A Trip to Remember

by Gallifrey

Golden Lightning

A Trip to Remember

by Gallifrey

Chapter Nineteen
Golden Lightning

Twilight woke up the next morning to hear an odd snuffling sound outside. At first she thought it was Rainbow and Applejack again, although she sincerely hoped it wasn’t. Instead, she opened her tent to a wall of scales. Golden scales. She gasped and the dragon turned to face her, fixing one large emerald eye upon her.

“Um, good morning Incandus,” said Twilight, a little apprehensively, never having been woken up by an enormous, fire spitting creature before, “can I help you at all?”

“Good morning Twilight Sparkle! And I was wondering if I would be able to help you this fine day.”

“Help? What sort of help?”

“Well,” he said casually, holding up a claw and examining his talons, “I could fly you three home if you like?”

“Really?!” said Twilight enthusiastically, “hang on, lemme wake up the girls.”

She hurried over to the tent.

“Rainbow, AJ, get up, we have company!”

“Huh, wazzat?” said Applejack confusedly.

“Just a dragon,” said Twilight.

“Dragon?!”

There was a lot of fumbling inside the tent, and the two ponies tumbled out it, landing spread eagled before Incandus’ feet. They looked up, petrified, until they saw who it was.

“Twilight!” said Rainbow crossly, “You didn’t need to scare us like that!”

“Rainbow, I know what you’re like to get up in the mornings,” said Twilight, “so I thought this would be more effective, I think I was correct in my assumptions.”

Rainbow snorted.

“Anyway, surely you’re wondering why there is a dragon in our camp?”

“Oh yeah, why are you here?” asked Rainbow.

“I came here to offer you all a ride home if you want.”

“Really?” said Applejack, a grin on her face.

“Oh boy, that’d be sweet!” said Rainbow excitedly, “It’d be just like flying again!” She flapped her wings a few times, “Plus we get to ride a fully grown dragon, it’s gonna be so awesome!”

“I think that’s a yes,” said Twilight, smiling up at Incandus.

“Wonderful! You do whatever you have to do, and just let me know when you’re ready to go.”

--------------

Once they had packed up and ensured that their saddlebags were strapped tightly enough, they were ready.

“All set sugar cube,” said Applejack.

Incandus, who had been lightly napping, opened his eyes slowly.

“You’re ready?” he rumbled, stretching his great wings.

“Yup, all ready ter go.”

“That’s great!”

He knelt close to the ground so that they could clamber on.

“Thank you so much for this kind, whoa, gesture.” said Twilight, as she lost her footing slightly as she climbed up his back.

“Careful now! And don’t mention it Miss Sparkle,”

Applejack thought this wasn’t the best of times to voice her fear of heights to anypony, she didn’t want to ground them and slow the party down. She closed her eyes and hugged Rainbow Dash’s waist rather tightly.

“Here we go!” called Incandus.

He flapped his wings violently, taking off vertically. Their manes ruffled in the turbulence. Twilight was wondering whether anypony had ever actually ridden a dragon before, and whether this was a first in Equestrian history. Rainbow was anticipating the moment for him to start flying forwards. Applejack meanwhile cautiously opened her eyes. As far as she could tell, this flying business wasn’t as bad as she thought, then she realised that for now he was only flying upwards. She looked ahead and saw that they were almost level with the mountain peaks. She looked down and felt her mouth go dry, she couldn’t even make out the camp site any more.
Incandus was panting slightly, as he stopped climbing and started hovering.

“Are you alright?” shouted Twilight.

“I’m fine, just flying up that far all at once isn’t something I do all that often. I’d advise you all to hold on tightly now though.”

Applejack took his words to heart and held even more tightly to Rainbow.

“AJ, can ya let up a little?”

“Heh, sorry firefl- whoa!”

Incandus put on an impressive burst of speed as they shot forward in the direction of the setting Moon, the golden Sun behind them, the beams glinting off his scales. Twilight and Rainbow whooped. Rainbow closed her eyes happily as she felt the wind tear through her mane for the first time in over a week.

Oh boy have I missed this!

She unfurled her wings so that she could feel the air stream over them too and pretend that she was actually flying, she turned to Applejack to see that her eyes were clamped shut and was quivering. Rainbow stroked the top of her mane lightly, the earth pony opened her eyes to see Rainbow looking concerned.

