Chapter 8
Rainbow Dash licked her lips as she saw the breakfast spread before her: delicious, golden-brown pancakes piled high on the Apple family’s kitchen table. The core members of the Apple family were already seated, waiting on her and Twilight. Without hesitating, Rainbow zipped over to the table and grabbed a knife and fork.
Twilight trotted over at a more sedate pace and sat down. “Morning everypony,” she said as she politely took her seat, soon followed by Applejack.
“Good morning!” Apple Bloom smiled. “Did y’all like our party?”
“It was awesome.” Rainbow sat down. "How'd you like flying?"
Apple Bloom squealed, kicking her hooves under the table. "It. Was. SO. Amazing!" She turned to her big sister. "Applejack, Scootaloo was thinking of starting a club and I was wondering if we could use the old treehouse in the east orchard for our clubhouse? Please?"
Applejack chuckled. "You're gonna want to have to spruce that old thing up a mite, but sure! What's the club for?"
"A Rainbow Dash Fan Club!" Apple Bloom pronounced grandly, the volume nearly blowing Applejack's hat off her head. "Yay!"
"Really?!" Rainbow gasped, grinning wildly.
"Really?" Applejack echoed in a far flatter tone.
Apple Bloom nodded eagerly, her bows bobbing up and down so much she nearly acquired lift. "Ya huh! Isn't that the coolest?!"
"Yeah it is!" Rainbow squealed.
Applejack made a big show of sighing. "Careful now, you make her head too big she's not gonna be able to get outside."
Rainbow snorted. "Oh ha ha, AJ. If you want to talk about big, what about him?" She looked to Big Macintosh, seated next to her. “How much do they feed you to get you that big?”
“That’s just how good Apple family food is.” Applejack smiled, gently patting her brother’s back. “Mind you, Mackie’s always been a bit on the big side, right?”
“Eeyup.”
“But don’t let that fool you, he may look like a giant but he wouldn’t hurt a fly, would you big fella?”
“Eenope.”
“Darn tootin’! He knows what would happen if he did, right?” Applejack gently punched him in the shoulder as he looked down at her fondly.
“Eeyup.”
Rainbow tilted her head. “So, Big Mac, do you ever say anything besides ‘eeyup’ and ‘eenope’?”
“Eeyup.”
“…are you going to now?” she prodded.
“Eenope.”
Rainbow sighed. “Should’ve seen that coming.”
Applejack gave her a friendly smile. “Don’t mind him, he’s always been a mite quiet. Shoot, one time we had my Uncle Bad Apple over and he bet that he could get Big Mac to say three words t’him at dinner. Big Mac just looked at him an’ said, ‘You lose.’”
“I’ve known guys like that myself.” Dash chuckled as she thought of the guardponies when they were on duty. Those guys wouldn’t even crack a smile, much less talk.
“Soup’s on, so t’speak!” Granny Smith’s called as she flipped the pancakes off the stove. As a guest, Rainbow Dash was served first. Licking her chops, she reached for the first pancake only to have Applejack none too lightly smack her hoof with a fork.
“Ow!” Rainbow whined. “What was that for?!”
“You can wait for everypony t’be served before you start stuffing your face,” Applejack warned as Granny Smith hoofed out the pancake-laden plates.
Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves. “Ugh, fine.” Even in the country she couldn’t escape manners and rules. Still, at least they didn’t care which fork you used. Finally, as the final plate made contact with the wooden table, Rainbow dug in. Loudly. “Hmm, delicious!” she said around a mouthful of pancakes, delicately spraying her plate with soggy crumbs.
While Rainbow scarfed down her breakfast, Twilight Sparkle sat with dignified poise as her horn glowed, surrounding her knife and fork with lavender magic. She used them to precisely line up her stack of pancakes and then neatly cut three slices, horizontally and vertically to make each piece as equal in size as she could while cutting a circle. Her eye twitched slightly at the imbalance, but she poured the syrup onto her pancakes with the practiced measure of a chemist adding a rare, vital ingredient to a concoction that might explode if too much was used.
“Land sakes, girl there ain’t a syrup shortage!” Granny Smith exclaimed as she shakily dug her into her own pancakes. “No need to take all day about it!”
Twilight squirmed in her seat. “Sorry, ma’am. I just like things to be … orderly.” She set her syrup aside and started lifted her fork with her magic.
