//------------------------------// // That First Time You Spend The Night // Story: Awkward, But Worth It // by bahatumay //------------------------------// Applejack went first. She turned down the covers with a hoof, and with a little jump, landed exactly where she wanted to be. She looked over at Rainbow Dash, who only hesitated for the briefest of moments before sliding in herself. Bouncing slightly on the springy mattress, Rainbow scooted herself down further under the covers. She looked around and then bounced once more for good measure. “Huh,” she said, patting the bed. “What?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow. “Nothing,” Rainbow said quickly. “It’s just… it’s pretty comfortable.” Applejack cracked a smile. “Does that surprise you?” “Well, it’s… you know… not a cloud,” Rainbow said, a bit embarrassed, fluffing the pillow a bit and not meeting Applejack’s eyes. Applejack laughed as she pulled the covers over them both. “Earth ponies have survived for years without cloud furniture, you know. We’ve learned how to get pretty comfortable.” Rainbow rolled over a bit and rested her head on the pillow. “It's ok,” she said. “But I have to warn you, I toss and turn a lot when I’m not on a cloud.” Applejack snorted. “Ah'm sure you'll be fine.” Rainbow nodded, then faked a large yawn. “Welp, I'm exhausted, good night, AJ!” Applejack, watching, let her lay there for about a minute before speaking up. “Rainbow?” “Yeah?” Rainbow asked, far too quickly to have been asleep. “We're in bed together, right, Rainbow?” Rainbow squinted. “Yeah…?” “You're supposed to touch the pony you share a bed with, Rainbow.” Applejack grinned as she was rewarded by a slight blush on Rainbow's cheeks. “What?” “You know…” She leaned in close to Rainbow, and her warm, minty breath brushed against Rainbow's nose. “Touch me.” She rested her head on the pillow and waited. Rainbow's blush redoubled. She slowly snaked a hoof over and rested it on Applejack's shoulder. Applejack cracked a smile and shook her head. Rainbow Dash lifted it and then placed it on Applejack’s stomach. She looked up hopefully. Applejack shook her head again. “Warmer.” Blushing furiously, Rainbow scooted forwards a tiny bit and slid her hooves down to the top of Applejack's cutie mark. “Better,” Applejack said with a smile, “but we can work on that later.” She gave Rainbow a little kiss on the nose and then lay back, and promptly fell asleep. Rainbow let out an interested 'hmph'. Applejack was really cute when she slept with her mane down and everything. Still moderately uncomfortable with the arrangement, she rested her head against the pillow and she, too, soon fell asleep. * * * Rainbow woke up, needing to go to the bathroom (this whole endless supply of apple juice thing really had its drawbacks) and with a strange, tingling sensation in her foreleg. She blearily opened one eye and realized that in the night, Applejack had rolled over and was resting on Rainbow’s foreleg, trapping it underneath her body. Lovely. Her first instinct was to jerk her foreleg free, but then she noticed just how peaceful Applejack looked. Now determined to not wake Applejack up, she wriggled and wormed her foreleg out from under her a little bit at a time. Eventually, this had the desired effect of freeing her foreleg. It had the undesired effect of having Applejack, even while fast asleep, feel that something had gone awry. She sleepily grunted her displeasure and made an attempt to remedy this by rolling over and reaching for what had been taken from her; in this case, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was not quite awake enough to react or pull back in time; Applejack grabbed her around the neck and pulled her in close, and exhaled contentedly. Balance restored! Rainbow, on the other hoof, blushed as her entire world suddenly became the crook of Applejack’s neck and her mane. It was odd and a bit warm, but not uncomfortable, and Applejack smelled pretty nice from this close. In fact, if it weren’t for that uncomfortable pressure down below her hips, she might have stayed there longer. But nature called quite insistently and Rainbow had to listen, or else Applejack would have been in for a most rude awakening. She squirmed and tried to slither free, but Applejack’s grip was firm. Rainbow grunted, annoyed. Stupid earth ponies and their strength. Then she brightened as something occurred to her. Extending a wing, she reached up and trailed the tips of her feathers lightly against the side of Applejack’s body. She squirmed a bit under Rainbow’s touch, but resettled. Rainbow grinned triumphantly and repeated the motion, giving her side just a gentle brush. Just like Hoops had back at Flight Camp years ago, Applejack grunted and twitched in her sleep, rotated her body, and raised a hoof to swat at the ticklish sensation--and as a result, freed Rainbow’s leg. Relieved (but not quite yet), Rainbow scampered out… and very nearly ran into a wall. She narrowed her eyes. This place was confusing at night. Not to mention creaky. Clouds never had this problem. When she’d managed to regain some semblance of orientation, she flapped her wings so she was hovering only a few feet in the air, and quickly flew along over towards the bathroom. She nosed her way through the blankets that had been hung to protect the upstairs from the cool harvest wind, and felt the temperature drop a few degrees. Never before had she been so glad to be a pegasus. * * * Rainbow sniffed her hooves as she kicked the door shut behind her. The Apple family had home-made apple-scented soap, and it smelled really good. When she’d first moved in, she’d wash her hooves for no reason other than to smell that crisp, apple smell again. They could make almost anything and everything out of apples down here. It was quite impressive, actually. She looked up as she realized she had traveled most of the way down the hall, and turned right into the bedroom. She glanced around. Still somewhat disoriented from the transition from the relatively bright light of the bathroom to the darkness of the bedroom, she stumbled towards the bed and burrowed underneath the covers. Remembering what Applejack had said, she reached a hoof out and rested it on her side. She moved her hoof as her skin slid a good three inches over her bony frame… This did not feel like Applejack. This did not feel like Applejack at all. Rainbow’s blood ran cold. She sat up in shock… and so did Granny Smith. “Ahhhh!” “Aghh!” Before