The Honeymoon

by Shaslan

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Slice of Life, Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash
Length: 4977

Applejack and Rainbow have finally gotten hitched, and to celebrate they've planned the trip of a lifetime. A train north to Vanhoover, a zeppelin across the Smokey Mountains, and a perilous leap into lands unknown. The rain wilds are waiting.

Applejack and Rainbow have finally gotten hitched, and to celebrate they've planned the trip of a lifetime. A train north to Vanhoover, a zeppelin across the Smokey Mountains, and a perilous leap into lands unknown. The rain wilds are waiting for them.

Published 2020-08-26 17:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-08-26 17:10:00 UTC

Chapter 1: Into the wilds

Applejack beamed as she followed the rainbow-streaked tail over the side and into the cart. Rainbow impatiently wrenched her long skirt out of the way, and rewarded Applejack with a beaming grin. Applejack returned the smile and the cart jolted into motion as Big Mac pulled them away. The crowd outside the barn of Sweet Apple Acres cheered and stomped their hooves, and the tin cans tied behind the old farm cart clattered and bounced over every stone.

Applejack threw an impetuous hoof around Rainbow Dash and turned to wave goodbye to her family.

“See y’all in a few weeks!” She hollered. “Don’t go missin’ us too much!”

Rainbow squirmed around Applejack’s leg to peer back at Scootaloo. “Don’t forget, Tank likes his lettuce finely chopped! Finely chopped, Scootaloo!”

But the barn was already receding quickly behind them, and Scootaloo’s reply was lost under the clatter of the cans. Applejack raised her hoof one last time in salute, and then settled down to watch her orchards roll by.

The apples were doing well, red and almost swollen with juices. The harvest would be a good one. She knew she could safely leave it all in Big Mac’s capable hooves, but it still felt wrong somehow, to be riding away from her farm right before apple-bucking time.

Still, she mused, glancing down at the large red bulk of her brother as he hauled them along, It sure makes a pleasant change to be ridin’ in the cart instead of pullin’ it.

Beside her, Rainbow Dash leaned back against Applejack with a huff of air. “I hate leaving him like this.”

Applejack suppressed a smile. She knew Rainbow was in deadly earnest, but it was adorable to watch her worry over her pet. “You’re worryin’ too much, Sugarcube. You’ve left him with Scootaloo before, ain’t ya?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow pouted, staring into the trees as they whisked by. “But never for so long. What if he misses me and starts going off his food?”

“He won’t.” Applejack settled a comfortable foreleg around Rainbow, the warmth and solidity of the other mare giving her a little thrill even now. “He’s healthy as a horse, that tortoise.”

Rainbow nodded, and kicked again at the trailing white skirts of her dress. “Celestia’s wingfeathers, I can’t wait to get this stupid thing off.”

“Yup,” Applejack chuckled and looked down at her own custom Rarity-made gown. Both of the dresses had been white and pure as the driven snow this morning, but a day of dancing and festivities had muddied the hems. Rainbow Dash had also dropped cake all down the front of hers, and as the cake had naturally been a rainbow cake, the evidence was plain to see. Rarity was probably stewing over it even now.

Rainbow Dash was wasting no time; she wriggled out of her dress and shucked the crumpled white satin from her legs with disdain. She sighed in relief and flexed her wings. “Man, I always feel like Rarity makes me stuff two sizes too small. I can never breathe in her stuff.”

Applejack snickered again. “Ah think it might just be that you’re too used to the spandex Wonderbolts outfit, Sugarcube. Its real easy on the fit, but it ain’t really proper clothing.”

Rainbow huffed in mock indignation. “Are you calling me fat, Applejack? I’ll have you know I’m the best athlete of our entire generation.”

“Ah know, Ah know,” Applejack reassured her, leaning in with a gentle smile. “Ah’m only messing with ya, Shuck.”

Rainbow’s own eyes softened and she let Applejack bump her muzzle gently against her cheek. The contact was simple, loving — more affection than anything else, but it still felt electric to Applejack. This wasn’t just her girlfriend’s cheek anymore; this was her wife. It felt weird even to think it. It was such an…adult thing, to be married. Something belonging more to her parents’ generation than her own. But Big Mac had gotten married, what, five or six years ago now? And Sugar Belle was as at ease on the farm as any of the ponies born there. Applejack supposed that it was only natural that she follow in her big brother’s hoofsteps eventually. Heck, it had only taken her this long to do it because Rainbow had been real tough to persuade. She was even firmer than Applejack in her belief that marriage was something that only old ponies did.

