“So…. Applejack’s not here today?”
“For the tenth time Rainbow - no.” A slightly strained smile had made its way upon Sugar Belle’s face as she peered through the window, looking at Rainbow Dash.
“But it’s a Tuesday,” Rainbow insisted, hanging a hoof on the inside of the kitchen window as she brought her face through the square space, looking around as if Applejack may have been hiding in the corners of the kitchen, or maybe seen through a door frame.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Sugar Belle. It was just that… “Applejack never makes deliveries on Tuesdays.” Most deliveries happened over the weekend for convenience’s sake. The Ponyville market primarily operated during the weekdays, and so Applejack usually made it her business to make sure that deliveries always fell upon a weekend. If there were deliveries to be scheduled on weekdays they were usually handled by Big Macintosh, as while he was good at farming, cutting deals in the market wasn’t his style.
But today Rainbow Dash had found Applebloom at the marketplace running the stand in the afternoon when she had arrived to Ponyville from the Wonderbolt barracks, and no Applejack to be found anywhere.
“Not usually, I know. But there was an emergency to be had with an apparent mix-up. I think. Big Macintosh was going to take care of it, but Applejack stepped up and offered to do the job for him.” Sugar Belle frowned slightly as she used her magic to carefully knead the dough in front of her while using a hoof to wipe off some sweat from her face, before the frown was replaced with a smile. “But that just means Big Macintosh and me get to spend nearly the whole day together after he finishes his chores.”
“Great,” Rainbow Dash said, dragging out the word slightly as a small strained smile came upon her face as she pulled away from the window of the farmhouse. Not that it wasn’t great. But only for Sugar Belle and Big Macintosh. Not for her.
Tonight and tomorrow had been the night and day she had set aside try and make things right and-
“Rainbow Dash?” Sugar Belle’s voice called from the kitchen, snapping Rainbow out of that train of thought as she looked back down at the unicorn. “Is there anything I can do to help…?” Sugar Belle’s words were both light and friendly, though slightly puzzled-sounded. Rainbow frowned at the thought: surely Sugar Belle knew exactly what was wrong. There was nothing light to this situation at all!
“Nope. Thanks, though.” Rainbow Dash said, unfurling her wings and getting ready to fly away and totally not sulk. A thought made her pause as she turned to look at Sugar Belle directly. “Actually… do you know when Applejack will be back tonight? And what else she has to do afterwards?”
“Around eight o’clock, I think. And she has to do some chores regarding the financials of the farm.” For a moment, Sugar Belle frowned, before narrowing her eyes slightly as she took a closer look at the pegasus. “Why?”
“It’s just…” Rainbow waved a hoof through the air as she folded her wings back up, trying to quickly think of an excuse. Something to placate the baker, but found herself coming up short as she deflated slightly. “I really thought today me and Applejack would have some time to ourselves! Pop open a bottle of cider, and just… hang out together.”
As Sugar Belle’s look turned curious, Rainbow Dash let her eyes avert. “I’ve been having to put a lot more hours in the ‘bolts as of late, and it’s kind of been cutting into our time together. I was… well, I thought I’d surprise her with me having a day-off today.” Rainbow Dash kicked the ground with one hoof. “Obviously that didn’t work out how I wanted.”
A small ‘oh’ had formed on Sugar Belle’s muzzle when next Rainbow looked to her, and for a moment, a small silence formed between the two, before Rainbow Dash spoke up again. “No applebucking? Nothing to be done around the farm?” she asked, almost with a desperate note in her voice. Almost.
“Nothing but that paperwork.” Sugar Belle shook her head. “Big Mac’s taking care of what little needs to be done before he gets off.”
“... Well then I know what I need to do!” With that statement, Rainbow spread her wings once more, giving a quick flap that lofted herself into the air. “I’m going to take a look at that paperwork and smash it!” she said, pumping a hoof. “Well, finish it. You know what I mean?”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sugar Belle called from the window, though Rainbow Dash had already spun around mid-air, getting ready to put on a burst of speed to get back to her house. She was going to need a few more things before she arrived back at the farmhouse.
“Of course! And thanks a lot for telling me what’s up!” With a small wave, Rainbow Dash was off.
To say that Applejack was plum tuckered out after the journey from the journey to Tall Tale and back would be an understatement. Though not by hoof, the route had a long train ride to and back from the town, and it left her body stiff both times that she got off the train. Especially now, with the load of goods that was hitched to her back that was being pulled behind her. Fitting that load on the train had also not been a joy.