Applejack nudged her. “Shoot, nothing to be sorry about, even if you do sound a bit like that fussbudget Rarity.”
“I thought she sounded nice,” Twilight admitted sheepishly. “I’m just sorry I couldn’t answer her questions about fashion in Canterlot. Maybe I should read up on it more.”
Rainbow gave an elegant eye roll. “Do yourself a favor and skip it. Besides, I’m hoping to keep as much distance between me and anything fashion-related as possible.”
Applejack just smirked.
As breakfast started to wind down, Big Macintosh headed out to the orchard while Apple Bloom made her way to the clubhouse. Granny Smith went to take a nap in her rocking chair, leaving Applejack and the others to clear the table. “So, you gals got any plans for the day?” she asked over a glass of milk.
Twilight wilted under the attention and scrunched her head down as she idly jabbed at her pancakes. “Well, actually Rainbow Dash and I are supposed to check out the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
“You are?” Applejack smiled. “Don’t that just beat all? Why didn’t you say anything about that when we met Rainbow?”
Rainbow gave Twilight an annoyed look out of the corner of her eye. “It’s just something I was kinda roped into doing. Twilight’s brother asked me to help and she’s supposed to be some sort of organizing egghead, so…” She shrugged.
"'Egghead?’” Twilight mouthed indignantly.
Applejack shrugged. “We’d be pleased as punch to help you out anyway we can. Shoot, half the reason we decided to have the reunion in Ponyville this year was so the whole family could help out with the catering preparations. Want to sample some more of our victuals?”
“No thanks!” Twilight said quickly.
Rainbow grimaced at the prospect. “Yeah, we’re good.” She stretched out a kink in her neck. “I wouldn’t be able to fly if we ate anymore, and Twilight here might turn into an apple.”
Applejack chuckled. “Heh, good point. What else do you ladies have to check up on?”
Twilight consulted her checklist, seeming almost giddy at the prospect of organizing. “After catering is the weather.”
“That should be Derpy’s department.” Rainbow stretched her wings. “Let’s go check it out.”
“Mind if I come with?” Applejack asked. “I normally wouldn’t be one to skip out on chores, but with my whole family here I think they’ve got it covered. I wouldn’t feel right leaving two guests of the Apple family to wander through town all by their lonesomes.”
Twilight bit her lip. “Oh, well, that’s very nice of you but we’d hate to impose…”
Rainbow nudged her. “Chillax, Twilight. If she wants to come, let her come.” She shrugged her wings. “After all, some ponies just can’t ever get enough opportunity to watch me.”
“That’s right!” Applejack grinned. “I wouldn’t want to miss whatever shenanigans you two girls will get into. You’re a regular hoot!”
Dash took to the air as she started heading down to Ponyville, with Applejack and Twilight following her on the ground. Applejack had been providing most of the conversation, pointing out the different types of apples they grew and explaining how the farm worked. Twilight was too shy to really say much for herself, and Rainbow was just enjoying the chance to spread her wings.
After a while, Applejack’s thoughts turned away from all things apple and apple accessories. “Say, I’ve been meaning to ask—what does Shining Armor do that he can ask you two to be in charge of the preparations?”
“Um, well—” Twilight glanced to Rainbow Dash, looking to her for guidance.
Applejack picked up on it easily. “Rainbow, what’re you not telling me?”
Dash sighed as she lowered herself to the ground. “Fine. Shining Armor’s the Captain of the Royal Guard.”
Applejack blinked but her face didn’t betray much else. Her hat however leapt off her head and flipped in midair before landing again. “I see,” she said slowly. “But how does he know you? I get that Twi’s his sister … are you two friends?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I just met her last night.”
Twilight scuffed her hooves on the ground, her ears flattening against her head. “Y-yeah. We’re not friends,” she mumbled.
Applejack narrowed her eyes and whipped her tail against Rainbow’s flank.
“Ow! What was that—oh.” Dash winced, part in pain and part in chagrin. “I mean, uh, I think we could become friends though!” she added with an extra wide smile. “I mean, any sister of Shining Armor has got to be pretty cool, am I right?”
“I-I don’t know,” Twilight said shyly, her head retreating underneath her mane.
“I’m sure y’are sugarcube.” Applejack gave her a supportive look. “So, speaking of your brother, how does the captain of the royal guard know Rainbow Dash?”
