What Would Daring Do?

by CommissarAJ

First published 16th of February, 2012

There are two types of ponies; those that read love stories and those who write their own...

There are two types of ponies in the world; those that read love stories...and those that write their own.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack have been friends for years. But after a seemingly harmless game in the orchard awakens Rainbow Dash's deeper feelings for her friend Applejack, she is determined to ensure that her friend has a special somepony for Hearts and Hooves Day. But what will Dash do when that pony isn't her? Can she stand on the sidelines and watch her friend find happiness without her? Can Dash find the answers she needs in the latest tale of Daring Do?

Cover image credit goes to RainbowDerp98

And be sure to check out the sequel, Where Would Rainbow Dash?

Ch. 1 - Read Before Opening

Rainbow Dash felt her heart tighten in her chest; never before had she experienced such a paralyzing mixture of excitement and trepidation. Her eyes remained fixated on the earth pony standing before her, her gaze flickering between the emerald orbs staring back and the loose strands of dampened mane clinging to the mare’s face. A parched throat and flayed nerves kept the pegasus from finding her voice and when she tried to force something open, a hoof promptly reached out and kept her silent.

“Hush, Dash,” the pony whispered. “Ah know what you’re gonna say and it ain’t needed. Ah know how you feel and Ah know how long you’ve felt that way.” Despite a growing voice in the back of her mind telling her to speak up and defend herself, Dash could still find no words in her lungs. It was as though another force was in control of her body and kept her pinned to her bed. Her heartbeat quickened as Applejack crawled onto the bed next to her, her gaze never once breaking away from the pegasus’. “Truth is, Ah’ve felt the same way for a long time too, but Ah was so fixated on finding what Ah thought was what right for me that Ah didn’t notice that what was best for me had been standing by me all along.”

The young farmer rested her head against her friend’s shoulder, which was enough to finally calm the pegasus’ nerves. As her muscles eased and her heartbeat softened, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but return the gesture in kind, resting her head atop of Applejack’s. Though she still yearned to find the right words, that need subsided, blown away by the gentle breaths against her neck.

This couldn’t be real, the pegasus thought, this had to be just a dream.

“Dash?” the earth pony quipped with an inquisitive glance upwards. “Dash?” she repeated.

“Dash!” Applejack shouted but to no avail. Though ultimately futile, the farmer bellowed out her friend’s name once more, only to hear her voice echoing through the fields of apple trees. She knew the pegasus was sleeping somewhere in her orchard as was routine for her mid-day, post-lunch nap. But Applejack’s attempts to locate the pegasus had gone unsuccessful for the past hour. Her voice was almost strained from all the shouting, but she knew if she didn’t find the pegasus soon, Rainbow Dash would be off for her post-nap flight routine; and then Applejack might as well send her a postcard than try to find her on foot.

Grumbling her frustrations in regards to slumbering pegasus, Applejack continued her trek through the orchards. The farmer had been under no illusion that tracking down her friend would be an easy task but she hadn’t anticipated it taking this long. Realizing that finding Dash was becoming more of a matter of luck than skill, Applejack decided to head for higher ground in the hopes that a better vantage point would yield better results. Stubbornness refused to allow Applejack to give up the search, regardless of how futile it seemed.

“Ah swear, when Ah find that pegasus, Ah’m gonna string her up by her fetlocks and―” Applejack had to restrain her thoughts from becoming too vindictive; she was looking for Rainbow Dash for a reason and tying her up defeated the whole purpose of the expedition. Upon reaching the peak of one of the many hills that decorated Sweet Apple Acres, the orchard farmer cast her gaze across all the trees before her. Somewhere in that wide sea of green and reds was the pegasus she sought. After a few minutes of searching, she finally spotted a tuft of rainbow-coloured hair dangling from one of the trees. “Ah have you now Dash.”

After a short spring through the orchard, Applejack finally stood below her quarry. As expected, the pegasus was fast asleep in the tree but not for much longer if she had anything to do about it. “Dash?” Applejack called out, her voice still strained from earlier shouting. “Dash!”

Nothing.

Deciding that she had fulfilled her ‘politeness’ quota for the day, Applejack took the more direct approach and simply gave the tree a mighty kick. Along with several red galas came the rainbow-maned pegasus, crashing into the earth with a startled yelp.

“Afternoon, sleepy-head,” the cheeky farmer greeted with a coy smirk plastered across her face. “Fancy, you dropping in like that.”

Unsurprisingly, Rainbow Dash wasn’t too pleased with the method in which her friend had roused her from her nap. “Now why’d you have to go and do that?” Dash groaned before letting out a prolonged yawn. “And I was having such a nice dream too.”

“Heh, the one with you, Spitfire, Soarin’, and the pool full of jelly?”

Dash had to suppress a rising fluster as she got back to her feet. “What? N-no, not that one. Actually, now that I think about it, you were in my dream.” Unfortunately, like most good dreams, Dash couldn’t recall much of the details; the only things that came to mind were Applejack and a warm, flushed feeling she had before being so rudely awoken.

“Please tell me there wasn’t no jelly involved,” Applejack replied sardonically. Dash replied only with a playful chuckle and a matching grin that was clearly aimed at testing Applejack’s nerves. The earth pony eventually let out a chortle of her own; her mind was now flooded with the image of her and Dash wrestling in a giant tub of jelly. Truth be told, that notion sounded like a lot of fun to Applejack. She made a mental note to bring it up the next time the mayor began planning for a festival. She bet she could beat Rainbow Dash easily in a match. If she could handle wild bulls, what hope did a lazy pegasus have? “Okay, enough funny business,” Applejack announced once she got her laughter under control. “Ah’ve got a job to do and Ah could really use some help with it. Ya up for it?”

“Pfft, me working? Pah-lease!” scoffed the lackadaisical pegasus with a roll of her eyes. Why did Applejack always have to go to her when it came to doing work? The most ego-satisfying answer was that it because Dash was the only other strong and athletic pony in their circle of friends, but the more likely answer that she was ignoring, though, was the simple fact that Dash was always the closest one available. Perhaps it was time to reconsider changing her sleeping habits, as she was clearly becoming too predictable.

“Must we go through this every time?” the orchard farmer asked, knowing full well it would be rhetorical.

“That’s because every time you just want me to go and do work for you! You never want to go and get cider or something. It’s always work with you!”

“Ah promise you, this won’t be like the other times. It’ll be fun!”

“This coming from the pony who thinks catching soggy apples in a bucket is fun.” Rainbow Dash clearly would have nothing more with the proposition. Knowing that her friend couldn’t bug her if she simply flew high enough, the pegasus took to the air. However, her ascent was short-lived as she felt a sudden tightness around her hips and a weight keeping her from climbing any higher. “Applejack,” she shouted in protest when she noticed the length of rope that had lassoed her, “this is so not cool!”

“Ah ain’t takin’ no for an answer,” Applejack replied through gritted teeth. This hadn’t been the first time the pegasus tried to make a run, or flight, for it and the farmer had come fully prepared for such an event. Using her hooves and her teeth, Applejack began to slowly reel the pegasus in.

Rather than continuing to protest her new situation, Rainbow Dash decided to have a little fun with her friend. “Okay rodeo-pony, let’s see how you enjoy this bull-ride!” Dash announced before a mighty sweep of her wings rocketed her forward. There was only enough time for Applejack to anchor her hat down before being swept up along for the ride.

The rodeo-pony skipped and bounced across the grass as Rainbow Dash flew through the orchard. Now that the gauntlet had been tossed, there was no way that Applejack was going to let her friend get the better of her. After quickly regaining her footing, she dug both hooves into the soil in an attempt to slow the pegasus. Alas, all that she ultimately accomplished was leaving two long paths of turned-up soil in her wake.

“What’s the matter, Applejack? Losing your grip?” Rainbow Dash taunted as she took a sharp turn to the left.

“Oh crabapples!” she mentally cursed when she saw the pegasus change course. As momentum would throw her headlong into the trees ahead, Applejack knew she had only one chance to time her jump. When she began to skid towards an oncoming tree, the earth pony leapt into the air, twisting her body so that she was able to then spring off the tree trunk. The manoeuvre allowed her to land on all fours and immediately drive them into the earth in renewed attempt to slow her quarry down. “It’s going to take more than that to buck this pony.”

Knowing that sheer brute force wasn’t going to beat her friend, Applejack decided to try a new tactic. Digging her hooves in harder on her left side and tugging on the rope to that side, she was able to gradually veer Rainbow Dash sideways. The pegasus was high enough that she was in no danger of hitting the trees but, as Applejack had planned, the rope was bisected by a thick branch. Her momentum turned the rope and branch into an impromptu pulley and Rainbow Dash was abruptly snapped to a halt.

However, as with many of Applejack’s spur-of-the-moment plans, things went well for the first few seconds and then careened out of control. With the rope taut, the two ponies at each end were slung towards one another by the momentum, ending their rodeo with an unceremonious crash.

When the dust settled, the two ponies lay in a heap of tangled limbs, rope, and dislodged apples. Rainbow Dash, who lay atop of her friend’s back, was the first to regain her senses. She cast a glance over to her friend, who was still face-down in the grass with her head twisted slightly in Dash’s direction. Their eyes met briefly, followed by sheepish grins and nervous chuckles. But the laughter proved infectious and soon the two mares were rolling on the orchards grounds, consumed by cheery, uncontrollable laughter.

“Well, Ah got’cha,” Applejack managed to tease between bouts of laughter.

“Yeah, well I’ve got your hat,” the pegasus replied. She quickly snatched the hat off the farmer’s head and tossed it atop her rainbow crown. A triumphant grin crossed her face immediately afterwards.

Looking as horrified as Rarity caught in a downpour, Applejack desperately tried to reach for her hat. But Rainbow Dash quickly pulled away from her, hovering a few feet above her with a taunting grin.

“Dang it Dash, give that back! Ah ain’t got time for more of yer games!”

“Tell you what – if you can get your hat back, I’ll help you with your work.” Despite making the proposal, the last thing Dash had expected was for the earth pony to actually accept the challenge. After all, one would be insane to think they could chase down a pegasus on the ground. She figured that the challenge would be too much and force Applejack to negotiate for the hat’s release, thus securing Dash’s freedom from any work-related obligations. However, Dash had forgotten that there was still a rope tied around her hips, and the next thing the pegasus knew, she was being reeled back in.

Unwilling, or perhaps incapable, of doing anything half-measure, Applejack had already secured the rope around her own hips and was using a nearby tree trunk as a fulcrum to pull the pegasus in. Realizing that defeat meant one of the worst fates imaginable, working, Dash pulled with all her strength. Alas, while she might have been the fastest pegasus in the skies, in terms of raw pulling power she was no match for the entrenched orchard farmer. With each push from her powerful hind legs, Applejack slowly inched her way closer to her prized possession.

“Ah’ve...got...you...now!” she called out with each step. “Give...it...back!”

“Never!” Despite how old adages about hope might go, it was fear that gave pegasus wings.

As fear pushed the pegasus harder, Applejack struggled more with each advance. Just a few inches shy of her goal, the earth pony found herself unable to step further. So much as lifting a hoof would cause her to lose her footing and tumbling backwards. But she could not allow Dash to win, not when her hat was on the line. It was so close! The two ponies looked into each other’s eyes, strain and determination overwhelming in both and neither willing to yield another inch. Applejack knew that if she didn’t find some way to break the pegasus’ concentration, she’d never get those last few inches she needed. Desperate times called for desperate measures as the saying went.

With no other options available, Applejack simply reached out and planted her lips upon her friend’s. The embrace was short and sweet, but passionless. Yet it was still enough to shatter the pegasus’ focus, which caused her to immediately crash into the ground when the earth pony’s strength overpowered her.

“Looks like Ah win again.” Applejack let out a victorious chuckle as she plucked her hat from the defeated pegasus and set it back upon its rightful perch.

“What just happened?” The first thoughts that crossed Dash’s mind were of shock and confusion, followed shortly thereafter by a fleeting burst of indignation. “That...that wasn’t fair,” protested the pegasus; though she was more concerned with suppressing the rising fluster in face than winning any arguments.

“All’s fair in love n’ war and I love mah hat.” On the bright side, at least Applejack was a half-decent kisser, even when it wasn’t a true kiss, so Dash had a small consolation prize to find some degree of comfort in. She would have argued further but her mind became preoccupied as she couldn’t shake a strange feeling of deja vu. She remembered waking up with the same warm glow and fluttering sensation in her chest. Perhaps it was her subconscious recognizing something from her dream or maybe it was just her imagination getting the better of her. “Now a deal’s a deal - there’s work to be done, so hop to it Dash!”

“Stupid kiss.”

“You know Applejack, you could have just told me from the start that it was Twilight that needed the help, not you,” Rainbow Dash remarked, a hint of bitterness to her tone, as the two friends arrived at the Ponyville library’s front door.

“Twilight asked me for help and Ah’m asking you to help me,” her friend replied as though the technicality should have been obvious from the start. “Besides, it’s not like you gave me time to explain before y’all started whining.”

“I wasn’t whining!”

“And Ah’m the Queen of the Apple Kingdom,” quipped the farmer in response before knocking on the door. “With the way you run from even the slightest mention of work, Ah’m surprised you’re still able to hold down a job.” Applejack could never understand how Rainbow Dash has never been fired from her job with the weather patrol given her propensity to avoid work like the plague. But when the weather patrol included the likes of Derpy, one could only suspect that reliable talent was as hard to come by in the Ponyville area as rain clouds in a desert. On the other hoof, Applejack knew that if her friend actually applied herself in earnest, she could be running the entire weather patrol rather than just being one tiny cog in a giant machine. The day that happened, of course, would be the day that Applejack donned a tutu and did ballet through the town center.

Rainbow Dash didn’t have time to argue further as the library door swung open to reveal their friend, Twilight Sparkle. “Applejack, where have you been? I thought you said you said you were going to be here an hour ago,” Twilight greeted. Her usual welcoming smile had been replaced with a slight scowl expressing her disappointment in the farmer’s lack of punctuality. “I’m going to be late for my train if I don’t leave soon.”

“Train? You’re going somewhere?” Dash asked as she was still completely in the dark as to what was going on. As time was limited according to the unicorn, Twilight beckoned her friends inside. Sitting next to the door was a small pile of suitcases and bags, all packed to the brim with books, papers, scrolls, and Celestia knows what else.

“I’m attending a conference in Canterlot,” Twilight answered. At the mere mention of her plans, the previous tones of disappointment were replaced with excitement and anticipation. The unicorn was practically bouncing across the library as she continued gathering books and notes to be stored in one of the many suitcases she had. “It’s a conference all about magic in Equestria - all the brightest minds from across the kingdom are going to be there. Stardust is giving a lecture on astrological form-based incantations, and Regal Horn is going to be running a workshop on his latest developments in empathy spells. Oh! And I’m going to be making my own presentation too: ‘Magic and the Modern Equestria - New Applications for Old Magics in the Growing Technological Age.’ Oh, it is going to be soooo exciting!”

As both the pegasus and the earth pony could barely tell the difference between a spell and a fireworks display, Twilight may as well have been speaking in a foreign tongue for all the clarification it provided. They briefly exchanged confused glances followed by uncertain shrugs. They both assumed if this were something they were supposed to understand, Twilight would have taken the liberty to explain it to them using nice, small words.

“So what do you need us for?” Dash finally spoke up. “It’s not like Applejack or I would have much use to you at a magic conference, right?”

“Correct; that and it's by invitation only," Twilight explained. “Besides, the two of you would probably get bored out of your skulls. What I do need, however, is somepony to watch over the library while I’m gone. Normally I would leave Spike to take care of it but he’s an important part of my presentation so he has to come too.”

“So she asked me to take care of things while she’s away,” Applejack concluded. “But Ah still have chores at the farm to take care of so it’d be a real big help if y’all could help split the work with me, Dash.”

However, rather than an enthusiastic ‘yes’ that they were expecting, Rainbow Dash’s reaction was instead one of barely restrained indignation. “You asked Applejack to watch the library before me?” Evidently, the pegasus took offense that Twilight would somehow overlook her new-founded passion for reading and instead enlist the service of the farmpony. Applejack probably didn’t read have as much as Rainbow Dash did, not to mention the farmer herself admitted that she had other commitments. “You know I love reading, Twilight. Why would you get me hooked and then deny me this? That’s just cruel!”

But Twilight was unfazed by her friend’s sudden reaction, responding at first with a quiet, dismissive chortle. “I asked Applejack weeks ago, Dash. Besides, taking care of a library is more than just reading all my Daring Do books. You actually have to do work and be responsible.”

“And we all know how well you and responsibility get along,” Applejack chimed in.

“I can be plenty responsible,” the pegasus insisted, crossing her hooves in a display of mock protest.

“Remember back when Ah asked you to take care of Winona for a couple days?”

“Her fur grew back...eventually.”

“Girls!” Twilight intervened before an argument could break out between the pair. “As much as I would love to debate the veracity of Rainbow Dash’s claim of responsible behaviour, I have a train to catch.” With her magic, she grabbed a scroll that was sitting on a nearby table and held it out for the others to see. Unfurling the scroll revealed it to be several feet long with script from border to border. “Now here’s a list of all the books that are currently checked out, by whom, and when they are due back, all in chronological order.” While Applejack took a hold of the scroll and began browsing through the names, Twilight brought over several additional scrolls of varying sizes and began piling into Dash’s outstretched hooves. “And this is a list of all the tasks and chores I’ll need the both of you to do while I’m out. I’ve already taken the liberty of colour-coding the tasks by frequency in which they need to be done. This one here is my contact information in Canterlot in case you need to send any emergency correspondence. I’ve also got a list of emergency contacts here in Ponyville in case you have a more urgent matter to deal with. And this one here has...”

Dash had long since mentally drifted out of the conversation, simply nodding her head at regular intervals as Twilight prattled off names, addresses, lists, and tasks. She was convinced that at least half of the tasks being spelled out had more to do with Twilight’s obsession with organization than an actual need for the library. The Ponyville library had functioned perfectly fine for years before Twilight showed up or at least so she assumed since she had never had reason until recently to ever set foot in the building. Though the pegasus was slowly beginning to regret her decision to help watch over the library, she was nonetheless determined to see it through. When Rainbow Dash made a promise, she kept it. That was, after all, what loyalty was all about.

“I’ll let you two figure out how to divide the work up.” Twilight said as she wrapped up the last of her instructions, much to her friends’ relief. “Come on Spike, or we’re going to be late!” With a simple flick of her horn, the unicorn levitated the pile of luggage and hurried out the door followed shortly thereafter by her assistant. A second later, the unicorn came rushing back in. “Oh, I forgot to mention, I’ve got a shipment of new books coming in tomorrow. I’ll need you to sort and catalogue them for me. My cataloguing system should be explained on the seventh scroll I gave you.” After a reassurance that the task would be looked after, the unicorn once again departed. “And don’t forget to water my plants!” she shouted from afar.

Thankfully, before Twilight could shout any additional directives at the pair, Applejack kicked the door shut. The two friends let out a quiet, discouraged sigh as they looked over the pile of scrolls left for them.

“Sooo, Ah was thinking that we each take turns watching over the library,” Applejack suggested. “One of us opens the library in the morning and then other takes over around late afternoon. Sounds good?”

“Hoof-wrestle to see who picks first?”

“Yer on.”

“No kissing this time!”

As per Dash’s insistence, there were no further attempts to break her concentration by kisses or any other displays of affection. Alas, that did little to help her win as her focus was still truly and thoroughly scattered. Dash wouldn’t admit it openly, of course, but the incident in the orchard still lingered on her mind. “It was just a stupid kiss,” she continually reminded herself, but those words only made the thoughts persist even longer. Why did it bother her so much? Applejack had been her friend for years now but this was the first time that the mare had haunted her thoughts to such a degree. Could she have become infatuated with the farmer? Dash mentally scoffed at the absurd notion. They were friends, but then again, the lines separating friendship from the beyond could be a bit hazy at best. Sometimes all it took was just a nudge at the right time.

Thankfully, losing the hoof-wrestling match did not prove to be an inconvenience for the pegasus. Rainbow Dash would cover the library during the morning and first half of the afternoon, which allowed Applejack to tend to her morning chores at the farm; and in the afternoon the farmer would take over at the library, allowing Dash to catch up on her missed naps. As for the list of tasks and chores, even Applejack realized that there was only so much one could make the pegasus do. She knew that before she had even asked for the pegasus’ assistance so making a fuss about it was pointless. Applejack could only hope for the best and clean up whatever is left behind.

For the first few days, things went smoothly in Twilight’s absence. Most ponies didn’t frequent the library in the early morning so Dash was often left to freely peruse Twilight’s expansive collection of literature. Unfortunately, even with the adventures of Daring Do to distract her, Dash could not get her mind off her blond-maned friend.

"Dash!" a familiar voice shouted to snap the pegasus out of her pensive trance. She had been sitting on the couch for the past few hours, staring at an open copy of Daring Do but unable to focus the words in sentences. "Ah thought Ah said to keep the place tidy." Dash had been so lost in her thoughts that she had failed to realize what time of the day it was; she also failed to realize that the piles of books scattered across the library weren't going to pick themselves up. She only managed a sheepish chuckle in return. "You ain't leavin' till this mess is cleaned up," Applejack ordered before grabbing the pegasus' tail and pulling her off the couch.

Though by far her least favourite of activities, the work did give Dash something else to focus her thoughts on. She couldn’t begrudge the pony for being a touch on the over-bearing side; Applejack always put one-hundred percent into any task she was given. That kind of dedication was admirable to be honest. The only thing Dash ever gave one-hundred to was her aerobatics and even that often had to make way for naps and general lazing. And to no surprise, despite what her tone may have suggested, Applejack even pitched in to help her friend tidy the library up.

“Say Dash, Ah don’t suppose Ah could ask you for a favour?” Applejack spoke up after slotting away the last book.

Were it anypony else, Dash probably would have said that she had used up all her ‘favours’ for the week, but she was always willing to make exceptions for Applejack. The farmer rarely asked for favours so Dash figured one wouldn’t hurt. “Sure. What do you need?”

“Ah need you to cover my share of library duty the day after tomorrow. Ah’ll take yer share for tomorrow or later this week if you want.”

At first, the request did not strike the pegasus as very peculiar. After a moment of thought, however, she realized the significance of the day after tomorrow. “But that’s Hearts and Hooves Day. That means,” the pegasus paused briefly as the realization dawned upon her, “you have plans on Hearts and Hooves Day, don’t you?”

“It ain’t those kinds of plans!” Applejack was quick to defend, but it did little to wipe the overt suggestive smirk across the pegasus’ face. “It mah turn to run the apple cart that day and Hearts and Hooves Day is good business. Couples seem to like our heart-shaped candied apples. Ah ain’t doing any of that lovey-dovey stuff.”

“Boooring,” declared the pegasus, albeit with a strange hint of relief. “You’re like the only pony in town that always works on Hearts and Hooves Day. You should be trying to find a date for, not finding work. That’s the whole point of the holiday, isn’t it?”

“Ah don’t see you finding any dates.”

“That’s because I have very high standards,” Dash insisted, her ego flashing up like the feathers of a peacock. “I can’t just go out with any mare.”

“Mare?” Applejack asked with a cocked brow.

“O-or colt,” she quickly recovered. The pegasus chuckled sheepishly to hide her embarrassment but failed abysmally.

“Right,” the farmer replied, completely unconvinced. “What’s it to you how mah dating life is? Ah’m plenty fine without any colt in mah life! And for yer information, Ah’ve had plenty of dates. Why, remember that one stallion, ummm, what’s his name with the, uh, blue mane and stuff.”

Now it was Dash’s turn to be unconvinced of the other’s insistence. “You mean Noteworthy?”

“That’s the guy!”

“That was five years ago.”

“Wow. Really?” Applejack appeared genuinely surprised by the revelation. Perhaps she had let more time slip past than she had realized. “That long, huh?” she muttered as an afterthought.

“Yes, and if I recall correctly, you threw cider in his face and ran off.”

“He said apple bucking was boring,” the earth pony said as she recalled the day in question. True, she might have overreacted just a little bit but since when did she ever do anything in half-measures? She was proud of her family and of her farm, and to have some pony turn around and scoff at it hurt in more ways than she’d care to recollect.

An uneasy silence feel between the two ponies. Rainbow Dash wanted to press the issue a bit more but Applejack had become rather gloomy as a result and the pegasus dared not make it worse. If anything, Rainbow Dash wanted to lift her friend’s spirit, but what could she do? What would Twilight do in this situation?

“How about a book?” the pegasus thought with her mental voice sounding strangely like Twilight for an instant. “Any kind of books you like to read?” Dash asked with the hopes of veering the conversation towards a more pleasant topic.

The shift appeared to work as Applejack perked her head up at the inquiry, but she didn’t have an immediate answer. “Ah dunno. Westerns, Ah guess.”

Determined to find a book to suit her friend’s interests, Dash began a thorough search through the shelves. If she had bothered to use Twilight’s cataloguing system, or any system of organization, she might have accomplished the task faster. Eventually, though, the pegasus returned with a book between her teeth.

“‘Lasso and Stars’,” Applejack muttered as she read the title of the book. A pair of stetson-wearing ponies adorned the cover, which was enough to pique her interests. “An adventure of love and betrayal in the old west,” she continued, reading the sub-header on the cover. “Sounds promising.”

“It was part of that shipment of books that just came in,” Dash explained after handing over the book.

Opening it to a random page, Applejack gave the book a quick look-through. “‘Ah thought Ah knew all the stallions in these here parts,’ the mare mused with a playful smirk upon her lips,” she read aloud. “But Coltwood said nothing, however, for words could not express that which he longed for most. Her hooves gently traced the contours of his frame, feeling each jagged scar with intrigue and passion. Her eyes glistened with desire; drifting slowly down his figure to his throbbing―” Applejack stopped abruptly in her oration as her face began to turn a deep shade of crimson, almost resembling the apples that composed her cutie mark. “Oh my...uh, D-Dash, what kind of book is this exactly?”

Dash had to contain the rising fit of laughter welling up inside her. The look of shock and embarrassment on Applejack’s face was an image she could cherish forever. She also had to admit that it was quite a flattering look on the pony as well with the dark shade of red providing a stark contrast to her golden blond mane.

“It’s a western, isn’t it?” Dash asked as she moved to hover over her friend’s shoulder. To be honest, Dash had only skimmed the back cover and the first few pages so she knew little of what the book actually entailed. However, reading the same few passages that Applejack had brought the same brilliant shade of red to her face. “Oh, wow. That’s, uhhh...quite detailed, isn’t it?”

“Ah’ll say,” Applejack nodded in agreement. Despite their shock, neither pony seemed capable of taking their eyes away from the pages. Rainbow Dash even went so far as to flip it to the next page.

“That doesn’t seem feasibly possible.”

“Nonsense, Ah bet Ah could do that.”

Rainbow Dash felt another rush of heat rising to her face. That was not a mental picture she needed at that moment, especially with Applejack sitting so close to her. Why did this have to keep happening to her? Her mind kept wandering into places that it wouldn’t normally tread. “M-maybe I should put this somewhere safe. You know, so no foals accidentally come across it.”

As Dash reached for the book, Applejack hastily pulled it away. Neither said anything at first; Applejack’s awkward grin conveyed her intent quite clearly. “Just a few more pages?”

By the time night fell, neither pony had bothered to leave the library. They had spent the rest of the afternoon reading ‘Lasso and Stars’ along with a bunch of other books in the shipment that had arrived. Somepony must have gotten the orders mixed up because the entire content of the shipment were books of similar nature and neither pony could picture Twilight knowingly ordering such books. They weren’t even very well written books and the two had spent as much time laughing at the prose, which covered the entire length of the colour spectrum, as they did flustering at the more risque parts.

And somewhere out far in Canterlot, the shopowner of the Twilight’s Sparkle was wondering why in blazes he was delivered a box of historical fiction books.

Over dinner, they ordered out from one of the nearby cafes and shared stories over buckets of hayfries and fried corn. Rainbow Dash couldn’t recall the last time she and Applejack had sat down and just talked. Nine times out of ten, their time together was spent competing over some ridiculous feat or game, or working on some project that one had dragged the other into. Applejack and Dash had been friends for a long time but, in truth, they had always been as much rivals as they had been friends: an outlet to test their mettle against. It was always about winning or losing when it came to dealing with each other. For Dash, she was the only pony in town that could ever give her a physical challenge and now she was proving to be the only pony in town to give her an emotional challenge. Their day together in the library had cast Dash’s long-time competitor in a different light and she discovered it to be far more enjoyable than any of the competitions they had held in the past.

Where did these feelings come from, the pegasus wondered. Had they always been there, hidden just beneath the surface waiting for the right moment to break through or was she simply imaging things? Could Applejack possibly feel the same way about her or was the kiss really just a means to win back her hat? Surely Applejack only saw the pegasus in the same light as she had always viewed the former - an outlet for the competitive spirit. As a pony of honesty, if she had ever held such desire, they would have come to light by now. The confusion only reminded the pegasus why she preferred racing and competitions - no what-ifs, maybes, or possibles. In a race you either won or you didn’t; not since the foalhood lesson of ‘round peg goes through round hole’ were things so simple to understand.

What was easy to understand was that all the doubt and uncertainty was leaving a feeling of gnawing despair in the pit of her gut. And because of that pit, despite it being late into witching hours of the night, Rainbow Dash was still pan-eyed awake while her friend was sound asleep in Twilight’s bed.

“I can’t stay here,” she eventually decided after having spent the past hour tossing and turning in bed. Thank Celestia that Applejack proved to be a deep sleeper, which spared the pegasus the added guilt of keeping another pony up as well.

Rainbow Dash returned to the main hall of the library. A small lamp provided enough illumination for her to scour the bookshelves in search of some relief. At least books never left her feeling confused or in doubt; it was no wonder why Twilight found so much comfort in them. If there was anything that could be guaranteed to lift Dash’s spirit, it was another chapter of her favourite action-heroine, Daring Do.

“‘Daring Do and the Mare with No Name',” Dash thought before plucking the book from the shelves. Books would never betray her, never leave her doubting herself. And certainly Daring Do never had to deal with this kind of confusion. “Just a stupid kiss.”

Ch. 2 - The Mare with No Name

As far as expeditions went, this was arguably the most boring one that Daring Do has had to endure since being forced to watch the ancient Incolts recite the Hymns of Glorious Sacrifice...all eighteen hundred verses. At least the Incolts had the common decency to give Daring a last meal before preparing to sacrifice her to their sun god. Could be worse, she supposed; she could be buried up to her neck in research notes or marking poorly written research papers from her undergraduates back at the university. Having endured nearly half a year without a single, tangible lead, Daring Do had pounced on the first invitation sent her way. The fact that it had been sent by her long-time colleague from the Canterlot Royal Museum of History, Scribble Scrolls, was just a bonus.

“You brought me out here for this?” Daring remarked with staggering disappointment. While true that Daring Do had fallen into her profession for both adventure and academics, it was difficult for her to hide the sense of disappointment when she discovered that her expedition was little more than a dig site in the middle of the Mohoofe desert. She consoled herself with the fact that a dreary excavation would at least be free of her usual brushes with death, with whom she had become so acquainted with that they were on a first-name basis.

“Well, not every expedition can be a perilous trek through the jungle, eh Daring?” quipped the old pony standing by her side. In the halls of a museum or at some quaint sidewalk cafe, Scribble Scrolls would have been as unremarkable as a white-painted wall, but out in the desert, amidst the sweltering heat and dusty hills, he stood out like wings on a mule. His pudgy frame and gray, thinning mane belayed a life long kept away from the arduous side of archeology and made him the polar opposite to Daring Do. But the two enjoyed a mutually-beneficial relationship; Daring brought in the artifacts and Scribbles passed on all leads and expedition notices her way. Travelling was typically outside his interest and expertise, but at least he tried to dress for the weather; albeit, a white blazer and a wide-brim straw hat did little to alleviate the heat for him.

“I suppose not, but it looks as though you’ve got everything under control, so why bring me in?” Daring asked as she motioned towards the excavation site. A team of mules, donkeys, and local ponies were already hard at work and had cleared out a section of the desert measuring several metres in each direction. Clearly Scribbles didn’t need her to find the site nor clear the entrance, and there was no point to bringing her in if all she was going to do was stand around watching a bunch of mules toil under the desert sun.

“Because I figured you, of all ponies, would want to be present when we unearth the Amulet of the Equilla,” Scribbles replied as he dabbed the sweat from his brow for the hundredth time that hour. The smug smirk across his lips was because he knew that alone would pique his colleague’s interest. Normally Daring would have made more inquiries before heading out to an excavation site, but she had been so eager for an excuse to get back to the field she would have agreed to digging up clay pots. The mentioning of their prize, however, made Daring’s opinion take an about-face.

“For pony’s sake, why didn’t you say so sooner?” What annoyance she might have felt for having been kept in the dark for so long had been easily overpowered by the new surge of elation. A sense of professionalism was the only thing that kept Daring from bounding about the dig site with glee. She knew full well the old stories behind the Amulet of the Equilla; it was said to have been brought to these barren lands by the ancient knights of the Order Equidae. According to legend, it was carried west by the order during a great crusade, worn by their greatest champion for it conveyed an aura of inviolability. The fact that the amulet was later buried alongside the knight after the crusade’s failure made it obvious that it possessed no such protective properties. Nonetheless, it was a relic of considerable value and prestige, making this the sort of excavation that would make an archaeologist famous.

Now that Daring Do knew what was at stake, the project became a great deal more fascinating. The actual excavation was still as entertaining as watching lichen grow on a rock, but the prize at the end was worth enduring any stretch of idleness. Alas, her boredom now had a friend to keep it company - impatience. According to Scribbles, they had at least another day’s worth of digging before reaching the burial site, which meant that Daring now had to find other things to do to keep herself occupied, lest she desired to grab a shovel and assist.

Having thoroughly drenched his handkerchief in sweat, Scribbles decided to was due time for him to find some place shaded to rest for the remainder of the day. “Word of caution to you, Daring, best you keep your distance away from that pony there,” Scribbles commented. The old stallion directed Daring’s attention to a pony that stood out amongst the collection of toiling workers. It was clear that aforementioned mare was no worker - the heavy leather duster she wore and the rifle slung over her shoulder were evidence enough. Clearly she was keeping watch, as her eyes carefully panned across the excavation site at regular intervals, stopping only briefly when the wind kicked some loose strands of her blond mane into her face.

“And who the hay is that?”

“To be honest, I don’t actually know,” he replied with an unhelpful shrug. “The locals keep calling her ‘Blondie’ and seem to be borderline terrified of her, and she doesn’t speak much to me. All I know is that she was hired to ‘watch over things.’ But she ain’t very friendly, and if it weren’t for my work notes, she would’ve booted me out of here weeks ago.”

Perhaps if Daring hadn’t been so excited for the prospect of the Amulet of Equilla, she would have felt a bit uneasier over the notion of a hired gun watching over things. Though the original letters didn’t state, it was obvious by this point that the expedition wasn’t entirely under Scribble’s control. Some rich, financial backer had his hoof in the pot and the blond-maned pony was there to ensure his collection of the profit. Daring hated expeditions like those; with rare exception, most of the ‘financial backers’ she’s ever met were rich, ostentatious snobs who were more interested in profit than history and academics. It was like bringing an accordion on a safari - excess weight and a lot of unnecessary noise.

Thankfully for Daring, while the excavation site offered in little in terms of stimulation, the Mohoofe desert that enveloped the site offered more than ample opportunities to explore. Her knowledge of the area’s history was spotty at best; most of her work took her to the far reaches of Equestria, while the excavation site was a two-hour jog to the nearest pony settlement. It wasn’t as though the place didn’t have history, it was just not ‘pushing the boundaries of the unknown’ that Daring was used to; digging in the Mohoofe desert was like digging in your own backyard.

The Mohoofe desert offered its own source of beauty to the unfamiliar eye. The valley stretched out before Daring like a vast sea of green and brown until it met the mountains far in the distance that seemed to almost ‘wall in’ the desert. The sky above was absolutely spotless, save for the occasional bird circling above in search of an afternoon snack. And the hot desert air was perfect for flying, providing a gentle updraft free of crosswinds and turbulence. For Daring, there was never a better invitation to spread one’s wings and take to the sky. And Daring’s desire to explore quickly rewarded the pegasus. It was only a short flight before something peculiar in the landscape caught her attention and diverted her course. Amongst the foothills of the valley, some rocky outcroppings had caught the mare’s eyes. As she swept in for a closer look, she could see that a nook nestled against a ridge-line had been decorated with rocky mounds and crude, wooden monuments.

“These are clearly not pony-made,” Daring Do thought as she landed amongst the mounds. There were more than two dozen of them, each carefully constructed lined with stones and wooden carvings. A few were slightly larger than Daring, but the vast majority were huge compared to the pegasus. In the center of them all was a large wooden construct erected atop the largest of the mound, adorned with tapestry, horns, and animal skulls, all of which had been bleached and worn by the passage of time. “Simply extraordinary.”

This was clearly the work of native inhabitants. Judging by the various skulls and horns used, along with the pattern in which the mounds were arranged, Daring would wager that she had stumbled across an ancient burial site. It was certainly not as grand as the ones that she was used to exploring but the lack of natural resources available to the ancient inhabitants would have made more grandiose temples grossly impractical, if not outright impossible.

As Daring continued to poke and prod around the site, her ears piqued at the sound of hoof steps behind her. Her instincts, normally attuned to avoiding incoming arrows from angry locals, compelled her to spin about in a hurry, and she discovered that she was no longer alone. Standing only a few metres away from her was a heavy-set, horned creature - a buffalo, if Daring’s memory served her correctly. She also recalled being told that all the buffalo in the area had been scared off, but that information had also come from a rather boisterous army-pony with whom she had the misfortune of sharing a train cabin with on her ride out to the Mohoofe. In retrospect, that was probably all part of his failed attempt to impress her.

“Well hello there,” Daring called out. No reason not to be civil, she figured. Alas, either she said something wrong or waving one’s hoof was considered a threatening gesture because the buffalo simply ran off without a word. “Or good-bye, I guess.” While an odd reaction to behold, it was vastly preferable to the usual ‘chase after with spears and clubs’ that was commonplace in her dealings with indigenous populations.

Daring decided to think little of the incident in order to resume her study of her surroundings. However, a few minutes later, she once again caught the sound of approaching hoof steps. This time though, before she even got a chance to turn about she heard a voice bark out, “What in the hay are you doing over there?”

Now that was more like the greetings she was used to getting, and thankfully in a language she understood. What was less encouraging, however, was the source of the voice - it was the nameless mare that Scribbles had warned her about earlier. With her brown leather duster and the dull, orange hue of her pelt providing some camouflage against the Mohoofe desert, it was no surprise that Daring hadn’t noticed her approach until she was practically on top of her. Emerald green eyes glared harshly at the pegasus, partially concealed by the brim of the stetson she wore.

“Just looking around,” Daring answered innocently.

“You blithering nincompoop, get out from there!” She could see why Scribbles had advised avoiding the earth pony - five seconds in and she was already barking orders at her like she was Queen of the desert. And there were few things in the world that Daring disliked more than being ordered around, especially by some hoof-dragging dinohippus. Since arguing with a heavily-armed pony was a risky proposition, Daring reluctantly complied and flew over to the mare. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” the nameless mare scolded.

“Didn’t you just ask that a second ago?”

Daring could see the brief flash of frustration cross the other mare’s face. It would have been barely perceivable were their eyes not already locked with each other. “Y’all must be Daring Do, right?”

“I see my reputation has preceded me,” Daring replied, flashing a cocky grin.

“Yeah - for causing trouble wherever you go,” the rifle-totting mare replied. “Boss warned me ‘bout you. He said to keep an eye on ya.”

The nameless mare motioned for Daring to follow as she started a slow trot back to the excavation camp. It was apparent that the mare had specifically come out this way to drag Daring back to camp so the pegasus followed along, flying close to the earth pony. “Who is this ‘boss’ anyways?”

“Didn’t that egghead friend of yours tell you nuttin’?” the mare remarked incredulously. “Mr. Moneybags is paying us a heap of bits to find that there amulet and Ah intend to deliver it to him by week’s end.”

“Wait, you mean it’s not going to a museum?”

“A museum? Ha! Are you kidding?” The earth pony chuckled as though the very notion were some big joke to her. “Those dust-collectors wouldn’t pay a tenth of what Mr. Moneybags is paying me. If you want to see it in a museum, Ah reckon y’all ought to talk to the boss after this is done. He might be willing to loan it out. Ah’m just here to do mah job and get paid.”

While Daring couldn’t argue with the fact that a museum’s finder’s fee was often pittance compared to what a private collector offered, it was the principle of the matter. An artifact, a piece of pony history, belonged in a museum for the public to see, not in some private collection sealed away from even the light of day. But arguing with the nameless pony was futile at best since she was little more than hired muscle and had all the decision-making capacity of a pencil.

It was a relatively quiet walk back to the camp site. Thrice Daring attempted to fish a name from the mare but had been met with stone-cold silence each time. Eventually Daring just settled on calling her ‘Blondie’ like all the others did; the mare seemed to respond to the nickname well enough. She could see why the locals would be anxious around the mare. Everything about her screamed ‘cold-hearted killer’: a heartless, scrutinizing gaze; a stride of calm, composed confidence; and a tone that seemed to challenge you to just try and oppose her. Daring would have been more appreciative of having such a capable pony on her side were it not for the fact that the earth pony’s loyalties and motivations were inevitably going to put the two at odds.

As the desert sun continued its relentless thermal assault, the nameless mare reached into her coat and pulled out a waterskin and held it out in offering to Daring. The pegasus was taken by surprise at the offering, but she wasn’t so prideful as to turn down a friendly offer. The cool water trickling down her parched throat was a welcomed relief, far more than she had anticipated. “Thanks,” Daring said as she gave the waterskin back. “I was told all the buffalo in this region were no longer a threat. Was I misinformed?”

“A bit o’ both actually,” Blondie replied nonchalantly before taking a swig from the waterskin. “The buffalo originally in this area are gone, but they’re nomadic and another tribe has moved in to fill the void. These ones are a might bit more...ornery. At least Ah managed to get you you outta there ‘fore one of them buffalo saw you.”

Those last words, unfortunately, made the pegasus stop dead in the air. “Uh-oh,” she muttered.

It took Blondie only one look at her anxious expression to realize what it meant. “Please tell me the next words outta yer mouth ain’t ‘a buffalo saw me.’” Since the nameless mare did not want to hear those words, Daring was left with absolutely nothing to say, allowing only her silence to convey the message. Blondie’s face dropped with a frustrated sigh. “This is why Ah hate you eggheads! Ain’t got a lick of sense in ya!”

Before Daring could say anything in her defense, such as pointing out that no pony had warned her about venturing outside the camp, but the nameless mare galloped off at full speed towards the camp. Since keeping pace with Blondie would only result in more insults and profanities hurled in her direction, Daring resumed her casual cruising speed back to camp. By the time she caught up with Blondie, the camp had become consumed by a renewed fervor. Every set of hooves was digging with complete disregard for typical archaeological procedures.

“Hey! Be careful with those picks, you could damage the outer walls!” Daring shouted. Unfortunately her voice was lost amidst the sea of shovels and picks and their clangs, tacks, and scrapes. The only one that heard her attempts to restore some semblance of diligence was the nameless standing only a short distance away from her.

“No time for careful now, Daring,” Blondie spoke up. “Once those buffalo hear about your little frolic on their sacred turf, they’re gonna come over here and make things very uncomfortable for us. Ah reckon we’ve got about two or three hours to get that amulet ‘fore we’re up to our haunches in browncoats.”

And here Daring was thinking that this excavation was going to be free of angry mobs. At least it wasn’t going to be boring. There were few things in the world as motivating as the threat of getting trampled under a tonne of rampaging buffalo. As selfish as it sounded, this new development only amplified her enthusiasm; enthusiasm that was soon capitalized on by the nameless pony as she pushed a shovel into Daring’s hooves.

“Go help,” Blondie ordered.

“I beg your pardon?” Daring replied with a cocked eyebrow. “I don’t think so. I need to conserve my energy for when I head into the tomb.”

“Listen, pegasus,” the pony spoke a stern, harsh glare, “there are two types of ponies in this world right now: those with guns, and those that dig. Now start digging.”

“Well, since you put so politely...”

With one final collective groan, the mules pushed aside the last slab of stone blocking the entrance to the tomb. As far as tombs went, this was one of the least impressive that Daring Do had seen; it was little more than a hole in the ground covered by couple of heavy slabs of sandstone. But like a present on Hearth’s Warming Day, it was what was inside that was most alluring, and even though Daring was winded from shoveling, she did not hesitate to trot down the stairs into the unknown.

Armed with a freshly-lit torch to light her way, Daring proceeded into the bowels of the earth. The air inside the tomb was dry and stale, but it was a refreshing change from the blasting desert heat. Her hoofsteps echoed down the stairwell, which led Daring to a large antechamber. Much to Daring’s disappointment, the antechamber was as bland as the entrance - it had been hastily chiseled out from the earth, the marking from the tools adorning the walls even after so many centuries. The only part of the chamber that had been given any attention in its carving was the large vault-like door before her, which was adorned with carvings of ancient knights and kings.

“Hmmm...there appears to be some kind of locking mechanism on this door,” Daring pondered as she examined the door more closely. At the very center of the door was a carving of a lion’s head with its maw opened wide. Upon closer inspection, Daring could see some kind of slot in the mouth, as if to fit some kind of keystone. “There must be a key somewhere,” she muttered with a pensive gaze.

“Got’cher key right here!” the familiar but unwelcomed voice of the nameless mare butted in as she shoved a bundle of TNT into the lion’s maw. “Ah’d take cover if Ah were you,” she added as she lit the fuse using Daring’s torch.

Daring couldn’t hide her disdain or disapproval as she let out a frustrated sigh and said, “It’s like taking a barbarian to an art gallery!” But with the burning fuse quickly closing in on the explosive payload, Daring had no choice but to retreat back to the safety of the stairwell. One hoof-shaking blast later and the pair had a new doorway into the main burial chamber. “You’re an idiot,” Daring snapped as the pair stepped out of the stairwell. “You could’ve brought the entire place down on top of us!”

