Auntie Tia's Matchmaking Service

by Shaslan

Chapter 25

Zap Apple banked hard into a tight spiral and cut down towards the cloudbank below. He could barely see the farm. The cloud cover today was unusually thick for midsummer. A frown crossed his face. His parents shouldn’t have let it get to this stage. Thanks to his extensive briefing session with them last weekend, he was certain that they both knew full well what his plan for the day was.

At least he was doing his part. For once, he was fully on schedule.

He had gotten up far earlier than was his wont and flown straight here. As always, he was glad to leave the lonely little flat in Appleoosa and return to the warmth and bustle of the family home. And he did enjoy helping out on the farm. Even though his cutie mark was in flying, he was still proud of his apple heritage. Pretty much the only speck of colour in his bachelor pad came from the two dwarf apple trees he had bought from home.

He clipped his wings and punched down through the clouds. For a second his eyes and throat were full of the thick, moist air, his feathers slick with water droplets, and then he was bursting out the other side.

Sweet Apple Acres was covered with heavy shadow. The day was overcast and gloomy, and a steady drizzle fell from the grey clouds overhead onto the waiting leaves of the apple trees. The ground was clearly sodden; every grass stalk so laden with raindrops as to be bent almost double.

Taking in the miserable scene, Zap Apple’s throat tightened. With such bad weather omens, it was a little difficult to feel optimistic about his grand plan. He soared over the main farmhouse and darted for the little cottage.

A small orange shape was just visible on the grass outside the house, shrugging into a yoke and harness. Zap Apple dove down towards her, backwinged almost to a halt, and then coasted in to an easy landing just beside his mother. He was calling out even before he had landed. “Mum! Why haven’t you dealt with this yet?”

“Zaps, honey?” Applejack peered up at him, and her muzzle split into a smile. “Ah didn’t expect you for a few hours yet.” She paused for a second. “Dealt with what?”

Silently, Zap Apple thrust a furious hoof skywards.

Looking mildly surprised, Applejack shrugged. “Me? Ah cain’t get that high, sugarcube. You know that.” She adjusted the yoke on her neck. “Nice to see you though, shug — how was your week?”

“I didn’t mean you fix it, per se,” Zap Apple snapped. “Where’s Mum?”

“Still in bed.” Applejack shrugged. “You know your momma — wild hogs couldn’t drag her outta bed on a Saturday. Ah’ve learned to live with it.”

“I just don’t understand why all this cloud is here in the first place.”

“Been a hot month,” Applejack answered, cinching a knot in the leather harness and pulling it tight with her teeth. “Ah needed some water fer the trees, an’ Rainbow was kind enough to fetch some in.”

“But why couldn’t you have had her clear it away again…?” Zap Apple let the question tail off. It was useless, and he had too much to prepare. “Never mind. I’ll go get her.”

“Good luck, Zaps, honey,” Applejack drawled as he trotted away, spreading his wings again. “She won’t show her tail outside those doors for another three hours at least.”

Skipping using the door in favour of windows was usually Rainbow’s trick, but Zap Apple didn’t have time to hang around. In a streak of rainbow-red, Zap shot to his mothers’ bedroom window and pounded on the glass.

“Mum! Are you in there? Come on!”

There was a groan, and the window pane creaked open. Rainbow Dash peered blearily from within, her mane mussed and sleep-tangled. “Jeez, kiddo, what time is it?”

“Nearly seven, and I told you that I needed you up and cloud bucking well before I arrived.” He groaned and pushed a hoof into his forehead.

“Aw, come on,” Rainbow wheedled. “Your mum and I were having a lazy morning in bed. Cuddles are good for the soul, Zaps.”

Snorting, Zap Apple pointed down at the diminishing figure of Applejack, rounding a distant bend on the farm track, her cart in tow. “She’s already gone, Mum.”

Rainbow Dash cast a sleepy look over her shoulder. “Isn’t she still in bed? Huh. Guess not.” She shrugged. “No clue, then. Think she said something about pruning over in the southwest field, maybe.”

Grinding his teeth, Zap Apple reached in through the window frame and grabbed his mother by the hoof. “Come on, out you go.”

“Wait, wha—?” But Rainbow’s protestations came too late, and she was perfunctorily hauled out of the window. Grumpily, she began to flap. “Celestia’s wingfeathers, Zaps, what’s got you in such a bad mood today? You look like the ass-end of a stormcloud.”

Zap Apple folded his forelegs. “No, you know what looks like the ass-end of a stormcloud, Mum? Sweet Apple Acres. I told you I needed the sky clear and sunny today. I sent you a whole letter about it.”

Rainbow Dash stared at him blankly. She shrugged.

Throwing his hooves in the air, Zap Apple twisted violently away from her. “For Luna’s sake, you never listen! Today’s my big date with Dust Devil.”

At once, Rainbow’s eyes widened in a flash of understanding. “Oh, bucking buckballs! It can’t be Saturday already?”

Clenching his eyes shut, Zap Apple pressed his hooves to his eyes. “You didn’t even know what day it was?”

Spreading her hooves sheepishly, Rainbow offered an apologetic smile. “I pulled an all-nighter grading those papers on Monday, and then I had to fly them back over to the Academy. I slept for like seventeen hours and my schedule’s been kinda whack since then. Especially since your mum woke me up to herd all these rainclouds in yesterday…or was it the day before?”

For what felt like the sixtieth time that morning, Zap Apple could only shut his eyes and groan. “Oh, for the love of Luna…what day did you think it was?”

“Dunno. Thursday, maybe?”

Zaps hung his head. That was it. It was over, before it had even begun. They would never manage to clear the sky in time now, and Dust Devil wouldn’t even see the farm for the stormclouds. She would follow the map he’d sent and fly right over it. And on the slim chance that she did manage to find him, they’d spend a miserable couple of hours drenched by the rain and then she would give up and go home.

