly as she walked over to help her friend up.

“Yeah, that’s it. Keep laughing...” Dash said with a little glare. “I swear, if I could move my legs right now...”

That just caused the earth pony to give a light laugh though, shaking her head a bit. At this, Rainbow couldn’t keep herself from laughing either, using her friend for support as she rose unsteadily to her hooves.

“Heh, ya’ll alright, sugarcube?”

“Yeah... like I said though, my legs are really sore and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be flying for at least an hour or two.”

“Guess that means our race is off, right?”

“Are you kidding? Of course it’s still on! You’re just going to have to carry me to the farm so I can win.”

With another laugh from the both of them, the two ponies began to slowly make their way out of the room and back toward the farm, Dash leaning against Applejack for support as they walked.

**************

Applejack pushed open the door to Rainbow’s room and carefully led the pegasus inside and over to the cloud bed, Dash gratefully sinking down onto the plush material. While the walk, or flight, up to the stadium hadn’t been bad at all, it was quite a different matter when one pony could barely walk and the other had to support the both of them. Still, it hadn’t been all that bad and they had made it back to the farm with little problem.

“Whew, it feels so good to get off my hooves... I think I could just lie here forever.” Dash said with a grin as she stretched out on the cloud.

Applejack chuckled softly at this, watching her friend for a second before turning to head back out. “Heh... well, if ya’ll need anything, just ask and Ah’d be happy ta get it for you.”

As she opened the door though, a sound from behind made her turn back to look. Rainbow Dash had sat up a bit and was looking at her with an almost sheepish look.

“Hey, AJ... um, would you mind maybe staying in here for a bit? To keep me company.” The pegasus said.

“Heh, course not, sugarcube. Ah’d be happy ta do so.” Applejack said with a smile, shutting the door and making her way back over to her friend, a little smirk appearing. “Though ya’ll ain’t afraid of bein’ alone, are you?”

“No, of course I’m not. I live alone for one thing, remember? Before I moved in here at least. I just don’t... er, want to be alone at the moment...” Dash said, frowning a bit as she realized this probably didn’t help her case.

“Ah suppose Ah can understand that. Though... is there somethin’ buggin’ you, sugarcube?”

“No, there’s nothing. I mean, I don’t think so at least. It’s like I said back at the stadium though. I just feel better, more confident when I know you’re here, by my side.”

Applejack nodded slowly and looked over to her friend. “Rainbow... you know that we’re gonna have ta part ways at some point, right? Ah mean, after this season’s over and our bet ends, yer probably gonna go back ta yer cloud home, right? Ah ain’t always gonna be right here beside you.”

“You could be though.” The pegasus said, causing both of them to blink in surprise.

“W-what was that?”

“I... I said that you could be.” Dash answered softly, a faint blush starting to appear. “I mean... I could resign from my spot on the weather team and come work here next season too.”

“Yer gonna be a Wonderbolt and a farmer?” The earth pony said, raising an eyebrow at that.

“Well... I could try, you know? It might take a bit of work, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“Do ya’ll really believe that, Rainbow?”

“Yes! Or... I don’t know. But what I do know is that I don’t want this to end.” Rainbow said, looking over to her friend. “I can’t go back to the way it was. Maybe living alone was enough for me once, but not anymore. Living here has been great, but even more so has been being able to see you everyday. I could deal with living alone again if I could just have that too.”

“Ah don’t... what are ya’ll tryin’ ta say?” Applejack asked, blinking a bit as she listened to her friend. “You want ta keep on livin’ here or somethin’?”

“I... um... ugh, I’m not sure why I’m saying all this.”

“Don’t worry about it none, just say what yer thinkin’ sugarcube. There ain’t nothin’ wrong with speakin’ yer mind when yer troubled like this.”

Rainbow Dash felt a hoof on her shoulder and she looked up again to her friend. As she looked into the earth pony’s eyes, it was just like back at the stadium, that same surge of feelings came rushing up to her. Confidence filled her once more, along with the knowledge that she could tell this pony anything. Her greatest dreams, her deepest secrets, all of it. Still, that didn’t help much if she herself didn’t know what she was trying to say.

“Consarnit Rainbow, this ain’t like you. If there’s somethin’ ya’ll feel you need ta say, then just say it.”

