//------------------------------// // Spice Of Life // Story: Her Frontier // by FromTheMoon //------------------------------// Chapter 17: Spice Of Life Rainbow Dash and Top Notch remained at the grove for some time after the sun had set, neither wanted to break physical contact with the other. The moon rose to it's full glory and the vast sky was filled with the light of the shimmering stars. The rest of the world along with all of it problems dissolved for the two ponies. "Hey um Rainbow Dash?" Top Notch said finally breaking the silence. "Yeah?" "I've been meaning to tell you something for some time now but I felt it was inappropriate given the circumstances." "What is it?" Rainbow Dash looked at with a glimmer in her eye. Top Notch continued with new found confidence. "I know this is probably going to come from way out of left field but..." "Yeah!?" The pegasus was both figuratively and literally standing on the tip of her hooves at this point as well as leaning in closer to Top Notch. Taking a moment as if for dramatic affect, Top Notch took one last deep breath before continuing on. "I think we should head back to the house. It's starting to get really cold and the others must be worried about us by now." Rainbow Dash unceremoniously pushed Top Notch onto the ground and let out an annoyed grunt. She threw a hoof up into the air and made her way to the exit of the grove. "Fine! Whatever!" Top Notch got off the ground and dusted himself off laughing. "Sorry, sorry! How can I help it think you're cute when you're mad? I'm really trying not to smile even though I sorta feel bad." "What did you just call me?" "Nothing! Now come on we better get back before they start to think that we're up to something. I'll lead the way since you probably...hey wait a minute. How did you find this place anyway?" Rainbow didn't even give Top Notch the courtesy to look at him. "Whisky told me where you'd probably be." She stopped for a moment and unfurled her left wing while the right one remained clasped to her form due to the caste. A slight blush appeared on her as if she forgot she was injured. "Ohhhhhh, right." "Come along Dashie, lets get back to the dairy farm before you catch your death out here." Top Notch had a smile on his face that only seemed to grow by the minute. It was a refreshing sight for Rainbow Dash to see the stallion smile again. Rainbow Dash flinched a little at being called by her nick name but unlike before felt oddly alright with it. If anything hearing it come from Top Notch felt weirdly pleasant. Without saying anything else Rainbow Dash began walking behind him as they both left the grove and made their way back out into the scrub land. The moon was high in the night sky by the time they caught sight of the lights coming from the farm house. Both Whisky and Clover Leaf were waiting for them inside the house with worried looks. They began to explain how they were just about to send out another search party to look for Rainbow Dash. Top Notch reassured the two that Rainbo had found him safely and that there was no need to worry or fuel any unneeded speculation. It took convincing from both Rainbow Dash and Top Notch to finally get the other two to quit worrying and head home. "I don't know about you Rainbow but i'm going to hit the hay. Despite all the crazy stuff that's happened I still got a dairy farm to run. We've already lost about three days worth of work so we're a bit behind. I'd recommend you head to bed too, you're still recovering after all." Top Notch started heading up the stairs but was stopped by Rainbow Dash. "Hey you mind if I ask you a question?" Rainbow Dash was right behind him in the stairwell with a hoof on his back. Top Notch shot her a quizzical look. "What kind of question?" Rainbow Dash shifted a bit from the uneasiness that had built up inside of her the past few seconds. "I was just wondering, you said that you told Princess Celestia that you hate her nine years ago. Do you still hate her now?" The stallion in front of her shifted her head back and forth as if thinking the question over in his mind. "Yeah, I guess I still hate her. Can you blame me for that?" "No, I guess not." Rainbow Dash said quickly. "Alright, well if you don't have any more questions then I guess I'll see you in the morning Rainbow, good night." "Night to you too." Without any further interruption Top Notch made his way to the top of the stairwell and through the hallway to his room. Rainbow Dash silently made her way upstairs to her room as well. She closed the door firmly behind her and made her way to the bed rubbing her body sorely. "Ugh, that's enough hugging for one night I guess." Rainbow flopped down onto her bed but immediately sat up wincing in pain. "OW...oh right, injured wing. Keep forgetting about that." She gently lowered herself back down onto the bed. "Well at least its not as bad as last time." The pegasus reached over to the side of the bed and pulled