Earth and Sky

by Metal Pony Fan

One more time

Side story is up! Find out what Applejack and Applebloom are doing in Appleoosa, why Granny Smith came home early, and

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/59492/Applejack-and-Applebloom-in-Appleoosa

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"Macintosh."

"Eeyup." Who is it?

"Macintosh!"

"Eeyup?" Go away, I'm tryin' to sleep.

"BIG MACINTOSH APPLE, YOU GIT YER LAZY FLANK UP AN' AT'EM RIGHT THIS MINUTE OR YER GONNA BE SLEEPIN' IN THE BARN FER AS LONG AS AH'M AROUND TA MAKE YA!"

"Granny!" I got to my feet as- Whoa, too fast. I plopped to a sitting position as a wave of light-headedness washed over me. As it started to subside, I noticed that the sky was starting to take on a pinkish tint. Sunset? "Ugh, what time is it? We were in the middle of breakfast, what happened?"

I received a solid whack on the head from some sort of hard object. "Ya slept all day, ya bum! That's what happened!" Granny was gesturing at me with a hoof. Hanging from that hoof was a shopping bag. "As fer the time, ya got eyes, don't ya? Use'em! Sun's settin', that mean's it's late!"

"THUNK!!"

Granny whacked me with the shopping bag. What's in that thing? "Ya don't have to hit me." I rubbed my head and looked around. "Where's Rainbow?"

"WHACK!!" Cut that out, Granny! It hurts.

She dropped the bag in front of me. "Yer filly-friend went and did yer chores fer ya." She softened her voice when she started talking again. "Big Macintosh Apple, ya hold on ta her, ya hear? She's a bloomin' stubborn little thing an' a fair bit of a show-off, but that gal's got her heart in the right place." She nudged the bag before walking over to the door. "When ya give that to 'er, tell'er Ah ain't gonna pester her no more." She opened the door and walked into the house. Once she was inside, she turned around. "But you ain't off the hook till Ah get a few more foals runnin' round around here." With that she slammed the door shut. She opened it again a few seconds later. "How many bits 'ave ye got?"

"Huh?" That's a pretty sudden change of subject, and I ain't sure I want to tell you. "Why do ya want to know?"

"We're puttin' in a pool." She slammed the door again. A pool? Why would we put in a pool? We have a pond, two creeks, and part of a lake on our property, we don't need a pool.

I stepped off the porch and started walking towards the barn. If Rainbow did all the chores, then she's probably tired and taking a nap right about now. I'm gonna have to come up with a good way to make it up to her, something she'll like, but what?

As I was thinking about it, I noticed that the plow was dumped by the side of the barn. My yoke was with it. I haven't worn it since our first trip to the spa, so Rainbow must have been using it. It's way to big for her, she must have been struggling. But it brings up a nice mental image, she probably looked cute wearing it.

When I got to the barn, it was empty, so I went back to the porch and checked the list. Rainbow had apparently scribbled over the tasks as she completed them. The very last item, digging the hole for the new apple tree, wasn't scribbled over. Oh, applesauce! That's what Granny meant about the swimming pool! Rainbow doesn't know! I ran to the side of the house where the plowing was supposed to be. One look at our new salad garden confirmed it. Oh, hayseeds, I've gotta stop her.

I knew where the tree needed to go, so I ran there as quickly as I could. I found Rainbow sprawled out next to the hole, shovel beside her. A huge pile of dirt stood a little off to the side. I was too late, she already finished. "Rainbow?" I walked over to her.

"Mac," she was breathing heavily, but she turned her head to face me with a big smile, "I did it." She sat up and swept a hoof in the direction of the hole. "Check. It. Out. Ha! It took forever, but it's done!" From her sitting position, she picked up the shovel and threw it at the pile of dirt. "Take that dirt! Who's the boss?" She pointed at herself. "Rainbow's the boss!" She threw her hooves up in the air, and with a shout of, "Whoo!" she fell back spread eagle. "I did it, Mac. Granny didn't think I could, she even came by a few hours ago and told me to stop. But I got it done!"

"Eeyup. That's great, Rainbow. Uh, did Granny happen to mention why she wanted ya to stop?" She shook her head no. "Um, Rainbow, if Ah ever need to apologize for somethin', how would ya want me to go about it?"

