Applejack woke with a start. She sat upright, breathing heavily, sweat glistening against her fur as she gathered her wits about her.
She looked around quickly, scanning for any sign of danger, but saw only the basic furniture one would find in any standard hotel room. Her breathing began to calm as she realized what had happened: she had experienced a nightmare.
She exhaled, letting the sting of panic ease out of her chest. She looked to her left, and saw Rainbow Dash still asleep, snoring away, her face half buried in an overstuffed satin pillow.
“Dash,” Applejack whispered. There was no response, so Applejack prodded at the pegasus. “Dash,” she said, adding a little volume to her voice. Still, her wife didn’t budge. Applejack pushed harder, causing the pegasus to shift positions, but otherwise remain asleep.
Applejack frowned. “Consarnit, Rainbow, wake up!” she said, giving the mare a firm shove. Finally, the recalcitrant mare’s snores were silenced as her head popped up from the pillow, facing the opposite direction of her spouse.
“Wha?” the sleepy pegasus asked, addressing the room in general, with fog in her voice. “Who’s that? Is it time for breakfast?”
“It’s your wife, Dash, and no it’s not really time for breakfast just yet. Ah’m sorry to wake ya up, sugarcube, but I was hopin’ I could talk to you for a spell.”
Rainbow Dash yawned loudly, stretched her legs as she turned over to face her lover, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Yeah, sure, AJ. You know you can talk to me any time you want.” She yawned again.
Applejack winced slightly, knowing that they had stayed up very late the night before, and that Dash was the last to crawl into bed.
“Ah really am sorry, hon. Ah just wanted to talk to you. You see, I, uh, had a nightmare. A bad one.” The earth pony rubbed the back of her neck as she spoke, as if ashamed to admit such a thing.
Rainbow Dash’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. She sat up in the bed, and leaned in to hold her mare. “What was it about, AJ?”
Applejack sighed, and took a cleansing breath. “Ah dreamed the fillies got into trouble, and were foalnapped by some hobo pony out toward Smith lake, where the old creek bed done went dry last summer.”
Dash nodded, both in understanding and for Applejack to continue.
“They was just playin’ around, like they always do, and heard some kind of noise. They went adventurin’ towards the sound, and this hobo pony grabs ‘em all sudden-like. That’s when I woke up. Them screamin’ was the last thing I heard before I did.”
She shivered, and Rainbow Dash pulled her close, holding her, and rubbing her back as she kissed the orange mare on the forehead, comforting her like one would a young filly.
“It’s okay, AJ,” she whispered, “nothing’s happened to our fillies. They’re safe back in Ponyville with Twilight.”
Applejack put her head against Dash’s chest. “Ya think so?” she asked, “ya don’t think they done got themselves into trouble and are bein’ held hostage by some evil hobo pony?” She sniffed at the thought.
Rainbow Dash let out a chuckle. “Nah. They’re probably given Twilight all kinds of heck, but come on, she’s the most powerful Alicorn outside of Celestia and Luna-”
“What about Cadance?” Applejack asked, rubbing her itchy muzzle with a hoof.
Rainbow Dash smirked. “Cadance is cool and all, but she’s all about lovey dovey things, and Twilight has shot lasers out of her horn. I don’t think anypony would be stupid enough to take that on even on their best day.”
Her words began to build Applejack’s confidence. “Yeah, I suppose yer right, Dash. Nopony in their right mind would take on Twilight.”
Applejack began to pull away, but Rainbow Dash leaned in and kissed her beautiful wife right on the lips. It was returned with equal measure.
After a few moments, their lips parted. Rainbow Dash looked in her partner’s eyes, smiled, and spoke so softly that only Applejack could hear. “You know what?” she asked.
Applejack smiled. “What, Dash?”
Rainbow Dash smiled back. “I bet breakfast is ready.”
Applejack gave her lover a half lidded stare. “Really, Dash?”
