Twilight’s eyes fluttered open, blurry images processing through her mind. She looked around in a daze to realize she had never left her seat; and it was almost noon now, judging by the light peeking through the windows of the library. Groaning, the mare lifted herself up and onto her feet, shaking her head to dispel the last effects of sleep. She took a look around, and it was already quite obvious that no one had returned. Not even Spike.
She sighed, looking around for something else to turn her attention to. She surveyed every shelf, but for once Spike beat her to the punch. Perfectly alphabetized, not a book out of place. The beds were all made, the bathroom clean, and the kitchen… was lacking a few items off the spice rack. Twilight’s grin nearly split her head in half, as she finally found something to do.
She busily wrote down the list of required goods on a slip of parchment, depositing it in a saddlebag retrieved from by the door. Lazily humming a tune she didn’t know half of, she stepped out the door.
The Ponyville market was buzzing with activity, and the thrum of a street musician’s guitar added a pulse beneath the throbbing of conversing ponies. Twilight casually trotted from stall to stall, seeing all that the shopkeepers had to offer. Truth be told, it wasn’t very much, mostly goods brought in from down south, where the warmth permitted some crops to still be grown. It wasn’t quite fresh, but it was superior to the general store’s selection to be sure.
Of course, that was hardly on the lavender mare’s mind. She’d found the spices she had lacked long ago. It was nearly two o’clock by now, and the only purpose her wandering served was to take her mind off of that morning. Her mind swam in thick, yet empty thoughts, absorbed in its own stupor. Then, she heard a familiar voice, yelling at somepony.
“…Ah’m tellin’ ya, there’s nothing wrong with these pears!”
“Yes, there is! They’re pears!”
“Well, ya gotta eat somethin’ if you’re so stuck up you won’t just eat apples like the rest of us!”
“And I will! Just not pears.”
The promise of social interaction sparked a lightbulb in Twilight’s mind, and she cantered around a corner, running straight into an orange earth pony. Both their loads were tossed high up in the air, and were barely snatched up in time by an outstretched front and hind leg from a brown stallion. He looked particularly frazzled as Applejack rubbed her head, groaning.
“Gah! Tarnation, who in their right mind would…oh, Twilight!”
Applejack stumbled back up to her feet, reaching down afterwards to drag Twilight back up as well. She grinned from ear to ear as she smacked the unicorn’s back with her hoof, knocking off some dust.
“KOFF-KOFF… er, hey, Applejack! I thought I heard you so I, well, came running.”
The farmer pony let loose a hearty chuckle. “Ha, well, Ah’m glad to see you too, Twilight. Whooves and I were just—“ her expression dropped to surprise, as if she had just remembered something important, and turned around. Sure enough, the brown colt was still precariously balanced on a front and hind leg, holding up Twilight and Applejack’s bags.
“Oh, horseapples! You all right, Whooves?”
“Yes, yes, fine, please just take the bags!” The stallion replied, his legs already beginning to wobble. Twilight took care of that, a violet aura surrounding both bags and relieving the colt, who at once attained a look of bliss on his face. “Oh, thank goodness. Thought I’d break my legs—what did you PUT in there?”
Twilight casually opened the flaps on her saddlebags, to reveal a shaker of peppercorns and a jar of garlic. Her eyebrow raised, and she frowned in confusion. “I just came out to get some spices—“
She was stopped by a hoof over her lips from Whooves. “No, not you. You.”
He did an about-face directly towards Applejack, who shrugged and opened her own saddlebags. It was full of rocks. The look on Whooves’ face was something between bafflement and recalling a night better forgotten.
“That is the second strangest thing I have ever seen in a bag.”
“Ah’ve been carrying it around to keep my strength up, since the foals’re preparing to start handling the apple bucking. Any earth pony worth their weight could carry this, no sweat.”
“You know as well as I do that I’m not a—“ both earth ponies seemed to trail off in expression, looking quite disturbed all off a sudden. Applejack plastered her face with a quite blatantly fake smile as Whooves corrected himself, with a smile that seemed both far stranger and far more genuine. “—a, uh, mm, physical pony! Yes, you know, books. And the like. For me. Know where I could find some good books, Twilight?”
“Um… I’m the town librarian.”
“Oh, excellent! What a great place to start, eh? Maybe we can check that out later. That, uh, the big booky place!”
“…Library?”
“That thing, right!” Whooves agreed, grinning and nodding excitedly. Twilight gave an aside glance to Applejack. Her friend merely shrugged, and gave her a look that suggested he was always like this. The unicorn opted not to judge, and spoke again.
“Well, actually, if you two are done shopping I was thinking of grabbing lunch. Would you like to join me?”
“Sounds great, Twilight!” Applejack said with a grin. The trio began to navigate their way through the throng and out of the market, trading gossip back and forth.
“So, Applejack, where’re your foals at?”
“What,” the farmer responded. “you honestly think we’d bring near-to a dozen foals on a grocery run?”
“Still can’t believe I agreed to the eleventh…” Whooves mulled. Twilight had to suppress a giggle at the beleaguered stallion’s expense. It was something of an inside joke that Whooves was a rather frazzled parent, if from nothing but the sheer workload.