“I don’t know what I’m trying to say, that’s the problem AJ. I just... I want to be here because that’s where you are. I want to be able to wake up in the morning, open that door and see you there before we go out and work the farm or hang out or... or just be together. What we do doesn’t even matter anymore, just so long as it’s you and me...” Dash said before looking down at the cloud with a little frown.

“And I don’t understand it. I haven’t felt anything like this with my other friends. I mean, I enjoy hanging out with them as well, but compared to the time we’ve spent together, even when it was just sitting around doing nothing but relaxing, it just doesn’t compare. The happiness I feel with them seems like almost nothing when compared to what you bring me, just by being there. With you around, I know that I can do absolutely anything, no matter how tough it might be...”

Applejack listened to her friend speak, watching the confused look Dash was wearing. When the pegasus had finished, she paused for a moment before taking a step forward so she was standing closer to Rainbow.

“Is all that true, Rainbow? Is that really how you feel?”

“I... I think...” Rainbow Dash began before shaking her head a bit. “No, I know that it is. I think I’ve suspected for a while, but I knew for sure today. That’s how I feel, but I just don’t get why. I can’t think of why I’d be feeling like this. It doesn’t make sense...”

“Maybe... maybe now’s not the time fer thinkin’ then.” Applejack said with a soft smile. “Maybe it’s time fer actions ta show you the way.”

With that, the orange pony gently wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow Dash in a tender hug, simply holding close to her. Though they had hugged before, this time felt different, as if it were something more than just a friendly gesture. Rainbow blinked for a moment at the sudden move on Applejack’s part before she began to smile a bit too and returned the hug.

“Ah know just how you feel, sugarcube. Since ya’ll came ta work on the farm, Ah’ve been feelin’ happier than Ah have in a good while. Sure, there’ve been some ups and downs since then, but Ah’ve enjoyed the time we’ve spent together. If ya’ll want me ta stay by yer side, Rainbow, then Ah’d be more than happy to. Fer as long as Ah can, and as long as you’ll have me.”

“That’s all I could ever ask, AJ.” Dash said with a smile, giving the earth pony a gentle nuzzle.

The two ponies sat there for a few moments, locked in the embrace. Both wearing little smiles, they stared into each others eyes, seeing the identical emotions reflected within. Slowly, they began to move a little closer, their faces growing closer and closer together.

Suddenly, the door to the room burst open, startling Rainbow Dash enough to cause her to fall off of the cloud, dragging Applejack with her. The two landed in a tangled heap on the ground, both looking up toward the door. Applebloom was standing there, wearing a rather puzzled expression.

“A-Applebloom! Ya’ll ain’t supposed ta just barge into somepony else’s room.” Applejack said, blushing a bit as she hastily got up to her hooves.

“Sorry... Ah just wanted ta come see Rainbow Dash and ask her somethin’ and Granny told me you were in here too, so Ah figured she weren’t sleepin’ or nothin’ and Ah could just go right on in...” The filly replied.

“Heh, no worries kid.” Rainbow Dash said, her own face about as flushed as Applejack’s. “So... what’d you want to see me about?”

“Well, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are back at the tree house and we were wonderin’ if you’d mind comin’ over ta tell us how the show went. We all had ta go ta school and couldn’t see it...”

Dash thought about it for a moment before glancing over to Applejack. For a moment, it had seemed like the two were about to share something special before they were interrupted. She didn’t want to just leave her friend like this if Applejack wanted her to stay. However, the orange pony gave a little sigh before chuckling softly and nodding. With that, Rainbow turned back to face the filly with a little grin.

“You know what? Sure, I don’t mind going over it again. You go on ahead and let the others know, I’ll catch up in a second.”

Applebloom grinned widely at this and gave a happy little hop. “You will? Alright! Ah’ll head over there right now!”

With that, the filly turned and happily began to make her way back to the other Crusaders, closing the door behind her. Rainbow chuckled softly before turning back to face Applejack again. With the memory of what they had nearly done though, they both looked up at each other for a moment before glancing away, blushing.

“Um... AJ...” Dash said finally, at the same time as her friend.

“Rainbow...” Applejack said before falling silent to let the pegasus speak.

“About, well, all of this... I just don’t know. It seems so sudden and... I guess I’ve got a lot to think about. I mean, this isn’t the way I am. I don’t like other mares, not like this. But...” The pegasus hesitated here, casting about for the right words. “There’s something... special about you. It’s completely different, and I guess I just need some time to process what’s happening.”