Ponies cheered and stomped their hooves in applause as the rickety old cart barrelled down the high street of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash played up to the crowd, wrapping her wing around Applejack and bowing, that cocky little grin on her face all the while. Applejack couldn’t help but laugh at her antics.

All to quickly, Big Mac was slowing from his trot to a halt at the front of the train station. He turned to offer his sister a watery smile, and Applejack was shocked to see that his eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“Aw, Mac!”

She jumped out of the cart and rushed to hug him. He rested one enormous hoof across her back. He smelled warm, of hay and meadowgrass, apples and home. Applejack held her brother tightly, suddenly feeling less than dry-eyed herself. “Give Apple Bloom a hug for me too,” she said, rubbing at her eyes and stepping back. “And y’all take real good care of yourselves while Ah’m away, ya hear?”

“Ayup.” Big Mac’s response was taciturn as ever, but the smile he offered her spoke volumes.

Applejack took a deep breath and turned back to Rainbow Dash. The brash expression and sardonic grin melted away, and those magenta eyes softened until they were as deep and calm as the river that flowed through Sweet Apple Acres. “You alright, AJ?”

Applejack pressed her lips tightly together, blinked away the shimmering film of tears, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I sure am. Ready to go?”

Rainbow Dash’s wings spread again, and she bounded up from the floor to hover in place beside Applejack. “You know it! Our first real adventure together.”

That turned the waterworks off properly, to Applejack’s relief. She was able to respond to Rainbow’s enthusiasm with an excited grin of her own. “Yep! Ah can’t believe Ah let you talk me into goin’ through the dragonlands. Seems like Twilight’s suggestion of that new spa in Canterlot might have been simpler.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and she flapped over to the cart to scoop up the two pairs of saddlebags there, lovingly embroidered with rainbow and orange borders, and both their cutie marks faithfully rendered by Rarity’s minute needlework.

“Come on,” Rainbow scoffed, shouldering her own pair of bags and lowering Applejack’s own to her from above. “I love a spa day as much as the next pony, but we have a spa right here. We need to do something different, something special, to celebrate. Something really epic! We’re only going to get married once, you know!”

Applejack turned to wave one last time to Big Mac as they trotted hastily up the steps and onto the platform. He waved back, and Applejack’s last glimpse of him was as he produced a hanky and blew noisily into it.

“All aboard the Vanhoover Express!” The station master was waving his yellow flag, and the train was belching steam, eager for departure.

“Wait for us!” Rainbow Dash darted for the still-open carrierge door, and Applejack laughed aloud as she galloped in pursuit.

They burst onto the train neck and neck, playfully elbowing and knocking against one another, and flopped onto the first pair of seats. Rainbow Dash promptly curled up against the window, and Applejack stowed their saddlebags away overhead.

“Well,” she said, settling herself beside Rainbow Dash, “Ah think the rain wilds are certainly gonna be…epic.”

Rainbow Dash slung a careless wing around her once more, and Applejack snuggled gratefully into the downy plumage. Rainbow shot her a single grin, her eyes alight with excitement, and then returned to staring eagerly out of the train window. “Even Daring Do hasn’t been there.”

“Ah can’t wait to explore it all with you.”

The train lurched into motion and then chugged slowly forward. The horn tooted once and they began to gather speed. Applejack looked back once at the familiar wooden face of Ponyville train station, and then followed Rainbow Dash’s gaze out of the window to the train track and the adventure that awaited them.

The train to Vanhoover was followed by a zeppelin going south along the coast. The two of them got plenty of stares; since Twilight’s coronation their fame had grown. Applejack spent a lot of time during the first couple of days attempting to hide behind menus or her own hat, which Rainbow found hilarious. It wasn’t like AJ to be bashful at all.

Rainbow Dash revelled in the attention, and treated everypony on board to the splendorous sight of a sonic rainboom. They loved it, and the two of them ate at the captain’s table that night. After watching Rainbow basking in the applause, it seemed like Applejack tried to relax into it as well. It wasn’t as though the ponies trying to talk to them meant any harm. They just wanted to greet them, maybe take a photo. Rainbow did her best to reassure Applejack that they could handle that for a couple of days.

“After all, we’re going somewhere where nopony else is ever going to recognise us.”

