//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The beginning of the end. // by BAR0SS //------------------------------// Chapter 3 A pegasus mare with a cyan coat and had a rainbow coloured mane and tail. I don't know what it was was about her, but her appearance alone made me forget about all of my problems. "Sorry I'm late. Somepony failed to reschedule my day off today, so I had to quickly work and get here as fast as I could." She said. "Rainbow Dash! Glad you could make it." Applejack said happily. 'Rainbow Dash? Where have I heard that before?' I asked myself. I have heard it before, but where? She spotted me and walked over to me and held out a hoof for me to shake. "I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria and future Wonderbolt." All those happy feeling I said I felt when I saw her, they disappeared faster than I could think. Although panic flooded my thoughts, I managed as best as I could not to show it. I'm just glad Braeburn realized I would be distressed and helped me out. "Well, are ya two gonna just stand there, or are we gonna have to continue ta eat without ya?" he asked. This caused Dash to shake her head before she went and sat down at the table and began to eat. "U-Uh, excuse me. I need to go and find something." I said without even looking back before I began to walk away at a slightly quickened pace. I made my way back inside and very quickly scurried up the stairs before making my way into our room that we had been given. I sat on the bed and tried to calm myself. 'It's ok Wind Slash. She didn't recognize you, so you're fine. 'I remember her now. She was that mare that had been trying to get onto the team for years. Oh no, what if she notices who I am?' I was about to continue my mental panic, but stopped when I heard the door open. I looked and saw Braeburn stepping into the room with a worried look. "Ya think she knows who ya are don't ya?" he asked as she sat on his own bed. "How could she not know who Wind Slash is? She is the Wonderbolt's top fan, even when I was still on the team she was. She didn't notice me 'this time', but what if next time..." I began to say, but was cut off. "Ah told ya back in Appleoosa that ah would let nothing happen to ya. If she goes and tries to tell all of Equestria, I will stand in their way to get to ya." Braeburn said defensively. "Thanks, but it's not that simple." I said, causing him to tilt his head in confusion. "I know that I was one of the best. The officials of the team will not allow me to just simply leave without a good reason, of which they would think mine is not. If they find me, I doubt even Celestia would know what would happen." "S-So, what should we do?" he asked. "Keep quiet, listen carefully and keep an eye open. If they catch wind of me, I'm going to have to skip town and disappear again." I said. "But what about yer place in Appleoosa?" he asked. "It may take some time, but I will go back there. I like it there. It's quiet and I get to have privacy." I said. Braeburn smiled. "Good ta know that ah will get ta see ya again." he said. "Of course." I said as I held out a hoof for him to bump. He did and we both got up and made for the door. But before we exited the room, Braeburn whispered one last thing to me. "If them Wonderbolt's are so rich and powerful, and really do have that contract, then why don't they have a unicorn do a trace spell to easily be able ta find a runaway?" "I saw in the paper a few months back that they do now, courtesy of me." I said proudly. "It's bad, but I kind of like being an inconvenience." Braeburn opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off. "Are ya'll alright in here?" came the voice of Applejack. She pushed the door open and saw Braeburn stand not to far from the door and me beside him. "Yeah, we're fine, I just needed to grab my medication from my saddlebags and we were just about to come back down." I said smiling. "Ya sick or something?" she asked. "Nah, just recovering from a wing injury." I lied in response. "Why are ya a pegasus anyway?" "Uh, I was born as one?" I said with a chuckle. "No, I meant, why are ya a pegasus, and working on an apple farm out where there aren't many pegasus ta been seen?" she corrected. I felt my humour leave me. "Am I not allowed to be?" I countered. "Ok, sorry. Lets just move on shall we?" she asked, holding out her hoof. "Sure." We both exchanged a hoofshake before we all made our way back outside. "Alright everypony, I have ta get back ta work. Need ta catch up on the harvest because I had ta take time off ta go ta Canterlot. Braeburn, I want ya ta help out Big Mac." Applejack announced out loud before she turned to me. "New guy, yer with me. I want ta see how good you really are at Apple Buckin'." I nodded in acknowledgement. Braeburn and Big Mac made for the barn while Applejack and I headed out towards the west field. What Applejacks friends were going to do, I had no idea. We walked for a minute or two before Applejack stopped by a tree. "Alright new guy, I want ya to show me what ya can do on this here tree." Applejack ordered. I shrugged before I walked up to the tree. I gazed at it for a moment before turning around and giving the tree a solid buck. *THUMP* I turned back around and saw all of the apples had fallen and were now resting on the ground. Applejack looked stunned. "How was that?" I asked with a smug little grin. "Astounding, Not even