“But Ah didn’t,” the impatient mare replied with a whimsical tone as she trotted past Daring. Words could express the degree of the pegasus’ frustration. What did she do in a past life to have the universe drop this mare onto her lap?

The burial chamber itself was rather small but what it lacked in volume it at least made up in beauty. Four pillars, carved into ornate armoured stallions, surrounded a massive stone casket. It casket itself bore an extensively detailed carving that Daring recognized as the heraldry of the Order Equidae. Even without the amulet, Daring would have loved to have taken the casket back to Canterlot and put it on display in the Royal Museum.

“Right, let’s crack this nut open, shall we?”

“No explosives!” Daring hastily shouted as she pushed ahead of the nameless mare.

“Oh, fine,” she grumbled in disappointment.

“Now help me get this thing off,” Daring instructed as she moved into position next to the casket. Explosives risked damaging the amulet but there was no chance that the pegasus was strong enough to get it open on her own. However, just as Blondie was about to join her, a loud commotion echoing from the entrance stole the mare’s attention away. Neither was certain what they were hearing. It sounded like a waterfall initially, but considering they were a hundred miles from the nearest source of water, that was a ridiculous conclusion to reach. However, it grew in intensity, becoming more akin to a passing train, even knocking the dust from the walls as it began to shake the foundation of the tomb.

“Oh crabapples, they’re already here!” the blond-maned mare cursed loudly as she turned about and raced back to the entrance.

“Wait! I can’t-” It was too late. The earth pony had already bolted out of the tomb, leaving Daring alone with the three-hundred pound stone slab separating her from her prize. A few futile shoves proved that it was far too heavy for her to move on her own so the pegasus had no alternative but to find extra muscle elsewhere.

Sadly, upon exiting the tomb, Daring discovered that while extra muscle was easy to find, the overabundance of it now threatened the entire camp. As Blondie had feared, the buffalo had arrived in full force and were stampeding wildly throughout the excavation camp: trampling tents, knocking over carts, terrorizing the workers, and destroying all of their equipment.

“This is all yer fault!” Blondie was quick to lob accusations at the pegasus and for a second it looked like the earth pony was going to vent through frustrations through physical means. However, while it would be ultimately satisfying, there were far more pressing issues to address.

“Well you’ve got a gun, why don’t you start shooting?”

“Brilliant plan, egghead! Why don’t Ah just strap a huge sign to mah head saying ‘biggest threat right here’? We need to get out of here before we attract too much attention.”

“It’s going to take more than angry natives to stop this pegasus,” Daring insisted, a hint of her boastful arrogance shining through. “If you just help me get the casket open, I can grab the amulet and fly to safety.”

“An even better plan except for the part where Ah can’t fly! And Ah ain’t sticking around a second longer just so you can fly to freedom with the goods.”

The measure of pig-headed stupidity was enough to stun the pegasus momentarily. She couldn’t fathom that for all the tough talk from the mare, the moment a little bit of trouble showed up she was willing to cut loose and run for the hills. She would’ve argued further, but a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye drew Daring’s attention to an oncoming buffalo. Both mares were quick enough to jump out of the way, if only just barely, but it adequately demonstrated the level of adversity Daring was up against. Perhaps a strategic withdrawal was in order, she thought, as she noticed that the nameless mare was already sprinting across the camp. The blonde-maned pony dodged and weaved adeptly through the stampeding herds, even vaulting over a couple when left with no room to evade. Daring had to admit it was a rather impressive display of agility, even if fleeing was still misguided in her opinion.

The pegasus decided that if Blondie wasn’t going to stay and help, then she was going to have to go with the alternative - the high explosives. Sadly, the only explosives she knew of were the ones being carried by the nameless mare, leaving Daring with no choice but to chase after her. Flying safely above the stampede, Daring searched for the blond-maned pony, but the rampaging sea of browncoats made it difficult to find her quarry. After flying a few circles overhead, she caught sight of a flash of orange and yellow that could only have belonged to the nameless mare. Elation turned to panic, however, when she saw that the pony was sprawled unconscious across the desert floor. As she flew in to help, Daring noticed a bundle of TNT laying on the sand nearby that must have been knocked out of the earth pony’s possession when she got hit by a buffalo. In theory, she only needed the explosives, not the mare herself. Daring would have weighed the pros and cons more thoroughly, but she noticed that a buffalo was on course to trample over both the nameless mare and the explosives.

With only enough time to save one, Daring knew there was no justification for leaving the pony to her fate. Even if she disliked her attitude, no pony deserved to trampled into jelly. Swooping into a high-speed dive, Daring Do snatched the earth pony just moment before the buffalo stampeded through. But the sudden weight from dragging the mare jerked Daring downwards, and caused her to crash into a headlong tumble. After several spins, bounces, and crashing into an overturned cart, Daring Do pulled herself out from under the mare in a desperate attempt to find the bundle of explosives. Alas, there was no sign of it. With all the sand being kicked up by the stampeding buffalo, the explosives could’ve been highlighted with a giant pillar of light from Celestia herself and Daring still wouldn’t have been able to spot it. With rampaging natives running in every direction, Daring knew that he best chance at making it through this ordeal was to bunker down and wait out the storm.

Thankfully, the overturned cart that she had crashed into moments ago offered the exact kind of protection she needed with its steel-lined basin. The pegasus carefully lifted the back-end of the cart up and dragged it over so that it was sheltering the nameless mare and herself. Unfortunately, it was a rather tight squeeze beneath the cart and Daring was uncomfortably sandwiched up against the still unconscious earth pony.

“Nothing I can do now except wait this mess out,” Daring thought with a quiet sigh. The rumble of hoofsteps around her echoed within her new steel confines like a heavy rainstorm upon a tin roof. All she could do now was pray for the end to come quickly, and for Blondie to not wake up in the meantime.

After what felt like an eternity stuffed inside an oven, the rumblings and tremors ceased, and Daring slowly emerged from beneath the cart. It appeared as though all the buffalo were gone, having left satisfied with thoroughly demolishing the excavation site. Daring breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the cart aside; very rarely had she felt so glad to be back in the heat of the desert sun, which just so happened to beginning its decent towards the horizon.

A soft groaned suddenly came from the awakening earth pony behind her. “Ughh...what happened?”

“You got blind-sided by a half-tonne buffalo,” Daring replied non-chalantly.

“And what are you still doing here?”

“Aside from saving your flank?” Daring said with no hint of hiding her amusement at the fact. “I’ve still got an amulet to grab.”

“Now hold on! Just wait a second,” the still-dazed earth pony said as she tried to get back to her feet. Her head was pounding, and her side ached from where the buffalo had hit her; her attempts to keep pace with Daring only resulted in the pony falling face-first into sand. Since the pony was in no danger of being pounded into a paste, Daring had no qualms about leaving the pony where she lay and proceeded back to the tomb.

There was still the issue was getting the casket open but Daring figured that with enough time and effort, she’d be able to find a way to get it open. If nothing else, the nameless mare would eventually follow her into the tomb and they’d be able to open the casket together. With the buffalo threat gone, Daring was under no pressure to hurry along.

“Amulet of the Equilla, here I come,” Daring thought in a sing-song tone. The thought of recovering the artifact left her with a bounce in her step as she descended into the tomb. She hadn’t had an expedition this easy since the time she recovered the Tomes of Donkeyotay from the tyrannical courier’s office that refused to release the package to Daring until she paid the extra shipping fees.

However, the cheer in the voice and the bounce in her step vanished the second the stepped into the burial chamber. The ornate, intricately carved stone casket had been blasted open, its stone slab cover shattered into a dozen pieces across the floor, and the characteristic scorch marks of high explosives were plain to see on the stone fragments.

“Nononono! This can’t be happening,” Daring muttered in a half-panic as she raced to the casket’s side. Alas, denial could not change reality - the amulet was gone. Somepony had beaten her to it. She let out a frustrated cry before knocking a loose piece of stone across the room. The amulet was gone, and she couldn’t even take the stone cover back as a consolation prize.

“What’s all the commotion?” came the nameless mare’s familiar voice. Though still woozy, she had been able to make it down the stairs without another pratfall. “And Ah thought you said you didn’t want no ‘splosives.”

“The amulet’s gone!”

“Whaddya mean ‘gone’?” The pony, her mental acuity coming into focus at the mention of ‘gone,’ raced over to the casket and shoved the pegasus aside. Upon seeing the interior of the casket, her face dropped. “Where’d it go?”

“Somepony else must have taken it while I was stuck babysit your unconscious flank!” scolded the bewildered archaeologist.

“Are you implying that this is mah fault?”

“No, I’m out-right saying it’s your fault!” she said with an accusatory prod of her hoof.

“If y’all had let me use the explosives like Ah had wanted to-”

“If you had stayed and helped me open the casket like I wanted to, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” Furious did not even begin to describe Daring’s mood and were it not for the fact that other pony was still very much armed and dangerous, she would’ve expressed her angry in a language the barbarian would’ve understood.

“Well, whoever took it couldn’t have gone far. And there’s only one town within walking distance,” Blondie explained.

“Finally something useful from her,” Daring thought. “Then if we hurry, we can hopefully catch up to them.”

However, just as Daring was about to set off, a sudden blow to the back of the head sent her tumbling into darkness. When Daring came to moments later, she found herself laying on the cavern floor back in the antechamber, and, much to her chagrin, had been bound with rope. One length bound all her hooves together while a second prevented her from using her wings. And the most aggravating fact of all was the sight of the blond-maned pony standing only a few feet away, idly performing a final check on her rifle as if waiting for the pegasus to regain consciousness.

“Wh-what is the meaning of this?” Daring demanded.

“Sorry Daring but Ah can’t let you go racing on ahead and taking that amulet all fer yourself,” the pony explained with a smug smirk. “Besides, tracking down thieves is mah territory. You’d just get in mah way.”

“I saved your life!” Daring barked as she struggled in vain against the ropes. To save a pony’s life only to have them turn around and thump you on the back of the head was one of the most heinous forms of treachery.

“And Ah am a might appreciative of that miss,” the mare replied, sounding genuinely sincere in her thanks. That sincerity, however, was lost upon the raging pegasus. And as if to accentuate her gratitude, the mare walked up to the rope-bound Dash and gave her sweet peck on the lips. “Y’know, yer kinda cute...for an egghead.”

Daring wasn’t certain if she should be insulted or flattered by her remarks. Either way, she continued her futile attempts to break free from the rope. “You can’t leave me here like this!” she shouted once more.

“Oh quit yer belly-aching, you’ll be fine,” the nameless mare said as she began to walk away. When she reached the stairwell, she took out a small knife and left it on the ground. Daring knew she could crawl over and cut herself free with the knife, but with the blade on the far side of the chamber, it would take forever to shimmy across the floor. She’d get free, but not before the other pony got a significant head-start on her.

“Get back here!” Daring continued shouting in vain. “How dare you leave me like this, Blondie! BLOOONDDIEEEE!” It was too late, though - the mare was gone. “Stupid kiss!”

“She kissed Dash?” Applejack’s voice snapped Dash out her reading trance. The pegasus glanced upwards and saw her friend standing in the nearby doorway.

“Come again?” Rainbow quipped.

“Y’all said ‘the mare walked up to the rope-bound Dash’ and gave her a kiss.”

Dash’s eyes widened upon the realization that her friend had caught the Freudian slip. Her only saving grace was that Applejack appeared too drowsy from being awoken in the middle of the night to notice the rising blush on Dash’s face along with her horrified expression. If Applejack had noticed, she made no comments or reactions to that effect.

“N-no! I said ‘the rope-bound dashing mare,’” Dash insisted in her attempt to put a lampshade over her embarrassment. “It’s called poetic language, Applejack. Lots of writers use it.”

Rainbow Dash prayed that her explanation was enough for the other mare, who only stared blankly in response. She couldn’t tell if Applejack’s squinting eyes were scrutinizing her or merely a result of her being too tired to keep them open. Either way, after a few agonizing moments of silence, Applejack simply let out a hefty yawn. “Whatever,” she muttered in a half-hearted response. “Just try to keep it down, okay? Some of us are trying to sleep.”

Applejack groggily trudged back to bed, all the while wondering when somepony was going to teach Dash how to use internal monologue. She figured Dash was probably right about the whole ‘dashing mare’ thing. In her half-asleep stupor, her ears and mind were probably playing tricks on her. All the more reason to get back to bed. And what would it matter if Dash was imagining herself in the story? If anything that should be taken as a positive sign that she could become so engrossed in a book given that only a few weeks ago she considered them the antithesis of being awesome.

“You’re just imaging things, Applejack,” she mentally sighed as she crawled back into bed. “Besides, why would she ever be interested in a boring ol’ earth pony like you?”

Ch. 3 - Co-Author

Hearts and Hooves Day was in full bloom in Ponyville. The love in the air was so thick those not inoculated by their special somepony found it suffocating. Fortunately for Rainbow Dash, she was safe from its ill-effects within the confines of the Ponyville library where she had been scheming in secret since the early hours of the morning. While reading the adventures of her favourite archaeologist/adventurer, Daring Do, had done little to alleviate that which plagued her mind, it had given her ideas. What Dash needed to do was be more like her heroine - bold, daring, and totally unstoppable! And that called for an equally bold and daring plan. Brash and foolhardy plans were also acceptable since it was difficult to tell the two apart until it was too late.

A regular, boring pony might have gone up to Applejack and simply asked her out on a date, using the significance of Hearts and Hooves Day to add weight to the request. But Dash knew such a straight-forward plan was likely to go down in flames when she considered the likelihood of her nerves overriding all common sense. On top of that, even if the earth pony were interested, there was a chance she’d brush off the advance due to her commitment to working the vendor’s wagon that day. Dash needed a plan that would both surprise and impress her friend.

Sadly, while planning an aerobatic routine was one thing, trying to win over the affection of a long-time friend was proving to be a far more arduous task. In aerobatics it was easy to impress - just fly really fast, make some sharp turns, pull off some loops, and do something incredibly daring at the end. And while speed, precision, and boldness would be required in equal quantities in order to catch Applejack’s attention, every idea that came to mind seemed lack-lustre or had some critical flaw. If she went too fast, she’d just scare Applejack off; too precise and it would feel too contrived; and if she went with something too big and daring right away, everything afterwards would feel weak in comparison. Whatever she settled on, it had to be perfect. Her inability to formulate a worthwhile plan was why, even after several hours, Rainbow Dash was still pounding her head upon the breakfast table in the hopes that something resembling an idea would pop out. She had even gathered a bunch of fliers from around town in hopes that one of the advertised events would give her an idea, but as she went through them one by one, nothing sensible came to mind.

Perhaps she could write a message in the clouds.

No. Forecast for today had a southwesterly wind; the clouds would get blown away. Also it would be too time-consuming, even for her.

Maybe she could fly a banner over Ponyville.

No. Applejack might miss it and Dash needed to capitalize on the surprise quickly for such a proposal to work. The only other pegasus she could trust with such a task was nowhere near strong enough to fly a banner through the air.

Serenade? No - too sappy.

Poetry? Even sappier.

Ask her to a dance at the Ponyville Barnhouse Social? Maybe...but that wasn’t until the evening and Rainbow Dash didn’t want to leave something so crucial to the last second.

“This is getting me nowhere!” In her frustration, the pegasus slammed her hoof down once more upon the table. She his it with such force, however, that it caused the numerous fliers and the cold, half-eaten remnants of her breakfast to be scattered into the air and across her face. Alas, the only idea that getting hit by cold toast brought to mind was breakfast in bed and it was far too late for that. But as she brushed the half-eaten slab of bread aside, she noticed a flier that was slowly drifting down before her eyes. As she did not recognize the flier, Dash promptly snatched it out of the air and gave it a quick read-over. “‘Alone on Hearts and Hooves Day? Still searching for that special somepony? Then come down to town square for the Ponyville Charity Bachelor/Bachelorette Auction. Winners receive free dinner and entertainment for two.’ That’s it! This is perfect! But wait...”

Applejack would never willingly sign up for a bachelor auction, and it would be too obvious if Dash asked her to. There wasn’t, however, anything from stopping Dash from volunteering her friend for the position. And as the opposite side of the flier also served as an application form, all Dash needed to do was fill it out with Applejack’s information, trick the earth pony into signing her name at the bottom, get her down to the auction, and then win the auction. Bold? Yes. Daring? Most definitely. It was so brilliant that Dash almost wished there was somepony around for her brag to.

“Hello? Is anypony here?” For a brief moment, Dash ignored the voice coming from the other room. She had been so caught up in her scheming that she had almost forgotten her responsibilities as librarian. After all, who hung out at library by themselves on Hearts and Hooves Day? A second calling, however, snapped Dash back to reality and she hurried to see who it was.

“Just a minor setback Dash,” the pegasus reassured herself. “Just help her find her books, close up the library for a few hours, and then you can begin Operation: Farmer’s Market.” That plan, however, nearly went out the metaphorical window when she saw who it was waiting for her.

A pegasus was waiting patiently in the main hall, casually browsing through a few of the shelves but making no attempt to look at the titles more closely. Dash recognized her immediately, causing her voice to become violently lodged within her throat. Even with the absence of the trademark sky blue bodyglove, her fiery-tinted mane brushed down, and dark sunglasses obscuring her amber eyes, there wasn’t a chance that Dash would have mistook Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts, for anyone else.

“Of all the book joints in Equestria, why’d she have to walk into mine?” Dash cursed. On any other day, Dash would have been bouncing off the walls as giddy as a schoolfilly, but today was too important to become star-struck.

“There you are. I was beginning to think I had accidentally wandered into somepony’s house and-” Spitfire stopped abruptly when her eyes fell upon the acting-librarian. “Wait a second, you’re Rainbow Dash, right? Since when did you run a library?”

“Oh, this?” Dash remarked as she gestured to her surroundings with forced modesty. The fact alone that the famous Wonderbolt still recognized and even remembered her name was almost enough to permanently etch a grin across her face had willpower not kept her in check. The best way for her to keep a level head was to force herself to act as though she were just talking to any other friend of hers and to anchor herself with indifference. Do what Twilight would do, Dash told herself: be professional; be courteous; and be efficient. “I’m just looking after it for a friend. Now are you looking for anything in particular?”

“Yes, actually. I was wondering if you have a copy Trotting Hill by Hoof Granite?”

“Hm, lemme check,” the librarian replied. The title didn’t sound familiar, but the same could be said for ninety-five percent of the books present. Dash, however, wasn’t going to admit to being clueless in front of another, especially one as famous as Spitfire. One advantage of having a pegasus for a librarian was that they didn’t need ladders to check the high shelves; thus, Dash was able to quickly fly about the library in search of the aforementioned book. “Sooo...what brings you to Ponyville?” Dash asked in an attempt to stave off the silence with some idle conversation. “I would have pegged you as the type to spend Hearts and Hooves in the big city with some hotshot celebrity.”

“Ugh...been there, done that. Not enough wine in Canterlot to repress those memories,” Spitfired said, grimacing at the thought. “I still can’t look at pineapples without feeling queasy.” It took considerable effort for her to push the memories of champagne and an overabundance of citrus fruit out of her mind. “For a change, I’d like spend Hearts and Hooves Day without it being made into a media spectacle. Celestia knows its hard enough trying to find a special somepony without the cameras going off every five second and a dozen gossip columnists speculating over every gesture I make. I figured in Ponyville I’ll actually have a chance to enjoy the day, even if my date only exists on paper.” Despite sounding frustrated by her predicament, Spitfire still managed a slight chuckle at her own expense. Why drag the mood down with complaints, she figured.

“You’re telling me that the single most eligible pegasus in all of Equestria is spending Hearts and Hooves Day alone?” Dash asked incredulously. She would’ve added a remark about her willingness to give up both left hooves for to take Spitfire out, but Dash had found the book that the Wonderbolt had asked for so her mouth became otherwise preoccupied.

“Hey, being famous doesn’t make finding love any easier. It can make the motions go by faster but that’s about it,” the Wonderbolt explained with the confidence that came from many years of experience under her belt. “When you’re a celebrity, ponies already feel like they know you so oftentimes they think they can skip that step of a relationship. But then again I suppose that’s true for any pony. It doesn’t matter how well you knew them before because entering a relationship means having to learn about them on a whole different level.”

Rainbow Dash was a bit surprised to find herself nodding in agreement as she set the book down on a nearby tabletop. That was something that she hadn’t considered before; she couldn’t take her previous friendship with Applejack for granted or as some kind of short-cut. And for a brief moment, it made Dash wonder if she was doing the right thing. Her friendship with Applejack was something to be treasured, and the decision to try and move things beyond that was not one to be made lightly. Dash wondered what Daring Do would consider in this situation, though contemplating the potential choices of a fictional character notorious for recklessness was perhaps an unwise decision.

“So what’s Trotting Hill about?” Dash asked in an attempt to change the subject.

“A small-town bookstore owner whose crumbling love-life suddenly turns about when a big-shot celebrity comes into his store one day.” Suddenly, Spitfire shot a flirtatious gaze as her lips curled into amorous smile. Dash’s eyes widened for an instant as her voice decided to bunker down in her stomach once more. But the Wonderbolt couldn’t hold her composure for more than a second and promptly fell into a fit of laughter. “Sorry about that, couldn’t resist,” she said after stifling a few dying chuckles. “But seriously, that is the premise of the novel. It’s been a favourite of mine since I as a little filly.” She let out a quiet, wistful sigh as her eyes and hoof drifted across the book cover. “It’s funny, when I was younger I had always hoped to be the bookstore owner one day, but now I’m stuck as the big-shot celebrity.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Dash said after she recovered from her momentary dumb-struck stupor.

“It’s not,” Spitfire insisted. “But it’s just that...well, you’ll understand when you’re a Wonderbolt one day.”

Dash’s eyes instantly lit up like beacons. Any pretense of keeping a level head went up in flames as her mind, and ego, shot into the clouds. “You...you really think I’m going to be a Wonderbolt?” she repeated as though her mind was certain that this was only a dream. It wasn’t an open invitation, but the opinion of the team’s captain carried more weight with it than any trophies or awards.

“Are you kidding me?” the captain replied with a hint of amusement. “With a sonic rainboom in your repertoire, it’s only a matter of time. But don’t take that as invitation to slack off - you’ve still got plenty to learn, okay?”

“Praise...too strong...getting distracted! Must...abort!” It took all of her willpower to stop the ear-to-ear grin from snapping her face in half. While listening to Spitfire’s compliments were as addictive as Apple Family cider, Dash had to break free of the Wonderbolt while she still some mental control. “Listen, Spitfire...I really, really wish I could stay and hang out with you some more, but there’s something super important that I have to go do.” Each word felt like tearing a feather from her wings, but Dash knew this was for the best. Loitering with Spitfire would only rob her of valuable time. With any luck, she could potentially catch up with Spitfire later - she’d have to return the book eventually.

“Something important, huh?” Spitfire mused. It was Hearts and Hooves Day and there was a pegasus in front of her eager to get about for ‘super important’ business; even a blind pony could see the writing on the wall. “Off to meet your special somepony?”

Dash flustered at the teasing inquiries. She figured there wasn’t much point in denying the truth when it was obvious to the other pony. “Something like that,” she said while being intentionally sparse on details. “Technically the bachelor’s auction, but I’ve got plans in the works.”

“Then far be it for me to keep your lucky pony waiting.” Spitfire knew better than to stand in the way of young love so she grabbed her book, wished the pegasus good luck, and headed for the exit. “A bachelor auction? Hm, that might not be such a bad idea.” Spitfire knew the odds were rather slim for her finding love on Hearts and Hooves Day, but perhaps she could rent a decent imitation for the night.

If there was one thing that Applejack could always count on, it was that by five minutes after ten in the morning, her vendor’s stall would be completely inundated with hungry ponies. And the fact that it was Hearts and Hooves Day only made that sentiment ring truer. The heart-shaped apple fritter was a particular favourite amongst culinary-inept coltfriends who still wanted to surprise their special somepony with a breakfast in bed, and nothing chased away the ‘still single on Hearts and Hooves’ blues like a hot spiced cider first thing in the morning. Celestia knows that she needed one just to get out of bed.

“H’okay, that’s two pints of cider, two fritters, and an extra large order of apple fries. That’ll be twenty bits,” Applejack said as she carefully packaged the goods into a convenient, easy-to-carry box. Once she had the money, she pushed the box to the side and shouted, “Next!”

The line stretched as far as Applejack could see and, knowing how things went last year, it likely continued around the block and looped back on itself. But the work kept her mind preoccupied and free from distracting thoughts about peculiar pegasus. The next customer trotted up and ordered a half-dozen fritters, and like everypony before him, insisted that he was in a hurry. Who wasn’t in a hurry these days? Undaunted, Applejack filled out the next order with speed and precision.

“Twelve bits,” she said as she rang up the order.

Next order: one heart-shaped apple pie.

After that, a dozen apple dumplings.

Then two hot ciders and a pie.

“Hey sis!” a familiar voice popped up. It was followed a moment later by the bow-adorned head of the youngest pony of the Apple family.

“What is it, Applebloom?” the elder sister replied, indifferent to the filly’s sudden arrival. Despite the interruption, she didn’t miss a step in the current transaction, sweeping up a pile of coins and waving the next customer up. At the very least, the filly’s presence offered a slight break from the monotony.

“Oh, well there’s this...um, thing at...uh, school that Ms. Cheerilee wants to do,” Applebloom began. “A...um, field trip. Yeah, a field trip!”

“That’s nice.” As Applebloom had hoped for, her sister was so focused on filling out each customer’s order that she was barely paying even a wink of attention to what was being said. She could have told Applejack that the farm was on fire and it probably would have prompted the same response.

“We...er, I just need you to sign this consent form,” she continued as she took out a scrolled up paper and set it down on the cart.

“Ask yer brother,” Applejack replied as she loaded another box full of apple dumplings.

“He’s...busy,” the filly lied. Thankfully, her sister was still far too distracted to scrutinize.

“Can’t this wait? Ah’m a little busy.” Impatience and ire were beginning to surface, which meant it was time to for Applebloom to break out the coup de grace.

“But I needs it now!” she whined, stomping her hooves and ensure her voice was loud enough to project all the way to the back of the line. “If I don’t get it signed, then Ms. Cheerilee will take everypony else on the trip and I’ll be stuck all alone in the schoolhouse!”

Years of being an older sister and still she had no defense when Applebloom started to whine at full force. The added pressure of all the disapproving glares of impatient customers shattered the pony’s stubbornness like a walnut beneath her hoof. “Okay! Okay! Ah’ll sign the blasted form,” she snapped. It was far easier to give into the filly’s demand than divide her attention. And if the whining continued, Applejack would surely start losing customers.

With a triumphant grin, Applebloom nudged the paper towards her sister, who scribbled her signature across it without even reading it over. With the paper secured, she was more than willing to give her sister the space she needed to work; plus, if Applebloom stayed any longer, she’d burst out into a gleeful laugh and that would blow the entire operation. Once the vendor’s stall was out of sight, the giddy filly broke into a sprint.

So excited was the pony that she could barely contain it when she burst into the library shouting, “I got it, Dash! I got it!”

“Awesome!” the pegasus exclaimed as she flew over to meet her. “And she doesn’t suspect anything?”

“Nope, she’s none the wiser,” Applebloom boasted before producing a auction sign-up sheet that was now complete with Applejack’s signature. “So now all we need to do is get Applejack to the auction and then she’ll get to have her own special somepony! Oh, I just can’t wait to find out who it’s gonna be!”

The passionate exuberance of youth was precisely why Dash had gone to Applebloom for assistance. It took very little to convince her to join up, especially when it was explained that the main objective was to find Applejack a date for Hearts and Hooves Day. What younger sister didn’t love meddling in the affairs of their siblings? And since Applebloom was still firing on all cylinders, Dash had no intention of letting this resource go unexploited.

“Okay Applebloom, it’s time for phase two of Operation: Farmer’s Market!”

“I thought you were dead!”

“For a while, so did I. But the thought of seeing your beautiful face once more gave me the strength to drag myself out from that ditch.”

Though his muscles ached and every breath made lungs burn, the rugged stallion could not hold back his desire any longer. He lunged forth like a bestial predator, forcing Lady Stirling Silver to the bed with a fervent kiss. Driven by his primal desires, he tore the dress from her delicate frame, revealing the curvaceous young mare that his body had longed for. And she, too, longed for him. A fire burned deep within her loins, yearning for the feel of his-

“Hey sis, what’cha reading?”

The suddenness in which her younger sister popped out of nowhere, shattering the tranquility of the marketplace, caught Applejack completely off-guard. She was barely able to yelp out a ‘nothing’ before her sister’s prying eyes forced her to slam the book shut. “Oh, uhhh...h-hey Applebloom, what are you doing here again?” Applejack said with a nervous chuckle.

By mid-day, the hordes of customers that had swamped the marketplace earlier had dispersed. Normally there would be a lunchtime rush but given the nature of the holiday, most of the cafes and restaurants were seeing a surge in business rather than the lone food vendor. It gave her time to rest and catch up on her reading before the mid-afternoon crowds started to return.

“What’cha got there?” Applebloom asked, once again inquiring about the book the her sister seemed intent on keeping away from her. She had both hooves over the cover and every time Applebloom shifted position to get a better view, her sister moved the book away.

“It’s nothing,” her sister insisted. While outright lying was tough for her, Applejack had no qualms about deflecting the truth. “It’s just a book; a grown-up book.” She should’ve known better than to use that as a reason to dissuade her sister. Since when did youth ever stop Applebloom?

“A grown-up book, huh?” Applebloom mused, flaunting her indifference to her sister’s authority. The filly continued in her attempts to get a closer look at the book but her sister’s superior reach kept the book a safe distance at all times. Suddenly, Applebloom shifted her gaze to something past her sister, eyes widening in horror. “Oh my goodness, is that Granny Smith on the ground?” she gasped with an outstretched hoof.

“Granny Smith? Whe-?” No sooner had Applejack turned her head in the direction her sister had pointed towards did she regret that decision. To absolutely nopony’s surprise, there was no Granny Smith - just a wall-eyed pegasus chewing on a muffin. And judging by the sounds of hurried hoofsteps and a taunting giggle, Applebloom, and her book, were already half-way down the block. “Applebloom, you get back here right this instant!” she shouted as she leapt over the counter and gave chase. In all honesty, she didn’t care too much for the book, but if her little sister started reading it and if Big Macintosh found out, Applejack would be doing double-chores until the next applebuck season.

Yet despite being one of the most athletic ponies in town, the pint-sized thief was somehow able to elude her. She had managed to keep her sister in sight but upon reaching the town square, she lost Applebloom in the crowds. “How in tarnation can somepony with such stubby legs run so fast?” she pondered. The large crowd of ponies, gathered around a raised platform for reasons unknown to her, made for an near-impassible barrier, forcing Applejack to slow to a crawl in order to safely worm her way through. She was about half-way through, deep in the sea of ponies, when she heard a voice calling out ‘found her!’

“Applejack, there you are!” sounded a familiar, authoritative voice. Standing behind a podium on stage and beckoning the orchard farmer to approach was none other than the Mayor of Ponyville. “We were beginning to worry that you had forgotten.”

Now Applejack was absolutely certain that there was nothing for her to have ‘forgotten’ but that didn’t stop her from erring on the side of caution. “What? Me forget? Ah’d never do that,” Applejack replied. She didn’t recall making any sort of commitments to the Mayor, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility either. Between the library and the farm, a promise made weeks ago could easily have slipped her mind. She knew she should have just left it alone but since she had already said otherwise, Applejack had little choice but to play along and trot onto the stage. Her only hope was to feign comprehension until the answers presented themselves. From what she could tell, it was some kind of ceremony or celebration, as she appeared to be the only other pony on stage and all eyes were set on her. Did the Mayor decide to give her another trophy?

“Okay everypony,” the Mayor addressed the crowd, “I apologize for the delay but we can finally resume with our next lovely and eligible bachelorette.”

“Bachelorette?” Applejack was certain that she would’ve remembered agreeing to something involving that particular term.

“Now she’s a pony who needs no introduction...but I’m giving you all one anyways. She’s the five-time champion of the Ponyville rodeo. She enjoys baking, apple ciders, and long walks through the orchard. She is the face of Sweet Apple Acres, and without a doubt, the friendliest, most, honest, most dependable pony in all of Ponyville - I present to you, fillies and gentlecolts, Miss Applejack of the Apple family!”

“Pardon me, Miss Mayor,” Applejack interrupted in a whisper as she pulled the Mayor away from the podium, “now Ah don’t want to sound ungrateful after that nice little introduction speech but...what exactly is going on here?”

“Have you been working too hard again? It’s the Charity Bachelor Auction,” the Mayor replied as though this fact should have been plain to see. In fact, it was plain to see since it was written across the large banner that spanned overhead.

“A-auction?” the farmer repeated in disbelief. “Ah...Ah think there must be some mistake.”

“Mistake? This is your signature, is it not?” the Mayor asked as she produced Applejack’s application form.

It only took a quick glance for her to deduce how her signature had wound up on the application form. Sadly, blaming this mess of Applebloom would come across as a cowardly cop-out. On top of that, this was for charity, and Applejack was hesitant to disappoint the Mayor a second time over promised money. “Well...yes, that is but-”

“Excellent.” The Mayor seemed very eager to resume the auction as she hadn’t even waited for Applejack to finish before returning to the podium. “Now everypony, we shall start the bidding at ten bits. Do I hear ten bits?”

Applejack was convinced this ordeal was going to be a brutalizing lesson in humility for her. Few things torpedoed your self-worth like attaching a monetary value. But despite her misgivings, and a growing voice in her mind telling her to run, she found her hooves to be all but cemented to the stage. She was too terrified to do anything but hide behind a forced smile.

To her surprise, however, the hooves began to shoot up and in startling numbers. Within the first few seconds, Applejack could have sworn she saw at least twenty separate hooves making a bid. By the time the price passed fifty bits, the number of bidders had dwindled to about a half-dozen. Unbeknown to her, one of the hooves belonged to Rainbow Dash. The pegasus had scrounged up every bit to her name in preparation for the auction, and she wasn’t leaving until she had what she came for; failure was not option. The bidding war continued unabated, the price jumping in small increments that snowballed into large sums. After a hundred bits, another two of Dash’s competitors had dropped out, but Dash was growing nervous; she had only a hundred and fifty bits to spend and the other bidders showed signs of giving up.

“This is getting bad! Why did I have to blow my last paycheck on that replica Daring Do safari helmet?”

“Rainbow Dash? What in Celestia’s name are you doing here?” The pegasus almost jumped out of her skin when Rarity’s voice perked up behind her. She froze on the spot, her hoof still raised in the air from her previous bid. “Are you...bidding on the auction?”

“No! I mean yes! I mean...I’ll explain later.” Dash realized there was little point in trying to deny what was plainly obvious. But Rarity’s arrival proved to fortuitous as the ongoing bidding war was about to breach Dash’s budget. “Quick, Rarity, I need to borrow some money!” she said as she turned to her friend with pleading eyes.

Now Rarity had only just been passing by on her way home when she caught sight of her friend at the bachelor’s auction; she still had little idea what had gotten Dash so desperate for money until she glanced up to the stage and saw...Applejack? Now Rarity was truly confused, but Dash appeared to be in genuine need. “Very well then, how much do you need?”

“Whatever you can spare,” Dash asked with ever-increasing anxiety. Her eyes bounced back and forth between the stage and her friend, who had pulled out a coin purse to count what remained.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much on me; only about thirty bits.”

“That’ll do! Thanks!” It was a good thing that Rarity didn’t thrive off gratitude as Dash snatched the coin purse from her with a half-second ‘thanks.’

While she had been en route to return home, Rarity’s curiosity was piqued and would not allow her to leave until it was sated. She watched as Dash resumed bidding, only to have her hopes crushed as the rising price devoured the additional funds in seconds. When her friend’s face dropped as failure seemed all but certain, Rarity knew she could not stand idly by and watch her go down in flames. Just as the bidding past two hundred bits, forcing all but one of the contenders out, Rarity pushed her friend’s hoof back into the air.

“Hey wait, Rarity! What are you doing?” Dash asked, caught by surprise once again by the unicorn.

“I have more money at the boutique,” she explained, “you can pay me back later.”

Her friend’s generosity left Rainbow Dash speechless for a moment. “Thanks,” she said when she finally managed to find her words, “this really means a lot.”

“I could tell.”

With a renewed sense of hope, Dash continued her aggressive bidding war. She could just see the yellow hoof on the far side of the crowd popping up mere seconds after every bid Dash made. Her competitive spirit refused to yield, much to the chagrin of Rarity’s bank account as the bid continued to climb.

“It’s no good, he’s outbidding me at every step,” Dash grumbled in aggravation. One could usually tell when a bidder was nearing their end as they spent more time deliberating every raise, but Dash’s opponent still did not hesitate.

“Then we’ll have to go with shock and awe,” Rarity replied. “Five hundred bits!” Her announcement sent a ripple of gasps through the crowds. Even Applejack, who couldn’t even clearly see who had just made the outrageous bid, though the voice did sound familiar, was left stunned. “Let’s see him top that,” the unicorn chuckled to herself in triumph. Silence overtook the crowd as a few heads turned towards the other bidder. On stage, the Mayor called out for any further bids, her gavel raised to finalize the deal.

“One thousand bits!”

Elation turned into crushing despair in a second as Dash’s jaw fell open, along with everypony else’s. This was it, she realized - this was how it would end. And the worse feeling of all was that if the other pony had no qualms about dropping a thousand bits on an auction, then Dash never stood a chance from the beginning. Even Rarity was surprised; few residents of Ponyville had that kind of coin to drop and she could not imagine any of them having the want or the need for the auction block. Every pony was wondering who was behind this colossal bid, and when Dash flew up a few feet to see over the crowds, she was the first to recognize the pony.

“Spitfire!”

Ch. 4 - 3:10 To Yummy

“And that was when I came up with the idea for the auction, which, as you saw, was a complete and total disaster.”

“Dash, dearie, I know things didn’t turn out as you had planned but this is not the end of the world,” Rarity said as she gave her friend a reassuring pat on the back. After the horrific failure of Dash’s plans, the pair had retired to the Carousel Boutique where Rarity had done her best to console her friend with tea and cookies. “To be honest, I had hoped when this day came you would have handled it a bit more...sensibly. I wish you had come to me first.”

“Wait? You knew this was going to happen?” Dash asked. While Dash and Rarity were friends, the two weren’t what one would call ‘close friends.’ In fact, aside from their overlapping circles of friends, the two had very little in common. It worried Dash because if Rarity foresaw this then how many of her other friends did too? For all Dash knew, it could’ve been the subject of idle gossip all across Ponyville. What if everypony knew already? When that thought passed through the pegasus’ mind, she quickly drowned it in tea. She couldn’t allow herself to get hung up on ‘what ifs.’

“Why wouldn’t I?” her friend answered as though it should’ve been obvious. Since Dash was still visibly confused, she took the liberty to elaborate. “It’s all about body language, like how Applejack can’t look you in the eye when she’s lying. It’s those little details that you don’t think about that are most telling.” And with Dash rarely thinking about most things she did, Rarity had plenty to work with. “It’s things like how you typically focus your attention on Applejack whenever she’s in the room; how her words hold your attention longer than other ponies; or how you always seem to be more boastful when she’s nearby. Small acts that, when taken together, point to something greater.”

“You...noticed all that?” Dash remarked in disbelief.

“Darling, I did not get half of Canterlot’s elite wrapped around my hoof just from good looks alone,” Rarity said with an almost devious chuckle. “An eye for detail is beneficial for more than just designing clothes. Now perhaps you could speak with Spitfire and explain the situation. It’s doubtful that she even saw you at the auction, let alone that you were her competitor.”

“What’s the use? The plan is ruined already; the element of surprise has been lost, and any chance of impressing Applejack has gone up in flames.” Despite the repeated attempts at reassurance, Dash seemed intent on lamenting her fate. She knew deep in her heart that Rarity was correct, but even if it wasn’t the end of the world, it still presented a huge obstacle for her. “And Spitfire and I are so alike! If she goes on a date with her and hates it, then she’ll never want to bother going out with me. And if she does like dating Spitfire then what chance do I have against a big-time celebrity like her? What am I going to do now?”

“Do you really want my advice?” the unicorn replied, setting her tea cup down on the table. The calm severity of her tone told Dash that what was about to be said was not something she’d enjoy hearing, but bitter medicine was better than nothing so she agreed. “Applejack is, first and foremost, your friend. And as her friend, you should be helpful and supportive of her endeavours, even if they are not exactly what you desire.” Rarity paused briefly as she took another sip of her tea, draining what was left in it, and then began to pour herself a second cup. “Be there for her when she needs you...at this point it is the only thing you can do as her friend. And if need be, be happy for her. If you and her were meant to be, then things will work out in the end.”

As Dash had suspected, it wasn’t the brand of advice that she had wanted to hear. But Dash was willing to surrender to the fact that Rarity was more astute to what lurked within a pony’s heart. With a sigh of resignation, the pegasus got up from the table. “You’re probably right,” she murmured. “Thanks for the tea. I’m gonna go...do...stuff now.”

“It will get better, dear, I promise you,” Rarity reassured her. “Now, if you see Applejack, please send her my way. She’ll need to look her best for tonight.”

The night brought a sharp change to the desert landscape. Sweltering heat had been replaced with a biting chill; the inescapable sun now shrouded by darkness with only a sliver of the moon to provide to any natural lighting; and the spirits of honour and justice had gone to bed with the rest of the ponies in the tiny frontier town of Silverstone. The only souls that lingered were creatures with malice in their hearts...and a nameless mare with only one goal in mind.

“Comfortable up there?” the mare asked as she climbed down from the water tower on the outskirts of town. She had done her best to make the process as comfortable as possible but there was only so much one pony could do when they string a goat up by the fetlocks from a water tower. Nonetheless, Blondie had strung the goat up by all four legs, ensuring that his weight was evenly distributed. There was no point torturing the goat - not until the situation called for it.

“Let me down from here you rotten little mule!” the goat shouted angrily, struggling in vain against the ropes. Such ingratitude after all the trouble she had gone through to ensure that hanging from the ropes wouldn’t dislocate a joint or something equally unpleasant. It made Blondie question the kind of world she lived in where such vitriol could be slung about so haphazardly.

“Well ain’t you just the sweet-talker?” she quipped as she trotted over so that she standing next to the suspended goat. “Listen ya dirty little thief, Ah’d love to a right-proper chit-chat with y’all, but Ah’m on a tight schedule. So let’s keep this simple, shall we? Where’s the amulet?”

“I ain’t got nuttin’ to say to you!” the goat spat in defiance. “And nuttin’ you can do will make me talk!”

The nameless pony let out a sigh upon the quick breakdown in negotiations. If she had a bit for every time a goat or pony said that, she would’ve been able to retire years ago. However, those years of experience were what made her so ruthlessly efficient at her job. “Oh, Ah don’t need to do anything,” she said as she motioned for the goat to look at the train tracks that he was hanging over, “the train will take care of that.” Almost as if on cue, a faint shrill of a train whistle rang out from afar accompanied shortly thereafter by a glimpse of the iron behemoth in the distance.

“You...you wouldn’t. You’re crazy!”

“No I’m not,” Blondie disagreed with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Now the price of bullets, that’s crazy. Ah mean, it’s one bit for five bullets...but mah gun takes six so Ah need to buy two bits worth of bullets just to have a full cylinder, and five bits worth if Ah don’t want to wind up with an odd-number of bullets left-over. Now that is just plain greedy if y’all ask me.”

As the mare continued ranting on about the price of guns and butter, the goat’s attention was fixated on the oncoming train. He realized that the pony might be crazy, but she was also the only thing standing between him and being pulverized by a locomotive. “Okay! Okay! I’ll talk, just cut me down!”

“What? But we are talking,” the mare replied, seemingly oblivious to the approaching train. “Umm, what were we talking about again? Oh, Ah remember now - so nowadays, most bullets are manufactured out east in bulk quantities using them newfangled machines. Supply is sky-rocketing but there’s now an added expense of shipping bullets west and an increased in demand due to-”

The goat couldn’t understand what madness had gripped the mare, but her distraction was all part of a ploy then it was working flawlessly. The oncoming train had no concern over the price of bullets as it barreled towards the dangling goat. “Billy has the amulet! I gave it to Billy the Kid! Just let me down already, please!”

Rather than take the time to climb up and cut the goat down or waste bullets trying to shoot the rope, Blondie gave the goat a mighty kick before she hopped off the tracks. The goat swung wide of the train, narrowly missing the iron behemoth, but as the old adage went ‘what goes up must come down.’ Thus, the goat eventually swung back down, slamming into the side of the train and was knocked about as the train sped past. After being bounced off the side of the train about a dozen times, the locomotive finally passed, leaving the now train-tenderized goat dangling once again over empty tracks.

“Ah couldn’t quite hear you over the train,” the mare said as she walked back. “Did you just say you gave the amulet to Billy the Kid? As in ‘most wanted goat in the west’ Billy the Kid?”

The dangling goat nodded. “And he’s gonna make you pay when he finds out you treated me like this!”

“Like Ah haven’t heard that one before.” Blondie was clearly indifferent to the threat. In fact, the new development just meant she could collect the bounty on Billy the Kid and get the amulet back. It would be a double payday. “Well Billy couldn’t have gotten very far. He’s probably still in town.”

“Um...you’re going to cut me down now, right?”

“Yeah, yeah...one second, Ah’m thinking.” There wasn’t much in town that would be of use to an outlaw. Chances were if he came across something as valuable as an ancient amulet, the first he’d do is hit the saloon to celebrate. It’d be even more likely that Billy wouldn’t be alone but Blondie figured the element of surprise and their inebriated state would tip the scale in her favour. A couple of gunshots, a few choice words, and maybe a hoof or two to the face, and she’d have that amulet before sunrise and a sizable for herself. This disaster was turning out to be very profitable for her. If all went well, she’d have to send Daring a ‘thank you’ note. “Well, Ah’d best go find him before he hops a train outta town,” she finally concluded before she started off back into town.

“Hey! What about me?”

“Quit yer belly-achin’, Ah’ll come back ‘fore the next train shows up.”

