“WHAT?!”
Big Macintosh covered his ears with both hands while gritting his teeth in pain. That yell had pierced his eardrums.
In front of him, Applejack had stayed quiet for several second since he responded her. An amount of time long enough to worry him, but now she had broken her cathartic state. And she had completely lost it.
“Wadda you mean ‘Enope’?! What in tarnation did you do in order to waste such a good chance?!”
Applejack continued to snort steam from her nostrils while clenching her teeth. Big mac wasn’t talking to a sister, he was facing a running locomotive. Luckily, he was used to it.
And he knew that he had no way to slink off without telling what happened first.
***
Big Mac was standing perfectly still in front of Rainbow Dash. He had just finished his little speech and now was waiting silently for her to reply. She was taking her time, though, hiding intermittently her beautiful magenta irises under her eyelids for ten seconds flat. Finally, she seemed to reach a conclusion and she recollected herself.
Rainbow Dash smirked with confidence and answered, “Nice speech, big guy. But actually, I’m afraid that you kinda wasted it. Don’t take me wrong, I really appreciated it. More than you think. It’s just that you took it too much seriously. Like I would get overwhelmed so easily by a little misunderstanding.”
Big Mac was still upright as usual, frowning his eyebrows in thought. Rainbow continued, scratching her nape with one hand. “Seriously, though, you pulled off something touchy but… you were worried about nothing. Really, I’m fine. Not hiding anything here. Thank you for passing by, though, that made me happy.”
Big Mac smiled politely at her, allowing the silence in the room until Rainbow “So, you have to go or can I offer you something...”
“Enope.”
“Cool,” she said. “See you soon then.”
***
“That’s all?” asked a disbelieved Applejack.
“”Eyup.”
Applejack tossed herself for the front door of the mansion, her anger had taken over and she wasn't going to hold back.
“Ah’m goin' to strangle her," she said. Then she disappeared inside.
Big Mac reentered in the mansion a little after his sister. He had been waiting either for her to come back or to hear the fight of the decade. Since nothing of that happened, he decided to anticipate his plans.
He had schemed to come back the next day but, since he had to wait for Applejack, he reckoned he could make his first move immediately.
Faith paused a moment in order to catch her breath. She had just climbed on the roof of the building and now was standing right near the edge. About five meters beneath her there were two guards who were searching around, their mission was to take her down.
She wasn’t inclined to allow them.
Bravery, Faith jumped off the edge and landed over one of the enemies, stomping with both feet on his chest. The other pal quickly turned over and saw Faith already standing up, ready to attack him.
With no hesitation, they ran furiously against each other. The guard rose his weapon in order to deliver it heavily onto her head, but Faith deflected the blow with awesome skill, stunning him. She used that window of opportunity to deliver some kicks to his sorry butt.
“Aww yeah! This chick is almost as cool as me!” said Rainbow Dash. She was in her room, sitting on her lap while holding the joypad in front of the TV. After the talk with Big Mac she thought she deserved some relax time for herself, so she had turned on her console and started to play a videogame.
Unfortunately, a cowgirl boot kicking her door marked the end of the relax time.
Applejack entered the room looking absolutely livid. All her fury was focused on the puzzled cyan girl sat between the bed and TV. “WHAT IN TARNATION IS WRONG WITH YOU!?”
Rainbow Dash just stared at her friend, unimpressed. “Woah, AJ. Not cool.”
“Ah... you…” Applejack was too angry to speak properly. “Shucks, why can’t you be rightly honest for once?!”
“Just to be sure, this is about Big Mac right?”
“Yes! This is about you lying to him about your feelings!”
“Woah, woah, woah, AJ. I don’t remember doing anything like that.”
“It happened five minutes ago!”
“Listen, AJ, I know that you’re somehow trying to help but I don’t need a boyfriend. More important, I don’t even want one. Whenever I’ll wish to find somebody, since you look to care so much about it, I promise to consider your brother.” Once she finished dealing with her angry friend, Rainbow Dash resumed playing videogames with a smug face.
