Curiosity may kill the metaphorical cat, but there's no telling what can happen when Rainbow Dash is involved.
Applejack stood in complete bewilderment looking at the pegasus pony sitting on the floor in front of her with her hind legs spread out and her mouth panting excitedly. Her eyes were crossed with a look of pure anticipation staring directly into Applejack's. Dash's ears flapped sporadically.
"Twilight..." said Applejack nervously, "Why exactly did you tell me to come over to your castle?"
"Well, there's not really a way to put this gingerly," she paused for a moment, hoping that there was a good way to say this. Nothing came to mind, so she went with being completely honest. "Applejack...Rainbow Dash is a dog."
Rainbow Dash perked up at hearing her name, twisting her head around towards Twilight, all the while panting excitedly. For what reason exactly, nopony could know.
"Yer jokin'...right?" Applejack asked, not taking her eyes off Rainbow Dash. "Is this some kinda joke or somethin'? Are you two in on this?"
Twilight's look was completely serious. "Believe me, Applejack, if this was a practical joke, I would have laughed my head off the second you walked in the door."
Applejack sighed. "Well, okay then. How did this happen?"
Rainbow Dash began pawing the floor in front of Applejack and wiggling her flank up in the air. Twilight put a hoof to her face to avoid the obscene view. "Well," Twilight replied, "I was working on a potion that allows two creatures to switch minds, and I left the room for one minute..."
Before Twilight could continue her story, Rainbow Dash began to bark. Twilight was caught completely off guard. "I...didn't know ponies could make that noise..."
"Me either," said Applejack. "Winona doesn't even bark that loud."
"Well, anyways, as I was saying--"
"BARK BARK BARK," barked Rainbow Dash, obviously growing extremely anxious about something.
Twilight ignored her. "You know what, it's not important. The bottom line is: Rainbow Dash decided it would be a good idea to down the potion while I was away. She probably thought it was some sort of performance enhancing mixture, I don't know..."
Rainbow Dash began to start whining with a high pitched squeal and pawed the bottom of Applejack's hooves.
Applejack tried to ignore her. "So...why did y'all call me over here?" Applejack had a look of worry strike her face.
"Well," Twilight paused, "I figured since you have more...experience...with this kind of...animal...that maybe you could take care of her for a while, while I figure out a solution?"
Applejack shot her an un-amused look. A look that said something like: I can't believe you're dragging me into this. But she wasn't going to deny a request from a friend in need, so she begrudgingly obliged.
"Oh, thank you, Applejack. It's neigh impossible to get any work done around here with Rainbow Dash causing a ruckus."
Applejack put a leash around Rainbow Dash's neck. Surprisingly, she didn't object and simply shook her head a bit after it was completely on. "Just find the solution as fast as ya possibly can, will ya?"
"Sure thing, Applejack. I won't sleep until I do!"
Applejack, with Rainbow Dash in tow, made her way out of the castle. Rainbow Dash happily trotted beside her and wagged her tail back and forth so fast it was hitting Applejack's flank like a whip. She just hoped with all her might that Twilight would find a solution as soon as possible.
Okay, thought Applejack as she stared down at Rainbow Dash, who was digging up the soil around a rock that was apparently of high interest to her. Back at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack hoped that nopony else would come by and see this highly irregular spectacle. She could only imagine how embarrassing it would be to have to explain this to anypony else. At least Rainbow Dash was blissfully unaware of the complete absurdities she was performing, and Applejack had so much second-hand embarrassment that she couldn't even laugh at how ridiculous she was behaving.
Applejack figured the first thing to do would be to train Rainbow Dash to be obedient. Surely, Applejack rationalized, it wouldn't be that hard. Rainbow Dash was the element of loyalty after all, and dog's were the most loyal companion to ponies around. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as she thought.
"Alright, Dash," said Applejack, shortening her name to something more suitable to a dog, "lay down!"
Rainbow Dash stared up at her with wide eyes, and then proceeded to cock her head slightly to the left and droop one ear.
"I said lay down, Dash."
Rainbow Dash just continued staring up at her.
"Like this," said Applejack as she crawled down to all fours and laid down in the grass. But Rainbow Dash took the meaning of this gesture completely differently. Instead of laying down to copy Applejack's movement, Rainbow Dash took it as an invitation to wrestle and tackled her to the ground playfully.
"No," shouted Applejack as she struggled to release herself from the pegasus' grip and get to her hooves. "Oh, this is gon' be harder than I originally thought..."
So apparently the embodiment of the elements didn't transfer with the mind. Or, maybe they did and there was a dog somewhere out there that was more loyal than any other. What am I thinkin', thought Applejack, I've gotta figure out how to train this gal. Applejack thought back to when she had originally trained Winona and began to hatch a plan.
"Come, Dash," said Applejack as she beckoned after her and they headed towards the house. At least she's a good follower, Applejack thought. That is, until she turned around to look behind her and suddenly, the pegasus pony was high up in the sky...chasing after the mailpony.
"Dash! Get back down here and leave that poor mailpony alone!"
But Rainbow Dash paid no attention to her. Right now, the only thing that mattered to the pegasus pony was catching the mailpony. Some kind of primal urge had overtaken her to do such a thing, and ponies could only spectate at what exactly caused them to have such desires.
Derpy looked behind her with lopsided terror as the pegasus rocketed towards her in a flash of blue light, leaving only a few moments to take in what was happening before colliding with Rainbow Dash, sending a shower of letters falling gracefully down to the ground like leaves from a tree.
On the ground, Applejack ran beneath them towards the spot below where the mail was following. So much for not causing anypony any trouble, she thought to herself and rolled her eyes.
