Light snoring came from the second floor of the only cloud house in Ponyville. Then the shrill ringing of an alram clock shattered the calm blissful silence, but the sound didn’t last long.
The cyan pegasus slowly sat up in her bed, yawned, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She looked over at the clock, which read 8:01. She groaned a little, tossed her covers of her and made her way to the bathroom. Once there the cyan mare looked at herself in the mirror, opened her mouth gave it a once over and then moved on to her morning constitutional. Once done she closed the lid to the toilet, flushed it, and turned on the shower. Letting the hot water come through first, she then turned on the cold water a little, so as not to scald herself. Getting in and pulling the curtain closed Rainbow Dash let the slightly hot water cascade over her tired, and slightly sleep deprived body.
For the past two days Rainbow Dash has pushed herself in her training, which she is used to, but lately her rigorous routine has left her feeling drained at the end of the day.
After she scrubbed her mane, tail and coat with their respective shampoos and conditioners, despite what Rarity and the others think about the brash pegasus, she does like to take care of herself in that she does use separate shampoo and conditioner for her coat, mane and tail. She has to look awesome since she awesome. She also has to style her mane and tail to keep all of the colors separate and from making her mane from looking like a tangled mess.
She stepped out of her bathroom and looked over at a clock she had on her wall, which read 9:58. she smirked a little at her impeccable timing. Walking down the stairs and into the kitchen she heard her doorbell ring.
Curious she walked over to her door and opened it, “Oh hi Derpy.” she said to the grey mail mare
“Hi Rainbow Dash, I have this for you.” she said as she pulled a medium sized box from her mail bag and gave it to Rainbow Dash.
Taking the box and looking at it she noticed it didn’t have a return address, “ Uhh.. Derpy there’s no return address on this.”
“ Oh… yeah I know… but the pony who gave it to me just said she didn’t care that it wasn’t on there so I just took it and brought right to you.” she said
“She?” repeated the light blue mare
“Yeah she… at least I think she was a she, her hat kinda threw me.”
“ Can I know who she is so I can thank her later?” Rainbow asked Derpy
“No she told me to tell you that you can thank her tomorrow.” Derpy said giving the rainbow maned pegasus an affirmative nod, “ Well I have to go now Rainbow I’ll see you later.” said Derpy walking off the edge of Rainbows cloud house and taking flight backwards.
Rainbow sighed and went back into her house, “ I will never understand how she is able to fly backwards.” she said to herself as she made her way back to her kitchen.
Setting the box on the counter Rainbow grabbed a knife and cut the tape on either side and across the top of it and opened the flaps. Inside was a single bottle of cider wrapped in bubblewrap, and a note that read:
Rainbow Dash,
Please bring this bottle of cider to the hill
where you , me, and the gals usually hang out
tomorrow at seven.
Your friend Applejack.
“Why did Applejack send me a bottle of cid-- oh yeah that’s right her and I have a picnic tomorrow! I forgot about that…” she said to nopony in particular as she was reminded of the feather she had taken from Applejack in order to give it right back. Looking into her living room on her coffee table was the perfect blue feather Applejack had accidentally pulled out from Rainbows right wing. Setting the bottle down on the counter, Rainbow walked over to where the feather lay on the table and picked it up examining it for what felt like the thousandth time in the three days she has had it.
She sighed, “ Tank…” she said, setting down the feather upon seeing, her tortoise glide down the stairs with the grace of well a tortoise, “ What am I gonna do if AJ does ask me out?”
He slowly blinked,
“Well what do you know about love you’re a tortoise,” she picked him up and gave him a hug, “ I love you Tank. I have to go now Tank, so you be a good tortoise and maybe we’ll go and see AJ later. That sound like fun?”
Tank blinked and began to smile slowly.
Rainbow smiled back, “ Great,” she set him down on the cloud floor walked over to the refrigerator grabbed out some tomatoes and lettuce leaves and put them in his bowl, “ Here’s your breakfast, Tank, I’ll be back at four to get you, then we’ll go to AJs.” she said then opened the front door and took off for the Ponyville weather office.
On her way to the weather office Rainbow decided to fly over the market square to see if Applejack was working the stall.
From her vantage point in the sky she could make out Carrot Top, an empty flower stall, and a little further to the east was the apple stall with the orange mare she wanted to see.
Landing a few feet away from her, Rainbow greeted her, “ Hey AJ!”
The orange mare turned around to see whom it was, “Oh hi RD, how’s it goin’?” she asked
“Pretty good… I came by to ask you something.” she said walking up to and standing next to her friend.
A look of curiosity spread across Applejacks face, “Oh… what’s up?”
“Why did you send me a bottle of cider in the mail? You could’ve just told me in person.” Rainbow said
“Well Ah wasn’t sure if Ah would see ya before Friday.” she answered avoiding eye contact
“Uh huh sure. Well I just came by to ask you that, and to also ask if it was okay if Tank and I came by later today, like around four?”
Applejack looked at her friend and smiled, “ Why sure that’d be great.”
Rainbow smiled, “ Great I’ll see you then.” she turned to go, but before she leapt into the sky Rainbow turned to Applejack, who was now tending to a customer. The rainbow maned pegasus looked at her friends cutie mark, beads of sweat began to present themselves on her face.
“ Come on you scaredy pony it’s either now or never!” she yelled to herself.
She inhaled sharply and extended her left wing toward the three apples on Applejacks flank. Holding her breath and moved her eyes quickly between her target and Applejacks face. Her wing was now just fractions of inches from touching the orange fur, inhaling once more Rainbow moved in for the kill. She placed the tip of her light blue wing on the top of Applejacks hip and moved down brushing over the three apples with the tip, letting the feathers flow where they may, within reason,. Once half way down her leg, Rainbow retracted her wing and looked over to see if AJ had noticed… Breathing a sigh of relief the orange farm mare didn’t feel what she had just done she looked around the market to see if anypony else noticed her action, of which there were.