Twilight, feeling a bit flustered, blurted out. “Oh well he was sent to bring her back after she—”
“Hey!” Rainbow exclaimed, making her shrink down.
“I’m so sorry! I forgot.” She lowered her head.
Applejack came up to stand between the two of them. “Hey now, enough of that.”
Snorting, Rainbow looked to the side, knowing Applejack was right. “Still shouldn’t be talking about me like I’m not here.”
To her irritation, Applejack’s response didn’t give her annoyance anything to latch onto. “Okay, you’re right. I should’ve asked you myself. But that’s on me, not her.” Applejack fixed the pegasus with a look. “So what exactly is it you were running from?”
“I’m not running from anything!” Rainbow flared her wings and pawed at the ground. “I just wanted a break from Canterlot. It’s … stuff that I don’t expect you to understand.”
Slowly, Applejack made her way to Rainbow Dash’s side. “Easy there sugarcube, take it easy. You’re among friends here.” She put a comforting hoof on Rainbow’s withers. “And don’t be too sure of that. I think I know exactly what you’re going through.”
Rainbow looked at her skeptically. “You do, huh?”
Applejack nodded. “When I was a little filly I left home because I wanted to get out and see the world, so I went to live with some relatives in Manehattan.” Her gaze turned misty, lost in nostalgia. “Probably was trying to get away from some unhappy reminders, now that I think about it. Turns out though, I hated Manehattan. I didn’t like how the ponies there acted, what the food was like, or how I was supposed to act in order t’fit in … I felt more trapped there than I ever did at home. Soon I got to thinking about home and how homesick I was. You’d never believe how the answer came to me, but boy howdy, did it ever! A rainbow seemed to point the way straight for home, so that's where I went—lickety-split! And when I arrived I knew this was where I was supposed to be.” She cast a look at her haunch. “That’s when I got my cutie mark too.”
Dash tilted her head. “That’s cool and all Applejack but I’m not quite seeing the point.”
“Fair enough, I’ll spell it out,” Applejack took a breath. “You’re running—pardon—taking a break from Canterlot? And no offense, but you don’t seem like one them hoity-toity Canterlot ponies to me.”
“I’d be more offended if you said that I was,” Rainbow’s groused.
“I figured,” Applejack deadpanned. “So I’m guessing that you don’t want to be stuck being with those stuck-up royal-city types. So every now and then you bust out and do your own thing … and your folks have t’send the guard out to bring you back home. Am I right?”
Rainbow Dash hesitated, then reluctantly nodded. Applejack could be pretty sharp for a farmpony, seeing that the only detail she had wrong was just who sent the royal guard out after her. Still, for her to take the time to put that all together and try to help ... well, it was more thoughtful than most ponies Rainbow had been around in Canterlot lately.
She considered telling Applejack her own cutie mark story, but decided against it. That story deserved it's own time. Besides, she didn’t want to deal with explaining what happened after her Sonic Rainboom, to say nothing of her failure to do another. “Yeah, that’s it,” she said, convinced that she wasn’t even really lying to Applejack. “You got me.”
“I may round up sheep, but that don’t mean y’get to pull the wool over my eyes.” Applejack smirked. “Not much gets past this farm—eeek!”
She yelped as she tripped over a small hole and her face had an abrupt encounter with the dirt. There was a small pause before Applejack mumbled from the ground. “Not. A. Word.”
Rainbow snickered while Twilight headed over to her. “Do you need help?”
“M’fine,” she grumbled as she pulled her face out of the ground. “Ptooh!” She spat out some dirt. “I guess Winona’s been digging for voles again.” After shaking her head, she glared at Rainbow Dash, who was no longer trying to hide her amusement. “You finished?”
“Pfff! J-just about!” she wheezed, laughing some more.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “So, how often does your brother have to chase RD here down?” she asked Twilight.
“I don’t know exactly,” the unicorn admitted. “I moved here a few years ago and Shining Armor’s still with the guard in Canterlot, so I couldn’t say for sure.”
“Is it a lot?” Applejack pressed.
Twilight nodded. “Um, I guess so.”
Applejack broke into a wide grin. “Aaaah, I thought so.” With a smug grin she idly raised her voice. “I wonder if Rainbow started running away just so she could have your brother be the one to come bring her back.” Twilight hid her face behind her hoof, trying to suppress a giggle. “One might almost think that she had a crush on him or something.” Applejack winked at the unicorn, whose sides shook with repressed laughter.
