Tiaras and Parasols

by Starpony999

Apples and Storm Clouds

Sweetie galloped as fast as her legs could take her, following the streak of lightning in the sky. Despite the amount of yelling from Diamond Tiara asking Sweetie Belle to slow down, Sweetie kept up her pace. The streak was starting to dissipate and she really wanted to catch Apple Jet before she took off again. The lightning landed behind the barn. Sweetie skidded to a stop as she rounded the corner, as they were greeted by yet another pony in the Apple family...one that was significantly smaller than the pony they sought.

"Howdy!" The pony who greeted them was small in size with a yellow coat and a red mane. Next to her was a similar, but lighter, colored pony with a frizzy mane and large purple glasses. Both of the fillies were earth ponies. "Are you two crusadin' for your cutie marks?"

"Applebloom," the frizzy-haired filly hissed, "She already hath her cutie mark." She pointed to the pink filly. Diamond, on having attention drawn to her flank, nervously covered her cutiemark up with her tail.

"Ah shucks. I guess not. I was gonna invite ya to come with us. Neither of us have cutiemarks yet, so we're goin' adventurin' to see what our special talents are." The farm filly shrugged. She tapped her chin after a moment. "Although, Ah suppose ya'll could come too, if ya want. The more the merrier!"

Diamond Tiara shrunk further back at that comment. She really hated all this talk about cutiemarks. As she avoided the gazes of the other fillies her age, she spotted Apple Jet just a little further along. She quickly went from a still position to a moving one to catch up to the mare. Unfortunately, the pegasus took off again in a bolt of lightning before Diamond could reach her. She slid to a stop and landed on her rump as she gazed up into the sky. At least it looked pretty. The red apples, green trees, and the orange and yellow lightning looked like it came straight out of a painting. She faintly registered the sound of hoofbeats as Sweetie and the other fillies trotted closer.

Sweetie sighed. "That mare is going to be really hard to catch."

"Jus' why are ya tryin' to catch her?" Applebloom asked.

"We're getting a head start on our project for school. We're going around asking my sister and her friends how they got--"

"How they do their work." Diamond cut in, not willing to let that subject return again.

"That'th interething." The glasses-wearing filly answered. Diamond hadn't caught her name.

"Well, we'll leave ya too it. I heard AJ sayin' she was goin' try to do another Lightning Jet." The country filly supplied, "Pretty sure she's been flyin' back and forth between here and Dawn's place for a while."

"Thanks." Sweetie answered as she turned to go. "Bye." She waved over her shoulder, trotting in the direction of Sugar Cube Corner. Diamond Tiara followed her fellow unicorn in a trot after waving half-heartedly at the earth pony fillies.

"Why are we heading to Sugar Cube Corner?" Diamond asked. She was kinda glad to leave the conversation, but she was still perplexed why Sweetie Belle had done it. "Surely Miss Apple Jet will be back at the farm soon."

"Two birds with one stone, or ponies, as it were." Sweetie answered simply.

Diamond wanted to ask more questions, but social anxiety won out.

By the time the two unicorns reached the run-down sweets building, AJ had already flown across overhead three times. Diamond was still wondering why they didn't just stay at Sweet Apple Acres since the orange pegasus was bound to return there. Perhaps it was just two birds with one stone. After all, Miss Pie was restoring the old bakery, and was living in the upper room. Maybe that was also the reason Miss Apple Jet was flying specifically to Sugar Cube Corner.

"Hey! Miss Apple Jet!" Sweetie called out as the blonde pegasus landed. She was on the steps of the gingerbread-bakery ready to take off again, but, thank Celestia, she seemed to have heard Sweetie's call. She stopped and turned towards the fillies.

Catching the gaze of Sweetie, AJ smiled. "Howdy! What are you girls up to?" She asked as she trotted towards them.

"We're working on a school project. And we were wondering if we could watch you work." Sweetie Belle answered.
Glancing up at the cloudless sky, she added: "Or, if you've already finished, tell us how you got your cutiemark."

AJ followed Sweetie Belle's gaze to the sky and smirked. "Yeah, I suppose I could tell you about my cutiemark..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It all happened during the race at Flight Camp where I stood alone against all odds to defend Candy Apple's honor.

Four pegasi stood on a cloud facing each other. The filly with a chocolate mane was trembling just the slightest bit, and had finally taken her hooves away from her face.

"How dare you!" Filly Apple Jet yelled. "Just because Candy Apple isn't as good as me, doesn't mean you can pick on her!"

The two colts laughed. "You and your funny accent think you're better than us? Alright then. I challenge you to a race!"

"You're on! First one around the track wins. Loser has to shut up. Candy you can wave the flag."

"Oh... okay." Candy mumbled.

