In a peaceful, quiet morning of a cyan Pegasus cloud-home, Rainbow Dash slowly started waking up for the day. She isn’t in that big of a hurry since she has the weekend off from her job. Rainbow Dash debated with herself whether or not to sleep in longer since it's still quite early on a Saturday.
Wait... why does today feel so important? What could it be that Dash is forgetting, a holiday, a friend’s birthday, a party? No, none of those were it. What is she not remembering? Finally, deciding that she should go look at her Wonder-bolt calendar instead of trying to use that bad memory of hers.
“WHAT THE-.” Rainbow screamed while looking at today’s date, stopping herself from dropping the F-bomb as she freaked out.
Looking at the calendar, she remembered the essential event with a near heart attack. Rainbow isn’t one to lose her self-control but tomorrow is going be a significant milestone with her and her colt-friend and she had forgotten completely, not good.
Soarin is going to be so disappointed if she didn’t fix this ASAP. She needed to get a special present, fast. What though? Dash knows what he wants but she would need to talk someone first about it. With that she flies out the window heading in the direction of the expert.
***
“Applejack, Applejack!"
A panicked voice called out through Sweet Apple Acres. Getting the attention of an orange mare that was busy with her farm duties. Applejack looked up into the sky and found a familiar cyan blur spending towards her.
“What does she want now; can’t she see that I’m busy with apple bucking?” Applejack mumbled to herself.
“AJ, you got to help me with something!” An out of breath Rainbow Dash said landing next to the farmer.
“What is it? I’m kinda busy” Applejack replied with a hint annoyance. “I have to get the apples bucked if I want to get a head start on apple bucking session.” Applejack pointed to the area where she has barely made a dent in.
“I know you’re busy but I forget Soarin’s and I one year anniversary, its tomorrow and I haven’t gotten him anything yet.” Rainbow said dropping her well-known cool act.
“Well Rainbow, you should have thought about it sooner, I'm not bailing you out like the time you forget his birthday four months ago.” Applejack scolded her friend.
“All I need is one your family’s apple pies and I’ll be out of your mane.” Rainbow pleaded.
“Oh, is that all? I baked some yesterday and put them in the fridge.” AJ said, suddenly having a better mood when the topic of money came up. “Follow me.” Applejack said, taking her stressed out friend to the main house.
***
In the kitchen Applejack opened the fridge door. “You can take one for 5 bits.” AJ said standing behind the door.
“Um, AJ, I don’t know how to tell you this but they are no pies in there.” Dash said, feeling freaked out again as she looked in the empty fridge.
“What are you talking about?” Applejack replied confused. “I baked fifteen of them just the
other day.”
“AJ, I’m telling you there aren’t any pies in there” Dash said.
“What the horse apples.” Applejack said, finally looking in of vast emptiness of the fridge.
“What happened to them? I nearly spent the whole day making them.”
“Well now what am I going to do?” Rainbow snapped. Her cool slowing beginning to melt away from the nervous tension as she paced around the room, biting her lip. “I can’t give Soarin nothing for our anniversary, he would never forgive me."
“Rainbow, calm down, why don’t you just get him a card or something?” Applejack suggested.
“It’s better than nothing.” Trying to smooth over the anxiety as it started to rub off on her.
“A card, are you freaking kidding me, AJ?” Rainbow coldly said as she stopped pacing to give Applejack a burning glare. “I rather come to him empty hoof then got him a crappy two bit card’.
“DASH, take a breather.” Applejack yelled, fed up with the Pegasus’s terrible attitude. “It’s not my fault that someone ate the pies and you don’t need to be so rude." Applejack said. Before Rainbow could react a dark cream stallion entered the kitchen.
“Hey AJ, do you have more of those pies?” Caramel asked his marefriend. Both mares looked at each other as comprehension dawned on them.
“No Caramel, actually they’re all gone and we don’t know why. Do you know what happened to them?”
“Uh no, I have no idea what possibly could have happened to them...” He said with a suspicious expression.
