//------------------------------// // Best of Both Worlds [General] // Story: Half-Hour Horses // by HoofAndQuill //------------------------------// (Prompt: None. Free For All Friday. This is an idea that's been banging around in my head a bit, so this was an excuse to get it written.) (Also as noted by the TMP reviewer, this is a bit long. I was distracted while writing it and probably overcompensated on the "I wasted five minutes so I'll take an extra five to write" kind of mentality. I'll stick to the time limit more stringently in the future.) White and gray for three weeks now. Not that Applejack was counting, mind. But it had been three weeks now without a break in this gloomy winter cloud cover. Sweet Apple Acres was covered in a light layer of snow, as it usually was this time of year, and most of the work on the farm was slow enough that she occasionally even had a few hours off. But see, this wasn't something she really looked forward to. Applejack liked working. She enjoyed going to bed tired every night, and waking up a bit sore. She liked the sun on her back and the wind in her mane. She did not, however, enjoy endless cold, boring, white idleness. Applejack opened her eyes, and glanced around. Unsurprisingly the sun hadn't come out while she was resting against this tree. The orchard was silent and still, and though the farmhouse offered warmth and good company with her family, she wanted to stay out here a bit. Being outside was something she needed, silly as it was, and her family understood that. Laying there with her eyes closed and her hat pulled down over her face, she missed the flash of color that popped out of the clouds far above, and dove downwards at a frankly irresponsible speed. She did hear the whistling of wind on feathers, though, and decided to just keep her eyes closed anyway. A sleeping pony might be a good target for pranks, if it was anypony but Applejack. Rainbow Dash had learned that a long time ago. There was a quiet noise of hooves on grass when Rainbow Dash landed a few feet away, and Applejack did her the courtesy of opening her eyes and pulling her hat up. Rainbow looked to be all smiles despite the gloomy weather. Her voice carried nothing but excitement and pride. "Hey, AJ! Looks good, doesn't it? Flat and perfect, here to the other side of Ponyville!" Applejack pushed her hat up further, setting it back on her head properly, and looked up to the sky. Yep. "Sure looks like it." Rainbow Dash's wings lowered a bit as the mare seemed to deflate slightly. "What, something wrong with my cloud work? I'm one of the best weather ponies in Equestria! Look at it, perfect coverage and everything!" Not wanting to insult her friend, Applejack looked up again, left, and right, as far as she could see. "Yep. It's pretty flat, Rainbow. Can't see anythin' but gray." "So what's your problem? You look like you hate it." The complete lack of tact or dancing around the topic was part of what Applejack liked about Dash as a friend, and even in her sour mood it made her grin for a second. "I don't mean nothin' by it, Rainbow. I just ain't seen th' sun in three weeks, an' I'm getting right tired of snow an' clouds." Rainbow's eyes widened in surprise. "What? Three weeks, really?" Applejack's grin disappeared. "Don't see how I'd get much sun when you pegasus ponies keep it s' darn overcast." She opened her mouth to reply, then grinned a little sheepishly, and fluttered her wings. "Yeah, guess you can't. It's sunny up there, though, don't worry! After Winter Wrap-Up there'll be plenty of sunny weather for everypony! Heheh." Pulling her stetson back down over her face, Applejack settled down against the tree again. "Sounds good, in a month when it happens." There was an uncharacteristic moment of silence between the two, and then Rainbow scoffed loudly. "What, really? You're just going to lay there? Come on, get up. You're gonna get some sun." Applejack gave herself a moment behind her hat to hide her scowl before she knocked it back onto her head with her hoof, and looked to Rainbow. The pegasus had her body lowered a bit, and her wings flared to the side. She was also wearing a big, idiot grin that usually spelled nothing but trouble for Applejack. Her voice held that same grinning bravado. "Hop on! It'll be fun!" She rolled over, and got to her hooves, giving Rainbow Dash a suspicious look. "Y' mean for me to ride your skinny hide up in the air? You don't think that's a mite dangerous?