They dashed over to the race track, accumulating a crowd of fillies, colts, and a unicorn who were all excited to witness the race against the meanest colts on campus. Candy fluttered over to a cloud that was separate from the others, carrying the checkered flag she had been given. She raised the flag above her head and began to count down.

3... The three foals crouched behind the starting line.
2... "I hope you're ready to be silent forever, Ap-dull-Jet." "Yeah, better go crying back to your earthpony mom now, Apple-sweat."
1... "Ya'll need to come up with better nicknames."

Down the checkered flag went, and off went the contestants. Twisting and turning through the air, Apple Jet flapped her small wings as fast as she could, dodging out of the way of the bullies. They were definitely cheating and trying to run her into a cloud bank. She did a double roll underneath of them and shot ahead. The wind was in her mane and face, pushing back hard against her. Not wanting her to go any faster. But she didn't care what the wind thought. She didn't care what anypony thought. She pushed harder, squeezing herself closer together for less drag against the air.

I've never flown like that before! That freedom was unlike anything I've ever felt! The speed, the adrenaline, the wind in my mane... I liked it... a lot!

Out of the open blue sky, Apple Jet saw a blur of brown followed closely by black and white. It was Candy Apple! She had been knocked off of her cloud and gotten her wings tangled in the flag. AJ didn't give herself a chance to think twice before modifying her angle from parallel to the ground to basically perpendicular. She headed straight for Candy, but it seemed the young pegasus was falling faster than AJ could fly. She pushed herself to the limit, pushing harder against the wind until she finally felt it give. Candy was almost within reach. She needed to go faster, but how could she? Suddenly, the wind seemed to be at her back, pushing her forward in just enough time.

Apple Jet grabbed Candy's hoof and pulled a 180. She raced towards the finish line, holding tightly onto her friend. The wind seemed to work with her, pushing her faster towards the clouds. The plowed into the cloud bank that doubled as a finish line, rolling head over hoofs. When they finally came to a stop, Apple Jet lifted Candy Apple up so she could look her in the eyes. "Are you okay, Candy?"

Candy blinked. Then she wrestled the flag off of her back and launched herself onto Apple Jet. "You saved me! Thank you!"

Turns out the only thing I liked more than flying fast... was helping my friends.

The two colts landed beside the fillies, obviously having lost the race, despite Apple Jet's detour.

"What was that?" One of them asked.

"What was what?" Apple Jet snarled. It was their fault Candy had fallen.

"That streak of yellow! It looked like... like..."

"Like lightning!" The other chimed in. "And sounded like it too!"

It turned out, when I dove down to save Candy Apple, I had broken the sound barrier. Most people thought that the sonic blast was just an old mare's tale. But that day... The day I discovered racing... I proved that the legends were true. I made the impossible happen!

"Yes! Like lightning!" The first one added, "Like the lightning on your flank."

"Wait. I thought you didn't have a cutiemark yet."

~~~~~~~~~~
"And that, little ones, is how you earn a cutie mark."

"Wow," Sweetie Belle marveled. "That's Amazing."

"I like to think I have the best cutiemark story there is. And you know, with that big blast of lightning, I helped my sister get her cutiemark that day too-"

BAM!

The top half of the front door to Sugar Cube Corner burst open before promptly falling off of its hinges and onto the ground. A bright pink mop of hair stuck itself out the door and apologized. "Sorry about that, I guess that's another thing to add to the list. Gummy!" She yelled back into the house before turning back to the ponies outside who were all trying to recover from the shock of the initial loud noise. "But, did you say 'big blast of lightning'? When was that?

Apple Jet tapped her chin with her hoof. "The day I got my cutiemark... Well that was about 10 years ago as of last week."

"No Cheesing Way." Dawn pushed open the bottom half of the door, significantly more gently than the top half. "10 years ago last week, I also got my cutiemark. And there was this blast of lightning that shot through the sky at the same time..."

Author's Note:

School. School, school, school. I accidentally took 18 credit hours this semester....and I'm about to do it again! No promises the next chapter will come out soon. But I will promise that this book isn't abandoned.

Comments

[Comickook]

REALLY god work on the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Yeah, this chapter took a while, but was quite well worth the wait. I particularly liked Diamond and Sweetie's chat with Bloom and Twist as well as Apple Jet's story on earning her Cutie Mark helping Candy Apple (particularly the acknowledgement that she helped Rainbow get HER mark too). And now we are going to hear Dawn's story, which I'm definitely going to be looking forward to.

And, in the event that the next chapter doesn't come until after the new year starts, Happy Holidays.

[Starlight Nova]

The synopsis confuses me... Why wouldn't someone want to be around a Cutie Mark Crusader?

[Starpony999]

9996134
Well, this is Diamond Tiara. With how she grew up, it's hard to make friends. In this universe, she's got some added trauma that gives her reason to stay on the sidelines. She's basically an introvert.

Or do you mean why wouldn't she like cutiemarks? In that case, that's something the story answers.