Applejack nodded slowly as she listened to her friend’s words. “Ah understand, Rainbow Dash. This... somethin’ about this just feels right. But what if it’s too early ta tell? Ah don’t rightly know what’s happenin’ and Ah think yer right about that. Ah think we need more time ta think on all of this. This is a mighty big change, after all...”

“Yeah. Though... maybe we should give it a chance. Take things nice and slow to see if maybe it could actually work out. If it does, then that’s great and if not... then we’ll still be friends, right?”

“Course we will. Ain’t nothin’ gonna ever change that. Still... Ah think ya’ll might be on ta somethin’ there. The best way ta find out if somethin’ will work is ta try it out. Though, what did ya’ll have in mind?”

“Well, um... maybe we could hang out tomorrow or something? I mean, differently than we normally do. I mean, we could, er, go to a nice restaurant or watch the sunset? Or...” Dash trailed off as she tried to think of what they could do.

Applejack leaned over to give her a soft little nuzzle and a smile, eliciting another faint blush from the cyan pony. “Don’t worry too hard about it, Rainbow. Ah’m sure we’ll find somethin’ ta do tomorrow.”

“Yeah...” Dash replied with a little smile in return.

With that, the two ponies stood there in a rather awkward silence for a short while until Applejack finally spoke up again.

“So, er... what happens now? Where do we go from here?”

“Well, I guess I’d better head on over to the tree house then, before Applebloom comes back wondering what’s taking so long.” Dash said after a few moments.

“Alright then. Um... do you mind if Ah come along?”

“Of course not. I’d be happy to have you there as well.”

Applejack gave her a little smile and the two headed out of the room and began to make their way toward the tree house that served as the Cutie Mark Crusader’s clubhouse. Rainbow Dash was still feeling a bit sore and still had to lean on Applejack for support, causing the both of them to blush a bit at the contact. As they walked though, Dash thought on something for a moment before speaking up about it.

“So, Applejack... what do you think we should do about our friends. I mean, if we do go through with this and... and it works out... how do you think they’ll take it?”

“Ah’m not sure... Ah can’t imagine they’d have any real problem with it, right? They’re our friend’s, after all. Still... maybe we should keep quiet until we know fer certain...”

“Yeah, I think you’re right. We might have to tell them eventually though.”

“Then we’ll tell them, together.” Applejack said with a little smile which Dash returned.

With that, the two continued on their way toward the tree house, each pony lost in their own thoughts about what the future might hold for the two of them.

________________________________________

Rainbow Dash stared at her reflection in her bedroom’s mirror, occasionally running a hoof through her mane to try and get it to cooperate, though she wasn’t having much luck with that. Today was the day that she and Applejack were going to go out on their little date of sorts and, from the moment she’d woken up, the pegasus had been feeling rather nervous. At the moment, she was busy trying to make sure she looked her best before heading out to meet Applejack. After all, that was what ponies did before something like this, right? She swore she had heard that somewhere at least.

Finally, with a little sigh as her mane continued to remain in its usual state, she shook her head a bit and began to walk toward the door. Maybe she was going about this wrong? After all, she and Applejack had already become great friends just by being themselves, so why should this be any different.

Dash made her way out of the room and down the stairs, spotting Applejack waiting for her at the bottom. The two ponies smiled and greeted each other good morning before heading to the table where breakfast was waiting for them. As they’d agreed the day before, neither of them said anything about their plans for the day while in earshot of anypony else. While they were both certain that their friends would take it fairly well, Applejack had been a bit uncertain as to how her family would take it.

After the quick breakfast, the two made their way outside, standing around near the barn for a few moments. Finally, Applejack turned to face Rainbow Dash with a little smile.

“So, got anything special planned fer today, sugarcube?” The earthpony asked.

“Um... well, I was thinking we could start by maybe taking a walk around Ponyville. Maybe head to one of the parks or something like that. Then maybe go grab some lunch at someplace nice.”

“That sounds good ta me.”

With that, the two ponies trotted side by side as they headed toward the town. It was still a bit too early for there to be much of a crowd out in the streets, but they did pass by a few ponies as they wandered through Ponyville. In general though, there didn’t seem to be too much of interest going on in town that morning. That didn’t seem to matter to either of them though. Simply by each other’s presence, both ponies were finding the walk quite enjoyable as they chatted lightly and joked around together.

