Jetpack Harmony

The friends of ponyville milled about anxiously, waiting for Twilight to reveal her "secret project" that she'd been closeted with Sunset Shimmer for during the whole of the preceding week. The retired alicorns chatted casually with Cadence, Shining Armor having lost the coin toss and thus having to remain back in the Crystal Empire with the baby. Spike did his level best to keep the Cutie Mark Crusaders within a relative area, and to stop them from touching or breaking anything in the large hangar. Trixie did her best to contain the mild panic attack that Starlight Glimmer was suffering at the princess having been closeted for a week, reassuring that her mentor had not in fact replaced her with the pony from the other world.

Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy chatted pleasantly, speculating about what this new project of Twilight's might be, but Rainbow hovered in the air scowling. She'd seen precious little of Applejack in the last week. The earth pony would come home late at night, go straight to bed, and be gone before she got up in the morning. Applejack was the only pony in Equestria that could make waffles just the way Rainbow liked and she'd gone a whole week without a decent breakfast! "Come on already!" She snapped, startling all present. "Quit dragging out the suspense Twilight!"

As if they'd been waiting for this verbal cue, the large velvet curtain they'd all been waiting in front of opened with Twilight's distinctive magic sheen. The reveal was slightly anticlimactic as the curtain merely revealed a set of large hangar doors. Rainbow rolled her eyes and quipped, "Wow, a door! I'm so impressed!" Again, as if they'd been waiting for this invitation, the hangar doors began to slowly rattle open, filling the hangar with a rush of air that almost knocked a few ponies off of their hooves, revealing three ponies hovering in air.

Twilight was gently flapping her wings, Sunset was magically levitating herself, but Rainbow flinched reflexatorily when she noticed that nothing was supporting the earth pony. She made a slight movement to snatch her out of the air, but she saw that the smiling orange pony was hanging in the air. There was no magical sheen, no butterfly wings, as Rarity had used, nothing. She was wearing an odd metal backpack, but she simply hovered there, completely unsupported.

Rainbow's jaw hung limp, the mouthy pegasus having been left literally speechless. The three hovering ponies gently moved into the hangar. Twilight and Sunset landed gently on the deck of the hangar, but Applejack flew straight up to the hovering pegasus. She couldn't help but snicker at Rainbow's shocked expression. "Well Dash?" She did a gentle pirouette in air. "What'd'ya think?"

The blue pony still couldn't answer, she'd seen the magical prop that supported Tank in the air, but this was something else entirely. Pinkie, as was her way, finally broke the gawking silence with a loud shout of, "Holy cannoli Jackie! You're flying!" The assembled ponies, freed from their stupor by this observation, all clustered around the hovering earth pony to wonder at the device strapped to her back.

Celestia siddled up to her former student whispering. "My goodness Twilight! I knew you were clever, but this is truly magnificent!"

Luna smiled warmly, "Indeed! How is this feat of natural philosophy accomplished?"

Twilight smiled tiredly and waved a hoof, "Alright everypony, gather round." Applejack grinned at the still gawking pegasus and flew gracefully over to the purple alicorn. She landed for the first time and the scholar began her lecture. "This is a device from the human world that allows the flightless creatures there to be able to fly for short distances and times. Though there they use compressed air or flammable materials."

That finally broke through the blue pegasus stupor. "You strapped a ROCKET to my mare's back?!"

Twilight waved a hoof reassuringly. "No no, that's what's been taking so long with this project. Finding the right combination of spells to propel the jetpack forward without having to use explosive materials."

Sunset raised a hoof to speak, but had to yawn before she could begin. "That, and having to figure out how to give a creature without hands the ability to control the device." The purple alicorn levitated the baby dragon over to elaborate. The orange unicorn went on. "Humans have digits like dragons claws that they use to press buttons and use controls that are simply too complex to replicate with hooves."

Twilight nodded at Applejack and she gently raised herself into the air. "So we had to figure out how to get the jetpack to respond to Applejack's commands."

"By a mind numbing process of trial and error." Sunset grumbled.