Applejack was just speechless. From her view, her best friend had a crush that was just as bright as the sun over the trees, yet Rainbow Dash was responding to her effort of helping her out as they were some sort of desperate pairing attempt. Only because she had to be a mule and deny all the uncomfortable truth.
Feeling another push of rage from behind her, Applejack leaned forward ready to deliver ten fingers over that blue neck. Maybe she could have lectured her about spitting out your true interests in the meanwhile. It was Fluttershy that saved the oblivious Rainbow Dash from choking that day.
Not that she was actually there, she was having a really embarrassing conversation about birds and bees at that precise moment, but her image in Applejack’s mind was enough to make her reconsider her actions.
Fluttershy would have never forgiven the display of violence that Applejack wanted to show, and that was enough alone, but mostly what hold her was the conversation the two of them had shared at the field. Reconsidering that, Applejack tried to see the events from Rainbow’s point of view.
What would have done Rainbow Dash if the boy which in she was interested suddenly appeared in front of her offering to be something more? Rightly after she had spent all the afternoon in self-loathing because she was convinced that something like that would have never happened?
If it had been herself, Applejack would have jumped right over him shouting all the things that he represented for her, without a second thought. Because that was she, direct and honest. And she knew better than acting cool just to keep an appearance.
But Rainbow Dash didn’t, she couldn’t allow herself to be drafted by a girlish sentiment and confess how badly she could be hurt by it. And that would have been telling all the honest truth, so it was either that or putting on the usual bravado.
She was just being Rainbow Dash.
Well, it was time for Applejack to use her knowledge about Rainbow Dash to drive her towards a beautiful and healthy love story. She only had to be smooth and use what Fluttershy had taught her.
Finally perfectly calm, Applejack made her move. “You know, Ah think that Spitfire might have a boyfriend.”
“Really, who?”
‘Dangit!’ she thought. “Ehm, not sure. But she might have one.”
She wasn’t very good at this, but that would have never worked so she had to keep trying. Maybe they had to use the same dictionary in order to be on the same wavelength.
“And, you know, romantic relations are totally cool.”
Rainbow Dash spun her head towards Applejack with a wry look.
“Subtle, AJ.”
Ok, she was bad at this. Applejack tried to think about any possible reply to save her attempts, moving up and down her hands in frustration, but no sound came from her mouth. Lastly, she grunted admitting her defeat.
The battle was lost, but Applejack promised to herself that the war wouldn’t have stopped so easily. She instantly checked around the room looking for any possible source of overthrow. Of any kind.
“Ain’t that game the old one we used to play a while ago?” she said in the end, watching the TV’s screen. “‘Couse Ah reckon it wasn’t this good looking.”
“Nope. This one is the sequel.”
“The sequel came out?”
“Yup. And it is twenty percent cooler.”
“Bet Ah can rightly beat all your best times.”
“You wish. No one is faster than me.”
Rainbow Blitz was a lot like his daughter, Rainbow Dash, under many aspects, starting from their look. Of course, they had the different traits of opposite genders and his skin was a little darker shade than hers. Yet you could easily tell they were father and child just by looking at them.
Also, they weren’t good at showing their softer side. Not even between them. Rainbow Blitz had always loved his little Rainbow from the core. Since she was born, he vowed to raise her and protect her at the best of his possibilities.
Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash’s birth happened when her parents were very young.
Dash wasn’t an expected child, Rainbow Blitz and his beloved weren’t even married when she turned out to be pregnant. They were just a young couple that had forged ahead with their relationship, turning what should have been a joyful goal into a premature accident.
Nevertheless, just like his future daughter, Blitz had never been a quitter. Instead, he had a strongly instilled sense of loyalty inside that he wasn’t able to ignore.
