Her Frontier

by FromTheMoon


A Home On The Range

Chapter 7: A Home On The Range

Rainbow Dash began to slowly wake from her dream, she could hear Top Notch calling from below her cloud bed. Slowly but surely her mind began to wander back from her dream. She let out one final yawn before allowing herself to fall through the cloud towards the ground opening her wings just a few feet above the scrub land and landing next to Top Notch. "I'm guessing my breaks over then?"

"Actually your break was over nine minutes ago but I decided to let it slide Rainbow." The Pegasus had been working on the dairy farm for almost a week now and during that time she had gotten to know Top Notch a little better. The stallion turned out to actually be a pretty chill and cool guy, that is if one could survive his jokes.

Rainbow Dash finished stretching out her legs and wings before she addressed him again. "Okay so who's getting milked now? Is it the cow that's white with brown spots or that other cow who's white with black spots?" Rainbow tilted her head to get a look at the the pens which held the living milk factories. When she had asked Top Notch just how many cows he owned he had decided to give her a little lecture instead of a direct answer.

Top Notch told Rainbow that technically he didn't actually own any of the cows on the farm. He explained that since cows were sentient and had the ability to speak they could not be considered property, the herd of cows had to be convinced to stay on the farm. Apparently it was Top Notch's great grandfather who had gone out into the wild scrub land, found a small herd of cows and made a deal with them. In exchange for their milk Top Notch's ancestor had promised the herd a safe stable place to live and a steady supply of food. "You know they have names right? I don't think its that hard to remember the names of a few dozen..."

"Yeah yeah, but I can't take their names seriously though. It's like when a cow names her new born she immediately gives it the first bad pun that pops into her head. Moving on though who's the next cow to get milked?"

"Gee Rainbow Dash, you sure seem eager to milk those cows? Is because you finding the task fun now maybe because you just like to rub Vaseline on your hooves?"

Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her face. "You know if you weren't AJ's cousin or injured I probably would of kicked your ass all the way to Fillydelphia by now."

Top Notch laughed the threat off. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't a compliment you ass..."

"Thank you for compliment!" Another thing that Rainbow Dash had noticed about the stallion in front of her was that at times he could as annoying as Pinkie when it came to deciding what color of streamers there should be at a party or Rarity when it came down to whatever the hell the prissy pony was having a diva episode about. "Actually Rainbow Dash the towns mail pony just stopped by and said that you got a package waiting for you at the office in town. He said that he couldn't bring the thing because it was pretty big. So I was thinking that maybe you would head into town to pick up your package and then head over to Whisky' place and grab us some dinner on your way back."

It had taken days but it seemed like Rainbow's long awaited package had finally arrived. With a quick nod of her head she took off into the sky and headed towards town but had to turn back half way there due to the fact that she had forgotten to ask where the towns mail office was. Top Notch gave her some directions and she took off again in a blur eager to see if her friends in PonyVille had sent her everything. The prospect of food also helped her to pick up the pace.

One thing Rainbow Dash had not expected when she volunteered to help at the farm were the work hours. The amount of work she could deal with but no pony had ever told her that everyday she would have to wake up at four in the morning. Having to work from such early hours was cutting into her nap schedule and it was also leaving her with more of an appetite. Rainbow Dash had finally realized how Apple Jack managed to eat so much but not gain any weight.


"Lets see here, a package for a miss Rainbow Dash. Rainbow...rainbow...rainbow...Rainbow." The pony running the front desk at the mail office was starting to irritate Rainbow Dash. He was an elderly stallion who had obviously seen better days. The stallion was going through his records for what seemed like the ninth time and Rainbow had just about had enough. She reached over the desk, grabbed the records book, flipped through it, and then handed it back to the stallion open to the page that had her name.

"Oh here it is, one package for a miss Rainbow Dash from a miss Apple Jack in PonyVille." The stallion disappeared into a room behind him and came out a few minutes later lugging with him a rather large package. "Here you go Ms. Rainbow Dash. Sorry it took so long for this package to arrive but apparently a grey mail mare Pegasus accidently flew your package to Las Pegasus." Rainbow Dash had a certain idea about who that certain grey mail Pegasus could be.

"Whatever, I'm kinda used to my mail getting lost anyway." She put her package in between her forelegs and then made her way out of the mail office.