“You ate the pies didn’t you?” Rainbow blurted out, reading his guilty face.
Caramel nodded.
“You ate all fifteen of them by yourself?” Applejack asked.
“No, Big Mac and Blues had some too.” He admitted before falling to his knees begging for forgiveness. “I’m sorry AJ, we couldn’t help it. You pies are just so good and we were hungry.”
“You know if you had just asked me I have given you all one." Applejack glaring at her colt-friend, holding back from bucking him in the face even he deserved it. ”Well Caramel, you three greedy guts are going make thirty pies in two days." She said, coming up with a suited punishment.
“Aw come one AJ, we can’t do that in two days."
“If I can do fifteen in a day, then you can do thirty in two days. Here’s the recipe.” Applejack handed a piece of paper to Caramel.
“But why so many, isn’t that kind of nuts?”
“No it’s not and because I said so, plus you’ll have other two ponies helping you.”
“AJ, what about me and Soarin, I still need to get him something.” Dash asked.
“Oh yeah, I almost forget, Dash here forget her anniversary with her special someone and needs to a last minute gift.” Applejack said. “So make that thirty-one.”
“Couldn’t I just help you with apple-buck season instead, I really don’t like cooking.” Caramel complained.
Applejack glared at him, getting right in his face. “Do it.” Caramel said nothing but nodded nervously. The farmer turned her attention to the Pegasus. “Dash, sorry about my-idiot-of-a -colt-friend. He’ll make you one for free of charge, right Caramel?”
The stallion nodded once more. Applejack always scared him when she’s mad, especially when she is at him.
Um AJ, it’s nice of you to get Caramel to make me a pie, but it’s not his problem I didn’t get Soarin anything.” Rainbow said, feeling slightly bad for the stallion that was in a huge heap of trouble. “I think should make it for him and would be more special if I did.”
“You got a fine point there. Well Caramel, looks like you caught a break.” Caramel’s hopeful expression was crushed as Applejack continued. “Now you just need to do thirty, now get the others and get cracking.” Applejack
Caramel sighed in relief and then mouthed a ‘thank you’ to Dash. With that the stallion left the room, eager to find his partners in crime before Applejack de.
“Rainbow, you know I won’t be able to help to you with apple buck season on its way.” Applejack said as she grabbed another copy of the recipe and gave it to Dash. "Are you sure you’ll be alright?”
“AJ, I’ll be fine, it can’t be that hard. I’ll just follow the directions and it’ll be easy as well, pie.” Rainbow said. “Now if you excuse I need to get baking, later.” She opened a window and flew out.
***
On her way home, Dash realized that she had no apples. Still in the Fields where no one is about, she helped herself some fruit. The Apple Family had miles of trees; they weren’t going to notice a few apples missing.
Apples in hoof, not really stolen since she helped out in the fields enough to warrant a few apples or so she liked to think, Rainbow set off again.
***
A few uneventful minutes later found Dash coming up onto her house. She entered the building, flew straight to the kitchen, and was beginning to make the necessary preparations when she heard somepony knocking on her front door
Rainbow grunts as she hated being forced out of a task, especially this early into it. She headed to the door, opening it see to the lazy eyed mail-mare with a letter in hoof.
“Hi Rainbow, I have mail for you” Derpy said, giving the letter to her,
“Thanks Derpy” Rainbow said.
“Something smells good in there.” Derpy commented.
“Oh yeah, I'm cooking up something.” Dash said.
”What are you making?” Derpy questioned. A hopeful look flitted across her face. “Muffins by any chance?”
“No, it’s a pie for Soarin, our anniversary is tomorrow.” Dash said.
“That sounds fun.” Derpy scowled. “Wish I could help but I have mail”
“Maybe later, would be nice to hang out. Well I need to get started but I’ll see you around.” Rainbow said.
“Bye and happy anniversary” The grey mare said.
“Thanks, tell Dinky I said hi.”
“Will do, good luck with the pie!”