By the time Daring had managed to drag herself through the desert and back to town, darkness had already enveloped the landscape. She was tired, thirsty, and hellbent on giving a certain nameless pony a piece of her mind. Daring hadn’t been this fixated on a pony since the time she went delirious on tree frog posion and spent an afternoon chasing after Lord Flufflepuff, even though he had been dead for three hundred years. She couldn’t let the nameless mare get to the amulet before her if for no other reason than wounded pride. But there was a whole town to scour and Blondie has had several hours advantage over her. Tracking down priceless artifacts was one thing, but a single pony was far trickier. Daring wasn’t even certain where to start looking.

That was until, while wandering down the main drag of town, she heard a loud commotion, followed by a scream and a random pony crashing through a nearby window. A cursory glance at the building that belched forth the pony suggested it was a saloon of some sort. It couldn’t have been a mere coincidence. Daring flew over to the pony that was still face down in the dust and gave him a few inquisitive prods to see if he was still conscious. Thankfully, his headlong voyage through the glass pane hadn’t done any lasting damage to the pony, who stirred and groaned before opening his eyes.

“Blond mane and orange pelt,” Daring asked as casual as one would ask for the time. “Seen her?”

The pony pointed towards the saloon as Daring had expected. How wonderfully convenient, the archaeologist thought. However, the idea of walking into what sounded like a bar brawl in full bloom seemed unwise, even by her standards. Instead, with cautious steps she crept up to the shattered window and peered inside. To no surprise, Blondie appeared to be at the epicenter of the commotion, held upside-down by the tail at the hands of a towering minotaur. And all around them ponies and goats were duking it out in a wild, drunken free-for-all.

“Billy the Kid doesn’t like no ponies nosing around his business!” the minotaur bellowed as he held the nameless mare up to his face.

“Yeah? Well next time you see him, y’all can tell Billy that if he wants to stay a free goat, he best steer clear of me,” Blondie snapped back. The mare grabbed the closest object within reach, a bottle of bourbon, and smashed into him, sending a spray of glass and liquor across his face. That only seemed to annoy the monstrosity, who returned the gesture in kind by bashing the pony’s head on the floor. A stunning hit but the mare managed to maintain her composure.

“Any other requests?” the minotaur laughed.

“Just one...got a light?” The nameless mare quickly reached into her coat and pulled out a match. The minotaur was confused at first but the realization that his face had been soaked in flammable bourbon didn’t strike him until the lit match did. The brawl came to a screeching halt as all eyes turned to the flaming bull that was screaming and flailing wildly before barreling out the door towards the nearest water trough. A pervasive silence swept over the saloon, all attention fixed onto the nameless pony who was now dusting herself off. “Anyone else need a drink?” she asked as she returned her stetson to its rightful perch. Construed as a threat, there was a mass exodus as every goat and pony bolted for the exit. “That’s more like it,” the mare quipped as she strolled over to the deserted bar and helped herself to a fresh bottle from the counter.

As the storm had passed, Daring decided to confront the mare. Given the empty saloon, there was little chance of sneaking up on the pony so Daring opted instead to simply fly in through the window. If Blondie tried to flee, Daring had the advantage of flight and speed over her. A disappointed sigh escaped her lips when she took a look to the state of disarray the saloon was now in: overturned tables, broken bottles, smashed chairs, and the stench of liquor and burnt bull that clung to the air like a bur. Did this no-named mare leave nothing but chaos and destruction in her wake? Daring knew if she wasn’t careful, she risked getting caught in this equine typhoon.

“Well look what the cat finally dragged in,” the earth pony commented when she noticed Daring flying in. “Ah was wondering when y’all would catch up.” She made no attempts to run and instead hopped behind the counter. “Applejack?” she asked as she produced a pair of glasses.

“I beg your pardon?” Daring replied as she set down opposite of the mare. A directive flick of the nameless pony’s head brought Daring’s gaze to the nearby bottle of applejack. “Oh...um, okay, I guess.” As Blondie poured out a couple glasses of the golden brown liquor, Daring slammed a knife into the wooden counter-top. “I believe this belongs to you.”

The nameless mare was unresponsive to the knife’s presence since her concern would only have been piqued had the knife been directed at her rather than a wooden counter. “Oh don’t get yer feathers get in a ruffle. From what Ah’ve heard, you’ve gotten out situations far worse than a little rope and a long walk,” she said before she calmly slid a glass over to the pegasus. The contents of the glass, however, were immediately thrown into the mare’s face. “Ah guess Ah deserved that,” she muttered unfazed.

“That was for leaving me tied up in the middle of nowhere.”

“Figured that would’ve been for kissing you.”

“Oh right.” Daring grabbed the second glass, dispensed it in a similar fashion as the previous, and then smacked her across the face. “That’s for kissing me.” It wasn’t the exact brand of revenge that Daring had wanted to enact but anything more risked angering the heavily-armed pony.

Surprisingly, the pony seemed indifferent to Daring’s treatment; in fact, the mare just smirked and poured herself a fresh glass. “Normally Ah wouldn’t let a pony get away with that, but Ah’m in a good mood,” she said as she downed the contents of her glass in one gulp. Daring’s curiosity as to the cause of the pony’s good spirits were answered when she produced an amulet from her coat. It was made of sterling silver, shaped like a radiant sun, and adorned with a massive ruby in the center. “Grabbed it off that big, ugly minotaur you saw running out a few seconds ago. Not too shabby, huh?”

But while the nameless mare looked upon it with a self-aggrandizing grin, Daring could only manage a tired glare of disapproval. “That’s not it.”

“What do you mean ‘that’s not it’?”

“As in the Amulet of the Equilla is made of gold, not silver. Does your pea-sized brain even know what it looks like?”

The nameless mare gave Daring an incredulous look before turning her attention back to the amulet hanging from her hoof. “Then what in the hay is this thingie?”

Daring let out a frustrated sigh as she snatched the amulet away. There was no point going into detail as it would have been like trying to explain Artitrotle to an illiterate cavepony, which she was convinced was an accurate description of the earth pony. “It’s called the Celestial Heart. It was probably in the tomb with the Amulet of the Equilla.”

Needless to say, the no-named mare was not pleased to hear this. Her first attempt to quell her temper involved downing almost half the bottle of applejack in one prolonged swig, but when that failed she chucked it against the wall and stormed out of the saloon. Since Blondie’s interest in the silver amulet ended with the revelation of its true identity, Daring saw no harm in stashing it away inside her pith helmet before going after the other pony. It may have not been their intended prize but it was a valuable artifact nonetheless.

“So you’re the tracker, where do we go from here?” Daring asked when she caught up to Blondie outside the saloon.

“What’s with this ‘we’ business?”

“Well judging by your haste, you must have a solid lead,” the pegasus explained, “and since I know what the amulet actually looks like, it only makes sense that we pool our knowledge.” Or at least her knowledge and whatever the heck it was that Blondie possessed. It was tempting to let the mare walk off blindly, but Blondie might not know the Amulet of the Equilla from a bottlecap necklace. The odds that she’d screw up twice were slim but were significant enough to warrant her involvement. She was still Daring’s best chance to get to the amulet.

The earth pony looked visibly irked by the proposition but the sigh of resignation told Daring that even an imbecile could recognize logic. “Fine, but Ah’m still delivering it to Mr. Moneybags.”

“So long as it doesn’t wind up on some black market or being smelted down,” Daring agreed. Whoever had the amulet likely had no realization of its significance and would pawn it off to the highest bidder, or worse, break it down and sell its individual metals and gems for even greater profit. Neither prospect appealed to the archaeologist.

Blondie motioned for the pegasus to follow along as she started a hastened trot. “The amulet is in the hooves of one Billy the Kid,” she explained in transit. “He’s an outlaw in these parts and wanted for a whole slew of crimes. That big bull you saw was one of his crew so he’s still in town but Ah reckon that he’s already caught wind of what happened here. He’ll high-tail it outta town as quickly as possible, which means he’ll be hopping onto the next train outta town.”

After a quick glance to her watch, the pony quickened her pace. The train would be departing shortly and the sounding steam whistle in the distance only confirmed the sense of urgency. By the time the pair managed to reach the far side of town where the station was, their train was already beginning to pull out. Daring and Blondie hustled to catch up with the train, but the long trek through the desert had left Daring fatigued and she began to lag behind. The other pony had no trouble keeping pace with the accelerating train, jumping onto the rear platform of the caboose with ease. With every passing second, the train picked up more speed and even with Daring mustering all her remaining strength to keep up, she was just out of reach of the caboose’s railings. That was until the nameless pony reached out and hooked her hooves around Daring’s. With one final combined effort, Daring was pulled over the railing, landing atop of Blondie in the process.

“Thanks,” Daring said between heaving breaths.

“Don’t make a habit of this,” Blondie grumbled as she got back up. “If you want to tag along, y’all gotta pull your own weight.”

“I can take care of myself,” the pegasus insisted with a touch of indignation. She would have said more but was stopped when a strange odour hit her nostrils like a slap to the face. “What is that horrid smell?”

“Well pardon me Miss Fancy Pants but running water ain’t exactly common ‘round these parts,” the nameless mare snapped back before the same odour hit her. It was strangely unique and the familiarity prompted the mare to glance behind her. “Or maybe it’s a burnt, six-hundred pound minotaur.”

“Yeah, I thought I recognized it...oh, shoot.” The implications didn’t set in for Daring until after the giant beast had grabbed both ponies by the tail and hoisted them off their feet. Judging by his black, singed face, it was the same minotaur that Blondie had quarreled with in the saloon.

“Dang, you just took ugly to a whole new level,” Blondie taunted. So undaunted by the situation, the mare laughed heartily in the minotaur’s face and flicked the brass ring through his nose. “Normally folks look prettier after a shot of bourbon.”

“You sure it’s a smart idea to be taunting a bull?”

“Minotaur. And don’t worry, Ah’ve got this,” Blondie said as she drew her revolver. Unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance to use it as the minotaur knocked their heads together, causing the earth pony to drop her weapon.

“I’m going to enjoy stomping yer guts out!” the minotaur sneered before he threw the pair to the far side of the caboose.

“I hope that wasn’t the extent of your plan,” Daring groaned.

“It’s a work in progress,” Blondie insisted as she got up and straightened her hat. The mare took a quick glance to her surroundings in hopes of spotting something to help tip the odds in her favour. However, there wasn’t much in the caboose: a few beds, a work desk, an old lantern, and a cast iron stove in the corner. There wasn’t enough room to wield her rifle properly so her options were limited. “Just stay outta mah way,” she warned Daring before she grabbed an iron stoker from beside the stove. Not one to argue with anypony willing to stand between her and a six-hundred pound bull, Daring was more than willing to let the other pony handle the situation.

After a stomp of his hooves and an angry snort, the minotaur charged at the nameless mare. Thanks to the small confines limiting the bull’s speed, Blondie was able to vault over her opponent as he stooped down to bring his horns to bear. As she passed overhead, she reached out with the stoker and hooked onto one of his horns, allowing her to swing onto his upper back. The minotaur let out an enraged roar as the mare pressed the stoker across his throat. He thrashed about the room trying to shake the mare off his back, but when failed to work, he slammed his back, and Blondie, against the wall. Despite her tenacity, after the fourth hit, the mare lost her grip and fell to the floor.

“Enough nonsense from you,” the minotaur growled. He stomped his hoof onto her chest and slowly began to add his weight to it. Feeling her ribs almost ready to buckle under the pressure, Blondie reached once more for the stoker, this time grabbing it by the business end and swinging the heavy brass handle straight up into the minotaur’s nether regions. And Blondie didn’t just hit him once or twice; she kept swinging until the minotaur could take no more. He muttered a faint ‘mommy’ moments before he crumpled like a damp rag, narrowly landing atop the earth pony.

Content with her victory, the mare slowly got back to her feet, groaning all the while. “Now that’s how you wrangle a bull,” Blondie muttered under her breath. “Told y’all Ah could handle it,” she added as she shot a grin over to Daring...only to notice that Daring wasn’t the train car anymore. In fact, Daring was standing in the doorway of the next car, which happened to be slowly pulling away from the detached caboose.

“Sorry Blondie, but artifact recovery is my territory. You’d just get in my way. Don’t worry, though, when I deliver it to the museum I’ll make sure they note your assistance in the records!”

If they were supposed to be together, things would work out in the end. Unsurprisingly, Rarity’s advice did little to reassure the pegasus that things would improve on their own. Dash was not a pony that considered ‘waiting’ to be a viable solution to any problem. And why should she? If she had the power and opportunity to change things then why shouldn’t she? Victory never came to those who waited. And Daring Do never sat around and ‘hoped for the best.’ She always had a cunning plan ready to be sprung at just the right moment.

Sadly, as the pegasus set her book aside, she realized that her options truly were limited. She tried to placate herself with reassurances that nothing serious could possibly come from a bachelor auction. It was, after all, Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts. She didn’t know Applejack like Dash did so what interest could she ever have in a simple farmer from Ponyville? Lacking the motivation to rise from the pillow she sat upon, Rainbow Dash didn’t react when she heard the front door of the library swing open.

“Welcome to the Ponyville library,” Dash droned out a template greeting without even looking up. She didn’t even have the energy to feign sincerity. “If you need any help just let me know.”

“Dash, Ah really need your help right now!” Applejack’s familiar voice brought sudden life to the pegasus. Her eyes shot up to the pony standing before her that looked as though she had just been chased into the library by a bear. “Y’ain’t going to believe what just happened to me today.”

Dash was almost about to answer that she did, in fact, know, but she realized that keeping Applejack oblivious to her involvement was for the best. Apparently, as far as the farmer was aware, Rainbow Dash had been in the library all day long as she had promised. “What? Did you into a fight with the pear vendors again?”

“What? No! It’s worse than that,” Applejack replied as she began to nervously pace about the room. “Oh where do Ah begin? First there was this paperwork Applebloom got me to sign...and then mah book got stolen by her. And then the Mayor called me onto the stage...” If Dash hadn’t already been aware of the situation, she never would have been able to figure out what was going on as Applejack bounced from one point to the next in a frantic, haphazard manner of story-telling.

To reinforce the pretense that she was supposed to be oblivious to this, Dash rose from her cushion and flew in front of the pacing pony. “What are you going on about? You’re not making a lick of sense.”

Dash’s presence appeared to have a calming effect on the other pony. It was a slight one but enough to focus her words. “Applebloom tricked me into some kind of bachelor auction. She fooled me into signing the paperwork and lured me out to the stage! Ah was...Ah had never been so scared and nervous in mah life...standing up on that stage with dozens of ponies looking at me like Ah was some kinda trophy.”

“Th-that sounds crazy. I mean, why would she do something like that?” Dash jested. She was more than content to let Applebloom take the blame for the incident. But it would only be a matter of time before the younger sibling confessed to the full extent of the plan. “So tell me what happened next.”

“Ah...Ah fetched a thousand bits, Dash. A thousand!” Applejack could barely wrap her mind around such a large sum of money, let alone to toss it down as casually as one would buy a cup of tea.

“Wow, that’s pretty impressive. You should be real proud of that.” Though it was hard for Dash to fake any sense of surprise or awe, the other pony was so distracted that she barely noticed the betrayal in her tone.

“Ah know Ah should. The mayor said it was a record - that it was more than every other pony put together. But that ain’t even the craziest part!” The more the pony talked, the more her nerve started to betray her. She began pacing about the room again, stopping periodically to wring her hooves in futile attempts to regain control. “The winning bid...was from Spitfire.”

“You mean the Spitfire?” Dash had held onto the faint hope that Spitfire would use a pseudonym to keep under the radar but that was not to be.

“Ah know! It’s crazy! Oh sweet Celestia, what am Ah going to do? Ah...Ah can’t go out with another mare!”

For the first time in the conversation, Dash was genuinely surprised by her friend’s reaction. “What do you mean you can’t go out with another mare? You have something against that?”

“N-no, Ah didn’t mean it like that,” she replied. Her face dropped in reluctant shame, which was at least a step up from nervous pacing. “Ah ain’t got nuttin’ against mares dating or getting married. Heck, mah first real relationship when Ah was a filly was with another mare. But Ah’m older now and Ah’ve got a future to look out for. With the farm and the Apple family name, Ah had always pictured mahself getting married to a nice stallion and starting mah own family. Can’t really do that with another mare...what with the wrong plumbing and all.”

“But you’re the one who’s always told me ‘love is love.’ You should be dating somepony because of how you feel about them not for their baby-making potential.” While it was tempting to use Applejack’s apprehensions towards same-sex relations as an easy cop-out to convince Applejack to abandon the date, it would ruin any hope for Dash’s ambitions. Careful verbal manoeuvring would be needed but Dash saw an opportunity to push nudge Applejack in the direction she wanted.

“Ah...Ah guess you’re right about that,” the other pony replied with a defeated sigh. “Ah’m sorry. Ah didn’t mean to imply anything by what Ah said. It’s just...this whole thing has left me a might stressed.”

Spotting a weak point in Applejack’s armour, the pegasus readied her verbal armament to break the pony’s will. “Well, if this thing has you so stressed out, why go? Just tell Spitfire you’re not comfortable with the idea. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“Are you crazy?” Applejack exclaimed. “The money from the auction is going to the Ponyville hospital. If Ah don’t go, she doesn’t have to pay. Think of all the good that money can do for the sick ponies there. Ah can’t back out now and disappoint everypony.”

A dead-end down that road. Dash knew she should have foreseen her friend’s stubborn selflessness would interfere. Another approach was needed. “Then why do you need my help? Sounds like you’ve made your decision already.”

“Because...Ah, uh...” Applejack fell silent for a moment. Worry, fear, and insecurity was written all across her face so even before she spoke, Dash knew what the issue was. “Ah don’t...Ah don’t want to screw this up. Ah might not like the idea but Spitfire deserves a decent date, especially after shelling out a thousand bits. But It’s been so long since Ah’ve been on a real date...and...and Ah don’t know the first thing about talking to a celebrity. Ah mean, she’s a pegasus and a famous flier. Ah was hoping maybe you could maybe...give me some advice. You’re the big Wonderbolts fan here, and you hung out with her for an entire day after that competition. If Ah screw this up, it could look bad for me...and anything that makes me look bad makes Sweet Apple Acres look bad. Ah just...Ah don’t know what to do so Ah’m not...you know, a boring, old farm pony...”

It was hard for Dash to imagine her friend being so terrified of a simple date. Applejack was normally so calm and composed when it came to getting acquainted with other ponies. Still, rejection stung even when acceptance wasn’t sought after. A part of her wondered if Applejack would have reacted similarly if she had won the auction. More importantly, though, Dash saw the perfect opportunity to set things right. She couldn’t talk Applejack out of the date, and downplaying Spitfire’s strengths would only impact Dash’s chances. What she could do, however, was ensure Applejack was a lousy date. It might bruise her friend’s ego and confidence a bit, but if everything went according to plan, Dash would ample opportunity to mend both of those herself.

“Well, the first thing you need to keep in mind is that Spitfire hates lots of attention,” Rainbow Dash began as she put a reassuring hoof across her friend’s shoulder. “Don’t mention her celebrity or the Wonderbolts. In fact, as far as you should be concerned, you have never heard the name Spitfire before.”

“Really? Ah figured a big-shot like her would be all for that stuff,” Applejack remarked. She didn’t know much about the world of aerobatics but if fliers were anything like Dash then they should all be show-boating glory-hawks. At least it wouldn’t be hard to feign disinterest since Applejack barely knew of the Wonderbolts beyond what Dash has gushed about in the past. “So what should Ah talk about?”

“Talk about yourself and your passions,” she explained, placating her friend’s worries with a reassuring grin. “And the farm - you should definitely talk about the farm and all that apple stuff you do.”

“Ah guess that makes sense,” Applejack said with a hesitant nod. The old adage did go ‘be yourself’ and the apple farm was a huge part of her life. But she figured she just needed to be ‘interesting’ for one date, why risk it with such a subject? “But don’t you find that...you know, boring? Ah mean, Ah love the farm and all but it ain’t exactly riveting conversation for others”

“What are you talking about? I love hearing about the apples and...stuff.” Strangely enough, her friend seemed to buy the outright lie. Dash had always thought listening to the farmer drone on about apple farming to be about as mentally stimulating as Twilight’s lectures. “Trust me, she loves learning about other ponies.”

“If you say so.” It was evident in her soft, reluctant tone that Applejack was still skeptical of the advice. But Dash knew that the farmer would turn to her advice once she realized that it was the only advice available. Applejack was too stubbornly determined to avoid making a fool of herself to reject help from her friend. “Okay then,” the pony said after a heavy sigh, “Ah think...Ah think Ah’ve got this now. Thanks a bunch Dash...Ah probably would’ve made a huge fool of mahself if Ah had to do this on mah own.”

“Not a problem - anything for a friend!”

With her worries and nerves finally subsiding, Applejack was beginning to look like her old self. She even managed to flash her friend a small, wary grin before she started off towards the door. “By the way, Dash...are you...okay with this?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, with me and Spitfire going on a date. Ah know it ain’t a real one but she’s your hero and all. Ah was a little worried that you’d be jealous. Ah wouldn’t want this to get between us.”

While Dash was feeling envious, it wasn’t directed towards Applejack. She feigned indifference with a dismissive wave of her hoof and a reassurance that it wasn’t as though Spitfire had asked her hoof in marriage. Dash would’ve had a heart-attack if that had transpired.

After saying her good-byes and wishing her friend good luck, Applejack headed on her way out to get ready for her night out. But just before she left the library, Applejack stopped and turned to Dash one last time. “Say Dash, have you seen Rarity around? Ah was thinking maybe Ah could get some help from her too. Celestia knows Ah don’t exactly ‘dress to impress’ as Rarity would say.”

“I...saw her earlier today. She said she was going to be out of town with last-minute deliveries to her clients. Sorry.”

“Ah ponyfeathers,” Applejack muttered under her breath. “Figures the one time Ah could actually use her fancy nit-picking. Oh well, maybe there’s something in the attic half-decent to wear...”

Ch. 5 - First Edition

Applejack was not the only pony in Equestria fretting over their date. Nestled away in the peaks of Cloudsdale, the illustrious pegasus was in her home ironing out the last details in preparation for her night. For most ponies it might’ve involved a quick shower, some brushing, and a final run-over of the itinerary; Spitfire, however, had every intent on making the night perfect. She had been cleaning and preening since she returned home. For her, every little detail needed to be just right, which was a huge challenge for a pony with a mane that seemed to have a mind of its own.

“Stupid mane, just stay down already,” she grumbled under her breath, running a brush through a stubborn length of her mane for the hundredth time. Alas, when she pulled the brush away, the strand of hair curled back up as if to openly defy her. A slow, frustrated growl emanated from deep within the pegasus as her temper began to simmer. Thankfully for, and perhaps the mirror and brush, a knock at her front door took her attention elsewhere. “Yes? What is it?” she snapped on impulse.

Despite the volatility of the greeting, a blue-maned pegasus strolled into the room with an excited grin plasted from ear to ear. “Having some trouble, I take it?” he said with a chuckle, having already pieced together the source of Spitfire’s frustration. “Your mane looks fine, cap’n,” he reassured her, “so put down the brush and let’s get going. Fleet Foot and the others are already waiting for us at Cloud Nine.”

“No can do Soarin’, I’ve got a date tonight,” Spitfire proudly stated as though she had to defeat a dragon to get it. “You’ll just have to have fun at the club without me.”

Visibly confused, the stallion tilted his head to the side as he watched his friend attempt once more to tame her mane. “What do you mean a date? Like...a ‘date’ date? As in ‘wine and dine’? I thought you swore off Hearts and Hooves Day after last year’s disaster.”

“Yes...well, I’m not going to make the same mistakes as I did last year,” Spitfire said before sighing in frustration again at the sight of her unruly mane. Surrendering to fate, she decided to focus her preening elsewhere. “Now which do you think would look better? The red lily or the white lily?” she asked as she held up the pair of flowers for her her friend to judge.

“That’s also what you said last year,” Soarin’ replied after he pointed to the red lily. “And come to think of it, that's also what you said in the year prior.”

Spitfire was not amused by her friend’s use of logic and reason, not to mention the reminder her foolishness from the year before. “This time it will be different,” she insisted as she set the lily in her mane, putting it on the left side of her mane as to draw attention away from the stubborn cowlick on the right. “For starters, it’s going to be simple - dinner and a show. There will not be any dance clubs, or wine sampling, or fancy cruises, or any of that hoity-toity nonsense. For once I am going to come back from a date with happy memories and a smile instead of compromising photographs and a restraining order.”

“Oh, now look who’s being all picky,” the stallion joked. While he was visibly disappointed that the captain would not be attending the party with the rest of the team, he knew the only thing he could do was wish his friend luck. He’d knew he have better luck convincing a manticore to part with its tail than talk Spitfire out of something she’s set her mind on. “Now where did you manage to find somepony on such short notice?”

“It was...a, um...a charity auction,” Spitfire admitted with great reluctance. And it was with good reason because Soarin’ immediately burst into a fit of laughter, spouting something about ‘cash or credit’ between barely-contained chortles. By that point, though, he was half-way to his knees and Spitfire had half a mind to put him down the rest of the way. “Are you quite finished?”

“Wait, he-heh, wait...got one more,” Soarin’ said as he suppressed his laughter for a moment. “Did you remember to keep the receipt?”

Spitfire merely rolled her eyes in disgust as her friend rolled about the floor, laughing wildly. “Glad to see my life can be such a source of amusement for you,” she deadpanned before turning her attention back to the mirror. Wanting to ensure she was presentable, she did a slow turn in front of the mirror, fluttering her wings briefly and straightening her posture. “Seriously, though, how do I look?”

As amusing as the situation was, when Soarin’ realized that his friend and teammate was asking for genuine opinion, the laughter came to an abrupt halt and the pegasus shot back to his feet. He gave his captain a look-over from tip to tail, a pensive look upon his face: no eloquent dress, no jewellery, or even accessories beyond the single flower. Aside from the brushed mane, it looked as though the pegasus had just rolled out of bed. “Honestly? Kind of plain.”

“Good.” Plain was what she wanted, or at the very least she wanted to avoid exuberance. Applejack was a farmer from Ponyville - she wasn’t going to be impressed by flashy jewellery or the latest fashion designs. In fact, nothing in Spitfire’s usual repertoire was likely to work, which left the pegasus in a precarious position. She just had to hope that the dinner and music concert that came with the auction would be enough to keep everypony happy. Conversation was going to be another challenge altogether. She couldn’t bore a farmer pony with talk about exhibitions and aerobatic manoeuvres. “I hate getting all dressed up anyways.”

“You know, cap’n, I’ve done charity auctions before...nopony who signs up for those things is expecting to find anything serious from it. Last time I did one, half the ponies who signed up were already in relationships.”

“And what are you getting at?” Spitfire snapped with an accusatory glare.

The stallion recoiled as though his teammate’s glare literally shot out daggers. “Nothing, nothing!” he insisted as he fell to the defensive. “It’s just...you always aim high and expect perfection. I don’t want to see you get your hopes up again only to come crashing down again.”

The Wonderbolt captain’s feathers were clearly ruffled by the remarks. Her brow furrowed as she prepared to unload a verbal firestorm upon her teammate, but she managed to stop herself just shy of uttering the first words. Instead, she took a deep, calming breath. “I know what I’m getting into,” she spoke once she had calmed down. “I appreciate your concern so please don’t take it the wrong way when I tell you get stuffed!”

Soarin’ merely chuckled in response as he had long since been inoculated to the captain’s verbal barbs. “Just promise me you won’t kick any stallions in the face this time.”

“I’ll promise to try,” Spitfire teased.

“If you want, I could get the boys and-”

“No!” Spitfire was quick to interrupt. “There will be no fly-overs this time; no impromptu firework displays; no buzzing crowds; and absolutely no press! Is that clear?” There were enough things to worry about already without the threat of Soarin’s antics looming over her. Ponyville was small enough that she could fly under the press’ radar so long as she didn’t do anything stupid to draw attention to herself.

“As you wish, Captain Killjoy,” Soarin’ acknowledged with a mocking salute. “So who’s the special pony this time?”

“Her name’s Applejack,” Spitfire answered, ignoring the slight from Soarin’. “She works on a farm near ponyville. And I think she was that girl who was selling apple treats at the Grand Galloping Gala last year.”

“Wait...you’re going on a date with the pie girl?”

The captain groaned and buried her face into her hoof. “You want me to bring you back a pie, don’t you?”

Soarin’s words were still playing over in her mind by the time the Wonderbolt captain touched down in Ponyville. He warned her not to get her hopes up as though she had planned everything up to the wedding already. At first, she wanted to chew Soarin’ out for such an indignation - as if he knew what was best for her. However, once the cool evening air had chilled her temper, she realized he was just being his usual concerned self, and that it was arrogant of her to think that her oldest friend wouldn’t be able to anticipate such things. The level of coordination required in the Wonderbolts necessitated a deep understanding of each other and nopony knew her better than Soarin’.

In the end, he was right - Spitfire had been stoking herself in anticipation. Curse her insatiable romantic bones! Years of romance novels and fairy tales had left her with unrealistic expectations that were only doomed to fail. As the pegasus paced about outside the restaurant, as per her arrangements with Applejack, she continually reminded herself that it was a harmless Hearts and Hooves Day date and nothing more. She was grateful that she hadn’t the time to read Trotting Hill today or else her expectations might’ve been even higher.

A flicker of movement out of the corner of the pegasus’ eye drew her attention to an approaching stetson-wearing pony. “It’s showtime,” she mentally braced herself as she took a calming breath.

“Sorry Ah’m a bit late,” Applejack apologized as she strolled up to the pegasus.

Spitfire was relieved to see that she was not the only pony who opted for simplicity and comfort over aesthetics. Like the pegasus, Applejack had tamed her usually drawn-back mane with simple braiding, as was her tail. “It’s no worry,” she insisted, “especially seeing you now - definitely worth the wait. I love the scarf by the way.”

The compliment on the apple-pattern scarf she wore around her neck brought a small blush to the earth pony’s cheeks. “Aw shucks, that’s mighty kind of you to say,” she replied. She didn’t have the courage to admit she borrowed it from Granny Smith’s closet. “You don’t look half-bad yourself,” she added. “Don’t look half-bad? What kind of a compliment is that supposed to be?” Applejack scolded herself a second after the words left her mouth. Not even a minute into the date and Applejack was already messing things up. She reminded herself to be more careful with her phrasing.

Since there was little point standing around admiring the flowerbeds, the pair headed into the restaurant, Le Cochon de Fantaisie. As far as fine dining went in Ponyville, there were only a few good choices and Le Cochon was arguably the best of them. While the restaurants exterior matched the town’s rustic ambiance, the interior that greeted the pair was far more refined. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling with candles hidden amongst the shards providing a subtle glow and warmth to the room. Personally, Applejack rarely graced such establishments and even a cursory glance at the well-dressed patrons already seated made the earth pony feel woefully under-dressed.

“Good evening, how may I help you?” asked a mustached greeter with veiled sincerity.

Spitfire promptly took the lead. “A good evening to you too, my good sir,” she began. “We have a reservation for two. It should be under the name Applejack.”

“Ah yes, the last-minute reservation,” the greeter mumbled, mostly to himself, as he checked his ledger. “I’m afraid we were already fully booked when the mayor made the reservation so we’ve had to set up an extra table in order to accommodate.”

“I’m sure it’ll be okay,” the pegasus said dismissively.

The aforementioned table was nestled near the very back of the restaurant, tucked into a small alcove between a corner booth and the door to the kitchen. While the other patrons were able to enjoy a warm, tranquil atmosphere, Spitfire and Applejack were subjected to the clatter of dishes and blasts of hot air every time the kitchen door swung open. And when somepony was exiting, the swinging door struck the back of Spitfire’s chair, which ruined any chance for comfort.

“At least our food will get here quickly,” Applejack joked in an uneasy attempt to lighten the mood. Spitfire appreciated the effort; she even managed a half-hearted chuckle until the swinging kitchen door knocked her forward and almost spilt her water.

A tense silence enveloped the table, interrupted only by the occasional clatter of passing dishes. Spitfire was used to being inundated with questions by this point in a date, and thus found herself uncertain of how to break the ice in a meaningful way. Most of her previous dates were either borderline interviews or listening to someone with an even bigger ego boast about how great they were. She needed to find something to get the conversation going or this date would be dead in the water before it even got out of port.

“Soooo...you own an orchard, huh?” Not the most suave of opening lines but Spitfire was grasping at straws when it came to topics. The orchard was the only thing that popped to mind that could potentially get the mare talking.

“Well I don’t really ‘own’ the orchard - it belongs to the family,” Applejack corrected. However, the answer felt lack-lustre so she hastily added on, “But Ah do basically run the place. You know, set up the business deals, handle the finances, do most of the baking, and such.” Thankfully, she didn’t stretch the truth too much - between Granny Smith’s eccentricities and Big Macintosh’s preference towards manual labour, it only made sense that Applejack held the reins. Granted, she had no more authority over her brother than Applebloom had over her but her version sounded more impressive.

And impressed the pegasus was. “You must be a regular one-pony show to handle all that.

“Well...I have lots of help from family of course. Ah tried harvesting all the apples on mah own once. By the time Ah was half-way through it, Ah had turned into a sleep zombie.” It was odd how the passage of time could paint such an ordeal into an amusing anecdote. Had it only been a week ago, Applejack would likely have been too ashamed to bring it up with another pony. Today, though, she couldn’t help but laugh at her own stubborn and foolhardy behaviour. “Ah was just shuffling about going ‘Aaaaapppleeesss...’” she added as she hung her hooves forward to emphasize the zombie-like nature of her sleep-deprivation. By the time she finished telling the whole story, Spitfire’s laughter had begun drawing attention from the nearby tables and wait staff.

The laughter came to an abrupt halt when one of the waiters came along and took their orders. Surprisingly, they both wound up ordering the same dish - the signature spring garden salad with the only difference being Spitfire’s choice of the raspberry vinaigrette dressing rather than the strawberry.

“That reminds me of this one time we were doing a show in Fillydelphia, but the day before the show Soarin’ came down with a terrible cold,” Spitfire restarted the conversation once the waiter was gone. “He was up all night coughing and wheezing. And when Fleet Foot got him some medicine, he took so much of it that he was out cold for nearly twelve hours straight. We couldn’t even wake him up for the show!”

“So what’d you do?”

“The only thing we could do - we got some ropes and sticks and jury-rigged a harness so Fleet Foot and I could pull him along,” she continued, about to burst with mirth. “And the best part is...he woke up halfway through the routine and completely freaked out. The front page of the next day’s newspaper has this picture of Soarin’ flailing like a terrified cat. We even got a framed copy of the picture.”

As the laughter rolled off her tongue, Spitfire found her earlier worries melting away. Perhaps it was easier to relate to an earth pony than she had feared; perhaps the years in the clouds and in Canterlot kissing up to socialites and celebrities hadn’t completely eroded her social skills. “Tell me more about the farm,” Spitfire said as she leaned in slightly and rested her chin upon her hoof.

Applejack was surprised by the pegasus’ sincerity, but remembering Rainbow Dash’s advice she nonetheless indulged her request. Thus the farmer went on about life at Sweet Apple Acres. She talked about the growing seasons, the animals they had, the various cultivars they grew, and even a little into the history of their famous zap apples. And while the fact that Spitfire listened attentively was surprising, what was even more unexpected were the questions that Spitfire asked every so often. She was relieved that it wasn’t entirely a one-sided conversation but the things that Spitfire asked were remarkably precise - she asked about cross-pollination, grafting, and orchard arrangements. These were things that Applejack had almost never been asked by a pony outside the orchard business. It was all rather suspect, but before she could make her own inquiries, a waiter arrived, heralded by the door slamming once again into Spitfire’s chair, with their meals.

“You mean ponies will actually pay me to let them get the apples themselves?”

“You just need to provide baskets and ladders as need, and the ponies go out and pick their own apples,” Spitfire explained before she began to eye her food eagerly. “Once they’re done, they come back and pay for what they’ve picked. It’s quite popular in the metropolitan areas.” As much as she had enjoyed her conversation, to a far greater extent than she would have anticipated, the beckoning of her meal was too great.

Applejack was still a bit skeptical to the idea, but not entirely dismissive of it either. She suspected that there wouldn’t be much demand for that kind of service in Ponyville. Still, experimenting with that venture would incur little cost, so she tucked the idea away in the back of her mind for another time. Plus with the prospect of dinner tempting her, she was keen to sate her appetite. The two ponies dove headfirst into their salads with neither showing concern for ‘proper’ dining etiquettes.

However, as Applejack chewed up a mouthful of lettuce, apples, berries, and almond slivers, she noticed that there was something off. The salad was delicious as one would hope but the taste was...off somehow. It took a second for her to pinpoint the cause - there was the taste of raspberries that shouldn’t have been there. “I think they gave me your salad,” Applejack remarked once she realized the source.

Spitfire was still chewing but she stopped instantly at the comment. Her eyes widened as her face contorted in disgust. The pegasus promptly spat the half-chewed mess back onto the plate. “Gah! I was wondering why it didn’t taste right.”

Now Applejack wasn’t pleased with how the pegasus reacted to the news, especially since it left a greenish blob of gunk across what was supposed to be her dinner. “Well ya didn’t need to spit it out like that.”

“Sorry! It’s just...didn’t you ordered the strawberry dressing?”

“Well yes,” Applejack replied with a raised brow, “but what has that got to do with...oh no! You’re allergic to strawberries, aren’t you?”

“I take it I’m already breaking into hives?” The earth pony only gave a silent nod, and a quick glance to the reflective surface of their silverware revealed several patches of red blotches forming across the pegasus’ cheeks and neck. Spitfire let out a heavy sigh as the blotches began to spread slowly down her neck. “This is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.”

The red and orange highlights of the evening sky masked the flashing red strobes of the ambulance as it idled outside the restaurant. Inside the cabin, an irritated pegasus stewed in her annoyance as her date continued to apply globes of greenish-blue ointment across her rash-and-hive-ridden body. This incident would not have been so humiliating were the ambulance not parked in such a way that the open rear-end was visible to all the patrons inside the restaurant, many of whom weren’t even polite enough to hide their stares. Spitfire could only console herself with the fact that she was barely recognizable with so much ointment slathered across her face.

“So how does she look, doc?” Applejack asked as she squirted the last bit of ointment out of its tube. The earth pony had stayed by Spitfire’s side during the entire ordeal; a fact that the pegasus was most grateful for.

The doctor, who thankfully had been dining at the same restaurant, motioned for Spitfire to open wide in order to check her throat once more. “Well, the medicine appears to have reduced the swelling, and she’s showing no signs of other adverse reactions,” the doctor reported with a reassuring smile. “Just keep applying more ointment as needed and she should be perfectly fine.” With the pegasus out of any conceivable danger, the doctor headed back into the restaurant as his pie was supposedly getting cold.

“You wanna go back in?” Applejack asked, spreading the last of the ointment across Spitfire’s back.

“I’ve lost my appetite,” the pegasus grumbled a response. It was a half-truth at the very least since between her reaction and the medicine, any desire to eat had long since been squelched. The more compelling factor, however, was simple embarrassment. She had attracted enough attention when her itchiness-induced flailing wound up knocking several tables over. Even if she were hungry, Spitfire was certain that the restaurant’s manager wouldn’t want her eating there in the event she caused more damage. “Besides, we’ll wind up being late for the music show if we try to sit down for dinner again.”

“Well we wouldn’t want to miss the show, now would we?” Likewise, Applejack had no real qualms with skipping the remainder of dinner. If she felt peckish during the show, the theatre would likely have some kind of snack bar she could grab a bite from. “You sure you’re up for it? How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been battered and ready to be deep-fried, but I’ll be fine,” Spitfire insisted as she hopped out of the ambulance. “And...uh, thanks,” she added. Thankfully the ointment hid the flush of red rising to her cheeks. She might’ve been marinated in ointment but she wasn’t going to let that ruin the rest of her date. There was still a chance to salvage something from this night.

The entertainment, also included in the package Spitfire received from the auction, was tickets to a jazz performance at a small theatre called ‘The Velvet Saddle.’ It wasn’t a well-known theatre as it was quite literally underground being a converted cellar. The air was a bit stuffy from the scores of ponies already seated at the tables and the bar, but Spitfire felt strangely at ease now. The atmosphere was more akin to what Spitfire was used to - tranquil, relaxed, and a hint of sophistication lingering like the cigar smoke in the air. It wasn’t too unlike the clubs and lounges in Canterlot that Spitfire would sometimes unwind in after a show, if only a bit smaller in scale. For the pegasus, the air of class was as comforting as a warm blanket, which was gravely needed after the ordeal at the restaurant.

“Have you ever been here before?” Spitfire asked after the pair had been shown to their table.

“Twilight brought me here once,” she answered as she glanced about her surroundings. The lighting was even less than back at the restaurant, with only a small candle on the table making it possible to see the pegasus sitting mere inches away from her. “I think it was for a poetry reading.”

“Was it any good?”

“It was until Twilight tried reading some of hers. Ain’t never seen a pony write a thesis in iambic pentameter.”

Spitfire had to stifle her laughter as the three-pony band had just started their performance. “I have got to meet these friends of yours, they sound way more fun than mine,” Spitfire commented in a hushed voice. “I’d have to kidnap Soarin’ if I wanted to drag him out to a place like this.”

“Well if they’re your friends, they should be willing to do the things that you enjoy,” Applejack commented idly. She hadn’t intended to get dragged into a conversation about the obligations of friendship, but she had already opened the door for Spitfire.

“Soarin’s not a bad friend. If anything, I’m the one that’s a bad friend since...oh, how do I explain this?” the pegasus said with a light sigh. She shifted back into her seat while her eyes fixated on the flickering candle in front of her. “I’ve known Soarin’ since flight camp. I grew up far away from Cloudsdale so I didn’t have any friends at camp until I met him. Believe it or not, I was not very popular when I was a filly, so Soarin’ wound up being the only real friend I had until we joined the Wonderbolts together. But since I’ve become captain it’s been...tough for me to both his friend and his boss.” Spitfire then just shrugged her shoulders and rested her chin upon her hoof. “Or maybe I’m just bad with friends in general. Oh hay, I shouldn’t be dumping this all on you and killing the mood when you’re trying to enjoy the music...”

“This is music?” Applejack quipped as looked to the band. “Ah thought they were still warming up.”

Applejack’s comment came as a much-needed relief for the pegasus, who chortled into her hoof in futile attempt to keep her voice down. Spitfire needed that laugh far more than she realized. In an instant, the farmer had broken apart any tension that had lingered around her. “It’s jazz...I suppose it’s an acquired taste,” she explained.

“It sounds like they’re making it up as they go along.” Now Applejack had always preferred country, or at the very least something lively with a good beat. What she was hearing, however, felt disjointed; any time she started to get into the rhythm, it changed abruptly and left her feeling as though she had just been ran out on.

“They are - that’s why it’s called jazz improvisation,” she explained with a hint of amusement at her date’s confusion. “It’s not just about the notes they play, but the notes they don’t play.”

“Yeah...and those happen to be all the good ones.”

Spitfire had to give that point to her. Jazz improvisation was hit or miss even on the best of days and were it not for her nostalgic attachment to jazz, Spitfire probably would have reached the same conclusion. “I suppose that’s true,” she said in a mixed giggle. She was about to use the opportunity to explain the subtle nuances of the genre to her date when a waiter suddenly stopped by the table. It was puzzling since neither had ordered anything, yet the stallion set a covered tray down on the table.

“Compliments of the gentlecolt at the bar,” the waiter explained. He lifted the cover to reveal...

“A pineapple?” Applejack remarked as she stared at the fruit sitting on the platter before her. “Does this mean anything to you?” But while Applejack had stared at the fruit with bewilderment, the pegasus sitting across from her had the horrified look as if somepony had just dumped a pile of noxious, festering garbage upon her lap. “Don’t tell me you’re allergic to pineapples too.”

“No...no, this is something else entirely,” Spitfire managed to mutter in response. It was a good thing she had missed dinner or else she would have been reacquainted with it. Nonetheless, the sight of the fruit was making her stomach perform cartwheels. Somepony was playing a very nasty prank on her, and it didn’t take long for the pegasus to spot the culprit - it was hard not to notice the pony curled in a fit of laughter. “Soarin’,” she growled upon realizing who it was. “Pardon me, I have to go bludgeon a pony with a pineapple,” the pegasus excused herself through gritted teeth.

Taking the pineapple between her hooves, the pegasus flew over to the bar in the far corner of the cellar. Soarin’ was still snickering when the captain arrived and set the pineapple down on the countertop. “Hey cap’n,” he greeted with a bright grin. “How’s the date going?”

“What the hay are you doing here?” she sneered. If looks could burn, Spitfire’s glare would’ve set Soarin’s head on fire by that point. But the pegasus dismissed her questions with a trifling chuckle.

“The club just wasn’t the same without you there,” he explained. “So I brought the gang down to see how your little date was going.” When the pegasus motioned to the other ponies at the bar, Spitfire realized that he had brought the entire team along with him.

“What are you doing bringing them here?” Spitfire hissed. “My personal life is none of their business.” The Wonderbolt captain felt betrayed by her longtime friend. She knew that the team would find out about the date when they asked about her absence but she hadn’t expected him to drag them over to watch her floundering like a beached trout.

“Oh come Spitfire,” Soarin’ said in an effort to calm his friend down, “it’s just a little charity date. It’s not like it’s anything serious. Unless...” The pegasus fell silent as he leaned in for a closer, scrutinizing look at Spitfire. “You’ve got a crush on her, don’t you?”

“Wha? N-no, it’s nothing like that,” Spitfire stammered in response. Even in the low-light, though, Soarin’ could see the rush of colour to her face, which was a tell-tale sign that he had hit the nail on the head.

“Sweet Celestia, you do have a crush,” he concluded with a triumphant grin. “The captain of the Wonderbolts is crushing on a farmer from Ponyville.”

“That’s enough, Soarin’.”

“She’s not even a pegasus.”

“Just shut up.”

“I know you have a thing for the countryside but this is a bit much, don’t you think?”

“I’m ordering you to shut your mouth, Soarin’!”