Rainbow Dash had decided that it would be a better idea if she would drop her package off the farm first and then head back into town to pick up dinner. She entered the farm house through her bedroom window so that she wouldn't attract Top Notch's attention. She dropped the package on top of her bed before dashing out the window again. She felt that Top Notch was the kind of guy who didn't go through other ponies stuff so she felt confident leaving her package alone and unprotected.


ON BREAK FOR 20 MINUTES

Rainbow read the sign out loud as she walked up the steps towards the door of the restaurant. She could hear what sounded like music coming from inside so she assumed that either Whisky or Clover Leaf had to be there. Rainbow Dash tried to push the double doors open but they were locked.

"We'll reopen in another ten minutes so please come back then okay?" Clover shouted from inside the restaurant. Rainbow Dash knocked three times before calling to the Unicorn. "Clover its me Rainbow Dash! I was hoping that maybe you or Whisky might be able to able to cook me and Top Notch something to eat?" Rainbow could hear hoof steps coming towards the front and a few moments later the doors opened.

"Oh hey there honey, didn't know it you at first. Come on in and take a seat while I see what I can do for you." Rainbow did as she was told and she entered the restaurant and made her way to the bar. The jukebox was playing a song* that Rainbow Dash instantly recognized. She was surprised to hear Clover humming along to song. Rainbow's past experience with the Unicorn race had lead her to believe that all Unicorns either loved Classical prissy music or eardrum shattering dubstep.

"So what can I get for you and Top Notch honey?"

"Oh he said he'll have the usual as always and I'll have veggieburger again."

"Coming right up honey."

"Wait aren't you still on your break? I don't mind waiting for a bit and I'm sure Top Notch won't mind either." Rainbow Dash had no problems with her friends doing her favors out of the blue but strangers were a different story. "Nonsense Rainbow, were would my hospitality be if I forced friends of mine to wait."

friends

All this time Rainbow had thought Pinkie was the best at making friends but after only a week Clover Leaf was calling Rainbow Dash, a pony she had only met a few days ago, her friend. "Well if you insist Clover then don't let me stop you. I'll just wait at the bar while you do your thing."

"No need for that Rainbow, you can just head up stairs and talk to Whisky. I'm pretty sure he's still in his room unless he sprouted a pair of wings in the last twelve minutes and flew out his window."

"Whisky lives above the restaurant? That's um...well that's..."

"I believe the word your looking for Rainbow is dedication. Some say that stallion is married to his work. I always tell ponies that ain't true, though that may just be wish full thinking." There was a hint of sadness in Clover's tone but Rainbow Dash really didn't want to ask her about for fear of an awkward conversation. "Shoot look at me blabber on like some valley mare. The stairs to his room are through the kitchen honey, just make sure you knock first."

Rainbow Dash nodded her head and made her way through the door behind the counter into the kitchen. "Wow, and I thought Twilight was the queen of organizing but this...this makes her library look like a pre-schools book section." The entire kitchen was clean and sparkling. Rainbow could even see her reflection on the tile floors, but what amazed her most was that everything seemed to be in alphabetical order from the solid ingredients to the bags of flour. Rainbow found the stairs and made her way up them but stopped in front of the closed door. She knocked three times and waited, she could hear different music coming from inside the room. Finally the door opened and she was greeted by a warm smile from Whisky.

"Oh hey Rainbow Dash! Whats bring you to my Fortress of Solitude?" Whisky usually had a suave surrounding him but now it seemed like it was turned off.

"Your what? I thought this was supposed to be your room."

"No, you see I was making a reference to SuperStallion. You know, the comic book hero?

"Oh I'm not really into comics, my friend Pinkie Pie was always the one into that kind of nerdy stuff." Rainbow realized that she could of worded her previous sentence a little better.

"HEY, it's not nerdy! But actually I don't really read the comics either. I just saw the new movie that came out earlier this month while I was visiting Manehatten." Just like that the stallion seemed to turn his suave back on. "So yeah, this is were the magic happens." Or at least Whisky was trying to turn his suave back on. "What brings you up here any way Rainbow?"

Whisky motioned for Rainbow to take a seat on the edge of his beg while he took a seat on a small sofa that was opposite of his bed. "I actually came by looking to pick up some dinner for me and Top Notch. Clover's down there cooking it up for me and she suggested that I come up here and talk to you."

A smile as wide as a mile appeared on Whisky's face. "Say no more Rainbow Dash, I'll make sure that Clover throws in a bottle of wine for the two farm love birds."