“Anyways,” AJ continued. “we’ve got most of the babies put to nap at Sweet Apple Acres. The oldest ones’re all at school,”
“And Applejack’s brother kindly ‘volunteered’ to watch the rowdier ones too young for school, and too old to keep asleep.” Whooves finished. The stallion walked away from them, drawn by the alluring hat stand at the edge of the market. That left Twilight and Applejack alone for some private catching up.
“You all set for the party?” Applejack asked. “Honest, now, Ah don’t want none’a your skirting the issue. Ah already heard from Rarity how you were handling it a couple days ago…”
Twilight faked an amused laugh, but the intense blush on her face revealed her opinion on her little outburst. “I was under a lot of stress at the time. Rarity convinced me to take things slower. I’m still looking for the gift, but I’m confident we’ll find something. I just wish Pinkie and Rarity were here to celebrate with us.”
Applejack nodded calmly. With Rarity off to Las Pegasus, and Pinkie Pie visiting Manehattan with her coltfriend, the old gang would be near-half absent for Opal’s big day. And for her and Rainbow’s anniversary.
“That so?” Applejack asked, scrutinizing the look on her friend’s face as they trotted along. “’Cause if that ain’t what’s bothering ya, Twilight, then Ah want to know what is. It’s definitely something, but Ah can’t put my hoof on it.”
Twilight’s lips squirmed as she shuffled the words around inside.
“C’mon, girl, out with it.”
Twilight groaned, unable to hide her anxiety. “Rainbow got promoted to Captain of the Wonderbolts last night.”
“Really?” came the voice of Whooves, drawing up from behind them. They looked over, startled to see both that he’d arrived so fast, and also that he’d managed to acquire a fez for himself. Twilight couldn’t help but note he made the ridiculous little thing work, somehow. “Because that’s wonderful news! It’s her foalhood dream and all that wash, right?”
“Yes, it is.” Twilight said. “But… I’m just worried; Rainbow Dash can get so obsessed with her flying, sometimes, I’m worried if this’ll distract her from her obligations. And, from me, I guess.”
“Oh, you’re overreacting,” Whooves said, with a dismissive wave of his hoof. One that happened to smack Pokey Pierce straight in his eye. The unicorn gave a yelp of pain, before ducking away and glaring at Whooves as they went separate ways. The earth colt turned his head around to watch the other go, yelling back “Yeah, not so nice when it’s happening to you now, is it!”
The brown stallion turned back to Twilight, and started talking to her again like he’d never stopped. That drifting, swimming aspect of his focus and personality was nothing less than disturbing to her, at its worst.
“Honestly, love, you’re overreacting. Rainbow’s willy-nilly bonkermad for you. No chance she’d ever let anything get in the way of that!”
Twilight gave a polite nod, acknowledging his feelings, and along with him looked at Applejack to gauge her opinion. Surprisingly, she seemed rather troubled by the look on her face.
“Ah don’t know, Whooves,” she said. “Rainbow’s like a sister to me, and Ah love her. But that puts me in the special position of knowing when she’s in over her head. She can get kinda… kinda mixed up in her priorities, when big titles and fancy things get in her head. Ah wouldn’t put it past her to get all screwed up in this, too.”
Twilight frowned a bit, knowing she likely couldn’t argue something like this coming from the Element of Honesty. But her expression shifted to surprise when Applejack kept talking.
“But,” the farmer affirmed. “she’s still your wife. You’ve got an obligation to trust her, at least enough to give her a chance at this. This is a pretty big milestone in her life, Twilight; Ah think you oughta support her.”
The lavender mare’s frown slowly regressed into a gentle smile, and she nodded at both of her friends. “Thank you; both of you. You’re right, I need to, at the least, give her a chance. But, enough about that right now. Who’s hungry?”
She looked up, Applejack and Whooves following her gaze, at the sign of the restaurant they’d finally arrived at, nearly half a mile up the road from the market. Applejack licked her lips as she remembered just how hungry she’d gotten lugging those stones around.
“Looks mighty good, Twi—hey, wait just an applebuckin’ minute! Isn’t this that ‘fillypinto’ stuff Rainbow was warnin’ us about the other day?”
“Do they serve pears?” Whooves asked urgently. Twilight carefully thought it over, and slowly shook her head no.
“We’re going.”
Far away in Cloudsdale, around the same time, the Wonderbolts were lined up along the cloudy plains surrounding the city. Perfect stomping grounds for a team to get some good practice in. Each pegasus was dressed in their flightsuits, arranged in two perfect rows, twelve teammates in each. In front of them, a single pony was fluttering slowly, back and forth on her wings.
Rainbow Dash—or, she supposed, Captain Dash, was normally quite comfortable in her flightsuit. It felt like a second skin to her, as if she were born to wear it and had been naked until she did—both literally, and figuratively. But today, it itched. It scraped against her, as if it were telling her she had overstepped bounds. She was a Wonderbolt. But she wasn’t this.
She clamped down on that thought, and shut it away. A leader exuded confidence. And by Celestia, she would be a leader if Spitfire wanted her to be.