The two of them had planned to find a nice and quiet spot with which to test the waters between them, someplace where they wouldn’t be likely to run into too many other ponies. With that thought in mind, the two mares made their way toward a rather familiar spot in one of Ponyville’s parks, a little bench set amongst a small grove of trees. They had often come here to rest up after Rainbow’s practice sessions, though now it was the semi-privacy rather than the shade it provided that they were looking for.

As they both sat down, Rainbow Dash hesitated for a moment before unfolding a wing and placing it gently over Applejack. The earth pony blinked a bit at the sudden contact before giving her friend a little smile scooting over a bit closer to her.

“So, we’re here now... Ah guess that makes this our first date, huh.” Applejack said after a moment.

“Yeah, I guess it is. That’s kind of an odd thought.” Dash said with a slight chuckle.

Applejack gave a little nod in reply, but said nothing. A rather awkward silence settled over them as neither pony quite knew what to say at the moment. Finally, Rainbow spoke up again, simply to try and fill the silence with something.

“So, um... the weather team sure did a good job today. It’s wonderful out here.”

“They sure did. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect weather ta get ready fer Fall.”

This time it was Rainbow’s turn to nod as the silence fell over them again. After a moment, the orange pony gave a little sigh before turning to look at her friend.

“Rainbow?”

“Yeah, AJ?”

“What the hay happened ta us? Ah mean, on the way here, everything was just fine, but now listen ta us! That’s if we’re sayin’ anything at all.”

“Well... I don’t know. What are you supposed to say at something like this? I can’t even ask how your day’s been or anything, because I was there for it.”

“Ah guess ya’ll got a point there, sugarcube.” Applejack said with a little chuckle before giving the pegasus a curious look. “Though... ya’ll ain’t never been on a date before, Rainbow?”

Dash blushed slightly at this as she answered. “Well... you remember that story I told you about that note? Yeah... how many dates do you think the ‘creepy, stalker filly’ went on?”

Seeing her friend’s eyes widen at this, she decided to amend it a bit. “Okay, maybe that’s not exactly what they said about me. Still...”

“Oh... Ah’m sorry, Ah didn’t mean ta bring up anythin’ hurtful or nothin’...”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Dash said, waving it away with a shake of her head. “The names didn’t hurt me too bad then and even less so now. We were all just kids then, after all. After that though... I guess I never really took the time to go looking. Kinda wish I had now though... Er, so I’d have experience and... um... so, now that I’ve opened up, what about you?”

Applejack smirked a bit at her friend’s attempts at changing the subject, but decided to go along with it anyways. “Well, Ah guess Ah’ve been on a couple. Nothin’ recent though. Only one Ah can really remember was durin’ mah stay in Manehattan. This little colt asked me out and, though Ah didn’t much like him, mah aunt and uncle made me go. Said somethin’ bout it not bein’ proper ta refuse a gentlecolt’s company til you’ve at least given him a chance. Hmm... thinkin’ back on it though, Ah guess Ah was kinda harsh on him that day, really. It weren’t his fault, after all. He didn’t know Ah didn’t want ta be there. Never got a chance ta apologize neither...”

“Oh? What happened on the date?”

“Well... we went ta some fancy restaurant fer dinner. The food was terrible, and Ah’m afraid his company weren’t much better. He was too... stuck up, Ah suppose. We were just too different. Rarity’s personality might have been a better match fer his, but mine... wasn’t.”

Rainbow Dash nodded a bit as the earth pony finished up her story. “So, what about us then? Do you think our personalities could match?”

“Heh, we’ve been friends fer a good while, haven’t we Rainbow? Not ta mention the time we’ve spent together lately.” Applejack said with a chuckle, giving the other pony a wide grin. “In all that time, I ain’t once felt like givin’ ya’ll a good buck.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that before speaking. “Oh? What about at the Running of the Leaves last year? You seemed pretty upset over that.”

Applejack sat there for a moment before laughing and giving a nod. “Alright, Ah might have wanted ta give you a little one then. Still, Ah’d say our friendship speaks fer itself.”

Dash smiled happily along with her friend at that. Now that they were actually talking, and with the warmth and comfort of her friend close to her side, she was rather enjoying herself now. The two were too wrapped up in each other’s company and their conversation to notice the approach of another pony though.

“Aha! I thought I heard you two. Hey Applejack, hey Rainbow Dash.” Twilight Sparkle said, smiling brightly as she walked toward the bench occupied by her two friends. Her eyes fell upon the wing still stretched out across Applejack’s back and she blinked for a moment.