Following his sense of right, he proposed to his future wife and accepted to sustain her and their future child. In order to do that, he applied instantly into jobs and multiplied his efforts for becoming an athlete.
He would have never reached his goal of becoming a sportive champion, but a company of models noticed him a little before that her daughter was born.
This company was looking for a new face that could trend the sports products merchandise, and he got a good offer thanks to his handsome appearance and his assets. Even if it wasn’t exactly what he was dreaming for, the contract was good and would have solved some of his problems without forcing him to change his lifestyle.
With the first jobs, some help from the family and a mortgage banking he was able to give his family the big mansion they would have called home for the time being.
He probably went too far with his purchase, the house was way bigger than what they needed, but Blitz wasn’t somebody who just would have settled for less than he thought to deserve. And that was even more true for his new family.
Even so, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the outgoings after his contract as a sports model. That until his TV spot became a trend for some reason and caught the attention of a career manager. With his advice and some smart investments, Rainbow Blitz was able to fulfill his efforts and give her daughter a safe environment where to grow.
All in all, he was lucky.
At least, on that front.
But when life gives you solutions, it usually takes something.
And Blitz had to raise his daughter alone since his wife passed away.
It happened suddenly, and Rainbow Blitz didn’t like to think about it. However, the consequences remained, he was a single father of a little girl. And he continued to do what he was used to doing.
His best.
Yet, you may see now some of the results in Rainbow Dash’s attitude after growing like she did. Nothing bad of course, just how she can be masculine sometimes. Or the fact that she never trusted anyone to open up with, since not even Rainbow Blitz was used to open up with her. Luckily he didn’t need to. He had always provided to be by her side when she needed him, and being so similar established a connection between them that had made words almost useless. They weren’t comfortable to talk about mushy things anyway, so they went used to just assume the love that bound them each other.
Their relationship had become even more detached when Rainbow Dash reached the ‘rebellious age’. Blitz knew that she wanted to be more independent and respected that, so he wasn’t bothered by it. Even if she did spend more time with her friends than him, he made sure they still had their father-daughter moments.
For the rest of the time, he was just happy to focus on his body, his relaxation or how to continue his career.
Big Mac entered in the livingroom, looking for Rainbow Blitz. He found him running on a treadmill in his little gym.
The large room was split in two half, the first half was the actual living room and the second had been turned into a private gym by Blitz, in order for him to spend more time at home.
Anyway, as Big Mac was approaching the little gym, Blitz finished his ten-mile jogging and removed the earphones. Just then he noticed the young boy near him.
“Oh, hi there. You’re Applejack’s brother, Big Mac right?”
“Eyup.”
“Be my guest. Can I offer you something? I’m thirsty for sure.”
Rainbow Blitz walked to the kitchen and opened his minibar, pulling out two little bottles of energy drink. By reflex, he tossed one of the bottles in the air making it spin a couple times, then he caught it and handed it to Big Mac with a wink.
“Rainbow water, an energy blitz after your hard work.”
They both stayed firm for a moment, after which Blitz scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry, it’s... and old habit.”
Mac didn’t question anything, he just accepted his drink politely while Blitz was refreshing himself.
“So, you’re here to pick up your sister?”
“Enope.”
“If you want to see Rainbow Dash, she’s upstairs.”
Blitz wasn’t an obsessive parent, he knew that her daughter had a large circle of friends and that she hanged out even with boys. Furthermore, he trusted her enough to not pry in what she considered her private life.
Rainbow Blitz grew suspicious only when Big Mac kept looking at him, instead of moving away. On a more careful look, Blitz noticed that the apparently stoic and calm farm boy was showing to be a little nervous.
The two men watched each other firmly and in silence once again, while a precise scenario formed himself inside the head of the older one. Blitz knew that one day he would have faced this, but he also knew that her daughter despised romance of every sort. Which was giving him the tiny hope of never actually face this.
In the end, with his silence, Rainbow Blitz thought of all the possible questions that he wanted but was hesitant to ask.