up a Daring Do book. "Besides even if I was that injured at least I'd have Daring to keep me losing from my mind." She reached over and turned on the small portable radio on her nightstand. One minute of fumbling with the dials later and she at last found a station that was playing music. An hour passed of flipping through the pages of the book when Rainbow Dash realized that for the first time in since ever that she wasn't interested in Daring Do. Frustrated, she tossed the book aside and rubbed her eyes. "Whats wrong with me? I feel tired so why can't I fall asleep?" Her gaze shifted across the room looking for something to catch her attention. She caught sight of the pictures on her nightstand. She brought over the frame containing the picture of her with her friends. "If you guys knew what'd I did you'd probably kill me or have me locked away in the crazy house." Rainbow gazed at the picture for quite some time before noticing its folded portion. She took the picture out of the frame and unfolded its corner revealing Twilight. For several minutes she just stared at the image of her then unicorn friend. "There's no point in living in the past I guess." She folded the the corner of the picture like it was before and put it back inside the frame then onto the nightstand. Rainbow Dash lay on her bed staring at the ceiling for what seemed like hours lost in thought. She looked over to the small clock on her nightstand and noticed that in reality only five minutes had passed by. Placing a pillow over her face she sighed. "Maybe not sleeping would be a good thing. I really don't want to dream tonight." As if on cue Rainbow suddenly felt her eye lids become heavy. She let out a long tired yawn and stretched herself out on the bed making herself comfortable. "Damn it." Was all she was able to mutter as she unconsciously closed her eyes and switched the radio off falling asleep. Rainbow Dash became aware that she was fully conscious yet she kept her eyes closed. Slowly she began moving her hooves around her trying to get a feel of where she was. "Okay so it feels like i'm on my bed." She peeked through one eye and upon seeing that she was indeed still in her room she opened both eyes fully. "Hmm, better double check just in case." Without any hesitation the pegasus quickly slapped herself across the face and after reeling from the sting of the impact she let out a sigh of relief. "Good, i'm not dreaming...wait a second." She quickly began touching various spots of her head and then looked around to see if her wing was still injured. "Awesome i'm definitely not dreaming." Rainbow got up from the bed and made her way to the door grabbing her towel and a plastic bag for her wing on the way. She made her way downstairs to the bathroom but found that the door was locked. "Rainbow Dash, that you?" Top Notch's muffled voice came from inside the bathroom. "Who else is it going to be? A changeling?" "Never considered that before. Now you got me worried so tell me something that only the real Rainbow Dash would know." Top Notch responded. Rainbow Dash face hoofed. "I know you can be sort of an asshole and a bit perverted." Moments of silence passed by before Rainbow heard a clicking noise and the door opened. Top Notch stepped out drying his short mane with a towel. Rainbow Dash found it weird seeing him like that in front of her. He was happily humming a tune with his eyes closed seemingly without a care in the world. In all the time Rainbow Dash had known the stallion he had always seemed like a cheerful cool guy. The way he was acting right now felt different however and for whatever reason Rainbow found that she just could not stop staring at him. Top Notch opened his eyes and stared at the stunned peagsus before smiling. "Now who's a bit perverted?" A quick shake of her head snapped Rainbow out of her daze. "Shut up Top's." Rainbow Dash pushed her way past him and closed the door behind her. "Pfffft talk about being having an ego, kinda works for him though." She put the towel on the sink, carefully wrapped the plastic bag around her caste, and stepped into the shower letting the water cool her off. Once breakfast was done and over with Rainbow Dash stepped out back and began looking for Top Notch. She considered doing a fly over of the farm but a pain at her side reminded her that option was out of the question. A quick glance around the backyard and Rainbow caught sight of the stallion heading into one of the stables. "Top's you in there?" Rainbow Dash stuck her head through stable doors and looked around. She spotted him milking one of the numerous cows. Top Notch brought his head up from under the cow and gave Rainbow a smile. "Yeah i'm in here, sorry for not waiting to have breakfast with you. Lot of milking today so I thought I'd get a head start." He started pointing his head towards the other side of the stable. "The other bucket is over there next to old Butter Milk already set up for you. I forgot the Vaseline though so you might have to run up to my room and grab the bottle." