Having finished another furrow, Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to lift her straw hat slightly. It was heavy labor, plowing a field manually, but she felt all right about it these days. The soil here was notably less arid at this hour than in Ponyville, and relatively easy to plow. It was a part of the morning that she had come to appreciate.
Just a little bit longer, she thought.
While there was noticeable, rich humidity present barely one hoof under the soil, the top layer had already begun to crackle and harden under the heat of the pervading sun. Plowing would become progressively harder. The thought of even higher temperatures in the months to come unnerved her.
These conditions can't possibly last much longer, can they? she thought as she looked up to the sky. It felt odd for any Pegasus to look at the weather these days, knowing there wasn't much to be done about it.
She pulled her thoughts back to her work and continued to plow the soil. A mixture of sweat and dust had begun trickling down her neck, but she ignored it. After a while the mare halted to inspect the land she worked.
“Hey, not bad Rainbow Dash,” she said to herself proudly. “I don’t see Applejack plow any better than this. Awesome.”
Her outer monologue broke off when she noticed Spike on the other side of the fields. Still at it with that garden spade, huh? Spike had been outside with her all day long, working on his own little patch of land that he had appropriated. Considering the tools the kid had to work with, he had done a remarkable job. It wasn't the first time either the little dragon had surprised her as of late.
A year or two ago, before she and Scootaloo had moved in together with Twilight Sparkle and Spike, Rainbow Dash had always thought of Spike as the servile type, if a smudge lazy. The past three months had shown her an entirely different side of him. The little dude had relished the opportunity for some physical work other than the usual housework, always willing to help either her or Applejack with some farm work. It had done him good.
Awesome, she thought satisfied. Keep pulling your weight champ. There will be plenty more where that came from.
Rainbow Dash scanned the horizon for her little sister. She spotted a small, furious little dust cloud moving up and down the tracks of a path that stretched across one of the foothills that surrounded the area. It would climb up the hill just a little bit, only to roll down again without really picking up any speed.
She shook her head. Rainbow Dash pitied her sister deeply. Not only was the ground here too rough for her scooter's small wheels, there simply just hadn't been any spare gasoline left as of late.
“First flying, now her scooter. I need to keep that filly busy more,” muttered Rainbow Dash to herself. She stared into the horizon for bit apparently lost in thoughts, when Spike caught her attention again.
He had noticed she was looking around and started to wave at her with his spade.
Rainbow Dash waved back at the young dragon and pointed at her wrist. “Break time soon!”
“Oh-kay!”
“Get Scootaloo too!”
“Sure thing!”
That little clown, she thought with a grin as he threw his spade into the air and ran off to fetch Scootaloo. She looked at the dust cloud again in the hills. It would still be a little while before either of them would be home.
Something occurred to her as she returned her attention to the plow. Had Spike grown taller recently? Remembering consequences of his previous unchecked growth spurt, she determined it would be wise to have a quiet talk about it with Twilight, sometime after supper. That made her think of the evening to come. It was without a doubt her favorite time of the day, eating supper together, listening to the radio, playing games and snoozing in the late evening with her love.
This may not be a great setup here, having to farm and all just to get by, but with those three around me, I think I could really-
A voice interrupted her train of thought, emerging from a walky-talky attached to her belt. “Rainbow Dash, come in, over.”
Rainbow Dash halted her plow and took it out. She flipped a large switch on the side of it and replied in a trucker voice. “What's goin' on Twi, over?”
“I could use some help over here,” Twilight responded. “I got the harvester's control unit working, but I can't see if it actually works without someone on the other side looking at the readouts. Over.”
“Right,” she said while dropping the yoke on the ground. “I'll be with you in... oh, five seconds? Over?”
“Heh. all right, Dash. Over and out.”
Rainbow Dash smiled as she put the small transmitter back into her pocket. She took off her straw hat and hung it on the plow. An early break wouldn't hurt her. Her eyes fixed on the barn at the other side of the field, she stretched her wings in the sunlight and assumed a starter position, leaning slightly forward.