How the hay could that couple that ordered those apples say they bought it from the wrong farm? Was it that hard to figure out the difference between the Apple family branch in Ponyville and the one in Hollow Shades? Evidently so, based off the whole fiasco. But Applejack was somepony who always valued customer satisfaction over most other things. Even if it meant making a long journey that took up most of the day - and night, now that she thought about it.
A sigh escaped her mouth as she thought of the paperwork that awaited her when she got back home. While Mac was usually the more sensible regarding the financials of the farm, considering she co-ran it with him, it meant that sometimes the burden of going over the monthly financials fell to her. This was one of those times. Of course, she could just put it off for tomorrow. But that meant messing with tomorrow’s schedule as well and trying to find room to work on it, which would be a pain in the tail. Still, it was worth considering if for nothing else so that she could rest her hooves when she finally got home.
When Applejack crossed the gateway leading to Sweet Apple Orchards, the relief that she felt could not be stated enough. First she walked to one of their barns of storage, quickly pulling off the harness and starting to put away the packages into their respective places carefully. While that alone took more time than she’d like, it would save the trouble of her placing them haphazardly around the barn and something going wrong instead.
After having placed everything precisely, and latching the barn back up tightly, Applejack finally started to make her to the farm house that lay as the centerpiece of the farm. Seeing most of the lights were already off didn’t give Applejack much of a surprise: with rising before even Princess Celestia did, it wasn’t a surprise that most of the lights were off in the house.
One thing definitely stood out to her though: a light upstairs was on. For a moment, Applejack attributed it to Apple Bloom. Despite knowing better, the filly might have taken advantage of her older sister being out of the house and decided staying up later than normal. But that was quickly ruled out as Applejack realized that the light didn’t shine from her little sister’s room, but her own.
Now that was a mystery, and one that she intended to solve as soon as possible. Either she had left a light on in her room and no other pony had bothered to turn it off - or someone was in her room lurking.
Best to bet on the second and be wrong, rather than be wrong on the first, Applejack decided as she slowly pushed the door to the farmhouse open with a hoof, slipping inside the kitchen and making her way to the hallway. Once she had made it there, Applejack flicked her ears slightly, trying to see if she could catch any noise from the second floor. After ten seconds of silence, she shook her head slightly. Nothing from down here. That meant there was either nothing, or whatever was going on was just too quiet to be heard from down the stairs.
Slowly, Applejack began to creep her way up the stairs, making sure to place her weight carefully upon each step to avoid a creak from the wood beneath her hooves. Once she had made it to the top, Applejack pressed onwards, seeing her door shut closed, with the tell-tale sign of light shining from inside on the edges of the doorway.
Taking a deep breath inwards while inhaling through her nose, Applejack walked to the doorway while keeping her ears angled forward, straining to catch any hint of sound from the doorway… like… there! She had heard a creak, like someone shifting on her bed. Almost immediately, Applejack tensed slightly as she stopped outside the door. Either she was going to have to give somepony a real good talking to or she was going to have to buck somepony up. Neither she was looking particularly forward to at the current time that night, considering how her day had gone and the tiredness that accompanied her. Still, it had to be done.
With one small shove, the door was quickly flown open. Not enough to slam it against the door stopper, but enough to create an obvious entrance. And quickly, the stranger in the room turned to face her - though Applejack noted that they were very far from being a stranger. The heated look on her face quickly was replaced by surprise as she stared, bewildered, at the scene before her.
There Rainbow Dash was on her bed, the documents Applejack had to go through in front of her, nestled between her hooves, with a calculator and several books to the side among other things. The pegasus had seemed to be focused intensely upon the papers until the door had swung open, and now Rainbow Dash was staring straight at Applejack, while the expression on her face changed to surprise - to guilt? - to worry, before settling back on surprise.
“Oh! AJ, um-” Rainbow Dash quickly said, sitting up in the bed, and almost causing the papers between her legs to go flying, which even more quickly, Rainbow Dash tried to piece them together into a neater pile than before. “I… can explain?”
Applejack felt herself blink a few times, before she quietly turned around, closing the door behind her, still feeling a bit dumbstruck, but not wanting to disturb the rest of the family with the noise of conversation. Once she did however, Applejack turned back to cautiously face Rainbow Dash, while taking off her hat and placing it upon a chair. “Um… yeah. That would help.”