Rainbow Dash started giggling. “Yeah.”
Before she could say anything else, an over-sized pillow came crashing down on top of her head. Without waiting, she leapt forward and tackled her attacker.
“Ack! Dash, let me go!” Applejack called out, as her wife pushed her down on the bed, and began tickling her.
“Nope! Not until you apologize for hitting me with the pillow!” Dash replied, a grin on her face, her hooves snaking all over the orange mare’s barrel.
“Ah-ah-apologize, Da-ash! N-now let me go, c-consarnit!”
“Nah, I changed my mind,” Dash replied, increasing her efforts.
“Wh-what?” came the earth pony’s response. “D-dash, Ah’m gonna get mad!”
Dash immediately stopped her tickle attack, instead pinning the orange mare down, and kissing her passionately.
Applejack’s resistance from the tickle fight melted away instantly, her eyes closing in delight, as she wrapped her forelegs around the pegasus.
Before they could continue down that avenue, however, Applejack’s eyes shot open, and she pushed Rainbow Dash to the side, leaping off the bed.
“Hey!” Dash called out in surprise, as the orange mare ran past her.
“Sorry, Dash, Ah got some quick business to attend to!” said the mare as she bolted into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Rainbow Dash’s giggles and snorts had calmed down by the time Applejack returned from the rest room. Giving the rainbow maned pony a glower, she grabbed her hat from the bed post, and perched herself on the edge of the bed.
Dash scooted over to sit next to her, draping her foreleg over the lovely mare’s shoulder, and kissed her gently on the cheek. “How ya feelin’?”
Applejack sat in silence for a moment, before responding. “Better.”
A smirk appeared on her muzzle. “You’re right, you know. Sometimes Ah think Ah worry too much over the fillies. They’re smart, and they got good heads on their shoulders.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah,” she agreed, “plus, what kind of trouble could they get into? They’re with Twilight! She’s the most powerful pony in Ponyville!”
Applejack nodded, and punched Dash lightly on the shoulder. “You’re right, sugarcube.” She jumped down off of the bed, and straightened her hat. “Why don’t we go grab a little breakfast, and see more of the city?”
Rainbow Dash grinned, and jumped off of the bed, gliding to the floor. “I thought you’d never ask!”
* * *
“WOO!” Apple Flutter yelled as the wind whipped through her mane. “Go higher, Zephyr!”
In response to her sister’s demands, Zephyr Blossom pulled back on the control yoke; the lighter than air craft shuddered, but obeyed the command, its buoyant form soaring over the budding trees of Whitetail Woods. Zephyr pushed gently on the stick, causing the craft to level out.
The treetops below them blurred, as they gained speed, the magic from Apple Flutter’s horn continued pouring into their single propeller. The plane itself was a simple construct: painted a candy apple red, it had a single pair of wings, fuselage built out of two apple barrels glued together, with a wooden propeller mounted to the front.
The landing gear consisted of an old set of caster wheels lovingly donated by Scootaloo, that had once belonged on her old scooter. She thought they were building a wagon. She may have been given that impression by two fillies who wanted to keep their construct a surprise. What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
Of course, their proudest feature was the seal of a rearing filly wearing a cape painted on the sides. The official seal of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, of which Zephyr and Apple were President and Co-Chairpony, respectively.
“Do ya think that’s enough, Zephyr?” Apple called out to her sister, who sat in the cramped cockpit seat behind her. “I’m kinda getting tired now.”
Zephyr looked down at her speedometer, which was nothing more than a chalk outline of a real speedometer. Realizing she should have installed real gauges in the plane, she merely shrugged. They were in the air, and it didn’t really matter so much now.
“Yeah, go ahead, Apple!” Zephyr yelled over the roar of the wind. “We should be able to coast on the air current for a while!”