In an instant she had pushed herself off into the air and with just a few, powerful slashes of her wings she had crossed the entire four hundred yards to the barn. One more slash brought her to the large the stables behind their barn, where she glided down smoothly and touched down, neatly sliding through the dirt and stopping right in front of the entrance.
The area around the stables had turned into a bit of a junk yard recently, what with the arrival of some new machinery for Twilight to work on. Categorized piles of cabling, tubes and other machine parts lay spread around the entrance.
She walked over to it and took a look inside. The stables themselves had been converted into a workshop shortly after they had moved into the barn. Little of the old interior remained, making place for a sizable workbench and a lot of room for the dozen or so engineering projects Twilight had poured herself over.
Rainbow Dash noticed welding flashes coming from underneath her main project, stored in the back of the stables. It was a large, funky looking combine harvester, welded together from multiple machine parts that they had appropriated since their move to the countryside. She walked over to the harvester and looked at the tall machine. It really seemed to be coming together now.
She scraped her throat. “Sup Twi?”
The flashes stopped. “Huh? That you already Dash? Wow, you weren't kidding.”
“Well of course I wasn't,” she replied. “Whaddya need help with?”
“Hang on a second, I’m coming out in a moment!” answered Twilight from underneath the machine, rushing to finish up her work. “Oh, can you pick up my charge detector? It's on the workbench somewhere.”
“No problem,” said Rainbow Dash. She walked over to the other side of the room and looked around. “Twi, what did that one look like again? Oh, never mind, I see it.”
She picked up a small portable gauge with two jumper cables sticking out and trotted back to the harvester.
“Still having problems with the control unit?”
“Yeah, but I think I might have a solution now,” Twilight replied as she rolled out from underneath the harvester on a maintenance creeper, holding a rusty welding torch. She stood up, brushed off a small cloud of dust from her dark purple overalls and traded the heavy torch for a small folding stool.
Rainbow Dash, raising a single eyebrow, stood by and watched her as she proceeded to climb to the top of the tall machine rather than fly. Dash smiled and shook her head, when a peculiar thought came to her. Why doesn't she just teleport herself on top of it? She realized she couldn't remember the last time she seen her do that.
“You know, this look honestly suits you,” said Rainbow Dash. “Who could have guessed you would be such an excellent mechanic?”
“Psh,” uttered Twilight, pretending Dash's comment didn't flatter her. “Anypony can read a manual.” She had reached the top of the machine and folded out her stool.
“Yeah, but come on,” continued Rainbow Dash in defense. “Not just anypony can make heads or tails of the manuals you've been reading lately.”
Twilight looked up from the control panel she had started to inspect, smiling. “Right,” she said and smirked, “Flatterer. Don't think that means I'm not going to make you read up on how this machine works. I'm not always going to be there to help you out on the field when something breaks down.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “I know, I know. Anyway, where do you want me to connect the charge detector?”
“To the front of the engine block, please,” answered Twilight politely. “There should be some outlets there that we need to check the current of. Start with the top two.”
“Roger.”
Rainbow Dash walked over to the front of the harvester. From this angle it looked pretty imposing. Damn Twi, she thought, smiling. You’ve really outdone yourself on this one.
“Can you find it?” asked Twilight Sparkle. “It is right on top of the engine block. It sticks out like a sore thumb because the only part that is actually from a harvester. The rest is all royal military junk.”
Rainbow Dash found the yellow panel and connected the charge detector to the top of a series of outlets.
“Ready!” she said, beaming with enthusiasm.
“Okay, give me a sec... and... there.”
Twilight looked up from her console. “Okay, that should having been the ignition?”
The needle on the charge detector did not move a millimeter.
“Nada,” she answered.
“Right then,” proceeded Twilight. “Move down two outlets and try again. Anything now?”