“The press is going to have a field day when they hear about this.”

Spitfire had been straining every ounce of willpower to keep her anger in check, but the flagrant disregard for her authority was too much. “I said, shut up!” she shouted when she finally snapped. She grabbed the closest thing available, which happened to be the pineapple, and swung it right into the upstart Wonderbolt’s face. The music came to a crashing halt when the pegasus was knocked clean off his barstool; once again Spitfire found herself in the very uncomfortable position of being the center of attention when she least wanted it. The pegasus let out a tired sigh as a tidal wave of shame washed over her. “I...I think I should just go,” she murmured as she headed for the exit, head hung in dejection.

It was last Hearts and Hooves Day all over again: a perfectly good evening ruined by a pineapple and a sudden flash of violence. The only thing she had to comfort herself with was the absence of photographers, so at least she wouldn’t have a reminder of her tantrum plastered across tomorrow’s newspaper. But that did little to alleviate her feelings of guilt.

“And she had such promise...” she sighed inwardly as she sat down next to a small stream.

“Spitfire!” Applejack’s voice halted the pegasus in her tracks. She glanced over her shoulder just as the pony came galloping up to her. “Are...you okay?”

“Nothing a hard drink or two won’t help me repress,” she answered bitterly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Spitfire was taken by surprise at the pony’s sincerity. She had expected to be on the receiving end of another earful but Applejack appeared to be genuinely concerned about her.

“I...I have a bit of a temper,” she admitted but was unable to look Applejack in the eye. “Actually, a lot of a temper. Last year, I kicked some prince in the face and threw him into a fountain.”

“Is your friend going to be okay?” Applejack inquired as she sat next to the pegasus.

“Oh yeah, Soarin’ will be just fine.” Spitfire chuckled at the thought of Soarin’ peeling his flank off the threatre floor. “He’ll be a bit sour for a few days; then I’ll apologize; then he’ll apologize; and then we’ll get drunk on cider and wine and forget all about it. This isn’t the first time I’ve decked him, and I’ll be darned if it’s the last. But...that’s why Soarin’ is one of the only friends I’ve had for a long - he’s the only one stubborn enough to handle me when I’m being an idiot. Plus, I’m not very strong. I doubt I even dazed him.”

“You have a very weird friendship.” Applejack couldn’t see how a friendship could survive with such violence in the middle of it, but perhaps that was just the unique nature of their relationship. “But you really shouldn’t hit your friends like that.”

“I know, I know!” The pegasus was starting to feel like she was on the receiving end of a lecture from one of her flight instructors. “And I really try not to but he just...he always knows how to push my buttons.” She let out a frustrated growl when she could no longer find the right words to express her thoughts on the situation. If she weren’t such friends with Soarin’, she’d probably hate his guts for the way he riled her up. “Listen, Applejack, I’m really sorry about messing your evening up and wasting your time”

“Aw shucks, no need to apologize,” Applejack reassured her. “To be honest, it was kinda funny seeing you hit him with that pineapple. Ah’m just sorry Ah couldn’t be a more interesting date.”

“What are you talking about, you were perfectly fine.”

“Ah know you’re just trying to be polite but Ah know for a fact that apple farms ain’t stimulating conversation...and that jazz was pretty much wasted on me. Ah’m hardly worth a thousand bits.”

“Oh Applejack,” Spitfire said as she chuckled under her breath, “don’t sell yourself short. For starters, I grew up on a farm...hearing you talk about Sweet Apple Acres was rather nostalgic.”

“You’re a farm pony?”

“Not exactly,” she corrected. “My dad rented a shack on a farmer’s property just east of Trottingham. They grew pears and peaches mostly but I spent a lot of afternoons playing with the colts who lived there. I actually didn’t have a pegasus friend until I was sent to flight camp and met Soarin’.”

“Huh...well Ah’ll be,” Applejack muttered at the revelation. It cast a new light upon the pegasus, and for a moment she was vaguely reminded of all the afternoons she and Rainbow Dash would fool around in the orchard. “Ah never would’ve pegged you as a country pony.”

“It’s my dirty little secret,” Spitfire said as she winked back. “Ponies in Canterlot practically shun you if they discover you’re from the countryside, and the foals in flight camp weren’t too receptive of me either. They used to laugh and call me ‘Dirtnap’ but I guess the joke’s on them, huh?”

The farmer simply nodded and laughed. Drawing from her own experiences with Manehattan and Canterlot, she perfectly understood the kind of reception a country pony could get in the big city. She was surprised to discover she had so much in common with a pegasus.

Just as the pegasus was about to leave, an idea came to the farmer’s mind. “Hey, if you’re still looking to have a fun time, Ah know of a place that might be right up your alley.”

Spitfire had expected her date to want nothing further to do with her for the night so the news came as a pleasant surprise. “I’d like that.”

Ch. 6 - A Hoofful of Dynamite

As far as setbacks went, Blondie had faced far worse in her colourful past. Even as the train caboose ground to the desert, leaving her all but stranded in the middle of the rocky wastelands, the nameless pony did not allow the situation to crack her stone-cold facade. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t angry; she was far from it, in fact. Alas, the only other living being in the immediate vicinity was still unconscious, forcing Blondie to bottle her rage. The mare was uncertain what part of the betrayal angered her the most: the fact that she had been back-stabbed after having gone to such lengths to protect Daring; or the fact that Daring had done exactly what she had been planning to do as well. She had underestimated the pegasus, and it was all because she had let her guard down. An amateur mistake that could have gotten her killed were Daring Do an actual threat. But while internally her tempers churned like a boiling ocean, she did not allow it to surface. Like a well-developed poker face, the pony knew that a calm composure was just as vital in a dangerous situation as the revolver by your side.

Speaking of revolvers, the offset weight in her belt reminded her that she had yet to retrieve the fallen weapon. Yet when she searched the caboose floor, there was no sign of it. She even checked under the minotaur just to make sure.

“Daring!” The realization managed to leave a crack in the stony facade as her teeth groaned under the sudden pressure. “Great, why are the cute ones always such a pain,” she murmured to herself once she managed to beat down the surge of violent impulses. Now she had another reason to track down that back-stabbing pegasus. Nopony messed with her gun! While she wasn’t about to let a missing gun derail her from the mission, it did pose a minor obstacle for her, but that was assuming she could even catch up to Daring and the rest before the trail went cold.

If she were to have any hope of catching her quarry, the nameless mare needed to know where the train would ultimately go. She began sifting through a nearby work desk, hoping to find papers of some kind that might indicate the trains route and schedule. Personal telegrams...work schedules...cargo manifest...an old newspaper...but no sign of a train schedule.

“Wait, the cargo manifest.” Something on the otherwise unassuming scrap of paper had caught the pony’s eyes. In large, bold font across the top of the missive were the words, ‘Warning: fragile cargo. Transport at reduced speed.’

There was her ticket! Daring and the others might have a considerable lead on her, but Blondie knew the lay of the land and the route of the train. More importantly, she knew the long, winding path around the upcoming foothills, combined with the fragile cargo, would slow the train considerably. It was a long-shot, but if the mare made good time she could cut through those foothills and get ahead of the train before it reached the plains and sped back up.

She took a quick inventory of what she had on her person: rifle, ammunition, tin of matches, a few sticks of dynamite, an iron stoker, and a half-empty waterskin. It wasn’t the best equipment to hijack a train with, but a general went to war with the army they had. Whatever her plan was going to be, she knew that she would have to think of it while en route. Since every second she stood around was added distance between her and the amulet, the pony sprinted off into the distance. There was no way she was going to let her reputation be tarnished by some egghead archaeologist.

It was perhaps both a boon and a bane to Daring Do that the train was carrying freight cargo rather than passengers. With no other ponies on board other than the ones she was stalking, she didn’t have to worry about any random bystander inadvertently giving away her position or getting in her way. However, it also robbed her of a valuable source of camouflage. It forced the pegasus to creep slowly through each train cart, as the stacked crates and low-light provided ample sources for potential ambushes.

Daring had to admit that she was a bit out of her element. Her treasure hunts were often confined to ancient ruins, not trains. And at most, she had only to deal with Ahuitzotl and his unnecessarily slow-moving traps in terms of opposition. A goat outlaw posed a unique challenge to the pegasus as it was difficult to outwit bullets. At least she had possessed enough foresight to snatch the nameless mare’s revolver before ditching her.

The first few train cars were devoid of life, pony or otherwise. There were stacks of crates that had been painstakingly secured to the walls and floors but little else. As the train swayed, she could hear the clatter of glass from inside the crates. Whatever cargo was being carried, it must have been fragile. The clattering glass would mask her hoofsteps, but at the same time the ambient noise could make it harder for her to hear anyone approaching. With virtually no light source, Daring was thankful that the rattling glass also gave her an idea of where the obstacles were. And to her fortune, when she heard a very loud clatter followed by some distasteful profanities coming from the train car ahead, the pegasus had the advanced warning she needed to take cover.

By the time the car door slid open and a kerosene lantern bathed the interior with light, Daring Do was already out of sight. Bracing herself against two parallel struts that ran across the roof, the pegasus did not even dare to breathe as a pair of ornary-looking goats strolled through the door.

“Don’t you think the boss is being a bit antsy about this?” one of the goats remarked.

“You’d have yer knickers in a wad too if you knew who we’s dealing wit’,” the other answered in slow, plodding English, as if the entirety of his formal education could be surmised on the back of a cereal box. “You saw what she did to Ox ‘Ead’s face. I tells you, he was one cheesed off minotaur.”

Daring’s heart rate accelerated when the pair stopped directly below. “Don’t look up. Don’t look up. Don’t look up,” she prayed over and over. The air held within her lungs began to burn and her limbs began to twitch; she strained every ounce of willpower she had into holding her posture. Each second seemed to be dragged through molasses, but eventually the goats continued on their way.

“I once heard she once took out a half-dozen ponies without firing a single bullet.”

“Dat dun sound mathemagically possible...”

Only when the door to the previous car slid shut did Daring allow herself a chance to breath. There was no time for resting, however, as it wouldn’t take long for the two goats to discover their train was short one one minotaur. And as the tactic had worked so well for disposing of nameless mares, Daring figured decoupling a few more train cars wouldn’t hurt.

“Too easy,” she snickered after cutting two more opponents loose. “Daring Do: two. Goats: zero.”

Daring didn’t waste any time basking in her own victory before moving on. With two more gone, she knew that time would be working against her. She would probably only have a few minutes before whoever sent those two yokels would notice their absence as well, ruining any chance of catching Billy the Kid unaware. However, it sounded as though they were already expecting the nameless mare to show up. If the mere possibility of Blondie's presence was causing so much concern, it made Daring wonder if double-crossing the mare was the wisest plan. But with any luck, Daring would have the amulet and be halfway to Canterlot before that hoove-dragging pony caught up to the train.

Cautiously sliding the next door open, the first thing to catch the pegasus' attention was the ambiant moonlight illuminating the car's interior. Daring was quick to pinpoint the source - a pony had slid open the car's main door in order to relieve himself. Though distasteful, it did provide her with the distraction she needed to move through the train car without notice. And since Daring did not want anypony sneaking up behind her later, she also used the opportunity to rid herself of yet another potential obstacle. She bided her time behind another stack of glass-containing crates, allowing the oblivious colt to finish his business as she didn’t want to get hit with any accidental spray should things not go as planned. Once she heard the colt’s sigh of relief, the pegasus charged across the train car and shoved the pony out the side door. Thankfully, his cries of distress dispersed into the night air as the train sped away.

“Flawless victory,” Darin self-congratulated...until she noticed a fresh spatter of tiny stains across her shirt. “Ugh...gross...”

Not allowing a bit of urine to stain her victory, Daring shut the side door and continued on her way. She could hardly believe how easy it had been to take out three members of Billy’s gang already without alerting anypony to her presence. A part of her wondered why Blondie had thought that she would only have gotten in the way. At this rate, Daring would have the amulet and an outlaw in the bag by day’s end. It was almost enough to make Daring wish that the nameless mare was present just so she could see the look on her face as Daring did all the work.

As before, the archaeologist deftly slid the door open, making sure to check peer through the narrow opening before opening the door entirely. What she saw drew her breath away, and only the rattling of the bottle-containing crates kept her sharp inhalation from giving her position away. Sitting at the far end of the car atop a small table, shimmering in the glow of a nearby lantern, was the Amulet of the Equilla.

It’s flawless gold surface, sculpted into the motif of Princess Celestia, made the candlelight dance across the walls, and the emerald jewel core glistened like a star. It was far more radiant than she had ever imagined, and only a few feet separated her from her prize. However, she lessons she had learned exploring ancient ruins applied even to modern train cars, and the first thing that crossed her mind was the realization that this was too easy. It couldn’t have been more obvious a trap if they had advertised it with a fireworks display.

Daring took a moment to analyze the situation; there was limited cover in the next train car so there were only so many places for an ambush to spring from. If her adversaries were as smart as the three she had already dealt with, it was easy to deduce where they would be hiding.

“It’s showtime,” Daring thought with a playful smirk. After taking a few steps back for a running start, she leapt headlong into the next train car. As expected, the goat pressed against the wall next to the door was caught off-guard by the pegasus’ speedy entrance. His reaction time proved too slow and by the time he squeezed the trigger on his revolver, Daring was well past him. The only thing that had been in any danger from him was the floor. As the goat tried to track the pegasus through the darkness, Daring sprang into the air with the aid of her wings. Not only did it keep the revolver from getting a fix on her, but she also narrowly dodged an oncoming shovel that was swung by another goat. The metal spade came so close that she felt a fraction of its force as it grazed through her tail. But close only counted with horseshoes and hoof grenades, and the archaeologist surged forward. Catching a flicker of movement in the shadows ahead of her, Daring dove into a headlong slide just as a pony came charging in for a crash tackle. Her slide-tackle took the pony out at the legs, sending him hurtling into the goats behind her.

Deciding to save the quips about her opponents being too slow for after she was safely away, Daring hurried over to her goal. She snatched up the amulet and stashed it away inside her helmet along with the other relic. But then the top of the barrel suddenly popped open and the last thing Daring saw was a goat’s head coming straight for her.

“Ugh...that’s twice now...” Daring Do groaned weakly as her senses gradually returned to her. Her head was still throbbing, but once the cobwebs had been cleared out, she was able to make sense of her surroundings again. Judging by the change of scenery from a dark cargo car into a well-lit passenger cabin, it was safe to assume that her captors had moved her further up the train. A rope strung from the ceiling bound her wings and fore hooves; it was a situation she was not unfamiliar with, but the substitution of slow-moving death traps with large caliber firearms left her uneasy.

“Ah, she’s finally awake,” a coarse, gravel-like voice spoke. Standing before the suspended pegasus was the most inhospitable-looking goat she had laid eyes upon. As he didn’t resemble either of the goats she had dodged in the train cart, it was a safe bet that he was the one that sprung out of the barrel and knocked her flat. He was an ugly thing even by goat standards with beady eyes; matted, unkempt hair that hadn’t seen soap in well over a fortnight; and a face that was marred by several jagged scars.

“Geez, and I thought the minotaur was ugly,” Daring quipped after the goat came into focus. Unfortunately, the goat appeared to have a low tolerance for snark as Daring was given a sharp kick to the ribs for her troubles. She decided that she would save the witty banter for after she was free when it would be a bit safer. Checking her surroundings in earnest, Daring noted a few windows that she could potentially escape through, as well as her helmet and the amulets sitting on a nearby table. If she could escape from her bindings, snatching the amulets and jumping out the window would be a cinch. The three disgruntled goats and pony, however, was going to make any escape tricky. For the moment, Daring just bided her time. “You must be Billy the Kid.”

“You presume correctly, chica, but it does still leave the question as to who are you,” the goat replied, his hoof stroking the tuft of fur upon his chin in contemplation.

“My name is Daring Do...and you have something that belongs to me,” Daring stated in the most menacing tone she could muster while tied up.

“You mean those trinkets?” Billy replied with a trifling chuckle. “Well, perhaps when I am finished with them I might be willing to sell them to you.”

“You will? Just like that?” The goat’s remarks caught Daring by surprise. Most of the thieves she dealt with weren’t nearly as negotiable. If spending a bit of money was enough to secure the artifacts then that was what Daring would do. It wouldn’t have been the first time she had purchased a priceless relic from a local with no clue of its true worth. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘finished with them’?”

“Ahh...chica, you must understand that there are only two things worth having in these parts - money and power. And right now, these shiny baubles give me the power I need.”

The power he needed? Daring didn’t know for certain if there was any truth to the legends of magical properties in the amulets, but if it did have that kind of power then it didn’t explain why he would be willing to part with it. Deciding to feign ignorance, Daring pressed for more information and asked, “And what power would that be?”

“The power to bring that damnable blond mare to right where I want her!” The archaeologist was struck speechless by the revelation and the realization of the banality of this ordeal. All of this fuss and effort over that nameless pony? It couldn’t have been that simple; it was just too stupid to be that simple! But as it turned out, that was exactly what it was all about. “Now I have but one more question for you, Daring - where is she? Where is that blond-maned pony?”

“All of this...for her?” Daring deadpanned. It was hard not to be outraged, but the ropes and firearms were convenient reminders to keep her temper from flaring. “Isn’t this a bit much just for one pony?”

“One pony?” Billy snapped with a visible twitching above his scarred eye. “You see these scars, chica? This is what that little meddling wench of a pony did to me! Five years ago, I was halfway through the greatest train robbery this land has ever seen and then...she showed up and ruined everything! Messed up my perfect plans, and made my entire crew look like a pack of kids! I will not rest until that mare is bleached bones in the desert!”

Daring wasn’t sure which to do - express disappointment at this pettiness, or simply laugh at the sheer stupidity. Eventually, she decided to opt for the former since laughing at an armed goat was rarely a good idea. “All this for one botched robbery? You really need to learn how to let go.”

“It was not just one robbery!” Billy snapped back. Clearly Daring was hitting a sensitive spot with the goat as he had gone from calm to irate in a split-second. “It was five months of planning, hundreds of bits of bribes, and bringing together the biggest, most feared gang of goats the world had ever seen!”

“And you lost to one mare? Wow...you must be really bad.”

“Silence! I will not be ridiculed by some wretched little pegasus!” Daring was beginning to have second-thoughts about her choice of words as the gun in her face was being held by an increasingly agitated goat. “That pony will come for the amulets, and when she gets here, me and my boys will be ready and waiting.” To emphasize the point, he spun Daring about-face, allowing her to see the dozen or so ponies and goats standing at the other end of the car. “So I will ask you this only once - where is the blond pony?”

Daring couldn’t help but smirk when she gave her answer. “Gone.”

“What do you mean by gone?”

“I ditched her along with the minotaur a few miles back,” she boasted. “It’ll probably take her a few days just to catch up to you. And that’s assuming you stop everything and stay put, or that she even continues given the huge lead you’ve got now. Guess I threw a big ol’ wrench into your elaborate revenge fantasy, huh?”

Now Daring wasn’t sure whether this would present an opportunity to break free or simply earn her a new orifice in her head, but her namesake didn’t come from safe, cautious plans. At first the goat just stared blankly at Daring, as if his brain refused to recognize the implications. There was still the twitching eye, however, so Daring knew he hadn’t gone completely catatonic. She was expecting him to snap at any second, but rather than flying into a fit of rage, Billy’s expression fell into calmness. It was as if his rage had come full circle and cancelled itself out.

“Guess there’s no point keeping you around.” Once again, Daring found herself staring down the barrel of a gun, but this time she was ready for it. All she needed to do was kick her hind legs up and knock the gun out of his hooves. Billy was making the classic ‘sticking the within striking distance’ mistake, and Daring was just about to capitalize on it when the unexpected occurred. It happened so fast - a crackle of breaking glass, the pang of metal on metal, and a goat’s distressed yelp - that it took Daring a moment to realize that something had just shot the revolver out of Billy’s hoof.

“What in the-?”

“It’s her!” Billy sneered as all eyes fell onto the broken window.

Standing in the foothills, rifle in hoof, was the nameless mare. Ejecting the spent cartridge, the mare tracked the passing train and loosed a volley of shots. Every goat and pony hit the floor as the bullets punched through the walls and windows, several of which narrowly missed Billy, and one even severed the rope holding up Daring.

“Get her! Shoot back, you idiots!” Billy shouted as he kicked and shoved the frightened gang members over to the windows. So focused were they on the new threat, none of the goats or ponies even noticed that Daring had fallen to the floor and was wriggling free from her ropes. If Blondie could keep the goats occupied, Daring could slip out with the amulet.

Outside, Blondie used the foothills for cover as the goats in the train returned fire. A straight-up firefight with a train was doomed to failure as she’d tire herself out just trying to keep pace. She had hoped she could have taken out Billy in her first shot, but even with her superb marksmanship, hitting your target on a moving train through a window was a one-in-a-million shot. With the goats putting enough bullets into the hills to turn it into a lead mine, Blondie held her position and allowed the train to pull away a bit before slipping in behind it and giving chase. Out of their line of sight, the mare was able to board the train from the rear.

“Where did she go?” Billy demanded as he cautiously gazed out a window. “She’s out there somewhere...she wouldn’t give up that quickly. Quick, somebody check the rear!” The goat’s paranoia proved correct, however, as gunshots began to ring out from a couple cars back. Seizing the opportunity, Billy began shoving his lackeys towards the rear of the train. “Go! Get her!” he bellowed, eventually ushering all but two other goats from the train car.

Unfortunately, with only three other occupants in the car, they were quick to notice Daring attempting to escape from her ropes. She was almost free from them too, but Billy put a halt to her escape attempt with the familiar gaze of a forty-four caliber barrel. Any sigh of frustration from the pegasus was subsequently drowned out by the thunderstorm of gunfire that erupted from the other cars. It sounded reminiscent of a warzone with many guns firing off at once it was impossible to make out the individual shots. There was even the occasional bang from some kind of explosion that shook the whole train. But what was more unsettling than the sheer volume of gunfire was how suddenly it fell silent. It was as if somepony just came along and hit an ‘off’ switch, leaving only the churning of the locomotive in the background.

“I think your plan has come across a critical flaw,” Daring commented while straining to keep a smug grin off her face. It had taken a moment but Daring recognized what had gone wrong. Billy had counted on weight of numbers to win out, but in the narrow confines of the train, where only a few ponies could advance or fire at any given time, those numbers counted for nothing. Daring had to admit that she was a bit impressed.

“G...g-go check it out,” Billy stammered as he nudged one of the remaining goats forward.

Given that the only thing more terrifying than what loomed outside was what stood behind him, the volunteered goat crept up to the door and slid it open. However, nobody could see anything in the other car due to the lack of windows and ambient lighting. As the goat stepped forward, just as he was standing the gap between cars, something suddenly reached down and grabbed the goat. He only managed to let out a panicked scream before he was pulled up and out of sight. Once again, a pervasive silence overtook the train, which now only held two frightened goats and a pegasus.

“That’s it! I’m out of here!” the other goat announced as he raced over to the window.

“Get away from the windows, you idiot!” Billy tried to warn him. But when the other goat opened the window in order to jump out, instead in came the nameless mare...hooves first. The goat took both hooves to the face, knocking the daylights out of him along with several teeth. In a move of desperation, Billy dragged the rope-bound pegasus in front of him and pressed the gun against her temple. But when the nameless mare landed, instead of drawing a gun of some kind, she whipped out a lit stick of dynamite. “One step and the pony gets it!” Billy shouted. His attempt at bravado was betrayed by the wavering in his voice and the tension in his posture.

“Give me the amulet or Ah’m blowing all of us into smithereens!”

“What are you doing? This is nuts!” Daring shouted when she realized that Blondie was going with a suicidal ‘all or nothing’ strategy.

“Nuts? This ain’t nuts,” the mare quipped, “now forgetting which fuses were the fast-burning or the slow-burning...that’s nuts!” And with the way that the lunatic mare was holding the dynamite, neither Daring nor Billy could see the end of the fuse. “Bet you’re wondering right now if you can shoot me and still get away before this explodes. Time to ask yourself a question, Billy, ‘Do Ah feel lucky?’ Well? Do ya?”

The nameless mare had a crazed look in her eye; the kind that made Daring realize that she fully intended to blow the entire train apart if Billy didn’t surrender. Now the archaeologist was as keen for a bold and daring plan as her name would suggest, but this bordered sheer lunacy. Whatever grudge existed between the two, Daring was not about to get blown up because of it. With the mare and goat were preoccupied with their staring contest, Daring took the opportunity to headbutt the gun aimed at her.

However, with the situation tenser than a piano chord, when Daring knocked the revolver aside, Billy flinched and the gun went off. Now nobody was hit by the stray bullet but it clip the stick of dynamite Blonde was holding. While the shock didn’t set off the high explosive, it did knock the stick out of the mare’s hoof and sent it flying to the far side of the train car...where it was plain to see that the fuse was almost at its end.

“Oh, you stupid pega-”

Blondie never got a chance to finish the sentence, as the resultant blast from the dynamite threw the occupants to the floor and almost split the train in two with only the steel undercarriage keeping the train as a whole. With a few coughs and a pained groan, the nameless mare slowly pried her eyes back open. Her ears were still ringing, her mind was a haze, and her insides felt as though they had just been trampled over, but she was still breathing; and if she was still breathing, she intended to keep fighting.

“Whe...where is he?” she murmured as she struggled just to get her head off the floor. Though her eyes refused to focus, she saw something that looked vaguely like a goat limping to the next train car. “Get...get back here,” she called out. A futile attempt, however, as her lungs felt as pulverized as the rest of her body, which made volume a painful prospect. Refusing to yield, the nameless pony searched for a weapon, and eventually found her revolver on the floor just a few feet ahead of her. Cursing a string of unlady-like profanities under her breath, the mare dragged herself across the splinter-strewn floor. Even the slightest movement sent pains through but her determination was as etched onto her face as the fresh cut above her brow.

When she finally did grab hold of her gun, it was like slipping on an old pair of shoes. Her head might have been spinning but the familiar grip and weight of her revolver would be enough for her. “Okay...hold still...” Blondie muttered as she tried to steady her aim. Even with the aid of her other hoof, the gun was drifting wildly from side to side. The first shot fell short, impacting the floorboards only a few feet from the earth pony; the second and third shots went wide into the doorframe; the fourth somehow managed to hit a hanging lantern in the next car; and the fifth shot just narrowly grazed through the goat’s hair. With each shot falling closer to her mark, she knew she had him on her next.

But as the mare steadied her aim one last time, a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention away. It was the goat that she had knocked senseless upon entering the train; and he was back on his feet with a knife between his teeth. However, Blondie was not the focus of his attention, as he was instead fixated on the still-unconscious pegasus. If she ignored Daring, the nameless mare figured she could take down Billy and still have enough fight left in her to deal with the other goat. She was on her last bullet - this was only remaining opportunity.

“Buck!” Blondie cursed under her breath as she swung her revolver over to the other goat. A quick shot to the leg toppled the goat over, removing him as a future threat. In a fruitless attempt, Blondie took aim at Billy once more, hoping that in her daze she had lost count and only fired off five rounds, but each pull of the trigger gave only an empty, disparaging ‘clack.’ With no ammunition, Blondie could only watch as Billy disconnected the train car and gradually began to pull away into the distance.

“Stupid...pegasus...” she murmured before giving into her exhaustion and easing her head to the floor.

“If I had known there was a barnhouse dance going on tonight, I would have suggest going there straight away,” Spitfire said with equal parts mirth and humility. Night had long since fallen over Ponyville and the pair were taking a scenic walk back to the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse. Both ponies had wide grins across their faces, a bounce in their step, and laughter trailing behind them.

“Well once you said you were a country pony, Ah reckoned it would be just what you needed,” Applejack replied. She was trying her best not to sound too boastful but it was hard not to considering how well things had gone. “Ah figured the ol’ saying would hold true - you can take the filly out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the filly.”

“Amen to that,” the pegasus wholeheartedly agreed. Her attention was briefly drawn away from the other mare when a few loose strands of straw suddenly fell into her view and she was forced to swat them away. “Sorry about the mess by the way,” she added, referring to the vast amount of straw that still clung to her ointment-coated frame. “I warned you that I danced on four left hooves.”

The image of the aerobatic pegasus slipping on some split ice cubes and tumbling headlong into a bale of hay was still fresh on Applejack’s mind, and she couldn’t help but laugh as the conversation brought the image back to her mind. “Well there wasn’t nuttin’ that you could’ve done. That bale of hay came at you from outta nowhere,” she teased.

Despite the embarrassment, Spitfire was still in high spirits and was able to laugh alongside Applejack. Though she tried to keep her eyes ahead, the pegasus found herself sneaking glances back to the mare beside her. “That’s something I’ve always missed about Trottingham; everyone is so much...colder in Canterlot. And you’d never find a barnhouse dance in Cloudsdale. I had almost forgotten how much fun they could be.”

The pair remained silent for the remainder of their walk, taking a longer route through the orchard and even stopping briefly to gaze up at the stars. Technically, only Applejack stared up at the stars as Spitfire’s attention was focused on a heavenly body much closer to her. And while the atmosphere provided an ideal situation for the romantically-minded pegasus, she reminded herself that life was not a romance novel and that she needed to pace herself.

“Well, here we are,” Applejack said when the pair finally arrived at the front steps of the Apple family’s homestead. “It was mighty kind of you to walk me back.”

“It was no trouble,” Spitfire insisted. Were this a normal date, Spitfire would’ve taken the moment to reflect on the event of the nights and judge whether or not it was safe to try and take things a step further. But the night had yielded mixed results, especially as a result of her own missteps. Eventually, she decided not to push her luck, which had already been strained that night. “Listen, Applejack, despite my...uh, near-catastrophic failings, I had a lot of fun tonight. And I really do owe it all to you.”

“Aw shucks, now you got me all a-flustered.” A little blushing did little to dissuade the pegasus, and if anything it only gave her more confidence. “Besides, Ah should thank you. If it hadn’t been for you, Ah would’ve been tending an apple cart all day.”

“Well be sure to thank Dash as well. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have been at the auction at all,” Spitfire added as she felt confident enough to admit that attending the auction hadn’t been her idea originally. “Maybe next time I’m in Ponyville, we could have lunch together.”

“That sounds like a swell idea,” Applejack agreed. “But next time, Ah’m buying.”

“No argument here,” Spitfire replied with a chuckle. After spending a thousand bits on one date, there was a good chance her accountant was going to have her flank on a spit. Spitfire figured she would just cut back on the lattes and cook for herself for a few couple of weeks to offset the cost. An uneasy silence fell between the two - Spitfire didn’t want to leave just yet but knew there was little else she could say or do at this point. “Oh hay, just go for it,” she finally chastised. The pegasus quickly leaned in and planted a light peck upon the mare’s cheek. “G’night Applejack.”

Applejack only managed a sheepish, bashful smile in response and a silent wave goodbye as her words wound up lodged in her throat. Thankfully, the pegasus’ departure spared Applejack any need to find those words and she was allowed to retire to her home in peace. Despite the late hour, she discovered that Applebloom was still awake, reading a book by the fireplace. Applejack arrival was immediately noticed by the younger sibling, who flashed a knowing smile.

“So how was it?” she asked all too eagerly.

“Fun,” Applejack replied, intentionally remaining vague to avoid giving the filly a sense of accomplishment, “but don’t think that ain’t getting you out of trouble for that little stunt you pulled.”

“Oh really?” the sibling remarked in an playfully questioning tone. “Because I was just reading this here book and it’s really confusing.” It didn’t take a detective to realize which book in particular Applebloom was referring to. “How about you forget what happened this afternoon, and I don’t ask Big Macintosh what a ‘love sausage’ is.”

“Clever girl,” Applejack thought as she glared harshly at her sister. Yet even with her most damning ‘angry big sister’ glare, the filly held her ground. “Give me back mah book and you’ve got a deal.”

Ch. 7 - Ad Libitum

She had never noticed how beautiful the stars were at night. It was almost comical to think about when one considered that Spitfire spent most of her time living in a city built upon clouds. Almost every night Spitfire was granted the opportunity to gaze upon them in a way that a large portion of Equestria was unable to. And yet despite all that, rarely had the pegasus taken a few minutes from her night to simply sit down and gaze up at the twinkling night sky. As she lay upon her cloud, Spitfire was reminded of all the times as a filly when she and her father would lay on the roof of their dainty shack and just watch the stars together. Given the long hours her father worked, the late evenings were often the only time the pair would find time to spend together, and even then he was often so tired he would drift asleep within a half-hour.

“Only one thing could make this night perfect,” Spitfire whispered under her breath as she stretched her hooves and crossed them behind her head. The pegasus allowed the weight of her eyelids to drift them shut whilst letting out a wistful sigh. “If only she were here.”

“Well howdy there,” a voice suddenly snapped the pegasus back to attention. Upon opening her eyes, Spitfire was greeted to the sight of the stetson-wearing orchard farmer standing over her. “Got room on yer cloud for one more?”

“Applejack?” the pegasus needlessly exclaimed as she clambered upright. “Where did you...how can you-” So utterly flabbergasted was the pegasus that she couldn’t even decide which question she wanted to ask first, let alone put it into words. The other pony just chuckled at her disorganized response, causing the pegasus to fluster in her embarrassment. “What are you doing here?” she eventually managed to stammer out.

“Ah’m here for you, of course,” Applejack answered as she gently inched closer to the pegasus. The sultry look that adorned her face made Spitfire’s heart almost skip a beat. “Ah couldn’t get you outta mah head after you left, especially since you left with such a fleeting little kiss.”

A flash of heat struck her face as Applejack traced a hoof up her chest with just the faintest of contact, just enough to tantalize her nerves. She inhaled sharply as the mare’s touch sent a shiver up her spine. “Well, I would be lying if I said that I hadn’t been a little disappointed with it as well,” Spitfire said.

The earth pony pressed a hoof against her chest while leaning in to whisper into Spitfire’s ear, “Then we’d best fix that, shouldn’t we?” The Wonderbolt was powerless against the other mare’s strength as she was pushed onto her back. Orange hooves linked around her neck as the weight of the farmer began to sandwich Spitfire against the cloud.

“You know, I’ve never been with an earth pony before,” Spitfire remarked as she brought her own hooves around the pony’s hips.

Flashing a coy smile, Applejack slowly drew her lips closer to the pegasus’. “Let me show what y’all been missing out on, then.”

BR-R-R-R-RINNGGGGG!

The tranquil air of the Wonderbolt’s bedroom was shattered as the alarm clock let out a piercing wail of rattling metal. With a disgruntled groan, a yellow hoof emerged from beneath the bedsheets and fruitlessly pawed around the bedside table for a few seconds before silencing the offending timepiece. “Why is it always just when it gets to the good part,” Spitfire muttered before she clambered out of bed. As much as she would have loved to have curled back up in bed in an attempt to pick up the dream where it left off, she had more pressing duties to attend to. It was back to the banality of her daily routine.

As her dinner last night had been cut short, it didn’t take long for the pangs of hunger to start hitting like a pair of hooves to the gut. Flicking on the radio while en route to the kitchen, Spitfire tried her best to push the thoughts of the lingering dream out of her head.

“Good morning Cloudsdale!” crowed the familiar voice of the radio DJ, Chatterbox, who was the closest thing to a morning companion Spitfire had. “Hope you all had a wonderful Hearts and Hooves Day; I know I did! Spent the whole last night hitting up the dance floor at Cloud Nine. And guess who this lucky pony got to hang out with while at the club? That’s right - my old friends, the Wonderbolts.”

“Oh goddess, I can see where this is going,” Spitfire sighed inwardly. She was half-tempted to flip off the radio at that point, but she was too busy pouring oats into her feed bag to care. Besides, it was better to know what ponies were saying than to be blindsided later on.

“The only thing that was more surprising than seeing Soarin’ still without a mare was the conspicuous absence of a certain Wonderbolt captain,” the radio DJ continued with an annoyingly suggestive undertone. Spitfire had to wonder if these ponies had anything better to do with their lives than speculate on a celebrity’s personal life. “Now Soarin’ and the other Wonderbolts weren’t in a very chatty mood, but it was pretty plain to see that somepony had special plans for Hearts and Hooves and wanted to keep it a secret. One thing’s for certain, the colts at the Canterlot Chronicles are going to be on the look-out for the hot-headed flier.”

“Let ‘em try,” Spitfire just rolled her eyes as the DJ continued on her gossip rant. After securing her feed bag over her snout, the pegasus carried on with her morning training routine. She was willing to bet by the next morning, she’d have paparazzi staking out her home in hopes of catching a glimpse of whoever her new squeeze was. She almost felt sorry for the ones who’d be waiting forever for someone who was never coming, even if Spitfire wished they could.

But who was she kidding? A small-town farmer wasn’t going to be willing to put up with the kind of media-attention that made up most of Spitfire’s days. If the paparazzi even caught a whiff of the earth pony, Sweet Apple Acres would be swarmed with tabloid reporters. As much as Spitfire would’ve liked to have seen the farmer again, she didn’t want to subject her to that kind of treatment. It was easy for the pegasus to avoid the press, but Applejack was earth-bound and had a farm and responsibilities.

“Maybe I could send her a letter or something,” Spitfire pondered as she scooped up a pair of rubber balls with her wings. “No, that’s way too impersonal.” As she juggled the balls with her wings, honing her fine-motor skills, the pegasus mulled over her predicament. “It would be fun to see her again, and nopony would ever think of looking for me at a farm. It wouldn't be too hard to keep quiet.” Sadly, with Applejack living all the way down in Ponyville, subtlety was next to impossible for her. The moment she showed up at Applejack’s door, it’d be obvious what her desires and intent were. Also, just showing up at her doorstep felt like an act of desperation, and despite how she felt towards her current station in life, she would never, ever stoop to desperation. She had far too much pride for that.

“In other news, preparations are almost complete for the 42nd Annual Royal Barnstorming Championship in Manehattan. All eyes this year will be on the Wonderbolts and their gryphon rivals, the Golden Eagles. I managed to sit down with the Golden Eagles’ trainer a couple days ago, we’ll play that interview for you ponies right after a message from our sponsors!”

“Now I know what they meant by the whole ‘it’s lonely at the top’ thing,” she sighed between mouthfuls of oats. The Wonderbolt captain resigned to her fate for the time being with the hope that her work would give her something constructive to focus on and maybe put her in a better mood.

“Fleet Foot, slow down already! You keep pulling ahead of the others!” Spitfire shouted with the aid of a megaphone from her vantage point in the bleachers. The Cloudsdale coliseum was devoid of cheering fans as it often was in the early hours of the day. On some days there would be the stray pegasus stopping by to watch the aerobatic team going through their training exercises, but the day after Hearts and Hooves Day was one that many needed to rest and recover from the night before. “That was horrible, do it again!”

And the other members of the Wonderbolts were no exception to this common occurrence. Spitfire watched as a trio of her fellow fliers went through a complex routine of loops, dives, and rolls, only to sigh in resignation and shout another bout of critics at them. At least half of them were tired out from having spent most of the previous night at dance clubs of one variety or the other, and she was certain that at least two of them were hung-over. On top of that, there was also no sign of Soarin’, but she had expected that considering the night prior. None of the Wonderbolts dared to even bring up what happened at the Velvet Saddle nor inquire as to how the rest of her date went. In fact, most of the Wonderbolts were giving the captain a wide berth that morning; although, that did spare them the wrath of her bellowing.

Though last night ended well, Spitfire couldn’t bring herself to be in better spirits. Yes, the date had gone well, but that was it. It was as Soarin’ had told her - it was a charity date and nothing more. She had tasted the fruit of the apple tree, but now she was back in the clouds where trees did not grow and only her job to keep her mind occupied.

“Come on! Are you Wonderbolts or prissy fillies? Tighten that formation!” Watching her fellow Wonderbolts pull another manoeuvre high above, Spitfire tried in vain to keep the orchard farming from infecting her thoughts. She swore she could still smell that faint apple fragrance the earth pony carried with her, which only served to frustrate her further. And as many of her teammates could attest to, a distracted Spitfire was often a cranky one. “Okay, stop that!” Spitfire bellowed to her teammates. “Wonderbolts, assemble. Double-time, ponies!”

“Is something wrong, cap’n?” one of the Wonderbolts asked as they gathered before her. Even though they were all familiar with Spitfire’s drive for perfection, a few of the members were visibly confused. Spitfire had a reputation for pushing her team hard to achieve perfection

“That was one of the worst Falling Helix manoeuvres I have ever seen,” Spitfire said, pointing the megaphone at a white-maned Wonderbolt. “Fleet Foot, you can’t keep flying so fast. You keep slipping out of position and your helix winds up looking like a plummeting parakeet.”

“Oh come on, captain,” Fleet Foot replied, “it’s not my fault that High Wind can’t keep up.”

“No, but it’s your fault for only thinking of yourself,” the captain admonished. “The Wonderbolts is not about individual achievement, it’s about teamwork and coordination. If you want to show-boat about being the fastest, then go back to the racetracks. I have no room for that kind of egoism on my team. Now, we’ve got a big competition coming up, and we’re going to show those griffins how real flying is done!” After a round of reluctant acknowledgments from the rest of the team, Spitfire motion for one of them to approach. “Rapidfire, I want you to watch the rest of these filly-fliers for me. I want ten flawless Falling Helix in a row and you’re going to make sure they don’t cut any corners.”

Once she passed off the megaphone and her duties over to the senior Wonderbolt, Spitfire retreated into the coliseum's backhalls. Her sour mood was starting to spill onto the rest of the team and she needed an excuse to get away from them before she burned her team out. Spitfire, at the very least, had enough sense to know when her personal life (or lack thereof) was starting to impede her professional life. She hoped that a short break and perhaps a cup of tea would be enough to temper her mood.

That plan hit a slight hitch, however, when Spitfire reached the break-room and saw Soarin’ sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in hoof and sporting a pineapple-shaped bruise upon his cheek. The two pegasus made brief eye contact but said nothing at first. It was a song and dance that the pair had gone through numerous times over the course of their friendship: uncomfortable silences; week-long matches of ‘who can ignore who longer’; major disruptions to their practice routines; and eventually an awkward apology from one of the ponies. Had there not been a major competition coming up, Spitfire would have been more than willing to go through the usual routine with Soarin’, but she couldn’t leave her feud with him unsettled. The competition needed the Wonderbolts at their best and infighting between the captain and her number two flier would only distract them. Armed with a fresh cup of tea, Spitfire swallowed her pride and sat at the table.

“I’m...sorry I hit you in the face with a pineapple.”

Soarin’ glanced up from his coffee for a brief moment, eyeing the pegasus with a scrutinizing glare, before turning his cheek with a harumph.

This actually caught Spitfire by surprise. Normally once the apologies were out in the open, the two ponies resolved their differences quickly. This was the first time that Soarin’ had actually snubbed her attempt at apologizing. “Seriously?” Spitfire quipped with a hint of annoyance. “We’ve got a competition coming up and you’re giving me the cold shoulder?” Again, no response from the other pegasus. “Come on, this isn’t the first time I’ve hit you with a piece of fruit. Remember the watermelon incident? And you still have the scar from that.”

“This isn’t about the pineapple,” Soarin’ responded at last.

“Then what is it about?”

“You don’t remember?” Soarin’ appeared to be even more annoyed with his captain at this point, which only confused her further. When Spitfire could only give him a baffled gaze and an uncertain shrug, he let out a discouraged sigh. “Big and round; golden brown; flakey crust; sweet, delicious apples and cinnamon. Ring any bells?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Spitfire said incredulously. If she hadn’t heard him say it just then, she never would have believed it. “You’re upset because I didn’t bring you back a pie?”

“You said you would!”

“I said I would try to bring you back a pie!” Spitfire reminded him of their previous conversation on the subject. She also reminded him that not only was a date not the ideal place to ask about buying a pie, the chances that Applejack would have had a pie that late in the day were marginal at best. “Besides, I made you that promise before you went out and acted like a colossal jerk. And now you expect me to just fly back to Ponyville, knock on Applejack’s door, and-” But then an idea came to mind; an idea that immediately made Spitfire’s eyes light up. “Oh my goddess, that’s perfect, Soarin’!” she exclaimed before her face was consumed by an ear-to-ear grin. “First you get the pie...then you get the mare.”

“It was just one date, Applejack; it’s nothing to get hung up about. Any pony should be thanking their lucky stars to have a chance to go out on a date with you! By the way, are you doing anything tonight?” As Rainbow Dash flashed her most hopeful grin, her reflection in the mirror did little to inspire confidence. “No, that’s too forward,” she silently sighed with a frown. The temporary librarian had spent more of her time running through the inevitable conversation she would have with Applejack than she had spent tending to the library. A few dozen books that still needed to be returned to their shelves were of small consequence when compared to the importance of ensuring her next encounter with the orchard farmer went perfectly. Not that Dash even knew of the current state of the library given that she had been spending her time in the backroom with Twilight’s vanity mirror.

While she remained oblivious as to the exact outcome of the date, Rainbow Dash was confident that there was no way that Spitfire would have any further interest in her friend. There was just no way that a famous aerobatic star like Spitfire would have anything to do with a farmer from Ponyville. That was the Wonderbolt’s loss, of course, since Dash couldn’t think of any pony she’d rather be with than Applejack. A part of Dash did feel bad about intentionally giving her friend poor advice but it was for the best. Spitfire and Applejack were from two separate worlds; it would never work out.

“Just remember, this is for Applejack,” Dash reminded herself.

“What’s for me?” a familiar voice suddenly popped up behind Dash, which was followed a moment later by the appearance of Applejack’s reflection in the mirror.

“AJ!” Dash gasped as she swung about to see that her friend had arrived far earlier than expected. “Wh-what are you doing here so early? You don’t take over until after lunch.”

“We need to have a little chat, Dash,” Applejack stated with a resolute look across her face. “Ah know what you’ve been up to.”

Dash felt a sudden tightness in her chest. How much did Applejack already know? Had she found out everything, including how she felt about the earth pony? Not wanting to divulge more than than she needed to, she simply feigned ignorance and let Applejack show her cards first. “I...I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Applejack just frowned for a moment. She might have been a simple country pony but she wasn’t a fool, and Dash’s blatant dishonesty was as plain as daylight. “Ah wasn’t born yesterday, y’know. Ah know you set that whole mess at the auction block up to get me on a date with Spitfire.” Without even giving Dash a chance to respond, she wrapped her hooves around the pegasus in a loving hug. “And that was the sweetest thing a friend has ever gone for me.”