At once, Rainbow’s tone changed from nonplussed to concerned. “Hey, now, it’s okay.”

“No it isn’t.” He pushed her conciliatory hoof away, and slowly flapped his way down to ground level. “There’s no way the two of us can clear all this in just a couple of hours.”

A grin spread across Rainbow’s face as she circled down after him. “Kiddo, a lot of ponies have said that to me — including a nerdy little purple unicorn, the first time I met her. I’ll tell you the same thing I said then; a few little clouds are not a problem for Rainbow Dash. I’ll clear these out for you in half an hour tops. And I’ll do it solo, too.”

Zap Apple looked up at her, rainwater running down his face like tears. “You’re sure you can do it?”

“As your mum would say, sure as apples is apples.” Rainbow puffed her chest out like a cadet undergoing inspection. “You can count on me.”

“Ugh…fine,” Zap Apple conceded, shaking the water from his mane. “But I still think it would have been easier if you’d gotten up early to do it like I asked.”

Airily, Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. “Early, schmearly. If I’d done that I would have just had to do it all over again a couple of hours later.”

“Whatever.” Despite his dismissive words, Zap Apple was smiling again. A little bit. “I’m going to go after Mum and help her with the food prep.”

“Sounds good.” Rainbow was already fixing her gaze on the clouds, her wings obviously itching to get up there and start bucking them into oblivion. “What’ll you feed Dust Devil?”

“Apple fritters, I was thinking?” Zap Apple said, uncertain again. “They’re kinda my specialty in Appleoosa. Butterball from the squadron swears they’re the best thing he’s ever tasted.”

Clapping a hoof on his shoulder, Rainbow beamed proudly up at him. “That’s my boy. You’ll do great.”

His mother’s words buoyed him up onto his hooves. “Right. Yeah.” He took a few hesitant steps, then broke into a trot, and leapt aloft. “Good luck with the clouds!”

“Like I need luck!” Rainbow bawled after him. “Go get ‘em, tiger!”

Skimming low over the treetops, flapping hard enough that the wind of his passage sent leaves spiralling in all directions, Zap Apple raced after his mother. This date had been weeks in the planning. He had scheduled out the day with precision that did not come naturally to him, but he wasn’t about to let it be thrown off now.

He had three hours to bake his fritters and put together a picnic, with Applejack’s help. The picnic had to go off perfectly. The sort of date that didn’t just go smoothly, but the sort that went perfectly enough to heal previous cracks, and show him to be the ideal stallion that he knew he could be. If…if you looked at him in just the right light, at least.

This picnic had to create that metaphorical light. He needed to show Dust Devil his roots, his heart. He just needed her to understand him a little better; to know that he wasn’t some wishy-washy kid with no idea what he was doing. He was a strong pony, rooted in good soil.

After he had broken off from Princess Celestia’s service and made the gut-wrenching decision to get back in touch with Dust Devil, it had been Applejack’s idea to suggest a second date here on the farm.

“She prob’ly has some crazy view of you as some high-flyin’ wild boy, right?” she had said, as the two of them gathered up some windfall apples, with Rainbow sprawled in a tree overhead.

Zap Apple had hung his head. “That’s what she said.”

“Well, show her that ain’t the case. That there’s more to my boy than just his dashin’ good looks and killer smile.” She chucked him under the chin and Rainbow had laughed.

“More to me?” Zap Apple had asked, disconsolately. “Like what?”

Applejack sighed and gestured impatiently to the orchard around them. “Like this, Shug! Like your family, your history. She’s real interested in havin’ foals, right? Bring her to meet Apple Tart an’ Orange Peel, an’ the conversation will naturally turn to havin’ foals. Tell her about how you might like one o’ your own someday, or how excited you are to be an uncle — that part’ll be true, if nothin’ else.”

It had been a good plan, a solid plan. Dust Devil had liked him — for the first several hours of their date, at least. Their connection had been like nothing he’d ever experienced. Flying with her, the sight of her golden eyes in the sunlight, their wingtips almost but not quite touching; it had been electric. She must have felt it too. All he had to do was remind her of it. Bring back the things her heart had felt before her head cut them short.

And this date — close to his family, close to his home — would hopefully do exactly that. He didn’t know yet where he stood on the whole foals question, but hopefully Applejack’s plan would allow him to promise Dust Devil things with enough truth in them that she would trust him, and continue a little further on their journey together.

In a gap between the trees, he caught sight of Applejack, clearly post-applebucking, as she scooped up apples one at a time from where they had fallen. He banked and swooped down to meet her.

“Mum, we need to get back to the kitchen and get cooking. Can’t the farm wait a day?”

Applejack waved him off. “Ah’m gettin’ fresh fruit for your picnic, you great worrywart!”

Relieved, Zap Apple landed beside his mother and helped her hitch her cart back onto her harness. Overhead, the first ray of sun burst through the cloud as Rainbow Dash set to work.

Comments

[Immortalmagi]

After Luna said Zap Apple wasn't thinking of Leaftail, it makes sense that he's trying another date with Dust Devil. His last one seemed to go really well, except for her expected life plans. I hope this one goes well for them both (if Rainbow Dash clears up the rain as promised, but she can totally do that in 3 hours!).

[Boltstrike58]

“Wait, wha—?” But Rainbow’s protestations came too late, and she was perfunctorily hauled out of the window. Grumpily, she began to flap. “Celestia’s wingfeathers, Zaps, what’s got you in such a bad mood today? You look like the ass-end of a stormcloud.”

Wait, which end is the ass?

[MoonlightRift]

10565861
Yes.