Rainbow Dash never realized just how much of a blusher she was until she moved to EverGlade. "WHAT!? NO! It's nothing like that I mean yeah he's a cool dude and all but..." Whisky was laughing so hard that he was drowning out the music. "Easy there Rainbow, don't ponies where you're from have any sense of humor?" Rainbow Dash ignored the question and just buried her face in a pillow trying to get rid of her blush.

"Re' al' uys n is own jeks?" Rainbow' voice was muffled by the pillow.

"Um could you repeat that?" Whisky asked.

Rainbow Dash felt that the heat on her face was fading and took her face off of the pillow. "I said 'Are all guys in this town jerks?' "

"If by jerks you mean comically gifted then yea, I guess you could say we are. Actually just me and Top Notch probably are probably, Sheriff Silver Point doesn't kid around at all and I really can't speak for every other stallion in EverGlade." Whisky turned his attention to look out his window for a moment before turning back to look at the Pegasus. "So how are you adjusting to our beautiful little town of ours? Like it, hate it, Whats going through your mind girl?"

The truth was that Rainbow Dash didn't really have the slightest clue on what was going on in her mind. She had based her whole decision to stay in EverGlade on a feeling in her gut. "Living here is better than what I was doing in PonyVille which was doing just a bunch of crummy weather jobs. Here I'm you know...some place different I guess?"

"So you're going to tell me that milking cows for a living is better than controlling the weather?"

"Better? No. Different? Yeah, so at least I'm trying something new and meeting some interesting new ponies."

Rainbow Dash had always been told by her mother that if she gave a stallion an inch they'd take a mile but when it came down to Top Notch and Whisky the stallions seemed willing to take an entire country. "Me and Top Notch interesting? Well well well my mother always told me that I'd be popular with the all the mares." Just like that Whisky had just proven Rainbow's point.

"Say Rainbow Dash, since me and Top Notch answered your questions when you first arrived here would you mind answering just one question from me? You see I was just wondering if there was you know any other reason that you had for staying behind and helping Top Notch in his time of need? Ulteriour motives and all that stuff." This definitely came out of the blue. For the past couple of days Top Notch and the others had been quiet about asking Rainbow any personal questions about her life. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth but no words came out. She considered her options; on one hoof these ponies had been really kind to her and allowed her to stay on such short notice but on the other hoof they were still mostly strangers to her.

In the end she chose to dodge the question the same way that Top Notch had avoided her question when she first arrived. "I really don't want to talk about it...kind of a sore subject to me personally. Also you're all really cool and everything but you're all still...still..."

"Strangers to you? Hmm yeah I guess we are still a little unknown to you but that's something I hope will change when more time passes."

A voice came from the kitchen downstairs. "Hey Rainbow Honey! Your foods packaged and good to go!"

Whisky answered for Rainbow Dash. "She'll be right down Clover! It would sure be waste to let such good food go cold." He turned his attention back to her. "We'll you best get going Rainbow, I hate to get in between two love birds." Whisky let out another laugh and Rainbow just smiled this time and shook her head before making her way downstairs.

Clover was waiting for her at the bottom of the steps with a brown paper bag held in her mouth. Rainbow handed her the bits that Top Notch had given her to pay for the food, took the bag in her own mouth, and with a quick nod and the best smile she could could come up with made her way out of the restaurant into the blue sky above the scrub lands back towards the dairy farm.


Making her way into the farm house through the front door this time Rainbow Dash set the bag on the kitchen table and then quickly made her way up the stairs to her room to check on her package. She opened the bedroom door and saw that Top Notch was sitting on the bed with the package in his hooves. "What the hay are you doing with my package!?"

With the look Rainbow Dash was giving the stallion she would of expected to him begin cowering and begging for her forgiveness. Top Notch however just continued to sit there acting like he had done nothing wrong whatsoever. "Oh nothing much just taking a look at what came in the mail..."

"For me!" Rainbow Dash started

"For you." Top Notch finished. "This thing feels heavy, what did you have my cousin send you?" Top Notch shook the package a little which caused Rainbow Dash to rush to the bed and forcefully remove the package from his grip. "I swear to Celestia if you so much as opened it!"

Top Notch put both his forelegs into the air before getting off the bed and making his way towards the door. "Easy there girl, my mother raised me right. I don't mess with what ain't mine and I expect the same of others too. I reckon the foods on the table?" Rainbow Dash continued to stare daggers at the stallion but nodded her head while doing do. "Sweet, I know for a fact that Whisky would hate for his food to go cold."

"Actually Clover Leaf cooked it."

