//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Rainbow's Song 
// by DMDash71 
//------------------------------//

	“Well hey-howdy, Rainbow!  What brings you out to this neck o’ the woods?”
Rainbow Dash’s wings flapped rapidly for a moment as she hovered low over the ground, before alighting and coming to a stop.  “I was wondering the same thing about you.  What’re you doing here, Applejack?”
The peach colored Earth Pony grinned, tilting the cowboy hat she wore atop her forelock back to a precarious perch.  “Right now Ah’m gettin’ down to a heap o’ restin’ up.  Ol’ Fluttershy done run me ragged today.”
A high-pitched squeak emerged from the open top of the half-door of the house behind her.  “Oh goodness, Applejack, I’m so sorry!  I didn’t mean to wear you out!”  Fluttershy came trotting out, wings fluttering nervously, her expression scrunched up in obvious distress.  “Oh dear, do you need a doctor or something?  I don’t want you to get all sick like you did last time we tried this-“
“Fluttershy, Ah’m fine.  That’s why ah volunteered to come over an’ help, remember?”
Rainbow looked around the yard quizzically.  “Just what are you helping with?”
“Rabbit rustlin’!”  Applejack laughed heartily.  “’Cept Ah’m tryin to get better at it than ah was last time.”
“I thought you only did that in the spring.”
Fluttershy beamed.  “Oh yes, it’s important to help count up all the new little bunnies in the springtime, except we couldn’t get a very good count last time because…um.”  The sunyellow Pegasus Pony trailed off into embarassed silence.
“Because ah was half-asleep from workin’ by mahself and stubborn as a mule about asking fer help?” Applejack offered helpfully.
Fluttershy pawed a forehoof at the ground for a moment, then nodded quickly.
“Sooo, we’re practicin’!”  Applejack nosed at a clump of hay roughly half her own size, then settled down onto it with an undignified flumph, sending up a cloud of dust and chaff.
Rainbow snorted and blinked, clearing her eyes of the dust.  “Comfy?”
“Aww yeah.  You Pegasus Ponies got yer cushy clouds and all, but ya cain’t eat yer cushions.”  Applejack tucked her head down, snatched up a mouthful of hay and began chewing unselfconciously.  “Oh yeah, that’s fine eatin’.”
“Smartaleck.”  Rainbow Dash sat down on the grass verge next to the walkway up to the house, swishing her tail for a moment before settling down herself.  “Hey, did you guys get letters from the Princess about the singing thing tomorrow night?”
“Frm Shelshtia?”  Applejack asked around a mouthful of hay.
“No, from Luna, ya hick.”
Fluttershy gasped.  “Oh no, Luna sent us a letter, too?  I never got that one.”
“Just a joke, Fluttershy,” Rainbow soothed.  “You did get the one for Canterlot though, right?”
“Oh yes, it was soooo beautiful.”  Fluttershy beamed, her wings curling out and upward for a moment before settling back.  “Did you hear all the little birdies singing in the music?  I’m going to try to teach mine how to sing that song.”
“Yeah, it was really great, I guess.”  Rainbow Dash actually didn’t remember much about the birdsong; the large, glowing singing sphere had occupied most of her attention at the time.  “So…you goin’?”
“Oh, of course!”  Fluttershy quivered for a moment.  “It’ll be really scary with everyone watching and all, but I’d love to go sing about all my animals to everyone.  Maybe the animals in Celestia’s garden will hear the song and be friendly and won’t be so…um, shy.” 
Rainbow gave her an odd look.  “I thought you hung out with them when we went there for the gala.”
Fluttershy looked away for a moment, her pink tail twitching about rapidly.  “I um…I don’t want to talk about it.”  Her pet rabbit, Angel, hopped over and gave the sunyellow mare a dubious look before hopping away again.  “But maybe this time it’ll go over better.  At least, I hope it will.”
“So…you’re sure you’re going to be okay singing in front of everyone?”
“Oh, yes.  I mean, if it was just me, then no, I just couldn’t!”  Fluttershy shivered.  “But all my bestest best friends will be there.  Right, Applejack?”