“You alright AJ?” she shouted over the roar of the wind.

“Ah’ll be fine, don’t worry about me!” She looked at Rainbow’s outstretched wings and gave her a quizzical look. "Um, what’s with the wingb–?”

“Oh this?! It’s not what it looks like! I’m just pretending I’m flying for myself is all! I really miss it!”

Applejack decided to take Rainbow’s word for it and shut her eyes again as they tore over Equestria.

-------------

To the general astonishment of the three ponies, they saw Ponyville on the horizon before it was even lunchtime. Twilight was thankful, she felt numb all over and extremely cold, Rainbow meanwhile still had a wide grin on her face and Applejack hadn’t moved at all.
Incandus began to descend and Twilight gave him directions to Sweet Apple Acres. He flew through a cloud that sprinkled them all with tiny droplets of water, much to Twilight’s misery as she shivered violently, her hooves feeling like they were about to fall off. All too soon, but still not soon enough for the purple mare, they were close to Sweet Apple Acres. She looked to her left to see orchards, right, farmland. Incandus landed with an almighty thump close to Applejack’s house. Twilight and Applejack slid numbly from his back, while Rainbow sprung lightly to the ground.

“Thank you so much for that! It was awesome!”

“My pleasure, Rainbow Dash,” he replied.

Twilight’s legs buckled and she collapsed to the ground. She groaned at the prospect of riding him home.

“Applejack,” said Twilight weakly.

“Yes hun?”

“Would it be alright for me to come round tomorrow?

“O’ course Twi, you wanna let Big Macintosh know yer comin’, or do ya wan’ it to be a surprise?”

“A surprise pl— Um, how d-did you know?” asked Twilight, her ears flattening in embarrassment.

“Oh Twi, ah heard what Celestia said, and ah saw how you reacted when he gave you his special regards, ah can put two and two t’gether sugar cube.”

“Please don’t be mad,” said Twilight imploringly.

“Mad? Why would ah be mad? Ah’m happy for ya—that is, assuming it goes smoothly heh. Jus’ don’t be all lovey dovey when ah’m around okay?”

“You’re one to talk,” said Twilight, sticking her tongue out.

“Hey, I thought y’all had gone ter sleep,” said Applejack grinning.

“What’s going on?” asked Rainbow, joining in on the conversation.

“Nothing much Rainbow, jus’ stuff,” said Applejack.

“I want to thank you girls for a great trip, even if it did have a few bumpy moments,” said Twilight, looking at them each in turn.

“No problem Twilight, I had fun too!” said Rainbow.

“It certainly brought us all closer together,” said Applejack, chuckling.

“That it did,” said Twilight, clambering back onto Incandus. “I’ll see you two tomorrow!”

“Why, what’s happening tomorrow?” asked Rainbow.

“Ah’ll tell ya later sugar cube.”

“See ya!” she called as Incandus rose into the skies.

As the two waved goodbye, Big Macintosh walked from behind the farmhouse. Twilight saw him, even as she was flying away and waved at him, beaming. He saw her, Twilight Sparkle, riding a great golden dragon and his jaw dropped in astonishment, but he waved back all the same, his mouth turning into a wide smile as she flew off towards her home.
The stallion approached his sister and Rainbow.

“Howdy gals, it’s good ter see ya again!”

“Brother!” said Applejack happily, running up to hug him.

“How are y’all?”

“We’re all good thanks, we had one heck of a trip.”

“Ah could see,” said Big Macintosh, looking at the speck that was the dragon in the distance. “How ‘bout ah make ya both a cup of tea and ya tell me all about it?”

“It better be a big cup o’ tea, it’ll take a while,” said Applejack.

Rainbow snickered.

--------------------

Twilight slid from Incandus’ back once she was back home, ignoring all the screaming ponies around her who thought they were under attack.

“Thank you so much for the lift,” she said hazily, “d’you wanna see Spike?”

“Ooh, yes please, it’s been a while since I actually saw him.”

“I’ll go get him, feel free to try and reason with these ponies too if you want.”

She stumbled inside, up the staircase to a room Spike frequently spent his time in. She quietly opened the door to find the dragon dancing with a hat stand, singing Pony Gonna Give You Up, one of the cheesiest songs Twilight knew. Despite her fatigue, and not wanting to hurt his feelings, she couldn’t help but fall about giggling at the sight of him.