She waved a hoof and let it drop back to the ground. "Forget about it, it was the medication. It makes you all loopy and droopy and stuff. Besides, I liked it." She blushed a little and turned away. "We totally need to do it again some time."

What is she talking about? Does she really enjoy digging that much? "I'm serious, Rainbow." Though, the medicine would explain why I can't remember much after that slice of pie.

"So am I." She rolled over and got to her hooves. She then took a few wobbly, lurching steps towards me before dropping to the ground. "Ok, if you really want to make it up to me, you can carry me into town. My legs are killing me!"

"Eeyup." Poor Rainbow, she's so proud of the work she did, that I can't bring myself to tell her that she did too much. Ya see, Granny uses the old hoof for her measurements. The old hoof is about half the size of the standard hoof that everypony uses nowadays. Meaning, Rainbow did four times as much plowing and eight times as much digging as she needed to. I'm going to have to come up with something really nice to make it up to her, but what? I knelt down next to Rainbow so she could clamber up. Once she was up, I started heading for Ponyville. One thing was bothering me though, "Rainbow, why are we going into town?"

"Cause, if we don't get to the spa soon, we're really gonna be late!" She leaned forward and wrapped her hooves around my neck. "So you better hurry." I increased my speed from a walk to a trot as I headed for the edge of our property. It wasn't long before Rainbow let out a loud sigh. She stuck her nose right into my ear and started whispering. "Ma~ac, I'm giving you a chance to show off for your marefriend, are you just gonna let it slip by?"

"Nnope." I broke into a full-blown run. If Rainbow wants me to show off, then I'm gonna show off. "Ya might want ta hold on." I cut across the field straight towards the fence.

"Mac? What are you doing?" I angled for the tallest section of fence, one right near a group of oak trees that we never bothered to take down. As we got closer, Rainbow started to get a little frantic. "Mac, you're crazy! That fence is too high, even Applejack couldn't make that ju-" I darted right as soon as I passed the first tree, making Rainbow concentrate on keeping her grip. Then I jumped at the trunk of the nearest tree and used it to launch myself into the branches of another. Without slowing down, I started moving across the wide branches towards the fence, paying special care that none of the small branches whipping by me came anywhere close to Rainbow.

Once I reached the last of the branches, I vaulted forward, clearing the fence and coming to a scraping halt once I landed on the road beyond. I tossed my head back so I could look at the pretty little pegasus hangin' on to me. "How's that fer showin' off, marefriend?" I can't believe she called herself that, but I ain't complainin'.

She shook her head. For a moment, I thought I saw a look of surprise, but it was quickly replaced by a look of contemplation, as if she were judging my performance. "Hmm." She put a hoof to her chin. "Not bad actually." She started tapping her hoof, stopping after a few seconds. "All right, after much deliberation, I declare what you just did to be awesome and a successful example of showing off. And now, for your reward." She leaned forward and planted a tiny kiss on my cheek, no more than a quick peck, but more than enough. "Ya know what? I think I'm getting the hang of this romance stuff."

"Eeyup," I said with a smile, "ya sure are."

"Uh, Mac?"

"Eeyup?"

"Can you take the rest of the walk a little slower? I'm not quite used to moving unless its by my own power."

"Eeyup." The rest of the walk, or rather, trot, since Rainbow insisted that we speed up a little, was pleasant. The evening air was cool and slightly breezy. Being just about sunset, few ponies were out and about, but those that were tried to sneak glances our way. The general atmosphere was one of surprise, but that could be because most ponies don't generally walk around carrying another pony on their back. A few of the ponies who were members of the Dojo gave me winks and a hooves up. Pinkie gave me two hooves up and an enthusiastic head nod. I'm more than a little surprised that she hasn't insisted on throwing a party for us, but for all I know, she's on her way to set one up. You never can tell with that one.

Unlike last time, when we reached the spa, we entered through the front door. Inside, Aloe and Lotus were sitting at the reception desk, reading magazines and chatting away. "Um, hello," I still can't remember which one is which, so I refrained from using names, "Rainbow and Ah were wonderin', could we use yer bath?" Hearing that out loud, it sounds really wrong somehow.

"Two baths," said one of the sisters, taking out a notepad and writing something down, "not a problem."

Rainbow started climbing off my back. "Um, actually, we uh, only need one." Rainbow sure is cute when she blushes.

