Chapter 2
Applejack woke up just before daybreak as she did every morning. Stretching out as she stood from her bed she heard a series of pops from her back cracking. She glanced out her bedroom window and could see the faint glow of the sun just over the horizon. Taking a deep breath, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she made her way to the door to make her way downstairs to help Granny and Big Mac prepare breakfast.
There was once a time when Applejack would try to get up before her older brother, but try as she might she could never wake up before him. Today, however, seemed to be different. As Applejack made to turn and head down the hallway she noticed that the door of her brother's room was still closed. Thinking maybe Big Mac had just closed his door behind himself, she approached his room and could hear the telltale sound of somepony snoring.
Applejack cracked open the door and peered inside and could just make the form of a pony under a blanket. She could see the slow rise and fall of the blanket clearly indicating somepony in a deep sleep.
Grinning to herself Applejack quietly opened the door further and crept towards her sleeping brother. Making sure to make no noise, she reared back and took a deep breath.
“RISE AND SHINE LAZY BONES!” she shouted before slamming her hooves down on the bed to scare her brother. But much to her surprise she was greeted by the sight of a flash of blue instead of red as the once sleeping pony let out a cry and tumbled out of the bed.
“What the heck AJ?” Rainbow hissed trying to catch her breath as the shock passed.
Applejack’s face flushed as she stammered out a response. “Rainbow? What were you... I thought you were Big Mac.”
“How the hay did you make that mistake? I'm half his size,” she responded in an irritated tone.
“Why were you sleeping in his bed?”
“Miss Dash had an accident last night and couldn't make it home, so I offered her my bed for the night,” a voice said from behind Applejack. She turned around to find her brother; who was very much awake, standing in the doorway.
“I'm gonna go help Granny with breakfast,” she mumbled as she quickly pressed past her brother and headed downstairs, her face still red with embarrassment.
Mac chuckled as she went before he went to help Rainbow back into bed.
“What was that all about?” Rainbow asked as she laid back.
“Ever since Applejack was big enough to help out on the farm she's been trying to get up before me, I suppose she thought she actually had me for once,” he said with a chuckle.
“Her hopes were raised and dashed in an instant...she has hope lash,” Rainbow joked earning a slight snort of laughter from Big Mac.
“I reckon so,” he said with a smile before shifting the conversation. “I'm sorry about the rude awakening, feel free to get a few more hours sleep I'll make sure we save you some breakfast for when you get up.”
“Thanks Mac, I owe ya.” she said tiredly, her brief adrenaline burst from Applejack’s wake-up call wearing off.
“Don’t you worry…” Big Mac never finished his sentence as he was cut off by the sound Rainbow’s snoring. Upon hearing it he could begin to understand how Applejack could have mistaken her snoring for his own. Chuckling lightly he left and let her sleep.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A few hours later Rainbow felt the warm rays of the sun on her face as the haze of sleep disappeared. Sitting up in bed she stretched her wings and yawned. She let out a light groan at the pain in her wing, it was still sore but she should be able to manage to get home now.
Standing from Big Mac's bed, she began to stretch her legs. Her leg was still bothering her as well but overall she was feeling better.
Making her way downstairs, she found a plate set aside for her. She felt her stomach growl as she realized she had not eaten since before her encounter with Rarity the day before. She made quick work of the food before making her way outside. Walking down the porch steps, she spotted the pony she was looking for.
“Hey Mac!” she called out to the large stallion pulling a cart full of barrels across the yard.
“Morning Miss Dash, did you sleep well?” he asked smirking as Rainbow huffed in irritation at his constant use of “Miss” when addressing her.
“Seriously Mac, you better knock off this whole ‘Miss Dash’ thing or you're gonna earn yourself a pop in the chops,” she threatened him shaking her hoof at him, but her threat clearly did little to dissuade him.
“How are you doing today? Are you feeling any better?” he asked, completely ignoring her previous comment.
“Better, my wing and leg are still a little sore but I can manage,” she answered stretching her injured limbs as a testament.