“What is with that mare and muffins?” Rainbow thought as she closed the door behind her. Rainbow examined the envelope and, seeing it was from Soarin, tore open the envelope to get at the letter. She took a deep breath before reading aloud.
***
“Dear Dashie.
I can hardly believe we been together for an amazing year. It seems like yesterday when we really talked for the first time at the Canterlot wedding. As celebration I’m taking out us both to dinner tomorrow to a surprise location. Yes you’ll have to dress up but is it really so wrong of that I want to show off how lucky I am? I’ll pick you up at your house at 6:00.
See you then.
Love Soarin”
***
Rainbow blushed a little as she charged into the kitchen, the letter only making her more determined not to screw up their special day.
Dash started reading the recipe.
“The Apple’s Family Pie
Ingredients:
Pastry for 2 crusts 8 cups sliced, peeled assorted baking apples - about 3 lbs. (Granny Smith, Cortland, Jonathan)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 Tablespoons butter
1 egg yolk
1 Tablespoon milk
Directions:
- In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with lemon juice.
- Combine sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to apples and toss well to coat.
- Fill pastry lined 9 inch pie pan with apple mixture and the dot with butter.
- Place second crust on top of pie filling, cut slits in top of crust to vent. Seal the edges of the crust with a fork or by hoof.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and milk. Brush mixture over top crust.
- Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.”
***
Dash stared dumbfounded at the piece of paper in her hoofs before shrugging and deciding to just wing it. Baking can't be that hard right?
***
Carrot Cake looked up from where he decorating a cake, an angry and confused expression on his face.
"Hey honey?" He called, dropping the bag of icing he was holding onto a tray. "On second thought you take care of this while I deal with the dough. I need to hit something."
***
Rainbow Dash was digging through her cupboards looking for the ingredients but she quickly hit a few roadblocks. She only had whole-wheat flour and no nutmeg. Rainbow let out an irritated groan; this is going to make more work for her. After a moment of thought Rainbow shrugged, there wasn’t a lot of nutmeg so it probably didn’t matter and flour was flour right?
Problems solved, Rainbow grabbed the ingredients and set them on the counter. Dash may not have a lot of experience with cooking but she is willing to try for Soarin. She gets out a cutting-board and the apples, Cortland if Dash remembered right, that she “borrowed” from Applejack.
Dash set about the process of peeling, coring and cutting the apples into bite size pieces. She put them in the measuring cup and found to her dismay that she was missing a cup.
“Horse crap, I‘m out of apples, now what do I do?” Rainbow thought. “I don’t want to risk AJ seeing me take any more apples; I got lucky the last time.”
Dash looked around her kitchen but the only other fruit she had some pears in a fruit bowl.
“Close enough, pretty sure he said he liked pears anyway.”
Rainbow grabbed a few pears and went back to chopping. One cup of chopped pears later and she tossed the sliced apples and pears into a large bowl along with some lime juice, which was the closest thing that she had to lemons.
“Meh, lemons are overrated.”
Finding that she had forgotten the sugar Rainbow went to get some from the pantry, only to find a small amount of brown sugar. It was a problem she only cared about for a split second before dumping the entire bag in the mix, not even bothering to measure first.
“The more, the better, who doesn’t love sugar?”
Since Rainbow didn’t have any nutmeg, she decided to double the cinnamon. She took the cinnamon sticks, placing them in a plastic bag and smashing them with a glass until they were a dusty power. Rainbow then poured the cinnamon into the bowl along with flour before giving it all a good mix.
Filling done, Rainbow realized she hadn't read anything about the crust. A quick search turned up nothing.
'AJ must have forgotten to give me the piecrust recipe....or maybe I dropped it' Dash thought as she looked through the papers again to still find no trace of it. 'I don't have anything like that here.' Then Dash remembered a convenient fact. “Pinkie is working today. They have those pre-made crusts you can buy.”
***
Dash flew out the window for the third time that day and headed to Sugarcube Corner. Once at the bakery, Dash entered the building and was immediately greeted by the sight of Pinkie speeding towards her.
