Down to Earth Family

by Zenaron

The First Date

Chapter 14- The First Date

“So what’s the name of the restaurant that Rarity set us up at?” Rainbow Dash asked as she trotted along, her wing draped over Applejack’s side.

“It’s some fancy restaurant that ah can’t pronounce right.” Applejack said as she glanced over at the pegasus that was holding her. “By the way, what’s that your doin’ with your wing?”

Rainbow Dash flinched slightly and pulled her wing away. “Oh uh…nothing it’s just a stupid pegasus thing.”

“Ah didn’t say that ah didn’t like it. Ah was just curious about what it meant.” Applejack said with a sweet smile.

Rainbow Dash blushed slightly and put the wing back around Applejack. “It’s uh…kind of a sign of affection, and it’s a way of saying hey this is my special somepony so back off.”

Applejack chuckled slightly at Rainbow Dash’s explanation. “Well thanks Dashie ah’m glad that you’re my special somepony too.” Applejack said before she leaned in and gave Rainbow Dash a light kiss on the cheek.

Rainbow Dash’s face turned as red as the apples on Applejack’s flank and she couldn’t look Applejack in the eye as the two mares continued down the path.

“Ah think this is the place.” Applejack said as she came to a sudden halt.

Rainbow Dash looked up and saw a building that she had flown over many times in the recent months that it had been built, but she had never paid much attention to it. It was a large red two floor building with green pillars that blossomed at the top with red petals to make each one look like a giant red rose. There was also the quiet sound of a violin playing that came drifting from inside. Above the large vaulted archway hung a sign that said “La Rose Écarlate” in shining white litters.

“What does it mean?” Rainbow Dash asked as she glanced over at Applejack with a raised eyebrow.

“Ah have no idea, it’s fancy for somethin’ or another, but Rarity really seems to like it so it can’t be all bad.” Applejack said with a slight smile before she trotted threw the archway and up to the counter.

Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders and quickly caught up with Applejack just before the front desk.

A young unicorn stallion that was standing behind the desk looked up and adjusted his gold rimmed glasses before he smiled at the new arrivals. “Hello and welcome to La Rose Écarlate how may I be of assistance?” He asked with a strange accent and a slight bow of his head.

“Um…we came here to uh, have dinner.” Rainbow Dash said nervously as she tried to keep her cool in this strange environment.

“Yes of course, um did you make reservations?” The stallion asked as he glanced down at his list checking through the names.

“Uh yeah our friend Rarity said that she would set them up for us.” Applejack explained with a wave of her hoof.

“AH, yes the lady Rarity, then you must be Ms. Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Yes we’ve been expecting you, please right this way.” He said with a bow as he led them into the main room of the luxurious restaurant.

Meanwhile outside the restaurant in the nearby bushes, three fillies sat discussing their next plan of action.

“How are we gonna get inside?” Applebloom asked as she glanced over at her two friends.

Scootaloo sat back on her haunches and scratched her chin in deep thought. “We can’t through the front.” She concluded after a quick glance around.

“Then how are we supposed to get in?” Sweetie Belle chimed in with a frown.

“Maybe there’s a back door for the kitchen.” Scootaloo suggested with a glance at her companions.

“Well only one way to find out.” Applebloom said with a slight nod as she started to slowly trot towards the back ally.

The other two silently got up and followed after her. After they made their way into the ally it didn’t take them long to find what they were looking for, a white screen door that hung slightly open with a sign that said “Employees only”.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” Sweetie Belle said as she took a half step back away from the half open door.

“Come on Sweetie Belle, remember why we’re doing this, we need to make sure that Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s first date together is as awesome as they deserve it to be.” Scootaloo said with a voice full of conviction.

The other two both looked at Scootaloo with wide eyes. “Ah didn’t know that this was so important to yah Scootaloo.” Applebloom said with a hint of surprise still in her voice.

“Well I do, they’ve both done so much for me. They both agreed without question when they found out I was an orphan to take me in and raise me, and…and if being together makes them happy then I’m going to make sure that they have the best date ever.” Scootaloo said as she fought back the tears trying to flow from her eyes. “So are you two with me or not?”

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked at each other with mixed emotions, before they both grew determined looks on their faces and turned in unison to face Scootaloo and nodded their heads in agreement.

Scootaloo smiled at her two best friends and whipped her tears away. “Alright then girls let’s go do this.”

