//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Ponycare // by Bunnybooze79 //------------------------------// From afar she spotted the familiar figure of Big Mac as he walked amongst the orchards on the south field pulling a cart filled with empty baskets. Most likely he was just beginning his daily quota of bucking apple trees. With a flap of her wings Rainbow Dash adjusted her flight path and soon was hovering beside the large stallion. “Heya, Big Mac.” She greeted. He nodded in response and stopped his journey amongst the trees. “Do you know where Applejack is?” “Eeyup.” Rainbow Dash waited for a few moments after the monosyllabic answer. To describe Big Mac as a stallion of few words was an understatement. He rarely spoke any more then was needed from him. It was a quality that some ponies admired him for. Rainbow Dash was not one of them. Applejack told her that it was because he was shy, but the pegasus had trouble believing that. A stallion of his size had no need to be shy in her opinion. “Could you tell me where she is?” “Eeyup.” Rainbow Dash’s patience was never something worth mentioning before, as it barely even existed. The last remnants of it were now rapidly vanishing. Before she could say anything he spoke up again. “She’ll be in the farmhouse I guess. It’s her turn to be at the market today and she still has an hour or so to be there.” With a thanks the Pegasus took to the skies once again. A new record, that was two sentences at once. The huge farmhouse loomed over her as Rainbow Dash landed at the front door. She never understood why the Apples did not rent out some of the rooms in the building. There was more than enough space for a dozen ponies or more in that house alone. If they put a few rooms in the barn as well they could easily house twenty or more ponies here. It seemed a waste somehow having all this space for just four ponies. Whenever she mentioned it to Applejack the farmpony would change the subject very fast or flat out ignore the question. Mentally shrugging Rainbow Dash knocked on the front door and entered. A quick look around revealed nopony in the living room or the dining area. She heard noises from the kitchen and trotted inside. Granny Smith was just in the middle of rolling out some dough on the counter when Rainbow Dash came walking in. No doubt it would soon be some kind of apple themed delicious food later that day. An apple pie she guessed. The elder mare smiled as she saw one of her granddaughters friends walk in. “Hello there youngin’. What brings ya around these parts today?” “Hi, Granny Smith. I was just looking for Applejack. Do you know where she is?” The normally brash pegasus always felt the need to be polite around Granny Smith. “Oooh, she’ll be upstairs in her room. Been there all morning.” The mare replied and coated her rolling pin with flour. With practiced moves done hundreds of times in the past she continued thinning the dough in front of her. “Thanks!” Rainbow Dash left the house again. She could have walked up the stairs to Applejacks room, but the narrow stairway and rather low hung ceiling always gave her a touch of claustrophobia. So she opted to use the window which was more her style. She was outside already and did not hear that Granny Smith forgot to mention something important. “Oh, she said she did not want to be disturbed. Eh? Youngin’?” The old mare shrugged and figured that Applejack wouldn’t mind if one of her best friends would disturb her. Whistling a tune she turned her attention back to the dough in front of her. A couple of days from now, a future Rainbow Dash would lie on a cloud over Ponyville laughing at the memories of today’s events. She had a fun morning with Scootaloo, got a few laughs from Twilight and what she saw in Applejack’s room when she flew up to peek inside the open window had nearly made the top of the list of memorable moments for that day. Her initial reaction to the sight before her had been one of confusion. She even thought for a moment she had flown to the wrong window and the Apple’s had indeed rented out some of the rooms. That thought went out the window immediately after seeing that it indeed was Applejack in the room. Rainbow Dash’s jaw nearly became unhinged as it dropped open. Applejack was standing in front of a mirror, which as such would be nothing worth mentioning. She was however wearing one of Granny Smith’s old dresses. The brown hat she usually wore had been replaced by a bonnet. Her golden hair was stuffed into said bonnet with a lock of it reaching down to her eyebrows. The entire look must have been out of fashion for at least five decades. What sent Rainbow Dash over the edge and howling with laughter were the attempts at a gallant walk by the farmpony. Applejack was not the most graceful of ponies to put it mildly. So her attempts at trying to walk like a model at a fashion show were pretty much doomed from the start. She stumbled a few times over her own hooves and muttered curses under her breath. Hearing the sudden laughter from an all too familiar voice caused her to trip and fall flat on her face. After regaining her senses she immediately jumped to her hooves and lurched to the window. “YA DIDN’T