"And a few whiplashes." Applejack added with a smirk.

"We managed to create a magical potion that can power the machine and the spells needed to get it to respond properly to the users instructions." Twilight concluded. "Rainbow if you would be so kind."

The blue pegasus ripped her eyes off of the strange backpack strapped to her mare's back that allowed her to fly and noticed that every eye was on her. "Huh? What?" She said in a daze.

All assembled giggled and Applejack raised herself into the air again, the jetpack spitting out a series of quickly fading blue rings and a gentle gurgling noise. The earth pony gave the dumbfounded pegasus a small peck on the nose and cooed, "Come n get me." With that she blasted off into the open sky, the backdraft of her acceleration forcing several ponies to take a few steps backwards.

Rainbow snapped, "Hey!" And rushed after her. She flew at what she would've called seventy percent speed, trying to close the distance between herself and the zooming earth pony. Just as she was about to catch up with the mischievous mare Applejack changed direction, shooting straight up into the air and leaving Rainbow Dash far behind. The frustrated pegasus did her best to angle herself upward to chase the fleeing pony, raising her speed to eighty percent.

Again just as she was about to catch her Applejack turned one hundred and eight degrees and blew straight past her, rocketing towards the ground. "Come on Sugar cube!" The earth pony called out as she dove within legs reach of the climbing pegasus. Rainbow growled to herself, being thoroughly annoyed at how well her mare was evading her, and increased her speed to as fast as she could fly without causing a sonic rainboom. As she sped towards the ground a terrifying thought crept into her mind. Applejack was going really REALLY fast. Would she be able to slow down or pull up in time?

The pegasus felt her wings flap even harder, rainboom or not she wasn't going to let her mare crash. She flew slightly outward from the plummeting earth pony's trajectory so that she could snatch her out of the air at a respectable distance from the ground. Rainbow followed the orange meteor with her eyes, ready to catch her as they met in air. Just at the moment of contact Applejack disappeared. The blue pony rocketed forward, completely bewildered.

Had. . . Had she missed? HOW COULD SHE HAVE MISSED?! Rainbow was the best flier in Equestria! She'd had her! It took several seconds to turn around, but when she did she looked frantically at the ground, searching for the smoking ruin of her mare's crash site. The call of "Yoohoo!" Snapped her out of her panic. She looked up and saw her mare grinning widely as she casually floated down towards the ground on a large orange parachute with her cutie mark emblazoned on it.

The pegasus gawked as her wings carried her towards the gently descending earth pony. The two landed and Applejack smiled. "Sorry to worry ya sugar cube. Just wanted to deh moan straight these here safety features. Iffn ya git panicked er the jetpack thinks y'all'r gonna crash it shoots out this here pick o nick blanket. Oof!" She gave small groan as Rainbow seized her in a crushing embrace. She saw with some regret the mingled look of relief and anger on her mare's face.

Rainbow spoke with a conspicuous catch in her voice, "Babe don't EVER scare me like that again!" She resumed the crushing embrace.

Applejack smiled to herself and held her mare, cooing softly to her as she stroked her mane reassuringly. "Aww, hush up now gal. Y'all know Ah'm level headed enough not to trah nuthin foalish n git mahself injured." She reached over with her teeth and pulled the retraction cord to reel in the parachute and it neatly folded back up into the jetpack. "Come on now girl. Ah didn't get all them whiplashes to spend all day on the ground." She gave a short jump and the jetpack gently took her weight, hovering just above the ground. "Come flah with me sugar cube." She extended a hoof and Rainbow couldn't help but smile as she took it.

The two flew hoof in hoof towards the floating obstacle course hundreds of feet above their heads. Applejack grinned as she slowly but surely increased her speed, challenging her mare to race her, putting her back in her natural element. The pegasus wanted to stay mad, but she couldn't help but feel the creeping desire to rise to her mare's challenge. They arrived at the obstacle course and the slow acceleration didn't cease. The orange pony kept going faster and faster as they rocketed together through the first hoop.