“Well I'm happy to hear that, but that ain't exactly what I was talking about,” he said evenly.
“Oh...that, I think I'm over it”
“Really?” he asked skeptically.
“Well...for the most part anyway. I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me, but I'll be fine.”
“So...Are you gonna talk to them about it?” he asked slightly hesitantly.
“Yeah eventually, it's just gonna be sooooo awwwwkward,” she groaned out in an overly dramatic tone.
“True enough, but I wouldn't put it off if I were you.”
“I know this isn't gonna get any better on its own,” she lamented.
“I could talk to Applejack about it, if that would help,” Mac said offering what little assistance he could given the situation.
“Thanks Mac, but this something I have to do myself and it wouldn't be fair for me to ask you to do that,” she said clearly wishing she could have accepted his offer.
“Figured I'd ask, I still feel a tad guilty for bucking you out of the tree last night,” he responded bashfully rubbing the back of his neck.
“Don't sweat it big guy, but I am a little curious as to why your immediate response was to knock me out of the tree,” she half joked with him, granted she was slightly curious as to why he was out so late.
“We've been having trouble with thieves stealing our apples lately, we've been trying to catch them in the act, I thought I'd finally caught the culprit,” he said the irritation and disappointment clear in his voice.
“Couldn't it just be some pests, parasprites or something?”
“That's what we thought at first, but we're losing too many apples and now they're disappearing whole trees at a time while trees next to them are completely untouched. Plus the fact we haven't found any scraps or apple cores around, pests don't tend to tidy up after themselves.”
“So essentially somepony has been stealing from you.”
“That's about the long and the short of it.”
“Well...that sucks,” Rainbow said simply.
“You put it so eloquently,” Mac dead panned back at her.
“Haha, but seriously what kind of punk would steal from you guys? Nopony in town is that bad off to actually need to take food from you.”
“That's part of the problem, it could be just about anypony,” Mac said with an exasperated sigh.
“There might be some really obvious farmer reason I'm missing, but why not just call the police?”
“I don't want to get anypony in any real trouble, I just want to put a little scare in them and send them on their way.”
“So how long have you and AJ been at this?”
“It's been an issue for about three weeks. Me an Applejack alternate patrolling.”
“Why not go out together? Wouldn't it be easier to catch somepony if there were two of you?”
“I wish we could, but with just me and Applejack doing all the farm work we can't afford to have both of us being up all hours of the night,” Mac responded with a yawn. At this Rainbow noticed the heavy bags under Big Mac’s eyes.
“Well...maybe I could lend a hoof, you know, be your eyes in the sky,” Rainbow offered with her usual air of confidence.
“Thanks Dash, but I can't ask you to burden yourself with my family's problems.”
“Pfft, don't worry about it, what are friends for? Besides I've got a few days off and catching some thieves and bustin’ some heads sounds like a fun way to fill up the time,” she said grinning.
“We wouldn't be ‘bustin’ heads’, it's probably just teens acting stupid.”
“It's a figure of speech big guy.”
“I really don't see how.”
“Keep up with that attitude and I will not want to help,” she said in fake serious tone.
“Fine if you really want to help just get yourself checked out at the doctor’s, after your spill last night I don't want you to make anything worse,” he told her sternly causing her to snort.
“You seriously want me to get a doctor's note?” she asked through a laugh, Mac’s unchanging expression answered her question for her. “Fine.”
“Good, let me know how it turns out, maybe with your help we can finally catch these punks.”
“You can count on it...well I might as well go and get my doctors note, Mr. Apple,” she said in a playfully mocking tone.
“Then I'll see you later ,Miss Dash,” he teased back causing Rainbow to stick her tongue out at him.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A few hours later, Rainbow was making her way back to the farm. Her doctor had given her a skeptical look when she had asked for a written note explaining when she could fly safely again. Normally she would just ignore his suggestion and fly when she felt ready.
But she had gotten what she needed and was now looking for her large red target. Before long she spotted him putting his tools and cart away.
“Hey Mac!” she shouted to get his attention.