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Dangerous, pfft. I give Scoots rides all the time!" Applejack shook her head and chuckled. If this damn fool pegasus was going to act like there wasn't any difference between a little feathered filly and a full grown earth pony mare, she'd just have to be shown the difference. She took a few steps over and then tossed herself up onto Rainbow's back, wrapping her forelegs around the other pony's barrel as best she could. Rainbow's muzzle slammed into the ground below them and she gave a loud, unladylike grunt of effort. "Oof! What the hay, Applejack, you weigh a ton!" "Ain't my fault I was raised on apples an' work instead of just floatin' around all high an' mighty up in the sky, Rainbow Dash!" She struggled to standing again, and flapped her wings a few times, her grin returning. Applejack suddenly felt much higher off the ground than the couple of feet below her hooves. Rainbow turned to look her passenger in the eye. "You ready?" "Wait, Rainbow I was just foolin' don't you dareaaagh!" Applejack's protest turned into a howl as Rainbow Dash took off forward at twice the speed she could gallop. Her hat flew off her head and landed on the snow behind her, and the wind rushed in her ears and through her mane more than any kind of storm or gale. All she could do was hold on as Rainbow's ascent started off slow, dodging between the apple trees until she got up over the canopy. "Just what in th' hay d'you think you're doin'? Put me down right this instant!" Rainbow Dash just turned her head, her lips set in a grin born of one-sided competition and excitement. "What, somepony scared? Want to go back down and have Granny Smith hold your hoof for a while?" That was it. She couldn't back down now, even if she'd never agreed to this kind of stupid tomfoolery to start with. "I ain't scared! You just best not drop me or I'll haunt ya for th' rest of your life!" The wind rushed past them both as Rainbow took a wide, looping path. She was moving forward fast, and her wings were flapping hard, but her altitude was only slowly increasing. This mostly meant that Applejack had a long time to see and consider just how high they were getting. Sweet Apple Acres stretched out below her in a wide, regular expanse of orderly orchards and fallow fields. She wasn't scared, of course she wasn't, but she held on extra tight around Rainbow Dash's barrel. Dash called back to her, her voice faint over the rushing wind and dizzying height. "We'll be hitting the clouds soon! It'll get cold, but don't worry, it's nice once you get through 'em!" "Ah ain't worried none!" Applejack had been raised not to lie, but sometimes she did feel the need to. She silently apologized to Granny Smith and her folks. It wasn't a big lie, but small things add up. Everything went gray. The clouds didn't feel soft and puffy like they had when she'd had that pegasus walking-on-clouds spell. These were just like a heavy fog: damp, cold, gray, and unpleasant. But at least they hid the view of the swaying, sprawling ground so far below them now. Rainbow was hollering something or another, but Applejack couldn't hear her through all the wind and fog. A moment later, they broke free of the cloud coverage, and Applejack had to scrunch her eyes shut at the sudden brightness. She heard Rainbow Dash laugh, carefree and happy like there was nothing worth worrying about in the world. A second later, she opened her eyes again, and her breath was taken away. The ground was gone, hidden underneath a huge, endless landscape of golden white clouds. Small puffs of cloud and dimples in the flat cover reflected and shined in the bright, warm sunlight that lit the world above the clouds. The air was cold, frigidly so, and her coat was damp from the clouds and a bit of a nervous sweat, but none of that registered at all. She could feel the sun, warm on her back, and bright in her yellow mane. Rainbow, below her, had her hooves out in front of her, looking for all the world like she was swimming through the cold winter sky. Applejack took a look upwards, into the endless blue expanse above her, and at the bright yellow sun shining down all around her. She heard herself mutter something about this being heaven, and as near as she'd ever imagined heaven, this was pretty much exactly what it looked like. Her friend's flapping was getting a bit unsteady though, and Applejack tapped Rainbow's barrel with a hoof. Rainbow nodded, and Applejack looked up again to see the blue sky once more before they dipped back into those white and golden clouds. The trip down was much quicker, aided by gravity and the weight of a strongly muscled mare. The clouds passed by them in only a few seconds, and Applejack had to squint her eyes shut at the dizzying sight of the ground so far below them and approaching fast. She felt Rainbow bank her turns widely, corkscrewing down until she landed heavily on all four hooves. Applejack leaned sideways until she fell off of her friend and into the cold snow and soft grass underneath. She lay there on her back for a few seconds, breathing heavily. Before she could struggle to her feet, Rainbow tossed something from off to the side and onto her face. Her weather-beaten old hat. Applejack grinned and stood up quickly, donning the comforting piece of clothing again. "Rainbow, I uh... I don't reckon I ever saw anythin' like that." Rainbow just shot her a cocky grin, and flapped her wings a few times before folding them behind her. "Yeah, don't get all mushy on me. I'd have brought you up there before if I'd thought about you being stuck down here for all this time." Applejack shook her head, and let out a happy chuckle. "Tell y'what, Rainbow. You come on in, an' my family'll treat you to th' best winter feast you've had all season. Ya gotta be hungry after all that." Rainbow laughed, and the two mares started toward the old farmhouse, happy and close as they'd ever been.