Rainbow Dash did her usual stretches first thing in the morning. She’d always had some sort of routine for as long as she could remember. As a kid, her dad would take her to the park everyday and just let her go crazy until she was too tired to do anything else. But she was older now, and responsible for herself. Now every morning she would wake up, and do a few stretches. After that she would run a few laps around her parents house. That was her favorite part of the workout, being that she loved running. Everything was a race to her, even simple things like brushing her teeth. She proudly holds the house record for fastest brusher.

Today she thought she should change up her routine a bit though. Well, not the routine itself, but the fact that she always did it alone. She had reunited with an old friend yesterday, and found out they would be competing against each other in todays race. Practicing together would be good. She’d get her needed exercise, along with company, plus she could gauge how fast Applejack really was.

Making her decision, she pulled out her cellphone and dialed the number that was given to her yesterday. It rang once...twice...three times. She felt this sudden sense of anxiety. ‘Come on, answer.’ she thought to herself.

“Hello?” came a voice from the other line.

She had to stop herself from sighing. “Yo, Applejack, it’s Dash, did I wake you?” she asked, not even realizing that it was still really early in the morning and most people weren’t even up yet.

“Naw, ah’ve been up about two hours now.” Applejack said.

‘Well, she would be used to waking up early I guess, being a farmer and all.’ Rainbow thought to herself. “Oh ok good. Listen I uhh...I was wondering if you’d like to get some practice runs in before the big race today. What do you think?” she asked. The question was a bit hard to ask for some reason, but she decided she must still be tired.

“Sounds good R.D, where at?” A.j asked.

A smile formed on Rainbows face and an unknown weight was lifted from her shoulders. “I’ll text you the directions to my house, I usually run around it since the size is about the same as the track.” she said, to which she received confirmation from the other line. With matching goodbyes and quick thumbs, directions were sent to Applejacks phone as Rainbow got ready.

It didn't take long for Applejack to get there, the hotel wasn't too far away after all, and Rainbow Dash waiting impatiently in front of the house was pretty much a dead giveaway. Applejack looked up at the house that her new (old?) friend lived in. It was three stories high and had plenty of total yardage surrounding it from what she could see. Of course, her home had more, but then again this wasn't a farm.

"Ah didn't expect to see a place like this out in the city." Aj said, more to herself than anyone else.

Rainbow Dash looked up at the house and then towards the tall apartment complexes not too far away. "Yea it's nice I guess." she said with a shrug. "Dad works in the city all day so this puts a bit of distance between him and it, y'know?" she said, receiving a nod in response.

"So where are we practicing?" Applejack asked as she adjusted her shorts. They were both wearing the uniforms that they were given for the race, black shorts and a shirt that had their towns color on it. Applejacks was orange and Dash had a light blue one.

Rainbow shrugged. "I always go around the house a few times. Four laps is about a mile. What are you up for?" she asked.

Applejack laughed. "What am ah up for? Ah think you should be asking yourself that, city girl."

An eyebrow was raised as Rainbow let a devious smile take hold of her face. "Is that a challenge, farm girl?" she asked.

"Well we ain't exactly supposed to be working together on this. Plus if you're really the best runner in cloudsdale, I wanna test you out." Applejack stated as she crossed her arms.

'You can test me out anytime.' Rainbow thought. "Oh it is fucking ON!" she exclaimed as she grabbed a stick from the ground and drew a long line through the dirt. "This is our start line. First to finish four laps wins. Deal?"

Applejack gave off a chuckle. "Heh, deal." she said as she took place before the line.

Rainbow Dash followed suite. "On your mark. Get set. GO!" she yelled before taking off.

The girls were pretty much neck and neck for the entire first lap, but Rainbow Dash wasn't the kind of girl that settled for a tie. This wasn't her best speed yet, so she pumped her legs even faster and began to pull ahead.

Applejack smiled as she watched the smaller girl speed up ahead of her. 'Impatient city girl' she thought as she shook her head. She wasn't even close to her limit and was happy to show the prismatic girl her place.

Rainbow looked behind, expecting to see the blonde Apple struggling a few feet behind her. Instead, she turned to see a smiling freckled face right beside her. She almost stumbled as her heart skipped, but she kept her pace.