“What’s going on?”

Hearing their friend’s voice, both ponies jumped a bit and looked up to face her, a faint blush appearing on them both. The last thing they had expected was for one of their friends to come by, yet there was the purple unicorn, looking a bit puzzled by their reaction.

“Oh, um... hey Twilight.” Dash said with a nervous chuckle, blinking a bit as she glanced over at her wing. “Er... well, it was getting really sunny and I was trying to give Applejack some shade.”

Applejack wisely kept her mouth shut, simply nodding along and letting Rainbow talk. Twilight however, raised an eyebrow at that, looking up to the trees above, their leaves providing quite a bit of shelter from the sun.

“I see...” The unicorn said after a moment before shaking her head a bit. “So anyways, what are you two up to? Aren’t you usually working up at the farm around now, Applejack?”

“Well... yeah, but we decided ta come on up here ta enjoy the scenery since it’s such a beautiful day. Er, sunny though. Definitely sunny.”

“Yep! It’s such a nice day for a trip to the park.” Rainbow agreed with a nod. “What brings you here though, Twilight?”

“Oh, I like to take walks around town this time of day.” The purple mare said with a smile. “After the Running of the Leaves, I thought it would be a good idea to try and exercise a bit more. Maybe I’ll even place a bit better this year, though it doesn’t really matter what place I come in. When I was walking by though, I thought I heard your voices and decided to come and say hi.”

“Oh well uhh...” Applejack stuttered, her eyes shifting back and forth, “Well, hi then!”

Twilight stood there for a moment in silence as if she expected a further response from her friends. Once it was clear that none was coming, she tilted her head a bit, giving the two of them an odd look.

“Um... is everything alright? You two seem to be a bit... nervous, almost.”

“What? N-no, we’re just fine, Twi.” Applejack said hastily. “Ya’ll just startled us is all. We weren’t expectin’ ta see anypony else out here now.”

“We?” Twilight asked, looking from one friend to the other.

“Ah... Ah mean, me and Rainbow. Er, Rainbow and I. Ah mean... the pegasus beside me here and mahself.” The earth pony replied, growing more flustered with every word.

“Yeah, what AJ said. We were both, um, here when you showed up suddenly, so it startled both of us.” Rainbow Dash said with a little nod. “We.”

“Okay...” Twilight said, dragging the word out a bit as she looked at the both of them again. “Well, it’s been great talking with you two again but, um... I should probably be back on my way. Got a lot of work ahead of me if I want to be in good shape by the Running of the Leaves.”

With that, the unicorn backed away for a moment before turning and walking away. The two ponies on the bench said their goodbyes as their friend left before Applejack gave a little sigh of relief.

“Whew... well, that could’ve gone a lot worse...”

“Yeah, I didn’t think we’d see anypony here today, especially not one of our friends.” Rainbow Dash said with a nod, turning to look to her friend. “Do you think she... noticed anything?”

Applejack thought on that for a moment before shaking her head. “Nah, Ah reckon not. She’d have said somethin’ in that case, right?”

“I guess you’re right about that. She did seem kinda suspicious though...” Dash said, relaxing a bit now that they were alone together again.

This time it was Applejack who made the move, scooting over closer to the pegasus so the two were lightly touching. At this, Dash smiled at her and leaned over to give her a little nuzzle, causing a faint blush to appear on both ponies. Still, though they fell into silence once again with neither pony knowing what to say, a good deal of the awkwardness from before seemed to have left along with Twilight, allowing the two friends to simply enjoy each other’s presence.

“So... do you want to see about maybe getting something to eat?” Rainbow Dash said after a while, finally breaking the silence.

“Hmm, Ah reckon Ah might be a bit peckish.” Applejack replied with a little nod. “Sure, that sounds good ta me.”

“Great!” Dash said, getting down off the bench. “Come on, I know a pretty good place.”

“Heh, sure thing, sugarcube. Right behind you.” The orange pony said with a grin, hopping off as well before following her friend back into the town proper.

**************

All things considered, lunch had gone fairly well for the two ponies. Rainbow Dash had led her friend to one of the nicer restaurants in Ponyville, though it still wasn’t overly fancy. The food was amazing though, and the two had talked a bit more as they ate. When it came time to pay for the meal though, a bit of an argument had broken out. Rainbow Dash had tried to pay for the entire thing, but Applejack refused to let her. It was only resolved when they realized they were attracting quite a bit of attention from the other diners and Applejack had deferred to the pegasus.

