Chapter 1: The Meeting of Fate
Applejack woke with a start, having just heard a loud crash come from downstairs. Praying to Celestia that nothing bad had happened, she leaped out of bed and rushed down the hallway as quickly and quietly as she could, hoping that Applebloom, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith were all still asleep. After what seemed like ages, she finally stood in the livingroom.
“What in tarnation...?” she whispered to herself as she looked down at a light blue pegasus pony with a rainbow colored mane asleep on her floor, right behind the couch facing the wall in the middle of the room. Nudging the strange pony with a forehoof, Applejack wondered what the hay is going on. Shuddering at a slight breeze, she looked around.
“Oh... Oh no..”
The entire window looking out on the Sweet Apple Acres from the livingroom was destroyed. Tiny bits of glass littered the floor, giving it a slightly sparkly appearance, while bigger shards stabbed into the worn hard-wood floor. Applejack noticed a piece of the window-frame laying next to her favorite chair.
After staring at what had happened for a good few minutes, she heard some rustling. Looking down at the pegasus pony, Applejack noticed a few twitches from the stranger, letting her know that the blue mare was coming to. Nudging the intruder softly with a forehoof, Applejack tried to wake her slowly, assuming she's the one who broke her window while flying and hit her head hard enough to render her unconscious.
Slowly opening her eyes, her vision pulsing as her head pounded, the rainbow-maned pony looked up at a strange orange pony that she had never seen before. After taking a few deep breaths, the blue pony slowly stood up and, after shaking violently, collapsed back onto her knees.
Applejack slowly knelt down beside her and whispered, “you jus' relax now sugarcube, y'all are safe here.”
The blue pony didn't understand her, but the words and tone of her voice comforted her much the same as a mothers voice soothes a foal. Relaxing immensely, the newcomer leaned on Applejack and quickly fell asleep.
Applejack chuckled softly and let the cyan mare sleep lying against her and pulled the blanket off of the back of the couch to shield them from the cool summer breeze.
When Rainbow Dash came to, she noticed straight off that something wasn't right. This was NOT her home up in the clouds. She noticed that something was covering her. Trying not to panic, she stood up and tripped on the cloth blanket, causing her to stumble into a wall.
The sound of collision woke the sleeping orange pony with a start. Rainbow started to hyperventilate, not knowing where she was or who this orange mare was, or why she was sleeping on this stranger.
Applejack slowly stood up and said softly, “Ah'm not gonna harm ya.. calm down Nelly, everythin' is gonna be fine.”
Rainbow nodded and breathed deeply, but didn't take her eyes off the orange pony.
“I-I'm Rainbow Dash. Who are you?”
“Mah name is Applejack.”
Smiling as warmly as she could, Applejack took a step toward the cyan pegasus as if they were the oldest of pals. Not knowing how to react to this, Rainbow just stood there watching her. When Applejack started to shake her hoof vigorously though, her mind immediately unfroze as she jumped back a good ways.
“What are you doing?! Your gonna tear my hoof off!”
“Ssshhhh! Yur gonna wake the family!” Applejack hissed, looking tentatively back at the stairs.
“Sorry- wait, who are you to boss me around? I don't even know you!” Rainbow hissed back.
“Well, seein' as how you smashed the window in mah house, Ah have a lil more room to be bossy than you do.”
All of Rainbow's annoyance disappeared as she remembered the events from the night before. Noticing the sudden change in the cyan pony's appearance (and slightly paler complexion) Applejack tilted her head, wondering what was going through the strangers head.
Mumbling an apology, Rainbow ran past Applejack. Taking off through the destroyed window before the orange Earth pony could stop her, she flew away as fast as she could, her tears making a rainbow streak appear in her wake.
Around mid-afernoon, the Apple family had almost finished repairing the livingroom window when Applejack decided to take a walk to Ponyville under the pretense of “wanting to sell sum apples to make up fer the lost money spent on a new window.” Taking her sweet, leisurely time like she always does, Applejack now had time to think. Who was that blue mare? What had possessed her to crash into the window? Why did she fly off crying?
Before Applejack could think of any more questions, she heard yelling coming from in front of her. Looking up she was surprised to see Rainbow Dash coming straight at her, screaming, “WAAATCH OOUUUUT!!!!”
Applejack jumped aside as fast as she could, but it wasn't fast enough as Rainbow clipped her hind leg and sent them both spinning into a giant apple tree.
Dazed, Applejack looked over at Rainbow Dash.
“What in tarnation were you doin'? Ya coulda killed me!”
Rainbow chuckled a bit.
“Hehe yeah.. sorry about that.”
“SORRY?! Whaddaya mean, SORRY?”
Rainbow stood up and held her ground.
“I. Said. Sorry. Take it or leave it, but I have to keep practicing. See ya!”
She took off as fast as she could, but Applejack managed to grab her tail before she could escape.
“Mmfh! You shtay here!” Applejack pulled the struggling pegasus to the ground and pinned her. “You got some explainin' to do.”
Rainbow blushed slightly as she gets pinned and smiles sheepishly.
“Fine. Let me up and I'll talk.”
Applejack eyed the blue pony suspiciously but let her up. Rainbow stood up and brushed the dust off her feathers and shook to straighten them. Looking back at Applejack, she smiled sheepishly again.
“Sooo... What do you wanna know?”
“First off, why you destroyed mah window. We ain't exactly the richest family ya know, we can't afford to replace things like that often.”
“Oh... That. W-well, you see... I ran away from home. My parents wanted too much from me, like straight A's in flight school, they tried to control what my interests were, and just... they wouldn't let me be... well, ME. So I left, along with my friend Fluttershy. Then I-”
“Wait wait wait... Theres another one of you here?”
“Nononono! She's nothing like me, she was getting bullied too much so I took her with me. We left Cloudsdale together. But anyway, me and her were talking and I decided I want to join the Wonderbolts. They've been my heroes since I was just a little filly, so I decided I need practice and sneaked out while Fluttershy was sleeping and accidentally crashed into your house. You have so much land, no tall buildings besides your barn to get in my way, I thought it was the perfect place to practice.”
Applejack listened and smiled when Rainbow finished.
“Ah see now... but would it hurt ya to help fix the things you crash into? Namely, the window?”
“Well... I suppose I could help. Since, you know, its my fault anyways.”
Applejack smiled and held up a hoof. “Put 'er there, partner.”
Rainbow smiled back and shook her hoof. “Friends?”
Applejack grinned. “Friends.”
Friendship can come from the strangest of places, whether from someone you think you have othing in common with, a weird pony you just met, or from someone who destroys your property. But as long as you give it a try, friendship is almost always the result.