The house of Rainbow Dash’s family was one of the very few cloud houses in Vanhoover. Unlike Rainbow Dash’s house, there were no glittering rainbow falls pouring from it, nor did it have a greek-mythical architecture. Instead, it looked more akin to the Apple Family homestead back at Ponyville except made of clouds instead of wood. It was also a bit bigger.
“Ah like it!” Applejack said when Rainbow Dash pointed it out up in the sky, “Nice and homey.” She gave Dash a sly look and added “Looks like yer gonna be payin’ for dinner.” Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes and flapped her wings to lift herself into the air. She hovered over Applejack and wrapped her forelegs around Applejack’s torso. She flew up towards her family’s home, carrying Applejack up with her.
Just before the door, Dash carefully lowered Applejack to the tuft of cloud that served as a front step, checking that Applejack was firmly planted on the cloud and was not about to sink through it before completely letting go of her. Once she did, there was a loud crash from inside the house that sounded like something very fragile had just broken. Muffled shouting from a half dozen voices could be discerned through the walls. Applejack looked surprised and gave a questioning look to Rainbow Dash, seeing if she was as worried as Applejack was at the sound. Dash just rolled her eyes and sighed before opening the door.
“Dashie! Go put some lights on the tree then go hang the wreaths!” Said a mare as soon as Dash had opened the door. She had the same cyan coat as Dash but looked much older and sported a bright blonde mane styled in tight curls. Applejack guessed that this must have been Rainbow Dash's mom, Rainbow Shine. “Oh, hello there darling, you must be Applejack! Rainbow Dash mentioned you in a couple of her letters. Not that she write’s home all that often so don’t think less of her. All I’ve read are good things though. You two have been dating for some time, yes?”
"Hi mom, good to see you too. You're right, it's been way too long..." Rainbow Dash muttered while walking over to a pile of holiday wreaths. Applejack would have offered to help but Dash's mom was drawing her into a conversation.
"Oh where are my manners," She said, "I'm Rainbow Shine, little Dashie's much mother."
Applejack put on a friendly smile and held out her hoof. "Pleasure to meetcha ma'am."
"Oh just call me Shine, everypony does. " Rainbow Shine said, ignoring the outstretched hoof and pulling Applejack into a hug. "Let me give you the tour and introduce you to the rest of the family."
"That'd be great, but ah should probably help Dash with-OOF!" A blur of grey and yellow had come from out of nowhere and collided with Applejack's side. Had she not been used to getting tackled she might have had the wind knocked out of her.
Looking down, Applejack thought for a second that she had been hit by a miniature Derpy Hooves. After another second she could see that this was a colt though and his eyes were a shade of red rather than Derpy's amber.
"Twip! I said no running in the house!" Shine scolded the colt fiercely. He seemed not to pay her any mind though as he just stared up at Applejack.
"Howdy little partner." Applejack said, holding her hoof out to him. "Ahm-OUCH!" she cried out in pain. Twip had opened his mouth and bit her leg.
"Twip!" Shine yelled, "No biting guests!"
"Where's the rest of you?" the child asked Applejack.
Still wincing in pain from the cruel bite and cradling her leg, Applejack asked "What the hay do ya mean?"
“Where are your wings?”
“Mah wha-oh,” Applejack said, smiling in amusement. “Ahm not a pegasus lil’ feller. Ahm an earth pony.”
“Then how are you up here on the cloud?” Twip asked.
“A friend of mine cast a spell on me.” Applejack said, "It lets me walk on clouds like all y'all."
"That's wierd." Twip said, "Can I have your hat?"
"Heheh, hay no." Applejack said, "Ain't nopony allowed to have mah hat. 'Cept Rainbow Dash."
"Aunt Daaaaash!" Twip shouted, running down the hall and around a wall of cloud, looking for Rainbow Dash.
"Sorry about Twip," Rainbow Shine said, "He's a little rascal at times."
"Heh, ain't nothin," Applejack said, "But before the tour ah was gonna go help Dash with the decor-"
"Nonsense!" Shine said with a big smile, "You're our guest and you won't lift a hoof while you're here." She grabbed Applejack's shoulder pulled her into the room that Twip had come from. In the room there was a large TV and some furniture crafted from clouds. One stallion was sitting in here, his mane a recognizable rainbow of color, but a few shades darker and containing some gray hairs.