Rainbow could stammer the start of an apology, Granny Smith seized a pillow and began beating her with it. “Hey! I- Whoa! Ow! Hey, that last one actually hu- ow!” Abandoning any semblance of politeness, Rainbow Dash scrambled out of the bed to avoid this feathery onslaught and flew towards the door. Her heart was pounding and her wings were beating and she wasn’t watching where she was going. So, of course, she flew headfirst into a clothesline of blankets that had been hung across the hallway to help stop the cool harvest wind from blowing upstairs. Her head caught on the line and stayed where it was, but her body kept flying and her lower legs swung out. Even stopped like that, she had enough momentum to tear the line out of the wall. She tumbled down the stairs, wrapping herself up in blankets and clothesline until she bumped to a stop on the final step, now a scrambled mess of more cloth than pony. “Wow,” Rainbow groaned, shifting slightly. “That was… so… embarrassing.” She flapped a wing experimentally, and was pleased to find herself unhurt. “I am so glad that nopony saw that.” She froze. She couldn't be that lucky. Sure enough, when she craned her neck to look behind her, there stood Macintosh, awakened by the crash. He was chewing on a wheat sprig (where had he gotten that at this time of night?), and he wore large pajamas with thick horizontal stripes, making him look somewhat like an escaped prisoner. And Rainbow totally didn't jump and let out a shriek of surprise at the unexpected sight. He raised an eyebrow, wordlessly asking if she needed help. Rainbow began to struggle with the blankets. “No, I… I got this… I…” Mac watched silently as she rocked and flapped and hopped in desperate attempts to free herself. Finally, Rainbow exhaled and relaxed her body. “I don't got this,” she admitted quietly. Mac may have cracked a smile, but said nothing. With Mac's silent assistance, she soon was free, and now that she was oriented, she easily returned to Applejack's room. She slid under the covers and after just a brief hesitation, wrapped a hoof around her stomach and shifted until their hips touched. Her warmth was comforting, and after all the craziness that had just happened, it felt good to know she had a solid earth pony to rely on. She scootched even closer and then rested her head on Applejack's chest. Maybe this cuddling business wasn't so bad after all. * * * Applejack awoke dark and early the next morning. She opened her eyes and found her vision full of mane. She sleepily tried to raise her right hoof to brush her mane out of her face, but found her hoof trapped under something warm. She blinked and then finished waking up. She blew the mane out of her face, but then realized that it wasn't her golden mane after all. Instead, it had a few more colors. Now that she was awake, she could tell what had happened. True to her word, Rainbow had tossed and turned and rotated in her sleep. She now lay on her stomach, sprawled out, one leg straddling Applejack's chest, and her tail in Applejack's face. With her left hoof, she cleared Rainbow's tail from her face and slid it to one side so she could breathe. She cracked a smile. There were definitely worse sights to wake up to. But as nice as the view may have been, she did need to get up, and that required waking Rainbow. Besides, Rainbow might not have enjoyed having herself on display. She moved to shake her, but then a more devious smile crossed her face. She raised her left hoof and placed it on her cutie mark and gently began massaging it in a circular motion. Rainbow grunted in her sleep and shifted her hips, giving her both better access and, unintentionally, a better look. And then the smile turned more devious still, and she raised her hoof and brought it down in a gentle but firm spank on Rainbow's muscled flank. * * * Apple Bloom managed to tone her bouncing down enough to balance the forks on her head, and she skipped over to the table and organized them nearly around every plate. It had been a bit cool last night, but she had woken up in a great mood, and was not about to let a little chill dampen her excitement. The sound of hooves tramping down stairs made her look up. Rainbow came down first, ears down, blushing furiously red and looking down at the ground. Applejack soon followed, bearing one whopper of a shiner on her eye. Apple Bloom slowed to a stop. “You ok?” she asked. “What happened to you?” “Yeah,” Applejack shrugged. “Rainbow here tosses and turns in her sleep, and Ah got caught on the wrong side of her elbow.” Accepting this explanation, Apple Bloom bounced back over to grab the pitcher of orange juice. Rainbow sat at the table and blushed even harder. Applejack sat next to her and surreptitiously began massaging Rainbow under her wing. “I’m sorry; I didn't mean to-” Rainbow started for what must have been the twentieth time. Applejack just chuckled and placed a hoof over her mouth. It had been an instinctive reaction. She wasn’t upset about anything; but Rainbow was still embarrassed. And then Granny Smith came into the kitchen, shuffling along. For some reason, Rainbow Dash seemed to tense a bit more, but Applejack just figured that she had found a particularly sensitive spot and paid no attention. “Mornin’, Granny Smith!” Apple Bloom said cheerfully. “How did you sleep?” “Well, I… I’m not sure,” Granny said. “I had the strangest dream last night.” Rainbow Dash froze, her fork halfway to her mouth. Oh, no… please, no… “What was it about?” Apple Bloom asked curiously. Never before nor since has Rainbow Dash so fervently wished she had mental powers to make ponies disappear. Granny Smith leaned in, her eyes wide with the horror of the memories. “I dreamed that all our apple trees turned into pecans!” Granny said in a horrified whisper. “All over the orchards, all over the county, all pecans! And not an apple to be seen anywhere!” Rainbow exhaled, relieved. She finished moving the fork to her mouth and then- “I also dreamed Rainbow Dash got in my bed and got all hoofsy with me.” Apple Bloom looked around, slightly confused. Macintosh was laughing quietly into his pancakes, as if at a joke only he knew. Applejack was looking confusedly at Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash was turning a brilliant shade of red and looking as though she wished she could sink into the floor. “Did Ah miss something?” she asked. “Not a thing,” Rainbow said quickly. She was definitely going to spend the night elsewhere tonight.