SEE NOTHIN’! SCRAM!” she yelled, slammed the window shut and drew the curtains. Rainbow Dash had to land. Laughing and flying at the same time was too much of an effort at that time. By the time she had calmed down and wiped the last tears from her eyes she saw the farmpony hurrying out of the front door. This time wearing her usual outfit plus a blush that rivaled that of Twilight’s earlier that day. “Hey AJ! Wait up!” Rainbow Dash said and caught up to her friend. “Ah said ya were supposed ta scram!” she growled while not looking at the cyan pegasus hovering beside her. “That was an interesting sight just then. I wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with that invite we got from Princess Celestia would it? That party thing at the end of next month.” The pagasus said with a sly smile while trying to make eye contact with the orange mare. Applejack avoided her gaze and kept looking straight ahead. “Maybe. And maybe it’s none of yer business.” She huffed and picked up the pace. The farmpony tried her best to ignore the snickering cyan mare and began to prepare her cart for the market. “I actually have a question for you AJ.” Rainbow Dash decided to cut to the heart of the matter before Applejack would chase her off. “About what?” “Grooming.” Applejack dropped the basket she had held in her mouth and turned to the Pegasus with an annoyed frown. “Did Rarity send ya over with that? Well ya can tell her that my mane does not need anythin’ done to it, alright?! ‘Sides yer hardly the one to give me groomin’ tips.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow asked offended. “I fly around at record breaking speeds. Of course my mane will look a bit ruffled. And no that was not what I mean’t.” she ran a hoof reflexively through her mane not really improving its wild state. “Out with it then.” Applejack demanded and continued loading up her cart with baskets full of apples. “Yeah, ok. What do you lick or rub?” “Excuuuuse me? What kinda question is that?” the blush returned to her face. Rainbow Dash grinned at her little payback for the side remark about her mane. “Yer time’s up. No more questions!” “Nononono. Sorry. Look that sounded kind of strange so let me ask you differently.” Applejack ignored the mare and strapped herself in front of the now loaded cart. With a grunt she began moving towards Ponyville’s marketplace. Rainbow Dash hovered along beside her trying to explain what she really wanted to know. “You know that pegasi preen themselves right? To take care of their feathers and wings?” she received no answer from the still frowning farmpony. She decided to continue. “And I asked Twilight this morning about what unicorns do about their horns. She explained it to me that they need to keep it in shape and such so that their spells works properly. My question to you is what do earth ponies do?” “Why do ya wanna know?” the earth pony in question replied, but still kept her eyes on the road. At least her frown had lightened up. “I had Scootaloo over this weekend and found out this morning that she didn’t know about the preening and stuff. So I showed her, then later she asked me what the other ponies do. I didn’t know so I decided to ask around.” Applejack’s last remnants of a frown disappeared once Rainbow Dash had explained what it was all about. “That’s a mighty nice thing yer doing for the filly. Tell me, how are ya two gettin’ along?” “She’s a lot of fun. Never thought I would enjoy hanging around with a filly, but’s she is really cool.” Rainbow Dash replied without any sarcasm in her voice. “Glad ta hear that, RD. Them little fillies do grow on ya don’t they.” Applejack smiled at her friend, glad the way things were going for her and Scootaloo. Especially after what happened a while ago. “And ya really went ta Twilight? How’d that turn out?” “It was...... interesting. I bailed when she got that look in her eyes and talked about a study group.” “Can’t say that Ah blame ya. That one does get a little crazy sometimes.” Rainbow Dash chose not to comment on that and they made their way side by side for a few moments in silence. Applejack was seemingly lost in thought. “Well Ah don’t know what ta answer to yer question. Ah can’t really think of anythin’ special that Ah do. Ah take care of mah hooves and sometimes go to the spa for a massage.” she finally answered. “Nah, that’s something that most ponies do. There isn’t anything really unique that you do?” “Ah am a very heavy sleeper, if that helps ya any. Sometimes ya can’t wake me up if ya tried. Entire family in fact are heavy sleepers.” Rainbow Dash shook her head at that information, but mentally took note of it for possible future pranks, like painting a mustache on her friends muzzle. “That won’t be it either. Thanks AJ.” “Yer welcome. And say hi from Scootaloo from me.” “Will do.” Rainbow Dash replied and took once again to the skies leaving the farmpony go about her business. _________________________________________________________________________ A rumble of her stomach halted any further ideas of asking around for answers. The one and a half Pop-Tarts that morning were hardly enough to keep her hunger in check. She happened to be flying above Ponyville’s