The needle trembled, but did not move up.
“Next to nothing, Twi.”
“Argh, horse flowers!” yelled Twilight, kicking over the chair in frustration. “What could I have missed?” She started pacing up and down the machine, looking for something that might be out of place.
“Maybe the battery is... no, that's can't be it.”
Twilight's attention was drawn to the back of the control panel she had been using. “It couldn't be that simple, could it?”
Rainbow Dash kept her calm and simply waited to let the genius work it out.
“Oh, I'm not boring you with this stuff, am I?” asked Twilight, suddenly remembering she wasn't alone.
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Are you kidding me? It's awesome watching you work. Plus, you're the one who will be putting bread on the table with these machines in the coming years. Not me with that measly plow I borrowed from Applejack.”
“all right then,” said Twilight, blushing slightly as she started rummaging through the cables sticking out the back of her control panel. She had already pulled out bundles of them before realizing a simpler solution was required.
“Dashie, could you hop back to the workbench and fetch me a pair of pliers?”
Rainbow Dash realized this was a good opportunity as any to ask her about her decreasing use of teleportation magic.
“Why don't you just teleport them over, Twi?” she asked. “They're right there.”
Twilight ignored it. “Little busy here,” she said a tad stern. “Just do it.”
“Fine, fine.”
Rainbow Dash walked back to the work bench. After a moment she found what she asked for, but rather than flying it over she nimbly jumped on top of the machine and handed it to Twilight. “There you go, princess.”
“Thanks,” she said happily. Twilight Sparkle started crudely cutting away at bundles of cable that were hanging out of the control panel. “A few more... there, that should take care of electricity bleeding away from the circuit. Can you have another look down there?”
Rainbow Dash quickly jumped back down and had another look. “Yeah, the needle is moving. Five amps, it looks like. Awesome!”
“All right then!” yelled Twilight cheerfully. “That means I can fix the rest up after a quick break!”
“Great! So what happened?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I thought the control unit was all bucked up?”
Twilight sparkle frowned. “That was what I thought at first. Army machines cannot be as easily re-purposed as we had initially hoped. But the problem was simpler than that. Too much signal decay, I think, between all the different electrical components we-”
Rainbow Dash looked at her sheepishly.
“The parts... um,” Twilight struggled for a moment or two, trying to come up with an analogy that would work for her. “The parts have trouble working together because each one has its own design. Imagine if Rarity would take parts of all our gala dresses and fashioned it into a single dress. It would be really uncomfortable to wear, wouldn't it?”
Rainbow Dash had to grin a bit, picturing Rarity panicking in that very situation. “Not to mention it would look about as uncool as uncool gets. But yeah, I see what you're getting at.”
“So the harvester won't be finished anytime soon, will it?” she continued.
“Probably not before our first harvest is ready, no. Applejack has been a great help with the engineering basics, but this still complicated subject matter. Even for me.”
Twilight looked a little dejected. She closed the control panel and carefully climbed down the machine.
“Don't worry though,” she continued, changing to a cheerful resolve as Rainbow Dash helped her down the last step. “We will be prepared for our first harvest, one way or another. I know a pony or two that owe me some favours. I'm sure we can borrow equipment from them when the harvest season arrives.”
Rainbow Dash looked unsure. “I don't know, Twilight. Equestria has fallen on pretty hard times lately.”
“Oh, don't you worry,” said Twilight, winking. “A little royalty still goes a pretty long way.”
“Heh. It would be great if we could finally show Applejack what kinda stuff we're made of. Just imagine the look on her face if we were ready with all the harvesting before she is.”
Twilight Sparkle laughed. “Oh Dashie,” she said as her marefriend helped her down the last steps, “Three months in and you are already this fired up to get our farm going. I'm telling you, before the year is over, you'll be competing with Apple Jack over the highest turn-ins!”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “You bet. Gonna give AJ a run for ‘er bits!” she said comically, poorly mimicking Applejack's accent.
