The Dawn is the Night is the Dawn
By Cold in Gardez
Rainbow Dash rolled onto her back atop the grassy hill overlooking Ponyville. The long, untrimmed stalks, lush and green and touched with spring, scratched pleasantly beneath her. They filled the air with a rich, loamy scent.
She felt ants or beetles or something tiny and many-legged squiggling beneath her, and she wriggled until it stopped. Pegasus coats were warm and thick and generally insect proof, so she didn’t have much to worry about, but nopony liked the idea of bugs crawling all over them.
The edge of the sun had just disappeared below the west horizon, and though the sky was still filled with clouds and flames, the air quickly cooled. Cicadas and birds chattered in the trees, warning off rivals or looking for mates.
“Hey birdie birdie birdie…” she mumbled under her breath. A few of the nearer ones, lurking in branches overhead, paused and peered down at her. They fluffed their feathers and chirped, and a brave robin jumped down to flutter within hoof’s reach. She extended her leg toward him, and his courage broke; he fled back into the branches. Soon the air was filled with song again.
Birds had it so easy. They just flew and ate and slept, and when they were ready they found a special somebirdie and laid eggs, and then they did it all again next year.
She could do that. Not the eggs part, obviously, but everything else. Make a cloud nest somewhere on a cliffside, or in the branches of a sequoia, and spend her day cruising the skies. Birds slept a bunch, didn’t they?
Yeah, probably. She stretched again, grinding the space between her wings into the grass. It always itched after a long day of flight, and she groaned under her breath.
Somepony snickered. Rainbow opened her eyes to see Applejack standing a few feet away.
“You want some ‘me’ time, Rainbow?” she said. “I can come back later.”
She snorted. “Shut it. You got the stuff?”
“Yeah, yeah, I got the stuff.” Applejack settled down beside Dash on her belly with her legs tucked beneath her. She had a box balanced on her back, and something clanked inside as she laid it on the grass.
Rainbow’s ears perked up at the sound. She rolled onto her side and gave the box a little nudge with her muzzle. “Can we, uh…”
“Now?” Applejack glanced at the sky. A few stars peeked out from the darkening gray to the east. “Yeah, I guess. We’ll save some for the others.”
Applejack popped the lid and pulled out a corked ceramic jug. She bit the cork with her teeth, pried it free, and spat it onto the grass. A harsh, eye-watering scent stung Rainbow Dash’s nose.
“Bottom’s up!” Applejack tilted the whiskey back and took a slug. Her face screwed into a grimace, and her whole body shook as she forced the muscles in her throat to work. “Oh, Maker, that’s strong. Be careful. Don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“Ha! As if.” Rainbow snatched the jug away and slammed it back, letting the hot whiskey bloat out her cheeks before trying to swallow. It stung, but that was nothing. Clearly, Applejack was a pussy who couldn’t handle—
The sting on her tongue turned into fire. Her throat spasmed and she tried to cough, but that only sent a searing wash of spit and whiskey up into her nose. She choked and sneezed and tried to swallow at the same time. Whiskey went everywhere. The birds fled from the trees to escape.
“Welp. I guess I deserved that,” Applejack said. She brushed away the splatters of whiskey and snot on her coat, and patted a hoof on Dash’s back as she hacked her lungs up. “Maybe next time I’ll bring glasses?”
By the time Dash recovered enough to do more than moan and wish her sinuses didn’t exist, the others had arrived. They sat and chatted and occasionally patted Rainbow Dash and murmured soothing things. Somepony pressed the rim of a glass to her lips, and after the first lap of her tongue tasted water she guzzled the rest down greedily.
“Hey, uh, sorry,” she finally said, her voice even rougher than normal. “Some, uh, whiskey went down the wrong way.”
Applejack smirked. The others appeared skeptical, though nopony challenged her outright.
“Well, as long as you’re better now,” Twilight Sparkle said. She sniffed at the jug of apple whiskey, made a face, and set it back down. “It’s almost night.”
Rainbow coughed again, then settled down on her belly. Below them, the lights of Ponyville were starting to stand out against the dim gloom all around. “Yeah, awesome.”
“So, what’d you do all day?” Applejack asked. She squeezed in next to Rainbow, so close their coats brushed against each other. Their combined warmth chased away some of the night’s chill.
“Eh, not much. Flew around a bit, took a nap. Then I flew some more. Then I came here. You?”
“Oh, same. Got up, fed the pigs, took Winona out to find a few sheep who got lost overnight, woke Apple Bloom up and took her to school after breakfast, cleaned up the barn for a bit, then worked in the orchard until lunch. Then, when Big Mac got back from town, we took turns plowing the—”
“Okay, okay, got it.” Dash said. “Anything interesting, though?”
“Hm.” Applejack frowned and tilted her head. “Well, giving you that whiskey was pretty interesting.”
“Yeah, interesting.” Rainbow cleared her throat again. It still stung a bit, and she tasted acid in the back of her throat. After a bit of silence, she tilted her head up toward the branches. “Hey, you ever think it’d be neat to be a bird?”
“Can’t say I have. What’s so great about being a bird? You can already fly.”
“Yeah, but…” Rainbow sighed. The scent of whiskey teased her still, and she reached over to snag the jug with a hoof. Applejack raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as Rainbow tilted it back for a tiny sip. “Flying’s awesome and all, but birds don’t worry about anything, you know? No job, no bills. No tomorrow. They just do whatever they want, whenever they want, and if they don’t like someplace they just fly away.”
“That’s true, I suppose,” Applejack said. She stared up at the branches, now almost invisible in the darkness. “Do you think birds have friends, though?”
“Uh…” Rainbow frowned. “Maybe? I dunno.”
“Hm.” Applejack reached over to take the whiskey from Rainbow’s loose grip. She took another swallow, then passed it back. “Well, I hope they do. Sad to think that they’d be missin’ out on bein’ friends.”
Rainbow Dash took a deeper swig. The whiskey burned her tongue, but it didn’t shock her anymore. A pleasant, warm buzz built in her chest. “Yeah, well, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Applejack snorted, as though she found something funny. Rainbow opened her mouth to ask when the first flash of light interrupted her. The girls oooh’d in response.
Above them, out over Ponyville, the firework slowly faded away. Another blossomed just as the thunder of the first clapped in their chests and shook the branches overhead.
The birds fled, leaving the hill to Rainbow and her friends.