“Hey Rainbow Dash! Today has been so sloooow and I was hoping sompony would pop in.” Dash couldn’t get a word in as Pinkie kept talking. “Rarity didn’t even come by for her usual cinnamon roll and nopony else really wants to talk for too long.”
“Pinkie.” Dash said to try and get her hyper friend’s attention but Pinkie Pie kept rambling.
“And I was really hoping Derpy would turn up today as well because I wanted to get her try some cupcakes since they’re like muffins except that they’re cakes as well and she always just eating muffins and nothing else.” The mare went on.
“Pinkie.” Dash repeated but had more volume to it.
“Mrs. Cake always said that too much of a good thing is bad, which really doesn’t make much sense but whenever I try to tell her that she just looks at me like she’s not sure what coloured icing to use for a cake so I just go along with it. Anyway it doesn’t matter since she never showed. Hey we should totally bake cupcakes sometimes.” Pinkie continued her happy rant, oblivious to her friend’s increasing frustration.
“PINKIE.” Dash shouted, louder then she intended.
“Yes?” The perpetually pink pony said, not the slightest bit phased that Dash had yelled in her face, a common occurrence at times.
“I uh, can I buy a piecrust please. I'm in a hurry.” Dash said, a little guilty about shouting but it had snapped Pinkie out of her rambles.
“Of course silly, why you didn’t just say so?” Pinkie said. She bounced too and over the counter. She leaned down for a moment before popping back up with a small tube that she gave it to Rainbow. “It’s 4 bits. Why do you need piecrust anyway? I thought you didn’t like cooking.”
“Thanks Pinks.” Rainbow sighed and explained yet again. “I'm making it for Soarin because tomorrow is our one year anniversary.”
“You’ve been with him that long already?” Pink asked.
“Yes and I really need to get going.” Dash said. “So here’s your four bits.” Pinkie nodded and waved goodbye after Dash handed over four bits.
***
Once Dash returned home from the encounter at Sugarcube Corner, she got out the pie tin she thought she would never use. Blowing some dust off it, Rainbow then opened the package and took the dough out. Rainbow eyed the cover, arching an eyebrow at the picture of a chef meticulously spreading the dough.
“Nah.” Rainbow crammed most of it into the tin. Massing up the edges then poured the filling in the piecrust. Butter followed in chunks as Rainbow double checked the recipe, or at least she thought it was butter. It smelled a little weird but the container said it was butter so in it went.
Smooshing the last of the dough into a circular shape Dash tried to pick it up and lay it on the pie only to have it tear again and again.
Growing frustrated, Dash dropped the pieces on top the pie and gave a half hearted attempt at patching them up and shoved it into the oven at 320 degrees. Taking a deep breath, she let it out with a relieved sigh. She was finally saved now; all she needed to do now was get the pie out in fifteen minutes.
***
The Next Day.
“I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR.”
Dash screamed a sentence that she had never uttered her entire life before. If someone were to hear her say that she would lose awesome points for sure. Clothes covered her bedroom as she threw the rejections over her shoulder. None of them were suitable for tonight. Soarin would be at her house in less than three hours and Dash was still in a towel after taking a shower. She had act fast or face embarrassment.
“I know can who can get me a dress.” The tomboy said to herself. Dash exited out the window. She hardly uses her front door anymore.
***
The Pegasus headed for the boutique her friend owned. Rainbow knocked on the door. In seconds, the glamorous white unicorn with trademark purple curly mane answered the door.
“Rainbow Dash, what a pleasant surprise. Do you need something?” Rarity asked.
“I need a pretty dress ASAP”, Dash said. She mentally slapped herself for saying that out loud.
She’ll need to do stunts for years to make up for this day alone and regain the points she lost.
“Can you help me out?”