Twilight smiled and put her arm around hers. “That's my dashing farmer.”
“Heh, you're welcome. C'mon, let's blow this joint!”
They exited the stables together and walked around the house. Once on the other side, Twilight Sparkle stopped and simply gaped at what lay in front of her. Somepony had moved an entire field while she had toiled inside.
“Wooow...” she uttered, completely gobsmacked. “You were able to plow that much since this morning? Rainbow Dash... that's incredible!”
“I know right?” she replied proudly. “Still, it's nothing compared to how much faster we could have plowed if we had another machine.”
Twilight nodded. “Work on the harvester has to come first, but I am sure we will have a decent mechanized plow ready by next year. The royal military is letting go of more and more usable hardware and I'm sure farming equipment manufacturing will pick up soon as well.”
The couple stepped into the shade of their porch. Aside from some small crates, there weren't any decent chairs outside yet, but there was a comfy hammock that had functioned as one since they moved in. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle sat down in it together and it let it lazily swing for a while.
“Where's Spike?” asked Twilight. “I thought he'd be inside by now?“
Rainbow Dash pointed at his handiwork, further down the field. “He's been with me all day. You have no idea how capable that kid is with the little garden spade AJ gave him.”
“I have to admit, that doesn't look half bad. Heh, I swear he is taking more after you every day.”
Rainbow Dash grinned and shook her head. “The only one he is taking after is Apple Jack. Every day he drops by to visit. I swear I even heard him drop a 'tarnation' the other day.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded. “Just trying it on, if I know him right. But true, Spike has always had an amazing resilience in him. And now he is learning so much now about farming! I'm just so glad to see him relish this place.“
“Yeah,” replied Rainbow Dash. “He's got that knack for learning from you though.”
That made Twilight smile. “Heh, you’re not too bad yourself once you get the hang of it.”
Rainbow Dash looked down, her expression turned worried. “Scootaloo though... she seems to have... more trouble settling down here,” she said.
Twilight thought for a few moments. “How long has it been since she and Applebloom had to say their goodbyes to Sweetie Belle?”
“I think she was admitted to the hospital a few weeks after we settled Scootaloo's adoption papers. So about a year ago, give or take.”
“I don't know Scootaloo copes with it,” said Twilight Sparkle.
Rainbow Dash sighed deeply. “Maybe she hasn't.”
Both of them looked to the horizon for any sign of Spike or Scootaloo.
“It wasn't right to split the Cutie Mark Crusaders up like that,” said Rainbow Dash. “They were a team. They were great together.”
“What other choice did we have, Dash?” replied Twilight, putting her arm around her marefriend's shoulder.
“I don't know, I just...”
Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words. “Never mind.”
The conversation had stalled. In the distance, they could hear Spike and Scootaloo drawing closer. Pretty soon their alone time would come to an end. Neither of them wanted it to be.
Twilight leaned back into the hammock and thought for a few moments. “Maybe I should give her something to read from my library. It will keep her mind busy at least. Sometimes that's the only thing you can do.”
“That is a great idea,” said Rainbow Dash. “I bet she'd be all over Daring Do. It's perfect for her, at her age.”
They sat there for a while, looking at the landscape and dreaming of a better future for their family. The sun was at its zenith now. Clouds drifted low over the distant green hills, painting them in peculiar shadowy contrasts.
“This place isn't so bad, you know?” said Twilight, letting out a deep sigh.
“Yeah,” answered Rainbow Dash dreamily.
“The hills, the lakes, the mountains surrounding us... it can't be a whole lot higher here than in Ponyville, but it just feels like we live closer to the sky somehow.”
Rainbow Dash considered her words for a few moments and concluded she had a fair point. “Heh, yeah. Weird.” For all the friendship and comforts they had to leave behind in Ponyville, there was great beauty here.