Once lunch was finished with, they had decided to take another little walk around the town, mainly so that Dash could try to come up with something else for them to do to pass the time.

“Ah still say ya’ll should’a let me pay fer mah own food at least...” Applejack said, turning to glance at the pegasus walking beside her.

“Aw come on, AJ, I couldn’t do that. I picked out where we were going to eat, right? It wouldn’t be fair to ask you to pay just because I thought we should go someplace a bit nice.” Dash said. “Besides, either you or somepony else in your family has been cooking for me for the past few months. The least I can do is to treat you to lunch, especially since we’re... you know.”

The earth pony thought on that for a short moment before giving a little sigh. “Ah suppose yer right, Rainbow. And it’s not that Ah ain’t grateful ta you or nothin’, cause Ah really am. It’s just... Ah dunno. It don’t feel right havin’ somepony else payin’ fer me. Ah guess Ah might have ta get used ta that, huh?”

“Heh, you might.” Rainbow answered with a little grin. “Though if it really bothers you, it doesn’t have to happen again. I just thought it’d be kinda a nice thing to do, even if it’s only this once.”

Applejack chuckled softly before giving a little smile to her friend. “Well, thanks Rainbow. It may not seem like it, but Ah really do appreciate it.”

“Hey, no problem AJ.” Dash said brightly, returning the smile.

As the two ponies continued on their way, the town bell tower began to chime the hour, letting them know that it was only one o’clock. This didn’t mean too much to Dash, besides the fact that there was still a ways to go before the sun began to set. Applejack however, blinked a bit as she heard the bells, her eyes going wide.

“Oh, hayseeds!” She said suddenly, causing Rainbow to turn to look at her.

“What is it, AJ?”

“Ah can’t believe Ah forgot!” The earth pony said. “Ah... Ah promised Fluttershy Ah’d help her gather up the animals and help take care of them today...”

“You did? Oh...”

“Ah’m so sorry, Rainbow. Ah told her Ah’d help a couple days ago, before Ah knew anything about us doin’ this, and then Ah forgot last night... But... Ah could always let her know Ah’m busy today. Ah’m sure she wouldn’t mind postponin’ it until some other time.”

“No... it’s fine, AJ.” Rainbow said, putting on a little smile. “Fluttershy’s counting on your help, after all. Don’t worry about it, I understand.”

“Yer sure ya’ll don’t mind?” Applejack asked hesitantly.

“Nah, of course not. You’re Ponyville’s most dependable pony and I’m not about to make you lose that title. Besides, I wasn’t really sure what we were going to do for the next few hours anyways.”

“Well, if yer sure... Like Ah said, Ah’m real sorry about all this, Rainbow... um, see you back at the farm then?”

“And like I said, it’s fine. That’s cool with me, see you back at the farm.” Dash said, giving her friend another little smile and a wave as the earth pony turned and began to make her way toward Fluttershy’s cottage.

As soon as Applejack was out of sight, Rainbow Dash gave a great sigh and looked away, her wings drooping as she slowly walked along the road.

“Cheer up, Rainbow Dash.” The pegasus said, talking quietly to herself. “It’s not like the date was going anywhere anyways. I mean, walking through town, sitting on a bench and talking... these were the best I could come up with? Ugh...

“Besides... there wasn’t much I could say or do, really. She made a promise and I could never ask her to break one of those. What is it Pinkie Pie always says? Losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend--”

“Forever!” Came a voice from a box laying nearby.

Dash jumped as a shockingly pink pony burst from the box, glaring at her.

“P-pinkie Pie! How long have you been in there?” Rainbow asked, blinking a bit at her friend before narrowing her eyes. “Have you been spying on me?”

“Hm?” Pinkie Pie said, blinking a bit as well before giving her a huge smile as she stepped out of the box. “Oh, hey there Dashie! Of course I haven’t been spying. That’d be silly. I’ve got too many cakes and goodies to bake to just sit around! Besides, how could somepony fit in that little box, let alone sit in it all day.”

“But... you just...” Dash said before shaking her head clear and giving a little sigh. “Sorry Pinkie Pie, but I don’t really want to talk with anypony right now. I kinda want to be alone at the moment...”

