New And Old Friends
Geronimo had a pleasant dream, he couldn't remember it, but it was better than his usual. It had something to do with Applejack, but he couldn't remember specifics.
He could feel himself coming out of his realm of dreams; however, something was off. He could feel something beside him, and leaning up against his side.
He slowly opened his eyes, and realized that he was outside. He looked around, confused, and then his eyes landed on a face.
The face was leaning against his chest, and apparently sleeping. He was still only partially conscious, so he couldn't think clearly. He could only think to do one thing.
Scream.
He flailed, while screaming, until he was on his hooves. Coherent thought was only coming back, a little bit at a time. His next thought was, 'What did I do?'
Applejack was shocked out of sleep by her, now screaming, date. "What's wrong?"
His mind was trying to quickly piece together what was happening, but he hadn't remembered everything yet. He decided to go through all that he did know. First, he woke up outside, next to another pony. Next, that pony was leaning against him. The pony was a mare, very pretty and very familiar. Who was she? Then he realized that she was Applejack. At that piece of information, others poured in. He had a date with her last night, there was plenty of small talk, but then they looked at the stars for a while, his mind went blank after that, 'Crap.' he thought to himself.
"Uuuh... What happened last night Applejack?" he asked nervously, his voice cracking with worry.
She was horribly confused, "Ya took me out fer a picnic. And, if Ah might add, Ah had a wonderful time." she added with a smile.
"So, why were we sleeping out here?" he asked, desperately trying to remember what happened after they were looking at the stars.
"We jus' kinda' dozed off, why?" she was confused again.
Sure enough, everything checked out, now that she mentioned it, he could remember everything that happened last night. "Alright good, I remember now."
"What did ya think happened?" she asked, nervous suspicion filling her words.
"Honestly, after we started watching the stars, I couldn't remember a thing; and I really didn't want Big Mac having any reason to kill me."
"Big Mac wouldn't kill ya." she said with a laugh.
"Well, Rainbow, Rarity, and Big Mac, have already threatened to kill me if I should hurt you in any way. And each one has promised to do so in their own special way!" he said, with mock mirth in his voice.
That shocked Applejack, and she started to get mad, but then realized that they were just being good friends and family, plus Spectrum seemed to take it well.
"So, Applejack, what do you say we get back to your house?" he offered, after cleaning up from the picnic and putting everything back in his basket.
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Big Macintosh was getting worried. Applejack and Geronimo didn't return to the farm last night. He got up early and started his work, always keeping an eye out in the direction that they had headed off the night before.
He had worked for about a half an hour, before he saw them. They were walking down the path, laughing like the best of friends.
And she was leaning against him.
Mac didn't know wether to feel happy for her, or furious with him. He chose to wait and see what had happened last night, before making his final decision on the matter.
He could just overhear the last part of Geronimo's story, that his sister was now laughing at, "... It's true! I promise you, you will never look at rainclouds the same way ever again." as he finished up Applejack burst into another fit of laughter. "You go on ahead, I need to talk with your brother, excuse me." he said, with a light bow.
Applejack went towards the farm house, while Geronimo walked over to Big Mac.
"Alright. Where were ya with mah sister?" Big Mac asked, rising to full height and staring down on the Sergeant.
"I am terribly sorry, about not having her back here last night." Geronimo said, with all sincerity, "We just sort of dozed off while looking at the stars, nothing more."
"So, Ah don't need to kick ya to the moon?" Big Mac asked, with rised eyebrows.
"Nnope." Geronimo responded, using the farm pony's trademark saying.
Big Mac laughed and said, "Alright, yer ok in mah book."
"So I was wondering," Geronimo started, "Do you need any help on the farm? Any time that I'm not training Rainbow Dash, or dating your sister I spend here anyway. So I would be willing to work for my keep." he offered.
Mac considered the extra work, the extra productivity, and the extra revenue, with only one more mouth to feed. "Eeyup."
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Rainbow Dash awoke in her cloud bed, as usual, and started to think about the previous day. After her training session, she had spent the rest of the day with T.C..
He was a very good flier, he wasn't quite as fast as Rainbow, of coarse, but he was pretty fast. As a Griffon, however, he was more flexible, and thus more maneuverable than she was, which made races, with lots of obstacles, extremely close. She had finally found some competition, someone (he was a griffon, so she couldn't say somepony) who was a good enough flier to give her a challenge.
And she liked it, a lot.
As she was getting ready for work, followed by training, she kept thinking about the previous day, and her mind kept wandering to T.C. And she couldn't figure out why. She just couldn't place why she kept thinking about him, and how cute he was, until she realized that she had feelings for him.
She was trying to rationalize her feelings at work. She didn't want to need to slow down for a guy, but he didn't seem to need her too. There was also the whole 'Element of Loyalty' thing, and she wouldn't, and couldn't, get into a relationship she wasn't expecting to keep.
She decided, on her way to training, that she would give him some time; then, if she still had feelings for him, she would consider getting in a relationship.
Rainbow was hoping to be able to get her mind off of everything during training, but that wasn't about to happen.
Geronimo was waiting in the same place where they had practiced the day before. Then she remembered that he had gone on a date with Applejack. She was going to have some fun.
She landed right beside him with an evil grin on her face. "So... How did it go?"
He looked at her, with a raised eyebrow, "I could ask you the same thing, and also, how did it go with your little monster friend." he said, his voice dripping with hate.
Rainbow recoiled in shock, what was he talking about? "Uh, what on earth are you talking about?"
"That friendly little beast, who had his arm around you yesterday. How did things go with it?"