That wasn’t what Rainbow Dash had expected, but it was better than she had feared. The warmth of her friend’s embrace brought a sudden flash eat to Dash’s face, and the faint scent of apples in farmer’s mane threw all her pre-prepared speeches out the window. Even though she knew it was for all the wrong reasons, Dash treasured every second of their embrace.

“Ah gotta admit, it was awfully clever of you, even if it was a might bit unnecessary,” Applejack joked after she pulled away from Dash. “Next time you want to hook me up with a date, just ask me. T’ain’t no need to go sneaking around mah back and everything.”

“How did you-”

“Applebloom gave ya up,” the earth pony revealed with a smug grin. “But Ah had a hunch from the start that Spitfire confirmed when she told me it was because of you she was at the auction in the first place.” Now Dash knew for a fact that she never suggested the auction to Spitfire but she wasn’t about to correct Applejack on that. “Plus that advice you gave me yesterday struck me as a might silly at first. Heh, y’know, for a second Ah actually thought you were trying to mess up mah date, but it all made sense when Ah found out that Spitfire was a country-pony too. Like Ah said - very clever, Dashie. Had me completely fooled.”

“She’s a what?” Dash almost wanted to scream out at that point. She was arguably one of Spitfire’s biggest fans and even she didn’t know that detail of the pegasus’ life. At the same time, being such a huge fan was one of the reasons that Applejack was so willing to believe that it was all part of a master plan. It just went to show that a pony was much more willing to believe a lie when they had to work to get it. “H-heh, I guess I should’ve known better than to try and pull a fast one over you. I take it the date went well then?” she asked. Somehow the other pony failed to notice her apprehension.

“It was a little bit bumpy at first, but it wasn’t nuttin’ a good old fashion barnhouse dance couldn’t fix,” Applejack said. Once again, her pride in having turned the night around was evident in the satisfied grin across her face. “Ah can’t remember the last time Ah had that much of fun on Hearts and Hooves Day, and if it hadn’t been for you, Dash, Ah would’ve spent it all sitting behind a counter selling pies and fritters. So again, thank you. Ah really mean it.”

The hoof set upon her shoulder felt bittersweet to Dash. Had events unfolded as Applejack had believed so, Dash should have felt an overwhelming sense of pride and joy at her accomplishments. This was not the victory she pegasus had hoped for, and the only thing that was harder than accepting this truth, was pretending that she was happy with the lie.

“So do you think you’re going to see her again?” It was a question that Dash dreaded the possible answer to, but hated the lingering uncertainty even more.

Dash felt a flash of hope when her friend gave an uncertain shrug. “Ah wouldn’t mind it, but Ah doubt she’d be all that interested in going out again. She’s a big-shot celebrity after all and Ah’m just a regular ol’ farmer. We’re just from two different worlds, y’know? We had fun and all, but it’s probably all for the best that we just go our separate ways. What ya did was nice and all, Dash, but ya gotta admit that she was a bit outta mah league.”

“What do you mean ‘out of your league’?” Dash questioned as she saw a perfect opportunity to make her move. “Applejack, you are one of the most honest, most dependable ponies in Ponyville, maybe even in all of Equestria. You’re one of the best friends a pony could ever ask for! Why between you and Spitfire, I’d pick you any day of the week. And if Spitfire knew what she was missing out on, she’d have flown back to Ponyville in an instant!”

“Hey, Applejack! Are you in here?” a familiar voice called out from the far side of the library.

“Nooooooo.”

“Spitfire?”

“No, no, no!”

Sadly, Dash’s worst fears were confirmed when the Wonderbolt captain trotted into view, smiling brightly upon seeing Applejack. “Hey AJ! Oh, and hello Rainbow Dash. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” the new arrival asked. Dash got the feeling that even if she had been interrupting, Spitfire wouldn’t have cared. It was clear to her what the Wonderbolt’s intentions were, but once again Dash found herself powerless to do anything about it. The only grounds she could intervene on were her own intentions for Applejack, and she couldn’t do that after Applejack had praised her for being such a good friend.

“Oh, n-nothing,” Dash answered. “We were just talking about...stuff.”

“Stuff, huh?” Spitfire mused with a playful grin. Given Dash’s hesitant answer, she had a suspicion of what said ‘stuff’ entailed.

Applejack may have been modest but the pegasus’ timely arrival couldn’t have been a coincidence. In fact, she wouldn’t have put it past Dash to have played yet another part in this little set-up. Since she didn’t want to embarrass Rainbow Dash further, she kept silent and played along. “So what brings you back around to Ponyville?” she asked. “Ain’t it usually customary to wait two days after the first date?”

“Normally I’d agree, but I have a bit of an emergency on my hooves. I tried to find you at Sweet Apple Acres but your sister told me you had already gone into town,” Spitfire answered. True, it wasn’t that much of an emergency, but it was a better answer to give than ‘I couldn’t get you out of my mind.’ “I need a pie, pronto. And preferably in the biggest size you make.”

“A pie, huh?” Applejack mused as she quickly deduced the reason behind the odd request. “Well our pies do come in the ‘sorry Ah hit you in the face with a pineapple’ size. Would that be big enough?”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” the Wonderbolt chuckled.

Never one to turn down a pony in need, especially for a cause as noble as repairing a wounded friendship, Applejack didn’t hesitate for a second to promise her aid. “T’ain’t no problem at all, but we don’t normally carry pies that big. Ah’ll have to make one fresh for ya.”

“Will that take long?” Spitfire asked with feigned hesitancy. In truth, she wanted it to take as long as possible so she’d have an excuse to spend as much time with the earth pony as possible. “I’d really hate to have to return to Cloudsdale empty hoofed, and this would mean so much to Soarin’.” Though it wasn’t necessary, Spitfire felt it wouldn’t hurt to embellish the story a bit. Her friend would have been content with a normal Apple family pie, but a little dishonesty would get him an even bigger pie and give Spitfire more time with her prize. If everyone got what they wanted, what harm was there in a little stretching of the truth?

“Don’tchu fret, Ah can get to work on it right away,” Applejack reassured her.

“Awesome! Do you mind if I tag along and help? I’m not much of a baker but I’ve always wanted to learn.” That was another blatant lie. The last time she used an oven, she started a small fire and was banned from the kitchen for the rest of her childhood. In all honesty, baking required more patience than Spitfire was willing to put forth.

“You’re more than welcome to,” the farmer agreed. Baking a pie wasn’t the most stimulating of activities, after all, and Applejack appreciated the prospect of having some company for the afternoon. However, that thought triggered another realization in the earth pony and she immediately turned to Rainbow Dash, who had up until then been trying her best to pretend that she wasn’t listening in on the conversation. “Say, uh, Dash, don’t suppose Ah could ask you to watch over the library for me this afternoon? Ah promise Ah’ll make it up to you.”

What Rainbow Dash would have given to have been able to say ‘no’ at that moment; some reasonable or legitimate excuse that she could use to force Applejack to stay in the library and prevent this faux-date from occurring. But there was nothing she could think of that would allow her to come out of the situation without losing face in front of Spitfire and Applejack. To add salt to the wound, Dash had to pretend not to just be okay with it, but happy about it.

“Hey, don’t worry, AJ! I’ve got this covered,” Dash said with a reassuring grin. The other two seemed convinced by the pegasus’ false platitudes and headed on their way. Once Dash had given them both several minutes to put a safe distance between them, she let out a frustrated cry. That blasted Wonderbolt showing up just at the right time to ruin Dash’s haphazardly-laid plans. Was fate out to get her or was she simply the unluckiest pony in town? Both felt equally true for Dash at the moment. It was enough to make a pony want to curl up in bed and just forget about the whole darn world. But after the pegasus pounded her head against the nearest solid object she could find, she found herself staring at the hardcover tome of Daring Do. “Daring wouldn’t give up,” Dash realized as she sprung back to her hooves. “This isn’t over until I say it’s over!”

It was time to take a more proactive role, and she knew just where to start.

Ch. 8 - Poetic Justice

The old adage went ‘all is fair in love and war’ for in both there was no prize for second place; no solace to be found in defeat; and no pride to be had in giving it your all unless you emerged victorious. Dash had never been one to yield to the hoof of fate. This was just another battle to be won, and another opportunity for her to demonstrate her absolute superiority. Make no mistake, Dash was at war with Spitfire and Applejack was the prize.

Yet as tempting as it was, Dash could not simply charge out of the gate and put herself between the two. What grounds did she have to challenge Spitfire when it already appeared that Dash had been, in fact, supporting her? Nonetheless, so long as everypony thought that Dash was behind Spitfire then they would not suspect her when she stabs the Wonderbolt in the back.

Putting the kibosh on their pie-date would be a difficult task. She had already promised to watch over the library for the afternoon so she would have to remain unseen by the pair. Thankfully, Dash had the advantage that Applejack would slow Spitfire to a trot’s pace at best. Even taking a long detour around town, Dash could pace herself and still reach Sweet Apple Acres with enough time to squeeze in a victory lap and a quick nap. Once she was certain that Applejack and Spitfire were out of sight, the pegasus locked up the library and took to the sky. The only thing that Dash wished she had at the moment was more time. Whatever her plan was going to be, it would have to be quick and easy. The wisest course of action, then was to go for the weakest link - the apple pie. If she got rid of the pie, then Applejack would have no reason to spend time with Spitfire and her strong sense of work ethics would force her back to the library.

“Ha! Brilliant,” Dash thought with an ego-inflating grin. “First you get the pie, then you get the mare!”

Before she landed at the farm, Dash did a few quick fly-overs to make certain that the coast was clear. Seeing no sign of any big, red stallions, the pegasus made her approach and infiltrated the Apple family homestead through one of the upper floor windows. As she had hoped, the earth pony family had carelessly left the upper floor windows unlocked. The window that Dash happened to choose led her straight into the bedroom of the pony she sought. As the bed was positioned just next to the window, in her haste Dash landed atop it by mistake.

Strange, the pegasus thought, the bed had yet to be made, and judging by the warmth, it had been occupied only until recently. Applejack had never been the type to sleep in, especially given the chores that needed to be done in the morning.

“Maybe she just stayed in to read,” Dash noted when she saw a familiar book sitting on the bedside stand. Judging by the bookmark, Applejack was almost finished with Lasso and Stars, which meant she had gone through a couple hundred pages in just a few days. “Maybe it’s a better book than I thought.”

Distractions! Rainbow Dash couldn’t afford distractions at this critical juncture. Forcing herself back on task, the pegasus skulked into the hallway with her body pressed low and her ears perked high. Every few steps, the pegasus halted and took in her surroundings. At the opposite end of the hall, she could hear faint hoofsteps. They were sparse...slow but light...

Granny Smith, no doubt.

That meant Dash was safe. With the Apple family matriach’s hearing, she could have strode through the homestead with a ten-pony marching band and remain undetected. But that didn’t mean Dash was going to relax. While the aging mare posed no threat, that did not exclude other threats from lurking in the wooden halls. Dash kept alert for the characteristic ‘thud thud thud’ of the Big Macintosh’s hooves that pounded against wood like a heavy drum. But aside from the brittle tacks of an geriatric mare, the homestead remained silent.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs without encountering any signs of occupation, Dash made the bold move to fly the rest of the distance. If there was any moment to have second thoughts, Dash blew past it as she swooped down the stairs and into the kitchen. The pegasus allowed herself the briefest of moments for a self-congratulatory grin before she continued to her objective. It stood to reason that the easiest way to stop an apple pie from being made was to simply deprive the cook of the most vital ingredient - the apples.

Having been corralled by Applejack into helping on numerous occasions, Dash knew her way around the kitchen and was able to locate the Apple family’s store of apples. All the times that she had to endure listening to her friend talk about apples and their infinite uses had finally proven useful for the pegasus. With that knowledge, she knew exactly which bushels to take out. Applejack would never bake a pie without the proper cultivar, and without the pie, there would be no need for Spitfire.

To no surprise, there turned out to be a lot of apples that Dash needed to take care of. A pair of barrels overflowing with the fresh produce stood between Dash and her goal. Alas, with no convenient means of disposal, they may as well have been lit firecrackers just seconds from betraying her schemes to the world.

But then a miracle occurred in the guise of a tiny red-headed filly whose hoofsteps were too light to pique the pegasus’ attention. “Dash? What’re you doing here? And what’re you doing with our apples?”

“I...uh...” Dash hesitated for an instant, paralyzed by Applebloom’s inquisitive gaze. She just needed time to improvise a palatable cover story. “I...can explain.”

“This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with why Spitfire came by for this morning?” Applebloom asked as she walked over to one of the nearby barrels.

Sometimes, the best cover story were the ones spawned by a presumptuous imagination and wrapped in a blanket of half-truths. Rainbow Dash saw an opportunity to exploit the situation and capitalized on it. “Oh shoot, you caught me...” Dash mock lamented in order to sell the story. “I suppose I should probably leave before you spill the beans to your sister.”

“Hey! I did everything I could!” Applebloom insisted with a hint of indignation. “But she knew somepony else was involved and she had Big Macintosh dangle me by the tail until I ‘fessed up.”

Dash gave the filly a scrutinizing glare, as if re-evaluating the worth of her continued presence. In reality, the pegasus was just giving herself the appearance that she was taking Applebloom’s words into consideration. Ponies were always more enthusiastic if they thought they were being granted the mercy of a second chance. “Well...I’ll give you one more chance, but you have to promise me you’ll not breathe a single word of this to anypony! Ever!”

“I promise!”

Dash had to consciously resist the urge to grin once more in triumph once she had succeeded in wrapping the little pony around her hoof. “Good. Now help me hide these apples.”

“Oh! We can hide ‘em in the barn,” Applebloom suggested as she hurried over and began pushing one of the barrels towards the backdoor.

Since that seemed as good a place as any, Rainbow Dash hurried to get the remainder of the apples out of the homestead. With the filly’s assistance, Dash was able to stash the apples away in the Apple family’s barn. And it was just in the nick of time as a quick glance outside confirmed the impending arrival of the Wonderbolt and apple farmer. They were far enough away that Dash didn’t have to worry about being spotted but that meant her time was running short.

“So how exactly does hiding the apples help AJ?” Applebloom inquired. “She can just get more from the field.”

The more lies she wove, the harder it would be for Dash to keep from tripping over her own words. But the impending arrival of the aforementioned pony meant that she had a valid excuse to avoid Applebloom’s questioning. “No time to explain - just trust me on this,” Dash said as she hurried out the barn’s rear door. The filly had a point, though; removing the apples from the kitchen was only a temporary solution that could be circumvented by only a short trip out into the orchard. Thankfully, the pegasus had a contingency plan for that as well...

“Ah thought the farm was finished at that point. But it turned out while they might have made more cider than us, ain’t no pony in town was willing to drink the stuff, let alone buy it. You shoulda seen how fast those two charlatans skedaddled away on their silly contraption.”

Though Spitfire was used to getting from point A to point B with all speed, the opportunity to take a slow walk back to the farm with Applejack was too tempting to pass up. She didn’t even care that she barely got a word in; she was perfectly content with listening the entire time.

“With that kind of loyalty, I’m surprised you don’t make cider all season long.”

“Ain’t got the right apples for it all season,” Applejack explained, which left the pegasus confused for a moment. “You can’t just put any old apple into a cider or a pie...ya gotta use the right cultivar for the right job. For example, Granny Smith apples are good for eating and baking, but one of the best features is that they keep well. That makes ‘em great for storing and selling over the winter months. But the apples we use for our cider come in late season.”

“This farming stuff is way more complicated than I remember.” Then again, as a child, Spitfire never had a need to pay much attention to the particulars of the farming business. The only thing she ever needed to know was when the fruit was ready for harvesting, at which point she would join her foalhood friends in the orchard and help them in exchange for a few bushels afterwards. “So what shall the master chef be using to bake her world famous pie?” she inquired with a playful undertone.

“Ah’ve got some nice n’ juicy McIntosh that’ll do just the trick,” Applejack answered as the pair arrived at the homestead. “Heh...Ah mean the apples, not mah brother.” The farmer was surprised to find her home deserted for the most part. Though she could faintly hear Granny Smith upstairs, there was no sign of either of her siblings. This discovery came more as a relief to the farmer as she figured it would be easier not to have to deal with an over-inquisitive little sister or a potentially overprotective big brother (not that she expected her brother to act in such a way). She led Spitfire into the kitchen and motioned for the pegasus to head over to the nearby pantry. “Ah’ll need both the brown and white sugar from there, as well as some flour,” she instructed as she headed over to the neighboring pantry. “And we’ll need about eight or ten good-sized app-what in the hay?”

Applejack’s cheerful demeanour made an abrupt halt when there was a gaping vacancy in her pantry where the McIntosh apples should have been. At first she thought she had simply been looking in the wrong area but a quick sweep through the kitchen came up empty.

Spitfire was quick to take notice and abandoned her search for the sugar. “Is something wrong?”

“They’re gone. They’re all gone!” Applejack replied. “ The McIntoshes, the Granny Smiths, the Baldwins...even the Spartans and the Ginger Golds!”

Now Spitfire didn’t understand half of what had just been spoken but she was smart enough to guess that the other pony was referring to kinds of apples. “I take these apples are no good?” Spitfire said as she pointed to the first pantry, which contained a few small bushels of the fruit on the lower shelves.

“Those are Golden Delicious and Galas,” the farmer said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Ya don’t bake with those kinds.”

Spitfire suspected that was the answer - she would be the first to admit that her understanding of apple varieties was limited to red, green, yellow, or bad.

“This don’t make a lick of sense,” Applejack muttered to herself as she started pacing across the kitchen. “Me and Big Macintosh brought in a heap of apples yesterday. Ain’t no way we could’ve run out so quickly...” Somehow, Applejack couldn’t consider this a mere coincidence that her apples supplies had run dry at the precise moment that Spitfire had stopped over. But could Rainbow Dash have organized this all the way from the library? Applejack wasn’t going to dismiss that possibility but that didn’t change the situation - Spitfire still needed her pie. Unless...that was a facade as well.

“Couldn’t we just go and get some more apples from the orchard?” Spitfire asked to interrupt the farmer’s train of thought.

“Right...of course. We’ll just buck a tree or two and get all the apples we need,” Applejack agreed. Since it would only take a few minutes to get enough apples from the trees to make a pie, perhaps the disappearance of her apples was due to something completely unrelated to rainbow-maned ponies. On her way out the back door, the farmer grabbed a set of baskets and slung them across her back. “Come on, this shouldn’t take more than a minute.”

But while Applejack’s attention was focused on the trees ahead, when Spitfire exitted the homestead, her attention drew elsewhere. “Umm...those clouds look rather unfriendly,” she said as she motioned for Applejack to turn her gaze skyward. Above Sweet Apple Acres, a curtain of black clouds had blanketed the sky and shrouded the farm in darkness.

“That’s funny...Ah don’t remember seeing any rain in the forecast,” Applejack responded with a raised eyebrow. However, while Applejack’s memory may have been serving her true, it didn’t take into account the interference of a certain weather patrol pegasus.

Nestled above the pair, hidden behind her nimbus curtain, Rainbow Dash kept a close eye on the developing situation. Fast-talking her way through procurement to get an extra-large order of rain clouds for the orchard had been quite the challenge, but it was worth the month-long supply of muffins she promised the procurement clerk in exchange for this favour.

“Time to rain on your parade, Spitfire.” So saturated with water were the clouds that all it took was a gentle tap of her hoof to open the floodgates. In an instant, the air above Sweet Apple Acres went from a cool overcast to an overwhelming downpour. The two ponies below were caught in the open field when the rain hit, forcing them to flee to the relative shelter of a nearby tree. “No pie...no need for Spitfire...” Now all Rainbow Dash needed to do was sit and wait for the two to part ways.

“So much for bucking apples,” Appljack said with a quiet sigh as she looked to the torrents of rain around them. Even if she could find the particular apple trees she needed, she and Spitfire would be soaked to the bones by the time they got back to the homestead. Still, Applejack wasn’t the sort of pony to be put off by a little rain, or in this case, a lot of rain. “The McIntosh trees shouldn’t be too far from here - no more than a five minute walk at best.”

“Forget the apples,” Spitfire insisted as she wrung some water out of her mane. Despite having only been caught out in the open for a few seconds, the pegasus was already drenched from tip to tail. “It’s just a pie...it can wait for another day when the weather’s better.”

“But you said-”

The farmer was ready to charge out into the rain but a restraining hoof upon her shoulder kept her in place. “I know what I said,” the pegasus interrupted, “but it’s okay. I’m not going to have you run out into a rainstorm on my account.”

“Well okay then,” sighed the farmer in resignation. While it may have been okay with Spitfire, it didn’t stop her from feeling like she had disappointed her new friend. “Ah suppose Ah should get back to the library then - ain’t no point in making Dash watch over it for no reason. You should probably head on home too...”

It was hard for Spitfire to hide the look of disappointment on her face. A quiet sigh, drowned out by the cascading rain, escaped from her lips and her eyes drifted down to a spot on the grass between her hooves. “Yeah...I guess you’re right,” she begrudgingly murmured. “No rain in the forecast, huh?”

“Ah know, Ah know,” Applejack replied. “Ah don’t get it. There wasn’t any rain in the forecast for the whole week. And Rainbow Dash always tells me when there’s any rain in the schedule and...oh.”

“Oh?”

“Rainbow Dash,” she murmured under her breath. A realization dawned upon the earth pony. It was nothing new or earth-shaking, but it confirmed something that she had suspected for a while now. There were too many convenient occurrences for this to have been the product of mere coincidence. “This never was about the pie, was it?”

Suddenly put on the spot unprepared, the pegasus only managed a nervous chuckle at first. “Wh-what do you mean? Of course this is about the pie. What else would it be about?”

“Listen, Spitfire...Ah know about the plans you and Dash schemed up - tricking me out into that auction so you can win a date with me. It was a mighty kind thing that Dash did and it was mighty kind of you to go along. And Ah can’t thank the two of you enough for it - truly,” Applejack said with a patient but firm tone. “But Ah’m a grown pony, and while Ah’ll be the first to admit that romantic stuff ain’t mah strong suit, Ah don’t need to be corralled like a stubborn sheep into a relationship.”

Now Spitfire was confused as to what plotting Applejack was referring to - the only thing that Dash had done, as far as she knew, was tell her about the auction in the first place. But the pegasus held her tongue for the moment as she didn’t want to interrupt the other pony. Applejack’s voice held a mix of restrained annoyance and genuine appreciation - she could tell that the farmer held no ill-will against what Dash and Spitfire had supposed done, but her patience with the perceived plots had reached its limits.

“Ah needed a kick in the haunches to get moving, Ah get it...but there ain’t no need to keep with all the secret plans and schemes,” she continued as her tone became more gentle. “Ah don’t want any more charades or deceptions, okay? Please, just be honest with me.”

When Applejack phrased it like that, it just made Spitfire feel like a fool. Her take on the situation may have been different than the pegasus’, but it didn’t make it any less true. “I swear to Celestia, I had nothing to do with this rain or any missing apples,” Spitfire began, “but the pie isn’t a lie. It was a...convenient excuse. I just wanted to spend some times with you.” The pegusus paused for a moment and took in a deep breath to calm her nerves. The fact that she was getting nervous over this despite having performed before crowds of thousands only confirmed the validity of what she felt. “Because the truth is...I like you, Applejack. I haven’t met a pony like you in ages, and you’ve been dancing on my mind ever since last night. I even broke a vase during my morning training because I was so distracted.”

Applejack couldn’t help but give a bashful smile as she listened to Spitfire’s admissions. She never imagined being the type to leave such an impression on anypony, let alone one as famous as the Wonderbolt captain. The pegasus could have any choice of pony in Equestria, and yet the only mare she had eyes for was the humble apple farmer from Ponyville. It was hard not to feel flattered at such sentiments. And it would be a lie to say that the pegasus hadn’t been on Applejack’s mind either; in fact, she wound up oversleeping that morning as a result of a Spitfire-ladened restless mind the night before.

“I know that who I am and what I do can seem...a bit intimidating,” Spitfire continued, feeling more confident with each passing moment. The fact that Applejack wasn’t stopping her was taken as a positive sign. “But take away the money and fame and you’re left with just another pony who’s offering her heart to another. Unless...I’m being too forward...”

“Y’ain’t being too forward at all,” Applejack reassured. If anything, she appreciated the straight-forwardness for a change. The farmer began a slow trot back towards the homestead and motioned for Spitfire to follow along. “Would you like to come inside and wait this nasty storm out?”

“I would like that very much.”

Up in the clouds, deafened to the conversation by the roar of the downpour, Rainbow Dash had grown impatient with the other ponies. They weren’t planning on spending the entire day under the tree, were they? She was just about to bring out the thunderbolts when she saw the two finally emerge from beneath the three...except they were both heading towards the homestead.

“What are they doing? They’re not supposed to be heading inside together!” Dash exclaimed, though her words were drowned out by the rainfall. When she saw the bright smiles upon their lips, she realized she had done nothing but make things worse. “Noooo! Nonononononono!” When the homestead door slammed shut, the pegasus let out a heart-wrenching cry of despair before unceremoniously bashing her face several times into the storm cloud. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” she admonished to thunderous chorus. “Why did I think this was a good idea?”

For a brief moment, Rainbow Dash wondered if perhaps she was just misreading the situation. She didn’t know for certain what it meant so she decided to go in for a closer look. Grabbing a sizable tuft of cloud to hide in, the pegasus made a cautious approach to the homestead. Peering through a window, Dash saw Spitfire tending to the fireplace.

“Okay...they’re just drying off. Nothing to be get worried over.”

Once Spitfire got the fire blazing in earnest, someone called her away from the fireplace and Dash briefly lost sight of the pegasus. When she returned, it was in the accompaniment of Applejack, and they were both carrying...

“Cider?”

Dash couldn’t believe her eyes at first but the truth was undeniable - both ponies had, in their hooves, a tall, frothy mug of cider. It wasn’t cider season! How could she have cider outside of cider season? A part of Dash had always suspected that the Apple family had their own secret stash for their personal enjoyment. But she had often told herself that had such a stash existed then surely Applejack would have shared it with her best friend in all of Equestria, right? Was this the sign of who held the greater place in the earth pony’s heart? To Dash, this revelation felt like a knife through the heart - the painful realization that somepony else held a closer spot in the heart of a pony you cared deeply about.

“I guess...I was just imagining everything.”

Dash lingered by the window for a few more minutes, watching as Spitfire and Applejack curled up together in the warmth of the fireplace. Applejack was smiling. A faint red fluster began to highlight the freckles across her cheeks. She looked...happy.

“I’m such an idiot,” Dash said with a defeated sigh. “Should’ve known from the start I was no match for her...” With all sense of will and purpose within her now drowned in a sea of bubbling, golden cider, the pegasus grabbed her tiny storm cloud and slunk off. There was no point in subjecting herself to further heartache by lingering...

Inside the homestead, the pegasus had yet to even take a sip from her mug. She took her time, allowing the fragrant aroma to fill her nostrils. “It smells wonderful, Applejack, but...I thought you said you didn’t make cider until late into the season.”

“Ah’ve got a bit of a confession to make then,” Applejack said with a faint chuckle. “It ain’t exactly our cider. You remember how I said that Flim-Flam pair scampered off in a hurry? They were in such a hurry that they left behind all the cider they made.”

“Right...and you said that the townsfolk hated it.”

“Correct - but not all the barrels of cider were bad,” Applejack said before pausing briefly to swirl the contents of her mug. “They only got sloppy when they realized they were going to lose. So once all the mess was over, we were left with about a dozen or so barrels of perfectly good cider. We’ve been storing them down in the cellar ever since.”

“And because your family didn’t make it, you didn’t feel right selling it, correct?” Spitfire hazard a guess based on what she had learned about Applejack’s rigid sense of work ethics. She was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t get the opportunity to try the family’s famous brand of cider, but it was a minor issue in comparison to the company she now held.

Applejack only nodded to confirm the pegasus’ suspicion. It may have been made using her family’s apples but it just didn’t feel right profiting off the work of somebody else, no matter how malicious their intentions had been. Besides, it would be a lie to call it Apple Family cider and she wasn’t going to give those two charlatans any kind of advertisement.

“Mah cousin Braeburn from Appleloosa sent me a couple of recipes that call for apple cider,” she commented as she continued to stare into her bubbling beverage. A part of her still held apprehensions over drinking cider that had been made with the intention of putting her out of business. “Ah thought about maybe giving a few barrels to Rainbow Dash but...well, again, it felt wrong giving her some second-rate brand of cider.”

“I know what you mean - when people expect the best from you, it just feels wrong to give anything less,” Spitfire agreed. The pegasus decided that she had admired the brew long enough. She held her mug out to Applejack and smiled. “A toast...to new beginnings.”

“To new beginnings.”

The two mares were just ready to tip their mugs when their eyes locked in a challenging glare. “Bet’cha I can finish my pint first,” Spitfire proposed with a sly grin.

“Yer on!”

And thus what began as a simple toast to their fledgling relationship turned into a cider-chugging competition with the two mares loudly gulping down their beverages in a fashion most uncouth. Despite the pegasus’ bravado, she was no match for the farmer’s experience and fortitude.

“Ah win!” Applejack trumpeted her victory as she slammed her mug down.

Spitfire was still struggling to finish the last few mouthfuls and by the time she was done, the pegasus was coughing and gasping for breath. “Why did I think that was a good idea?” she lamented once she caught her breath, which only prompted a burst of laughter from the other mare.

“Ain’t nobody that can top this pony in a drinking contest,” Applejack explained once she suppressed her laughter. The reprieve, however, was brief as she soon found herself desperately trying to suppress a second round. “Heh, you don’t drink much cider, do ya?” she snickered.

Spitfire was confused at first as she wondered how her inability to win at a drinking contest implied such inexperience. Also, the pegasus was oblivious as to what the other pony found so darn funny. “N-not really...why do you-”

“Cause yer face is as red as Big Mac’s behind,” Applejack interrupted as the laughter began to surface once more.

“I...it is not!” Spitfire tried to insist but to no avail. Trying to fight down the rising heat to her face only intensified the cider-induced blush. “I can’t help it - it’s genetic!” As her whining only spurred Applejack on, she attempted to hide the evidence by burying her head beneath a pillow. Only when the other mare had finally calmed down did the pegasus brave a peek from beneath her cover. “Heh...you know, Snow Pea used to tease me about the exact same thing.”

“Who’s Snow Pea?”

“He was a colt who lived on a neighboring farm,” Spitfire answered as she moved her pillow so she was resting her chin upon it rather than hiding under it. “He was strong...dependable...an absolute stud if there ever was one. He was such a sweetie too - I would call him Sweet Pea all the time. It used to drive him nuts.”

As Applejack had shared several stories about her life with the pegasus already, she felt that it was due time for her to be the one lending their ear. The more time Applejack spent with the pegasus, she more she became fascinated with her. Like her friend Rainbow Dash, the pegasus was equal parts daring and foolhardy, but was counterbalanced by the modesty that came from her years of experience. Applejack could understand why Dash made such a hero out of the Wonderbolt captain - regal, yet approachable; larger than life but still attainable. “I take it you two were close?” she asked as she shifted her position so that she lay alongside the other mare.

Spitfire gave a solemn nod. “We were...once upon a time. But when I started spending more time at flight camp, it just became harder and harder to stay in touch. Last time I saw him, we got into a huge fight about all the time I was spending at camp. He wanted me to stay at the farm - he hated the idea of me throwing everything I had away just so I could fly off to Cloudsdale to be a ‘fancy, flying circus pony.’ After he said it was a stupid, crazy dream, I may have lost my temper...”

Applejack noticed the pegasus averting her eyes in a fashion akin to when they spoke about her temper the night before. Her shame was palpable, but Applejack just reassured her with a gentle pat on the back. “Ya didn’t hurt him too badly, right?”

“No...but I said a lot of things I wish I hadn’t.”

“Should I bake a second pie?”

“Heh...no,” the pegasus replied with a small smile. “For starters, he hated apples.”

She knew it couldn’t have been easy for Spitfire to part ways with a long-time friend on such poor terms, but rarely did life afford one the opportunity to pick and choose its departures. And she had to admire the pegasus’ willingness to stand up for what she believed in. Without dreams, life could get bland in a hurry. It reminded her of her own departure from Sweet Apple Acres when she wanted to live the fancy life in Manehattan. Her family had resisted the notion initially but soon realized that the more they tried to keep Applejack at the farm, the more she wanted to leave. For a brief moment, the farmer wondered what would have happened had she found what she was looking for in Manehattan. Would she still be the same, loyal and down-to-earth pony she was? From what she could see in Spitfire, though, it took more than a change of scenery to change a pony.

As a question had been nagging on Applejack’s mind since the night before, she saw this as a prime opportunity to bring it up. “So...how did a big-shot flier like you wind up growing up on a tiny farm near Trottingham?” Ponyville may have had a significant pegasus population but from she had heard, mostly from Twilight, this was due in part to the town’s proximity to Cloudsdale. Trottingham, however, was quite the distance from Cloudsdale.

“I was born there,” Spitfire said. Applejack had expected a more cheerful or perhaps prideful tone to her voice, but instead met with a sombre one. Her amber eyes stared listlessly into the crackling fire as the pegasus explained further. “Mum and dad were originally from Cloudsdale. Dad worked in upper management in the weather factory, but my mum was a stunt flier.”

“Like mother, like daughter, eh?”

“Something like that,” Spitfire nodded, the sombre look still in her eyes. “Dad said she was a great flier. She wasn’t ‘Wonderbolts’ good but she still managed to win a few competitions. They actually met at a celebration party when my mum won her first Young Flier’s Competition.”

“Was it your mom that taught you how to fly the way you do?”

“Actually...no, she wasn’t. I’ve never even see her fly before.” The Wonderbolt fell silent for a moment as her face fell sullen. Shifting onto her side, the pegasus rested her head on her forehooves. “She had a bad crash long ago. Mum never talked about it so I don’t know much of the details other than the fact that she took out five or six trees on the way down. She...tore both her wings up pretty bad - never flew again...and she was never quite the same.”

The pang of sympathy hit Applejack like a sledge hammer. The near empty seats at the breakfast table were a daily reminder to Applejack about the two ponies that should be at that farm. She regretted having brought the subject up and turning what had been a pleasant evening into a sullen one. “Ah...Ah’m so sorry to hear that.” Words felt empty but they were all that she had.

Spitfire managed a half-hearted smile in response. “It’s okay,” she replied. “Anyways, as you can imagine, Cloudsdale isn’t the best place to live when you’re a flightless pegasus. Dad took the first transfer he could get his hooves on, which took him and mum all the way out to a tiny little farm just outside of Trottingham. A few years later, I came along.”

“So how’d you get into all that fancy flying stuff?”

“Stories mostly.” Spitfire’s mood took a turn for the better, as Applejack had hoped the subject change would accomplish. “Dad used to tell me about mum’s old flying days - the old medals...trophies...newspaper clippings. It made me want to be more like her.”

“How’d she take this?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Spitfire sighed. The pegasus rolled onto her back and began to stare aimlessly at the ceiling. “She never opposed it but...she never really gave approval either. I guess it was just hard for her to see me doing something that she couldn’t. I bet she used to dream of the day when she could teach her kid to fly...and instead she had to sit on the sidelines and do nothing.” As much as Applejack disliked how the conversation was dragging the mood down, she knew she had to see this through or her curiosity would be harassing her forever. “Either way, dad worked his hooves to the bone so he could afford to send me to a decent flight camp. You could say that my first real time flying in the clouds was an eye-opener for me. Once I got a taste of the sky, farm life just didn’t seem to measure up anymore.”

“Hey! Ain’t nothing wrong with the farm life,” Applejack remarked with feigned indignity. “It might not be as fancy as yer flying tricks but it requires the same kind of dedication, hard work, and attention to detail.”

“True, but can you imagine me with a peach for a cutie mark?” Spitfire suggested, followed by a round of laughter from the two. There was no denying that Applejack had a hard job and Spitfire admired the pony for her dedication and tenacity. “I’ll admit there have been days where I’ve wondered how my life would’ve turned out had I stayed home instead of going out on a limb and trying my luck in Cloudsdale.” In all honesty, though, such days were long gone - a relic of her earlier years when her future was still in doubt and she was, at best, a rising star in the aerobatic circuit. She hadn’t thought about the farm life in years, but she decided against adding that little caveat in. “Maybe one day I’ll settle back down on a farm and enjoy the quiet life.”

“Ha!” Applejack couldn’t help but laugh at that notion. “If you’re anything like Dash, the only way you’d give up flying is if you were dragged down kicking an’ screaming.”

“Oh...I can think of a few things that could make me reconsider,” Spitfire replied with a sudden sultry curl upon her lips.

As her heartbeat began to quicken, Applejack slid ever closer to the pegasus until she could feel the feathers brushing against her side. Each time the wings twitched, they tickled at her sides and drew short, sharp breaths. She flustered under the intensity of the pegasus’ amber gaze, enticing her closer until the pegasus had her ensnared in a tender kiss.

Ch. 9 - Pony of the East

It wasn’t until her tossing and turning knocked over an empty stein that Applejack was roused from her slumber. There was a brief moment of listless staring before her brain finally woke up with the rest of her. The first major thing she noticed was the conspicuous absence of the warm body that had been beside her the night before.

“Where’d she go?” Applejack wondered as she staggered back to her feet, two of which had failed to wake up along with the rest of her. “Ugh...mental note for later: don’t sleep on the floor again.” There was no sign of the Wonderbolt captain in the den - only scattered cider steins, a blanket in a heap next to her, and the long-extinguished remains of a wood fire. Taking a quick trot through the homestead failed to reveal the pegasus’ whereabouts. Had she taken off already? It was a troubling thought but one that Applejack didn’t want to harbour. It seemed far too rude of Spitfire to leave without even saying so much as a good-bye. And Applejack’s stubborn refusal to give up the search would reward the farmer when she overheard familiar chatter coming from outside.

Though the storm had since passed, the grass was still damp and the scent of the freshly-fallen rain still clung to the air. There were few things as invigorating first thing in the morning like the smell of the orchard after a rainstorm - it smelled like renewal and the promises of a brighter day ahead. Spurred on by the fresh spring in her step, Applejack hurried over to the source of the nearby chatter and discovered both Spitfire and Applebloom.

“So you were last to get your cutie mark in your class?” Applebloom remarked with mixed surprise and admiration. Whether it was because of the revelation or the fact that Spitfire was juggling three apples with her wings whilst balancing two more on her head was an uncertainty to the older sibling.

“Well, I never got many opportunities to discover my talent in flying until I started going to flight camp,” Spitfire answered. “But before flight camp, my blank backside got me a lotta teasing.”

“So how’d you get yours?”

“Brazen stupidity,” the pegasus said with a dry chuckle. When the filly farmer replied with a quizzical stare, Spitfire figured it would be best to better explain how she got the fiery wing-pattern that adorned her thigh. “It was during my third year of flight camp. As I said before, I got teased a lot and I went by the nickname of ‘Dirt Nap’ for most of it.”

“Why ‘Dirt Nap?’”

“I...didn’t like sleeping in the clouds as a filly. I was so used to solid earth that I would always fly down when I needed a nap,” Spitfire admitted with an embarrassed chuckle. “Anyways, after losing my temper several times, most of the others kept their distance, but there was this one colt that never eased up.” Amazingly, Spitfire was able to recount her tale while still maintaining her balance and precision in keeping the apples from touching the ground. Applejack decided to refrain from interrupting just yet, and opted instead to listen in on the story. “Since my temper didn’t dissuade him, I decided to challenge him to a ‘Dead Pony’s Drop.’”

“And what is that?”

“A very stupid thing that nopony should ever do.” It was a moment of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ when the pegasus advised against that challenge. It was the kind of activity that the older Spitfire would’ve chastised her younger self for just even considering it. “But basically you fly up to the highest cloud you can find, dive off, and the first pony to pull up loses. We flew up so high that by the time we came close to the ground we were both on the verge of breaking the sound barrier. He had guts but I refused to yield, even as I went screaming towards the ground. I kid you not, when I pulled up I was so close to the ground that I felt the blades of grass against my underside.”

“How did that translate to your cutie mark?” inquired the filly as she took a second to examine the pegasus’ flaming thunderbolt.

“You’ve seen the Wonderbolts fly, right? You’ve seen the way we have stormcloud contours when we fly? Well I discovered I can make a flaming contrail! The ponies below reported seeing a fireball streaking towards the earth, and when I pulled up I left a trail of scorched grass in my wake!”

“Wow! That’s amazing,” Applebloom gasped.

“And incredibly dangerous,” Applejack decided to cut in as she trotted over to the pair. “Ah don’t want to see you trying anything that crazy for yer cutie mark, got it?” However, in consideration of the antics Applebloom had pulled already in her cutie mark quest, Applejack figured her instructions would be heeded for all of five seconds. “Why in blazes would a flight camp even allow that kind of stunt?”

“Oh, they don’t,” Spitfire reassured the farmer with a dismissive chuckle. “I was pretty close to getting expelled, but the colt I challenged had a well-connected family. He even stopped teasing me after that. Well, he mostly stopped.”

“That was Soarin’ wasn’t it?”

“Awww, you ruined the surprise!” Spitfire pouted as she let the apples fall to the grass to accentuate her disappointment. “That was the best part of the story - I get to reveal that the once bitter enemies are now best of friends, and how one incredibly stupid act of bravado cemented a lifelong friendship.”

“You hit him with a pineapple two nights ago.”

“You should’ve seen the time when I dropped a watermelon on his head. Actually, maybe not. It wasn’t really that funny at the time.” Applejack wasn’t sure whether to laugh or shake her head in dismay. That uncertainty was short-lived, however, as the pegasus leaned in to plant a kiss on the farmer’s cheek. “G’morning to you, by the way. Did you sleep well?”

The crisp morning air made for a sharp contrast to the sudden flash of heat that rose to her face. Caught by surprise, Applejack only managed a sheepish smile in response. And the triumphant grin plastered across her little sister’s face did not escape her notice. “Good, though the floor ain’t the best place to sleep,” Applejack replied. “Why didn’t you wake me up when you did?”

The pegasus said nothing at first, and instead scooped the fallen apples back up with one wing and resumed her juggling.

“You looked so peaceful sleeping - I didn’t want to disturb you,” Spitfire answered without breaking eye contact with the farmer. Applejack found it rather impressive that she was paying more attention to the apples than the pegasus was. “Besides, I have a morning routine to maintain. I have to keep my skills razor sharp, especially with the big competition coming up.”

“Is that why you’re juggling mah produce?”

“Aerobatics is all about maintaining perfect control over every aspect of your body,” the Wonderbolt elaborated. “Juggling is a great way to maintain wing coordination and focus. Then I usually do a follow up with a bit of weight training, a few laps around Cloudsdale, and a bit of yoga to wind down at the end.”

“Yo-what?” chimed the nearby filly.

The pegasus merely gave a knowing chuckle as she expected the confusion.

“Yoga,” she repeated. “I picked it up when the team went to the far east for some team building exercises. It’s...hard to describe. It’s about posture and body control. And there’s stuff about meditation too but I sort of ignored that part.”

“Sounds kinda boring,” Applebloom concluded.

“I’ll admit it lacks the adrenaline rush, but I can’t argue with how it’s helped me out. Here - check this out.” Shifting the apples to balance them upon the length of her neck, the pegasus bent over and swung her hind legs up over her head until she was holding herself up with one hoof.

“And this helps with flying?” Applejack asked.

Easing herself back onto all fours, the pegasus resumed her previous juggling exercise before answering, “A bit. Helps in other things too...like last night.”

“Ya mind not bringing that up in front of the young’uns.” While the sultry reminder of the previous night’s activities sparked warm memories in the mare, it wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to be having in front of others, least of all her sister.

“Oh, right...uh, sorry ‘bout that,” Spitfire apologized with a sheepish grin. The pegasus made a mental note to rein in her enthusiasm. It was hard for her not to be excited, but she recognized that not everypony shared the same outlook towards relationships. “Sooooo got anything planned for later today?”

“Well we’ve still got that pie to make if yer interested.”

“Oh yeah, the pie! I completely forgot about that.” As it had been the original reason she came to the farm in the first place, it seemed silly to leave the task unfinished. The fact that it had been a convenient excuse did not change the fact that it was meant to patch her friendship up with her fellow Wonderbolt. And any time with the farmer was well-spent in her opinion.

“Ah’m heading out into the orchard to get some apples if ya wanna tag along,” Applejack invited.

For a moment, the invitation gave Spitfire pause. While she relished the opportunity to spend time with Applejack, this would cut into her morning routine. However, her morning routine also lasted several hours and could, in theory, be made up at a later time. After some thought, the pegasus let the apples drop back to the ground and hopped over to the farmer’s side.

“It’s a date!”

Daring didn’t wake until the afternoon sun had reached the appropriate angle in the sky to send a piercing ray of light through the shuttered windows that landed right across her eyes. Over a hundred million miles away and the sun could still land a inch-wide beam of light right into her eyes without any effort. Instinctively, the pegasus let out a pained grumble as she rolled over in her bed and pulled the sheets over her face. It wasn’t until a second later that the realization went off in her mind like the stick of dynamite that occupied the last moments of her memory. There were no beds or shuttered windows anywhere on that train as she recalled, nor could her ears pick up any indication she was on a train.

The archeologist shot upright in the bed, and was immediately rewarded with sharp pains through her chest. Her body was clearly letting her know that quick movements were ill-advised. The presence of the brass-framed bed and rustic wooden furniture suggested she was in someone’s bedroom, though that prompted the question of whose bedroom. Whoever it was, they had the courtesy of tending to Daring’s injuries as she found herself partially covered with several bandage-wraps. Her clothes were even sitting on a nearby table having been mended, washed, and neatly folded with her hat sitting on top. It was safe to conclude that she was not with any outlaw goats at the moment.