sweet shop and decided to have a quick snack before visiting the market. Ponyville had two go to spots for sugary treats. One was Sugarcube Corner that specialized in baked goods of all kinds. The second was Bon Bon’s Sweets who specialized in chocolates, taffy, gumdrops, candy and many other things. Both shops had their little niche in Ponyville and flourished accordingly. At this time the sweetshop was empty. Once school was finished it would no doubt be swarmed by little ponies hankering for a delicious portion of sugary goodness. Rainbow Dash entered and saw the shop’s owner carefully stacking chocolate coated truffles into a neat pyramid shape. The beige mare looked up from what she was doing when she heard the bell above the door chime. “Rainbow Dash! Nice to see you. I’ll be right with you.” She greeted cheerfully and let Rainbow Dash browse the selection. While not much of a sweet tooth the pegasus could not deny herself a sugary treat every once in a while. She had just made her selection when Bon Bon stepped behind the counter. “Found anything you would like?” “Yeah, I’ll have a banana-flavored chocolate-covered crunchybar.” she said and pointed at the confection of her choice. Bon Bon took the bar out of the display case and hoofed it over to Rainbow Dash. “That’ll be three bits.” Rainbow Dash payed for her snack and took a big bite of it. As always Bon Bon’s art of sweet-making made her smile. The crunchy chocolaty goodness made her taste buds sing with delight. Bon Bon beamed a satisfied smile at yet another happy customer and Rainbow Dash made her way towards the exit. Then a thought occurred to the Pegasus as she took another bite. Bon Bon is an earth pony! And she lives together with Lyra who is a unicorn! So she is bound to know about how they file their horns and can possibly answer the earty-pony question. “Say Bon Bon, do you mind if I asked you a question?” The mare in question looked happily at her customer expecting a question about her prowess regarding to sweets. “Sure.” “It’s kind of a personal thing though.” Intrigued Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “No problem. Fire away.” “You know that thing unicorns do with their horn?” Rainbow asked and finished off her last bit of crunchybar. Bon Bon gave her an unsure look. “Yeeess? Why do you want to know about that?” she asked not quite sure where this discussion would be heading. “Oh I don’t. I know all about what unicorns do with their horns.” “How do you know that?” “Twilight showed me. She does it once a week you know. Even puts a marker for it in her calendar.” “Really? That sounds kind of boring, what about being lost in the moment?” Bon Bon’s trail of thought was heading into an entirely different direction. “Huh? I don’t know. Every pony is different right?” “Yes, I guess that is true. So Twilight, huh? Could have guessed. If you don’t mind me saying, you do seem to be rather open about this subject.” Bon Bon remarked and tilted her head in thought. “I know that ponies don’t talk about it much. But we are friends right? And we are alone so nopony else can hear us.” “It’s just so sudden quite frankly. Out of curiosity what do you do? I mean I know what pegasi do, I was just wondering if you do anything different in particular.” Bon Bon asked and leaned on her counter. Rainbow Dash assumed she was talking about preening. “Nah, same as any other pegasus. Just lips, tongue and plenty of saliva.” Rainbow Dash was somewhat surprised at the fact that Bon Bon knew about pegasi wingcare. “Oh and sometimes my hooves of course for the tricky bits.” “Not so much different than that what I do.” Bon Bon said more to herself. “Really?” Rainbow’s ears perked up. “Do you think you could tell me more about how you or should I say earth-ponies do it? I have been trying to find out for ages.” In truth it only had been a couple of hours, but it seemed far longer to the cyan mare. Bon Bon shifted behind the counter uneasily. “Why ask me?” “Well I asked Twilight about it, but she didn’t know. Then I went to Applejack, but she doesn’t know anything about that stuff at all.” “No surprise there.” Bon Bon remarked under her breath. “And I could ask Pinkie, but I have the strange feeling that might turn into something really weird.” “Could be fun.” Bon Bon casually replied. “Could be. Knowing Pinkie she would want to show me immediately and I don’t really want to end up covered in sticky stuff again so soon.” Rainbow Dash said thinking back to the time she had asked Pinkie on how she managed to get the frosting on her cupcakes so even every time. That particular event had left Rainbow Dash picking frosting out of her hair for the rest of the day. “Well I see no problem in telling you. Why do you want to know?” “It’s a surprise for a friend.” Rainbow Dash said and eagerly leaned forward awaiting her answer. And Bon Bon told her. Bon Bon told her in graphic detail. While somewhat interesting it was most certainly not the answer Rainbow Dash had been searching for. For once it was Rainbow Dash who had a fierce blush on her face when she left the sweet shop a few minutes later. “That discussion turned seriously wrong at some point.” she said to herself and took off.