Rarity smiled and dragged her friend in. “Pinkie told me about you and your colt-friend’s big night, the dear had brought me a snack during her break. Congratulations by the way, and I’ve taken the liberty to pick out some dresses so you can make a selection. Oh you just have to let me give you a makeover as well.” Rarity squealed at the last part from over excitement, she led Rainbow in to the back where she kept racks of dresses and gestured to one particular rack.
“Pick any one you like.” Rarity finished. Dash took a moment to process what was happening. She and Rarity had always gotten along but Rarity had devoted quite a bit of her time with just a possibility of helping. It made Dash feel a bit guilty for waiting till the last minute. Next year she would have to step it up and not procrastinate.
“Thanks Rarity, for doing this. Let me have a look around.” Rainbow said. As she expected each and every dress looked like an almost perfect fit. They were all nice but Rainbow was having a hard time imagining wearing any of them. Feeling desperate Rainbow hurried through the last rack and almost missed one that caught her eye.
She reached out and felt the softness of the fabric before she showed Rarity her selection.
“I’ll take this one.”
***
-Later that day-
“Knock, knock"
Rainbow went to the door and opened it to a certain light blue stallion. His usual spiked up navy mane was smoothed down to a slick mane-style. He even had a red tie on and bouquet of colourful roses, how sweet! Dash wasn’t underdressed either. She was wearing the black lacy dress that she had selected to Rarity's great delight. Her mane was actually brushed and had been straightened for the occasion, something else Rarity had helped with. Dash owed her big time for her kind deed.
“Dashie, you look beautiful.” Soarin said, admiring his smoking hot mare-friend while giving
her the flowers.
“Thanks, you don’t look so bad yourself.” Rainbow blushed; he’s such a charmer. “Want to come in, I got something for you.” He gave her a passionate kiss on the lips before entering the house,
“Sure.”
Rainbow leads him into the kitchen. She got the pie from the fridge and placed it in front of him at the table.
“Whoa, did you make this?” Soarin said. Though excited at first he couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. Rainbow's cooking history was filled with many a sad tale. Still, it didn't look that bad....
“Yeah, it’s an apple pie, your favourite. Want a slice?”
“Why not, thanks babe.”
Dash went to get a knife and plate. She cut him a piece and handed it to him along with a fork. He grabbed the fork and shoved a big chuck of the pastry into his mouth. He immediately regretted it; it was one of the nastiest things he ever tasted and it was definitely the worse pie, it tasted rancid aftertaste and the crust had a rubbery quality that told him it was pre-made.
He hated that stuff, something no self respecting baker would use. It was also undercooked and Soarin saw it had a different kind of fruit in it when it should just be an apple pie He could have easily gagged right there and then. He’s a good sport however and he swallowed it; resisting the temptation to spitting it out in a napkin. Coughing a little he looked up to see
Dash was staring at him with a hopeful smile.
“I hope you like it; I spent the whole day making it for you.” Rainbow said, unintentionally guilt tripping him.
“Yeah it's 'cough' great.” Soarin lied as he put another bite in mouth, not wanting to hurt her feelings. “Where did you get the recipe”?
“From Applejack, but I had to change some things since I didn’t have everything needed.” Rainbow answered proudly. “It’s kind of a funny story, I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Like what exactly?”
“Like I had to no lemons so instead I used limes.” Dash said. “Are you going finished that?” She pointed to the half-eaten pie.
“I uh, don’t want to spoil my appetite for dinner.” Soarin said. “We should probably get going now, it’s a long flight.”
“Sure, where are we going anyway?” Dash asked. Finding it a little bit weird that he hadn't finished his pie by now. She once saw him eat a pie in under a minute.
“To a new place called “The English Gentle-Colt.” Soarin said.
“Sounds swanky. I’ll just put your pie in the fridge and you can take it home later.”
“Yeah, take it and throw it right in the garbage can.” Soarin thought. “Sure, thanks babe. We should probably get going now.”
Author's Note
Thank you for reading.
Since I had many complaints about the bad grammar I got someone to look it over for me. I hope to it's better now. Also there's more on it's way so stay toon. We can now forget the original version.
Edited by Smirkythread