Permission from her sister given, Apple Flutter released the propeller from her magic grip, letting her horn rest. Leaning back in her seat, she glanced around her, looking at the scenery below. They had already managed to clear Whitetail Woods, and in the near distance, she could see the school house. Well, she could kind of see the school house. Neither of them wore any kind of flight gear, and the wind was making it difficult to see anything.
“You know, now that I think about it, we should have brought some goggles!” she called back to Zephyr.
“Why would we bring bagels?!” responded the amateur pilot.
Apple rolled her eyes. “No, not bagels, goggles. Goggles!”
Zephyr nodded, “Yeah, goggles would have kept your stupid mane out of my face!”
Apple turned to face her sister, a frown on her lips. “Well, I can’t help it if my hair is like mommy’s!”
Zephyr’s retort was cut short when the craft jolted.
“What was that?” Apple asked, her face still in that same frown.
“Don’t ask me!”
“Why wouldn’t I ask you, you’re the pilot?!”
“It’s not like I can see around you, with that mane of yours flicking around in my face!”
“Hey! I already said-”
A loud bang silenced the bickering as the aircraft began to angle downward, both fillies turned to look behind them.
“Sweet Smoky Celestia! The tail stabilizer fell off the plane!” Apple cried out.
“I have eyes, Apple!” Zephyr called out, panic in her voice, as she grabbed the flight yoke.
“Well, do something!” called out Apple, who was began searching for something to grab onto should they manage to land.
“I am doing something! Use that magic of yours and fire up the propeller!”
“I can’t!”
“Why not?!”
“I get magical hiccups when I’m nervous!”
“Magi-, try anyway! We don’t have much of a choice! We need propulsion!”
Concentrating her magic on the swinging propeller, Apple focused her thoughts, envisioning a spinning blade in her mind, until her magic aura began to surround the propeller. She hiccuped, and her aura faded. Grunting, she focused again.
The propeller, gripped in her magic, began to spin slowly.
“Hurry, Apple!” Zephyr called out from behind her, “I can’t hold us level! We’re starting to go into a dive!”
Apple doubled her concentration, sweat beading on her forehead, and then into her eyes. The blade that had begun to spin was cut short as her magic was disrupted by the sudden burning sensation. Reaching up to rub her eyes with her hooves, she hiccuped, and a burst of magic fired from her horn. This caused the propeller to begin spinning at an accelerated rate.
“Alright!” called out Zephyr, as the propeller began pushing air back under the wings. Her celebration would be short lived, as a loud crack was followed by the blades of the propeller spinning away from the craft.
“Oh no!” Zephyr’s plaintive cry rang out.
“What is it?!” came the panicked reply of her sister, still rubbing her eyes.
“No time, just grab on to something, we’re going down!”
The fillies screamed as the aircraft began its rapid descent. Zephyr, in a desperate bid to prevent them from becoming a permanent crater in Ponyville’s rolling hills, managed to pull back on the yoke just enough to skim the topmost trees.
With a resounding crash, the aircraft came down in a clearing, skidding across dirt and mud, leaving a fifty meter long gouge in its wake. Apple was hunched down, her hooves covering her head, while Zephyr struggled to hold the yoke upright so that the plane would stay level as they took an unwelcome bobsled ride across the bog.
Finally, with a sickening splorch, the craft came to a stop in a shallow creek. The water rushed around the plane, taking some of the mud and other detritus with it as it continued onward.
Silence ensued. After a few moments, both fillies looked up at one another.
“You okay, sis?” Apple asked her sister, her voice hushed and hoarse.
Looking around, she nodded her head absently, her eyes wide. “Yeah, I’m okay. You okay?”
Apple nodded, a small frown on her muzzle, the hint of tears at the edges of her eyes. “Mhmm,” was her response.
Zephyr licked her lips. “Good, at least that’s one thing going right for us.”
Apple looked up, and took a glance around them. “What do you mean?” She asked her sister.
Zephyr sighed, and looked her sister in the eyes. “Because we’re in the Everfree forest.”
<(/)*(\)>