Applejack had been sure that Rainbow Dash was supposed to be off at the Wonderbolts bunker for at least the next week, as she had been for the last couple of weeks. Her being here was a surprise all by itself in that regard, but her doing the paperwork of all things? While Applejack loved her marefriend for a whole bucket load of things - being daring, her unwillingness to give up, and her pace when she put her mind and body to work - Applejack knew that numbers and facts had never been her marefriend's strongest suit.
“Welllllll,” Rainbow Dash said, now pushing the straightened papers to the side of the bed while she swung herself to face Applejack fully, front hooves hanging off the bed as she nervously crossed them. “You see, I know that I’ve been really busy with the Wonderbolts and everything. The promotion really did amp up the amount of work I needed to do. And we haven’t really had a day together for a while. So I had taken tonight and tomorrow off as a surprise for you. I was really trying to make it up to you for not being around more often to hang out and help, and-” Rainbow Dash sighed slightly, cutting herself off while shrugging.
Oh. Applejack winced slightly at that. Dagnabbit. Why did that delivery nonsense have had to have been today then? While Applejack had kind of missed Dash over the past few weeks, knowing that her marefriend had planned a little something for them, and felt guilty about the whole not seeing each other thing in a while made things worse. “Aww, sugarcube, you know I want you to succeed with the Wonderbolts. While I really appreciate you trying for today, there’s no reason to beat yourself up for it. It’s the thoughts that count, really. And we can spend some of tomorrow together still. But… that doesn’t really explain this whole thing here,” Applejack said, raising a hoof to wave it at the stack of papers.
“Oh. Yeah. Well, Sugar Belle had told me that you were getting home late and still needed to work on this paperwork. I just… really wanted to help. Even if I couldn’t really.” Rainbow Dash’s ears folded against her head as she carefully picked up the papers, before holding them out to Applejack. “I really tried my best on them - I know I probably messed up in a few places though…” she said, rubbing a hoof against the back of her head. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
“Well, let me take a look and see what’s goin’ on with it, alright?” Applejack said, carefully taking the papers before climbing onto the bed next to Rainbow Dash, and placing the papers between her forelegs while starting to shift through them. To her own surprise, and a bit of pride, most of it was filled in correctly. Seems those books and that calculator that Rainbow Dash had brought over certainly helped her out. “But there is this one spot here where I think you’re off by a bit,” Applejack said, pointing with a hoof at one of the papers. “Just a bit though.”
“Told you.” Rainbow Dash shook her head, before shifting on the bed to make more room. “How about you get yourself comfortable here? Sugar Belle didn’t really mention where you meant, but since you were gone most of the day, it must have been pretty far away, huh?”
Applejack raised a brow slightly as she lay down on the bed instead of just sitting on it, leaning the papers on the pillow while she nosed the pencil to a place where she could easily grab it between talking. “Yeah, pretty far away. You’ve been to Tall Tale before?”
“For two Wonderbolts shows, yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, while Applejack started to focus on the paper in front of her, before nearly startling by the feeling of something in her mane. Quickly looking up, Applejack found that Rainbow had a small brush in her mouth, and a grin on her face.
“Isn’t this a little bit too much for some paperwork? How am I supposed to concentrate while you’re distracting me?” Applejack asked, though her tone wasn’t snappish and leaned more into teasing. With as little left as she had in terms of paperwork, a little bit of a distraction by way of her mane being brushed - if only that, that is - wasn’t going to be something that really ate up her time.
“Nah,” Rainbow Dash answered, slightly muffled by the brush in her mouth. “It’s… well, as I said I really want to make it up to you. Not being here and stuff.”
“And I said you didn’t have to,” Applejack said in response, her smile dulling slightly. Not that she didn’t enjoy the personal time and everything. “You don’t need to feel bad about this.”
“I know, but I still want to make the most of this night. Even if it’s only for a little while.” Rainbow Dash said, before going back to work, working on the lower part of Applejack’s mane for now.
For a moment, Applejack considered further arguing the point, before sighing slightly. Why did both of them have to be so stubborn on issues like this? “Fine. But you will have ‘made it up to me’ after tonight. Deal?”
“Deal.”
And with that, Applejack began to focus on the paper once more, while relaxing a bit finally. Feeling her marefriend snuggled up against her side, with her brushing her hair, something unusually intimate for the both of them, and having gotten through this day had certainly alleviated a few worries from her mind and made Applejack feel like she could let go of the tension usually surrounding her. And for now, she was just going to enjoy the rest of this quiet night.
Author's Note
I'm really wanting to get back into writing, and I really hope this will be the piece to break me back into the habit. While this is a mostly fluff fic, this pairing always had a soft spot in my heart and I'm glad to write a quick something for them!