They all three clapped their hooves against each other before they plunged into the kitchen.

“Here you are, your waiter shall be with you shortly, and if there is anything I can do to help please don’t hesitate to ask.” The stallion said as he magically pushed each of their chairs in for them, turned and walked back towards the front of the restaurant.

“Wow this is actually pretty nice.” Rainbow Dash said as she looked around at the beautiful interior of the restaurant.
The inside was even more spectacular than the outside. There were large green curtains throughout the building each one leading to a red rose shaped top. In the center of the room was a large fountain with two stone pegasus ponies holding vases that poured out water into fountain. The restaurant was abuzz with activity with only a few tables left empty and each one of those had a small red reserved sign placed in front of every chair.

Even the table itself was a wonder to look at, all of the silverware was placed in its exact spot and on each golden rimmed plate was placed a napkin folded to look like a fully bloomed red rose.

Applejack nodded in agreement and picked up one of the menus that the stallion had left. “Uh…Dashie can you read any of this?” She asked as she started to flip through the menu trying to find words that she understood.

Rainbow Dash frowned slightly and picked up the other menu quickly discovering that she couldn’t read it ether. Rainbow Dash’s frown transformed into a puzzled glare as she started turning it sideways then turned around on its other side.

“Is this by chance you’re first time eating here madam?” the waiter asked as he walked over to their table. He was a white unicorn with a pin and pad as his cutie mark. He had a brown mane and tail and was wearing a black and white striped vest.

The two mares looked up at him and nodded in unison.

The stallion smiled and chuckled slightly, “and let me guess you can’t read the menus ether.”

The two mare’s faces turned red and they nodded once again.

“Well not to worry my name is Maxwell and I am here to assist you. Do you mind if I make some suggestions?”

“Well ah don’t see why not.” Applejack said with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

“Excellent, well first I would suggest that you start off with our fresh pea soup with parsley, and for the main course I would suggest the ratatouille niçoise, it is a wonderful tossed vegetable dish that even the Princess Celestia says is the best she has ever had.” Maxwell said with pride radiating from his voice.

“Awesome we’ll have that then.” Rainbow Dash said as she closed the menu and handed it to him upside down.

Maxwell just smiled and took the menus with his magic. “Excellent choice I shall have your soup out to you as soon as possible, and if you need anything else just wave me over and I would be more than happy to assist you.” Maxwell said with a bow before he trotted over to the next table.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack both nodded before they turned back to each other. “Hey Dashie did ah tell you that Twilight has a crush on Pinkie Pie?”

“WHAT! No way, are you serious?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she leaned in closer.

Back in the kitchen the crusaders were having an easy time sneaking around with all of the cooks and other staff being too busy to notice them.

“How are we going to get out of here to help Applejack and Rainbow Dash?” Sweetie Belle asked as her and the other two crusaders huddled under one of the many unused carts.

Scootaloo looked around from the low vantage point, when she saw what she was looking for. “There! All we need to do is get to that door and that should lead out into the restaurant.” Scootaloo said as she pointed out the swinging brown door only ten feet away.

Applebloom looked around and noticed that nopony was looking in that general direction and gave a nod. “Alright on the count of three.” The other two nodded and got ready, “Alright, one, two…Three!” Applebloom called as the three jumped off the cart and ran for the door.

When they leapt from the empty cart the force from their combined jump caused the cart to rocket backward hitting one of the tall cooking ranges with shelves full of spices and sauces. The collision was hard enough to knock over one of the open bottles that was full of a red liquid with a colorful label that had the picture of an open flame blazing fully on it. The bottle fell over the nozzle just clear of the shelf and the contents began to pour out into a large pot of a green soup.

The three crusaders flung the door open and looked out at the expanse of the restaurant.

“Where do we go know?” Sweetie Belle asked as she looked around frantically.

The other two looked around with the same amount of panic threatening to overtake them. When Applebloom saw it, “There,” Applebloom half shouted pointing at an unoccupied table not too far away.

The three fillies looked at the table and immediately started running as fast as their small legs would carry them, until all three of them dove under the low hanging table cloth.

Just before a rush of waiters came to the kitchen to get bowls of soup for their hungry customers. The sue chief quickly trotted over to the unattended soup pot stirred it vigorously and started filling bowls full of the green and red tented liquid. Not paying the now empty glass bottle perched above the boiling pot any mind.