Eyebrows were raised and bits changed hooves. When they were done, the one on the receiving end of the exchange trotted off to the back with a smile on her face. The other one let out an exasperated sigh as she turned to face us. "You know where it is. But please, do not use the entire tube of pink this time, it is expensive and you only need a few drops."

"Right, sorry." They know! Who else figured it out?

She reached under the desk, pulled out a fairly large box, and set it on the desk. "Miss Rarity dropped this off for you earlier. She said you would show up covered in dirt and that you are not to open this until you get cleaned up. Oh, and she also insisted that your visit be put on her account."

"That was nice a' her." I don't know how she knew we'd be here, but I'm gonna have to pay her back somehow.

Aloe, or Lotus, I'm not really sure, went back to reading her magazine, leaving Rainbow and I to show ourselves to the bath. I took the box with me and set it on the robe stand when we entered the familiar room. There was a small alarm clock on the stand as well. It was probably there last time and I didn't see it. "Rainbow?"

"Yeah?" She looked up from where she was poking one of the floating plants.

"Ya said we'd be late," I held up the alarm clock, "should ah set this?"

"Oh, yeah." She put her dripping hoof to her chin and jumped when she noticed. "Um, eight-ten should be good."

I set the clock and put it back on the stand. "Do ya need help with yer bandage?"

"No." She walked over and sat in front of me. "But if you want to, that'd be ok." I hesitated for a moment, if she doesn't need help, then- "Oh, come on. You already grabbed my cutie mark, don't chicken out over touching my back."

I did what?! "When did Ah do that?"

"After breakfast, remember?"

"Ah think Ah'd remember somethin' like that!"

She suddenly looked disappointed. "Does that mean you don't remember our first kiss?"

I would never forget that! "Of course Ah remember, we were headed out to do the chores, that first day, ya leaned up and kissed me, and Ah kissed ya back. I would never forget that."

"You don't remember it." She looked sad for a moment, but then looked up with a wistful smile.
She moved over to me and put her hooves around my face. What is she doing? "I won't be showering you with compliments though." Wait. She's getting closer! What's she doing? Is she? Why is she doing that now?

"Rainbow, what are you-mmph" Oh, why didn't you do this sooner. I could feel my eyes rolling up into the back of my head at the gentle touch of her lips. Our first kiss. Our first real-

"BRING-RING-RING!!"

The alarm went off and Rainbow jumped back. One minute, she's kissing me, the next, she's not. She didn't even finish the kiss! How is that supposed to work? Do you even finish a kiss, or do they just end? And I was enjoying that! Even though it was a little sudden. But I don't care! She kissed me!

Playing a hunch, I checked the alarm clock. It read, "7:10." Oops. I reset it for, "8:10." A silly little mistake, but it ruined a really nice moment.

When I turned back towards Rainbow, she smiled at me. "That," she placed her hoof on my nose, "that was your last first kiss." She lifted it and gave me a solid poke. "I hope you enjoyed it."

I couldn't help but smile. "Ah enjoyed it, don't ya worry none about that. But, last first kiss? What does that even mean?"

"Just something I heard in a song somewhere." She pointed to her bandage. "Now get this thing off, would you?" I couldn't undo the knot where the bandage was connected with my hooves, so I leaned in and yanked it free with my teeth. As soon as she was free from the restraining white cloth, she stretched out like a cat and unfurled her wings with a groan. "Finally!" She gave the wings a few experimental flaps, wincing slightly. I felt the breeze they caused, but she stayed on the ground, "I can't wait to get flying again."

She looks so happy. "Ah can't wait to see ya flyin' again."

"It will definitely make the farm work easier. Come on!" She grabbed a little poofy thing from a little tray of soaps then jumped in the water with a splash. She went under for a second but quickly surfaced with gasp. "Sheesh, that's hot! Hoo! What's the temperature on this thing?"

I grabbed a little more substantial sponge and what I hope is shampoo before going in the water a little slower. As I did, I noticed that the water was significantly warmer than it was last time. Not unpleasantly so, but it was a little unexpected. I waded a little towards Rainbow, letting the shampoo bottle float along as it may. "What about your weather work? Ya don't have to help out on the farm. Not that Ah don't appreciate it, it's just, well, Ah can handle it and Ah don't want ya to feel like ya ha-"

"Mac, stop for minute." Rainbow paddled over to me and came to a stop floating in front of me. Why is this bath so deep? Her hooves barely touch the bottom. " Ok, I want you to think for a moment,have you ever actually seen anypony clearing the clouds?"