"Honey," Shine said, walking up to his seat. He glanced in her direction, then at Applejack, his expression seeming tired and bored. "This is Applejack, Dashie's girlfriend."
"Hm." the stallion grunted, giving Applejack a slight nod.
"Applejack, this is my husband Sky Prism, Dashie's father."
"Pleasure to meetcha sir." Applejack said with a smile, a nod of her head, and a slight lifting of her hat.
"Mmhm." Sky Prism said, turning his attention back to the television and sipping at a dark amber drink. A brightly colored parrot sitting on Sky Prism's shoulder that Applejack had not noticed due to the similar color to the stallion's mane bent down and dipped its beak into the drink as well.
"That's Cantertot." Shine said when Applejack gave the parrot a double take. "He doesn't do much anymore. Mostly just spends time drinking with Sky."
"Huh..." Applejack said, unsure of what to say. Fortunately, Shine was leading her through the room and to another, so there seemed to be no need to make further comment. They walked through what Applejack figured was the dining room and into the kitchen. The farm pony had never seen the inside of a pegasai’s house before; not even Dash’s, which she was now regretting. The architecture of all the rooms was really interesting, but the sink was downright clever; a small basin formed of clouds with a small dark grey cloud floating over it. Applejack knew enough about how pegasai messed with the weather to guess that they squeezed the small grey one to spray water into the other clouds and wash whatever was in there.
“This is Moon Drop, my mother.” Rainbow Shine said, gesturing to the old mare laying lazily on a cloud hovering near the ceiling of the room. She looked a bit like Applejack’s own Granny Smith, except her coat was was a pale blue rather than any shade of green. She appeared to be napping so Applejack didn’t say anything that might wake her up. “My father is outside with the grandcolts playing.”
“Latte Drop, right?” Applejack asked, “Dash told me a bit about the family while we were on the train.”
Back out in the hall Applejack saw Rainbow Dash and a pony that looked almost like Rarity floating through the air, hanging up bits of holly along the walls and talking. After a double-take, Applejack noticed that the dark purple mane was styled wrong and that this pegasai’s coat wasn’t near so pure white as Rarity’s; it was more of a cream color. They spotted Applejack stepping into the hall and the cream colored mare beamed at her, flying forward and giving Applejack a big, surprising hug.
“Applejack, darling, it is wonderful to meet you!” she said enthusiastically.
Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit at the bewildered expression on Applejack’s face. She explained “This is my sister Pearl Pop.”
“Oh, well howdy there Pearl Pop.” Applejack said as she carefully extricated herself from the hug, “It’s good to meet more of Dash’s family.”
“Ah yes, little Dashie.” Pearl turned around and caught her younger sister’s face in her hooves, squeezing her cheeks together. Now it was Applejack’s turn to chuckle. “Such a pwecious widdle sistehw she is!”
“Knock that off!” Rainbow Dash said, shoving her older sister away before rubbing her aching cheeks, “I hate it when you do that.”
“Hehehehe,” Applejack chortled, “Anything ah can do to help y'all with the decoratin?" she asked.
"Nah," Rainbow Dash said, "We're almost done. Just need to put up some more lights and a few more things. No offense, but without wings you really won't be able to help much."
"Ain't y'all got a ladder ah-" Applejack began to ask, but realized halfway through her comment that for a pegasus, owning a ladder would be rather pointless. "Nevermind." she said, "Ah'll just look around some and get to know yer family."
"If you see Violet, tell her that she's needed in the guest room, please." Pearl Pop requested, "Twip and Tweet are making a mess of things up there."
"You can't miss her." Dash added, "She looks like someone dipped a heavy Cheerilee in a vat of die that Rarity would use."
"Haha, now don't let Rarity hear you sayin' that." Applejack said. Rainbow Dash and her sister flew off, continuing to hang bits of holly in in the cloud walls as they moved. Applejack looked to the nearest room that wasn't the kitchen and headed in there to see if anypony was about.
While crossing the hall she heard the doorbell ring and looked down the main hall at the entrance. Nopony seemed to be going to get the door so she headed over to it. The moment the door was open, a stallion reeking of strong alcohol pulled her into a big bear hug.