Though her head still throbbed, the pegasus clambered out of bed and stumbled over to the nearby window. Pushing aside the shutters revealed a small, dusty little town. There wasn’t even a paved road unless one counted the railway tracks on the far side of town. Daring knew not where she was, though this was not helped by the fact that every town she’s been to since coming out to the Mild West looked exactly the same as the others. The only thing she knew for certain was that she was not in the town she had been in last as there was a colossal water tower in the town center that she did not recognize.

“How did I get here?” Daring murmured to herself.

“You were carried in.” An unfamiliar voice drew her attention to the doorway where a cyan-hued unicorn was standing. Judging by the tray of clean dressings the unicorn was carrying, Daring was willing to guess that he had played a part in patching up her injuries. “It’s quite a relief to see you on your hooves. I was a bit worried when you and your friend were brought in.”

The obvious questions from Daring came first. “Who are you, and where am I?”

“Ponies around here call me Doc Tenderhoof,” the unicorn replied. His voice was calm and polite, carrying with it the refined polish that came from the modern education needed to become a doctor. “And you’re in the town of Dusty Trails.” The name didn’t mean anything to Daring but at the very least it would help her out once she got her hooves on a map of the area. Daring tried to take a few steps towards the doctor but a sudden dizzy spell forced the pegasus to retreat back to the stability of the bed. “You really should take it easy there miss,” the concerned doctor advised. “You were in pretty bad shape when you were brought in, and the extra sun baking didn’t help you much either. You should take it easy for a while”

While smart enough to recognize that the doctor spoke the truth, stubbornness demanded that she press on. Blondie, Billy, and the amulet could be anywhere and she wasn’t going to be confined to a bed over a little dizziness.

“Do you know which way Blondie went?”

“Your friend?” Tenderhoof replied. Daring confirmed as such even though ‘friend’ was a rather loose way of describing their relationship. “I’m afraid your friend was arguably in worse shape than you. She had yet to regain consciousness when I checked on her a few minutes ago.”

Anger towards the nameless mare, under the believe she had been left behind once again, evaporated at the news. Overtaken instead by concern, Daring stumbled her way past the doctor and into the hallway. Lucky for the pegasus, she spotted her ‘friend’ through the open doorway across the hall. As the doctor had described, the earth pony was in bad shape - thick bandages were wrapped around her head and body, and her face was flushed with fever.

“Blondie...”

“One of the farmers saw her staggering into town with you on her back,” Doc Tenderhoof explained from his spot in the doorway. “She managed to get to my office door before passing out.”

“How bad is it, doc?”

“Hard to say.” Tenderhoof gave an honest answer as he trotted over to the Blondie’s side and checked the thermometer wedged between her teeth. “On their own, her injuries aren’t life-threatening, but combined with the strain of carrying you Celestia-knows-how-far it’s another story altogether.”

Daring felt strangely humbled by this revelation. All this time, she had pegged the earth pony as a greedy, self-centered gun-for-hire, more prone to ignorance and violence than acts of compassion. It made no sense to her for the other pony to have taken on such extreme risk for her sake. It didn’t just fly in the face of logic but kicked it in the hindquarter on its way past. However, any further contemplations on the subject would have to wait as the doctor insisted that Daring give his patient a quiet atmosphere to recover.

With a reluctant sigh, Daring Do retreated to the relative comfort of her bed. She hated the idea of resting while the amulet was still unaccounted for, but Blondie was the only lead she had at the moment so she was stuck until the gunslinger recovered. Tracking priceless artifacts was a lot easier when they were sitting in an ancient ruin rather than the saddlebag of some wandering outlaw. Left alone to her thoughts, Daring entertained the notion that perhaps she was a bit out of her element, but that didn’t change her resolve. With or without Blondie, she wasn’t going to let Billy get away with her prize. She would think of something, eventually.

Alas, thinking would been easier were she not still recovering from a minor concussion.

“So how did you get tangled up with Lucky? You don’t look her usual sort of company,” Tenderhoof asked. This time, the doctor was carrying a tray with a pitcher of water and a glass, which he set down on the bedside table.

Snapped out of her train of thought, the pegasus was at a bit of a loss of how to best explain her situation.

"We’re tracking a stolen artifact.” It was a bit of an oversimplification since that only explained what they were doing and not how they wound up getting stuck together doing it. Nonetheless, her answer appeared to sate the doctor’s curiosity. “Wait, did you just call her Lucky?”

“That’s just how we’ve come to know her ‘round these parts,” he explained while pouring for the pegasus a glass of water. “I hear over in Pony Creek they call her ‘Bulls-eye.’ The mare’s got a bit of a reputation, but I imagine you’ve already seen that for yourself.”

“And then some,” she agreed with a soft, tired sigh.

“Lucky’s actually sort of a hero in this town.”

“A hero? Really?” Daring replied incredulously. “In the short time I’ve known her I’ve almost been trampled by buffalo, knocked out and left behind in a tomb, left to wander a desert, assaulted by a minotaur, nearly executed by a goat, and almost blown to smithereens! That pony is a walking natural disaster!”

It shouldn’t have surprised the archaeologist that the doctor’s first reaction was just to laugh. If Blondie did indeed have a history with the town, then it stood to reason that he was well aware of the nameless mare’s destructive tendencies. It felt as though she was the last one to realize this otherwise universally-known fact.

“You saw that big water tower in the middle of town, right?” the doctor asked once he had stopped chuckling at Daring’s expense. “We used to have two great things in town - a big gold mine, and an even bigger water reservoir. Both were built and own by this big-shot banker. Things were fine for a while but then the gold mine ran out. The banker started charging ridiculous fees for access to the water. It darn well near squeezed the town dry of every bit it had.”

Tenderhoof then gave the glass of water over to Daring.

“And how does Blo-er, I mean Lucky fit into this?”

“She came into town and tried to get a glass of water.”

Daring didn’t know where this story was leading to, but without any other distractions to occupy her time she figured she may as well hear the doctor out. “What happened after that?”

“Well the banker and his goons didn’t like the idea of somepony just helping themselves to the water without paying. They tried to make an example out of her and then things escalated out of hoof.” Now that sounded more like the nameless mare than she knew. “I’ll spare you the details but by the end of it, the banker’s mansion was wrecked and he was pleading with Lucky not to kill ‘im. He said he’d give her whatever she wanted.”

“And what did Lucky want?”

“A glass of water.”

Daring just stared at the doctor in absolute silence. “You’re kidding me.” But by the shaking of his head, it was clear that the doctor was not. “I can’t tell if the headache I’m getting is because of how ridiculous that was, or just because of the head injury.”

“Yeah, that was the banker’s reaction too,” the doctor said with a grin. “Anyways, Lucky told the banker to get lost, and the water tower’s been free to the public ever since.”

“And Lucky?”

“She took her water and left.”

The doctor's story cast the nameless mare in a conflicting light. At first glance, it did not sound like the self-centered, money-driven pony that she had been shackled to for the past day and a half. However, escalating a simple conflict of interest into a full-blown fight sounded exactly like the sort of thing Blondie would do. Maybe the wandering gunslinger wasn't as bad a pony as she had thought. Perhaps, Daring thought, she should owe the mare an apology once Blondie was awake - she hadn't been very fair to her since they crossed paths. In the meantime, though, Daring resigned to resting her weary body. It had been a hectic few days, and it felt like it had been ages since she last got a decent night's rest.

When Daring stirred back to the world of the waking, the pervasive chill that greeted her was her first clue that several hours had passed and night had fallen. A small kerosene lantern provided a faint glow from a nearby table. But it was not the light from the lamp that had roused Daring from her sleep; rather, it was the commotion outside that drew her attention. Still limping from her injuries, the pegasus staggered over to the window to see what was going on.

What she saw made the archaeologist almost drop to floor just to stay out of sight. Standing outside, arguing with Doc Tenderhoof, was a very familiar and very angry-looking goat. Thankfully, being on the second floor kept Daring out of sight and far enough away that nobody heard her startled gasp. No doubt the goat was still hell-bent on his personal vendetta against the nameless mare. While Daring had lamented losing track of the goat, this was not how she wanted to find her quarry.

With great care, Daring eased the window open so she could better hear what was happening outside.

“For the last time, mister, we ain't got no Blonds or Derring duds around here!” For a doctor named Tenderhoof, he was being quite firm-hoofed with the goat. Billy was stomping about in a fury, shouting and bleating at the doctor, but failed to get even the slightest reaction from him.

“Her name is Blondie, and this is the only town for miles! There ain't no other place for them to be!" Billy snapped back.

“Then I don’t know what else to say, except your friend is probably lost out there. Now if you want, you can ask around and try to rustle up a search party-”

“Don’t patronize me!” the goat interrupted. “I know you’re hiding them!”

“As you already stated, this is the only town for miles, and I’m the only doctor in town.” Even as the goat’s temper continued to escalate, the doctor remained unflappable. “It would be very hard for me to hide anyone given those parameters. Now please stop yelling - I have patients that are trying to rest.”

Daring wasn’t sure why the doctor was so willing to stick his neck out, but she had a feeling that it had to do with some sense of a debt owed to the nameless mare. She just hoped the doctor knew who he was dealing with.

“Well if y’ain’t got nothing to hide then you won’t mind if I take a look around.” Before Tenderhoof could insist otherwise, the goat forced his way past the doctor and into the building. Realizing how bad a situation she would be in were Billy to find her, Daring rushed to douse the lantern. Shrouded in darkness, Daring positioned herself near the door, ready to strike should any goat dare to enter with the only object she had available - the lantern. She did not dare to even breathe as hoofsteps began to draw close.

“I have sick patients that need their rest,” sounded the doctor’s voice from the lower level. “I want you to leave, now!”

“Oh, don’t get yer knickers in a bunch; I’ll be real quiet,” the goat said dismissively. Judging by the single set of approach hoofsteps, it sounded as though the doctor had yielded to the goat, which wasn’t surprising given that nothing short of physical confrontation seemed capable of deterring the outlaw.

As she didn’t know whether the goat was armed or not, Daring’s best hope was to catch him off-guard and pray that he didn’t go into Blondie’s room first. She got the impression that Billy’s thirst for revenge would have no qualms about smothering a pony in their sleep. Her muscles tensed and her heartrate soared as the steps ceased just outside her door.

"Who dares, wins," Daring silently reminded herself. The pegasus crouched low and braced herself as she watched the door handle begin to turn.

“I’m not going to ask you again,” the doctor’s voice perked up once again. The goat now found himself standing at the wrong end of a very large shotgun and a doctor whose patience has worn thin. “Now you can choose to walk out or you can be dragged out, but either way you’re leaving.”

“Well, well, looks like the little colt has some buck to him after all,” Billy said with veiled contempt. Given the odds, he backed away from the door and headed for the exit. “You win this round doc, but I’ll be back tomorrow with some friends of mine. And if I don’t find what I’m looking for then let’s just say we’ll have a little outdoor barbeque.”

“Count of ten, mister.”

The gradual fade of the hoofsteps into the distance eased the archaeologist’s heart back into a calm rhythm. Daring relaxed her posture and set the lantern back onto its perch.

“You awake, Ms. Daring?” the doctor whispered as he crept the door open just an inch.

“Yeah, and I heard most of your conversation,” she answered before opening the door. It was one of the few occasions where seeing a shotgun-toting stallion brought a great sense of reassurance to her. “I suppose that’s two I owe you now.”

“You don’t owe me anything, miss,” Tenderhoof reassured her. “I swore an oath to help those in need and always do what’s in the best interests of my patients.”

“So what are you going to do when he comes back tomorrow?”

“I’ll think of something.” Daring caught the brief flicker of concern that washed over the doctor’s face. He said nothing after that, and instead just headed back into the hallway. That was not the kind of reaction that she had been hoping for - that was the reaction of a pony who knew he was in the rapids without a paddle. While Daring had no qualms about allowing somepony else to take a risk for her, she was not going to let Tenderhoof get killed just to protect her. If Billy was going to return, which Daring was willing to bet her life upon, then she was going to need the help of the only pony in town who’s dealt with that goat.

Barging into Blondie’s room, the pegasus skidded to a halt upon seeing the nameless mare already up and gathering her things together.

“Y-you’re awake?”

“No thanks to you lot with all that dang ruckus,” the gunslinger grumbled in response. “How is anypony supposed to get any rest around here?”

“Well if you’ve been awake then you know what’s happening. We can get the drop on Billy when he returns to town.”

“If that’s what you wanna do then go right ahead,” Blondie replied with surprising indifference. It wasn’t until that the nameless mare slung her weapon over her shoulder and started heading for the door that Daring realized that the other pony had no intent on staying. She also noted that the nameless mare was favouring her right hind leg by a considerable margin.

“Wait, you’re ditching us?” Daring exclaimed.

“Yer a perceptive one there, kiddo. Did you learn that at yer fancy college?”

“You’re leaving after everything we’ve gone through?” Daring had trouble believing that the pony that had chased down a train across a barren wasteland, that had played chicken with lit dynamite, was willing to walk away so easily. “What about Billy? The doc? Hay, what about the amulet you were so bent on retrieving?”

Frowning like a teacher would at an unruly student, Blondie straightened her duster before drawing her revolver. She swung the cylinder out so that Daring could see the six bullets in the gun.

“That’s all the ammunition I’ve got. I ain’t fighting Billy with a bad leg and six bullets. Especially, when I can just as easily walk away,” she explained to the pegasus. “Fighting Billy doesn’t do me any good.”

“But Doctor Tenderhoof-”

“Tenderhoof hasn’t fired that shotgun in all the years I’ve known him. He doesn’t even have any shots for it, let alone a clue how to use it properly.”

Now this was sounding even less like the Blondie she had known for the past few days. The pony she had accompanied was absolutely daring and reckless. That pony never would’ve considered the odds too stacked against her. The nameless mare went against close to a dozen of Billy’s goons without hesitation, but all of a sudden now it was too risky. Blondie didn’t strike her as the kind that was afraid to die. There was only one explanation that came to mind.

“You’ve already got it.”

“Whaddya mean?” Blondie replied as she became evasive all of a sudden. Seeing this as an indication she was close to the mark, Daring confronted the nameless mare and began sifting and running her hooves through the other pony’s clothes. “Get yer dang hooves off me!”

Blondie’s complaints went unheeded, and the pegasus was able to take advantage of her wounded condition to worm past all her attempts to push Daring away. After some scuffling and a fair amount of un-mare-like profanity, Daring was able to pull open the nameless mare’s shirt, which revealed a pair of shimmering amulets hanging from her neck.

“A-ha!” Daring proclaimed. “You’ve had the amulets this whole time!”

“Fine! So what?” Blondie snapped back as she pulled away. Fortunately for the gunslinger, Daring was so fixated on the pendants that she failed to notice the bright fluster across her face. “Billy was so darn concerned about saving his own hide that he left them behind. Since getting this blasted thing was the whole point, I’ve got no reason to stick around and risk my neck for no reason. And if you were as smart as your fancy college education suggests, you’d do the same.”

Blondie did present a valid argument, Daring realized. The mission was for the amulet, not Billy himself, which meant they were done. Mission accomplished. Or at least it was mission accomplished for Blondie as the archaeologist would have preferred to take the amulets back to the museum in Canterlot rather than a private collector. All sense and reason suggested that leaving town as soon as possible was the wisest course of action. But Daring didn’t need to even mull it over for a second to know that it wasn’t the right choice. Amulet or not, she couldn’t abandon Tenderhoof to the whims of a outlaw goat with a violent and volatile temper. Daring may not be an exemplar of noble selflessness, but that didn’t mean she was a heartless pony.

“We can’t just leave Tenderhoof now. When Billy comes back and doesn’t find us, there’s no telling what he’ll do to the doctor. We owe him!”

“I don’t owe nopony anything!” Blondie shouted as her temper began to flare up. “If anything, he and I are even after what I did to save this dustball of a town!”

“You’re just a coward!”

“I ain’t no coward,” the nameless mare snarled. The two ponies leaned in to the point where they were butting heads, adding a physical element to their confrontation. “I fight when I need to or when I have an advantage. Thanks to yer stupidity on the train, I’ve got almost no bullets and my hindquarter is killing me!”

“You’re the one who pulled out the dynamite. What in the hay were you even thinking?”

“Well because somepony took my gun, I had nothing else once my rifle ran dry!” Blondie shouted as she pushed hard against Daring, forcing her back a few steps. “This ain’t like your fancy cities out east or silly fairy tales. Out here it’s everypony for themselves and nopony cares who lives or dies. The only thing heroes like the doc get is an early grave.”

Refusing to back down, Daring decided to step up her offensive and pushed back hard.

“You’re a heartless coward if there ever was one!” she accused once more. “You’re willing to run through a gauntlet over money, but when it comes to actually doing what’s right, to show real courage, all of a sudden it’s ‘too risky?’” Being in better condition than the gunslinger, Daring was able to force the mare against the wall with little effort. “You know what I think? I think you’re more scared of things than you’ll admit! That’s why nopony knows your real name - you’re too scared to even let somepony get to know you a bit.”

“I don’t tell ponies my name cause I don’t care! I don’t care about anyone or anything but myself!”

“Then why did you carry me all the way to town?” Daring knew she had the mare right where she wanted her when Blondie fell uncharacteristically silent. The stone-like visage began to crack under the astute archaeologist’s pressure. “You had what you needed. You could have easily just walked the other way without me.”

“Y-yer talking nonsense,” Blondie answered after regaining her composure. Feeling a growing sense of unease with the archaeologist’s intrusiveness, the nameless mare slipped out from their head-butting contest. But with Daring between her and the exit, Blondie had to opt with putting some distance between them, which took her back over in the direction of the bed. “I just wanted to see the look on yer face when I rubbed it in that I got the amulets, that’s all.”

“Don’t give me that rubbish; you were trying to hide them from me just a moment ago,” Daring was quick to retort. She refused to give the gunslinger any breathing room and kept close even as Blondie retreated across the room. “Tenderhoof saves your hide and you won’t even lift a hoof to help. But I nearly get you blown up and you haul my unconscious flank across the desert. So what’s the reason, hm? What made me worth giving a darn about?”

“Has anyone ever mentioned what an annoying pain in the hindquarters you are?” Blondie replied as she grew more defensive and evasive.

“And you’re an infuriating, hoof-dragging, dinohippus!”

“I don’t even know what that last one means! I hate it when you talk like some stuck-up little filly!”

“I hate how your solution to problems has always involved wanton destruction!” Daring’s own temper was beginning to flare up. A mixture of raw emotions began to churn inside her like an unstable concoction. The two ponies were shouting into each other’s faces at this point with complete disregard to the off-chance that a certain outlaw goat could potential wander back and overhear them.

“And I can’t stand your stupid, pretty little face!”

“Well I can’t stand your stupid, reckless heroics!”

“Self-righteous nancy!”

“Self-centered philistine!”

Daring's anger had hit a boiling point. She could no longer tolerate just shouting at the other mare. For better or for worse, the nameless mare had been a constant source of confusion and obsession for her. Equal parts admiration and hate had melded together with such intensity it left only one feeling in its wake: lust. Without another thought, Daring closed the gap, kissing the nameless mare deeply as she hooked her hooves around her neck.

“I hate you,” Daring’s words were muffled through the embrace.

“I hate you more.” Hot-blood rage transformed in an instant to heated passion as tongues and hooves entwined. It took little force for the pegasus to guide them over to the bed, at which point a gentle shove threw the gunslinger onto her back.

Daring parted the coat and shirt, revealing a scarred chest and neck. It was a good thing she had a thing for scars - they were like badges of honour to an adventurer like her. Slowly, the pegasus climbed atop the nameless, which caused the pony beneath to wince from the pressure against her injuries. What pain she felt, though, was washed away seconds later by the hooves caressing her chest.

“You and your stupid morality,” Blondie said between heavy breaths.

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

Ch. 10 - Hamartia

Applejack knew that she had nothing to be afraid or ashamed of. Not only was it something that she had done before, but it was something that almost everyone in town did. It was an inevitability in everypony’s life, to be honest, and Applejack wasn’t so arrogant as to presume that it somehow did not apply to her. On top of everything else, it was precisely what everyone would recommend for her to do. There had to be good reason behind it if so many were in favour of it. But despite all the logical reasons that stated Applejack should head inside, the orchard farmer found herself still standing outside the Carousel Boutique, staring at the front with the sort of apprehension one would reserve for a scheduled meeting with the Grim Reaper. It was though stepping through that portal would somehow rob Applejack was a vital part of her essence, which she even knew was an absolute ridiculous notion.

Steeling her resolve, the stetson-toting pony opened the door, which chimed an overhanging bell. There went her hope for a subtle entrance. On the bright side, it did not appear that Rarity had any customers or clients at the moment so at least Applejack could keep this to a private affair.

As anticipated, the bell’s call brought about the local fashionista in a punctual manner.

“Good morning Applejack, what brings you here? If you’re looking for Applebloom, I’m afraid I haven’t seen her,” Rarity greeted in a knowing, suggestive tone.

“Nah, Ah ain’t looking for her,” Applejack replied. She noticed quickly that her friend seemed far more enthusiastic to see to see her than was normal, as well as less surprised given how rarely Applejack visited the shop. “I just came by ‘cause I needed to...um...” The farmer paused for a moment when she noticed Rarity’s expectant gaze and eager grin. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Oh for Pete’s sake, you already know, don’t you?” Applejack sighed in resignation.

While she was excited about her new-found relationship, she had more sense than to shout about it from the rooftops. In fact, as far as she knew, Dash and her immediate family were the only ponies that knew. Now that list had already expanded to include Rarity and the farmer feared for how many others might already know. Truthfully, Applejack had no qualms about ponies knowing who she was dating but Spitfire had repeatedly expressed concerns about paparazzi and photographers harassing them once word spread about them. Neither of them were under any delusion that their relationship would stay hidden from the public forever, but they intended to make the best of their privacy while they could.

“Whatever do you mean?” Rarity feigned ignorance but remained unconvincing.

“You know about me and Spitfire.”

The deadpan stare from the earth pony was enough to convince Rarity that there was little point in continuing the charade. As much as she wanted to avoid depriving Applejack the joy of revealing one’s romantic accomplishments, the other pony seemed intent on pulling out the truth.

“Oh fine, yes...I already know,” Rarity pouted. She had figured Applejack would reveal the details in due time and didn’t want to rush her, but she wasn’t going to fret much if the farmer wanted it out in the open now. “I happened to be near the auction when you were on stage,” she explained. Rarity decided to leave Rainbow Dash out of the conversation in order to avoid compromising the pegasus’ secret.

“Ah don’t suppose Ah could convince ya to keep this to yerself? Ah’m trying not to make a big deal out of it.”

“I shan't say a peep about it,” Rarity did declare, much to the other pony’s relief. As fun as gossip could be, she respected her friend’s desire for privacy. Not to mention it was often a bad business move to earn the scorn of a famous celebrity. “But I digress, what can I do for you today?”

For a brief moment, Applejack had almost forgotten the whole reason she came to the boutique in the first place. Given that the reason wasn’t one she was too fond of, it had been easy for her to indulge in tangents in order to delay. But she knew that, like a band-aid, it was best just to get it over with quickly.

“Well...um, y’see,” Applejack began, fumbling with her words, “Ah’ve got an engagement to go to next week and Ah thought it would be...uh, proper if Ah had a...uh, y’know...one of those fancy things...with the fabrics n’ such.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about.” An obvious lie but a bit of teasing was something that Applejack expected.

“Ah...Ah need a dress...”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Ah need a dress.”

“Could you say that again, please? I didn’t quite hear you.”

Applejack knew that Rarity was just messing with her all in the name of good fun, but that didn’t stop it from stoking her ire. On the bright side, that fury did give her the necessary boost to get past her previous inhibitions.

“Dress! Ah need a dress, dangit!” she shouted.

Her admission appeared to placate the unicorn, who simply flashed back a self-congratulatory smile. Even though it wasn’t the first time she had worn a dress made by the seamstress, it would be the first time that Applejack sought her out for one. And this fact was not lost on Rarity either, who was delighted for an opportunity to make the farmer look like a proper lady. A part of her had hoped that Applejack would see the new relationship as motivation to improve one’s appearance but Rarity had not anticipated it happening so soon. If she played her cards right, perhaps she could enlighten Applejack into seeing fashion as more than just a frivolous waste of time. It was a long shot but a pony can dream, can she not?

“Oh Applejack, my dear, why didn’t you say so? I would be delighted to help you find the perfect ensemble,” Rarity said as she motioned for her friend to follow along. “Now tell me, what sort of ‘engagement’ will you be attending?”

“It’s a...uh, aerobatics competition,” Applejack answered. She did not understand why it mattered where she was going, but she was willing to put her trust in Rarity’s expertise. Applejack was enough of a pony to admit to her shortcomings in the realm of fashion; especially when considering that the last time she made suggestions for her friend, she wound up wearing a ridiculous hat and galoshes. She had, for a time, considered the option of wearing the dress she wore to the Grand Galloping Gala, but that dress was still in ruins as a result of the fiasco at said gala. Besides, that dress was a bit fancier than she wanted for the airshow.

“I wasn’t aware there were any shows being held in Ponyville,” Rarity commented with a bit of confusion. While she may have considered fashion an absolute necessity regardless of venue, it seemed odd that Applejack would consider proper attire necessary for some air show in town.

“Actually, it’s in Manehattan. Spitfire is taking me there next week.”

“To Manehattan, you say? Well this changes everything.” And indeed it did change everything. Manehattan wouldn’t be host to some paltry little county airshow but a grand and extravagant spectacle that would be attended by the rich and the elites. It was a perfect opportunity to once again showcase her talent to the world; to demonstrate to all that Rarity was the first and foremost name in glamour and sophistication.

And make her friend look presentable, of course.

Rarity led her friend over to the nearby showcase room where a pedestal and a wall of mirrors would help Applejack decide on which colours and styles she preferred. It would be an uphill struggle to convince the typically stubborn mare to venture outside her usual comfort zones, but she relished the challenge. While Applejack continued to fidget in visible discomfort, possibly weighing the pros and cons of bolting for the door, Rarity grabbed a rack containing a number of her base designs to experiment with.

“Ah still have that condition against anything that’s too frou-frou,” Applejack reminded her friend.

“Oh come now, Applejack,” Rarity said dismissively, “you want to look nice for your date, do you not?”

“Uhh...Ah guess so.” A murmured response but loud enough for Rarity to hear. Applejack had always been a firm believer in the ‘don’t let anyone change you’ mentality when it came to relationships (though that may have more to do with her stubborn nature), but life was also about self-improvement. Rarity was correct; she did want to look her best for Spitfire. Maybe that was a sign of just how special Spitfire was to her. There were hardly any other ponies that Applejack would’ve considered sprucing up for. Perhaps Rainbow Dash but that was never necessary.

“Trust me, you will look absolutely fabulous once I’m finished.” Rarity’s reassurances did little to ease her worries. She always strove to be honest about herself and wearing fancy duds wasn’t the sort of pony she was.

“Ah just don’t want to attract too much attention,” Applejack continued as her friend pulled out the first dress to sample. It was white and puffy and full of lace; it was exactly the kind of dress that she had warned against. “Oh no ya don’t! Ah ain’t trying that on.”

“Nonsense. You will look marvelous!” The two ponies had very stark differences in their opinions of what ‘marvelous’ entailed, but before the farmer could muster a counter-argument, Rarity used her magic and uncanny finesse to wrangle Applejack into the ensemble. For a brief moment, Applejack just stared in disbelief at the mirror - now she knew how a wrangled bull felt.

“Uh-uh! No way, no how!” she protested. However, so complicated was the dress that no matter where she pulled or tugged, all she managed to accomplish was make the dress tighter. She refused to be upstaged by a bunch of fabrics. Luckily for the both of them, Rarity stepped in and got the dress off, though the unicorn was more concerned about damage to the dress than her friend’s pride.

“White isn’t your colour anyways,” Rarity rationalized as she carried on to the next outfit. “Maybe a nice little black dress...you can never go wrong with that.”

Applejack would disagree with that sentiment but refrained from making any snide remarks. This time around, she was more compliant with the dress, lest she risk getting mare-handled again. The end product, however, surprised the earth pony. Instead of some gaudy, frilly outfit, what she wore was a simple black gown that ended just under her elbows with two thin straps rounding across her shoulder. It was simple and subdued.

“Hey, this actually ain’t half-bad.”

“You’re right - it’s all bad!” Rarity proclaimed. “What was I thinking? Oh, the hubris!”

Once again, Applejack was left confused and dumbfounded as to the inner workings of the fashionista. The complete lack of reason and common sense was why she could never understand the business. The black dress was exactly the kind of subdued elegance that she had been aiming for. But knowing that any attempts at arguing would only result in getting violently crammed into another dress. It was easier just to lay back and think of Sweet Apple Acres.

“How could I be so foolish?” the unicorn continued as she began sifting through the clothes racks. “This is not some backyard social you’re going to. You need something unique; something that screams ‘Applejack.’”

“Couldn’t it just whisper that?”

The words fell on deaf ears, though, as the unicorn began to pace up and down the racks. She went on and on about how it was springtime, which held some mysterious significance to the decision-making process that eluded Applejack’s understanding. There was something else in the mess of words mentioned how green was her colour and an urgent need for red shoes.

“As you are going to Manehattan, I take things between you and Spitfire are going well?” Rarity asked in the midst of a long string of ‘uh-uh’s. It caught the farmer off-guard but she recovered quickly.

“Things are going great,” she answered, enjoying the direction of the conversation for a change. “At first Ah was really worried that she’d be all snobbish and stuck up, cause she’s a big-shot athlete at all, but she’s actually very down-to-earth. And this may sound a might funny, but it feels like Ah’ve known her for years.”

“Probably because she and Rainbow Dash share so much in common,” Rarity commented.

“Ah thought so too,” her friend agreed, “but the more time Ah’ve spent with her, Ah realize that Spitfire’s as similar as she is different from Dash. N-not that Ah would’ve gone out with Dash...c-cause that would be silly, y’know?”

Rarity took notice that the farmer did protest a bit too strongly, but made no comments towards it. She did, however, make a mental note to keep that this knowledge to herself. Dash didn’t need to know that her feelings may have been mutual.

“Dash hasn’t given you any...trouble has she?” she asked with caution. Though she liked to think the best of her friends, she could not dismiss the possibility that Dash would attempt to run interference of some kind. Jealousy was a powerful force and it had driven lesser ponies to heinous acts out of spite before. She prayed that Dash would not do something that would jeopardize her friendship with Applejack, but she had to be careful how she asked in order to keep Dash’s secrets safe.

“Why would she do that after all the trouble she’s gone through to set us up?” Applejack laughed at the very notion. While she suspected Dash played a part in some of the bizarre coincidences that had occurred, there had been nothing troublesome about them. “Now what in tarnation would make you think that?”

“Well...you know, Dash can get jealous rather easily,” Rarity explained as she came up with a convenient cover story, “and Spitfire has been a huge role-model and idol to her. I would hate to see this cause friction between you and Dash.”

“That’s just stinkin’ thinkin,” Applejack said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Dash has been supportive of me during this entire thing. And Ah even got her a little present to show how much Ah’ve appreciated her help.”

“I’m glad to hear that then,” Rarity answered as she pulled out a green dress from the rack. Perhaps she had been worried over nothing and Dash had heeded her original advice. Holding up the gown against Applejack’s frame, the fashionista pondered her choice with a quiet hum. “This is almost perfect...but it’s missing something.”

“Please tell me it’s not lace.”

“One of these days I will get you into a nice, lace outfit and you will thank me for it,” Rarity teased. “But this simply will not do. I will have to make something from scratch, and do not object! I shan't take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“If you insist,” Applejack muttered under her breath. It was a good thing she had a few days before the trip to Manehattan so a bit of waiting was not a huge inconvenience. As her friend trotted over to one of her mannequins with several bolts of fabric, Applejack hopped off the pedestal with the intent to continue with her errands for the day. She knew from experience it was poor form to interrupt a pony at work.

“Honestly, Applejack, if you had come to me after the auction, we could’ve gotten all this sorted out a long time ago,” Rarity commented as she began unfurling the first bolt. “I even kept the shop open late just for you...but I suppose there’s no point fussing over the past.”

“No...there ain’t,” Applejack said as her mind picked apart Rarity’s last words. “But Dash said she was busy that night...that don’t make sense.”

Rather than risk a conversation she wasn’t prepared for, Applejack said her goodbyes and headed on her way.

Applejack was still mulling over the last part of her conversation with Rarity while en route to the library. Maybe Dash had just been mistaken when she had told her that Rarity was busy that night. It didn't make sense for Dash to lie about it considering all the effort she went through to get her the date in the first place. Her instincts told her that there had to be a reasonable explanation for it for Dash to have either forgotten or intentionally withhold the information. Perhaps Dash knew, or suspected at the very least, that Spitfire would not be impressed by a fancy dress on a first date. It was Applejack's modest, country-upbringing that appealed so much to the Wonderbolt Captain. There were no other reasonable explanations unless Dash had been trying to sabotage the date from the start. But that was absurd notion. Why would Dash want to ruin what she had set up? Unless...Spitfire wasn't part of the original plan...

She was still undecided whether she should confront Dash about it. Things were still fresh between her and Spitfire, and relationships were fragile in their early days. Applejack didn't want to risk putting herself into an awkward position with her best friend. By the time she reached the library, she had convinced herself that she was reading too much into the situation and that everything would be resolved once she gave Dash her gift.

A small pang of guilt troubled the farmer as she approached the library door. She remembered her promise to Twilight to help look after the place and she wound up dumping most of that duty onto Rainbow Dash. It felt very selfish of her to have done so, often with little consultation with her friend beforehand. But that just demonstrated what a supportive friend Dash had been. With that in mind, it seemed like a ridiculous notion that Dash was being anything but helpful. Applejack almost felt bad for doubting her friend for even a moment.

Knocking on the library door, Applejack was surprised to see a familiar unicorn answer instead.

“Twilight? What are you doing here?”

“I live here, remember?” the unicorn deadpanned.

“Heh, oh...right,” Applejack said with a sheepish grin. “Ah meant, what are you doing back so soon? You said the convention ended tomorrow.”

The mentioning of the convention caused Twilight’s expression to twist in aggravation. A low, barely audible growl served to emphasize the obvious - that things did not end well.

“They had to close the convention early,” Twilight explained as the pair headed inside. “Somepony screwed up a spell during their presentation and turned half the audience into chickens. It took Princess Celestia almost the entire day just to change everyone back.”

“Sounds like Ah missed quite the party,” Applejack joked. She felt bad that she couldn’t have been there to help out. With Winona’s help, she could have wrangled up the loose chickens with ease. “Well, Ah hope ya still had a good time.”

“For the most part. But let me tell you, laying an egg is even less fun than it sounds.”

That was a bit more than she needed to know, but Applejack nonetheless had a chuckle at the thought of a purple hen being chased after by the Princess. Perhaps when she had more time, she would sit down with the unicorn and hear more about what happened at the convention. Judging by the large stacks of books that were heaped around the library, Twilight had only recently returned from her convention. To nobody’s surprise, the librarian returned from the convention with even more books than she had departed with.

“Anything interesting happen while I was gone?” Twilight asked with her mood swinging back to its normal, cheerful way.

“You could say that.” Applejack hadn’t planned on telling all of her friends so soon, but given that Rarity already knew it was unfair to keep it hidden from others. “Ah...um, sorta started seeing somepony...”

Twilight had been in the middle of re-organizing a shelf, but the news prompted an immediate gasp, accompanied by several books falling to the ground.

“Ohmygoshohmygosh! Really?” Twilight blurted as she raced over to Applejack and got right in her face. “Who is it? Is it anypony I know? Is he nice? How’d you two meet?”

In hindsight, perhaps Applejack should have expected the barrage of question. It may have been more sensible to have told all her friends at once in order to avoid having the same questions five times over. Applejack didn’t want to get drawn into a long conversation and become distracted from her errands, but her friend’s overeager grin was impossible to ignore.

“Well for starters, it ain’t a he...it’s a she. And it’s Spitfire,” she began. “It’s kind of a funny story, Ah’ll have to tell ya about it later when Ah’ve got more time.”

“Wait? Spitfire?” Twilight repeated. “You mean the Spitfire? But...isn’t she a girl?”

Her friend flashed a brief, irritated glare in response before quipping, “Whaddya mean by that?”

“N-nothing!” the over-inquisitive librarian hastily backpedaled. However, once her friend’s mood had stabilized, Twilight was compelled sate her curiosity. “Seriously though, I didn’t know you were interested in other mares.”

“To be honest, Ah was a bit on the fence at first,” Applejack admitted with a bit of reluctance. “But Rainbow Dash talked me into it, and Ah’ve been having a hay of a time. It’s like the saying goes, ‘love is beautiful, no matter its form.’”

Twilight had never heard that particular saying, but it made sense to her. Though she could not see herself dating other mares, who was she to say anything against something that made two ponies happy? She was happy for her friend and that was all that mattered in the end. With her curiosity satisfied for the moment, the orderly librarian returned to her previous task of re-sorting the contents of her home. She hadn’t expected Dash or Applejack to maintain the same standards of organization, and after the ordeals of the convention, reorganizing the library felt like a vacation.

“I’m glad to hear you’ve found a special somepony,” Twilight said as she began adding her new books to her collection. “And thanks again for taking care of the library for me while I was away.”

“It’s Rainbow Dash you really ought to be thanking; she did a lot more than Ah did.” In fact, Applejack felt bad taking any credit whatsoever. "She was even the one who set me up with Spitfire in the first place."

“Really now? Dash set it up? Wow...I’m surprised.”

“You and me both,” the farmer agreed.

“No, I mean setting you up with Spitfire of all ponies. She’s an idol to Dash...I would have thought Dash would have tried asking her out herself rather than setting her up on a date with you. No offense.” To the librarian’s relief, no offense was taken. Yet, Twilight’s concern remained - Dash had all the reasons in the world to make a move on Spitfire. And the fact that they had so much in common made it seem all the more likely to the perceptive unicorn. “I hope Dash doesn’t get jealous.”

“Now why would she be jealous?” Applejack scoffed at the notion. Why did everypony worry that her best friend would be jealous of her success? While it was true that high-flying speedster was prone to such moral failings, it made no sense for her to set up a situation that she would in turn become envious of. “Anyways, speaking of Rainbow Dash, have you seen her?”

“I think I saw her heading towards Sugarcube Corner.” Twilight was about to make mention that Dash seemed distracted when she last saw her, but the librarian’s attention was distracted by the discovery of a box of books that she had not seen before. “Oh hey, my package of new books,” she said with a delighted smile. She was a bit puzzled as to why the books she had ordered had been stowed away in the corner rather than put on the shelves, but once again she faulted that to Dash and Applejack’s disorganized tendencies. “I have been waiting forever for these new historical fictions to come in. These are all going to be so much fun to read!”

Applejack, however, didn’t even need to see what her friend had picked up before realizing what it was. Foreseeing an awkward conversation that she did not want to take part in, the erstwhile library-sitter decided to make herself scarce.

“Oh look at the time, Ah’ve got a lot of stuff still to do,” she excused herself before she made a hasty run for the exit. “See ya around, Twilight!”

“Bye!” Twilight replied. Eager to indulge in her new additions, she plucked a tome from the box and gave it a quick look-over. “Fifty Grains of Hay? I don’t remember ordering this.” She figured the details of her order had just slipped her mind and began reading some passages in order to jog her memory. The realization hit her along with the surge of heat to her face. “Oh my...this isn’t what I ordered at all...”

Pinkie Pie had espoused the emotional benefits of Sugarcube Corner when one needed to uplift their spirits, but despite having spent the past few hours at the bakery, Rainbow Dash had yet to feel any better about herself or her situation. The disheartened dare-devil sat at the counter, her shoulders hunched over with the only thing keeping her head aloft was the hoof resting under her chin. Before was a tall but empty mug with the remnants of soda and ice cream still clinging to the frosted interior. The quiet, discouraged sigh that escaped her lips caught the attention of the nearby bakery owner, Carrot Cake.

“Everything okay Rainbow Dash? You seem kind of bummed out,” Carrot asked as he set down a fresh pan of cupcake son the counter. Not even waiting for an answer, the baker offered up a free cupcake to the loyal patron.

“Just...a lousy week that’s all,” Dash replied. She was reluctant to give any further details out of a combination of shame and embarrassment of driving the pony she desired into the hooves of another. Despite what others might say about the benefits of talking about one’s problems, her ego just couldn’t take any more abuse. “Thanks for the cupcake. And I’ll take another root beer float. In fact, better make it a double.”

“This was your third one...I think you’ve had enough for today, Dash.”

“I’ll tell you when I’ve had enough!” she shouted as she slammed a hoof onto the counter.

Despite his concerns for the pegasus, Mr. Cake took away the empty mug and returned a few moments later with a fresh root beer float. It didn’t take a psychiatrist to see that something significant was troubling the pegasus, but Carrot Cake was a baker, not a psychoanalyst so there was little more he could do other than provide the only form of comfort he could. He was tempted to send for Pinkie or Twilight as it was plain to see that the pegasus was in dire need of a friend.

“Where did it all go wrong?” Dash pondered as she stared at the swirling miasma of vanilla and root beer before her. How could Applejack be falling head over hooves for Spitfire but somehow remain oblivious to Rainbow Dash? Was she just not that important to Applejack? “Who was I kidding thinking I could compete with a Wonderbolt.” Fame...fortune...world-recognized skills...it felt like Rainbow Dash had none of these things to her name. And she would never have guessed that these were the sort of things that Applejack wanted in a relationship. “She’ll probably get Spitfire to endorse her farm or become an official sponsor or something...”

From a business standpoint, it made perfect sense for Applejack. Anything that Spitfire touched turned to gold and it would be a huge boon to Sweet Apple Acres to have the endorsement of such a vaunted celebrity. Next cider season, Sweet Apple Acres would likely have ponies rushing from every corner of Equestria. As if Dash didn’t have enough trouble getting cider when she only had Ponyville to contend with. With so many grievances and frustrations clouding her mind, the weary pegasus attempted to drown them out with a hefty dose of ice cream and soda.

As the pegasus threw back her fourth float of the day, a chiming bell heralded the arrival of another patron. Unconcerned with others, Dash kept drinking, but the nearby baker was elated to see a familiar stetson-wearing farmer strolling in.

“Oh hey Applejack! Haven’t seen you around lately; been busy on the farm?”

Carrot Cake’s greeting took Dash by surprise and almost caused the pegasus to choke on her beverage.

“A-applejack?” she gasped between violent coughs in a desperate attempt to regain her composure. Clinging to the faint hope that the farmer was just passing by the door, Dash glanced over her shoulder just in time to see her friend plop down in the seat next to her. Of all the times, of all the ponies, why did it have to be now and her? She would trade a kingdom for another horse! She wasn’t ready to deal with Applejack yet - her emotions were still too raw and volatile. There was no getting out of this, though, and Rainbow Dash had no alternative but to put on a brave face and be prepared to lie through her teeth.

“Howdy Rainbow Dash,” Applejack greeted with a cheerful grin. “Ah’ve been looking high and low all over Ponyville for ya. What’cha doing here all by yer lonesome knocking back root beer floats like it’s a two-fer-one Friday?”

Dash got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at what Applejack wanted to talk to her about. It had to be something important for her to track the pegasus all across town, but Dash couldn’t think of anything that would fit that criteria that she wanted to hear. It probably involved Spitfire and didn’t include the phrase ‘we’re not seeing each other anymore.’

“N-no reason,” Dash stammered. “I just...felt like having one, that’s all.”

“Or three,” Carrot Cake chimed in.

“Wow,” the farmer remarked, “if Ah knew you were going to pack so many back, Ah would’ve joined ya. We could’ve made a contest out of it.” When she failed to elicit a laugh from her rainbow-maned friend, Applejack jovial grin turned into a concerned gaze. She could see her friend concerted effort to hide the scowl and the averted gaze was a tell-tale sign of distress. “Is...everything okay? Yer looking a might bit blue...er, figuratively speaking.”

So much for discretion. It appeared that Applejack could smell misery like Winona sniffing out an apple-stealing rabbit. Dash needed to think up a new cover and quickly.

“It’s nothing, really,” she insisted. “I’ve just been under a bit of stress lately from...work! Yes, work. Shift supervisor is riding my hindquarter to finish my...um, TPS reports. Speaking of which, I should really get going and finish those TPS reports that totally need to done, like...right away.”

Now Applejack was always willing to give ponies the benefit of the doubt, but she knew Rainbow Dash well enough to see through a lie as obvious as that. Since when did Dash ever use work as an excuse to leave? She almost wished that were the case just so she could find comfort in the knowledge that her friend could display a genuine sense of responsibility. Alas, she could also tell when somepony wanted to keep something private and she wasn’t about to start prying in her friend’s business...at least not yet.

“Well hold the phone there missy!” Applejack said as she threw a hoof across Dash’s chest when the pegasus tried to leave. “Ah didn’t come all this just to watch you head out the door. Now why don’t you plant your hindquarter down because Ah have got one hay of a surprise for you; might even wipe that frown off yer face.”

“Surprise?” Perhaps, Dash though, she had been a bit hasty in reading the situation. Just because Applejack was going out with the personification of everything Dash aspired to be, it didn’t make them any less friends. And if Applejack had tracked her across town just to deliver it, then it must have held great significance to her friend.

“Guess who’s got tickets to the 42nd Annual Royal Barnstorming Championship in Manehattan!”

Upon seeing the farmer produce the two gold-trimmed tickets from her saddlebag, Dash let out a gasp tremendous that she almost dislocated her jaw.

“A three-day celebration of everything that swoops, dives, and soars, and culminating in the grand championship as teams from across Equestria strut their stuff for the coveted Celestial Star trophy!” There wasn’t a great need to sell the competition; any pegasus worth their salt knew about the competitions. It was one of the biggest airshows in all of Equestria, and it was where the Wonderbolts always pulled out their best routines to wow the crowds. “Oh? And what’s this? An extra tickets for a private box in the VIP section for the final competitions. Now where am Ah gonna find a pony to fill that empty seat?”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe her eyes. Tickets to the event cost a small fortune and that was with seats in the nosebleed sections of the stadium. It was the biggest air show of the year, and a chance to see the Wonderbolts perform pull out their greatest routine. Wait...the Wonderbolts...

