Applejack stared at the box on her kitchen table. The box--being just a small wooden receptacle--was incapable of staring back, but the orange, middle-aged Earth pony mare got the feeling that had it been able to, it would definitely have been eyeballing her. The familiar chicken scratch writing of Rainbow Dash adorning the post-it note stuck to the top confirmed this as much as anything; never mind that it had been positioned on her porch in just the right place to cause maximum consternation as she stepped out the door.
Applejack’s stare shifted to more of a glare as the box seemed to take on an air of smugness at that thought.
“Well, ain’t ya gonna open it?” asked Apple Bloom, who sat across the table from her, nursing a steaming mug of hot chocolate, the young mare’s drink of choice on cold mornings such as this. Her red mane had been vaguely brushed, but wasn’t yet tied back, loosely framing its owner’s yellow face.
Applejack just raised an eyebrow at the box instead. Sure, she could open it, but that was just what it wanted. To be opened and have its smugness at tripping her justified. No, she’d sit in her warm kitchen and glare at it until she was darn good and ready.
“You ain’t gonna know what’s inside it until ya do,” Apple Bloom offered again, taking a sip of chocolate. “It’s probably your birthday present from Rainbow.”
“Hmph,” Applejack finally uttered, blowing a stray bit of her forelock from her eyes. “My birthday ain’t for nearly a week, and Rainbow’s never been early with her present for as long as I’ve known her. Besides,” she added, scooping the box towards her with a hoof. “She’d normally be tryin’ to find out what I want by now. And have y’all seen the way she’s been actin’ lately? All struttin’ around like she knows somethin’ we don’t? Nah, she’s up to somethin’, make no mistake.”
“Ain’t that pretty normal, though?” Apple Bloom asked with a smirk, downing the last of her drink. Applejack shot her a sidelong glance, but chuckled nonetheless.
“True enough, I suppose, but this is slightly different to normal. Can’t quite put my hoof on it, though.”
“Well, maybe the answer’s in the box.”
Once more, Applejack regarded the box and the post-it stuck to the top. ‘For AJ’ was the simple proclamation on it, indisputably written by Rainbow Dash herself. She pulled it off, revealing an engraving of Rainbow Dash’s cloud and lightning bolt cutie mark etched into the dark, polished surface. Applejack rolled her eyes.
Typical Rainbow.
Sighing through her nose, the Earth mare lifted the lid. Inside, the compartment was lined with red velvet, and housed a single slip of folded paper. Odd. It had felt heavier than that when she’d picked it up. Taking the paper out, a quick examination revealed nothing more inside the box other than another engraving on the inside of the unlined lid--this time of her own triple-apple cutie mark--and two small circular recesses on the baseboard.
“Well, that’s strange,” she commented, picking up the box and turning it over, though the mystery was no more obvious for it.
“What?” Apple Bloom asked, evidently curious at her older sister’s reaction. Applejack put the box down onto the table and pushed it over to her.
“This paper’s all that was inside,” she said. “But the box feels like it should hold somethin’ heavier.” Apple Bloom hefted the box, turning it over every which way before putting it back down with a shrug.
“Maybe the bottom’s solid or somethin’?” she offered.
“I guess…” Applejack conceded, though she remained unconvinced.
“So what’s on the paper?”
Pushing the box to one side, Applejack unfolded the paper and smoothed it out over the table between them. Once again, Rainbow Dash’s writing covered the sheet, though this time, she’d obviously taken some care over the presentation. The letters were much smoother with proper spacing between the words, and the lines were straight and level.
Applejack’s eyebrows raised in appreciation as she scanned the page, impressed with the level of care her marefriend had clearly taken. This undoubtedly meant something to her. She began to read aloud:
““Applejack,
Every year for your birthday, we do the same thing. I ask these little questions, you give these little answers, and I always end up getting you the right thing because I’m awesome.”” Applejack snorted and continued reading:
““But this year, I had an idea all my own for a present that will out-awesome all my other ones. First, though, we’re gonna play a little game. At the bottom of this page, you’ll find a riddle I made up… with a little help from one of our friends. See you when you solve it!
Rainbow Dash.”” A small frown of confusion crossed Applejack’s face as she looked up from the page. “Just what in tarnation is she up to now?”
“Sounds like she’s got somethin’ big planned,” Apple Bloom said, excitement in her voice. “What’s the riddle?” Returning to the paper, the older mare recited:
““You opened the box, so this one is free; your first clue will be in the lovebirds tree.””
“Lovebirds tree?” asked Apple Bloom, confused. “What-? Wait, does she mean…?” Applejack simply smirked without looking up.
“Yup, I reckon she does. Mom and dad’s tree.”
“But why there?” Apple Bloom’s puzzlement remained in her voice, causing the other mare to look up at her.
“Oh, me and her used to hang out there pretty often. Still do, actually,” Applejack said, looking up, a small grin on her features. “Not like you didn’t know, though, since it’s probably at least as often as I’ve seen you sneaking off there with them two other ponies. The filly and the colt.” Apple Bloom’s cheeks turned a very bright shade of red, and she suddenly seemed incapable of maintaining eye contact.