As if he was able to read minds, Big Mac slightly nodded.
There was another silence, with no motion, during which every doubt was swept away.
“And you want to ask my permission,” concluded Rainbow Blitz.
“Eyup.”
Now, I said that Rainbow Blitz doesn’t pry in his daughter's life and that he let her be, he respects her independence and doesn’t do anything to bother her. He can do that because she is pretty similar to him and he can understand her very well. Because he knows that until she does what he can understand she will be safe. A suitor wasn’t something he had ever experienced.
That kicked in all his protective-parental instincts. “Sit,” he demanded with a resolute tone.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were playing video games upstairs. Time had passed by while the two friends were having a funny time together, leaving behind every grudge.
At least until Applejack watched out the window. “Shucks, ain't it late already? Should have gotten to do my chores a while ago.” She left her controller on the ground and stood up for the door.
“Aww come on, AJ! I was going to win!”
“And now you know how that feels like.”
Rainbow Dash childly pouted.
‘And that’s the girl that Ah wish to become my sis-in-law,’ thought Applejack with a chuckle. Before she could open the door, Applejack felt a familiar hand on her shoulder.
“Come on, I’ll escort you downstairs,” said Rainbow Dash.
They reached the first floor, sharing silly stories and some giggles here and there when they noticed Big Mac and Rainbow Blitz talking friendly on the couch.
“And that is why, kid, even as a farmer you should keep your musculature under check. A lot of people with a job of fatigue gets a lot of aches in their elder days because they just overload some muscles and completely ignore others. Also, I think you should put more proteins in your body. You’re big already, but with just a little work you would become a real stallion.”
Big Mac was just nodding in silence, letting Rainbow Blitz babble about whatever he wanted to. The conversation had started differently, with Rainbow Blitz treating him with all the skepticism and severity he could muster. But soon enough the simplicity and purity in Big Mac attitude destabilized the not-mastered role of stern parent, dragging Blitz back in his usual friendly character.
Since then, their chat became always more casual until Blitz had started to talk to Big Mac like a mentor of life. Big Mac was fine with that, he liked to listen anyway.
However they had to stop when they noticed the two girls looking over them.
Rainbow Blitz checked his clock. “Well, look at the time. I guess the two of you have to go now.”
Big mac nodded and reached the side of his sister, who spoke to him. “Shucks, you didn’t have to wait for me.”
The two Apples went for the door as Rainbow Dash escorted them. Once outside, Big Mac turned towards Dash and stopped moving.
He stared at her eyes, thinking about what he was going to do.
He gulped nervously.
Both of them just looked each other for a moment, before Big Mac took a breath and opened his mouth to talk.
“Woff...” was all he managed to say when Applejack grabbed him by his collar.
“Come on, no more time to waste for today. And we still have to repair our front gate.”
Mac could only wave at Rainbow as he was dragged by her sister, causing hilarity for Blitz and Dash.
“I’m sure they won't notice.”
“I’m pretty much sure that they will.”
“Come on, you don't look that bad. Besides Rarity pulled off a little miracle with the makeup.”
“Indeed, darling. Just try not to frown so much.”
“I’m not frowning.”
Sunset, Twilight, and Rarity were sitting in the cafeteria for the lunch break. Consuming their meals, they all had a different mood. Sunset was looking a little guilty and embarrassed, while Rarity was only concerned for her two friends. In the middle, Twilight was showing all his annoyance with a stern scowl.
“Darling, you almost have more wrinkles than Granny Smith.”
Behind her glasses, Twilight rolled her eyes. “Now that’s exaggerated.”
“Uhm, girls? Incoming,” whispered Sunset.
Sunset and Rarity wore their fakest smiles as Applejack and Rainbow Dash were approaching with their trays full of food. Both of them looked to have a better mood than the day before and were chit-chatting airily. Until they arrived at the table and Rainbow Dash focused on their other friends.
