Chapter 12
Dare To Fly
Rainbow frowned as she watched with concern as Applejack continued to buck from a tree. It wasn’t unusual for Applejack to be bucking for apples, but this was the same tree she had bucked fifteen minutes ago, and thirty minutes before that. Frankly, Rainbow was worried that Applejack was working on the farm so intensely that she was losing track of where she had and hadn’t been.
It had started soon after the Everfree Forest had been stopped, and the Elements were returned to the tree. For no real reason and without warning, Applejack began to throw herself wholeheartedly into her farm work, and it was starting to get a little too intense for the farm pony. And it definitely was making Rainbow nervous.
She’d tried a variety of different ways to distract Applejack from her work. She had tried sleeping in the trees again, or asking if she wanted to hang out. She even tried being directly concerned to Applejack, but even that didn’t work.
“AJ, seriously, what gives?”
“Ah don’t know what yer so worked up about, Ah’m just workin’.”
It was starting to get a little unnerving that AJ didn’t even know she was working too hard. Rainbow soon put it upon herself to figure out a way to save Applejack from herself before she passed out on the plow.
Sitting on her white cloud in the sky, she recollected a certain autumn day when the two had a friendly game of horseshoes that quickly got out of hoof. Having a final idea, she lifted off the fluffy white substance and descended to the apple farm below.
Leaning up against a tree and watching with an unamused expression on her face as Applejack bucked the same tree for a fourth time, Rainbow spoke.
“You know what I’ve realized, AJ?”
Applejack just rolled her eyes and continued bucking as she was pestered again by the blue nuisance. However, Dash waited for a response expectantly. Annoyed, AJ huffed loudly and replied.
“What, Rainbow?”
“You’re pretty tough.”
Rainbow’s compliment met the mare with surprise. Lifting her hat to wipe underneath, she turned to her.
“Uh, thanks?”
“But,” Rainbow slowly advanced the mare, “as tough as you are, I wouldn’t suggest that you’re the ‘daring type’.” She emphasized the words carefully and distinctly. Applejack raised her eyebrows.
“Oh really? You think so?” Applejack’s tone had changed, like a dog’s bark when it’s challenged.
“Oh, I know so,” Rainbow flicked her tail slightly, and lifted her chin. “On the other hoof, I think I am VERY daring. I would go so far as to say that I’m the Most Daring Pony in all of Equestria!”
“You would, huh?”
Rainbow smiled as she nodded with a smug expression and began to hover. Her plan was working.
“Ah beg to differ.”
Bingo.
“What?” Rainbow put on a fake expression of surprise. “You think you’re more daring than me?” She waved AJ off.
“Pfffft! In your dreams!”
Applejack’s face reddened at the gesture, but let her finish.
Dash was so close, one more insult should do the trick.
“I bet if we had a competition, you wouldn’t even last the first dare!”
That was it. The look on AJ’s face looked very distracted from her farm duties now.
With that last remark, Applejack leapt into the air and tackled Dash to the ground. Puffing a little steam out her nostrils she glared at the pegasus below her.
“Bring it on, Rainbow.”
Amusement all over her face, Dash just smirked.
So it was settled. A ‘Most Daring Pony’ competition began between the two after lunch. With Pinkie as the judge, the two ponies continued to perform baffling dares that the other delivered.
“I dare you to jump off the barn roof onto a trampoline!
“Ah dare you to hang upside down and recite the Ponyville anthem while being tickled!”
“I dare you to drink a gallon of water in 30 seconds!”
“Ah dare you to stick more than ten apples in yer mouth!”
“I dare you to smell this!”
“Ah dare you to eat that!”
“I dare you to swim across the river blindfolded!”
“Ah dare you to sneeze with yer eyes open!”
As the dares went on, the suspense continued to grow. Finally it came down to the final task—the Bee Stare. Covered in bees from head to hoof (save their eyes), the two stared intensely at each other as they spoke through gritted teeth.
“I’m not gonna move, you move.”
“Nuh uh. There is no way Ah’m movin’
“This is the most daring dare anypony ever dared dare another pony in a dare!” Pinkie announced from the judges table.
“Huh?” the two darers asked.
“It’s exciting!” the pinkie mare clarified.
