Applejack stepped off the carriage onto the dry ground. She glanced up at the sky, almost as if annoyed that it was such a bright and sunny day, almost as if the sun were mocking her. Sighing, she tugged the black hat further over her eyes and started walking. It felt strange, foreign, alien, and why wouldn’t it? It wasn’t her hat. The stetson she wore only came off for two reasons: bathing, and funerals.
Unfortunately, this was the second occasion.
Rainbow Dash hopped off the train next to her. She was a bit more vocal in her protests. “It shouldn’t be sunny,” she complained, bringing a hoof up to shield her eyes. “It’s a funeral, for Celestia’s sake. Besides, this is Manehattan, not Fillydelphia.” She paused, taking a closer look at the clear sky. “You know, I could totally get this place completely overcast in five minutes. Maybe three.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “It ain’t worth you gettin’ arrested over,” she said. She stopped and let Rainbow Dash catch up. “Thanks again fer comin’ with,” she whispered. “Means a lot t’ me.”
Rainbow Dash gave her a wink, even as she tried to stop her own black dress from riding up too high on her hips again. “You know I’d never leave you. Some ma-” She stopped suddenly, glancing around nervously, “Some... er... magic element of Loyalty I’d be, right?” she finished lamely.
Applejack flicked her tail, and it barely brushed against Rainbow’s leg. To a normal bystander, it would have looked accidental, but to Rainbow Dash, it meant a lot. “You’d be the worst,” she agreed. “Fit to be tied, I’d reckon.” She raised her eyebrow on that last sentence, leaving Rainbow blushing lightly.
“Not here, AJ,” she pleaded, casting a nervous glance at her wings.
“You started it.” The smirk on Applejack’s face slowly died as she looked forward and saw the large group of ponies there, seated in a circle, in front of two black caskets on stands. The Oranges had provided well for their final resting place, as evidenced by the large marble headstone with their names and cutie marks engraved. Applejack took a shuddering breath. She hadn’t known them very well, to be honest; but they were family and had treated her well, and being here was the least she could do.
“So sorry for your loss,” a nearby stallion murmured.
“Thank you,” Applejack replied, dropping her voice back into the Manehattan accent she had learned so many years ago. “I’m certain they appreciate you coming out today.”
They found their seats and waited, and, to her surprise, Applejack found herself with a tear rolling down her face.
The voice of the director seemed to fade into the background as it dawned on her that her Uncle and Aunt Orange were dead, and were never coming back.
* * *
Finally, after all the greetings, after all the condolences, after all the same phrases, and, in Rainbow Dash’s case, after all the little sandwiches that never did quite fill her up, the two travelers finally returned to their hotel room.
Applejack hadn’t taken two steps into the room when she heard Rainbow sigh in relief. Turning around, she saw that she had already taken the funeral dress off. She gave her a flat look.
Rainbow put up her hooves defensively. “Hey, it’s not like I don’t like it or anything; it just rides a bit high. Sweetie Belle’s gotten good, but she’s no Rarity.”
Applejack’s dress had been made by Rarity, and to be honest, were it not for the hat, she would have forgotten she was wearing a dress at all.
Actually...
“You know, I appear to be having a small bit of trouble with mine.”
Rainbow Dash stared in mild... fear? disgust? Applejack paused, blinking in confusion, before realizing that she had still been speaking in her Manehattan accent.
“Aw, horseapples,” she muttered.
Her next sentence died in her throat as a warm pegasus body suddenly appeared at her side. “That’s the AJ I know and love,” Rainbow whispered into her ear.
“The AJ ya know an’ love ain’t usually in the habit o’ wearin’ dresses,” Applejack said, letting all of her accent show through and enjoying the reward of feeling Rainbow’s heart rate speed up slightly. “Care to help her get back t’ her normal self?”
“S- sure,” Rainbow Dash said, reaching her wing out to help unhook the latches of the dress, but Applejack lifted a hoof to block it. Confusion turned to excitement as Applejack leaned in close, letting the pegasus smell the scent of apples in her mane that never did seem to go away.
“Do it th’ earth pony way,” Applejack whispered. “Use yer teeth.”
Rainbow Dash happily obliged.
* * *
The next morning, Rainbow Dash woke up the pegasus way, with wide stretches and wing extension exercises, and an hour and a half after Applejack, who had woken up the Apple Family way: awake and ready to greet the day about an hour or so before the sun was even up. She pushed a plate in front of Rainbow Dash, filled with still-steaming apple muffins.
“Good mornin’, cutie,” Applejack said. “Right on time, too. Two hours after me.”
“You know me too well,” Rainbow muttered, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “How do you get up so early? And what do you do so early, anyway?”
“Ah work out.” She smiled as she tapped her flank. “And ya know it.”
“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying to suppress a yawn. “This early in the morning?”
“It ain’t that early. And besides, it’s always a good time,” Applejack purred. She climbed onto the bed, crawled over towards Rainbow Dash, and gently straddled her, meeting Rainbow Dash’s eyes. “When Ah’m with you, that is,” she finished.