Still, when the time came for their stop, Applejack reacted with obvious relief. The Smokey Mountains were to the east, and the zeppelin would be continuing down south, all the way to Los Pegasus. This was the most westerly point on its half-circle around the Smokey Mountains, and in the distance, skirting the North Luna Sea, Rainbow’s keen eyes could just make out a haze of green lapping at the foothills and climbing up into the clouds. The rain wilds, the legendary forests where who knew what creatures lurked. Her wings flared in excitement just thinking about it. Ancient forests, utterly untouched by ponykind, places where no hoof had ever trod.

She could hardly wait.

She reached over and put her hoof on top of Applejack’s. “Are you ready, AJ?”

Applejack gulped audibly. “Ah mean…you know that Ah’m always up for a challenge, Rainbow — but the ship ain’t showin’ any sign of slowin’. How’re we gonna get down?”

Rainbow Dash laughed and hugged the orange mare closer. “I talked to the captain about it last night — he refused to go down for us, which considering the discounted prices he’s giving us for being ‘Equestria’s Heroes’ is fair enough — and he says it’s fine if we jump.”

Applejack blanched. “Uh — jump?”

“Yeah! It’s no problem at all, he said.”

Applejack shook her head. “Rainbow, honey, you know Ah love watchin’ you fly. But Ah’m not a pegasus. You remember when we all jumped off that last airship on the way to Mount Aris? Ah’m not in a huge hurry to repeat that experience. And we ain’t even got Twilight with us to do any emergency teleporting.”

Rainbow looked down at the drop beyond the balustrade, and tried to imagine that she had no wings. She rustled her feathers slightly in discomfort. Suddenly it did seem rather high. No — she mastered herself. There was no other way down! She could absolutely get them both down safely.

“I’ll carry you,” she promised easily. “I can carry one pony, no problem.” She tightened her grip on Applejack’s hoof. “Trust me.”

The hoof beneath hers withdrew for a moment as Applejack squirmed. “Ah do, but — Ah don’t want you to take on too much, Sugarcube. What about all the saddlebags as well?”

Rainbow glanced down at the bags piled by their hooves and shrugged a wing. “What about them?”

“It’s too much weight,” Applejack spoke slower now, trying to emphasise her point.

A flash of brilliance came to Rainbow Dash. She knew how to solve this problem. She bent her neck, grabbed the straps of both saddlebags in her teeth — good, all the lids were buckled tight — and with a flick of her neck she had them suspended over the edge.

Applejack’s eyes widened. “Rainbow, Ah don’t think—”

Rainbow Dash let go.

The bags hung suspended for one brief moment, and then plummeted out of sight, two flashes of colour tumbling into the depths.

Applejack swung to face her, aghast. “Rainbow Dash, all our money was in there!”

Moving rapidly closer, Rainbow Dash wrapped her forelegs tight around Applejack. “AJ. My apple-bucking legend.”

Applejack’s own hooves reflexively curled around Rainbow’s shoulders. “Ah think Ah know what’s comin’…”

“Do you trust me?” Rainbow gave the mare she loved her very sweetest smile.

“Ah trust you—” Applejack started, and Rainbow’s wings fanned as wide as her sudden grin. “But Ah don’t know that Ah trust your judgement in this particular case!”

Rainbow Dash leaned in very close. “Trust me. We’ll be telling the story of the epic beginning to this awesome honeymoon for the rest of our lives.”

“Ah’m still not sure—” But Rainbow Dash’s wings cracked down like a bullwhip, ripping the two of them up from the deck of the zeppelin.

Applejack’s hooves tightened on Rainbow’s neck, and Rainbow flapped once, just enough to send them twisting away from the ship. Applejack howled something, but Rainbow clipped her wings close and then Applejack’s words were lost in the howl of the wind as they began to fall.

Thick yellow hair obscured Rainbow Dash’s vision, but to her pride Applejack didn’t thrash or twist in her grip. She just locked down with that legendary strength, welding herself to Rainbow’s body as surely as if she had been chained there. Rainbow would have been willing to bet good money that even if she had let go, Applejack would not have budged an inch. Not that Rainbow was about to — she wanted to give her steady little AJ a thrill, not risk her life! She kept her own legs wrapped tight around Applejack’s barrel and held her close.

The ground yawned closer, the green mat of forested land multiplying and diversifying at alarming speed into copses, thickets and individual trees. Rainbow caught a glimpse of creamy white that might have been their saddlebags, but then she twisted in the air again and lost sight of them.