“Aww, what’s got you so down, Dashie?” The pink pony asked as she bounced over to her friend, giving the pegasus a little frown.

“I... I thought today was going to be, well, special or something. But... I don’t know...”

“Every day is special, Dashie. They’ve all got something that makes them unique and fun! In fact, I know just what will turn that frown of yours upside down.” Pinkie said with a grin, taking a deep breath.

Before she could actually get started though, she suddenly found a hoof pressed to her mouth as Rainbow shook her head. “N-no! I mean... thanks, Pinkie Pie, but I don’t think a song is going to help out.”

“Oh...” Pinkie said once Dash had removed her hoof. “Well, cheer up anyways. Things are never as bad as you imagine them to be. There’s always a good side to everything, you just have to find it. Or sometimes it finds you. Oh, and occasionally somepony else finds it for you and then shows it to you. Like this one time I was feeling pretty down and I came across a puppet show and it made everything all better. Ooh, I should put on a puppet show for you!”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but chuckle softly at her friend’s antics, giving the pink pony a little smile before shaking her head. “Thanks again, but I’ll pass on that one too, Pinkie Pie. Besides, I don’t want to keep you away from your baking if you’ve got so much to do.”

“Ah, I almost forgot about that! You’re right, those cookies, cakes, cupcakes, and delicious treats aren’t going to bake themselves!” Pinkie replied before looking thoughtful. “Well, except for that one batch of chocolate crunchies, but the Cakes still don’t believe me about that one. Anyways, I need to get back and take the cookies out of the oven before they burn again. I hope you feel better Dashie! See you later alligator.”

With that, Pinkie Pie waved to her friend before hopping off and around a corner. After a moment, Dash peered curiously around the corner, only to find that the pink pony had managed to vanish completely. Not surprised at all by this, she glanced over to the clock tower again and gave a little sigh, resuming her walk.

After a short while of meandering aimlessly through the town, Dash finally decided that maybe she should just go ahead back to the farm and wait for Applejack to return. There must be something there for her to do in the meantime as well, which was better than simply waiting around. With that thought, she turned and began to make the trip back to the place she’d been calling home for the last few months.

Unfortunately, upon her arrival, it turned out that there wasn’t much at all that the pegasus could do to help out. Though the few chores that were available ate up some time, before too long, she was left with nothing to do save for taking up a spot in one of the apple trees, left alone with her thoughts. Looking up at the sky, Dash gave a little sigh as she watched the sun starting its slow trek down to the horizon.

The shadows were already growing quite long when the sound of hooffalls began to come nearer. Dash was so caught up in her thoughts about the day and where she felt she’d gone wrong to notice until a knocking on the tree caught her attention. Glancing down, the pegasus spotted her friend standing at the foot of the tree, looking up at her.

“Oh, um... hey AJ.” Rainbow said, hopping off the branch and fluttering down to land beside the earth pony.

“Hey Rainbow...” Applejack answered, looking at the pegasus for a moment before glancing away.

“How’d things go helping out Fluttershy?”

“Pretty good. Managed ta get all the critters rounded up and accounted fer.”

“Ah, that’s good.”

“Yeah...”

The two ponies fell into a rather awkward silence, neither quite meeting the other’s eyes. Several moments went by like this before somepony finally broke the silence.

“I’m sorry about today.” They both said at the same time before blinking a bit at each other.

After a second, Applejack spoke up again. “Ah’m real sorry, Rainbow. Ah know Ah had promised Fluttershy Ah’d help but... that weren’t no excuse. Ah shouldn’t have just ditched you like that, especially not today. Fluttershy wouldn’t have minded if Ah told her Ah needed ta postpone it until tomorrow or... Ah could have done somethin’ better than Ah did and Ah’m sorry fer it...”

“It’s fine, AJ. You made a promise to Fluttershy and I’m not going to ask you to break that. Besides, it’s not your fault at all. You didn’t know we were going to try having a date today. If I’d planned this for a few days later rather than today... none of this would have happened. Maybe I could have come up with something good for us to do as well then...” Dash said with a little frown. “Ugh, I must have taken you on the worst date you’ve ever had...”

“So... ya’ll didn’t enjoy the time we did spend together today, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, tilting her head a bit.

“Well... yeah, I did. Lunch was really good and I enjoyed our talk at the park, once we started actually talking, but I know you must have been so bored. I mean, what pony takes their date to the park just to sit around and talk...”