“How did you get this?” Dash inquired with a sinking feeling of dread in her stomach.

“Spitfire gave it to me,” Applejack explained. “We’re going up to Manehattan for the event. Since she’s competing, she always has free tickets to give away to charities or contests. Ah figured since you’ve done so much for us...well, it’s just mah way of saying thanks.”

And in an instant, Rainbow Dash felt her heart take a nose dive straight into the deepest pit of her gut. Any other day, she would’ve given anything for these tickets, and even part with her wings if it meant being able to spend it with Applejack. But the name of the Wonderbolt’s Captain lingered on Dash’s mind like a bad migraine. Then a realization hit her - even if she did go, she would rarely, if ever, get time alone with Applejack. She was Spitfire’s mare now and everypony there would know. They would strut into the stadium on the red carpet with cameras flashing from all directions. At best, Dash would be trailing behind them bearing witness to every public display of affection. And that would be how it went the entire airshow with Dash a lingering afterthought to the Applejack-Spitfire party going on up front.

She couldn’t go through that kind of torment. Her emotions were still too raw to endure that kind of emotional punishment. Even with the airshow serving as a distraction seeing the pony she yearned for most standing alongside Spitfire would feel like a dagger in the heart, and every contented smile, every affectionate nuzzle, would just twist the blade further. The entire airshow would be spent as a never-ending reminder of her mistakes and that she was just a weak contender against a pegasus like Spitfire.

Yet, at the same time this was her best friend of all ponies asking her to go. And as Rainbow Dash’s gaze panned between the tickets and Applejack’s expectant smile, she found herself at a loss. A part of her just wanted to spill her guts and admit the truth. That way, Rainbow Dash would at least have an valid reason why she should decline. But the timing wasn’t right and the bakery was probably one of the least appropriate settings to confess romantic feelings. At best, it would leave Applejack distraught and might strain their friendship; at worse, the realization of all the lies that Dash had built up around her could trigger the farmer’s temper and wreck their friendship altogether.

“I’m sorry, Applejack, I’d love to go but I can’t make it,” Rainbow Dash answered after the most agonizing ten second pause in her life.

“You’re kidding, right?” Applejack hesitated to press for answers, but she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This wasn’t Rainbow Dash at all; this was the pegasus that once ran out in the middle of a work shift just because she heard a rumour that the Wonderbolts were passing through Ponyville. “Come on Dash, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Whatever ya got planned, Ah’m sure we can work around it. M-maybe you could just come for the finals on the last day...ya don’t need to attend the whole event.”

Rainbow Dash could tell that her friend was confused by her answer and attempted to find a solution to satisfy them both. Yet so long as Applejack remained oblivious as to the real reason, her gestures were commendable but futile. By Celestia’s crown did Dash want to tell her truth, but she couldn’t handle opening that door right now.

“I’m really, really sorry AJ...but I just...I’ve got a lot on my plate right now,” Dash reiterated. She needed some plausible excuse but it was hard to think of another lie when staring at her friend’s drawn-back ears and drooping eyes.

“Ah don’t understand,” a despondent Applejack replied. Even to the normally unobservant Dash, it was obvious that the farmer was trying her hardest to hide her disappointment. She hadn’t realized the magnitude of what was troubling Dash until then. “What’s wrong, Dash? Ah can tell something’s eatin’ at ya.”

“It...it’s nothing, really,” the pegasus insisted with her usual evasiveness. “Just...stuff I have to get settled first. ”

“It can’t be nothing. Please, just talk to me.” Applejack was almost pleading with her friend at this point.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Dash...Ah’m your friend.”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” Her hoof slamming against the counter brought an abrupt silence to the bakery.

Bereft and taken aback by the sudden hostility, Applejack knew she had hit a wall with her friend. If Twilight were present, she would force Rainbow Dash to stay where she was until the truth was brought to light. And while that was within Applejack’s physical capabilities to detain her friend, she feared what the truth could be. Was it possible that her friends were right and that Rainbow Dash was jealous of her new relationship? Celestia knows that Applejack never wanted to have to choose between her relationship and her best friend, and forcing the truth out prematurely could result in such a decision being made. There was another possibility that skirted the farmer’s thoughts, but that truth was one that she feared even more to the point where she dared not give it any further thought.

“Okay Dash, you don’t have to say anything you don’t want to,” Applejack said, followed by a heavy sigh. She grabbed the tickets from the counter and placed them back into her saddlebag. “Ah’ll...Ah guess Ah’ll see you around then. Take care Dash.”

Though cordial, Dash could hear the dejection in her friend’s voice. And while it broke her heart to see her friend leave in such a sullen state, she knew that it was for the best for both of them.

“I am such an idiot,” Dash groaned before slamming her head onto the counter.

“Another float?” Carrot chimed in.

“Yes, please...”

Ch. 11 - Analepsis

The cloudless blue sky loomed overhead like the endless sea - pristine, pure, and radiating the summer sun. The air was fresh and crisp and the sweet melody of the birds waft upon the morning breeze. It was the kind of morning that any pony in their right mind would want to wake up to. That is unless you were Applejack.

“What in the hay is going on?” the young farmer shouted to the young pup beside as though it could answer. “Where’s the rain Ah was promised? It’s supposed to be cloudy with showers all day not...this! The crops are going to get all wilted if we don’t get some water.”

To no surprise, the brown-and-white border collie only responded by dropping a stick at the farmer’s hooves followed by a couple of happy, expectant yips. As tempting as it was to indulge in the small puppy’s whims, and as difficult as it was to turn down those endearing eyes, Applejack knew that she had more important tasks to attend to.

“Sorry Winona, Ah ain’t got time to play with this mess to sort out,” Applejack said with a reluctant sigh. She felt her heart cringe as her furry companion let out a pathetic whimper, but work was an important part of life, and hopefully as her dog grew, she would come to understand that as well. Not wanting to leave her pet in a saddened state, she came up a workable alternative. “Why don’tcha keep Applebloom company. Ah bet she’d like that.” In a heartbeat, Winona’s eyes lit up and before she could even say ‘fetch’ the puppy had scampered off to find the youngest apple of the family.

“She’s gonna make a great work dog one day,” Applejack thought as she continued on her way. Though a minor issue in the grand scheme of running an apple orchard, her family was dependent on the weather ponies to provide a timely and predictable weather schedule for them. Her family needed at least one more good rain or they risked losing some of their stock to the summer heat.

“This is weird, it ain’t like Hailstone to be careless,” Applejack muttered to herself. “This is the third time this week we ain’t got the right weather.” In fact, this was the first time that the farmer had ever had issue with their assigned weather pony. Hailstone had done a terrific job over the past few years ensuring that the farm got adequate sunshine and rain. Such tardiness was uncharacteristic of him, and the more Applejack thought about it, the more worried she became. Hopefully nothing terrible had befallen the reliable weather pony.

Knowing her big brother, who possessed the uncanny ability to always be up before her, he would have already looked into the matter. And thankfully, it did not take her long to locate the big red stallion. Out by the front gateway, Big Macintosh had taken advantage of the good weather to catch up on some much needed repair work on the fencing.

“Hey Big Mac, have you seen Hailstone around?” she asked as she trotted over. Preoccupied with the hammer in his mouth, the stallion simply shook his head ‘no.’ “Well did you get a chance to talk to go into town and talk to the weather supervisor?” This time, her brother had an affirmative answer. “That’s good...so what’s the story? Where’s our rain?”

When presented with a question that couldn’t be answered with a non-verbal gesture, the stallion just stared in silence at his sister for a few awkward moments until Applejack finally grew impatient.

“Just put the hammer down already.”

Rather than try to continue on with his work like he wanted to, Big Macintosh complied and set the hammer down with the rest of his tools. He knew better than to try and stand between his sister and something she wanted, which in this case were answers.

“Hailstone’s gone.”

“Gone?” Applejack repeated in disbelief. “Whaddya mean gone?” For a brief instant, a dreadful thought skirted the farmer’s mind. “You don’t mean he’s-”

“Stress leave.”

“Oh thank goodness.” She breathed a sigh relief. Normally she didn’t jump to such extreme conclusions but it was hard to think of a plausible reason for an otherwise punctual and hardworking weather pony to up and vanish like this. Even when Hailstone took vacation he made sure to let the Apple family know beforehand. “So...wait, who’s supposed to be taking care of our weather then?” the farmer demanded with growing impertinence.

“Dunno - some new pony they hired,” Big Mac said with an indifferent shrug of his shoulders. While Applejack may have been worked up over the weather, the elder sibling was far less concerned, both visibly and internally. He figured there was no point getting in a huff over something he had no control over as an earth pony. Weather control was the realm of the pegasus and he had no business telling them how to do their job.

“Well he best get his hindquarter in gear or Ah’m gonna...um, go complain or something...oh, forget it! I’m heading out to the orchards.”

“You should just take the day off...you work yourself too hard as it is.” Big Macintosh’s words fell on deaf ears, however, as Applejack was already trotting off with her new objective in mind. Seeing as there was little he could do to ever dissuade his sister from her chosen course, the quiet stallion picked up his hammer and resumed his repair work.

While Applejack would have preferred tracking this new weather pony down, unless she found a way to magically sprout wings that plan was never going to get off the ground. The absent weather pony could be anywhere and with no other alternatives, the dutiful farmer decided to make the most of the situation. There were always apples that could be picked even if the time wasn’t optimal. After a quick stop by the barn to pick up some baskets, she headed into the orchards to get to work.

By the time mid-afternoon rolled around, Applejack had barely gathered even a quarter of what she could normally harvest in a given day. It was still too early for most of the apples so the farmer had to carefully inspect each tree’s bounty to assess their quality. Most of the trees didn’t need to be harvested, and in Applejack could have simply taken the day off, as was the original plan due to the rain, but she hated wasting perfectly good daylight hours doing nothing productive.

The idea of heading into town to meet with her friends had crossed her mind, but when she thought about it, it dawned upon her that she didn’t know many ponies in town. There was Pinkie Pie but she was friends with everypony, and it was hard enough to get Pinkie to stick to her duties at Sugarcube Corner without distraction from her friends. Now Applejack had been meaning to introduce her new pet to Fluttershy. Surely the soft-spoken pegasus would be thrilled to meet with the new puppy...and then Applejack would be all on her own while Fluttershy frollicked with Winona.

It was a sobering thought for the orchard farmer when she realized that she still didn’t have too many close friends in town. Perhaps Big Mac spoke with a grain of truth when he kept mentioning to her that she ‘spent too much time working the farm.’ Bah! What did Big Macintosh know? He spent almost every waking moment working and he had the gall to tell Applejack that she was overworked?

“Work too hard, my Aunt Brown Betty,” Applejack grumbled as she took position beneath a tree. “Ain’t mah fault if nopony ever wants to visit me all the way out here...always have to go to them.” After double-checking her position relative to the cluster of ripe, red apples overhead, the work pony delivered a calculated kick to the side of the tree. The precision strike knocked loose the cluster of ripe apples, which plummeted neatly into her baskets. “Ah’m perfectly fine here with mah work and mah apples. All Ah’ve got to do is-”

“Watch out!”

“Watch out?” Given that those words, shouted out by an unfamiliar voice, were commonplace in a profession that involved falling fruit, Applejack’s first instinct was to look above her. It was not falling apples or tree branches that she had to be wary of, but rather a pegasus careening out of control. When she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye, the farmer turned her gaze just a moment before blindsided by the speeding pegasus. Feathers and apples were thrown in all directions, and when the farmer senses came to she found herself sprawled across the ground covered in bits of smashed produce. What was of greater interest to her, however, was the dazed pegasus laying against her who happened to have the apple basket overtop of her head.

“Owie...” the pegasus murmured. With a small groan, she pulled her head free of the basket, revealing a rainbow-coloured mane covered in mashed apples. After shaking some of the pulped produce from her mane, the pegasus turned her gaze over to the farmer and flashed an embarrassed, apologetic smile. “Heh...sorry about that. Kinda lost control...”

“No kidding,” Applejack replied with barely contained sarcasm. The farmer got back to her feet and began brushing the pulped apples off. “What in the hay were you doing anyways?”

“Just trying out a new routine,” she explained. “But I think I zigged when I should have zagged. What do you think?”

“Ah think you should be more careful next time.”

“Well I did shout ‘watch out.’”

Applejack let out a tired sigh when she saw the full extent of the mess the impact had caused. At least half of the apples she had gathered had been turned to sauce, while the rest were now scattered across the field.

“So...is this your farm?” the pegasus chimed as she flew up to a sturdy branch in the tree. She gave it a few shakes to test its stability before rolling onto her back and making herself comfortable. “Wow, this is actually way more comfortable than I thought it would be.”

“Hey! Get out of there,” Applejack shouted. “These trees ain’t for napping!”

“Okay, okay...sheesh.” The pegasus was reluctant at first to vacate her new perch but after a few kicks from the farmer, she was persuaded to abandon the tree. “What’s got your mane in such a twist?”

“Because Ah’m trying to work, but you just went and undid almost an entire morning’s worth of effort,” the farmer explained as she directed the other’s attention to the scattered apples. “And since you helped make this mess, you can help me clean it up.”

“Me? Work?” The pegasus shuddered in disgust at the thought. Her opposition to the notion was clear but unconvincing to the farmer. “No can do. That’s way too boring for my style. Just who in the hay do you think I am?”

“That’s a darn fine question,” the earth pony snapped back. “Who are you anyways?”

“Name’s Rainbow Dash,” she introduced herself in a boastful tone. “Maybe you’ve heard of me - fastest flier in all of Cloudsdale.”

Rainbow Dash could have been the fastest flier in all of Equestria for what little it mattered to Applejack. It didn’t change the fact that there was a huge mess in her orchard as a result of the speedster pegasus. Reputation didn’t excuse one from righting their wrongs like any decent pony would. And as Applejack frowned and shot the pegasus her best disparaging glare, these truths became apparent to Dash. With a reluctant sigh, the pegasus landed amongst the apples, her head hung low in defeat.

“Fine...I’ll help you clean up,” she muttered.

“That’s mighty kind of you.” The sarcasm was not lost on the pegasus, but she refrained from making any snappy comebacks. “My name’s Applejack, by the way.” Despite her initial misgivings, the farmer tried to not let animosities linger and flashed Dash a friendly smile. “Now grab the basket and help me gather up the good apples.”

“That sounds even more boring when you say it like that,” Rainbow Dash protested. To the farmer’s surprise, when Dash grabbed the basket, she flew up and nestled it in the tree’s branches instead.

“What are you doing?”

“Making things far more interesting,” Dash explained with a playful grin. She landed next to the farmer, grabbed an apple by the stem, and tossed it up into the basket. “Now we see who can get more apples into the basket, and whoever loses has to carry the basket.”

In an instant, Applejack’s opinion of the pegasus made an about-face, and she found herself unable to wipe the grin from her face. The gauntlet had been thrown down and pride demanded that she answer the call.

“You’re on!”

Already down one apple before the competition began, Applejack knew she’d have to aim carefully just to keep pace with her opponent. The two ponies began a mad scramble across the field, grabbing and tossing every healthy apple they could find. Rainbow Dash had the advantage of speed but Applejack was no stranger to tossing apples about and her aim was more precise. In less than a minute both ponies were still neck-and-neck with a dozen apples scored apiece. That changed, however, when Dash managed to find a small cluster of apples and was able to score three points in rapid succession.

Now behind by a significant margin, Applejack’s honour as an apple farmer was at stake. She had to take her chances with a risky play. Rather than grabbing the apple with her teeth, the farmer knocked the apple airborne with a stomp of her hoof. And with a whip-like snap of her tail, she batted the fruit up and into the basket.

“So we’re doing trick shots now, huh?” Dash remarked after witnessing the farmer repeated her technique with a couple more apples. Not one to be shown up, Dash decided to go for style over substance as well. She scooped up an apple with her wing and tossed it above her head. “Watch this,” she said before using her other wing to volley the apple into the basket. “That’s how you do it with style!”

“That’s nuttin’, check this out!” With that declaration, the quest to score the most apples became secondary to making the most impressive shot. Soon the two ponies were taking turns making their shots, bouncing the apples off their tails, hooves, foreheads, and even each other.

However, they eventually ran out of apples to throw around and were left with only a full basket of produce.

“So...who won?” Applejack asked. “Probably should have kept score for those last bunch.”

“Like you need to ask. My shots were obviously way more awesome than yours,” Dash answered with a triumphant grin.

“Like hay they were - you throw apples like mah granny.”

“I guess that means even your granny throws better than you.”

As Rainbow Dash laughed at her supposed indisputable victory, Applejack decided that the only way to settle this matter was through a rematch. With one solid kick to the tree, the basket full of apples was sent tumbling back to earth.

“Rematch!”

“Ha! Bring it on, earth pony!”

After they collected the apples into a pile between them and the basket set back into the tree, the pair focused their efforts once again on scoring as many apples as possible. This time Applejack didn’t have to worry about her opponent starting with a lead and was able to keep pace with the pegasus. Speed and precision were paramount, though with more effort being put into the former rather than the later. In fact, the two ponies carried themselves with such haste that when they both wound up reaching for the same apple, they didn’t even have enough time to blink before knocking heads. The loud ‘thud’ of two pony skulls colliding resonated through the orchard, followed by an even louder ‘ow’ in chorus.

“I think we should call it a draw...before we really hurt ourselves,” Rainbow groaned.

“Agreed.”

The two dazed ponies spent the next moment or two just laying on their backs and staring up at the sky. Out of the blue, Applejack just started laughing out loud. Here were two grown ponies who had managed to almost knock each other unconscious over a bunch of apples. She should have been hard at work but was instead wasting a perfectly good afternoon, and she had no regrets about it whatsoever. The laughter proved infectious and soon both ponies were rolling about the grass in a jovial fit.

The gleeful chorus came to an abrupt halt when Applejack heard some hoofsteps approaching. Thankfully, it was only Big Macintosh and not somepony who might have gotten the wrong idea from seeing one of the Apple family workpony’s lounging the afternoon away. The elder brother was surprised but relieved to see that his sister had taken his advice into consideration after all. He said nothing at first, but the single raised eyebrow conveyed his curiosity and confusion.

“Oh, howdy there,” the sister greeted as she rolled back onto her hooves. “This here is Rainbow Dash from Cloudsdale. Dash...this here is mah brother, Big Macintosh.”

“Good to see you’ve managed to track down our missing weather pony,” Big Mac replied after a curt nod to the pegasus.

“Weather pony?” Applejack repeated with evident confusion. “Wait...you mean she’s-”

“Hailstone’s replacement,” Big Mac confirmed.

Applejack’s sense of jovial camaraderie vanished faster than an apple pie at a family reunion. Instead of looking back on the afternoon as having spent time with a friendly, fun-loving pegasus, it became an afternoon of procrastination with a lazy, undisciplined sloth. It wasn’t frustrating just because the weather pony had been playing instead of doing her job, but because Applejack had enabled her to do so. It added insult to injury.

“You’re the one that was supposed to bring the rain today?” Applejack said as she shot an accusatory glare at the weather pony.

“Well...maybe...sort of, I guess.” Dash gave a very unconvincing, half-hearted response. “I mean, they told me to go to Ponyville, and I think they mentioned something about rain and stuff. But who would want to ruin an awesome day like this with a rainstorm?”

“Ah would! We need that rain to keep this farm going,” Applejack explained. She couldn’t believe she would need to explain the importance of weather to a pegasus who lived in the clouds. “Without rain, our crops wilt. And we count on you pegasus to bring it to us. If you can’t do yer job then Ah’m going to have a word with yer supervisor and we’ll find somepony who can!”

“Hey! You didn’t seem too interested in doing work a few minutes ago.” Just like with a test of athletics, a verbal confrontation was not something that Dash was willing to back down from. Backing down was the same as admitting defeat, and losing was out of the question for her.

“If Ah knew you were supposed to be working, Ah would’ve dragged you back to the weather factory mahself.” And speaking of work, Applejack was feeling a strong urge to get back to it in order to focus her thoughts away from the source of frustration. A mixture of anger and disappointment coalesced within the farmer, which left her feeling uncomfortable and with a desire to vacate the vicinity. Walking over to the tree, Applejack knocked the basket down and quickly gathered up all the spilt apples. “Now if y’all excuse me, some of us have work to do!” She walked away without looking back, leaving Rainbow Dash in a defeated state...and Dash hated losing.

Sadly, work had done little to ease Applejack’s mind off the day’s events. Even when the work pony turned in for the night, she was still bickering with herself over the irresponsible foolishness of some ponies. It was amazing anything got done in Equestria when you had pegasus who couldn’t get their heads out of the clouds for five seconds to do their jobs. It made it almost impossible for her to sleep, and the farmer wound up tossing and turning in bed for the next few hours. And to make matters worse, just when she was finally able to push those troubles out of her mind for five seconds, the heavy pelting of rain against the roof added to her woes.

Wait...rain?

Quickly realizing what was wrong with the situation, Applejack was soon out of bed and rushing over to the window. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise but that didn’t stop her from gazing through the window in awestruck wonder at the rainstorm above the farm.

Her eyes drifted skyward to a small opening in the clouds, where she could just make out the outline of a pegasus, silhouetted by the light of the moon. Even without the sighting, she knew who was responsible for this piece of work. Rainbow Dash must have been working all through the night gathering the number of clouds necessary for a job this size. She realized that she may have been premature in judging the pegasus. And while it didn’t excuse the earlier procrastination, almost any other pony who have just left it for the next day rather than grit their teeth and put in the overtime. That kind of dedication was almost admirable.

Just then, Applejack caught a glimpse of movement from the pegasus-shaped silhouette - it looked like it was waving to her. The pegasus then disappeared for a brief moment, reappearing as another hole was opened up closer to the farmhouse. At that distance, she could clearly make out Rainbow Dash’s weary grin.

Applejack popped open the window and stuck her head out.

“Hey Applejack,” Dash called out. “I’m going to swing by tomorrow to clear these clouds up. Do you wanna hang out after that?”

“Hey Applejack, you listening to me?”

A sharp prod to the her side snapped the cowgirl from her engrossing train of thought. After quickly shaking those thoughts from her head, she flashed the Wonderbolt Captain an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, hun, Ah was just...thinking,” she said with a faint sullen undertone.

“This is about Rainbow Dash again, isn’t it?” Spitfire said after a quiet sigh.

It was unnecessary, but the nod from the farmer confirmed what she suspected. The issue had plagued Applejack’s mind during the entire train ride to Manehattan as well as most of the first day of the aerobatics show. A pang of guilt echoed through the earth pony as she could see on Spitfire’s worried face how this was affecting their time together. The plan was to spend this time together and she was draining the mood with her sullen temperament. Spitfire stepped closer in hopes of cheering the pony up, putting a hoof around her shoulder and giving her a gentle, affection nuzzle.

“I know you’re worried about your friend...but you have to let it go,” Spitfire reassured her. “I’m sure Dash made the choice she thought was best for the both of you.”

Applejack had to concede that the her date had a point. The last thing Dash would have wanted was for her decision to ruin the whole event for Applejack. It seemed pointless to dwell on the issue, but it clung to her mind like a stubborn stain. In all logic, she should have been having the time of her life. Here she was in the midst of the largest aerobatics show in Equestria alongside one of the most famous athletes in the sport. The Manehattan Square Gardens were filled to capacity with the finest ponies, goats, griffins, and cows from Equestria and beyond. The outer halls of the arena were lined with exhibits detailing the long and colourful history of the sport and this competition in particular - statues of great fliers and photos of past triumphs. And, of course, more food stands than Applejack could shake a cinnamon stick at. This was the kind of show that Applejack enjoyed even if she didn’t compete in the sport.

But every picture of a pegasus soaring through the sky only reminded the farmer of the pegasus who should have been there. She had looked forward to listening to Rainbow Dash gush like a giddy schoolfilly while recounting every fact, triumph, and glory of the greatest pegasus in history followed by an explanation of how she was ten-times the flier they were. It felt empty without Rainbow Dash and she couldn’t help but feel responsible for the state her friend was in.

“Ah just...get this feeling that it’s all because of you and me. Ah’m just worried that she might be jealous.”

“Who wouldn’t be jealous?” Spitfire said with a bright grin as she threw her hooves around the farmer. “After all, you are the best cowgirl a gal could ever ask for.” The gamble paid off as the pair were soon smiling and sharing a quiet laugh. “But seriously, even if Dash is a bit jealous, that’s her problem to deal with, not yours. And you shouldn’t burden yourself with the blame. I don’t want to sound like I’m coming between two friends but...if Dash can’t accept you being happy with me, then...maybe she isn’t as good a friend as you thought.”

That was an uncomfortable truth that Applejack didn’t even want to consider. She never imagined that finding a special somepony might result in the loss of her closest friend. She prayed to Celestia that this wasn’t the case because given the choice between Dash and Spitfire, she wasn’t sure who would win.

Desperate for a distraction, Applejack’s eyes began to scan her surroundings for something of interest. There were a lot of ponies around, many of whom were well-dressed, which left the farmer feeling that wearing her apple-patterned scarf again was a bit inadequate. Fancy dressing would never be her thing, and she was still hesitant to wear the dress that Rarity had made specially for her. Perhaps she would save it for the final day of the competitions. Finally, Applejack noticed something familiar hanging from a nearby wall. There was a gallery of framed pictures entitled ‘Legacy of the Wonderbolts’ and one picture in particular featured a pair of familiar, frizzled-mane pegasus fliers.

“Is that you in this picture?” Applejack remarked as she walked over to it. A considerable amount of willpower was needed not to burst out into laughter as both pegasus in the picture had disheveled manes that looked like they had a thousand volts passed through them.

“Oh wings of my ancestors, please don’t look at that picture...my mane is such a mess in it!” Despite her initial protests, Spitfire was soon by her date’s side and holding back quiet snickers of her own. “That’s me and Soarin’ after we flew our first paired sky dance. This would have been taken when we were still rookies on the Wonderbolts.”

Applejack leaned in for a closer look at the picture; Spitfire was hovering over Soarin’ with her hooves draped around his neck and shoulders. The mix of exhaustion and overwhelming joy was visible on their faces; the kind of smile you got when you saw years of hard work finally pay off. It was the same kind of weary grin that she had seen on Dash so many times in the past.

“So what happened to your manes?”

“Static build-up,” Spitfire explained. “Our routine had us passing through a storm cloud, which resulted a storm cloud contrail behind us. We were actually the first to come up with that technique and we’ve since incorporated it into all our routines.” Spitfire let out a contented sigh as she gazed at the photo. Whatever sense of embarrassment she felt earlier was washed out by the flood of nostalgia. “Everypony said we didn’t stand a chance, but we went ahead anyways. And we pulled it off too - a perfect score, the first in the championship’s history.”

“Wow, that’s mighty impressive,” Applejack commented. Now she didn’t know much about the finer details of aerobatic competitions, but she imagined that a paired sky dance required both ponies to be working with perfect coordination.

“Yeah...turned the whole aerobatics community on its head. Two no-name rookies in their first major championship blowing every big name out of the sky. Soarin’ and I felt like we were on top of the world back then.”

“That sounds like quite the spectacle. Ah can’t wait to see you two perform!” Unfortunately, the paired sky dances weren’t until the second day of the competition. The upcoming competition was for solo performances and the team events were on the third day.

“You...won’t, I’m afraid,” Spitfire admitted reluctantly. It wasn’t a subject that she wanted to delve into but it was her own fault for bringing it up in the first place. “Soarin’ and I haven’t done that routine since we...um, sort of...broke up.”

“You and Soarin’ used to go out?” The news didn’t come as much of a surprise to Applejack. From what she understood, the pair had been best friends for most of their lives, worked and trained together, and were both attractive young pegasi in prime physical condition. If anything, Applejack would have been surprised if nothing had transpired between them. Spitfire seemed to be more hesitant to discuss the subject than Applejack was to hear it, but the door had already been opened.

“We joined the Wonderbolts as a couple,” an uneasy Spitfire explained. “We had spent months making our own routine but we didn’t expect we’d get a chance to perform it for years. But then we’re at our first major championship and the captain suddenly comes up to us and says ‘go out there and fly together like you love each other...and then make the rest of the world believe it.’ And that’s what we did.”

Every passing minute seemed to bring out another facet of the pegasus flier that impressed Applejack. The story she heard sounded like something straight out of a romance novel. Sadly, unlike a romance novel, this story had an unhappy ending that she knew was coming up next.

“So what happened to you two? Ah mean...if you don’t mind me asking.” Judging by the way Spitfire’s eyes fell to a spot on the ground where she was scuffing her hoof like a nervous tick, the pegasus was rather uncomfortable with the subject.

“I was made Captain,” she answered. Her voice was barely above a whisper, almost sounding as though she were ashamed of this. “Being together was easy when we were just two junior members. Nobody cared what we did. But once I was Captain, everyone started whispering about us...about him. Add in the strain of adjusting to being in charge and...well, the stress just got to us both.”

Seeing that it was Spitfire’s turn to need some moral support, Applejack gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder as she shifted a step closer to her. “It’s okay, Spitfire. Things change...ponies change. The important thing is that the two of you are still friends.”

Spitfire was soon smiling again, returning the reassurance with a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.

“It’s in the past and I’ve moved on,” Spitfire said as her gaze met with Applejack’s, “to much, much greener pastures.”

The orchard farmer felt a sudden flash of heat rising to her face as Spitfire slowly leaned in. However, both ponies were soon sporting embarrassed flusters as hooves fell onto both of their shoulders.

“There you two are!” It was Soarin’ with his apparent knack for ruining the mood. At least this time pineapples weren’t involved. Whether it was intentional or not, the stallion appeared oblivious to the discomfort his unannounced arrival caused. “With the way Spitfire’s been spending all her time with you, I was beginning to worry that she was going to forget all about the competition.”

“As if I would forget one of the biggest competition of the year,” Spitfire scoffed before she pushed her teammate away.

“Like how you’ve forgotten half of our practices last week?”

“I’m your Captain, not your foalsitter. I’ve trained you well enough to know how to think for yourself, Soarin’.”

“I’m not the one that you should be worried about,” he said as he laughed the remarks off. As always, the Wonderbolt Captain’s razor-sharp wit bounced harmlessly off Soarin’s mental armour. “But seriously, we’re running a few last minute drills and somebody’s got to yell at the other Wonderbolts. My voice is going to go hoarse if I keep doing your job.”

“But I...” Spitfire’s words lumped in her throat. She knew for a fact that she had been neglecting her duties as the team’s Captain, and all reason stated that she should go with Soarin’ to ensure her teammates were ready for the competitions. At the same time, she didn’t want to abandon Applejack. It was an inevitability but Spitfire had assumed she would have more time - the competition was still about five hours off. Indecision gripped the pegasus’ mind as her eyes darted between her friend and her date.

“Ah’ll be okay, hun,” Applejack spoke up. The farmer could see the torment in the pegasus’ conflict gaze, and Applejack could never be so selfish as to keep Spitfire away from her responsibilities. “The Wonderbolts need their captain.”

“I know...I know,” Spitfire said with a reluctant sigh. Even if everybody knew it was the right thing to do, that did make leaving Applejack alone feel any easier for her. “I’ll come find you right after my solo flight, okay?”

“I’ll be waiting for ya.” Just as Spitfire was about to turn to leave, Applejack hooked a hoof around her neck and pulled the pegasus in for a good luck kiss, which was drawn out for a bit longer than was customary.

Applejack waved goodbye as the two Wonderbolts flew off. Alas, Spitfire was not the only one who felt a pang of sorrow parting ways. Without her pegasus escort, the farmer was left alone in a stadium she was unfamiliar with, surrounded by legions of ponies she did not know. It took less a second for her to pining for Rainbow Dash’s company.

“Guess Ah’ve got a few hours to go before the show,” she muttered to herself. Letting out a long sigh, the pony hung her head and turned to head off with no particular direction or destination in mind.

“Hey! Now what’s with that long face?”

Applejack’s ears perked up at the voice. She turned towards the source of the question and what she saw took her breath away...

Ch. 12 - For a Few Bits More

By the gilded halls of Canterlot, her hind legs were still tingling. Even as the morning sunlight punched through the curtains as welcomed as a hurled brick, the archaeologist was still recovering from the aftermath of her hate-fueled tryst with the nameless mare. While it wasn’t the first time that Daring had found herself ending a night in bed with a pony she barely knew, there were a number of things that set it apart from the others. For starters, she couldn’t slip out the window at the first opportunity - she had to stay and help Tenderhoof after all. Second of all, she was typically the dominant partner in her intimate encounters. With the nameless mare it had been a struggle just to stay on top, both literally and figuratively speaking. And most importantly, by the next morning, Daring Do had an idea of where she stood with her partner. No such luck in this case. It was hard to describe how she felt about the gunslinger - she didn’t hate the pony, nor did she really ‘like’ her. Her reckless and violent nature grated on Daring’s nerves, but she cared enough to be worried about what was to come with Billy the Kid.

Whoever said there was a fine line between love and hate hadn’t been in Daring’s position before. If there was a line, it was blurred beyond recognition and moving every day on her. A part of her was still held smoldering anger at the gunslinger’s behaviour, while another part wanted to go another round even if it meant being incapacitated in a lust-induced coma when Billy the Kid trotted back into town.

However, as tempting as a second romp would be, Daring knew there were life-or-death matters to worry about. There was also the slight matter in that Daring awoke to find herself the sole occupant of the bed. Despite the inviting warmth of her bed, Daring bolted upright upon realizing that the nameless mare was gone.

“Oh, that son of a...she took off!” Daring cursed under her breath as she leapt out of bed, only to be reminded of her battered frame a second later. She should have seen this coming given everything she knew about Blondie. Granted, her state of mind the night prior was not conducive to rational thought as all the blood had been redirected to other parts of her body. Though her body ached in protest, Daring hurried to find Doc Tenderhoof. By rough estimates, even if Blondie had a few hours lead on her, the gunslinger would be slowed by her wounds. If Daring hurried, she could catch up and drag that damned mare back with her bare hooves if need be. Celestia willing, she might be able to do so before Billy got into town.

Judging by the faint sizzling noise, the aforementioned doctor was downstairs cooking up a breakfast. How the doctor could be wasting time cooking food with an imminent threat on his hooves was a mystery to Daring, but it was a short-lived one at least. Upon reaching the ground floor, the pegasus discovered that it was Blondie at the stove, not Doc Tenderhoof. She was frying some eggs on a cast-iron skillet with a quiet, contemplative look upon her. Having heard the approaching hoofsteps, the nameless mare only offered a sideways glance to the pegasus upon her arrival.

“Mornin’ Daring,” she greeted in a nonchalant voice. To the casual observer, one might have been mistaken the day as one that did not have the threat of impending violence and mayhem.

Billy was going to come back and it was enough of a threat to have made the normally gung-ho Blondie want to skip town. Now the gunslinger seemed as though she had not a care in the world. Was she just a good liar or did she have reason not to be worried anymore? These were questions that Daring would have been contemplating herself had she not been too preoccupied gawking at the nameless mare’s hindquarter. Given that that the night prior left little time for ogling, this was the first time that that Daring had a good view of the gunslinger without her signature heavy leather duster. And while there was a definite allure to a hindquarter that could crack a walnut open, Daring was more intrigued by the blank patch on her side where only a small, scarred line existed rather than any sort of cutie mark.

Given the mystique nature of the gunslinger, it seemed fitting; although a cutie mark in wanton destruction would also have been appropriate. What would such a cutie look like? A giant explosion? Maybe the scar was her cutie mark, representing her penchant for violence. That sounded like an odd thing for a filly to find as their special talent.

“Are you quite done staring at my arse?” Blondie quipped.

Snapping out of her train of thought, Daring quickly shook her head. “Sorry. I was just thinking of what we were going to do about Billy.”

“There ain’t no ‘we’ business in this.” The response took Daring by surprise, even though she should have anticipated the gunslinger’s penchant for going solo. “Ah really should’ve skipped town when Ah had the chance. Ah could’ve been halfway home with those amulets by now.”

“And here I thought you cared,” Daring teased as she grabbed a chair and took a seat at the breakfast table. She wasn’t expecting to be served but she wanted to get off her hooves for a little while. Given how little she had eaten over the past few days, it was a miracle that Daring hadn’t passed out from hunger yet. “So you are staying? You’re not just saying that to lull me into a false sense of security so you can bail at the last second?”

For a brief moment, the nameless mare resented the accusation that she would still skip town on her. She may have been a lot of things, including a cheat and a scoundrel, but she was still a pony of honour. She stuck to her word like she stuck to a job. But while chastising the archaeologist was tempting, if only because of how irresistible the pegasus was when in a heated debate, food came first. An army marched on its stomach and if anypony thought that Blondie was going to tackle this mess without a proper meal first, they were gravely mistaken.

“Well if Ah don’t stay and help, you’ll probably go and do something stupid and get yerself killed.”

“Aww, you do care.”

“No Ah don’t!” Blondie snapped back. The pegasus’ smug smirk conveyed the complete lack of credibility of such a claim. “Fine...so maybe Ah do care a little bit, but Ah still hate the idea of having to go into a fight with almost no ammo or support. On top of that, it still hurts a bit to breath when Ah at rest, let alone after running and gunning.” The gunslinger didn’t need to spell out the odds; Daring was well aware of their current condition. Neither of them were in good condition to fight, but this was their fight to deal with. Tenderhoof didn’t deserve to suffer on their account, not to mention any of the other townsfolk who might suffer from Billy’s wrath. “Ah hope you realize, there’s a good chance Ah’m not going to make it through this day.”

“Well...sometimes doing the right thing means letting go of the things that are important to you.”

“Which in this case would be my rather fond attachment to living.”

Reflecting upon those words, Daring let out a quiet sigh. She had been referring to the amulets and the considerable sum of money Blondie had been promised for their delivery. Daring had to do something to help, but at the moment she was at a loss as to the how. Her gnawing hunger pains didn’t help, but relief to that problem came as a fried egg upon a plate was dropped in front of the pegasus’ face.

“Best eat up, it’s going to a busy day, Ah reckon,” Blondie reassured the archaeologist before sitting down to her own breakfast.

After giving a quick thanks, Daring began her breakfast.

“How many guns do you think Billy will be able to round up on such short notice?” Daring asked between mouthfuls.

“Well the next town over, Troughton, ain’t exactly got a pleasant reputation,” the nameless replied. “Lots of ponies who’d like to brag about being the one to put me down. Ah reckon maybe a dozen...maybe more.”

The news hit Daring like a well-aimed kick to the gut and it almost caused her to choke on her egg. “A dozen?” she stammered out after clearing her throat. “I was expecting maybe three or four but...a dozen? Just how many ponies have you pissed off?”

Whether for show or an honest uncertainty, the gunslinger tapped her chin in thought. She lingered humming and hawing for a few seconds before responding with an uninformative shrug. Given the nameless mare’s penchant for doing what she wants whenever she wants, Daring was willing to bet that the number was quite high.

“Who knows...there’s plenty of ponies I’ve pissed off directly but reputations have a way of taking a life of their own,” Blondie explained as she ate her breakfast. “Half of whoever comes will probably be here for reputation than personal vendettas. Get famous or die trying.”

“All for reputation?” Daring could understand fighting for your beliefs or fighting to protect something you care about. The notion of fighting for glory and reputation was supposed to be something relegated to the history books, not a modern pony society.

“Reputation is often all a pony has out here,” Blondie explained as she finished her meal. “Most come out here with barely a bit to their name, but once you prove yourself to be hardworking and honest, ponyfolk out here tend to treat you okay. Ponies would rather do business with a poor but honest merchant than a rich cheat.”

Daring could understand that sentiment. Many of her expeditions she got involved in solely because of the value of her name. She worked hard and risked a lot to build that reputation and it was worth a lot to her, but not enough to kill over.

“Ah hope you realize what’s going to happen to my reputation after this?” she quipped before gathering up the plates. “It takes a lot of work to be known as the meanest son of a gun in the west. And now Ah’m going to have everypony thinking Ah’ve gone soft...assuming Ah live through the day.”

“You’ll always be the meanest in my books,” Daring teased. She couldn’t help but laugh at that sentiment. If they made it through the day, it was unlikely that this would have a negative impact on the gunslinger’s reputation. If anything, it would reinforce the notion to not get on the nameless mare’s bad side. And there was never anything wrong with having the gratitude of the common pony on your side. However, that still hinged on them surviving the day, which was still much in doubt. What wasn’t in doubt, though, was whether Daring would be a part of this or not. Daring rose from her seat and headed for the exit.

“Where are you off to?” an understandably puzzled gunslinger asked.

“Sitting back and doing nothing is not this pony’s style.”

“And what exactly do you plan to do? Hurl high-browed insults at them?”

“I might throw in a witty rebuttal or two, but I was thinking more of asking around and seeing what I can find that might be of use.”

“You honestly think the ponies here have anything worth giving, let alone willing to get involved?” There was a hint of cynicism lacing the gunslinger’s words, which did not surprise Daring. One did not adopt a ‘lone wolf’ modus operandi because you believed in the inherent good in other ponies.

“You don’t have to do this alone,” Daring said as she headed out. If the stubborn earth pony wasn’t going to ask others for help then Daring was going to take it into her own hooves.

Noon...

Knowing Billy, that gave the nameless mare only another hour or two before he arrived. The time of her reckoning was soon to come; the time when all of her foolish bravado finally caught up to her. Most ponies would be sweating bullets by this point, but Blondie felt a strange sense of calmness as she sat on the front porch of Tenderhoof’s clinic. There was no need to fret about the past, present, or future; no need to contemplate the morality of what she was about to do. Everything was simple at this point - it was kill or be killed. And with only six bullets in her revolver, a fact confirmed when she checked the cylinder every two minutes, chances were she wasn’t going to be walking off into the sunset today.

“Eyup...still six,” the gunslinger muttered as she spun the revolver’s cylinder in her boredom.

The way she figured it, her best bet would be to at least take Billy down with her. Six shots gave her good odds at accomplishing that task. The gunslinger could already envision the fight - beneath the shade of the water tower with Blondie on one side and Billy with about a dozen goosn on the other. The goat would spout some random nonsense about revenge and finally besting his nemesis (despite the fact that Blondie considered the goat a minor nuisance at best). Eventually, she would grow tired of listening to his drivel, draw her gun, and hopefully catch him mid-monologue with a few bullets to the chest. And then she’d put the rest of her bullets into him just to be certain that he wasn’t going to babble any further. The goons however...well, everypony had to go out sooner or later. If anything, Blondie had the good fortune to have some degree of choice in how she faced her finale. Many ponies met their end without even realizing it until it was upon them.

Besides, growing old was boring. If she got old, she’d wind up being one of those crusty old saloon hermits who sat in the corner reminiscing about the old days in a pool of booze and self-pity. That was not a future that she wanted to deal with.

Despite being deep in thought, her ears took notice of approaching footsteps accompanied by wagon wheels. It was just the one set of hooves so it didn’t raise her alarms, and when the gunslinger glanced up from her revolver, she saw Daring standing before her alongside a loaded wagon and bearing a grin so large it threatened to split her head open.

“I take it your scavenger hunt went well?” Blondie quipped.

“Better than ‘well,’” Daring said as she unloaded one of the boxes and set it down so that the gunslinger could see the contents. Inside the wooden crate were bundles of high explosives - black powder, dynamite, and even TNT.

“Sweet fancy pants,” the nameless muttered in expected awe. “Where the hay did you find this?”

“This used to be a mining town, remember?” Blondie probably didn’t remember, nor cared to, but it was something that the archaeologist recalled. She figured there would be leftover demolitions from the town’s mining days and her gamble paid off. “Also managed to scrounge up some extra guns and bullets - a revolver, sawn-off shotgun, an old pipe rifle, and even a couple of derringers. There wasn’t much ammo for them, but its better than nothing.”

“Funny Ah don’t recall you carrying that kind of cash on ya,” Blondie remarked with a questioning glare. However, the nameless mare’s skepticism was only met with a dismissive chuckle.

“You that dense, Blondie?” The amusement was visible on the pegasus’ face, and despite an urge to wipe the smirk off her face, the gunslinger remained silent. “The ponies here haven’t forgotten what you did for them. When I told them I was looking for supplies to help you out, the townsfolk were throwing these things are me. Well...not the explosives obviously; TNT can get a bit unstable in hot weather.”

Blondie could hardly believe her eyes. For a second, she wondered if she was simply hallucinating from the heat or perhaps already dead from a sharpshooter’s round. The explosives alone represented hundreds of bits worth of merchandise, which was more wealth than most of the ponies in town put together. And they were just willing to give it over to Blondie without expecting anything in return.

“Ah thought you didn’t like solutions that involved wanton destruction.”

“My destruction is precise and calculated,” Daring insisted as she grabbed one of the dynamite bundles. “We rig these babies in the right place, and we can have that goat running for the hills in no time.” Daring’s areas of expertise may have been primarily in the realm of academics, but her years on expeditions have taught her a number of things about improvised demolition. There were still too many unknowns about Billy’s return, but with enough planning and coordination, Daring was confident she could tip the odds back in their favour.

“It’s going to take hours to get this all set up.”

“That’s why I asked for help.” Daring smirked again as she motioned for the gunslinger to look in the opposite direction. When Daring had asked for help, she got more than just supplies, but scores of willing volunteers. Around thirty ponies stood just a short distance away, both young and old, with eager smiles upon their faces. A few had weapons of their owns but the vast majority could give little more than their time and effort in preparing a proper welcoming. "Like I said, Blondie, you don't have to this alone."

“You folks are all insane,” Blondie quipped. She should be feeling grateful for their help, but she couldn’t help but shake her head at their idiocy for getting involved in a fight that had nothing to do with them. At best, they could get injured or killed in the crossfire, at worse Billy could take his anger out on the entire town as punishment. In turn, they would gain nothing from Blondie for she had nothing to offer but the clothes on her back. And the ponies of the town knew this, yet still they remained. Blondie had long since given up trying to make sense of ponies. It was better to just roll with the punches.

“I almost forgot...one last thing for you,” Daring said as she trotted over to the nameless mare. Tucked away under her wing, Daring pulled out the Celestial Star amulet. “I somehow doubt this thing can make ponies invincible but...can’t hurt to keep it on you.”