“OK, fillies, listen up.” She barked. “If any of you were expecting an easy ride on your first day with a new CO, that plan’s going right out the window. The Wonderbolts are the best fliers in all of Equestria, and we are NOT going to let ourselves slack off for any reason. Am I right?”
“RIGHT!” her subordinates yelled back. A tiny jump in her heart came with an elated feeling. They’re listening to me!
“O-OK!” she said in response. “We’re heading right into drills, everypony. Squad One, I want you practicing the Corkscrew Drop! Squad Two, follow them up with the Thunderbolt Sweep? Ready, GO!”
The Wonderbolts zapped off into formation, going through the motions as they always did. But something was different. Their new Captain was not the sure-hooved pegasus they had come to respect and follow before. Rainbow Dash was hesitating, stuttering on calls. They barely avoided a midair collision when the two Squads came together for the coup de grace. The whole tumultuous session lasted no more than twenty minutes, before at last Rainbow blew her whistle.
“O…OK, fillies! Lunch break, you’ve got thirty minutes.”
Her fellow Wonderbolts dispersed, picking scenic locations in the hills to sit down and devour the food they’d brought with them. Dash relegated herself to the outskirts of the group, content to sit alone and watch the others, until a light blue stallion came after her.
“Captain?”
Dash looked to her right, to see Soarin land next to her. The incorrigible colt had a worried grimace on his face. Dash just shook her head at him.
“It’s just Dash, Soarin. C’mon, you know me.”
“Well, yeah,” he said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “but I figured you could probably use somepony callin’ ya ‘Captain’ right now.”
Rainbow stared at him, confused and yet feeling a ringing as if she understood on a deeper level. Soarin elaborated.
“Gotta be nerve-wracking, bein’ a first-time Captain, thinkin’ everypony’s judging ya for a few slip-ups. But you’ll get the hang of it, no sweat. Just remember you’ve gotta ease into it, y’know? It takes time.”
“You think?” Dash asked, slowly forcing a grin on her sullen demeanor. “I just hope I’ll be half the captain Spitfire was.”
“Hey, don’t go comparing yourself to other ponies.” Soarin said, clonking her over the head for her stupidity. “You’ll just drive yourself crazy with stress doing that! You’re your own Captain, Dash; I miss Spits, but you’ll grow into your own style.”
“Ha!” Rainbow blurted out, throwing a leg around Soarin’s neck and drawing him close. “I guess I don’t have anywhere to go but up, with an Lt. like you backing me up.”
“Bucking straight, ya do!” the blue stallion agreed with that childish, beaming grin of his.
Their banter went on for some time, but the momentum finally died down. They relaxed in silence on the hillside, on their backs watching the others mingle. Finally, a nervous voice gingerly asked “H-hey, Captain?”
“Yeah, Soarin?”
“I’m sorry I gotta ask right now but… something’s come up, and I really need a favor.”
Rainbow rolled to her right to look at her XO. “What’s up?”
The pony’s face squirmed and faulted as he thought of the right way to say what was coming next. “I know it’s a real bad time, but, Spits’ retirement came on real sudden, so I kinda wasn’t expecting it’d be a big deal… but me an’ my filly, we were planning a big trip up to Manehattan tomorrow.”
In Rainbow’s mind, the sound of a glass pane shattering could be heard, going down in shards alongside her illusions of sliding easily into her role. “W-what?”
“I know, I know.” Soarin replied, nervously nipping at the tip of his hoof. “I wouldn’t ask normally, but she’s been so excited about the whole thing, ya know? It’d kill her if we didn’t go… think you’ll be all right without me?”
Rainbow’s gut grumbled in protest; this was a terrible idea. But her heart, feeling just a twinge of envy for Soarin’s ability to fly off to distant lands with his beloved, couldn’t help but relate.
“…Yeah. OK,” she said, bowing her head. “but I don’t know how well I’m gonna manage without ya, Soar’.”
The stallion reacted oddly to that one; he frowned. Dash looked at him, shocked as he stared her down in disapproval. Soarin never frowned, at least not in an angry way.
“Dash, forget what I said earlier. I’m not that great an Lt. Don’t let that idea get stuck in your head that ya need me to do anything; you’re an awesome flyer!” He stood up, and as Dash followed he pointed at her wish his hoof, sticking it right into her chest.
“The best Wonderbolt we’ve had in years, and you’re gonna be the best Captain too! I know it, so promise me that!”
Rainbow stared on, dumbstruck.
“Promise me that when I come back,” he added with a growing smile. “I’ll be coming back to the leanest, meanest captain the Wonderbolts have ever seen!”
Dash stared on for another moment, before the realization struck her. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her lips curled into a defiant grin. “That a bet? You’re on, Lieutenant!”
Their hooves pounded together once, to seal the deal, before Dash turned back towards the rest of the team. She took off, calling back “Double-time it, Soarin! You’re not getting off easy, you’d better put in enough work to make up all the practice you’re missing, today!”
The blue stallion couldn’t help but let his infectious grin take over as he launched himself after her.