Rainbow Dash could knock the apples outa this tree, and she's the most athletic pegasus ah know." Applejack said, still quite shocked at my achievement. "Well, I have been doing this for 4 years. It's not hard once you learn the proper technique." I said in a mater-o-factly. "Well, now that ah now ya can do the job, how long can ya do it for?" she asked. "On Braeburn's farm, I used to work for 8 hours a day with a 25 minute lunch break." I explained. "Ya know, ah think ya just might be worth havin' around." she said with a smirk. "Braeburn asked me ta pay you fer ya efforts, and I think I just might beable ta do that." "Thank you, it would be much appreciated." "But thats only if ya do the work. When Braeburn and Big Mac get here with the baskets, I want ya ta go to the fence line over there and work ya way back towards the barn, buckin' every tree on the way." she said. I nodded. ---------- *THUMP* ... *THUMP* ... I have been bucking trees for about 2 hours now. I would buck the tree and Big Macintosh would pick up the baskets and put them into the cart he was pulling along. Big Mac was with me because Applejack said she wanted to catch up with Braeburn. I tried to start up a conversation with Big Mac, but it seems that he only wanted to give me short responses of a yes or no nature. 'Strange, he was talking to me this morning.' I thought to myself as I continued to work. I continued for about another 15 minutes, but stopped when Big Mac finally said something that was just 'eyup'. "Alright partner, take a small break." he told me. I could have kept going, but I didn't really want to mess with him. I sat up against the last tree I bucked and closed my eyes. I wasn't even tired, so I didn't have to worry about falling asleep. I can't fall asleep during the day anyway. My brain just wont let me. I sat there for a minute, but my ear began to twitch as I heard what sounded like somepony trying to sneak up on me via air. The light sound of flapping wings could be heard behind me. I rolled me eyes and got up. I walked around the tree and saw Rainbow Dash looking at me frozen as I had caught her red hoofed. "What are you doing?" I asked with a bored expression. "U-Uh... Hi." she said while waving a hoof at me, trying to not look guilty. I just continued to look at her with my bored look. "I-I just came out here to see what you were doing." she said, but I could tell she was hiding something. "I'm on a break from working. Happy?" Her nervousness disappeared. "Who are you? I swear I have seen you before." she said. I felt my heart stop. 'Shit, she's on to me. I have to find a way to throw her off.' "I doubt that." I said. "But..." she began, but I cut her off. "Look, I have to get back to work." I said as I got back up and made my way over to the cart and pulled out some empty baskets with my mouth. I carried the baskets to the closest tree that still apple on it and placed some of the baskets around the base of the tree. When I was satisfied with the placements of the baskets, I bucked the tree, causing all of the apples to fall free and land in the baskets. "Hey, you have wings!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. 'Ok, now this is getting to sound like a broken record.' I thought to myself as I sighed. "You know, the amount of times I have been told that today alone, anypony would think I wasn't aware." I said sarcastically before I picked up my empty baskets and moved to another tree. "But why are you harvesting apples, and not doing... a pegasus related job?" Dash asked as she followed me. "I have my reasons, lets just leave it at that. Now can you please leave me alone about it?" I asked. I should had told her to leave me alone entirely. As I continued to work, she followed me. Not saying anything, just staring at me. And it slowly got to me. After about 5 minutes of her just watching me, I snapped. "Seriously, can you stop looking at me and go annoy somepony else!!!" I shouted, causing both her and Big Macintosh to jump and step back from me. "What's your deal dude?" Dash asked. "My deal? You! You may like to be looked at, but I don't.You have been staring at me for the past five minutes, and I do not like being stared at!" I continued to rant. I looked to Big Mackintosh. "I'm sorry Big Mac, but I need a few minutes to myself." I said with a huff as I began to walk away. I made for the house and went inside and up to the room Braeburn and I had been given. When I got inside, I closed the door behind me and locked it before I began to pace back and forth around the room. "Calm down Wind Slash." I told myself as I continued to pace. "Anger will only lead to you screw up, and you cant afford to do that." I stopped pacing and sat down in the middle of the floor. I spent the next half hour just sitting there with my eyes closed, just trying to calm myself down. Fortunately, it was working for me. I heard a knock on the door followed by a voice I was not happy to hear. "Hello, are you in here?... Look, if you are, I just wanted to say I'm sorry." came the voice of Dash. I just continued to sit there with a frown on my face. I heard the doorknob move, but stop when it hit the lock. "I know you're in there. Can you please just open the door so I can say sorry to your face." she pleaded. I sighed before I got up and made my way over to the door and unlocked it. I opened the door and saw Dash on the other side, looking at me