Rainbow couldn't suppress a genuine chuckle of triumph as her mare expertly dove and weaved through the cloud hoops and around obstacles, the entire time never loosing her grasp on her mare's hoof. "Babe! You are AWESOME at this!" She cheered as they perfectly went through a helix obstacle together.

Applejack gave a smirking chuckle. "Heck sugar cube, Ah been watchin y'all do it fer years!"

The two wrapped each other in their forelegs and broke through the cloud barrier together, as if the sky itself was their dance floor, simply hanging together in air. They came together in a gentle kiss, all fear or annoyance forgotten. Rainbow pulled away from the kiss with stars in her eyes. "So awesome!" She whispered.

"Get a room two!" Pinkie called up to them, causing the mood to evaporate instantly. Rainbow pulled away from her mare like a teenager caught making out in a movie theater. Applejack let out with a hearty belly laugh as the two slowly lowered themselves to the deck of the hangar. Again the excited ponies gathered around to gawk at the impressive device. Pinkie grabbed the farm pony by the face and shouted, "Can I have a turn on the rocket?! Can I? Huh huh huh?" She began zooming around the hangar like making whooshing sounds. "Rocket pony! Burnin out her fuse up there alone!"

Twilight couldn't help but grin at the pink pony's antics. "Actually Pinkie, you don't have to!" She pulled back a curtain on the wall and every eye on the room lit up at the sight of a jetpack with each of their cutie marks. "This was just the final beta test. Now we can field test them with all of you before taking bids for mass production!" Each excitedly received their own personal jetpack and the two engineers instructed each of them on how to put on the harness. All except Rainbow Dash.

Twilight wiggled the big blue backpack with the rainbow lightning bolt emblazoned on it. "Oh Rainbow, there's one for you too!" She cooed temptingly.

The wonderbolt scoffed and rolled Her eyes. "Feh! What do I need a jetpack for?" She leapt into a double backflip in the air. "I'm already the greatest flier in Equestria."

"Okaaaaay." The purple alicorn cooed, slipping her own harness on. "Suit yourself." She trotted over to the newly equipped ponies and called out, "Okay everypony, let's start with a hover." Rainbow watched as each pony quickly learned how to use the new technology. Oddly enough the winged ponies seemed to have the most trouble with the new method of flight, their bone deep flight instincts misleading them in the effort of trusting their weight to the jetpack rather than their wings. Conversely Scootaloo took to the concept like a duck to water, or rather a chicken.

Soon each was floating about gracefully in the sky, the gentle sputter and hum of each jetpack spitting out quickly fading colored rings of discharge the same color as the pony wearing it. Pinkie gracefully danced a sky ballet with Rarity, the Cutie Mark Crusaders playing a sporadic game of tag. Starlight Glimmer could smirk add she hovered in air next to the "Even Greater and Now Airborne Trrrrixie!" Whilst the elder princesses did loops and swirls in the air, hooting like excited fillies. Rainbow's envy grew with every second of witnessing the frivolity, and just as she turned to look longing back at her shunned jetpack she noticed it was being suspended in air by an orange hoof.

"Well Shug?" Applejack said with a teasing grin.

Rainbow snatched the bulky backpack out of her mare's hoof and grumbled bashfully as she slipped it on. "Okay! Let's do this!" She shouted determinedly as she prepared to blast off into the sky.

Applejack's eyes went wide and she called out, "Wait!" But it was too late. Instead of blasting out of the hangar and into the open sky, the blue pegasus was launched backwards into the far wall. She crashed flank first into a pile of spare parts, a ring of tiny jetpacks circling around her dizzy head. The farm pony stuck out an orange hoof and smirked, "Y'all got it on back ways hun!" After getting the harness on correctly and a few false starts the two exited the hangar hoof in hoof.

Rainbow, being the best flier, had the hardest time adjusting to the new method. Applejack couldn't help but smile at her mare as she clung to her hoof like a filly learning to ice skate for the first time. The rest of the afternoon was spent in zooming around the sky, each relishing their new found mode of transportation.