"Hey Dashie!" He hollered, "Long time no see! Did you finally dye your mane?
"Uh..." Applejack tried to free herself of the stallion's grip but he was strong.
"Um, I thought you told me your sister was blue?" Another voice sounded from behind the stinking stallion. He slackened his grip on Applejack and took another look at her.
"You're not Rainbow Dash!" He said as though it was her fault.
"Er, no, ah aint." Applejack said, "Ahm Applejack."
"Applejack..." the stallion said, tapping his chin and looking thoughtful, "Now why does that sound familiar..."
"Because she's one of the Elements of Harmony!" the other voice said. Applejack got a look at the speaker this time and had to do another double-take. At first glance, the mare looked like a cow, but then the wings became visible and the lack of black spots on her otherwise cloud white coat.
“Oh hay you’re right!” the stallion said, “Just like my sister!”
“So you weren’t lying then!” the heavy mare said, “Rainbow Dash is really your sister?”
“Told ya!” the stallion said, “And this here is her friend Applesmash.”
“Applejack.” Both Applejack and the heavy-set mare corrected him.
“Well I am honored to meet one of the famous Elements of Harmony.” the large one said. She reached out and took Applejack’s hoof and shook it vigorously. “Oh, I’m Gristle Current.”
“Uh, pleased to meetcha.” Applejack said when she got her hoof back.
“And this sizzling stallion is Straight Song.” She said, putting her foreleg around the stallion’s shoulders.
“Rainbow Dash’s big bro!” Song finished with a grin. “Yep! She learned all of her moves from me.” He rubbed his hoof against his chest and examined it, as though it may have gotten a shine from such an inefficient method of cleaning.
“Really?” Dash’s voice sounded behind Applejack. She turned and saw Rainbow Dash with her look of haughty confidence approaching with a small pile of bells balanced atop one of her outstretched wings.
“You know it!” Straight Song said, flying up and over Applejack to tackle Rainbow Dash, sending the bells up into the air. Applejack was quick to catch them on her back while the blue siblings wrestled around on the floor. For a moment, Straight Song had Rainbow Dash in a full nelson and was giving her a noogie with his hoof, but then there was another blur of motion and Rainbow Dash was shoving her brother’s face down into the cloud, holding him there with her hind legs.
“Say uncle!” she called. There was a muffled response. “I can’t hear you!”
“Uncle!” he shouted. Rainbow Dash laughed uproariously as she got off of him and let him stand back up.
“Oh my gosh you’re Rainbow Dash!” Gristle said, moving past Applejack with speed surprising for her size and knocking her into one of the cloudhouse walls.
“Uh yeah,” Rainbow said, looking momentarily surprised but then she clearly tried to pass it off as some casual remark, “You heard of me have you?”
“Have I?” Gristle asked, gushing, “You’re one of my idols! The way you and your friends stopped Nightmare Moon! Oh and Discord! I read about that in the news! And the Crystal Empire and Sombra! Are you really friends with one of the Princesses?”
“Heh, yeah.” Rainbow Dash said, though her expression was less than haughty now and she looked almost as uncomfortable as Applejack was feeling. “AJ and I are best friends with Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
“Oh-Em-See!” she screamed, her voice suddenly a much higher pitch than before. “You have to tell me all about her! And about when you fought Nightmare Moon! And Discord! And-”
“Clouds and stars, boy,” A deep voice rumbled. Applejack looked towards the speaker and saw a stallion that looked a little like Rainbow Dash’s father but his mane was not striped with a whole spectrum of colors; it was just black. “Anotherone?”
“Hey Uncle Flint!” Straight Song said, flying over everyponyelse’s heads with his hoof up. The older stallion lifted his hoof and clopped it with his nephew.
“Ever think about bringing the same mare more than once to meet the family?” Uncle Flint asked. Applejack thought that was rather rude and looked over to Gristle Current to see if she was angry about it, but she seemed not to have heard and was instead pestering Rainbow Dash for more information about her exploits as the Element of Loyalty. “And do they always have to be so fa-”
“Hey Uncle Flint!” Rainbow Dash yelled over the questioning mare, “Are Sparky and Cloud Foot here?”