“I, er… didn’t think you knew about that,” she admitted sheepishly.
“Yeah, you ain’t as subtle as you like to think, young’un,” admonished the older mare with a chuckle. “But I ain’t about to try and stop it. You’re a grown mare now, who y’all fancy is up to you. Just be safe, is all.” Apple Bloom looked back up at her, a grateful smile on her face.
“Thanks, sis.”
“Don’t mention it,” Applejack answered, standing up. She walked over to the door and grabbed her hat off of its hook, placing it atop her head. “Well, guess I’d better go see what the hay my marefriend’s up to.”
With a quick wave to Apple Bloom, she headed out the door.
- - - - - - - -
The morning outside was still, but cold, despite the clear skies above. Frost covered the ground, and frozen leaves crunched underneath Applejack’s hooves as she walked between the rows of denuded apple trees. Her breath misted in front of her with every exhale, the vapour twisting and curling away from her in thick clouds. Birds that hadn’t migrated away for the winter twittered happily in the trees, lending an air of life to the otherwise sleeping orchard.
Applejack winced slightly as she walked, her left foreleg’s knee aching dully in the cold air. She had broken it about ten years before, slipping and falling whilst trying to haul apples downhill during a storm. It had been a particularly hot summer that year and the harvest had been lacking, which had driven her decision to persist despite the horrendous weather. Instead of getting her load home, however, she’d ended up lying in the rain and mud for hours, calling for help with her leg trapped under a tipped and broken cart.
It had been Rainbow Dash that had found her, somehow battling the fierce wind and biting rain to spot her from the air. The pegasus had hauled her, the pair of them shivering and soaked, all the way to Ponyville hospital. Although the doctors had tried their best to set the bone, it had never healed right, and now her knee served as a reminder of that day, particularly during the cold months of the year. Rainbow, to her credit, had never given Applejack any grief about the accident as she had for many other, more minor, mis-steps, and had stayed steadfastly by her side until she could walk again.
A shiver ran through Applejack, then, and she cursed her lack of a scarf. It hadn’t been quite cold enough for jackets and other cold weather gear recently, but this morning was particularly chilly and now she wished she’d stopped to grab something warmer to wear on her way out. Still, she wouldn’t be out here long. Her parents’ tree wasn’t much farther, and then she could get back inside after retrieving whatever it was Rainbow Dash had left her.
After a little more walking, Applejack emerged into the clearing that her parents hybrid tree stood in. The two trunks--one pear, the other apple--grew and twisted around each other, effectively becoming one plant. The effect of this growth meant that when the two trees were in full bloom, they had the appearance of one tree with two halves that each bore pears and apples respectively, and whose trunk had a curious, heart-shaped gap in the middle. At the moment, though, both trees were simply an entangled mess of bare branches, patiently waiting for warmer weather so they could bear fruit once more.
As soon as she entered the clearing, Applejack spied somepony else already there. Lounging in the gap between the tree trunks was the unmistakable sky-blue form of her marefriend, Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was wearing her Wonderbolt captain’s jacket over an orange turtleneck, which, in combination with her slicked back mane, gave her something of a roguish appearance. Her many-coloured tail, identical to her mane, was splayed out over the bark as she lay cross-legged in the crook formed by the trunks, clearly waiting for Applejack’s arrival.
As the farm mare crunched over the frozen leaves, Rainbow flicked an ear towards her before opening her eyes. Upon seeing her, her face lit up and she beamed, immediately flying up out of the tree and landing in front of Applejack.
“Morning, AJ!” she said excitedly, planting a kiss on Applejack’s cheek. “Looks like you found the box I left you.”
“Mornin’, sugarcube. Yeah, I did,” replied Applejack, returning the kiss. “Dang near fell flat on my face when I did.” She wanted to be mad at her, but it was hard to stay annoyed at an excited and kissy Rainbow Dash.
“Whoops, sorry. Guess I left it a bit too close to the door, huh?” Rainbow’s words expressed apology, but her expression and tone made it clear she knew exactly what she’d done. Ever the prankster when she was younger, some things never changed.
“Eeyup. Now,” Applejack continued, deciding not to take the bait. “You mind tellin’ me exactly what I’m doin’ out here in the cold? That riddle wasn’t exactly hard.” Rainbow Dash grinned, her wings flapping a few times with excitement.
“Heh, well,” she began, smugness written all over her face. “That was just the first one. You’ve got a lot more of them to get through.”
“The first? How many we talkin’ about, exactly?”
“About a dozen or so.”
“A dozen? That don’t sound too hard.”
“You haven’t seen the riddles, yet.” Rainbow’s smugness seemed to double. “Most are in pairs. Each one leads to the next, but you can’t find the second without finding the first. Oh, and you only have six days to solve them all.”
“Six days? Why, what happens then?”
