Chapter 13
Hopelessly Distracted
“What was that all about?”
Twilight and the others looked at a very unhappy Applejack as a very strange Rarity left the boutique. The reddened face of the farm pony made the whole thing look rather serious, but Applejack just grumbled.
“It, nothin’. Just… go prepare this new theme.”
She didn’t sound very convincing.
“Is… is there any way we could help, maybe?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
A long, slightly awkward silence followed.
Everypony glanced nervously at each other, unsure of what to do. Applejack glanced around the boutique, before spotting something. After spotting the said something, she calmed down considerably, and even put on a calm smile.
“Ya know, there is one thing Ah could use help with,” Applejack continued to grin.
“Yes?” The four others asked.
“Don’t do anything that is at all related to this new theme. Take a break, get a drink of water, and get something to eat. Can ya girls do that?”
More worried looks were exchanged, but they agreed and left the boutique.
All except Applejack, of course.
Rainbow waited for her to exit so they could talk, and so she could ask what all the fuss was about with Rarity, but she never came out. What was she doing? Probably a prank or something, judging by the smile. A prank she could wait for—interrupting somepony while they are working a prank wasn’t something Dash liked to do. It never ended well. After about a minute of waiting though, Dash got bored and decided to take that break.
She wouldn’t go far, so she could be there when Applejack finally showed her face, but Rainbow Dash was currently preoccupied with her training to get Applejack into the sky. This mainly consisted of bags of flour to lift on her back to nearby clouds.
However, as Ponyville Days began to make her busy, she decided to volunteer to put up decorations. That way she could be helping her friends and continuing her training. Sure, ribbons and lights were lighter than bags of flour, but it worked on her precision instead.
But now she had an excuse to not put up any more decorations, thanks to Applejack. So she might as well work with the flour again. She remembered she had moved three bags to a cloud just to the right of the boutique.
She had ordered these special bags from Sugarcube Corner. Unlike other bags of flour, which weighed around ten pounds in a loosely packed sack, Rainbow had asked for the bags to be filled to their seams with flour, over doubling the weight. It made the bags very heavy and very, very fragile. So with only a total of sixty-nine pounds, it was a very fragile sixty-nine pounds.
After carefully placing the bags of flour on her back, she began to gently glide around the boutique and other buildings, making sure not to tip too much or flap too hard. It was technical and a little exhausting, but it was a good ten or fifteen minutes of training. Feeling satisfied enough to stop for a drink, Dash landed back on the cloud and carefully deposited the flour bags onto it.
Just then, somepony stepped out of the boutique.
At the time, Rainbow had been flying above the cloud, making sure the bags were placed evenly as so they wouldn’t slip off and hurt somepony. She looked down at the sound of the boutique door. She was completely unprepared for what she was about to see.
What stepped out of that shop was a beauty dressed in a mint green skirt with a rose pink trail, complete with lace and diamond pattern. The top was a raspberry color topped with a mint accent, all of it leading up to her chest where it made a sort of flower shape there. Most of her golden blonde hair was up, pinned with one raspberry and one mint colored gem. She had single ringlets coming down on either side of her face as if to frame it, and a rebellious lock stretched in the front as it curved out in front of her forehead. The rest that was left down came so in the back on her neck, finishing off the piece like a signature.
She was breathtaking.
The phrase ‘to go yeep’ is a term most commonly used for owls when they are so shocked or frightened while flying that their wings lock into place, causing them to plummet to the ground. Like previously stated, this is mostly a term for owls. However, it has been discovered in other winged animals, pegasi included.
This was the first and only time Dash ever remembered going yeep.
She was fortunate enough to be shortly above a soft surface when it happened. It was unfortunate that the soft surface was made up of three overly-packed bags of flour.
As Applejack stepped out of Rarity’s boutique, a puff of white powder exploded to her right, showering the grass and flowers below. It most definitely caught her attention, especially when the white head of a mare poked above the surface, slipped, and fell to the ground. Concern written on her face, she approached the coughing white mass to find out who it was.
“Rainbow?” Applejack tilted her head which now looked a lot taller with her hair up, “What in tarnation are you doing?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing…” Dash choked before coughing some more.
“Oh this?” Applejack gestured to the dress, as if just remembering it. “This… uh, this is… uhm…”
Her voice trailed off as no real explanation came to mind.
Dusting her muzzle off, Rainbow stood.
“You know what? If you don’t ask, I won’t.” She laughed with another cough.
“Deal.” Applejack smiled. “Could you help me with something?”
“Sure, as long as you don’t mind that I look like a ghost.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. Ah need you to walk with me to the barn. Ah’ll explain on the way.”
So the two began to stroll quickly through town, undoubtedly turning heads the entire way.
Applejack began to yap on about this plan of being a model for Rarity’s fashion show. She said something about Rainbow signing her up under ‘Applejewel’ and how she was going to strut and pose on the runway built in the barn. That last part caused Rainbow to unsuccessfully suppress a laugh.
“What?” Applejack shot her a look of irritation.
“You want to pose on a runway? Like a model?” Dash couldn’t contain her amusement. “You sure you can do that?”
“It can’t be that hard,” Applejack argued. “All Ah have to do is—”
Applejack came to a screeching stop. Rainbow did the same and doubled back, now even more amused than before. Meanwhile, terror was the farm pony’s main emotion.
“Ah don’t have any idea what Ah’m doin’!” Applejack thought of her last time on a runway, presenting a hideous Gala outfit. “Ah don’t know how to model!”
As amusing as this all was, Dash knew she had to help her with what she knew about modeling. It wasn't much, but she did know something about how you had to 'strut and pose'.