"Same deal but different pony. Now come on, aren't you going to join me?" Rainbow Dash looked at Top Notch and then at the package in her hooves. "What? You think that package is just going to sprout legs and wander off into the scrub by itself? I promise your package will still be there." Top Notch was taunting Rainbow Dash, that much she knew from years of being on both ends of the action. "No! But after I saw you with your hooves on it..." Rainbow set the package back down on the bed and made her way to the door and made her way downstairs to the kitchen along side Top Notch who wore a very victorious smile on his face.

Both ponies ate their meals in silence at the kitchen table. Top Notch was digging into his mushroom steak while Rainbow Dash took bites out of her burger taking occasional glances at her boss across the table. "So after I recover from my injury do you plan on continuing to work for me Rainbow Dash or are you going to go back home after?" Another question from out of the blue and again it was one that Rainbow Dash considered personal. She and Apple Jack were the only ones who knew the whole reason why Rainbow Dash was staying in EverGlade and she planned on keeping it that way. "I don't know, you seem like a pretty cool boss and the pay is good so I might just stick around."

"You know I'm grateful that you decided to help me out. I may put on the tough guy act but to be honest I didn't know how I was going to run the farm with my injuries. I also sure do enjoy your company, usually its just me working the farm by myself ever since my folks passed away." This was something that the Pegasus had not expected to come the stallion sitting across the table from her. They barely knew each other and here the guy was telling her that his parents were dead albeit without any details.

Feeling a little more than uncomfortable Rainbow pushed her food away from her. "Why are you telling me this Top Notch?"

"Why am I telling you what?" The stallion responded with a nonchalant voice. With the look on his face it would seem as if he would of just told her the tomorrows weather forecast.

"You just told me that your parents are dead and usually that's something personal that ponies keep to themselves unless the know the other pony better. You just blurted it out like it was nothing, like you didn't care that your parents are...you know."

"That they're dead? I don't want you to get the impression that I don't care that their gone, truth is I miss them everyday. You're asking me why I'm telling such a personal thing about myself even though we don't know each other very well? It's actually quite simply really, I know that there's something more to you staying with me here in EverGlade. I'm not as thick as you probably think I am!"

Top Notch abruptly stood up from his side of the table, threw his trash away, and then quickly made his way up the stairs. It took a moment for Rainbow to realize what had just occurred. "Buck how come this crap only happens to me?" She finished her burger and made her way upstairs hoping to put this hopefully minor conflict behind her.

Rainbow Dash made her way to Top Notch's room and saw that the door was closed. She knocked once on the door and waited for an answer. "Come in." Rainbow Dash was expecting him not to answer her. The way she had played this out in her mind was that she was probably going to have to barge her way into the room and force him to listen to her. She was thankful that it didn't resort to that. Making her way into the room she saw Top Notch sitting on his bed with a picture frame in his hooves.

Before Rainbow could say anything Top Notch spoke first putting the picture frame face down on the bed. "I'm not angry or upset with you with Rainbow Dash, if anything I'm more upset with myself."

Upset with himself?

"Let me explain something about myself. I absolutely hate seeing other ponies miserable, especially those in my company. When I first saw you at the train station with my cousin Apple Jack I could feel that something was off about you.
The look in your eyes that day, they were the look of a tortured soul."

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe what she was hearing because it seemed impossible. She wanted to tell him something to convince him that it wasn't true but he just kept talking. "I know that look because it was the same look I had years ago. I got over that part of my life and I made a vow then and there that no pony around me would suffer that same way that I did."

"But I still don't get it, why are you telling me all of this? What are you trying to do?" A flurry of feelings was beating up Rainbow along with a crackle of conflicting thoughts in her head.

"I'm trying to get you to feel comfortable. Rainbow Dash I don't know whats troubling you but as I would appreciate it if you would call this humble farm house of mine your home as well and that you stay for as long as you need. You don't have to tell me whats wrong but just allow me to offer you a safe relaxing place where maybe you can help yourself. How about it? Will you allow me to do that much for you at least?"

The prismatic Pegasus didn't know what to say so she just said the first thing that came to her mind. "Alright, sounds good I guess. Thank you..."

"Say no more Rainbow Dash, I'm just doing what I can to help my fellow Pony kind. Now go on, I believe you have a package waiting for you." Not another word was said and Rainbow Dash slowly backed out of the room and closed the door behind her making her way to her own bedroom. Sure enough the package was still on her bed just like Top Notch had promised.