“Twilight!” he yelped, tripping over the hat stand and falling to the floor. He raised his head, cheeks burning.

“I’m sorry Spike, but that was— hahahahaha!”

“How was your trip?” he said trying to ignore the mare rolling on the floor in front of him.

“It was really good actually, thanks Spike, I’ll tell you all about it later, but right now I’m shot," said Twilight, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye.

“You look it,” said Spike bluntly, “especially your mane.”

“My mane? What about my mane?”

Her smile vanishing, she dashed up to her room to examine herself in her mirror. Her mane was so untidy and out of shape, if Rarity were there, she would have fainted from shock.

“Oh goodness! I hope Big Macintosh didn’t notice!”

“Why do you care if Big Macintosh noticed?”

Twilight’s eyes widened.

“No reason! No reason at all!” she said, flustered. “You have an outside visitor, I mean, a visitor outside for you by the way.”

“Okaaaaay,” said Spike, trying to work out why the unicorn seemed agitated as he left the room to see who was outside.

“Urgh, just my luck!” said Twilight to herself as she levitated her brush to comb her mane.

It took some time. Twilight’s normally straight and neat hair was very tangled from the buffeting it had received during her flight. She was thinking about tomorrow and was wondered how it would go. She just wanted to talk to Big Macintosh, and tell him about her adventures.
She ventured outside once she was satisfied with her appearance and saw Spike and Incandus laughing together.

“Hey,” said Twilight, “I wanted to thank you again, before I have a nap, for the generous offer of the lift.”

“Don’t mention it Twilight Sparkle, take care now!”

“Twilight, you never take naps!” said Spike.

“I know Spike, but that ride took so much out of me, I think I can make an exception this time.”

She nodded to Incandus, who returned it, and stepped back into the house. She rolled into bed and closed her eyes, almost immediately falling into another world where a dreamy red stallion was waiting for her.

----------------

At Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Big Macintosh were sitting in the Apple’s living room, drinking tea after their lunch. It was a cosy room, red in colour, with welcoming, creaky armchairs and soft rugs. There were many pictures on the walls of Big Macintosh, Applejack and Applebloom, many of them featuring them playing together in years long gone. Above the fireplace was the largest picture of the entire Apple family, including Applejack’s parents, all smiling happily, the moment forever captured.

“An’ tha’s when Rainbow had ter go and save me!” said Applejack dramatically.

Big Macintosh raised a hoof to his mouth in shock.

“Ya fell off the cliff?!” he said incredulously.

“Ah was tryin’ ta save Twilight!” she replied defensively, “You would’ve done the same!”

“Ya got me there,” he said, nodding, “it was mighty brave of ya, to try an’ stop Miss Twilight fall, and just as brave of you Miss Rainbow, to go and save her.”

Rainbow looked quite smug at the praise.

“Especially when my wings are injured,” she added, in case he had forgotten.

Applejack suddenly remembered the business with Luna and Twilight, and then she wondered whether to tell him about it. She thought it over but decided to let the unicorn tell him herself if she wanted to.

She and Rainbow continued to regale Big Macintosh with their stories, all the way up to the ride home on a dragon.

“Well, it certainly was eventful now wasn’t it?” he said, once they had concluded, “But ah’m afraid ah’m gonna have ter leave you two and get back to work, there’s a heck of a lot fer me to do.”

Rainbow looked eager at the prospect of being alone with Applejack. The earth pony herself however, had other ideas.

“Can ah help brother?” she asked hopefully.

“Ah couldn’t ask you to do that AJ, not after your busy day.”

“I’ll be fine sugar cube, ah miss workin’ around the farm.”

Only Applejack would actually miss work. Thought Rainbow sulkily “Hey, can I help?” she asked aloud, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

“You can if ya want Rainbow,” said Applejack, “we’ll be going down to the south fields to see how the apples are doin’, s’lil’ more, out of the way down there.”

Rainbow’s eyes brightened.

Comments

[Jlargent]

Spike got Rick Rolled!

[Anquietas]

479962 Twilight got Rick Rolled by Spike

[Jlargent]

Sorry, my bad. Self

[aquilerafroot]

out of the way down there