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash’s laughter suddenly cut off. “I do not have a crush on Shining Armor!”
Applejack pursed her lip and gently tapped a hoof against her muzzle. “Eh, nah. Don’t believe you. Tell you what, why don’t we go ask some of the folks in town who were at the party last night what they think?” She reared up and kicked out her forelegs, then bolted down the road to Ponyville.
“Applejack! Get your big apple flank back here so I can kick it straight to Manehattan!” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and took off, leaving Twilight buffeted by the wind that marked her departure. Twilight yelped in surprise, then again in dismay as she galloped after them.
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You really should have,
Ah, true friendship at last.
Very nice chapter. One minor typo you may want to edit, though.
That should be "here".
Big Mac, Master of the Laconic.
I always forget how much this Twilight has in common with Fluttershy.
So not sharing the full cutie mark stories just yet eh? Guess they need to all meet for that to have the full impact.
I wonder how Rarity is going to show Rainbow she has more going on than Rainbow assumes.
Rainbow's gonna have to tell her real story at some point. AJ's not gonna appreciate learning she was lying
Big Mac taking after Silent Cal. A very nice reference.
Again, you did a REALLY good job on the characterizations, exchanges and future chapter set-up. And, yeah, I DID like how reluctant Rainbow AND Twilight were to share their cutie mark stories as well as Twilight's trying so hard to hold back the laughter when Applejack started teasing Rainbow about her crush on Shiny. And yeah, the "You lose" story concerning Mac makes A LOT of sense and AJ tripping over the holes made by her dog while chasing garden pests was pretty funny.
Very certainly going to be looking forward to more of this.
Love it as always.
This should really get more feature time though. Ah well.
I hope it won't be too long until we learn what became of Spike. I haven't read the original so I don't know what happened to him there and I think it would be a shame to simply leave him out.
No more cute TwiDash shipping moment to kick off the chapter?!
Ah, well. If it’s not a major plot point of the story, probably better to leave it on the cutting room floor. TwiDash is my favorite ship though. 
Love this interaction! I can picture Applejack’s deadpan voice in my head.
Kept this bit of innuendo, though!
Nice little connection here between the guards and Big Mac, present in both versions.
You’ve got a nested quotation mark at the start and a nested apostrophe at the end. Consider putting a space between the quotation marks and the apostrophes to make it more legible to readers.
Looks like you’re using em dashes throughout the rest of this chapter, but here you’ve only used a hyphen.
Twilight, feeling a bit flustered, blurted out, “Oh, well he was sent to bring her back after she—”
It’s a really clever parallel, the one drawn between Applejack leaving home as a filly and Rainbow Dash leaving home in Canterlot. I think it’s terrific and it does a lot to establish the bond between Rainbow and Applejack, but execution-wise, it’s an overlong paragraph that’s been dressed up with too many tags. “Applejack nodded” and “She chuckled” are weak distractions and ought to be stripped out. Keep “Her gaze turned misty, lost in nostalgia” and “She cast a look at her haunch,” and break up over a couple paragraphs.
Suggest a paragraph break after the eeek. Any time a character is mid-dialogue and something jarring or unexpected happens to them, it’s a good idea to begin a new paragraph to draw attention to it.
10334531
Thanks for the review!!!
Yeah, there were some occasional gags I decided to ditch, mostly of the shipping sort, or whether or not some folks thought RD's mane meant she had to be gay. They just weren't particularly funny or relevant to the story. The Big Mac thing I wouldn't exactly call an innuendo since, well, the dude is a giant among ponies. If they ever did The Princess Bridle he'd be their Fezzik.
(That said, if I have a favorite ship among the Mane Six, it would be TwiDash).
10334687
You know the MLP loops did just that? Big Mac as Fezzik. He was unawaken but still funny
Reminds me of a (made up) exchange from the Daily Show’s America: the Book regarding Calvin Coolidge. Only he didn’t say “you lose”.
My dad lives on a pretty big plot of land in Ireland out in the country, so naturally there’s attendant rat problems. He had six cats and one Yorkshire Terrier. And I swear the Yorkie killed more rats than all six cats combined. It’s actually what they were originally bred to do.
The Yorkie’s name was Bobby, or Bobbysocks. Sir Robert Stockings to you.
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TwiDash is OTP!