Soon the waiters poured out of the kitchen most carrying several soup bowls.

“So how long is it until cider season?” Rainbow Dash asked with a longing look in her eyes.

“Oh probably a few weeks away, we need to let the apples set for a little while.” Applejack said before her attention was drawn away by their approaching waiter.

“Here you are madams, two bowls of our finest pea soup.” Maxwell said as he floated the two bowls in front of each mare.

“Well thank yah kindly.” Applejack said before she picked up her spoon and took a large mouthful of the soup.

“Wow this is awesome, and it has a really nice kick to it.” Rainbow Dash said as she started to dig in.

“Whew-wee, you said it partner this does have a nice bite to it don’t it.” Applejack said as she mirrored her marefriends actions.

Maxwell’s large smile faded slightly as he took in what each of them said about the soup. “Excuse me what do you mean by kick?”

Before ether mare could respond there was an eruption of coughing, choking and ponies yelling for water. Some weren’t waiting for water and instead ran as fast as they could and dunked their heads into the fountain.

Maxwell looked on in a calm manner as most of the other waiters dashed around with jugs of water trying their best to fill the empty glasses as quickly and orderly as possible. “If you don’t mind could I try your soup please?” Maxwell asked as he floated a spoon they weren’t using into the air.

“Sure, but ah don’t see what all of the fuss is about have none of these ponies had anythin’ spicy before?” Applejack asked as she pushed the bowl closer to Maxwell.

Maxwell took a small amount on the spoon and tasted it. His eyes widened slightly as he tasted that it was almost spicy enough to bring tears to his eyes. “Well madam the soup is not supposed to by anywhere near this spicy.” Maxwell said as he floated the spoon into his vest pocket. “If you’ll excuse me I must see if I can get to the bottom of this.”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and shrugged before they started to dig into their soup again.

“Do you see any sign of them yet?” Scootaloo asked as she ducked back under the table.

“Nope sorry scoots,” Applebloom said as she pulled her head back in.

“Well at least the yelling seems to have stopped.” Sweetie Belle added as she joined her two friends under the new table.

“I think we need to get closer to the fountain.” Scootaloo decided with a short nod of her head.

The other two nodded there agreement as before the three peaked their heads out from under the table cloth to see when the coast was clear for them to dash towards the fountain.

“Here you are ladies I am so sorry for the delay.” Maxwell said as he placed the two plates of mixed vegetables on top of pasta in front of the two mares.

“It’s no trouble, did yah ever find out what happened with the soup?” Applejack asked as Rainbow Dash snatched up her fork and started to twirl it around in the noodles.

“Yes, it appears that somepony accidentally knocked a bottle of fire sauce into the pot while nopony was looking.” Maxwell said as her cleared away their empty soup bowls. “But don’t worry about that, please just enjoy your meal.” Maxwell said with a slight bow of his head.

“Ah still don’t see them.” Applebloom announced with a small frown on her face.

“They have to be in here somewhere.” Scootaloo said with a matching frown. “Let’s try the balcony next.” Scootaloo suggested not bothering to look to see if the path was clear before she darted out from their current hiding spot.

The other two quickly gave chase and were able to catch up with Scootaloo just as they all caught a glimpse of a rainbow tail.

“That must be Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo got out looking back at her two friends when she suddenly collided with something or somepony hard.

The waiter not seeing the little pegasus tripped over her and let out a loud yelp as the tray filled with flaming soufflé that he was carrying on his back flew off and landed on one of the hanging curtains causing it to burst into flame.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack were interrupted by a loud shriek of terror. They both turned and saw the now blazing curtain start to spread out to the other hanging curtains.

Rainbow Dash immediately sprang into action and flew as fast as she could over to the fountain and started flying around it in a circle faster and faster, creating a small cyclone of water around her. Maxwell quickly galloped over and directed the water cyclone towards the burning curtains.

Rainbow Dash caused the water cyclone to shoot out and extinguish most of the flames, while Applejack galloped over and tore down the rest of the burning material and started stomping it out until it was all extinguished.

“What in tarnation happened?” Applejack asked as she looked over at a very angry looking unicorn holding up the three fillies in his magic.

“These three little hooligans tripped our waiter and caused him to throw the flaming soufflé onto the curtain. Now the restaurant is ruined.” He said with hot angry venom soaked in every word.