with a sheepish grin, but she quickly looked away. She took a moment to collect herself before she looked to me and began to speak. "I-I'm sorry. I should not have been trying to pry into your private life. If you'll forgive me, perhaps we could be friends?" she said hopeful before looking to the ground. I thought about her offer for a minute. Each second that passed, her head lowered more and more. "Alright Dash, I'll forgive you this time." I said, causing her to look up to me and smile. "But that does not mean we're best buds now." Her large grin disappeared, but a small smirk still remained. That small grin disappeared as she realized something. I walked back into the room picked up my book of wing recovery and continued to read. Dash noticed the title of the book and a look of concern grew over her face. Ignoring her, I placed the book down and stretched out my right wing before resting it down against my side as if in the down flap position and began to massage it myself with my forehooves. It was difficult, but I was able to twist my body enough to do so. "Here, let me help." Dash offered as she made her way over, but I stopper her. "No. I can do it myself." I said as I began to continue to massaging my wing. But Dash was not going to back down so easily. She walked over and pushed me onto my stomach. I was about to protest, but she beat me to it. "Just keep quiet and let me help. I know what to do because I have done it before." she informed as she stretched out my wing and began to massage it. I closed my eyes as I felt the tension beginning to ease away. "So, what happened for you to have to do this before?" I asked. "I'm pushing myself to become a Wonderbolt. I have been trying to get onto their team for years, but every now and then, I make a mistake and end up hurting myself." she admitted. I was that calm and relaxed by her hoof work that I began to slip. "They're not that great." I said. "And how would you know?" she asked in a slightly offended tone. "Well, I did leave them because I got stabbed in the back." 'SHIT!' I shouted in my head and my eyes shot open aas I realized what I just said. I felt Dash freeze for a second before she pulled away and moved back. I got as fast as I could and looked to her. She was sitting a few metres away, looking like she was trying to decipher what I had let slip in her head. "Dash, listen to me." I said. I was about to continue, but she cut me off. "Y-You're a... a... Wonderbolt?" she asked. "NO! I mean I was, but that's..." I tried to defend, only to realize she was looking to the left with a wide eye expression. I looked to where she was looking and spotted a small section of my old flight suit was hanging out of my saddle bags. Dash jumped up and shot over to my saddle bags and tugged on the patch of flight suit with her teeth, causing the rest to simply fall out. She froze again when she saw the full suit on the ground in front of her. What I did not expect was the old photo to fall out of it. I remembered that the photo was of me and my ex kissing. We had just told all of Equestria that we were together when that photo was taken. I began to back away, knowing that if she ran off, I would have to as well. Dash looked to me and back to the photo multiple times each time more intently. "You're Wind Slash, the missing Wonderbolt." she said to herself quietly. "No." I growled dangerously. "I gave up the right to be a Wonderbolt the day my Ex slept with my brother." I corrected her. Dash recoiled. She opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. "Don't you dare use those names! I hate them both, and I could not care less about them!" I warned, causing Dash to jump. "But they're looking for you. They have been for the past 4 years. Don't you care?" Dash tried to protest. "Listen to me very carefully Rainbow Dash. You now know my greatest secret. IF, they manage to find me, I will do everything within my power to do what I can to prevent you from ever becoming a Wonderbolt. Am I understood?" I asked in the most intimidating way I could, causing her to look hurt. "But why?" she asked. "As I said, I do not care for those back stabbers. All I want is to be left alone and in peace." I said as my expression softened a bit. Suddenly, Dash's posture straightened and an evil grin formed on her face. "Alright Wind Slash, I'll make you a deal." she said, causing me to tense up. "If you help me train to become a Wonderbolt, I will keep your secret to myself." she offered. I knew that was going to be it, but I was still shocked anyway. "Gee, talk about blackmail." I complained as I took a breath. "Why would you want me to do that anyway?" I asked. "Well, you used to help train the recruits if I remember correctly. If I can get you to train me, they will let me in for sure once thy see how good I will be." she said. I could see by her facial expression that she was picturing the scenario in her head. My head did the same thing, but made my Ex look past Dash and straight at me. I shuddered at the thought of facing her again. Seeing no other option at peace, I sighed and agreed. "Alright Dash, I'll help you." I said with defeat. She held out a hoof. "Shake on it. I don't want you to double cross me." she said. I sighed and grasped her hoof and gave one shake before releasing it. "YES!" she shouted out loud. I felt like this was going to be the beginning of the end for me. ... *SIGH* "Why me?"