The Rainbow That Never Was

    The sun flowed in through the uncovered window, casting a bright glare across the messy bed inside the room. Applejack shielded her eyes as she pushed back the covers, slipping out of the bed and landing softly on the floor, before giving a large yawn. She stretched, letting out a satisfied sigh as she saw that everything was in working order, before standing tall. Walking to her wardrobe, she rifled through the contents, quickly deciding on one of her more casual, yet still formal jackets. She slung the jacket over her shoulders, taking a moment to push her legs through the holes, before straightening out the fabric.

    Applejack was almost ready, taking a moment to run a brush through her hair, letting it hang freely as she shook out the odd kink. Turning to her hat stand, she caught sight of a certain hat and turned away. She didn’t really need a hat today after all, she decided, quickly distancing herself from the hat. She couldn’t stand to be near that thing; her father’s old stenson that her parents had sent her, but she couldn’t stand to put it away either. It was the last thing she’d ever gotten from her parents, and letting it go felt like letting them go.

    Every time she looked at that hat, she saw the two of them, smiling like they always had. They’d sent her this hat, and just weeks later she got the letter. Just weeks later, she’d learned that they were dead. With it being just as big of a harvest as ever, and them had one less pony to help them with it, they overworked themselves, and they were too stubborn to stop, even when they were told to. They’d skipped meals, and sometimes worked the the point of passing out, and yet they still kept trying. They were good at what they did, to be sure, but sometimes, you just couldn’t be good enough. Sometimes, a job was just too big.

    Applejack had cried for hours when she’d gotten the news. She hadn’t seen them since she had come to Manehattan, but they’d written to her almost every week. They’d been the thing that made her want to go home more than anything else, and now they were the thing that drove her away. Deep down, she knew why they’d died. It was her fault. She’d left, them, and the harvest that they’d always done together ended up being too much for them. She couldn’t go back and face that guilt, so she didn’t go back at all. The hat was reminder enough for her of what had happened, and some days, even that was almost too much to bear.

    She quickly left her apartment, taking a brisk run down the stairs to clear her mind. It was only a few floors, after all, and a morning jog always seemed to do her good. She hurried through the lobby of the building, checking the clock as she ran. She had some time to make up for, and so she was happy to see that there were a few taxis waiting right outside. She ran over, opening the door to one of the yellow carriages and shutting the door behind her.

    “If you can get me to the Carousel Fashion in the next fifteen minutes, I’ll pay double.”

    “Late, late, late, late!” Applejack dashed out of the cab, taking a moment to decipher the outward opening nature of the door on the large building she’d just gotten to. “Rarity’s going to kill me if I’m late for another meeting.” Looking around the lobby, she found that, to her dismay, the stairs were once again the only option for climbing the tall building. The stairs wound up dauntingly as she stepped into the stairwell, looking up with a sigh. “Nothing for it...” She muttered as she started to ascend, her hooves clattering loudly against the hard stairs.

    “Fluttershy, pick up the pace! We’re already running late!” Applejack’s ears perked up at the sound of another voice from below, and she could hear the sound of hooves quickly gaining on her.

    “Fluttershy... Where’ve I heard that name before?” Applejack asked herself, just as a blue streak rushed past her, taking two stairs at a time.

    “‘Scuse me, we’re running a bit late!” The blur said apologetically as it bumped against Applejack, whose mind was quickly piecing things together. Fast blue pony, together with a ‘Fluttershy’.... These had to be the ponies they were meeting today.

    Halfway up the building by now, Applejack looked to where she could see Rainbow Dash, with a floor lead and gaining. “Oh no you don’t!” She called, a grin spreading across her face as her body sprung into action, her pace changing from a quick trot to an all out gallop. If she could get there before Rainbow Dash, she wouldn’t be late!

    “You’ll have to move faster than that, slowpoke!” Rainbow called down the stairs behind her, only to watch as Applejack strained with effort, and began to make up ground. Rainbow’s wings started to unfold, but she shook her head, and pulled them back tight to her body, “Let’s keep this nice and fair.” She chuckled to herself as she started to push her body harder. Applejack had made up the one floor disadvantage, but was clearly starting to tire from pushing herself so hard- she wasn’t in as good shape as she’d been back in the day.

    “I...I’m not about to lose that easy.” She gasped out, looking up to see there were only a few floors left to go, if she could just keep up the pace. Her muscles were already starting to burn as she bounded up step after step, just able to keep pace with Rainbow Dash. Rounding the last corner, they were neck in neck- That is, until Applejack stumbled.

    Rainbow Dash whirled, pushing her shoulder under Applejack to catch her with a grunt. “Oof.... Shouldn’t push yourself so hard, you know.” Dash said as she helped the pony get her balance back, walking with her up the last flight of stairs to the floor both of them were going to.

    “Not as spry as I used to be, that’s for sure...” Applejack muttered through gritted teeth, her chest heaving as she tried to get her breath back.

    “You want to pay for us to fly?”

    “Of course. If you’d seen yourselves, you’d want to pay you to fly too.” Said the well dressed, yet slightly out of breath orange pony.

    “All you have to do, is let us provide you with your flight-suits, and maybe give us a shout-out at your shows. Now doesn’t that sound easy?” Rarity said, grinning. The contract was laid out on the table between them, with a quill primed and ready at the bottom. There were two spaces for signatures, but so far, neither one of them was filled.

    Rainbow held out a hoof as Fluttershy reached for the quill, motioning for her to hold off on signing so quickly. “Might sound easy, but things like this are never quite that simple.”

    “Clever pony.” Commented Applejack, leaning forward in her seat. “What can we do to make the contract a bit more... appealing?”

    It was a few hours later that the flying pair walked out of the building, having hammered out a deal that Dash found to be satisfactory, and had gotten an uncertain nod of approval from Fluttershy. Once they’d settled it, the two of them had been fitted for flight suits, ones which, oddly enough, had already been designed, as if waiting for the two of them. The suits were a light blue, with nice white feather patterning, and happened to be stuffed in the brand new saddlebags to two carried, both of which were plastered with the Carousel Fashion logo.

    “I’d say we came out of that on top, wouldn’t you?” Dash said with a grin as she gave Fluttershy a playful nudge.

    “Y-yeah, we got a good deal...” Fluttershy half-agreed, half-returning Dash’s grin. In truth, she’d been a bit lost by most of the negotiations that had gone on, but Rainbow had handled it all rather well. All Fluttershy knew was that they were going to get paid a rather large amount of bits to fly up in Cloudsdale, and around the country.