Rainbow Dash flew over and landed next to Applejack and gave the three fillies a very stern look. “What are you three doing here?”

The unicorn let the three down glared at the two mares. “SO your responsible, I should have you five thrown out at once!” The unicorn yelled.

“ENOUGH!” Maxwell snapped as he trotted in between the three fillies and the unicorn. “This is my restaurant, and I will not have you insulting my guests.” Maxwell finished with a stamp of his large hoof causing the ground to shake.

The unicorn host, backed away suddenly and before Maxwell could say another word the unicorn galloped away in fright.

“I am sorry for his outburst it won’t happen again.” Maxwell apologized with a low bow of his head.

“It’s fine, but you three never answered Rainbow’s question.” Applejack said as her and Rainbow Dash’s gazes went between all three of them until it eventually landed on Scootaloo.

Scootaloo looked up at the two mares she loved; turning from one to the other she summoned up the last of her will, and broke. Scootaloo broke down and started crying, “I’m sorry I just wanted you to have the best first date ever. I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.” Scootaloo choked out between sobs.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack quickly scooped up Scootaloo and gave her a comforting hug both of them cooing softly in each ear trying to calm her down. After a few long minutes Scootaloo finally calmed down and looked up at the two mares.

“So are we in trouble?”

“You better believe it.” Applejack responded with a nod. “For starters ah think you can help the nice people here clean up, if that’s all right with you?”

“That sounds like a good plan to me.” Maxwell said with a smile and a nod.

Back at Sweet Apple Acres

It had taken almost a full hour of work before the restaurant was clean again. The fire hadn’t caused any serious damage and Maxwell had even offered to give Rainbow Dash and Applejack a free meal there when it reopened. The two mares graciously accepted, and took the fillies back to Rarity’s where they were officially grounded for the next two weeks, before Applejack and Rainbow Dash took the other two small fillies home.

“I still can’t believe they did that.” Rainbow Dash said as she sat next to Applejack on a hill in the apple orchard staring up at the beauty of Luna’s night.

Applejack glanced over at her marefriend and chuckled lightly. “Yah got to admit, lookin’ back it is pretty funny.”

Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a pained look before she two started to chuckle. “Alright maybe it was a little funny, but they still ruined our date.” Rainbow Dash huffed as she crossed her legs in front of herself.

“Well that may be true but ah still had fun, didn’t you?” Applejack asked as she placed a tender hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder.

Rainbow Dash sat there and thought about it for a while before she lifted her head and smiled. “Yeah I guess I did.”

“And ah might be new to this whole datin’ thing, but ah think that that’s what’s important.”

“I guess you’re right,” Rainbow Dash said as she gave Applejack an affectionate nuzzle. “Hey see, what did I tell you? Even when our dates get screwed up there still awesome.” Rainbow Dash said her usual brash nature flaring out.

Applejack shook her head, before she leaned in and gave Rainbow Dash a quick kiss on the cheek. “Well it’s gettin’ late and ah need to get up early tomorrow, see yah in the mornin’ Dashie.” Applejack said as she sauntered off, giving Rainbow Dash a playful flick on the nose with her tail.

“Yeah good night Applejack,” Rainbow Dash said as she grinned widely after Applejack, before she too went up to her cloud house and went to bed.

Comments

[Willsons]

Hey see, what did I till you? I think you ment tell not till

[Silver_Lined_Sky]

Just reading through, stopping for a second after chapter 3 to wonder why everyone asks what Scootaloo is doing crying in a graveyard by herself...

That, and why the pacing feels rushed, but everyone else already points that out. Sure, AppleDash is probably a little faster paced than most ships, but not quite that fast.

[Zenaron]

2660080 I did indeed, thank you for noticing.

[Grey Warden]

how come applejack and rainbow didnt go mad when they ate the super spicy soup? also i think it may need some separations from aj/rb and the cmc.

[Zenaron]

2660222 There more used to spicy things, based off of the crazy stuff Pinkie Pie probably makes them eat.

[Willsons]

2660169 That's okay glad to be able to help.

[Cold Spike]

MOAR!

[Michael_Ravencroft]

First Date was a minor success, but I can't help but think...
memeorama.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/there-be-a-shit-storm-a-brewin.jpg

[Zenaron]

2690221
Hey you never know with these kind of things do you.

[Michael_Ravencroft]

2690977 True, very true.

[Basic Runner27]

i knew it i told ya'll they would mess it up