“It’s your birthday. If you haven’t solved them all by then, you lose and I win. You’ll still get your present, but…” Rainbow trotted back to the tree, where a small bag lay cradled in the roots. She reached inside with a wing and pulled out what was quite possibly the ugliest hat Applejack had ever seen. It was cotton candy pink, with a long, downy blue feather stitched into the tan-coloured band.
“What in Equestria is that abomination?” she asked, genuinely repulsed. Rainbow just smirked and turned the hat around. Stitched with purple thread into the crown of the hat were the words: ‘I lost to Rainbow Dash, the greatest riddler in Equestria’.
“If you lose, you have to wear this,” Rainbow finished. Applejack’s response was succinct.
“Heck no.”
“For a month.”
“Double heck no.”
“Come on,” Rainbow cajoled, leaning against the tree and balancing the repugnant hat on a wingtip. “You really want to pass up the opportunity to get one up on me? The riddles are hard, but they’re not impossible. Besides, it’ll be fun.” That smug grin settled on her features once again. “And since when did you back down from a challenge?”
Applejack fumed slightly. Rainbow had her and she knew it. Never once in her life had she ever backed down from any challenge, not even the deadly, perilous ones that had threatened Equestria on many occasions. She looked from the hat to Rainbow, then back again and back once more.
“Fine,” she capitulated. “If only to wipe that smug look off of your face. And if I win, I get to pick our next three holidays and you don’t get to complain about where.” Rainbow seemed to consider for a moment. She nodded.
“Deal.”
“Alright, so what do I gotta do?”
“I told you already, didn’t I?” Rainbow said, stashing the pink eyesore back in the bag. ““Your first clue will be in the lovebirds tree”.” She gestured towards the entwined trunks with a wing.
“Well, you were in the tree when I got here.” Applejack raised an eyebrow as Rainbow simply laughed.
“Good guess, but I’m not a clue. Have another go.”
Looking up, Applejack scanned the bare branches above them, but could see no sign of anything that shouldn’t be there. She wandered around to the other side, but still the branches refused to give anything up. She checked the roots, nothing. The gap between the trunks, still nothing.
Frustrated, she stepped back from the tree and scowled. What in the hay was Rainbow playing at? If it wasn’t in the tree, then where…
At that moment, her eye caught something. Halfway up this side of the trunk of the apple side of the tree was a knot, one big enough to form a hole. A hole that had a sliver of white poking out of it.
Oh. In the tree. Clever.
“Aha!” she exclaimed triumphantly. Rearing up on her hind legs, Applejack reached up and grabbed the white object in her mouth, falling back to the ground carefully, so as not to aggravate her knee.
Looking past her nose, she could now see the object was a scroll, bound not dissimilarly to the royal scrolls that Twilight sent out. In fact, as she took it out of her mouth and examined it more closely, it was identical. The same red ribbon, and the same golden clasp with a horseshoe engraved on it holding it in place. Applejack wondered what their friend’s role in all this was. Surely Rainbow hadn’t needed her just to write a few riddles?
She got her answer almost immediately. As she attempted to release the clasp around the scroll, to her surprise, Applejack found it was stuck fast to the ribbon. Try as she might, no matter how hard she pulled or in what direction, the clasp remained firm. As she pulled one final time, it was then she noticed the faint, but unmistakable, glow of raspberry-tinted magic around the clasp; evidently some sort of spell holding it closed.
“What in tarnation?” she muttered.
“Having trouble?” Rainbow Dash appeared at her side, leaning on her elbows inside the tree’s gap. That cocky grin was back on her face once more, her whole being practically wrapped in a miasma of smugness.
“Yeah, what the hay is this?” Applejack retorted, waving the scroll in front of her marefriend. “Why’s there magic on this thing?”
“Oh, I forgot to mention,” Rainbow answered, though the look on her face said she’d done anything but. “To make sure that there’s actually a time challenge, I had someone seal the second riddles with a bit of magic. They won’t unlock until the morning after you’re supposed to find them.”
“What? Why?” asked Applejack, slightly incredulous. Rainbow hopped through the gap in the tree to land next to her, the bag containing the hat carried on a wing.
“Well, I can’t have you solving them too quickly, can I?” she said with a sly smile. “Gotta make sure you pace yourself, otherwise there’s no risk of you wearing this hat.” She jiggled the bag for emphasis.
“Oh, I ain’t wearing that thing. You can count on it,” Applejack stated adamantly. Rainbow simply laughed and stepped past her.
“Don’t lose and you won’t have to.” As she spoke, she reached out with her closest wing and gently tapped Applejack’s cutie mark, causing her to jump slightly. “See you later, sugarcube.”
With that, the pegasus switched to carrying the bag in her mouth and took off into the sky, the wind of her passage causing her tail to stream behind her. Applejack watched her disappear into the distance before looking back at the scroll she held.
It, being simply a roll of paper, did not stare back. However, its lack of staring was done in a very smug manner. Applejack sighed. She felt it was going to be a long six days.
“Consornit,” she muttered.