“Hey Twi, what’s the horse face for?” asked Rainbow. Then she turned towards Sunset “Uhh, no offense?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Come on. It’s just a figure of speech,” she replied.
“And there is nothing wrong with my face,” grumbled Twilight.
Applejack narrowed her eyes, focusing on Twilight. “You sure? Because there’s something that doesn’t look quite right if you ask me...”
Scared by the perceptive skills of her friend, Twilight grabbed her bag and opened it in front of her. “Look! A talking dog.”
Spike came out from the bag, panting happily “Bark!”
“Spike!”
“What? Can’t I say ‘bark’ anymore? Just because I can talk doesn’t mean that everything I say must make sense.”
“He’s totally right you know,” said Pinkie Pie. She and Fluttershy had just arrived at the table too. “By the way, Rarity did a really good job at drawing those fake eyebrows in order to hide the accident of yesterday.”
Rarity, Twilight, and Sunset just stared at her in silence after she said that. Then Pinkie Pie opened her eyes wide as if she had just remembered something important.
Pinkie watched warily around her and leaned over Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy. “Pssst, it’s a secret,” she whispered.
“Pinkie!” scoffed an angry Rarity. “I used to believe that you were good at keeping secrets.”
“I am. In fact, I didn’t tell them what happened yesterday, as I Pinkie promised to.”
“What happened yesterday anyway?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Sorry, can’t tell.” Pinkie turned back to Rarity with a smug smile. “See?”
Rarity didn’t answer, instead, she just made some angry sounds with her mouth until Applejack interrupted her.
“Has this something to do with the ‘craziest thing’ happened in the research lab?”
Rarity, Twilight, and Sunset watched at her astonished for a second. Then they all sent an angry glare to Pinkie Pie.
“That text was before the Pinkie promise,” she said in defense.
Sunset let come out a resigned sigh. “Well, guess it’s no use trying to hide it now,” she admitted. She turned towards the three oblivious girls. “Yesterday...”
Pinkie Pie stomped heavily on the table. “Don’t you dare to break a Pinkie promise!”
Sunset was aghast, but Twilight interjected. “I declare that the Pinkie promise at issue is no more effective.”
Pinkie took a scroll and a feather from her hairs. “Put in the deed,” she said happily.
Twilight watched dumbfounded at Pinkie. “Do you always go around with… no, I don’t want to know. I just want to get over this. Please proceed, Sunset”
Sunset scratched her arm while looking away uncomfortably, then she managed to look straight at her friends. “Well, all of you remember what happened the last time that I tried to understand magic with the use of science, right?”
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy nodded.
“Then you remember how badly it went. Despite that, when I showed her my notes about my futile and painful attempts, Twilight insisted on going through them again. For science.” Sunset charged the last two words with a tip of bitterness, making Twilight blush. “So I offered myself to help her, at least to have a good laugh and take my satisfaction by saying ‘I told you’.
“It went as I planned for the tests with Pinkie and Rarity, and I was already preparing myself for a long evening of teasing in spite of our new friend, but then Twilight pointed out a negligence in my experiments. I’ve never tried any sort of test on myself.”
Sunset paused, she clearly didn’t want to tell the next part, but she managed to continue. “In the end, I accepted to be examined. I admit I was a little curious, so Twilight plugged me with a lot of types of machinery and asked me to pony up.”
When she paused again, Applejack pressed her. “What happened then?”
“I should have figured sooner, your results seemed to be related to your cutie mar.... scratch that, let’s just say that your different outcomes were somehow an extension of you: balloons for Pinkie, rainbows for Dash, apples for Applejack, butterflies for Fluttershy. As for me...”
Sunset sighed again, the three girls in front of her were completely taken by now. Unable to speak, she just pointed at the big sun drawn on her T-shirt.
Applejack’s gears started to spin: the flash, the smoke, the missing eyebrows. “No way...” she muttered.
