//------------------------------//
// Chapter One 
// Story: Refuge in Flight 
// by YADAMAN 
//------------------------------//

The sky.

It was beautiful. So free, so majestic, so cute?

There was a trail of rainbow colors all over the horizon, and for a particular reason. 

Applejack found herself gawking at her marefriend, Rainbow Dash, doing some new acrobatics. Of course the pegasus somehow ended up being nearby to show off to her beloved those new tricks of hers.  

However, work production on the Applefarm steadily decreased with AJ’s new ‘distraction’. Yet, she didn’t mind. After all, she was “Just enjoyin’ the show,” as she put it. 

“Well Applejack, if this is why we are losing profit, then why don’t you find herself a job at pegasi watchin’?” Big Macintosh simply remarked.

“Huh? Oh sorry! I’ll get right on that. I will get them apples faster than ya can say horseradish!”  

“That is what ya said about a week ago.”

Applejack chuckled.

“Sis, I’m serious. Look at all this. Ya gotta buck them apples when ya can. One day you can applebuck, and the next, ya just can’t – who knows why.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll get to it, ya hear?”

“Eeyup.”

And the Element of Honesty doesn’t lie, er doesn’t lie well. She kept her promises. Those apples didn’t know what hit them. Tree upon tree, an orchestra of thuds passed through with their landing. Blink and you’ll miss the baskets full of apples. In fact, production was never this good. Applejack would probably empty out the entire farm until-

“HEY APPLEJACK!”

“Whoa nelly!” the country mare fell backwards, landing right under the esteemed pegasus, “Why did ya do that for?” 

“Well I noticed that you stopped watching me, so I figured, why not give you some company?”

Applejack started to raise her eyebrow to give Rainbow her signature look, but a twitch came out instead, “Who says I was watchin’ ya?”

“Really? I could see you like, a mile away! Besides, anypony could tell when you’re lying!”

“I beg your pardon!? I could lie whenever I so want to!”

“Then prove it oh great Element of Honesty!” Rainbow smirked.

Applejack’s ears flopped down, “I uh…” 

“See? What did I say AJ? Haha!” Rainbow’s smirk changed into a laugh, cheeks blushing. Applejack followed suit. 

“Look I got to hurry and finish these trees up, and then we could hang for the rest of the day.”

“Okay then sure!” She flew from tree to tree, beating her wings to shake the apples down, determined to finish up her marefriend’s work early.

“NO!” upon instinct, Applejack yelled, “Ya can’t help me!”

“Buuut I can! And, it’s not like anypony would know, right?” Rainbow gracefully glided in front of Applejack.

“Big Mac would catch on tah that. He would think that I can’t do this on my own and that sure would be a mighty problem, ‘cuz he would know exactly why I’m not doing my darnest to get this done. But I promise ya, RD. I will finish here before sundown.” 

“Okay, let’s meet at Sugarcube Corner! Apparently Pinkie has another surprise for us.”

Raising her hoof, “Really another surprise? We have been dating for awhile now. I don’t see why she needs tah do an anniversary party for us every other day.”

“Not sure, but you know Pinkie! She always throws the best surprises.”

“Weeell that is true now. But wait? It’s not really a surprise if w –” before she finished, Rainbow smacked a big and passionate kiss upon the country mare’s lips. All the tension of work were released with each passing second of the luxuriant moment.

“Don’t worry about it, Apples. Just focus on your work, okay? You are the best applebucker I know!” Rainbow’s voiced cracked slightly higher than before. It made Applejack flaunt with giggles. 

“Hehe, allrighty then, honey. I will work 5 times as hard to get done on time. Can’t wait.” 

They muzzled their noses together and with that, Rainbow was gone and Applejack resumed applebucking, but not before having one more glance at the sky…