“Most Pegasi must miss living in the sky these days,” Twilight continued, “but it must be nice for you to live in surroundings that are still seemingly connected to it.”
“Yeah, connected,” Rainbow Dash said, letting out a relaxing sigh. “I think you may have a point.”
Aww, Twilove, she thought, immensely satisfied. You always know how to cheer me up.
Twilight Sparkle lowered her head along the edge of the hammock and dreamily looked at the horizon behind them. Her marefriend, dreamily absorbing her imagine, noticed a ladybug in Twilight's mane, bravely climbing upward. She leaned over to remove it, but had a change of heart and leaned in even closer for a kiss.
Just before her lips reached the nape of her neck, Twilight looked back up and stared deep into her eyes. Tears started welling up as she started to speak.
“I'm... sorry, Rainbow,” she said quietly.
Understandably surprised, Rainbow Dash pulled back. “Hey, what's wrong, love?”
Twilight closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, trying hard not to break out in tears. She looked down at the hammock, trying to figure out what to say, then looked up again at her partner. This time the tears were running down her cheeks freely.
“I'm sorry but,” she continued, sobbing lightly, “I need you to eject now.”
Rainbow Dash blinked, bemused. “Eject? What do you mean?”
Twilight suddenly jolted upright and looked straight into her eyes. “You have to eject right now Dash!” she urged, now almost panicking. “You must! Eject now! Eje-”
The world around her lost focus as Rainbow Dash seemingly fell right through it in a daze.
Something powerful shook her awake.
“Wh-where am I?” stammered Rainbow Dash. She looked around. She seemed to be sitting in a strangely familiar craft. A cockpit of something she had flown before.
A voice spoke to her from a transmitter in her helmet. “It's not working, Rainbow Dash. Level her out.”
Outside she spotted the cloud deck, far below her. Her altitude was much higher than she would have dared to fly with her wings.
“Wha... what's happening?” she asked the voice.
The voice answered calmly. “Guidance signal is breaking up. Suggesting immediate manual intervention.”
The memory of seeing Twilight break out in tears had evaporated. The flight controls now demanded the entirety of her existence. In a fraction of a second, half a dozen instrument failure scenarios flashed through her head, none of which seemed to apply to what she was seeing.
“How can we even lose connection way up here? Did they cut it? ” she asked nervously.
“We can’t tell,” replied the voice.
Nearly all of the readouts on the dashboard were glowing red. Even the compass display spinning in all directions. Something had gone seriously wrong during the past ten seconds.
“Dash, your angle seems to be drifting,” continued the voice calmly.
Rainbow Dash tightened her grasp on the stick and attempted to correct her descent. The craft did still respond, grudgingly.
“Dash to mission control. Experiencing massive instrumental failure, please advise. Mission control, come in. What's going on?”
Rainbow Dash waited. What's happening down there?
There was always a deductible cause to any technical problem encountered mid flight, but no amount of training could have prepared her for such a massive, cascading system failure. It was hopeless. Outside, the cloud deck had again drawn considerably closer.
The voice spoke again. “Target area undershot, calculating new trajectory.”
“Oh, come on! I got this! ” yelled Rainbow Dash back at the transmitter.
“And overriding systems... now!” replied the voice, ignoring her pleadings. All the red lights on her display blinked twice in chorus, then turned off permanently.
“Are you nuts!? That's-”
Crushing g-forces cut her sentence short as the autopilot kicked in, nosing the aircraft down and banking it hard to the left. She had completely lost control over craft's descend into the atmosphere.
Rainbow Dash desperately tried to disable the autopilot, but there just wasn’t enough time to react. Heavy lightning basked the aircraft in light as punctured the cloud deck and hit the very apotheosis of turbulence, pushing the aircraft down in one, monstrous swoop that blasted her backward into her seat. She felt her helmet as well as something in her neck crack and ice cold air rushing into her face. She screamed, then she felt nothing.