"Nnope." Come to think of it, the only time I've seen anypony doing weather work is during winter wrap-up.

"Right!" She paddled around me in a lazy circle and made her way to an underwater ledge where she could sit comfortably with her head above the water. "That's cause, once we get the order, it takes an average team about 20 minutes to clear a region, mine takes about 5." I retrieved the shampoo and made my way over to the ledge, sitting beside her. This is interesting, I never really knew how the weather control teams operated. "Usually we do a smaller area like the sky over Ponyville, I can do that myself in 10 seconds flat. The last time we cleared the entire region was almost a year ago. That was also the first I ever-" her eyes went wide and she stared off into the distance, "flew in on-" she buried her face in her hooves, "two pegasus sharing a cloud." She let out a rather pathetic moan.

"Uh, Rainbow?" I put a hoof on her shoulder. Through the wet fur, I could easily feel the muscles beneath. Wow, she's solid. "You all right?"

She threw her head back. "AAUGH!!! That was Pete and Fluttershy! I thought he looked familiar!"

I'm not following. "Rainbow? What's wrong with sharing a cloud?"

She leveled her gaze at me. "Are you really that dense?" Why is she so upset about this? She put a hoof to her forehead and started shaking her head slowly. "Sorry, Mac. You're not a pegasus, so you wouldn't know." She took a deep breath before continuing. "For pegasi, sharing a cloud means the same thing as sharing a bed."

So? "We share a bed."

Her face turned bright red. "I-in the way, um, we weren't going to talk about for a year."

"Oh." I think it's time for a subject change. "Well, let's get cleaned up then. We don't want ta be late." She turned a little brighter red. I must have said the wrong thing. "Um, what exactly do we not want ta be late for?"

"Meeting Pete and Fluttershy at eight-thirty near town hall."

"Oh." So much for a subject change. Ok, I can do this, I just have to make small talk without mentioning the weather to the one pony who's life revolves around weather more than mine. I mean, come on! She lives in a cloud! What is that like, anyway? I can't ask about it though, I have to steer the conversation away from clouds and towards something else. Something like the ground, or the farm. That's it! I'll just ask her something about the farm! "So, how do ya like stayin' at the farm?"

"It's nice." She used a hoof to scrape some dirt off her leg. "The mattress was a little hard."

"Eeyup." It was pretty uncomfortable, but a little better than sleeping on the ground. Ok, subject change successful. Now, I just have to keep the conversation going. "The guest bed's a lot softer."

"Yeah." She pulled one of her wings in front of her and started to use the poof to carefully remove the dirt from her feathers. It seems like she's starting to loosen up. "But Granny won't let us in the house."

"Only till AJ gets back." Just keep the conversation going. "Ya can use the guest room then."

"But I'll be flying again tomorrow." Apparently satisfied with her cleaning of the wing, she let it fold up to her side and pulled out the other one to start cleaning it. "I'll be able to get home." She suddenly stopped and looked at me. "M-Mac! Are you asking me to move in with you?"

What?! I hurriedly went over the conversation in my head. Oh. I guess it did sound that way, didn't it? There's only one thing I can do now. "Rainbow, will you move in with me?"

"Yes."

"Ah understand if ya won't, and Ah don't blame ya. It's far too early and anypony would-" I blinked. "Did ya say yes?" She answered by letting her head nod up and down. "Why? Uh, Ah mean, um, Ah don't know what Ah mean. Ah'm just a might bit surprised is all."

"Yeah," she shrugged, "I don't know." She absent-mindedly went back to cleaning her wing. "I want to go home, but I think I could learn to call Sweet Apple Acres home."

"What about yer cloud house?"

She looked up. "It's just so, empty," she looked over at me, "ya know? I mean, when I built it, I made it huge cause that's how I do everything, but it's a lot of nothing. It's all cloud, so when I'm in my house, it's just a reminder that I could be in the sky instead, a reminder that I can be surrounded by life and freedom instead of walls. That's
why I always sleep on clouds or in trees." She scratched the back of her neck then turned so she was facing away from me. "Get my back, will you?"

"Ah, uh-" She wants me to help her wash? "Ya sure?"

"Not really," she looked back with a smile, "but it's ok."

"If yer sure." I put some shampoo on the sponge and started scrubbing the dirt off her back. "Ya sure are dirty."