The wind whistled past, and Rainbow realised with concern that she was falling much faster than she usually did. Now she thought about it, that made sense; double the weight, double the speed. But she hadn’t planned on falling this far this quickly.

She glanced down at Applejack to see how she was faring. Rainbow Dash hadn’t taken many ponies for rides like this, but she had rescued her fair share of falling colts and fillies, and occasionally foolhardy unicorns with butterfly wings. It was all part of life in Cloudsdale. Many wingless ponies, and often even those with wings, utterly lost their heads when falling. Flailing legs and wordless screaming all over the place. She hadn’t been quite sure how Applejack would react. But her grip was steady, her face calm. She hadn’t even shut her eyes! She was watching the ground with the same calm detachment as she would a herd of stampeding cattle, just assessing how best to solve the problem.

Rainbow caught herself — time enough later to admire Applejack and her fortitude — and hastily began the process of slowing their fall. First she twisted them in the air until they were falling horizontally rather than head-down, and then very, very gradually, she spread her wings. If you popped them out all at once you’d be sure to wrench something or jar yourself, especially when carrying a heavy load.

Finally, her wings were fully extended, and their fall slowed noticeably. Rainbow Dash began to backwing, slowing them further, and then finally, when they were only a few dozen body lengths above the canopy, they were able to ease out into a glide.

Rainbow Dash headed in the direction she had thought she saw their bags fall. She glanced down at Applejack who was still hanging sloth-fashion beneath her.

Applejack’s eyes narrowed.

Rainbow Dash gulped. “Uh — I’m sorry, AJ?”

“That was reckless and stupid,” Applejack said, her tone measured rather than angry.

Rainbow Dash felt crestfallen. She hadn’t wanted to disappoint Applejack. She had rather been hoping to impress her with her bravado and skill. She couldn’t help it; her wingbeats began to falter and they dipped lower in the sky. “I’m really sorry, Applejack. I should have waited till you were ready.”

“Darn tootin’ ya should have.” Applejack’s words were clipped and brusque. She didn’t say anything more.

Rainbow Dash suddenly felt as though she might cry. Her brilliant surprise suddenly seemed less brilliant and more idiotic. Of course she shouldn’t have expected that Applejack would be as eager as she was to jump off a moving ship into empty air.

“I’m really sorry—” she tried again, but stopped in alarm when she felt Applejack’s hooves release their grip around her neck. She made a panicky grab for her wife and tightened her own hold until it was almost strangling the other pony. “AJ! Don’t let go!”

Applejack’s hooves came to rest either side of her face. “Ah do trust you, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow smiled, barely looking where she was flying anymore. Applejack’s green eyes were all she saw. “I’m so glad—”

Applejack tapped her cheek to hush her, and Rainbow obediently fell silent.

“Ah do trust you,” Applejack said again, now stretching her forelegs wide to demonstrate it. Rainbow Dash let out a tiny gasp of air as she took Applejack’s whole weight in her front hooves.

“Ah just need ya to talk to me about this stuff first,” Applejack continued. “That’s how marriage works.”

“Uh-huh.” Rainbow’s voice was strained. “I will, I definitely will — but honey could you hang on again now, because I think—” she sighed in relief as Applejack’s hooves locked behind her head once more. “Whew.”

Applejack tipped her head back to look at the view of the forest passing by beneath her, and her eyes suddenly widened in fright. “Rainbow—!”

Rainbow looked up from Applejack’s face for the first time in many minutes and whinnied in alarm. They were flying very low, barely skimming the canopy, and a huge tree trunk, jutting head and shoulders above the others, was tearing towards them at a frighting pace—

Rainbow threw herself to the left, banking as hard as she could, and Applejack leaned with her. They swerved and narrowly missed the outlying branches. Rainbow’s breath was coming hard now. A dull ache was spreading up from her forehooves to her shoulders, and her wings were straining now to keep them both aloft.

The rainforest reached up its branches to receive them, every one richly garbed with glossy leaves, and Rainbow had no choice but to accept and try to slow their fall.

They spent an arduous three hours fruitlessly hunting for their saddlebags, and Rainbow, ground-bound by her slightly overstrained wings and the ceiling of interwoven branches, began to grow testy. Applejack noticed, and to lift the pegasus’ spirits, regaled her with stories of Granny Apple and Golden Delicious’ youthful prank war against the Pear clan, until Rainbow fell out of a tree from laughing too hard.

The story about the cleverly carved wooden frog left in strategic locations to scare Grand Pear still had them both snickering as they approached a slight break in the trees.