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and walked over to the cow. "I thought you said you were joking about that?" "Maybe I was and maybe I wasn't. What are you going to do about it?" A wide grin appeared on the pegasus's face. "I dunno, maybe i"ll just have to find out for myself and see if you really do have that bottle of Vaseline in your room tonight." Top Notch continued milking but after few moments stopped and quickly turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "Wait, what!?" "Nothing." Rainbow Dash said in a sing song voice. Top Notch scratched his chin before slowly turning back to milking the cow. Time passed as the two ponies made their way through the rows of cows milking in silence with only their thoughts to keep them company. Once the last of the cows in the stable had been milked the two made their way out into the late morning sun. "Hey Top's you mind if I ask you a question? It's sorta personal though." "Do you think that the answer i'm going to give might be long or take a while?" Top Notch inquired. "Yeah, well actually no...well actually...I guess it really depends on what type of answer you're going to give me." A few seconds passed as Top Notch thought it over before finally coming to a answer. "Sure i'll answer your question but under one condition. You're going to have to wait until the end of the work day. Usually i'd be happy to answer you right now but like I said before we got a lot of work today." The answer seemed fair enough to Rainbow Dash. "I'm cool with that." Top Notch made his way over to the next stable and motioned for Rainbow Dash to follow. " Alright then now come on, these cows ain't going to milk themselves. Believe me,when I was younger I tried to get them to." "How'd that work out for you?" "With a cow having a sprained hoof and my mom almost tearing me a new one. Boy was I lucky my dad stepped in when he did or i'd probably be walking with a limp right now." Rainbow Dash grimaced at the thought. "Ouch." A laughed escaped the stallion. "Yeah we'll I sure learned my lesson." "What lesson?" Another laugh escaped Top Notch. "Don't piss off a mare." Both ponies laughed at that as they made their way into the next stable. As the day went on both Rainbow Dash and Top Notch continued to work around the farm. Initially they had worked together to clear out individual stables faster but later on in the day they had decided to split up in an effort to speed up the work. The only other time they had seen each other was during the short lunch of milk and bread. Rainbow Dash made her way over to the last stable on the farm with the milking pail in her mouth. She entered and noticed that Top Notch was already hard at work on cow. She made her way over to him and spit the pail out. "How many have already done in here?" "I only just started, the rest of these gals still need to be milked." He pointed her to the cow next to her. "How about you start over there and then we'll meet in the middle." Without asking anymore other questions Rainbow Dash walked over to her side and began making her way down the line milking the bovine milk factories. A few minutes past as the two milked in silence when Rainbow Dash suddenly heard a audible click come from Top Notch's direction followed by jumbled noise. She turned around and saw the stallion fiddling with a small portable radio. "Hey, where'd you get that?" Top Notch looked up from the radio but kept fumbling with the dials. "Oh this is just the portable radio from your room. Before I came here I sorta went into the house and grabbed it thinking that we might listen to music while we finish working. Only problem is I can't seem to get the thing to work right now." He started fumbling with the dials more aggressively. "Give it here, I know how to make it work." Rainbow Dash got up and strode over to her frustrated companion. Top Notch passed it to the mare and sure enough after turning the dials a few times she got music to start playing out of the small device. The song, while distorted and full of static, filled the stable with a lively energy. Top Notch smile and shook his head. "You know if you don't like the song feel free to change it to another station." The pegasus placed the radio on the floor and made her way back to the cow she was milking. "Nah I doubt we could get any other station on this thing. Besides, this song is a classic! Any one who doesn't like this song or at least finds it catchy honestly needs to live a little." "No argument here." Her companion responded. Both went back to their milking but a minute later Rainbow Dash felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Top Notch standing behind her holding a hoof out. "I hope this isn't awkward or anything but since I finished milking my side and you pretty much finished yours..." Rainbow Dash shot the stallion a sly