Chapter 7: What the Future Holds
The sky of Ponyville had never been clearer as the sun waned in the horizon leaving the last of it's rays to shine upon the sleepy little town. Sparrow hovered in the air next to Rainbow Dash and they both panted, attempting to catch their breath. They had completed the entire skyline around the town in a few hours, what would have been days of work for a group of trained pegasi, the two flyers had finished.
Once he had caught his breath Sparrow looked to Rainbow and gasped out "426 clouds, how about you."
"You were counting!?" was all Rainbow could yell back as she continued to breath heavily, then she laughed "427. Nice try newbie." She leaned over and nudged him with her hoof and grinned at the griffon which he returned with a smirk of his own.
"Well at least we finished the job, now what?" Sparrow asked Rainbow as they began to lower themselves down to street level.
Reaching the ground and touching down Rainbow motioned for Sparrow to follow her "Let's go."
Sparrow tilted his head and scratched at the ground with his talons, thankful for the earth beneath them again, his wings were about to give out if he had flown any longer. "Where to?"
"My friend Applejack has a big house with plenty of rooms, I can't even fly more if I wanted to today, so she won't mind if I crash there, you included." Rainbow explained to Sparrow as he followed beside her and she flicked him with her tail when she mentioned him.
She was becoming more friendly now, Sparrow realized, after they had shared an afternoon of work together. "She won't think it's strange you bringing a guy home from work?" he snickered.
Rainbow couldn't help but laugh as they walked "Oh please, like you'd have a chance flyboy."
"Such cold words Miss Dash, I can't believe you'd treat a friend of Gilda's this way." Sparrow feigned sadness and held a claw over his heart.
The two friends continued their walk through Ponyville as the sun set and the shopkeepers started closing up. Buildings were locked up for the night and friends and couples wandered the streets as the night sky shone brightly down upon them all. Sparrow couldn't help but smile as he and Rainbow meandered through the town, it was so peaceful. Just the sound of crickets all around and the light chatting of ponies enjoying their evenings. Life here was peaceful.
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A knock on the door of the Apple family house distracted an orange mare with three apples as her cutie mark. Applejack was putting the final touches on the meal for the evening when she heard the knocking before she called out to her younger sister, "Applebloom, can y'all go see who in tarnation that is?"
"Sure thing sis!" The bright yellow filly with no cutie mark looked up from her book in the living room to respond before standing up and trotting over to the door. Opening the door slowly Applebloom smiled to the cyan blue pegasus she had grown to be friends with over the past year or so, and then she noticed the rather large figure to the mare's left. Gasping she called out "Applejack, come and see this!"
Before Rainbow Dash could catch the filly, Applebloom had taken off to grab her sister, Rainbow rolled her eyes and grimaced. "What, don't want her reporting to Applejack about the strange male you brought along?" Sparrow chimed
"Not helping Sparrow." Rainbow Dash sighed.
Applejack rounded the corner with Applebloom tugging on her until they were in front of the door and she began pointing "See? I toldya Rainbow brought somepony along!"
Applejack looked to the griffon who gave a meek smile and a small wave in his defense "Well I'll be a pickled egg in an egg basket. Didn't expect Rainbow Dash of all ponies to bring over a feller for dinner. Applebloom can you go finish up supper while I talk to these two here?" Applebloom nodded and trotted off to the kitchen.
Rainbow sat down hard and put her hooves over her face "ARGH! It's not like that! We just need a place to crash for the night."
"Y'all are just makin' it sound worse." Applejack raised an eyebrow to her friend
"Look, we met earlier today and we had a competition to clear the sky above Ponyville of its clouds and now we're both about to drop from exhaustion, if you had a couple beds to spare I would really appreciate it." Sparrow decided straight to the point would help all involved in the situation currently
"Darlin' I got plenty of beds to spare, what I want to know is if you two are gonna be using just one and if I'll need to have Applebloom go spend the night somewhere else." Applejack decided to be straight and to the point as well.
"ARRRRGH! It's not like that AJ! We just had a friendly competition and we're both pooped and need a place to crash." Rainbow shouted to her friend, becoming increasingly red in the face.
"S'true, I almost beat her too. But that pony with the flying contraption got in the way of the last cloud." Sparrow grinned to Applejack hoping for an in. The eyebrow being raised in his direction caused him no end of concern however.
"Well whatever y'all say, you're both welcome in the Apple family home. We were just about to sit down for supper. Come on in" She stood to the side of the door and motioned for the two to enter her home. Closing the door behind her and following the two through the hallway towards the dining area she couldn't help herself. "So are y'all gonna be sitting across from each other to get a better view?" Both Sparrow and Rainbow Dash groaned loudly.
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