“Now, are ya gonna eat yer breakfast like a big pony, or should Ah feed you?”
Rainbow felt her breath catch in her throat as Applejack’s green eyes filled her vision. She licked her lips hungrily. “I think you know what I want,” she said.
Applejack pressed her forehead against the pegasus’ and breathed softly, letting her warm breath and scent linger in Rainbow’s nose and feeling her heart rate rise. “Ah know exactly what you want...”
With a smile, Rainbow Dash ran her tongue across her teeth expectantly. “You do?”
Applejack smiled. “Ah do... And Ah think it’s the same thing Ah want.” Suddenly, she jumped off the bed. “Too bad we got a train to catch in an hour, so yer gonna have to eat fast.”
Rainbow Dash let out a tortured groan and slammed her hooves against the bed in protest. “Applejack, you’re such a tease...”
“You wouldn’t love me any other way. Now eat.”
* * *
Forty minutes later, now fed and with their belongings packed, the two ponies headed down towards the train station.
“So, you think you’d ever want to live here?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow shook her head. “Too crowded. And I bet the guards are all uptight about flying restrictions.”
“Flying restrictions?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Don’t fly too fast, don’t fly too low, rules like that. Every foal gets them pounded into their head in school.”
“Ah’ve never seen you care.”
“Because I don’t,” Rainbow said flippantly. “Rules keep you from having fun.”
“Rules keep you safe,” Applejack corrected.
“Yeah, but when you’re the only one flying, they’re pretty pointless. Besides, it’s not like Ponyville has a bunch of guards ready to lock me up just because I broke the flight velocity limit in a residential area.”
Now it was Applejack who rolled her eyes. “Just ‘cause you’re the only pony around doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow the rules. I mean, look in that alley there. Just ‘cause there’s no one else around doesn’t mean it’s ok to be beatin’ on a mare like that. If'n it's wrong, it's wrong."
“Yeah, but that’s completely different. Flying doesn’t hurt anypony, and it feels...”
Both trailed off and spun back towards the alley. Sure enough, there was a stallion advancing on a mare, and it looked to be a very one-sided confrontation.
Applejack was about to intervene, and probably would have, had Rainbow Dash not interrupted first. “Hey! Leave her alone!”
"Piss off," the stallion growled. "She owes me money."
"I'll pay you. Two for one deal," Rainbow retorted.
Applejack was about to point out that only storekeepers say that, not customers, but Rainbow spun in mid air and slammed both hooves (hence her two for one reference) into his head, sending him flying backwards into the brick wall. Kicking up the knife he had held, Rainbow flung it away and it skittered away under a nearby dumpster.
The stallion got up and screamed as blood trickled down his face. "You're so dead!" he swore as he stumbled out the other exit. "I won't forget you!"
“Yeah? Good. Remember the mane, punk,” she spat, gesturing upwards, “because I’ll be watching for you.” With one last threatening wing-flare, Rainbow Dash nodded sharply and left the alley.
That should have been the end of it. Really, it should have been.
But Applejack noticed that Rainbow was uncharacteristically quiet on the train ride home.
* * *
Later that night, Applejack wriggled deeper into the covers and pulled Rainbow Dash closer. “You ok?” she asked. “You’ve been real quiet lately. That ain’t like you.”
Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment before blurting, “We gotta go back, AJ.”
Applejack pulled away slightly. “Back?”
“To Manehattan.”
“Why?”
“Did you see that? When I stood up to that dude? How he reacted? How she reacted? That place is lawless. They need a few good ponies there to put everypony in their place. That could totally be us.”
Applejack growled. “Yeah? Well, while you were shovin’ those little sandwiches in yer face, Ah was talkin’ to some of the other ponies there, and Ah learned that my aunt and uncle got killed standin’ up to one o’ them muggers, so you’ll excuse me if’n I ain’t exactly eager to follow in their hoofsteps.”
“But that’s just it, AJ!” Rainbow Dash said excitedly. “You and me, we can help avenge their deaths by cleaning up the city! We won’t let it happen to anypony else.”
Applejack snorted and rolled over, facing the wall away from Rainbow Dash as if protesting this craziness. “And how in the hay do you propose we do that?”she asked facetiously. “Put on disguises and run around the city at night, beating up criminals until they’re too frightened to come out?”
Even though she was facing the wall, she could almost hear the smile spread across Dash’s face. “Yeah. Maybe it’s time Mare Do Well rose again.”
Applejack spun around to stare incredulously at her grinning marefriend. “Ah was joking.”
“Well, I’m not!”
Applejack brought a hoof up to her temple. “Sugarcube, are you listenin’ to yerself? You want us to drop everything and go down to Manehatten, prolly gettin’ shot at or beaten up, maybe even killed, to try an’ help some random ponies?”
“You got it!” Rainbow nuzzled Applejack tenderly. “And it’s totally awesome that you said ‘us’.”
Applejack did not return the nuzzle. “You’re sayin’...”