grin. "You asking me to dance Top's?" "Hey, you said not me." Top Notch quickly responded. "Hate to burst your bubble there casanova but I don't dance." Top Notch smiled and began to slowly move away from her. "Hey its not problem with me, I don't know how to dance either." "Woah, woah, woah...I never said I didn't know how to dance. I actually know some pretty sweet dance moves." The stallion saw his opportunity and continued his teasing. "Sure you do Rainbow Dash, sure you do. I understand that one pony can't possibly be good at everything." Now Rainbow Dash got up from her position by the cow and stormed over to Top Notch. "You think a pegasus as awesome as me doesn't know how to dance?" "Prove me wrong then Dashie." That was the final straw for Rainbow Dash. Without warning she grabbed the stallion and place her body firmly against his and began moving in rhythm to the song. The pegasus had a stern expression on her face with a hard look in her eyes. Top Notch couldn't help but chuckle at how serious Rainbow Dash was taking the dance. "You may want to ease up there a bit Rainbow." "Oh i'm sorry, am i going to fast for the little stallion?" "Not at all, it's just that usually when a mare presses her body this close and this hard against a stallion it means..." "Top's..." "Yeah?" "Just shut and dance." Shut up and danced he did. The pair continued to dance for some time in the stable even as the song ended and a new one started. For the two dancers there was only themselves, the music, and the occasional moo from the cow's who seemed to have turned to look away from their dancing handlers. Rainbow Dash knew that if any of her friends, or any other pony besides Top Notch for that matter, asked her about this later that she would probably deny it. Top Notch knew that if others asked who had led during their dance session he would lie and say it was him. Once the latest song they were on had ended the two finally separated and sat and the ground catching their breath. "That...was...pretty nice. You sure...proved...you proved me wrong there Rainbow." "Yeah...I...I sure did didn't I?" Rainbow Dash wiped the sweat from her forehead and then stood up. "Kinda thirsty now." Top Notch being the gentle colt, that implied he was anyway, got up and made his way towards the stable's entrance. A quick glance over to the horizon and he noticed that the sun was setting. "Wait right here and i'll go get us some cool milk from the farm house." An idea suddenly occurred to Rainbow Dash. She quickly ran over to the her milk pail and grabbed it in her mouth. Sneaking behind Top Notch she dumped the milk onto the unsuspecting stallion. "What the!? Rainbow Dash, what gives!? What was that for?" Top Notch looked over himself and saw that he was dripping wet from head to hoof with his product. "Oh lighten up Top's, its just one pail form the hundreds we got today. I wanted to show that you didn't have to go into the house to get milk. " "But now i'm all sticky!" Top Notch retorted. "When did you become such a diva? Maybe I should introduce you to a certain pony I know, i'm sure you'll have a lot in common with her. Seriously try lightening up a bit." "Lighten up? Alright i'll lighten up, just stand still and don't move." Without any hesitation Top Notch ran back into the stable and grabbed his own pail of milk. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened when she realized what the stallion intended to do. "Wait I didn't mean that! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." A second later the pegasus found herself soaked from head to hoof in the white liquid. "Seriously? Not cool." "Lighten up Dashie." "Don't think that just because I have an injured wing I can't break your ribs again." Top Notch laughed off the threat. He gave himself and Rainbow Dash a quick look over. "Come, I guess we should hope in the shower...again. I'll let you go first since i'm sorta used to being covered in the stuff anyway." Rainbow Dash took longer in the shower than usual. Top Notch had insisted that she make sure to scrub behind every nook and cranny of her body since the milk they had dumped on each other had not been cleaned and was full of bacteria. Once she made sure that she was rid of the white stuff she stepped out of the shower and dried herself off completely, mane and all, before stepping outside. She made her way to the living room where she found Top Notch seated on the couch. "Mind if I join you?" "Nope, not at all. Actually I remember you said something about wanting to ask me a personal question." Top Notch patted the seat next to with his hoof. The peagsus took a seat and played with her hooves a little before finally speaking. "Remember when you told me you hated Princess Celestia?" Top Notch gave her a confused look. "Didn't I already answer this question?" "Yeah kinda but I wanted to make sure about one other thing." "What other thing?" Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and cleared he thoughts. "I just wanted to know that since you hate Princess Celestia, do you hate the other Princesses too?" The question threw Top Notch off guard. "Uh...well...I hate Princess Celestia, no doubting that. As for the other Princesses...you're talking about Princess Luna, Mi'Amorewhatshername, and that new one. Princess..." "Princess Twilight Sparkle." Rainbow Dash interjected. "Yeah her, to be honest I guess I don't hate them since they didn't do anything wrong. Why do you ask?" It was the moment of truth for the prismatic pegasus. "I'm asking because I may of been best friends with one of those Princesses at one point." Rainbow Dash looked at Top Notch who seemed to be trying to make sense of the situation. "Which Princess?" Top Notch asked. "Which Princess were you best friends with?" "Princess Twilight Sparkle." Rainbow Dash answered quickly. "Well technically I knew her since she was just a unicorn." Top Notch let the information pass through his mind a bit. "Okay, but I still don't get why you wanted to know if I hate all the Princesses." Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and did her best to calm herself. "I was worried that if you did hate the other Princesses then you might hate those who were their friends." The pegasus felt a hoof placed under her chin and she opened her eyes. "Rainbow Dash, after all you've done for me I could never hate you. You stayed with me when I needed help the most and even after I healed. Heck you saved the entire town from changelings. You're this town's and my hero. I don't think i've ever met a pony more special then you before, in fact I can't remember how my life used to be before...hmmf!" Top Notch was cut off by Rainbow Dash's lips being pressed against his. While initially surprised he eventual gave into the pleasure and closed his eyes to savor the moment. The problems of the world disappeared for the two as they continued to share their kiss. For both everything seemed to be in perfect harmony. Finally they separated once they ran out of air and looked at the other in silence for a few moments. It was Rainbow Dash who spoke again after regaining her senses. "Thank you Top's, really, you don't know how much I needed to hear that." "Uh sure thing I guess. Like I said thanks for sticking with me for this long. It also meant a lot to me." Rainbow Dash gave the stallion a quick peck on the cheek before making her way to the stair way. "I'm going to head to bed, pretty exhausted after a long work day. I'll see you in the morning, night Top's." Top Notch sat on the couch rubbing his cheek. "Yeah good night to you too Rainbow." For both Rainbow Dash and Top Notch life was perfect. There seemed to be nothing that could bring the two down from the high they were on. Top Notch remained downstairs for some time contemplating what had just occurred. He smiled at what the future held for him and Rainbow Dash. His thoughts went back to a certain restaurant owner. "I guess I sorta owe Whisky an apology now." He got up and made his way over to the bathroom to take his shower. For Whisky it was another lonely night at the restaurant. The last patron had finished their late dinner and left minutes ago stepping out into the dark streets of the town. The restaurant owner looked around and let out a sigh of relief. Despite the changeling attack on the town a few days ago his business and home where one of the few lucky ones that had been spared of damage. Just as he was about to lock the front doors a unicorn stallion stepped inside. "Sorry sir, i'm afraid we're closed for the evening." Whisky said in an apologetic tone. A quick look over the stallion and Whisky realized that he didn't recognize him. "Sorry for asking but are you from around these parts?" "No not all i'm afraid, you see i'm actually in town on business." The unicorn had a familiar air on him that Whisky couldn't put his hoof on. There was one thing that definitely bugged the earth pony though. "Wait, you said you're in town on business? I don't know if you've heard but most businesses in EverGlade are closed due to a recent changeling attack." "Oh i'm quite aware of the changeling attack and the heroics of a certain rainbow maned pegasus." Now Whisky was definitely confused. "That doesn't make any sense, the mayor is still writing up the damage report to send to Canterlot. If you're from out of town then how could you know of the changelings and Rainbow Dash?" "I had my subordinate tell me all that's happened. I believe you two have already made each others acquaintance, i'm pretty sure he's dying to see you again actually." Before Whisky could say anything else two earth pony stallions walked into the restaurant, one of them Whisky recognized all too well. "You!?" "Now young man, I promised my subordinate her some time to catch up with you. For now though lets stay on topic shall we? Be a good fellow and tell me everything you know about Rainbow Dash."