"Dirt tends to be pretty dirty. You're a farmer, you oughtta know that." She looked forward with a laugh. "The farm feels alive, Mac. It's just so, I don't know, there. Does that makes any sense."

"Ah'd say it makes plenty." I finished with her back, so I poured a little shampoo over her mane and started rubbing it in. "There's just somethin' about lookin' over the fields that makes ya want to take a deep breath."

"It's exactly how I feel before I jump off a cloud. Standing on the edge and staring at the open sky, there's this strange calm."

"Then ya jump in and yer heart starts racing as yer mind tries to keep up, but ya move with yer instincts instead." I finished shampooing her mane, all that's left is for her to rinse. "That's how I feel durin' tournaments sometimes."

She took a deep breath and dunked her head, shaking back and forth under the water to get the shampoo out. When she lifted her head out of the water, she tossed her mane out of her eyes and leaned back into my chest. "Thanks Mac."

"Rainbow?" I took the little poof and used it to remove the last bits of dirt from her face and forelegs.

Rainbow sat still as I worked. "Yeah?"

"Applejack comes back tomorrow, do you want to tell her, or should Ah?"

"I'll do it, I'll meet her at the train station."

"What'll ya tell her?"

"The truth, I think I owe her that much. Besides, I don't see any reason not to."

"Eeyup."

After a few moments of silence, she tilted her head back to look at me. "Say, Mac?"

"What is it, Rainbow?"

"Um, that was kind of nice earlier, do you think, maybe we could, um, try that again? If you don't mi-"

I leaned down and cut her off with a quick kiss. "Ah'll never mind."

A slight blush graced her features as she smiled up at me. "Then could we do that again?"

I leaned down again and she leaned into the kiss. We didn't hold it long, but we still had to catch our breaths afterwards. "We can do that as much as ya want."

She leaned up for another kiss. Our lips were nearly touching when she spoke. "Then maybe another?"

"Ah love ya Rainbow." I closed the short distance between us and we sat there, lost in the moment and each other.

It was Rainbow who broke the kiss this time. She took a moment to get her breathing under control. "I love you too." She let herself sink into me and I wrapped my hooves around her, enjoying the moment. I don't know how long we sat there, but it was Rainbow who broke the silence. "Hey, Mac?"

"Yeah, Rainbow?"

"One more time."

Comments

[Mayojar77]

(Punches the air) UPDATE! W00T!

[Metal Pony Fan]

1572258

Are you referring to floating quotes or to the sections of accented "dialogue " completely outside of quotes? Because I slip the character's thoughts into accent for lines that seem especially in character for them. I will try to fix any mistakes though, in order to make it a smoother read. It's just a little difficult on this old phone. (This site runs a little slow.) If you could point out anything specific, that would be helpful.

Thanks for reading!

[NowhereBlackout]

UPDATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rainbow87dash]

But, last first kiss?  What does that even mean?"

RD listens to one direction?

[youtube=Hzcv83OISWw]

[The-voice-of-the-dragon]

Hey just so you know I'm batman

[SFaccountant]

Pft. A year from now? At the rate they're going, Dash will be pregnant by the end of the month.
I feel like she's unconsciously trying to race Fluttershy. Pete moved in after a week? Well RD moved in after a few days!

Speaking of Pete, after the chapter where Rainbow noticed that Flutters owns a copy of "Earth and Sky", I had it in my head that Pete was an earth pony. Then this chapter mentioned sharing a cloud, which wouldn't be very safe for an earth pony, and I had to go back to check that he was, in fact a pegasus.
Hmmm... so I guess Fluttershy just collects books like that. Such a dirty filly!

[Flint Easthoof]

1984466 I was thinking more like Darius Rucker's "History in the Making".

[LurkingToRead]

"Eeyup." Poor Rainbow, she's so proud of the work she did, that I can't bring myself to tell her that she did too much. Ya see, Granny uses the old hoof for her measurements. The old hoof is about half the size of the standard hoof that everypony uses nowadays. Meaning, Rainbow did four times as much plowing and eight times as much digging as she needed to. I'm going to have to come up with something really nice to make it up to her, but what? I knelt down next to Rainbow so she could clamber up. Once she was up, I started heading for Ponyville. One thing was bothering me though, "Rainbow, why are we going into town?"

Nice dimensional analysis, Mac!