“Yeah,” Flint answered, “Sparky is outside with Twip and Tweet. Cloud Foot is with your dad watching the Hoofball game.”
“Hoofball?” Applejack asked, “Who’s playin’?” Applejack had always loved watching and playing Hoofball. She was usually too busy on the farm to catch every game of a season, but when she could catch a game she was quite happy.
“The Rainbow Raiders versus the Ponyville Pioneers.” Flint answered.
"The Ponyville Pioneers? Well hay, count me in!" Applejack said enthusiastically, walking around the hefty girlfriend of Rainbow Dash's brother and entering the livingroom with Uncle Flint. The room was much more crowded than it had been an hour ago when Applejack had met Sky Prism and Cantertot. Now there were also Uncle Flint and a young colt who had to be Cloud Foot. A dark purple mare that Applejack figured must have been Rainbow Dash's sister Violet, and a mare and stallion she hadn't yet met.
“YEAH!” they all cheered at once. Applejack looked to the television and saw that the Rainbow Raiders had just gotten the ball near the end of the field where they would be able to score. Applejack stepped a bit closer to the television as the ball was kicked into the air. One of the pegasai from the Rainbow Raiders flew up to kick it, but a smaller and quicker flier from the Ponyville Pioneers swooped in and intercepted the attempt to score, sending the ball soaring to the other end of the field.
“Yeehaw!” Applejack cheered, lifting her hat and waving it. At the same time, the pegasai all made groans and ‘boos’ at the play. All eyes focused on her cheering for a moment before going back to watch the game. Apparently she was the only pony from Ponyville here other than Dash, and Dash was still out decorating.
Not that that stopped Applejack. She cheered a few minutes later when the Pioneers scored regardless of the jeers from the rest of Dash’s family. Dash herself peaked into the room at one point to make sure no one was getting rough with Applejack over the game and she was glad to see that everyone seemed to be having a good time. Her brother Vic was even handing a hoofful of bits to Applejack with an amused scowl on his face and Applejack was laughing, as were some of the others.
Well its a good thing they're all getting along Rainbow Dash thought as she walked away. She went outside and stretched her wings, flying around the house to clear her head. Spending time with her family was always an exercise in patience for her and rarely let her escape without a migraine.
She saw her grandfater, Latte Drop, flying around behind the house with her nephews Tweet and Snowy Helm and her cousin Sparky. She didn't want to join in on their race because Sparky had a bad habit of calling out embaressing things to try and distract her. Dash could ignore such quips, but then her nephews would start asking her questions about what he'd said and then she would be in an uncomfortable situation.
Still, being out here alone was better than hanging around in the house with all of her ssiters. They were complete and total whackjobs. Between Pearl Pop having three dead husbands and, alcohol, Flutter Lance's and Sapphire Pauldron's peculiar 'closeness', Cloudy Day's constant depression and Rhyming Shine's contstant arguing with their mother, Dash felt not only normal and successful, but sometimes felt that having no sisters might have been better. Of course, that thought usually vanished quite quickly; she wouldn't want her family to change a bit.
Well, maybe a few things she thought while settling down on a cloud and looking up higher into the sky. With a deep breath she yawned. Helping set up the Hearth's warming decorations was quite tiring and she was ready for a nap. She should have brought Applejack up here with her. A little alone time would have done Dash some good.
Closing her eyes, she felt that common thankfulness that, as bad as her sister’s were, they weren’t near as big losers as their husbands. Their kids were also on that slippery slope towards being complete twerps as well. I’m soooo glad I’m with Applejack. she thought with a slight elation, Our kids- her eyes snapped open at the thought. Kids...that was something she’d never thought of before. Did Applejack? Hay...I should probably ask her about that. she thought.
It had been more than a year since they started going out. Marriage was on the table now, though the idea still filled Dash with that odd queasy feeling. She did not hate the idea of marrying Applejack, but she was not entirely sure what to think about it other than suppress her gag reflex and try to avoid eating for a bit.
"Rainbow Daaaaaaaaaasssshhhhhhhhhh!" Rainbow Shine's voice sounded from below. Dash groaned; her mom always knew when she needed some alone time to clear her head. Undoubtedly she had something else for Dash to do. Something stupid and boring, of course.