Bulk Biceps, Cloud Kicker, and White Lightning had noticed. Bulk Biceps had his jaw hanging open, Cloud Kicker and White Lightning just had smiles on their faces. The two mares simply nodded, seeming happy for their boss, Rainbow smiled back at them and took off into the sky bound once again for the weather office.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the early hours of the afternoon Rainbow Dash could be found napping in a tree somewhere, usually in one of the many trees on Sweet Apple Acres. However today she was at her house getting ready to go there and take Tank with her.
“Ohmygosh ohmygosh, Tank, I’m so excited to go and see AJ, it feels like I haven’t hung out with her in, like, forever… Whadda ya think?” she asked as she turned around from her mirror to show Tank what she had been doing for the last ten minutes. Simply put, her mane was in a ponytail, even though she spent an hour and a half on her mane everyday, she didn’t care for styling it in other ways, and it took her longer then most mares to do so.
The tortoise just blinked slowly.
The light blue pegasus just scoffed and said, “ Ugh… I’m trying to impress her Tank… you think she’ll like my mane this way?”
Again he blinked slowly.
She sighed, “ Yeah… you’re probably right… she might not like it… but I don’t know if I don’t try right?” she asked
He blinked.
“ Yeah,” she looked back into the mirror, “ I think I will leave my mane like this… don’t tell anypony, Tank, but I think I like my mane this way.” she finished turning her head in all combinations of directions to get a better look and find the angle she liked the best.
Suddenly from downstairs, in her living room, she heard her grandfather clock, her dad gave her, start to ring.
Quickly rushing to the cloud railing overlooking the room she could see the clock read three thirty.
Gasping she returned to the bathroom to retrieve Tank, “ Come on Tank we’re gonna be late.”
She then launched herself off the top of the stairs and burst through her front door toward the Apple family farm, tortoise in tow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
At Sweet Apple Acres Applejack was just arriving at the barn when her trusty dog Winona came running up to her and barked happily.
“Hi Winona” said Applejack, “ Rainbow’s commin’ over,” the dog perked up but did not seem too thrilled, “ And she’s bringin’ Tank.” as soon as she said that Winona lept up and started wagging her tail furiously, and barking excitedly. Applejack chuckled, “ Ah knew that’d make ya happy. Now come on they're gonna be here any minute.”
As soon as she said that she heard the gentle flapping of well trained and taken care of wings behind her, also the sound of a flight device attached to a certain tortoise was also a dead giveaway as to whom it might be.
“Sup AJ.” said the voice from behind her
Applejack unhitched herself from the apple cart and turned around to face the voice.
She smiled with her eyes closed, “Well howdy RD, how are--” AJ opened her eyes to see her friend and was dumbfounded at what she saw, “ Uh RD you know yer mane’s in a ponytail right?” she asked
The pegasus nodded, “ Yeah I do. “
“Did Rarity so it?” was her next question
“No,” she said confidently, “ I did it”
“ Oh wow Rainbow looks so hot with her mane like that… Ah wish she would do it more often” Applejack said to herself, “ Well... Ah like it,” she said aloud, “ looks good on ya”
Rainbow blushed a little at the complement, “ Aw, thanks AJ,” she said kicking a pebble next to her hoof, “YES she likes it,”
“Why don’t you and Tank head up to the house while Ah put the cart away.” said the orange mare
“Okay” Rainbow said and made her way to the Apple family house.
It had only taken Applejack a moment to put the apple cart in the barn, and started for the house.
Rainbow was just sitting down on one of the chairs when she looked over to see her crush trotting up to the house with two bottles of cider in her mouth.
Applejack came up the steps and over to Rainbow, giving her a bottle of cider.
She smiled and said, “ Thanks AJ”
“Not a problem RD,” she said smiling as well
“So… why did you want me and Tank to come by today?” asked the cyan pegasus
“Ah don’t know.. Ah guess you and Ah don’ hang out as much as we should, and Ah think Winona likes havin’ Tank around… fer somepony ta play with,” said the orange mare smiled and looked over to to see her dog pushing Tank around like a large ball, Tank for the most part seemed to be enjoying it.
Rainbow did the same and she too smiled, “ Yeah I think Tank likes being around Winona too.” she said turning back to her friend.
Upon doing so her jaw dropped at what she was seeing. Applejack had pulled the red mane tie she always wore out of her mane and now her golden locks were flowing freely down her back and around her face.
“OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH!!!!! AJ is sooo hot with her mane down!!!!!! But I can’t tell her that… not yet… soon though.” she said to herself.
The two mares sat in the quiet of the early evening, enjoying the sight of their pets playing with one another.
After about an hour or so Rainbow shattered the silence, “ Alright AJ I think Tank and I are gonna get going.”
“Ah don’t suppose Ah could talk ya inta stayin’ fer dinner, could Ah?” she asked
“Not tonight, AJ, I have to go home and get something ready for our picnic tomorrow.” she said sounding a little sad she couldn't stay for dinner.
“Alright then, Ah’ll see ya tomorrow.” Applejack stood to give her friend a hug.
“Good night AJ.”
“Night, sugarcube” AJ said
Grabbing Tank the light blue maree turned to her orange friend and smiled… then leaped into the sky and headed for home.
Applejack sighed, smiled and said out loud to herself, “ Ah do hope ya love me back.” she sniffed and whistled for Winona and went inside for dinner, hopeful for what tomorrow will bring.