“We do this together!” Rainbow Dash sat up, excitement coursing through her body. “Tag team it, just like you guys did before. We need flight, speed, awesomeness, or wit? I’m in. We need strength, endurance, and sexiness? We send you. We’ll just trade off when we need to.”
“You’re insane,” Applejack said dismissively, even as her cheeks flushed slightly at Rainbow’s last adjective. “Why, we’d need two new outfits, we’d need new designs, we’d need some extra protection built in and maybe some weapons, we’d need to organize our switcheroos, we’d need to design her personality and especially her voice, if she even talks this time, we’d need to set ground rules, we’d need to figure out how to send a message to each other, we’d need a lotta things that just we don’t have.”
Rainbow Dash squeed lightly. “Is that it? That won’t be hard at all!” She leaned down and rested her head on Applejack’s chest. “Maybe you’re the smart one.”
“Ah’ve always been the smart one,” Applejack retorted, gently stroking Rainbow’s mane. After a few minutes of deep thinking, she sighed. “Ah gotta think about it. Ask me tomorrow.”
Knowing that that was as good an answer as she was going to get tonight, Rainbow nuzzled herself deeper into Applejack's chest and soon fell asleep.
* * *
Rainbow Dash woke up shivering. She opened one eye to see the bed sadly devoid of both blanket and orange earth pony.
Rubbing her eyes and grumbling slightly at being rudely awakened this way, she pulled herself out of bed, stretched her wings, and stumbled down the stairs.
Dragging herself into the kitchen, she found a stack of pancakes had magically appeared on the table. Groggily, she walked over and picked the top one up with her mouth. It quickly became apparent that this was a bad idea, as the pancake in question was fresh off the griddle and very hot.
“Aaaghhh!” she screamed, quickly brushing out her mouth and spitting pancake crumbs everywhere. Well, one bright side: she was awake now.
Apple Bloom, seated at the table with her own little stack of pancakes, giggled at Rainbow’s misfortune. “Good mornin’, Rainbow!” she said cheerfully.
Big Mac, who had been the one making the pancakes, didn’t say anything; but Rainbow was sure he was laughing at her on the inside.
“Eh, I wasn’t that hungry anyway,” Rainbow said dismissively. “Have you seen Applejack?”
“Ah ‘hink she went to th’ west orchard,” Apple Bloom said around a mouthful of pancake. “She said somethin’ about clearin’ her mind.”
“I’ll bring her a pancake,” Rainbow Dash said, picking one up with a wing. “I bet she’d like that.”
As the pegasus left, Apple Bloom grinned. “She’s gonna eat it herself, huh?”
“Eeyup.”
* * *
Applejack stood in her orchard, deep in the cluster of trees. Her hooves were buried up to her fetlock in dirt, and her forehead was pressed firmly against the largest tree of the group. Though Rainbow couldn’t hear words, her mouth was moving, silent words spoken as she tried to connect with her mother earth.
Whenever Applejack needed time alone to think, she came here. It had taken Rainbow Dash forever to find AJ’s thinking spot, but now she could find it easily.
That didn’t mean she didn’t respect her privacy, though.
Rainbow waited until Applejack had lifted her head before walking into the clearing, making sure her wings were spread and brushing against the branches noisily so that Applejack wouldn't be startled by her appearance.
She had tried that once. That hadn’t ended well.
“Hey, AJ,” she greeted her softly. “How long have you been here?”
“Couple hours. Ah’ve just been thinkin’,” Applejack answered. She pulled her hooves out of the dirt, sat down, and patted the ground next to her in invitation to sit, which Rainbow quickly accepted.
“You know me,” Applejack started, staring at the dirt. “Ah’m a farmpony. Ah love these trees, Ah love this land, and the city ain’t the place fer me.”
Rainbow nodded.
“But everythin’ you said made sense. And Ah can tell you’re goin’, yes or yes; so the question becomes, do Ah love you or myself more?”
Rainbow Dash had certainly not planned for this conversation, and she certainly hadn’t thought this far ahead. She had no idea what to say to this, but went ahead and spoke anyway. “I can’t keep you from your trees, Applejack; they’re part of you.”
“Yeah, but so’re you. And Ah’ve made mah decision.”
Rainbow licked her lips and braced herself.
“This ain’t gonna be a full-time job, is it?”
Rainbow laughed exuberantly. “No. We’ll have time for breaks and coming home. I promise."
Applejack smiled. “Alright. Ah’ll do it. But we also need an out.”
Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively. “I’m good at crashing. We can fake our death.”
“We’re gonna need money.”
“Cloudpushing. Barely an interview needed and I’m working that day.”
“We’re gonna need our friends’ help on this.”
“We can go right now!”
Applejack couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Rainbow...”
“What? I’m serious!”
Applejack leaned over and gave Rainbow a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose. “It’s six-thirty in the mornin’, sugarcube. Half our friends ain’t even awake yet.”
Rainbow gave a nervous chuckle. “I knew that.”