Applejack chuckled softly and gave her friend a little smile. “Dash, not once durin’ our date was Ah bored. Sure, it weren’t no race or competition, but that don’t mean Ah didn’t enjoy it. Besides, Ah’ve already told ya’ll about mah worst date ever and this one’s not even close ta that bad.”

“You really mean that?” Rainbow asked, a small smile forming at her friend’s words.

“Course Ah do, sugarcube. And, you know... the day ain’t over just yet...”

“No, it’s not is it... There was one last thing I was hoping we could do, but I was starting to get kinda worried we’d miss it.” Dash said, pausing for a moment before meeting Applejack’s eyes. “Applejack, would... would you like to sit out here and watch the sun set with me?”

“Ah’d love to, Rainbow Dash.” Applejack replied with a nod, smiling over to the pegasus.

Rainbow Dash smiled back before turning to look over to the sun’s position. “Oh, we should probably get going now then, if we want to find a good spot before it’s too late.”

“Hmm... Ah reckon that hill over yonder might make fer a good spot.” Applejack said, nodding over to a hill overlooking the orchard.

“Heh, that’s where I was thinking of.” Dash said with a chuckle.

With that, the two ponies began to make their way toward the spot in question, sticking fairly close together as they walked side by side. Before long, they had made it to the top of the hill, getting a good view of the entire apple orchard from here as well as the sun as it gradually approached the horizon.

After a few short moments of standing there beneath one of the trees, looking first at each other and then out at the view, Applejack made her way over to a nice spot beside the tree and settled down so she could look out across the landscape. Rainbow Dash joined her, taking a seat beside her friend as she too looked out at the horizon.

Already, the slowly fading light from the sun had given everything an orange tint, forming almost a preview of what was to come in the coming months as the leaves turned. Before long, the orange was joined by shades of red and pink as it grew darker, Celestia’s sun slowly sinking down.

“Wow, it’s... incredible...” Rainbow said softly, captivated by the beautiful scene before them.

“Yeah, it really is somethin’ huh...” Applejack replied with a little smile as she too watched the setting sun. “You know... Ah never really get a chance ta see this. Ah’m always too busy workin’ or doin’ somethin’ ta take the time ta really appreciate the sunset.”

“I know what you mean. Even though it happens every night, I guess it’s kinda hard sometimes to just sit down and enjoy the view.”

The orange pony nodded a bit at her friend’s words, turning to glance over at her pegasus friend with a little smile, receiving one in turn. A chill wind blew across the hill, heralding that the Autumn would be there soon. With less and less light from the sun coming down to warm the land, it was actually starting to grow a bit chilly.

With a slight shiver, Applejack instinctively huddled up to the pony beside her for warmth. It wasn’t until she noticed Rainbow Dash looking over at her that the earth pony realized that they were actually close enough to be touching lightly.

“Oh, er...” The orange pony began to stammer, her face reddening a bit.

Dash gave a little smile before unfolding a wing and draping it gently over her friend. “Here you go. Heh, guess it is getting a bit cold, huh.”

“Well... maybe a bit. Ah just wasn’t prepared fer it.” Applejack replied, smiling a little before leaning over to give Rainbow a gentle nuzzle. “Thanks, sugarcube...”

The two ponies sat together like that, smiling softly to one another as the last few rays of light played across them. As she looked into Rainbow Dash’s eyes, an odd feeling began to build up in Applejack’s chest, almost warm despite the coolness of the air. A faint blush began to rise up on her face, mirrored on the pegasus opposite her as they both began to slowly lean in toward each other.

As the sun’s final rays faded away, their lips met in a tender, delicate embrace. Yet, there was still a passion to it, carried through from both ponies. They held there together for a moment that seemed simultaneously like an eternity and not quite long enough before pulling apart again.

“Dash...” Applejack said softly as the kiss was broken, her face a mere few inches from Rainbow’s. “Ah still don’t know what ta think about all this. About today and... and everything. But, Ah do know... Ah know that this is where Ah want ta be... right here, by yer side...”

“I can’t explain it, AJ, but somehow... this seems right to me. Like this is what is meant to be. Who... who I’m meant to be with...”

“Ah think... Ah think Ah know just what you mean. That this... is how it’s supposed ta be.”

With that, the two ponies again lapsed into silence as they came together in a kiss once more under the pale light of the moon.

________________________________________