Rainbow was confused, and horrified. "Are you talking about T.C.?" she asked, shock and anger creeping into her voice.
"Oh, how cute! You already have a nickname for it! Are you gonna take it home? And feed it, take it for walks, and keep it like a pet?" he asked sarcastically. Then he mumbled, "It's what they all deserve."
Rainbow Dash couldn't believe what she was hearing, "WHAT!??! He is a great guy! What could you possibly have against him?"
Geronimo looked down, ashamed, and said, "It's not him, specifically, it's all griffons. It is extremely hard for me to NOT picture it ripping my wings off and killing my best friend every time I see one." he sighed, "I almost ripped his beak off and shoved it down his throat, when I saw his arm around you, but then I saw your smile, and realized that he wasn't trying to hurt you." he looked up into her eyes, having taken off his sunglasses, revealing very familiar blue eyes, "I'm sorry, I will try to be more accepting, but for now lets get training."
When he had finally allowed her to fly, she was thinking about his eyes. Why did she know them? They were so familiar, but she couldn't place why. When she almost lost control during a flat spin, she realized that she needed to pay closer attention to what was happening with her flying. She continued practicing the routine until it was flawless.
Geronimo was on the ground, watching, evaluating, and critiquing her; when he was joined by another.
"She's good, isn't she?" the other asked him. Geronimo looked at him and saw that it was that griffon, the one Rainbow Dash called T.C..
"Yes she is. She is one of the four best fliers I've ever seen." he said, and then looked into the eyes of the griffon. "And if you hurt her I will kill you, with your own claws, and make it look like a suicide." the griffon looked surprised. "I am her trainer, by the way, my name is Geronimo." he said holding out a hoof and putting on a smile.
The griffon smiled and grabbed the hoof, shaking it vigorously, "My name is Thunderclaw, but you can call me T.C.." they got to talking while watching Rainbow perform her routine. They talked mainly about flight techniques, T.C. gaining many ideas, until Rainbow was done with training.
Rainbow landed in front of the two, panting heavily, and asked, "How did I do Geronimo?"
He walked up to her and said, "You did fantastic." then he leaned in to her ear and said, "Oh, and I approve of him." he then turned and walked away, leaving Rainbow standing there, stunned.
T.C. walked up to Rainbow and said, "He's a pretty nice guy, when he isn't threatening to murder me. But all in all we seemed to get along fine."
Rainbow looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "So everything is cool between you two now?"
He looked in the direction the Sergeant had headed and said, "Was it not cool between us at one point?"
"Never mind, so what do you want to do?"
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The next few days progressed relatively normally, there were the usual simple shenanigans from the Applejack and her friends.
There were a few major changes, however, such as Applejack and Geronimo were now dating, as well as Rainbow Dash and T.C..
Every one of Applejack's friends had successfully threatened to kill Geronimo, should he hurt her; Twilight brought up the gem mines beneath Canterlot Castle, she said that they would make an excellent torture chamber, he couldn't understand Pinkie Pie's threat, it had something to do with baking but she talked too fast, and finally Fluttershy promised to throw him to the ground and snap his neck, that is if he didn't mind. They had also all done the same thing to Thunderclaw, since he was dating Rainbow. But other than those few things, everything was normal, until another pony came to town.
Geronimo had taken Applejack out for a lunch date, and the two were walking through town square, when they noticed a large crowd.
Upon further inspection the crowd was mostly pegasi, and mostly mares. They decided to see what was going on.
They worked their way through the crowd and saw Soarin, in his Wonderbolts uniform. They listened to what he had to say, and it turns out that there were Wonderbolts tryouts coming up soon, and he was touring the country getting pegasi to sign up.
Geronimo had an evil grin on his face, he leaned in to Applejack and whispered, "Watch this!" he puffed himself up, put on an angry face, and stepped up on the stage, before shouting, in a voice that testified to him being a drill sergeant for eight years, "Private Soarin, ATTENTION!"
Soarin stopped in the middle of signing a poster, and snapped into military attention.
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop flirting? Now drop, and give me 40!" Geronimo said, now pacing back and forth in front of the Wonderbolt.
"Sir, Yes sir!" Soarin said, and was now doing wing-ups.
It was too much for Geronimo, who now burst into laughter, confusing Soarin to no end, he didn't know whether or not to stop doing the exercise. He didn't have to be confused for long, as Geronimo had recovered enough to tell him, "You can stop, I was just kidding."
Soarin stood up and looked at him confused, "Sergeant, is that you, sir?"
"You can stop calling me sir, but yes. Now where is that little yellow filly that I was always yelling at you for flirting with?"
"Oh, she's on a different tour, the coaches don't like having us together." he said, sounding rather dissapointed. "So why are you here, s-." he cut himself off before he finished. He then started again, "If you would like, I'm sure the rest of the coaches would be willing to give you a shot, I can get you in." he offered.
"No, that's alright, I have a personal student now." with that Soarin's jaw dropped. "And she wants to try out, so I thought I would get her the sheet."
"Well, here you go." Soarin said, handing him the sheet. "I can't wait to see what she can do." then he turned to Applejack who had joined her coltfriend on stage. "You look familiar, do I know you?"
"Ya bought a pie from me at the Gala." she reminded him.
His eyes were huge, "And it was the best pie I have ever tasted." he went over to a small trailer and pulled out a sack of bits, "Could I have twelve of those for the trip?" he asked handing her the money.
"Sure thing!" she said, before they all went their own separate ways, but Applejack sent Geronimo back later with the pies.