//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: A Matter of Pride and Honor // by bahatumay //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash lay pondering. What made Macintosh tick? This was why she was here, in a tree in his orchard, pretending to be an apple, in the hopes of discovering some kind of connection. At least, that's what she told herself. In all honesty, she just wanted to nap someplace comfortable. And tree branches were surprisingly comfortable. And then she felt more than heard a knocking. She squinted, confused; and it soon repeated. She glanced down to see Applejack, knocking on the tree trunk like it was a door. Applejack grinned when she saw she'd gotten her attention. “Howdy, Rainbow,” she said, taking a slight step back to see her better. “How goes it?” “Not bad,” Rainbow answered. “Misty Fly got the worst flier of the evening award at practice last night, and Blaze got sick from some street tacos she'd gotten earlier, and it turns out Soarin is a sympathy puker so it wasn't pretty.” Applejack chuckled and shook her head. “That's good and all; but I meant with getting my brother to be your special somepony.” Rainbow sat up. “Great! It went great.” Applejack raised an eyebrow as only Applejack can. “Kindof,” Rainbow amended. “I mean, it could have gone better.” Her voice grew quieter. “It… it could have gone, really.” “Didn't work, did it?” Applejack deadpanned. “No,” Rainbow sighed. “I wasn't even sure where to start.” Applejack nodded. “I'd figured,” she said. “He's a whole other bushel of apples, if’n you get my meaning.” Rainbow didn't; but she nodded anyway. “Well, you could come see him in his natural habitat,” Applejack suggested. “That might help give you an idea.” “First off, you've been spending too much time with Twilight,” Rainbow accused. “Second, that'd be creepy. I mean, we caught some dude watching our practice and Spitfire nearly busted a gasket she was so mad.” She paused, then cracked a smile. “Actually, that was pretty funny; we held him down and Surprise put flight makeup on him and made him look like a clown before we let him go and that stuff is a pain to get off.” “Ok, I'm not even going to ask about the flight makeup stuff,” Applejack said, pulling a face. “And I was going to invite you to dinner tonight; but if'n you'd rather discuss makeup techniques, I bet Rarity would-” “No, I'll come,” Rainbow said hurriedly. “That sounds like a great idea.” Applejack grinned. “I thought you'd think so,” she said. * * * Rainbow Dash rubbed her hooves together as Applejack brought out yet another plate of food. This was going to be good! Oh, and Mac being here was good, too. They could talk and such. Dinner started relatively quickly. And it started off going very well. For varying values of ‘very well’. Granny Smith paused and squinted. “Applejack, why'd you dye your mane like that? You look sillier than a cat dressed up as a rodeo clown.” Macintosh snorted into his peas. Applejack chuckled. “I'm Applejack, Granny,” she said, waving. “That colorful pony is Rainbow Dash, one of my best friends.” “Oh!” Granny said. “Well, welcome! Why didn't you tell me earlier we was having guests?” “I did, Granny. That's why you made an extra pie tonight, remember?” Granny Smith paused, contemplating this answer as the food slowly slid off her fork. Then she brightened. “That's right! So I did.” Pleased with herself for having remembered, she happily put her fork (which was now devoid of food) in her mouth. Rainbow glanced around, but this seemed to be business as usual for the Apple family. She happened to look a bit longer at Applejack, and she nodded encouragingly. It was time to make her move. She leaned over. “So, Mac.” Macintosh raised an eyebrow. “Eeyup?” “You have a fun day?” Mac nodded. “Eeyup.” But though Rainbow waited politely, no further explanation was forthcoming. She ignored Applejack, who was hunched over and seemed to suddenly find her potatoes very humorous. She glanced over and saw Apple Bloom, sitting up, wiggling slightly in place, and looking expectantly at her. “Uh, Apple Bloom, same question.” “Yeah, I did!” she said happily. “Me and the crusaders had a great day! This morning we went to Sugarcube Corner and then we found a colt who didn't like his talent of dancing so we had a little dance party in the clubhouse but that didn't help so we built a stage and had a little concert in the orchard but he didn't like that, so then we…” Rainbow Dash sighed into her ear of corn. This was going to be a long dinner. * * * Two mares walked back through the orchard, having a pleasant conversation. “Ugh!” Rainbow groused. “He was like a rock! I couldn't get two words out of him!” “That's Macintosh,” Applejack said cheerfully. “‘Eeyup’ and ‘nope’! That's it! Even Maud had some loose bricks in her wall! I mean, they were all rocks; but it was still something!” Applejack chuckled. “Would you stop that?” Rainbow demanded. “Hey, I'm on your side here,” Applejack said disarmingly. “Mac's a good stallion. I think it'd be nice for him to have a little female companionship.” She nudged Rainbow Dash on the shoulder. “And it'd do him good if it were somepony awesome like you.” Rainbow smiled in spite of herself. “Problem is, you can't force it. Maybe it won't even work out between you two,” Applejack said airily. Before Rainbow could protest, she continued. “And maybe every apple tree I planted this year will shrivel up and die 'afore harvest. Still worth it to try as hard as I can, though, because-” here she sidled over to a nearby tree and kicked it with one hoof. A single apple fell, and she caught it and tossed it to Rainbow Dash, “-when it works out, it's so sweet in the end.” Rainbow looked at her apple. “Thanks, Applejack,” she said, feeling a new sense of determination. * * * After the show was always a fun experience. Much like walking out on the street, there was the thrill of recognition and making somepony’s day just by acknowledging them. But then again… “Hey, Rainbow Crash!” …there were those ‘fans’ that she wished would simply forget to come. She trotted over, mentally kicking herself for actually giving them the vouchers. “Hey, Hoops. Score. Dumb-bell. Enjoy the show?” she started pleasantly. “Oh, yeah. Riveting. Special somepony didn't show up tonight?” Always right to the chase with Hoops. “Had to work tonight,” Rainbow said blithely. “But he said to give you these.” She reached into her bag and tossed over an apple to each of them. “Enjoy!” “Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow glanced over to see a younger filly, wearing one of those rainbow wigs that had suddenly gotten really popular. She gave the three stallions a brief nod and trotted over to go sign her program, making the little filly beam with delight. With nothing else to do, each tried the given apple. “These are actually pretty good.” “Shut up, Dumb-bell.”