The thick undergrowth was cleared away, and trees in the dell were able to spread their strangely gnarled branches freely. Applejack was surprised to find that she didn’t recognise the species of fruit tree; it had been years since that had happened to her.

She tipped her head back to look at the strange fruits as they passed underneath those first heavily laden boughs. They were roughly oval in shape, ranging in shade from orange to yellow and even some green specimens.

“Interestin’,” Applejack muttered, and reared onto her hind legs to try and reach for the nearest one. Her hooves were within touching distance when Rainbow Dash called her name.

“Applejack! I think I found our bags!”

Reluctantly, Applejack released the deliciously ripe-smelling fruit and hastened after her. She rounded a tree trunk and came alongside Rainbow, who pointed mutely at their saddlebags. Rather than hanging from a branch or lying ripped on the ground, the saddlebags were stacked neatly atop one another. A still more startling development was the presence of the cabin that they leaned against.

It was constructed of stout wooden pillars, with panels of finely woven sticks in between. Large, glossy leaves provided the outer finish; Applejack supposed they must be waterproof.

Applejack surveyed the small building with wide eyes. Habitation and agriculture — for clearly these fruit trees had been cultivated — were the last things she had expected to find on the wilderness adventure Rainbow Dash had planned.

“Who do you think lives here?” Rainbow’s whisper was startlingly loud, and Applejack jumped a little.

“Ah don’t know,” she murmured back. “Let’s have a look an’ see if we can figure out if they’re friendly.” She crossed swiftly to the saddlebags and scooped her own onto her back. Rainbow followed suit, carefully refolding her wings over their bulky shape.

Cautiously, they poked their nose through the curtain of vines that served as a door. The dwelling within was modestly furnished, with a comfortable-looking bed and a few pieces of furniture. There were more of the strange fruits scattered about in various stages of preparation for eating, and several abstract wooden carvings.

Rainbow Dash leaned close to Applejack to whisper into her ear. “Let’s look around the back.”

Applejack nodded once, and together they crept around the corner of the building. As one, they carefully poked their muzzles out. A strange sight met their eyes; a creature roughly the size of a pony, with a velvety chocolate-brown coat. It had a long, thick neck, a broad skull, and enormous ears that swivelled and flapped to get rid of the insects buzzing close to them. On its legs, the rich brown coat gave way to distinctive white stripes, a little reminiscent of zebras. The creature was bent over something, its hooves working quickly, its whole attention given to its task.

Applejack took a step forward, opening her mouth to introduce herself, when Rainbow Dash bit down on her tail and hauled her backwards.

“Hey!” Applejack hissed, turning to look over her shoulder. “What’s the big idea?”

Rainbow spat out the long yellow hairs and looked up at Applejack with wide eyes. “AJ, he has a knife!”

Applejack’s eyebrows rose, but she cautiously peeked around the corner of the house again. She watched the fast, repetitive movements of the creatures hooves more closely, and sure enough, saw the glint of a blade. She peered again at the thing he held, and relaxed at once. She turned her head to mutter over her shoulder to Rainbow. “It’s just a carving, like inside. Ah’m goin’ to say hi.” She turned back towards the creature, and took a confident step forward, deliberately scuffing some leaves beneath her hooves. Once she might not have thought it wise to wander up to a stranger’s house, especially if the stranger were armed, but she believed in Twilight’s methods. Friendship truly was the great unifier.

She cleared her throat. “‘Scuse me.”

At once, the creature’s ears both turned toward her, shortly followed by his head. His eyes widened as he saw them, as rich and brown as his fur, but Applejack couldn’t help noticing that he had no cutie mark; not even a glyph mark like the zebras had. Perhaps the similarities suggested by the striped legs did not run so deep after all.

The creature didn’t reply, but his big ears went flat back on his head. He shifted nervously from hoof to hoof, as though he might run, and a feeling of terrible embarrassment washed over Applejack. Here they were, sneaking around his farm like they were common criminals, and scaring the living daylights out of the poor thing.

“Ah’m sorry if’n we startled you,” she explained, trying to sound as friendly as she could. “We’re newcomers round these parts.”

Those big ears pricked up again — almost more cervine than equine, Applejack mused; perhaps he was some sort of deer. His eyes went to the saddlebags at their sides. Comprehension flashed across his face at last, and to Applejack’s relief, a friendly smile softened his features. “Aha, ponies. I wondered who could be the owners of those bags. Gave me quite a fright when they crashed into one of my trees.”