"Coming!" Dash called back, rolling off the cloud and enjoying free fall for a moment before flapping her wings and steering herself into the open window where her mother's voice had come from. "Sup?" She asked.
Rainbow Shine shoved a handfull of green prickly leaves and berries into Rainbow Dash's hooves. "Hang up the mistletoe," she said, "Then go up into the attic and find the Hearth's Warming carol songbooks so we can-"
"Aw c'mon mom," Dash groaned, rolling her eyes, "Everpony knows the Hearth's Warming carols. What are the-"
"Tradition Dashie!" Rainbow Shine answered sharply, "Now don't back-talk your mother. Go on and hang up the mistletoe." Dash just groaned and floated away, rolling her eyes once her back was turned to her mom. She hated coming home. She would probably do it more often if there was less demanding and complaining going on.
Floating from one archway to another, Rainbow Dash shoved bits of mistletoe into the clouds so they hung there. The hallway had the most entrances from one room to another so she spent a few minutes there, stopping for a moment to take a gander at the hoofball game that her family and Applejack seemed enthralled in. While she looked around, though, Applejack was able to sneak up on her.
"Hey there Dashie!" She said, a big smile on her face, "Yer family is the bee's knees, ah can't see why...oh hey! Mistletoe!" She said said after seeing the bundle in Dash's forelegs and the small bunch hanging over their heads.
"AJ wai-" Dash tried to say, but Applejack was tooq quick and pressed her lips to Dash's. Rainbow Dash could hardly pull away from Applejack's kiss and was, for a moment, blissfully unaware of the headache that was her family. Applejack did not deepen the kiss though, and the cheers of Dash's brothers and brother-in-laws soon broke the moment. It's like they'd never seen two mares kissing before.
Shot glasses appeared and alcohol was passed around. Rainbow Dash took hers and Applejack took one also. "Uh, Dash, what's this for?" she asked as everypony took the shot.
"Rule is," Dash said after taking her shot, "Ponies kiss under mistletoe, everpony takes a shot."
"Why are we takin' shots?"Applejack asked.
"Because we kissed under the mistletoe." Dash said, rolling her eyes. Applejack shrugged and took her own shot. Rainbow Dash took her now empty shot glass and headed back to the kitchen with Violet, who was also carrying several shot glasses that needed to be cleaned.
Applejack followed Dash away from the Hoofball game where the Ponyville Pioneers were too far ahead for her to be too concerend with watching anymroe. She heard low murmerings and saw Dash's mother, grandmother, and sister all whispering when she entered. Dash was standing off to the side, leaning against the refrigerator. She saw Applejack and smiled. Applejack returned the smile and walked over to her.
"Howya doin' Dash?" Applejack asked.
"Eh, I'm doing good." She said, glancing out the window quick at the night sky. "Getting late. I'm crashing on the couch tonight since the house is pretty full. You want one of the spare rooms?"
"Nah, ah'll stay with you." Applejack said with a smile, "More comfy that way." They both chuckled a bit. The whispers had paused for a moment but started back up once Applejack and Rainbow Dash glanced in the direction of Dash's family in the one corner.
"Probably talking about us." Dash whispered to Applejack. She tilted her head towards the hall and they both walked out of it, away from the gossiping mares. Away from them, Applejack and Rainbow Dash walked to the livingroom where the bulk of Dash's family was now seated; the colts and senior ponies had come in from outside and were watching the final minutes of the game.
Dash led the way into the sitting room where there were four sofas. There was a closet in the room from which she pulled a pair of pillows and a couple of blankets. Applejack took the offered blankets and put them on one of the sofas as Dash headed to another sofa. There was a soft rumble of discontent as the game ended in the other room and ponies started to walk and fly by the room. Applejack assumed they were all heading off to their various bedrooms to sleep for the night.
Applejack ignored the couch she had put the blanket on and pulled the blanket off of Rainbow Dash. Before the pegasus could complain, Applejack climbed onto the sofa with her. It was a tight fit, but in a minute the two mares were wrapped in each other’s hooves and the blanket was covering them up.
“G’night Dash.” Applejack said, rather tired from the day.
“Night AJ.” Rainbow Dash said back. “Happy Hearth’s Warming Day.” They closed their eyes and in short order fell asleep.