“What? What?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“You… took fire?”
Sunset’s face turned crimson while she was looking at the ceiling.
Applejack snorted.
Fluttershy snickered.
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing.
“Wait... let me get this straight,” she managed to say between her laughs. “You’re saying that you burned down the research room just by singing.”
“And playing guitar,” concluded Sunset flatly.
“That’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard,” yelled Rainbow Dash, still laughing.
“Seriously, that must have been one hell of rock solo.”
Her hilarity infected Pinkie and Rarity as well, who were trying her best to hold back. It wasn’t a battle they could sustain for long.
“Ahah, I mean we all knew that you were insanely hot but DAAAMN!”
Pinkie Pie chirped in, “Really Sunset, you were brightly gorgeous before but now? You could melt anybody’s heart.”
Rainbow Dash pointed a finger at Sunset “Oooh, burn!”
“Be careful,” said Fluttershy, “she could actually do it.”
At this point, everybody was laughing out loud, minus Sunset and Twilight who were just gazing flatly at nothing.
Applejack somehow recollected herself. “Now girls, Ah’m slightly disappointed by all of you.”
Finally, everybody at the table went quiet for a moment. They all looked in confusion at their most wise and stern member.
“Thank you,” said Sunset gratefully.
Applejack smirked at her. “Worry none, Ah just think they should know better than playing with fire.”
No one did anything for a couple of seconds until Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a high five. That restarted the laughs.
Much to her surprise, Sunset heard a tiny giggle from her near left. She spun her head and saw Twilight Sparkle holding her mouth with one hand. “You too?”
“Sorry, but in retrospect, it is kinda funny.”
Sunset glowered at all the girls around her, then decided to say something. “Well, it’s not entirely my fault.” She pointed at Twilight. “She’s the one that turned me on.”
Just then she allowed herself to chuckle.
“Nice, Sunset,” approved Rainbow Dash in tears.
“O my, you pulled that off with such a straight face!” burst Pinkie.
“I want to try,” said Twilight. She cleared her throat before telling her joke. “I thought I was measuring in Kelvins, not in Celsius!” Then she looked at her friends expectantly.
After a while, Sunset gave a polite laugh. Seeing that nobody else was enjoying it, she also tried to explain it. “It was funny in a way. You see because Celsius and Kelvin has a very different scale.”
Everybody just focused on their lunch.
“It was funny!” protested Twilight, “there was a common knowledge, the puzzling part, the solution, it was even scientifically accurate!”
“You just picked the wrong audience, Twi,” said Spike with a reassuring tone.
Slightly offended, Twilight stood up on her chair and spoke aloud. “Hey, everybody! I thought I was measuring Sunset’s body temperature in Kelvins, instead, it was in Celsius!”
All the cafeteria fell silent, almost every student turned towards her with a puzzled look.
“Because she’s really hot!” finished her in frustration.
She didn’t notice, but all of her friends facepalmed as collective misunderstanding hit everybody. Cheers and laughs finally rose for her. She even heard somebody congratulate with her for ‘coming out’ or something like that.
Twilight came back down to her seat with a smug face. “Told you it was funny.”
“Not even Princess Twilight was this dense,” muttered Sunset behind her hand.
Rainbow Dash walked through the halls with a lot more lightly pace than the day before. After what happened at the cafeteria, Twilight and Sunset were the new hot topic of the school, making her almost disappear from the attention radar. Besides, the day so far had been incredibly funny.
When she arrived at her locker, she found Big Mac leaning over it.
“Hi, big guy. Were you waiting for me?” asked Rainbow Dash, slightly excited.
“Eyup.”
“Cool,” chirped she happily. Then she calmed down. “I mean, ok. What do you want?”
Big Mac cleared his throat, then he inflated his chest trying to hide his nervousness. “Would you like to go out with me for dinner?”
Rainbow’s eyes widened as her cheeks turned a little red.