“Uh, what ya’ll doin’?” the bee keeper pony asked.
Dash tuned them out as Pinkie explained to the bee keeper what was going on. She had been successful in keeping up her competitive spirit, while keeping Applejack busy. Most importantly, they were both having fun this time. This wasn’t like the Iron Pony Competition. They were just having fun daring each other to do outrageously awesome things.
“I’m gonna need my bees back.” The bee keeper interrupted her thoughts.
Oh no. If they couldn’t finish this dare, they’d have to think of another one. And they were running out of good dares. Before long, Applejack would go back to her insane farming madness. What was Dash going to do then?
“But then we’ll never know who the most daring pony is!” she argued.
It was a weak argument, and was treated as such. The bees were taken anyway, and after some discussion on numbers and disagreement on how they had tied, along with the great judge Pinkie bailing on them, Dash was sure keeping the competition going was hopeless. But she had to keep up the spirit.
“Okay, no problem.” She flicked her tail and put on a determined look. “We just have to come up with another daring dare.”
“Right!”
A small silence followed as they surveyed the farm for ideas.
As Dash's eyes searched the surrounding farm with little hope of finding anything good, a dare idea came to the front of her mind.
I dare you to fly.
At first, the idea was stupid. Rainbow could fly, and Applejack couldn’t. Simple as that. But a nagging memory soon came to mind.
“I am going to train every day until I am strong enough to take you into the sky!”
Rainbow’s heart sank as she remembered her promise. It was so long ago. But she had promised. She wondered if Applejack still remembered…
“Ah think Ah might have an idea of what we can do,” Applejack broke the silence, returning Dash to reality.
“What?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
“Follow me!”
With that, she ran into the Everfree Forest, Rainbow hot on her heels.
One old legend, a small spook, and a hoof-bump deal later, the two girls were wandering around the old Castle of the Two Sisters together. They had found an old staircase and were slowly descending into a pit of darkness, Applejack on hoof and Rainbow in the air.
“I sure hope you’re not afraid of the dark, Applejack!”
“Ah can’t say that Ah am.” Applejack huffed as she spiraled down the staircase. “And even if Ah was, Ah’d be at least fifty-percent less scared of it than you, Rainbow Dash!”
She peered over the stairwell at the pegasus, her ears back and a pout on her face. Even in the dark, Dash could tell she was being adorable.
However, the comment was pretty weird. Fifty-percent less scared? What? Of course, Dash new her percentages as far as coolness levels went, but scared levels? What was this silly pony talking about?
“I don’t know how all that math works, because I’m not scared at all!”
“Me neither!”
Dash smiled at the response, zipping downward towards the end of the stairwell. She knew Applejack was copying her just because she was trying to sound tougher, but it was hard for Dash to get over the fact of how cute it was.
She had discovered more and more things about Applejack that she found… appealing since she’d decided she really did care for her. It consisted of the small things mainly, like how she snuck her hat in to wear it at that wedding when Rarity wasn’t looking, or how she talked all sweet to her dog Winona after coming home from a long trip. It was becoming more and more common lately, but Dash couldn’t put a hoof on why.
The girls reached the bottom of the gigantic staircase to be met with a strange sight. Chills running down both their spines, Applejack just stared at it with a jaw-dropped expression while Rainbow gulped and spoke shakily:
“W-What’s the matter? It’s just a dark hallway full of disembodied pony legs…”
Applejack pulled her hat down further on her face while Dash covered her own with her wings leaving slits for her eyes.
“Yeah…” AJ replied also shakily. “Nothin’ creepy about that.”
Sarcasm? From the honest one? Interesting.
Carefully and slowly, the two made it down the hallway. Meanwhile, Dash began to contemplate the flying she had promised.
How long had it been since she’d made that promise? Judging by the Summer Sun Celebration recently, it must have been nearly a year ago. Had it really been that long already? She had sure slacked off this year… but then again, there had been a lot of fighting for Equestria in the past year. She must have already gained at least some muscle naturally, and maybe a little extra after the Wonderbolts Academy. But… doesn’t one pony also gain a lot of weight in a year? How many pounds had Applejack gained?