The girls ran on, always neck and neck for first place. They even ran beyond the four laps that was agreed upon because they couldn't tell who won, not without some sort of high speed camera. They ran and ran until they couldn't run anymore, collapsing into a pile of sweaty skin and clothes.

"Ah'd say that's a tie." Applejack said between deep breaths.

Rainbow clenched her eyes shut, she wasn't used to not being first. Nonetheless, she couldn't deny the truth. "Y-yea. It's a tie." she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly with every breath.

The door to Rainbows house opened up, and out came little Scootaloo with a cute little dress and bow. She walked right up to Rainbow Dash. "Dad said to tell you the race is in an hour and you might want to wash up." she said, causing the two older girls to look at each other and see sweaty faces with dirt caked onto them.

"Yea we should probably get cleaned up." Rainbow said with a grin. She thought it was funny how, even when her face was caked with dirt, Applejacks freckles could still be seen.

Applejack herself got up from her spot on the ground. Her uniform was filthy but she was glad she had a spare. With a slight wobble, she began to walk back to the hotel. "Ah'll see y'all at the race. Good luck." she said to the two Cloudsdale girls.

"You're the one who'll need the luck Aj! See you at the finish line!" Rainbow called back before she sighed and pushed herself off of the ground to take a much needed shower.

Rainbow stood in line, her foot tapping impatiently. 'Why do I even need to wait for a number? Why didn't they just give it to me with the uniform?' she asked herself with a sigh. It was bad enough that she had to wait on line, but her legs were still sore from her impromptu race earlier.

It didn't take much longer for her to get her number though. As soon as she did, she proudly wore the number 23 on her chest and back. She looked around at all the people crowding the sidewalks of Cloudsdale. Barriers were set up along the streets to prevent people from interfering with the race, and to stop cars from getting in the way. The goal was to loop around all of the city once. She wasn't exactly sure how far that was, but she knew it was a few miles at the least.

Her eyes scanned the crowd of racers that had since gotten into their positions. It didn't take much longer for her to spot familiar blonde hair and an orange shirt labeled with the number 11.

"Yo, Aj!" she yelled out.

The girl in question raised her head and looked around for the owner of the voice, spotting her almost immediately. "Hey Rainbow." she responded.

"You ready to get your ass handed to you?" Rainbow yelled again, seeing the smile form on Applejacks face.

"If you say so Rainbow." Aj said before a voice boomed out over a microphone.

All the racers tensed up, everybody wanted to win first place. The voice counted down. 3. 2. 1. A shot sounded off and all the racers zoomed off at once.

It was the last leg of the race, sweat drenched Rainbow Dashs' face as her sweaty shirt clenched onto her wet skin. She glanced to the side, Applejack was right next to her, cheeks red and face gleaming with sweat. It was like that morning all over again. They were neck and neck, with no one else around. Their legs were numb, and they were both sure that if they stopped running, they would not be able to start again.

But they didn't have to worry, the finish line was in sight! Pushing themselves harder than they ever had before, the two girls sped up. Their hearts were beating fast and their muscles screamed, but they did it! Together, they crossed the finish line at the same time and collapsed to the ground.

The announcer spoke into the microphone once more. "And there goes numbers 11 and 23, tying for last place!"

A few cheers were heard among the crowd, most of them familiar voices to the two girls who now sat shoulder to shoulder on the ground, their eyelids feeling just as heavy as their legs.

Applejack was the first to go down, her head falling to Rainbows shoulder as her chest rose and fell with her even breaths. 'I think I'm in love.' was the last thought Rainbow Dash had before sweet sleep took over her as well.

Applejack sat in the back of her family’s van. In her hand was a small medal that she got for completing the race. Sure, she hadn’t won it, but she was sure she did her family proud. Maybe next year she’d take it easier on the practice run and then she would actually have a chance to win. Then again, she couldn’t complain about spending time with Rainbow Dash.

‘That girl is something else.’ she thought to herself as she unlocked her cell phone and looked at the background picture. It was of her and Rainbow Dash after they woke up and received their medals. She held hers up with a smile but Rainbow held hers as if it was poisonous. She shook her head and held in a laugh. ‘Eyup, she sure is something else.’

Author's Note

Woohoo, one more chapter is done! I hope you all enjoyed it!

Don't forget to leave a comment telling me what you thought!