“Well,” Rainbow tapped her chin, dusting some flour off, “I know models walk while moving their hips back and forth a lot. That’s the strut part.”
Applejack walked while swinging her hips. “Like this?”
Rainbow was supposed to helping AJ. But this was definitely distracting.
“Uh… y-yeah.” Rainbow stammered. “Then they pose. Just act like you’re getting your picture taken.”
Applejack made a cheesy smile.
“No, not like that,” Rainbow shook her head. “Act like the picture is going to be put on the front of a magazine.”
She demonstrated by flipping her mane with a seductive smile, which resulted in a large cloud of flour.
“Uh…” Applejack tilted her huge head of hair, “Ah don’t think anything Ah do would look like the front of a magazine.”
Dash laughed and gestured to AJ’s dress and hair.
“What?! Look at yourself. You could look like that without trying.”
The farm pony’s cheeks looked considerably rosier as she replied a ‘thanks’.
“Now, you said there’s not much time. Just strut and make a pose really fast.”
Applejack relaxed her face and began to walk with a sway in her hips. She then paused, lifting her leg and looking playfully calm.
“Good.” Rainbow kept her eyes focused on Applejack’s face, and not her swaying hips. “Now turn.”
Applejack turned sharply, causing her skirt to flick as she did so.
“That was great!” Dash bit her lip to keep from sounding too excited, but it was hard. “Now strut and make your final pose!”
Applejack really swayed her hips now, before swinging back around with a sassy pout on her face, blinking once and keeping her eyebrow raised.
Dash’s wings snapped open. Two pegasus phenomena in one day. Wow.
Applejack's pout quickly melted to a look of worry and concern.
“How was that? Did Ah look alright? It felt really silly.”
'Hot’ was on the very tip of Dash’s tongue. It took all her strength to stay cool. Well, cool-ish.
“Good,” Dash sputtered, shuffling nervously. “You look good. I mean! Uh, I mean your pose was perfect. Real good. Uh, just do that, yeah. I’m… I’m gonna sign you up now Appleje—Applejack, uh as Applejewel, right? Yup, so, uh… bye.”
And with that Rainbow disappeared into the barn.
“So that explains why you were covered in flour.”
“Yup, and besides the powder all over me, the flour was forgotten, along with the training.”
“…”
“What?”
“Did you really think Ah looked… hot... in that dress?”
“Uh… I’m gonna finish the story now…”
The Ponyville Days Festival turned out beautifully. Everypony was wearing fancy clothes as they danced graciously in town square. Applejack stood alone at the front of the town hall, gracefully looking over the gala as Trenderhoof gently danced with her grandmother.
Dash was lying on a cloud above the gala, nervously tugging on her dress. After Rarity realized how great Applejack had looked in one of her dresses, she decided to have the rest of the girls pick one out to wear. Hers had an ice blue top with a Safire stone, with a mix of different blues weaving down her skirt, and a robin egg trail lined with white feathers. Her hair had been put into a slightly messy bun, and she had small pearls all over the whole thing. Rarity had said there was too much blue, but Dash didn’t really care.
She peered back over the edge of the cloud at Applejack, who was wearing her dress and hair from earlier. Horseapples, why did she have to be so pretty? She felt ridiculous in this stupid dress, silly and out of place.
She watched the ponies below slowly waltz in pairs, and her heart felt heavy as she saw Applejack with nopony. She wanted so badly to go down there and ask her to dance, it didn’t seem all that scary. None of her friends were there, and all the other couples were busy with each other. No pony would notice.
She summoned all her courage and took off from the cloud, circling around the town hall once before landing beside Applejack.
“Oh, hey there sugarcube!” Applejack smiled in greeting, “Nice dress! Is that one of Rarity’s?”
Dash stood there for a second. She hadn’t expected AJ to talk to her before she tried to ask.
“Uh, yeah it is.”
“So, you here to dance?” Applejack raised her eyebrow.
Yes. That was why she was here. Now she was just going to open her mouth and ask her…
“Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to taste some cider.”
Dash nearly slapped herself in the face for being so chicken, but oh well. What was done was done.
“Sure!”
The two made their way to the Silent Cider Auction and Tasting and soon had a lovely conversation over two glasses of high quality apple cider.
“Were you able to get all that flour cleaned off?”
“I think I may have missed some in my hair, because after I showered I found something all sticky and gross…”
Applejack threw her head back with laughter at Rainbow’s misfortune.
Even besides the dress, she was beautiful tonight. Her green eyes twinkled with laughter in the moonlight. Her curls bounced as she laughed, and the cider glistened on her lips.
Dash had always had a short attention span, and was quite used to being distracted. But of all the days she had been so, this was the day she was distracted the most. So amazingly and hopelessly distracted. And it was awesome.
Both mares were particularly red in the light of the oil lamp, which shook as the barn creaked, the storm still roaring outside. The silence that followed was hot and uncomfortable, much like the faces of the mares. Finally, Rainbow coughed nervously and sat up.
“So, where was I?”
“Uh… you were distracted…” Applejack continued to blush.
“Oh, right! I completely forgot about the training for a few more weeks after that,” Rainbow explained. “It wasn’t until a time of crisis and imprisonment that I realized I should probably focus and get my game on.”
“What do you mean?”
“We all were put into some serious danger," Dash explained. "The kind that makes your life flash before your eyes. The kind that reminds you that if you don’t make it out alright, there will things left undone.”
“Like taking me flyin'?”
“Exactly.”
“So, what was so life-threatening? What happened? Is this about yer test for the Wonderbolts Reserves?”
“No! This is about Tirek.”