Before she could look around and judge the stature of her companion, she felt a hoof around her shoulder.
No. Way.
She felt herself warm with excitement and pride as she smiled and closed her eyes.
“Applejack, if you’re scared, you can just admit it. You don’t need to put your hoof around me.”
“Uh, Ah’m over here.”
Rainbow looked over to the left to see Applejack waving a ways down the hall. Disappointment and frustration first filled Dash’s head, until she realized her true mistake: If Applejack wasn’t squeezing her around the shoulders, who was?
Looking over to her right, she saw a ghost-white disembodied hoof coming from the wall, wrapping around her head and neck.
Okay, the shadows and moving curtain were a little startling, but this was truly terrifying.
“AAAAAAAHHHH!!” Rainbow screamed.
“AAAAAAAHHHH!!” Applejack agreed.
With that, the two girls soared out of the hallway.
Waves of shivers running down her back, Dash screamed accordingly, rubbing her neck and shoulders up and down as if trying to wipe something away. They continued scrambling through the corridors at a neck-breaking pace until a cord from a creepy organ was played.
Applejack screeched to a stop, causing Rainbow to smack into her and crash from her frenzied flight.
“You hear that?” She said with a shaky voice.
Of course Dash heard it. The organ echoed through the halls and bashed against their eardrums. One would have to be deaf not to hear that organ. She sure wished she had mentioned the flying thing earlier, because that sounded a lot better than this creepy place.
“You mean, the creepy sound of a haunted pipe organ?” Rainbow replied tentatively.
“Uh… maybe.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Hey, Applejack had used sarcasm earlier. Might as well return the favor.
Just then, the organ played a key so loud, so unnerving, that it literally made the two girls jump. Into each other’s arms. But at this point in time, Rainbow wasn’t really paying attention to the embrace. She was legitimately freaked out now.
So the two dove further into the castle.
“Rainbow, Ah already know this part. We all scare each other and then find out it was just Pinkie playing the organ. What does this have to do with anything?”
“I guess I was just trying to get to after all that.”
“Then why’d you start out talking about all the…”
“The what?”
“The… ya know… ‘adorable’ stuff?”
“You want me to finish or not?”
“Yes, Ah do, but stay focused, okay sugarcube?
“Sure.”
The group was heading home. After all, it was late, and time for everyone to get some rest after scaring each other all day. Rainbow had graciously offered to walk Applejack home, and since they were both a little jumpy from earlier, AJ accepted the offer.
The two split off from the others as the barn soon came into view. Slowly, they approached the safety of the oil lamp hanging above the porch. They stayed there for a moment, enjoying the silence of the night. Applejack was the first to speak.
“Well, that was sure an adventure, huh?”
Rainbow laughed. It sure was. And if it wasn’t for herself it never would’ve happened. She made a mental note to give herself a pat on the back later.
“Yeah, yeah it was.”
“We may haven’t proved yet who the Most Daring Pony is, but we both know it’s me.” The farm pony winked.
“In your dreams, maybe!” Rainbow scoffed.
The two laughed under the weak lantern light, the crickets chirping in the background. The sound was music to Dash’s ears, and she opened her eyes to meet the sparkling emeralds of the other mare’s. They looked amazing in the moonlight.
It was likely they would have another daring contest sometime in the near future. But before they did, Dash knew she had one specific dare she wanted to accomplish first.
As she said goodbye and lifted off the porch, gently floating up into the stars and onto the midnight air, she remade the promise she had vowed nearly a year ago.
It was time to help Applejack finally fly.
“So, that was the day you remembered?” Applejack tilted her head.
“Yep, it sure was.” Rainbow nodded.
“So, why didn’t ya just ask me to go flyin’ the next day?”
“I didn’t want to fail again. I decided I needed a little training first. I had Twilight enchant some bags of flour for me and I practiced flying them around the town and gently depositing them on clouds. When I wasn’t busy flying flour, I was lifting heavy objects the town needed me to lift. However, that got a little… distracting.”
“What happened? What was the problem?” Applejack sat up.
“Not what, but who.” A sly smile slid its way onto Dash’s lips.
“Fahne then,” Applejack yawned and rested her head on one hoof. “Who was the problem?”
“Applejewel.”