Applejack swallowed and emitted a mighty belch.  “Yer darned tootin they will.  Ah’ve got just the thing in mind, too, fer mah song, and no, it ain’t about apples,” she said, giving Rainbow Dash a dirty look.  “Well, not direckly, anyway.”
Fluttershy stretched forward and picked up a small mouthful of hay from Applejack’s ad hoc couch.  She chewed demurely and swallowed.  “And I’ve got my animals to sing about, and how wonderful it is to take care of them.”  She flicked her soft pink forelock away from one eye and scrunched up, smiling.  “It’s so sweet!”  She smiled at them, reflexively, and uttered a quiet squee.
“Gechhh….”  Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.  “Why am I not surprised?”
“What about you, Dash?”  Applejack rolled on her back, squirming for a moment before settling down again on the hay.  “What’re you gonna croon about?”
Rainbow blinked.  “What?  Oh.”  She shook her head, a wry grin curling over her lips.  “I’m thinking about…something awesome, of course.”
Applejack turned her head and eyed the cyan pegasus.  “Yer gonna sing about yerself, aren’tcha?”
“Well duhhh,” Rainbow retorted.  “What else is there that is more awesome than me?  Besides, we’re supposed to sing songs about ourselves, from what Twilight told me.”
“Well yeah, but it ain’t the same thing, ah don’t think.”  Applejack lazily batted a fly away from the brim of her hat with one hoof.  “At least, that’s the idear ah got from that explosive letter thingy.”
“What d’you mean?” asked Rainbow, her voice growing cross.  “Twilight told me it was supposed to be a song BY me, ABOUT me.  So what’s the problem?”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened.  “Oh, are we arguing?  I’m sorry.”
“Naw, sugarcube, not really.”  Applejack patted Fluttershy’s hoof with her own.  “Just disagreein’ about somethin’, is all.”  She turned back to look at Rainbow Dash.  “Ah’m not tryin’ to tell ya what to sing about, Dash, don’t get me wrong.  Ah’m just sayin’ that maybe the song’s s’posed to be about you, not about you.  Aw, heck,” she grumbled, “Ah ain’t good at this kinda hairsplittin’ nonsense.  You might be the only one’s got it straight, Dash, an’ the rest of us have got it all tumbled up.”
“You think so?”  Fluttershy looked aghast.  “Oh no, I don’t think I can come up with another song, I’m only half done with the one I’m working on right now.”
Applejack laughed.  “Don’t you worry ‘bout that.  You go right out thar and sing about yer critters.  Heck, ever’pony likes critters, and with you singin’ to em about em, they’ll like em twice as much.”
“Oh, that would be sooo wonderful!”  Fluttershy became radiant.  “I have so many animals that could use a good home.  Not that I don’t want them, I mean, they make me happy, but they could make other ponies happy too.”  She suddenly looked crestfallen.  “Not that other ponies aren’t happy, I mean-“
“Ahhh, ah think we get the point, Fluttershy.”  Applejack glanced back over at her other friend.  “Hey, Rainbow, you want some of this here hay?”  She sat upright.  “Ah didn’t lay on all of it, if’n you wanted a bite.”
“Nah, that’s okay.”  Rainbow Dash’s voice was unusually subdued.  “I’m uh, not really hungry right now anyway.  Hey, look, I gotta take off.”  She offered the other ponies a small grin.  “Got lots of awesomeness to practice singing about and all, ya know!”
Applejack stood up, shaking the hay out of her tail.  “Hey, look, Dash, forget about what I said, all right?”
The cyan pegasus flicked her wings out and gave a massive sweep, shooting her aloft.  “No problem, I got no worries.  Seeya later!”
Fluttershy stood up and walked over beside Applejack, the two craning their heads to watch the multicolored swirl overhead zoom off.  “Do you think she’s all right?  She seemed upset.”
“Yeah, don’t ah know it.  Ah wish ah’d kept my mouth shut.”  Applejack stamped a hind hoof angrily in the dirt.  “Ah think ah done put my hoof in it this time.”
Fluttershy scanned the ground behind Applejack curiously.  “No, there’s just dirt back here, and some hay, and-“ She looked back up to see Applejack frowning at her crossly.  “Oh!  Oh, that.”  She peered back in the direction of Ponyville where Rainbow Dash had gone.  “Oh, my.”