“Howdy Rainbow, how'd you make out at the doctors?” he asked turning to face her only to find a written note shoved in his face.
“BOOM! Doctor’s note, I'm cleared to fly tomorrow,” she said cockily. Mac was silent for a moment as he read the note.
“Alright, everything seems good, and it looks like you'll be able to put off that uncomfortable talk with AJ for a few more days,” he said calmly as Rainbow frowned.
She hadn't even thought about the fact that Mac and Applejack were alternating nights for patrol. She had almost inadvertently force herself into a situation she was not quite ready to address.
“Yeah...well, how about that…” she mumbled awkwardly.
“Don't worry I wasn't gonna hold you to it if you didn't feel like spending the whole night alone with Applejack,” he said with a kind smile.
“Thanks, I'll talk to her soon, it's just…”
“She's going to be the hardest to talk to?” Mac half stated half asked.
“Yeah, I mean, AJ is my best friend, and she's usually so good as reading people and knowing the truth. I just know she's going to feel the worst about this. Not that I think any of them are going to be feeling particularly happy with themselves afterwards,” she finished with a slight grumble, her dread of the coming talks growing. As guilty as she knew all her friends would feel, she also knew this would have to be addressed if she wanted the idle rumors to stop.
“AJ’s a big girl, she'll be fine. Try not to worry too much about it for now, things will work out,” he said removing his yoke and storing it in the barn.
“You think so?”
“They always seem to with you girls,” he said with a grin, placing a lock on the barn.
“They do, don't they huh,” she responded returning the smile.
Big Mac cracked his neck and let out a sigh of relief as he turned to face Rainbow.
“It's a little early to call it a day don't you think?” Rainbow said eager to change the subject and taking note that it was still quite early in the day. But Mac only smiled as he turned to respond.
“Not much to do this time of year, we're coming up on our biggest harvest of the year, but until then it's all about prep. We don't do too much until the harvest but it’s still tough with just me and AJ,” he finished with a yawn.
“That's rough, but at least you have the rest of day off and you don't have to stay out patrolling tonight,” she said almost lamely causing Mac to chuckle.
“True enough.”
“Hey Mac, did you have any plans tonight?” she asked curiously.
“Not anything in particular, why do you ask?”
“Well, since you have the night off, I figured I'd offer to take you out for a drink tonight. You know I still owe you for your help last night, and for letting sleep in your bed and for of course feeding me,” she said with a laugh.
“Well...that's mighty kind of you but…” he trailed off.
“Come on Mac, I know you don't exactly set the woods on fire but you need to cut loss every once in awhile, even Applejack goes out from time to time,” she said trying to coax him into the night out.
“I don't know, it's not really my type of…” Mac started but Rainbow cut him off.
“Don't be a killjoy, I'm offering you free drinks and fun night out with a friend. There's more to life than work you know,” she finished almost smugly.
“Alright...alright, I guess a few drinks couldn't hurt. By the way ‘set the woods on fire?’ he finished with a chuckle causing Rainbow to blush in embarrassment.
“I heard it in a country song once, isn't that a term country ponies use to describe a night on the town?” she mumbled.
“Haha maybe in my Pa’s day, but I don't know anypony who still does,” he continued to laugh at Rainbow face which could now give Mac's natural color a run for it's money.
“Keep it up big guy and I'll make you pay,” Rainbow said, only half joking.
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You ordered Dash to go to the doctor, she's allowed to drag you out to town Mac. Only fair.
This story is so much fun! Mac and Rainbow's banter flows so well and their friendship is really believable! And that's gonna make the eventual romance between the two all the better, when the connection is established so well!
This chapter was definitly worth the wait! Now to wait for the next! (And take your time, nothing's worse than a rushed project!)
Strangely, I think AJ would be the one that believes her. Just thinking she never listens to rumors.
Perfect chapter, great build up. Keep up the good work
I look forward the the drunken make-out session :D
Like the chapter, and I'm glad this story's up and running again.
Awww. So magnificent
Story's getting good, can't wait for next update to come out, keep it up