Up in the sky, Rainbow Dash had her mouth clenched onto Derpy's mailbag, shaking her head back and forth causing it to rip open further.
"I-I'm Sorry, Rainbow Dash!" Derpy exclaimed. "I d-don't know what I did, but it wont ever happen again, I promise!"
"Dash, let that poor pony go!" shouted Applejack from far below them. Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash stopped immediately and zipped down to Applejack, panting excitedly as if to receive a treat for her heroic efforts.
"Bad pony!" Applejack shouted, and Dash's ears immediately flopped down and here eyes looked up to Applejack with a look so full of regret and sorrow. And then began the whining.
"Oh, it's alright girl," said Applejack, and started to awkwardly pet Rainbow Dash on her head and down her mane. "Everypony makes mistakes, you'll be alright..."
And, just like that, Rainbow Dash was back to being perky and full to the brim with excitement. Sheesh, she's more energetic than Pinkie Pie after eating a cake.
Derpy picked up the mail from the ground nervously as she watched Applejack and Rainbow Dash walk back towards the house.
Now, Applejack was prepared to handle the situation. Back in the house, she had treats and a spray bottle of water in her arsenal, and she wasn't afraid to use them.
"Alright, Dashy--er, Dash. Now's the time t' get serious."
Rainbow Dash sat patiently on the wooden floor and wagged her tail back and forth along it.
"There's nothin' like a good ol' mixture of positive and negative reinforcement to get a dog...er...pony...to behave."
Applejack pulled out a treat from behind her and Rainbow Dash's head sprung up to stare intently at the delicious present that was surely going to be going into her mouth.
"Yeah, you like the treat?" Applejack said playfully. Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash even nodded her head up and down at the rhetorical question. "Okay," she continued. "To get the treat, you have to behave. Let's try this again: Dash, lay down!"
To Applejack's surprise, Rainbow Dash immediately got to all fours and laid flat against the wooden floorboards.
"Good girl!" said Applejack excitedly and tossed her one of the treats. "That's all you needed," she said and started to relax as Rainbow Dash devoured the treat like it was her last meal. But when she finished, she looked back up at Applejack expectantly.
"Sorry girl, but you only get one treat for awhile."
To Applejack's dismay, Rainbow Dash began whining once more, but she wasn't going to let that deter her training. "Nope, I'm not fallin' for that one. That's all yer gettin', and that's final!"
Rainbow Dash began barking in response, only to be sprayed with a harmless mist of water. But to Rainbow Dash, this water might well have been poison in liquid form and she shook her head aggressively and retracted herself from in front of Applejack, now barking even louder.
A voice came from Granny Smith upstairs. "What's goin' on down there?"
"Nothin'!" replied Applejack quickly. "Winona's just havin' a little temper today, that's all!"
"Well, alrighty then! Tell her to calm down, I'm tryin' t' take my afternoon nap!"
"Will do, granny!" replied Applejack, and then shot a glare at Rainbow Dash, who then immediately stopped barking and became passive again with her floppy ears and puppy eyes.
"Oh no, don't you give me those eyes, Dash," said Applejack with frustration in her voice as she began walking towards Rainbow Dash.
As Applejack walked closer to Dash, she felt something odd on the ground where she stood. Something...wet. She looked down at the floor to see a small puddle of sticky liquid that surrounded Rainbow Dash.
"You didn't..."
"I'm sorry, Twilight, but I've gotta return Dashy. She's just too much trouble."
"That's alright," replied Twilight. "I think I've got an antidote brewed up here anyways, so you came at just the right time. Where's Rainbow Dash?"
"Right here," replied Applejack as the pulled a small wooden kennel from outside Twilight's door and pushed it inside.
"You weren't kidding..." said Twilight.
"I wish I was," Applejack replied flatly.
"Well, let me just grab the potion and Sparky here..." said Twilight as she went into another room.
Applejack had a confused look on her face. "...Sparky?"
Twilight returned with a small fluffy dog being levitated beside her, and it did not have a happy look on its face.
"Twilight, since when did you have a dog?"
"Applejack..." replied Twilight, "this isn't just any dog...this is Rainbow Dash."
Applejack's eyes widened and she reared her head back. "Oh...yeah..."
"Here, give this to Rainbow Dash," said Twilight as she levitated a small vial of blue liquid over to her. Twilight took out another vial and readied to give it to Sparky.
"They have to drink them at the same time or the transfer won't work properly, so let's do this on the count of three okay?"
"Alright," said Applejack as she let Rainbow Dash out of her kennel.
"Okay...One...Two......Three..."
Applejack gave the vial of blue liquid to Rainbow Dash who gladly licked up the mystery liquid.
"...GO!" finished Twilight as she gave her vial of liquid to Sparky.
In a few seconds, the two of them levitated into the air and an aura of blue energy formed around both of them, sending flowing tendrils between both of their bodies for several seconds until the reaction stopped and they returned softly to the ground.
"...did it work?" asked Applejack.
Rainbow Dash got to her hooves with a look of pure embarrassment on her face. "Nopony else ever hears about this, got it?"
Twilight and Applejack laughed immediately and for several moments after. "Sure thing, sugarcube!" Applejack barely managed to say without bursting more into laughter.
"I hope this makes you think twice about drinking potions without asking me first," said Twilight.
"Yeah, yeah," replied Rainbow Dash. "I'll see you two later...I've got a nap date on a cloud with my name on it."
Rainbow Dash flew off out of the door and into the sky and looked around for the comfiest cloud she could find, but on the way she noticed the mailpony making her deliveries for the day, and she felt an unbearable urge take control...
Author's Note
Thanks for reading!
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