Applejack flushed. “We’re real sorry. Ah hope there was no damage to your orchard?”

The creature shrugged it off, setting down his carving tools and coming a little closer to them. “Only a branch or two, nothing to worry about. I’m Climbing Vine. Welcome to my home.”

“Ah’m Applejack, and this here’s my wife Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow, her cautiousness forgotten, trotted forward and offered Climbing Vine her hoof. “Pleased to meet you. And if it’s not too rude to ask — what are you?”

Climbing Vine chuckled. “I’m an ibex. There’s a village a few miles south of here, where the rest of my people live.”

“But you don’t live with them?”

Applejack had been a little concerned that Rainbow’s questioning would offend the ibex, but he seemed to take it all in stride. “I like my privacy, and the mangos grow better here.”

“Awesome,” Rainbow Dash grinned. “What’s it like, living all the way out here in the jungle?”

“Mangos?” Applejack chimed in eagerly. “That the name of these here yellow fruits?” She pointed to the nearby trees.

Climbing Vine nodded in confirmation. “Yes. I grow the finest fruits for miles around.” His chest puffed out a little in pride, and he raised his long neck a little higher.

“May Ah try one?” Applejack couldn’t take her eyes off the smooth yellow rinds. She wondered if they would taste like apples, somehow. Or would they be sweeter? She wondered if anypony else in Equestria had ever sampled a mango. “Ah can pay you, o’course,” she added hastily, not wanting to presume on his hospitality.

She reached for her saddlebags, but Climbing Vine waved it away. “No, no. I rarely receive visitors. Stay, eat dinner with me. Tell me a little about your travels, and that will be payment enough.”

He gathered up his knife and half-finished sculpture, and led them back around the hut. They all gathered around a low table made from a fallen log, and Climbing Vine used the carving knife to slice one of the ripe mangos that had fallen from the tree. Rainbow Dash and Applejack described Ponyville, and Climbing Vine told them a little about the rain wilds. The ibex were not the only race dwelling here; to the west were the quokka, and it was rumoured that some dragons still lived in the unreachable summits of the mountains to the south.

Applejack was amazed. Here they were, just a few miles off from a regular Equestrian zeppelin freight route, and it was already as though they were in another world. She raised another slice of mango to her lips and bit off a small piece. It was delicious. The perfect mixture of sweet and tart. She wondered how she could persuade Climbing Vine to give her a few seeds to take home to Sweet Apple Acres. Imagine, Equestria’s first mango orchard.

“And of course, theres the ancient city,” Climbing Vine went on. “That’s maybe…two days walk west. But no one lives there any more.”

Applejack felt Rainbow Dash lean forward beside her. “Did you say you have an ancient ruined city here?”

“Yes,” Climbing Vine nodded. “But my people don’t go there.”

Applejack looked across at Rainbow. A grin was creeping across Rainbow Dash’s face. She looked as though she had just seen a particularly delicious cake.

“Why don’t you go there?” she demanded, her hind hooves drumming a statacco rhythm against the floor.

Climbing Vine raised his eyebrows slightly. “Because we believe it’s cur—”

“—Cursed!” crowed Rainbow Dash, finishing his sentence for him. “I knew it!” She turned to Applejack, her eyes huge with excitement. “AJ, we have to go.”

Applejack suppressed a smile, but kept her face smooth, and attempted a tone of surprise. “Shucks, Rainbow, are ya sure? Ah didn’t think ya were all that interested in history.”

“History!” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “AJ, are you kidding? This is an ancient ruin. Forget history — its bound to have ghosts, or skeletons. Or have some sort of secret treasure.” She beat her wings harder in excitement and rose a few feet higher. “It’ll be like our very own Daring Do adventure!”

Applejack let her own face break into a smile at that. Rainbow’s enthusiasm was infectious. She knew that Rainbow couldn’t resist any prospect of a chance at a Daring Do style trip, and she couldn’t resist the chance to give Rainbow Dash the trip of her dreams. It was the whole reason they were here in the jungle anyway.

A shared adventure with Rainbow; put like that, the ancient ruin did begin to sound a mite more appealing. Not that she wouldn’t have loved to see Climbing Vine’s mango growing techniques — she cast a wistful look at that overgrown jungle orchard — but she was on holiday. And Twilight’s ‘How To Holiday’ checklist had been crystal clear that holidays were about removing oneself from the usual, and exploring new places. An ancient ruin certainly fit that bill.