“Ah thought you want to give this to a museum.”

“Well...sometimes doing the right thing means giving up the things that are important to you.”

“Sometimes doing the right thing means giving up the things that are important to you.”

The words echoed in Dash’s mind even as she took a break from reading and set her Daring Do novel on the table beside her. Usually when she read Daring Do, the pegasus was hard-pressed to take her eyes off the book, let alone put it down for a while. But reading still felt like an empty pastimes. It was a feeling that had persisted since her last encounter with Applejack at Sugarcube Corner. She glanced up to the library’s clock. The air show was going to be underway soon. No doubt Applejack was having the time of her life with Spitfire - a guided tour of Manehattan’s most spectacular sports arena; a chance to mingle with the greatest athletes across Equestria; and most of all, to be seen accompanied by the biggest name aerobatics. That was the kind of night that Dash had always dreamt of. Why did Applejack get to live it?

Once again Dash found herself trying to force her thoughts away from the her farmer friend. Normally she did not mind the thought of her blonde-maned friend but now it was just infuriating her. Had it gotten to the point where she was beginning to resent Applejack for her fortune?

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on one’s perspective, Dash wasn’t given the opportunity to continue down that avenue of thought as a visibly irate Rarity barged into the library

“Rainbow Dash!” the unicorn hollered upon slamming the library door open.

Dash doubted she was here for a simple social call. In fact, the pegasus got a sneaking suspicion that she wanted to be as far away from the library as possible at that moment. Alas, the enraged unicorn moved with unerring speed and before Dash could even get a few feet off the ground, a powerful magic forced pulled her back to the ground.

“Ah-heh...hi Rarity, I was just about to head out” Dash said with a nervous chuckle.

“Don’t ‘hi Rarity’ me, missy!” Rarity snapped. “I had a very interesting conversation with Applejack when she picked up her order. She had rather troubling things to say about what’s happened between her and you, and her dating Spitfire.”

“Oh? Really? Wh-what sort of things?” Nothing about this conversation was going in a direction that Dash was comfortable with.

“I think you know exactly what kind of ‘things.’” Rarity shot the pegasus a piercing, accusatory glare. “She told me all about what happened at Sugarcube Corner. Applejack is absolutely devastated that you turned her away!”

“You think I’m any happier about it?” Dash tried to defend herself.

“I don’t know what to think anymore,” an unswayed Rarity replied. “I had been giving you the benefit of the doubt, hoping that you would do the right thing, but then Applejack told me all about the...questionable circumstances that followed her dates. So then I went to speak with Applebloom...and then with Twilight.” At this point, Dash was praying for a miracle to help her escape, but no such luck would befall her. She knew she did not deserve such. “Look at me, Dash. Look at me and tell me that you haven’t been trying to sabotage her dates!”

“I...I...I was just...” Try as she might, Dash couldn’t muster a defense at this point.

The stammered response was all the answer that Rarity needed.

“Rainbow Dash...how could you?” In a strange twist, the anger faded from Rarity’s voice, but the disappointment that replaced it was no less painful for Dash to hear. “You’ve been friends for years. She has always been there when you needed help...and this is how you repay her? Did you honestly think that ruining her chances with Spitfire would make her go to you?”

When Rarity phrased it like that, it made all of Dash’s attempts seem laughably stupid to even consider. So why did she think they were such brilliant plans at the time? Dash didn’t have an answer to that - any response sounded like an excuse in her head.

“I just...I didn’t think she would...”

“That somepony else would be as interested in her as you?”

That was one way of putting it and Dash nodded her reluctant affirmative. If she had thought for an instant that Spitfire had a thing for a countrypony like Applejack, she would have done even more. But she had been so certain that Spitfire would’ve found her too boring to stay with. That was a foolish notion however. After all, Dash didn’t find Applejack boring so why would another pony?

“Dash, dear...I know this isn’t how you planned things, but Applejack is with Spitfire and you have to accept that,” Rarity continued. Releasing her magical grip on the pegasus, she stepped closer to her friend and gave her a reassuring pat on her back. “Applejack has a right to be happy with whomever she wants just like everypony else. And forcing her into a position to choose between her heart and her friend will only ruin both.”

“But what can I do?” Dash protested as she got back to her hooves. “I thought I would be okay with it...but when I see the two of them together it...hurt. It physically hurts, Rarity. I never thought I’d feel pain like that and...I don’t think I can go through it again.”

“And how do you think Applejack feels right now knowing that you are here being miserable?”

“She’s...probably feeling bad.” The pegasus sighed as her head sunk down to below her shoulders. She shouldn’t have needed Rarity to point it out, but only after hearing it from someone else did the pegasus realize the impact her actions were having on her friend...her best friend. Dash wondered if she could even consider herself a ‘friend’ after the way she’s behaved. She didn’t deserve to be called that, and Applejack certainly deserved to have a better friend than her. With pleading eyes, the woeful pegasus gazed up at the unicorn. “But...how can I face her now?”

“Well, you can start by taking this,” Rarity said with a clever smirk as she produced the spare ticket to the competition that Applejack had originally tried to give to Dash, “and you can fly your flank to Manehattan.” Ponyville to Manehattan was a huge distance for most pegasus to cover, but Rainbow Dash was far from the average pony. Even without a tailwind, Dash could make it to Manehattan before the competitions finished.

“Some loyal friend I’ve turned out to be,” Dash muttered to herself. Once again, she felt Rarity’s comforting hoof upon her shoulder.

“As Fluttershy would say, you’ve just made some bad choices, but you can make up for that,” she reassured her friend with a smile. “Go to her. I promise you, when you see Applejack, any pain you might be feeling will melt away when you see how happy she becomes.”

That thought was quite reassuring for Rainbow Dash. She had been feeling in the dumps for days now and any sort of morale boost would be much welcomed for her. But after could she still face Applejack after everything she had done? What if the pain came back? Dash didn’t want to go all the way to Manehattan just to fail again. She didn’t want to lose...not in front of Applejack.

“Sometimes doing the right thing means giving up the things that are important to you.”

The words once again echoed through the pegasus’ mind. Perhaps that was something she should’ve done from the very start. It wasn’t too late to make amends. Dash decided she could start by putting aside what was important to her and doing what was right for a change. That meant tossing aside her fears and being the friend that Applejack wanted her to be. Their friendship was too important to lose, and Dash hoped it wasn’t too late to save things.

“All right, all right. I’ll go to Manehattan...for AJ’s sake,” Dash acquiesced. She prayed that Rarity was right and that the joy from seeing Applejack happy again would outweigh any heartache that might come from the evening. However, as Dash headed for the exist, it appeared that the unicorn was not finished with her.

“Hold on a moment, where do you think you’re going?” An odd time for a rhetorical question but the stern look on Rarity’s face told the pegasus that this was not a joke.

“To...Manehattan?”

“Looking like that?” Rarity scoffed. Once again a rhetorical question that just left Dash befuddled. As a high-flying daredevil, fashion rarely entered the equation for her. Even in these urgent circumstances, the laws of fashion and etiquette still had to be adhered to according to the mistress of fashion. “If you’re going to Manehattan, you will need proper attire.”

“Seriously? Now?” Despite Dash’s protests, her friend remained steadfast in her insistence. There was no use in argument at this juncture. Everything Dash had tried up to this point had resulted in abysmal failures so she had to, with great reluctance, defer to another’s judgment.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow, dear, this shan’t take but a minute.”

Ch. 13 - Falling Action

The faint scent of the fresh, trimmed grass still lingered in the air at the Manehattan Square Gardens, which was an odd name given that the open field was more of a rectangular oval than an actual square. Nevertheless, Spitfire felt invigorated as she took in the scent, though it was because it reminded her of the fragrance of Applejack’s orchards on a sunny afternoon. Even the trees transplanted onto the field, for the fliers that wished to incorporate chicane manoeuvres in their routine, reminded her of Sweet Apple Acres. The Wonderbolt Captain gazed out across the arena field with a growing sense of nostalgia and a longing sigh upon her lips.

Turning her gaze away from the field, Spitfire took a few moments to admire the sheer scope of the audience she would be performing in front of. The vast majority of the seats were empty but there were small clusters of eager fans who wanted to catch a glimpse of their favourite athletes during warm-ups. Spitfire was never daunted by crowd size; if anything she reveled in the cheering and the glory of the adoring crowd. Her eyes continued up the multiple tiers of the stadium until they focused on the VIP boxes near the top. Even from a distance, she recognized which box would be the one that Applejack would be sitting in - the one adorned in the Wonderbolt’s colours in section-C. She made a mental note to make her fly-bys extra close when she went by that particular section. Spitfire had seen all the things that made Applejack such a wonderful pony, it was time that she returned the favour.

But would she be able to? It felt like it had been ages since she had last set foot in an area. A part of her hoped she hadn’t lost her touch after missing so many practices. Spitfire wasn’t known as one of the best fliers in Equestria by skipping out on team meetings and practices. At the same time, it was hard for her to make time for a personal life when she was spending almost every waking moment training and studying techniques.

Those concerns of hers were short-lived, though, when she watched her teammates flying overhead. Spitfire kept reminding herself that the Wonderbolts didn’t need their captain watching over their every move, and she had faith that Soarin’ would be able to fill in for her when needed. Fleet Foot and High Wind were practicing their paired routine for tomorrow’s competitions. They made a good pair, Spitfire thought, even if Fleet Foot still had a tendency to go a bit faster than High Wind.

A streak of brown and gold out of the corner of her eye pulled Spitfire’s attention downrange of the arena. At the far end she could see a team of gryphons going over their own last-minute routine adjustments.

“Hm...looks like the Golden Hawks have really got their act together,” the Wonderbolt Captain mused with a wry grin. She relished the opportunity for decent competition. If anything, strong adversity only made victory taste sweeter. As she recalled from her studies of the Golden Hawks, they had great speed on their divines and strong discipline, but their manoeuvrability was lacking, and that was where she and her Wonderbolts were going to nail the gryphons to the scoreboard.

“I wonder what AJ is doing right now.” Her thoughts drifted back to the subject that had been plaguing her for the past several minutes. Even though Applejack gave her blessings, it didn’t help the pegasus shake the feeling that she had abandoned her girlfriend at a time of greatest need. Spitfire kept telling herself that she could make up for it later, but it felt like an excuse rather than justification. Why did Applejack have to be so concerned over Rainbow Dash’s absence? Why couldn’t she just be happy that they were spending time together as a couple?

“You haven’t listened to a word I said, have you?” Soarin’s words barked directly into her ear, which derailed her train of thought and left no survivors.

She recoiled for a moment, ears flattening against her head, before she realized that Soarin’ had been talking to her the entire time. And she hadn’t caught a word of it. Rather than be apologetic, though, she instead shot her friend a harsh glare for yelling into her ear.

“What? No, of course I was!” she insisted with all the persuasive power of a foal who had been caught napping in class. “Fleet Foot was very...um...good...doing her...things...” The unconvinced stare she got in return was enough to convince her to beat a hasty retreat. “Okay, okay! I was just...lost in thought.”

“Please tell me this isn’t about Applejack again,” Soarin’ groaned as he buried his face into his hoof.

“Hey! I’m allowed to be worried about my girlfriend,” Spitfire snapped back with her trademark temper.

However, as always her friend remained immune to the effects of her outbursts.

“I’m not saying that you can’t be,” Soarin’ argued. He found it strange that he was the one having to be the voice of reason given that it was often Spitfire’s job to keep wayward team members in line. However, as the second-in-command, it was part of his job to keep watch over the captain. Were he not such close friends with her, he would have been far more upfront about his concerns than he was right now. “It’s just that this isn’t the best time to be distracted by personal issues. We’ve got bigger things to worry about. The competition is pretty fierce this year so we need to be on top of our game if we’re going to win this.”

“Oh this is rich, I’m being lectured about distracting personal issues by you,” Spitfire replied with a tone double-battered and deep-fried in sarcasm. “Where was that mentality back when we were going out, Mr. ‘Let’s have a quickie in the locker room,’ eh?”

Now was not the time to be breaking out into an argument. This was exactly why he needed to be delicate addressing the issue but it seemed that even his attempt at civility was provoking his fellow Wonderbolt. He was only thankful that the rest of the team was up in the air and couldn’t overhear their argument...yet.

“First off, this isn’t about me or us or then,” Soarin’ said in a desperate attempt to keep things civil. “This is about what is important right now, which is the competition. It’s three days, Spitfire, your girlfriend will still be there when this is over.” Soarin’ knew he shouldn’t have said more but it was too hard to resist getting that last shot in. “And for your information, I’ve changed since then.”

The Wonderbolt Captain let out a disrespectful snort, which could have been considered a mild improvement. However, this meant that she had transitioned from ‘volatile firebrand’ to ‘quiet brooding’ and that could be equally problematic for him. He never recalled seeing Spitfire so worked up over one pony before. Where was this level of concern when they went out? When their work and personal life became too difficult to handle together, Spitfire just severed their relationship. It didn’t create an easy working environment for either of them but in the end, freeing Spitfire so she could focus on being captain was what made the Wonderbolts the champions they were today.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Soarin’ asked in a change of tactics.

“I thought bringing Applejack here would make for a really fun trip,” Spitfire began as she took Soarin’s offer and ran off with it. “But she’s been...quiet and distant almost the entire time because her friend couldn’t come too. And now she’s all worried about her friend, and going on about how something is troubling her friend and that she should be there for her friend.”

“You are aware of the irony of this situation?”

“Irony?”

“Oh, nevermind,” Soarin’ dismissed with a sigh. “Applejack’s allowed to have friends and be worried about them when they’re in distress. Friendships are important, after all, and you were the one who was complimenting her about her honesty and dependability.”

“I know! I know,” Spitfire snapped. Her anger was more focused at the topic rather than Soarin’ directly so the outburst failed to faze him. “It’s just...her friend is...well, you remember Rainbow Dash?”

Soarin’ responded with a blank stare.

“She saved your pie back at the last Grand Galloping Gala.”

“Oh, right! Her. I remember her,” Soarin’ said as the details flashed through his mind. “What about her?”

“Well, remember how I told you that Rainbow Dash set up this elaborate scheme to lure Applejack into a bachelor’s auction in order for me to ‘win’ a date with her?” The Wonderbolt Captain paused for a moment as she struggled to force the words out of her mouth. Shame was not something that she was familiar or comfortable with, least of all to the one pony she knew would always tease her about shameful acts. “That might not have been an accurate description of what happened.”

“Which parts?” Soarin’ asked with a hint of a surprise. His friend rarely needed to make up stories to make herself look good given all her credentials.

“Rainbow Dash did set up an elaborate scheme to lure Applejack to the auction block...but I was never a part of the plan, and I think Dash intended to win that date, not me.” The issue had nagged on her mind for a while and now that she had a willing ear to listen, the pegasus started babbling out the rest. “I mean, I didn’t go there intending to get between Dash and Applejack! I only figured it out by piecing things together over the next few days. By the time I realized what was going on, I didn’t want to break things off with Applejack, and she was already convinced this had been some grand scheme for her happiness.”

Soarin’ was beginning to regret this choice of tactics as now his Captain was even more distracted than before. Yet even as Spitfire began to pace across the field, he found himself unwilling to interrupt her. This sounded like she needed to get off her chest.

“So I can’t tell her truth, otherwise she might get mad at me for pretending this had been an elaborate plan, which is a lie of omission so I’m guilty of dishonesty. At the same time, I’ve seen the way Rainbow Dash and Applejack behave around each other...they’re really close friends, and if I hadn’t intruded when I did, I know for certain they would be together now.” Her confession was beginning to sound like paranoia but when Soarin’ tried to raise a hoof to interrupt, she continued on regardless with her pace quickening with each word. “Also, a bunch of weird things kept happening on our dates, which I think are a result of Dash trying to mess them up so they end prematurely. Applejack hasn’t said anything about it but I think she’s noticed them too. And now I’m worried that...what if Applejack is only going out with me because of how much Rainbow Dash and I are alike. What if I was just the next best thing? We’re both big-time dare-devil fliers and we’re both super athletic. But she has years of friendship going for her while I’m just the new filly that swooped in out of the blue. I can’t compete with that!”

“I...think you’re over-thinking things a bit,” Soarin’ finally managed to interject.

“Don’t you see?” Spitfire exclaimed as she grabbed her friend by the scruff of his flightsuit. “I think the only reason Applejack hasn’t left me is because for some crazy reason she hasn’t realized Dash’s affections for her! Oh, sweet golden feathers of my ancestors...what am I going to do when she finds out?”

That was the point where Soarin’ decided that he had indulged Spitfire long enough and that it was time to pull the brakes on the crazy train. While he would never advocate violence against mares, politeness had no effect on the rambling Wonderbolt so it took a firm smack across the face to bring Spitfire back to her senses.

“Snap out of it, Spitfire!” Soarin’ barked. “You’re talking crazy! Now pull your head out of your hindquarter and put it back in the game where it belongs!”

“I...I, uh...I’m sorry about that,” Spitfire murmured while her mind still reeled from the sudden shock. “I...I don’t know what came over me just now.”

“You were doing that thing where you analyze every little detail of something,” Soarin’ explained with a great sense of relief. The Captain of the Wonderbolts having a complete nervous breakdown right before a major competition would have made the team a laughing stock. “Now how about spending a little less time analyzing your relationship, and a bit more time analyzing your teammates?”

Like a pony thirsting for a drink, Spitfire leapt at the chance to get her mind onto something else. “Yes...yes, I think I will,” she murmured in a half-daze. As much as she hated to admit it, Soarin’ was right on all counts, even the hoof-smack. Spitfire didn’t become one of the best fliers by worrying over girlfriends, and she needed to keep her mind focused on the competition for the sake of her teammates. “Thanks, Soarin’, for knocking some sense into me.”

“Anytime.”

“However, if you tell anybody about this, I will strangle you in your sleep.”

“You’ve been threatening me with that for years,” Soarin’ said. The two Wonderbolts shared a quick chuckle. “Look on the bright side, once tonight’s competitions are over, you can take AJ out for a night on the town. Like you said, Rainbow Dash isn’t here...so you’ve got all the time in the world.”

By the time that she arrived in Manehattan, Rainbow Dash was still cursing herself for having spent so much time with Rarity getting her ensemble in order. Speed was of the essence and still the fashion-obsessed unicorn insisted on a fresh, original outfit for Dash to wear. By the end of the fitting, Rarity was one step shy of bolting Dash to the ground just to keep the impatient pegasus still long enough to finish. The only thought that compelled the pegasus to stay when all other thoughts shouted ‘go!’ was her desire to look nice for Applejack. That, and Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to take the risk of flying all the way to Manehattan only to get turned away because the VIP section has a strictly-enforced dress code.

If she weren’t in such a hurry, Dash would have taken the time to admire the sight of Manehattan Square Gardens when she touched down. It’s towering walls of steel and glass glistened the Manehattan cityscape lights like an artificial night sky. It gave it the appearance of an almost sanctified aura like a temple devoted to athleticism and determination. Dash knew she would need some of that sense of determination if she were going to make it through the night.

Though a child of the sky, Rainbow Dash was glad to be on the ground as her dress had not be tailored with high-speed flight in mind. It didn’t ride as high on her flank like her gala dress did but the sectioned gown, patterned to look like flowing feathers, created a lot of drag during flight.

As she approached the nearest gate, the stationed security guard chimed in a monotonous voice, “Tickets please.”

“I...don’t suppose you know where I could find Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, do you?” Dash asked as she presented her ticket. It was a long-shot but the easiest way to find Applejack would be to find the celebrity mare that would likely be glued to her flank.

“Autograph sessions are held tomorrow,” the guard replied in a manner that made him sound like a pre-recorded message.

Dash realized that the guard had likely heard similar questions a thousand times already by adoring fans, which meant she was going to have to find Applejack the hard way. It was a task that was as difficult as it would sound - finding a pony in an arena packed to the gunnels was like trying to find a particular need in a pile of needles. It seemed almost hopeless at first.

“No! You can’t give up now!” she scolded herself. “You need to do this for her...you owe it to her.”

Rainbow Dash felt she owed her friend far more than she could ever give in just one night. Applejack had been nothing but a friend to, and she had scorned that friendship because she wanted something more. With a renewed sense of determination, Rainbow Dash began scanning the crowds as she flew overhead.

At random intervals, she’d dip into the crowd to stop a few random patrons. “Excuse me? Have you seen my friend? She’s orange...wears a Stetson...kinda smells like apples.” Every time, though, she left empty-hoofed and had to continue her search. On occasion, she would ask if they had seen Spitfire but that stopped when someone answered that the Wonderbolt was on the field doing warm-ups. If Spitfire was on the field with her team, then Applejack would be on her own somewhere in the arena.

Rainbow Dash was beginning to lose hope when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of orange and yellow, and brown leather. It took all her willpower not to just shout out her friend’s name while galloping through the crowds, instead opting to keep her composure. She was, after all, Rainbow Dash - the epitome of cool.

“Okay Dash, gotta play this cool.” She used the crowds to mask her approach until she was only a few feet behind her friend. The sight of Applejack in such a dejected state sent a pang of guilt through the pegasus. There was no denying that this was her fault, and it was her responsibility to right this injustice.

“Hey!” she called out. “Now what’s with that long face?”

This was the moment of truth. Would Rarity’s guarantee hold up? Would the magic of friendship hold up under the weight of Dash’s self-imposed guilt? It was a daunting challenge at first as she was under a heavy burden already. She held her breath as she watched Applejack’s ears perk at the familiar call; her pulse quickened as green eyes widened at her presence; her hooves began to tremble as their gazes met. However, the tightness in her chest began to loosen as her friend’s lips curled into a brilliant smile.

“Rainbow!” The excitement was so overwhelming that Applejack almost tackled her friend in her rush to greet her. Her hooves wrapped around the pegasus with an almost vice-like grip. “Can’t begin to tell ya how glad Ah am to see ya here.”

With those words Rainbow Dash felt the tension throughout her body evaporate. It was just as Rarity described. As her own hooves closed around her friend, she felt the burdens of her guilt slip from her shoulders as her heart and spirit soared. It was so simple that she almost felt stupid for not realizing it sooner: her friend was happy. And it was because of Dash; not Spitfire or Twilight or Princess Celestia or anybody else. This was her moment, their moment, and nothing was going to take that triumph away. How she wished she could hold onto this moment forever, but Rainbow Dash found solace in the knowledge that so long as she treasured her friendship, moments such as these would keep returning.

“Sorry I’m late,” Rainbow apologized as the two ponies withdrew from their platonic embrace. “Rarity had to...remind me of my priorities.”

“Ain’t no need for apologies, Dashie. You’re here and that’s all that matters.”

It was almost as if Applejack had wiped away all her past transgressions with just a few words. Thoughts of her past deeds lingered at the back of Rainbow Dash’s mind, but her friend’s words of reassurance gave her the strength to keep going.

“Hope you weren’t too heartbroken I wasn’t here.” Sliding into her more comfortable persona, Rainbow Dash blanketed her lingering worries with her usual air of self-absorption. “But now that I am, the fun can really start!”

“You said it!” Applejack cheered in agreement. “Way too stuffy up with all these uptown ponies. How’s about you and I slip outside and have some real fun?”

Rainbow’s words stumbled in her throat as she tried to find a proper response. Her rational mind knew that it was an innocent question, but that didn’t stop her mind from flashing mental images of a less-than-puritanical nature.

“Real...fun?” she managed to eek out.

Applejack flashed a wide, knowing grin to her friend as she led her by the hoof. “Yeah, they got all kinds of fair games set up outside. It’ll be a hoot!”

“Oh...fair games, of course.” Rainbow wanted to slap herself across the face for being so obtuse, but instead masked her awkward feelings with an equally-enthusiastic smirk. “Do I smell a little challenge coming up?”

“You bet yer feathers I’m challenging you!”

Rich or poor, young or old, everypony enjoyed the fun and excitement of carnival games. A section of the arena’s outer grounds had been converted into a miniature amusement park for patrons to enjoy while they waited for the air show to begin. It was a very stark change in atmosphere compared to the inner halls of the arena, but both Applejack and Rainbow Dash felt more at ease being around ponies who considered themselves rich in friends rather than coins.

But while many of the colts and fillies were interested in the face-painting and the oversized mascots doling out balloons and photo opportunities, Applejack and Rainbow Dash set their eyes on games of skills. There was a plethora of options to choose from, but after sampling a few the pair eventually settled on a ring tossing game.

“So what’s with the fancy get-up?” Applejack quipped as the unicorn operating the ring-toss game gave the pair five hoops each. “Ah know this is a big party, but that’s a bit much don’tcha think?”

Rainbow couldn’t deny that she appeared to be a bit overdressed. Her friend was saving her dress for the final night as opposed to Dash, who lack such foresight to bring the necessary luggage.

The pegasus replied with a sheepish, “Rarity insisted on it.” The question, while innocent, was timed well enough to throw off Rainbow Dash’s focus, and caused her first toss to fall short of the milk bottle targets. “Well played, AJ...well played.” Well two could play at that game. Rainbow Dash waited in patient silence on the sidelines as her friend began lining up for her shot. Just as Applejack was about to throw, she popped her question, “So have you and Spitfire slept together yet?”

The question had the desired effect. Applejack almost jumped out of her skin from shock, which caused her throw to fly so far off course that she wound up hitting the booth operator in the face.

“N-now wait an apple-bucking minute,” Applejack stammered as she tried to fight down the crimson hue rushing to her cheeks. “Where in the hay did that come from? Haven’t you heard of a little something called ‘tact?’”

“Why would I need one of those?” Dash replied with a sly grin. She could tell she had succeeded in turning Applejack’s focus into a complete trainwreck. Perhaps it was a bit of an underhanded tactic, but competition always had a way of making Rainbow Dash forget such trivialities of etiquette. Her choice of tactic had a secondary boon as Applejack was far too preoccupied to play interference during her next turn.

“W-well, w-we’ve done...stuff together,” Applejack stammered. Dash hadn’t expected an actual answer, but it seemed that Applejack felt an honest answer was still the best. “Ah mean, we’ve gone to sleep and woken up together...b-but we haven’t done...um, that.”

“Really?” Rainbow said as she feigned confusion. Free from interference, Dash was able to land her next shot with ease. All those years of playing horseshoes was paying off. “If I were going out with Spitfire, I would totally try to...well, you know.”

“It ain’t like Ah’m being prudish,” Applejack explained. The conversation sat at the forefront of her mind, which made it impossible for her to focus on the ring tossing. Her next few shots all went wide or bounced across the milk bottle targets. After she botched the last of her throws, the farmer let out a quiet sigh. “Ah just...Ah dunno how to explain this. These past few days have given me a lot to think about...”

Applejack expressing doubt? Rainbow Dash figured hearing such words would have been reason to get excited, but instead she felt a rush of sympathy for her friend. The smile was gone from her freckled face, and it reminded Rainbow why she came to the airshow in the first place.

“Hey...hey, I didn’t mean anything by all that,” Rainbow interrupted. “I was just trying to mess with your game. It’s your relationship and you’re allowed to take things as slow as you want.”

The pegasus was able to breath a mental sigh of relief when she saw Applejack’s mood take an upswing. With that disaster averted, Rainbow focused on preparing her last ring toss. She eyed her targets carefully, her teeth playing with the plastic ring to position it just right for the throw. With a flick of her neck, the sent the ring flipping through the air. The timing of the tumble was flawless as the ring landed perfectly around the milk bottle’s neck, which was followed afterwards by a roaring applause from her one-pony audience.

“Guess Ah need to hit the pitch and get some more practice ‘fore Ah challenge you again,” Applejack congratulated.

Rainbow Dash didn’t just win their personal contest but also a prize from the game booth itself. Both ponies had forgotten about that part of the fair games so it came as a surprise when the game operator floated a prize over to the pegasus. Even more of a surprise was the prize itself - a stuffed toy of the Wonderbolt Captain herself.

“Here, you can have this,” Rainbow said as she gave the Spitfire plushie to her friend.

“Really?” Toy or not, it was a symbol of Dash’s victory and it seemed unusual for the pegasus to be so willing to part with it. “Ah don’t know what to say except...thank you so much.” She took the plush toy and settled it upon her back. “She can act as a stand-in until the real one comes back.”

Rainbow Dash felt a strange sense of ease with those words. Maybe she was finally coming to terms with Applejack’s relationship. She was about to suggest moving on to a new game booth when the nearby PA speaker crackled to life.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, tonight’s main event, the Solo Flight Performance, will be starting in ten minutes! Please proceed to your assigned seating.”

So much for a rematch. Rainbow figured it was probably for the best since she didn’t want to spend the entire evening beating Applejack. The ponies began to wrap up their games and activities in order to file back into the arena. Not wanting to deal with the huge lines, Rainbow Dash opted for the unofficial ‘pegasus-only’ entrance.

“Come on, I know a shortcut,” she announced. Rainbow didn’t even wait for an acknowledgement before she wrapped her hooves around Applejack’s midsection and hoisted her into the air. Given that this wasn’t the first time she had been given a lift from Rainbow, the farmer kept still and held onto her plush passenger.

Rainbow Dash was aware ahead of time that her ticket, courtesy of Spitfire, would give her access to private box seats to enjoy the show, but what she hadn’t expected was that she and Applejack would have the booth all to themselves. The private was box offered them a fantastic view of the arena, and at the right height to enjoy the flight performances without having to crane their necks back for the entire time. With velvet cushion seating and a fully-stocked lounge bar, Rainbow Dash should have been bouncing off the walls in her excitement. Instead, however, she had to devote considerable willpower to keep her urges in check. This was the exact kind of scenario that had dreamt about - alone with Applejack at the tail-end of an evening together. As a creature of impulse, the temptations were gnawing at her mind.

To that end, she was infinitely grateful that the airshow gave her something to focus her thoughts on. Since Applejack had only a cursory understanding on the competitive side of the sport, there were plenty of things for the two to talk about. Every manoeuvre had its own history to it; every team had their own strengths and pitfalls. And Rainbow Dash, being the closest thing the farmer knew to an expert on the sport, was happy to go on in length about every trivial bit of information.

“And that’s why even though Fleet Foot is faster than Soarin’, she’ll never be able to outperform him in a solo routine.”

“Boy, Ah never realized this daredevil business could be so complicated,” Applejack commented. The aforementioned Fleet Foot was just wrapping up her performance to great applause from the adoring crowd. Sadly, while Fleet Foot was a champion on the racetrack, her scores in aerobatics were less than stellar. However, a weak score from one team member wasn’t cause for concern, as Rainbow explained, for the team’s scores were based on the four highest solo routines from each team. According to her, between Spitfire and Soarin’, it was hard for any other team to stand against the Wonderbolts.

“It’s...like bucking apples,” Dash said with the hopes that relating to a more familiar subject would help the farmer understand. “It’s all about form and technique, otherwise you just wind up hurting your hoof and getting no apples.”

“And here Ah thought you never paid attention to mah ‘apple lectures,’” the farmer joked followed by a quiet chuckle. “Ah guess it just looks complicated to us ground-pounders ‘cause we just ain’t used to the idea of flying.”

The earth pony had a point. Rainbow Dash, for the life of her, couldn’t understand how anypony could look at farming and go ‘I want to spend the rest of my life waking up at the crack of dawn, and work long hours moving heavy loads for meagre pay for the rest of my life.’ To each their own, she reminded herself.

“Up next is a pony who needs no introduction! Stomp your hooves in applause for the one, the only, Spitfire of the Wonderbolts!”

Both ponies shot to attention at the speaker’s announcement. Even in the shelter of the private booth, the roar of the crowd reverberated all the way up to them, spurring them to applaud as well.

“Woo! Go Spitfire!” Applejack cheered as the Wonderbolt Captain took to the sky. Even though Applejack had gone to airshows with Dash in the past and had seen the Wonderbolts perform before, this marked the first time that the farmer paid close attention. Before, Spitfire was just ‘the orange-maned one’ that was hard to discern from the other sky-blue blurs that soared overhead. Tonight, however, Applejack got her first taste of the grace and form of the pony she was going out with. She glanced over to her friend and was relieved to see that even Rainbow Dash was getting into the spirit of the games - that mixture of adoration, enthusiasm, and ambition that adorned the pegasus’ face had been sorely missed by the farmer. It was the look that she had whenever she saw the Wonderbolts perform, and it always warmed Applejack’s heart to see her friend so happy.

The last few days had been lacking in that expression, and it had been one of the things that had been worrying her.

“Tell me about Spitfire,” Applejack spoke up as she relaxed back into her seat.

“What do you mean? You’re the one that’s going out with her.”

“Ah mean tell me about her as a flier...like you did with all the others,” she explained.

There was no reason why Dash couldn’t. If anything, Spitfire was probably the one pegasus that she had studied more than any other.

“Spitfire has always been about technique and precision,” Rainbow began as the pair settled in to watch the performance. “Her signature move is the Rising Phoenix - she goes into a free-fall and then pulls up at the last second with a huge, flaming contrail that fans out like giant wings as she soars over the crowd. It’s always the last manoeuvre in her routines.”

Applejack imagined that such a stunt was a lot more impressive if you were in the crowd that she soared over rather than sitting all the way up in a private box. Still, Rainbow’s explanation had piqued the farmer’s interest. It probably wouldn’t beat a Sonic Rainboom, but it would be hard for anypony to dislodge her opinion that Rainbow Dash was the best flier in Equestria.

“When she first joined the Wonderbolts, she barely made the cut and some of the older members wanted her cut from the roster. She struggled at first, but the Captain at the time, and everypony else, saw that with each competition, Spitfire just got better and better. Even when the press was lampooning her, she never stopped training. They say she used to spend her off-hours in the archives watching all the old films of past tournaments.”

“That’s some real dedication on her part,” Applejack remarked. A sudden wave of fatigue washed over the farmer. Having been up and walking about since early morning, she was surprised that she had managed to last as long as she had. Thankfully she didn’t have to go anywhere any time soon so Applejack simply leaned over and rested her head upon Dash’s shoulder.

Rainbow froze like a filly caught with her hoof in the cookie jar. Why did she have to use adjacent seats? There were at least a half-dozen other cushions either of them could have taken. For a brief moment, Rainbow Dash contemplated feigning thirst so that she had an excuse to get up. But that meant missing a part of Spitfire’s routine, as well as depriving the small part of her that was enjoying the closeness and the way that Applejack’s mane brushed against her wings.

“Gah! Focus, Rainbow. Gotta keep it together.”

“It’s what she does...she puts her heart and soul into anything she goes after,” Rainbow continued in order to maintain her composure. She just had to focus on the airshow and their conversation. “There was a huge uproar in Cloudsdale when she was made team captain. Everypony said she was too young to take on the task, and a lot of talk about how she ‘stole’ the position from Soarin’.” As controversial as it was, however, it served as a major source of inspiration for Rainbow Dash to strive for her dream. The Wonderbolt Captain was the poster-pony for success through skill and determination.

“What do you mean stole?”

“Back then Soarin’ was the up-and-coming star for the Wonderbolts,” Rainbow explained as she recalled the numerous magazines and newspapers that featured the aforementioned stallion on their covers. He was photogenic and, more importantly, not coupled with a volatile temper that got Spitfire in trouble on many occasions. “They were going out at the time so there was some speculation that Soarin’ gave her position, which was then repaid by her breaking things off with him a few months later.”

“That’s not what really happened right?” Such actions did not sound like those belonging to the Spitfire that she knew, but at the same time she could understand what dedication could do to one’s personal life.

“Of course not,” Rainbow dismissed. “Soarin’ was one of Spitfire’s biggest supporters even after they broke up. It was all just rumours started up by jealous ponies.”

Applejack was relieved to hear that, even though she didn’t believe the alternatives for a moment.

“Oh! Is this it?” the weary farmer asked as she motioned her friend’s attention to the arena. Applejack had already been watching but what exactly was unclear until Dash’s affirmative nod. The Wonderbolt Captain was in a steep-angled climb towards the top of the arena, which meant she was setting up for her signature Rising Phoenix.

However, while Applejack’s eyes were fixated on the show, Rainbow’s gaze was focused on the pony beside her. Despite all her worries, Rainbow Dash had managed to make it through most of the evening without any heart-wrenching incidences. She had brought some happiness to her friend’s day, and that alone made the entire trip worthwhile. But there was still one thing nagging at the back of the pegasus’ mind, and that was the truth...or more accurately the absence thereof on her behalf. Applejack deserved the truth even if it did hurt their friendship in the end.

“There’s, um...something I should tell you AJ...”

“Hm? What is it?” Applejack’s curiosity was piqued. Given the timing, it would have to be something important to get Rainbow Dash to ignore watching a Wonderbolt performing.

“The thing is...um, well, what I want to say is that...” The more Dash wanted to force the words out, the more the words refused to dislodge from her throat. “I haven’t exactly been completely honest with you as of late...”

“There’s the understatement of the year,” Applejack said with a quiet chuckle.

The joke helped to calm Rainbow’s nerves. “I just want to say...um, the truth is...the truth is that I-”

Whatever words that Dash managed to say, whatever truth she managed to coax out, were drowned out by a sudden, deafening cry from the crowds. Yet they were not joyous cheers, but ones of shock and horror, as a giant plume of flame and smoke billowed into the air. As horror gripped at Applejack’s mind, she raced to the glass pane only to see her fears confirmed. A streak of flames stretched across the length of the field, engulfing everything in its path in a rampant inferno. The voice over the PA was echoing in the backdrop, but Applejack could only hear a few choice words that echoed in her mind...

“...a horrible crash...”

“Applejack!” Rainbow’s familiar call snapped the farmer back to her senses. She glanced over to Dash and saw that the pegasus was backing up from the window...but the look on her face was not one of a retreating pony. “Buck it!”

“It’s too dangerous Dash!” Applejack’s insistence fell upon deaf ears, however, as the pegasus began to gallop towards the glass. There was no stopping the pegasus, so Applejack’s alternative was to go along with this insanity. She struck the glass with all her force, obliterating the pane just moments before Rainbow Dash took to the air.

The pegasus circled above the scene of the accident to try and get a better view of what had happened. Judging by the extent of the flames and how it widened from one end to the other, Dash could only presume something awry during the Rising Phoenix. What exactly went wrong, however, was a question that could wait until afterwards. After using her wings to buffet some of the smoke away, Rainbow Dash spotted the blue flightsuit of a Wonderbolt amidst the charred field. With the flames slowly beginning to spread and emergency crews still rushing to the scene, she had only a small window of opportunity to work with.

A normal approach would roast Rainbow Dash in seconds, which meant a fast approach was in order. There was no time for thinking things over or second-guessing herself. Rainbow Dash climbed to the ceiling and fell into a nose-dive. She kept her speeds to subsonic levels as she approached the flames. The wave of compressed air just ahead of her acted as a buffer, blasting the flames aside as she made her approach. At the last second, she lowered her hooves and snatched the unconscious Spitfire. However, the sudden weight shift robbed her of precious speed, weakening the buffer and allowing the flames to creep in far closer than was comfortable for her.

Fortunately for Rainbow Dash, it took her less than a second to get clear of the flames and smoke. Though the smoke was burning her eyes and her lungs, she was able to fly the unconscious pegasus to safety and deposit her with awaiting paramedics. However, it was only when she set the Wonderbolt down that she noticed the pegasus’ light blue mane.

“Fleet Foot?” The Wonderbolt must have been observing from the ground when the crash occurred. But that meant Spitfire was still out there somewhere.

Refusing to give up, Rainbow Dash took to the air once more and began to circle closer to the flames. It was getting harder to keep the smoke away, which meant flapping her wings harder while continuing to choke on wisps of smoke. But her stubbornness paid off when she spotted the Wonderbolt Captain in the heart of the flames near the broken remains of a tree. She must have clipped it during the crash. But with the tree feeding the flames and presenting a growing danger, there was no time to make another long approach. Rainbow Dash could only think of one option - dive in and out as fast as she could manage. She didn’t even have time to think if she had enough space to get the necessary speed. But as Daring Do would say, ‘who dares, wins.’

“Here goes nothing,” Dash mentally braced before diving into the flames. The heat was unbearable; the smoke clawed at her throat. Every second that passed felt like an hour, but eventually both pegasus burst forth from the smoke. She had just enough strength to throw herself and Spitfire out of the fire’s reach, landing in a rolling heap among the untouched section of grass.

“Bwah! Fire! Fire!” Rainbow shrieked as she tore at her dress in a panic. The tail end of the dress had caught fire and was accelerating up the fabric. She managed to wriggle free of the garment and throw it aside just as the whole dress began to burn. Singed and fatigued, Rainbow Dash just collapsed to the ground. “Rarity...is so going to kill me...” she lamented before darkness overcame her.

Ch. 14 - Tragic Flaw

He found her in the exact same spot that he had last seen her hours ago. Most ponies would probably have considered it an amusing coincidence, but the sight of the Wonderbolt Captain still hunched over her desk behind a pile of open textbooks, magazines, and photo albums was disconcerting to Soarin’. In fact, the pile seemed even bigger than the last time he had seen it as he could only see the top of the Captain's yellow and orange mane from where he stood. If she had noticed his arrival, she made no movement to suggest as such. In case the Captain was oblivious behind her barricade of books, he slammed the door shut and ensured that only the deaf would still be unaware.

“Somebody there?” Spitfire called out. She didn’t even bother to peak over her books to see who it was.

“It’s me,” Soarin’ answered after a wistful sigh. He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised but that didn’t take the edge off the minor slight.

“Oh, hey hun. What’s up?” She carried on as though nothing was out of the ordinary. A more astute pony might’ve noticed Soarin’s sigh but the Captain’s otherwise razor-sharp perception was oblivious.

Since he knew waiting for a proper welcoming would be a fool’s errand, he trotted over to the other side of the Captain’s desk. Much to his disappointment, Spitfire’s focused remained fixated on her books. A cursory glance revealed she was combing through old photo albums of past competitions, playbooks and flight manuals from the scores of flight clubs across the land, and even old magazine articles about the fliers of old. What Soarin’ saw was the exact same image that he saw the last time he was in the Captain’s office, only now it was a bigger pile. From the stacks of books, Soarin’s gaze crawled over to the sitting pegasus; slouched posture, drooping eyelids, disheveled mane, and the faint aroma of coffee and old takeout food wafting upon her breath.

“Please tell me you’ve gone outside at least once,” a disappointed Soarin’ quipped. He knew the answer already, but he was curious if she knew it.

“Can’t this wait? I’m in the middle of something.” Spitfire’s dismissive wave was disheartening to say the least, but she stopped abruptly after a second. “Actually, scratch that thought. Maybe you could hear me out.” Alas, if Soarin’ was hoping for a change in subject then he was fooling himself. This became self-evident when Spitfire grabbed a binder from her pile, which cause half the wall to topple to the ground. “I’ve been reviewing some of the Blue Thunder’s old playbooks back from their dynasty years in thirty-seven through forty-four. I was thinking that maybe if we incorporated some of their insights into weight-ratios and FPM’s we could-”

She was rambling again. Now Soarin’ loved to see her so devoted and enthusiastic to her new position as Wonderbolt Captain, but if he didn’t put a brakes on this particular train of thought soon, she would keep going on for hours. He didn’t want to take the risk of becoming distracting, not to mention half of the things she would say were going to go right over his head.

“Do you know what time it is?” he interrupted, his voice sharp and abrupt.

Spitfire gave him a blank stare before admitting her ignorance by searching for a clock or a watch. However, the mess on her desk meant that finding anything that wasn’t made of laminated paper almost impossible. Soarin’ let out another disappointed sigh as Spitfire knocked over a stack of books in her desperate attempt to not look like a fool (not that she hadn’t failed in that task just by searching). He gave her a few more moments, if only out of a fleeting hope, before accepting the truth.

“It’s four,” he answered to put an end to the farce.

“Four?” Spitfire chuckled at the news before she relaxed in her seat. “Geez, Soarin’, you had me worried for a moment there. It’s four. What’s the worry? Our dinner reservation isn’t until seven. Your pie will still be there in a couple hours.”

“In the morning.” The stunned silence from his Captain was enough for Soarin’. It was a pity that being right brought with it an even greater sense of defeat. As Spitfire let out a weary sigh and hung her head, Soarin’ trotted around so that he stood behind her. There was no need for him to drive the point further as the Captain had already recognized her failing. “I know you’re excited about your new position, I am too. But you’re pushing yourself way too hard for the past couple of weeks. I’m worried about you. A captain is no good to the team if she burns herself out after the first month.” He could feel the tension in her shoulders and neck. He tried to knead some of the knots out but it was like trying to massage a bag of gravel.

“I’m sorry I missed our dinner,” Spitfire murmured after a prolonged silence.

“It’s not a big deal,” Soarin’ said. He leaned down and offered her a reassuring nuzzle. “It’s just a birthday; it’s not a big deal.” Instantly, the pegasus went from a bag of gravel to a slab of cement in his hooves. “Oh, for the love of-”

“Oopsies?”

She forgot. He couldn’t believe that she forgot something so important; something that he had taken a lot of time and effort on his part to arrange so that they could have a proper night together. For both their sakes, Soarin’ took a step back and several deep breaths to calm his nerves.

“I...I’m sorry, I completely forgot your birthday.” To her surprise, though, the offered apology only prompted a frustrated growl from her boyfriend.

“That’s it! I’m going back to the apartment,” he declared before turning for the exit.

“Soarin’ wait!” Finally, Spitfire was presented with something that could pry her away from her desk. Scattering more of her books to the floor as she vaulted over her desk, she threw herself between Soarin’ and the door. “Please, just give me another chance. I’ll make it up to you. I’ll take you out somewhere nice tomorrow. I promise.”

“My birthday was four months ago!” Soarin’ snapped. “It’s was yours! I was waiting in that restaurant, with a reservation I made half a year ago, for nearly three hours. But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to see a photo of me sitting alone at the table in the next issue of Pegasus Weekly.”

For a brief instant, Spitfire just stared at the stallion in disbelief. The notion that one would forget their own birthday was almost too absurd to believe. Yet, when she checked the recesses of her memory, the truth was evident. But while most ponies would have admitted defeat at that point, Spitfire took things in the opposite direction.

“Well if it’s my birthday then I’m allowed to not celebrate it if that’s what I want,” she argued. Her brow furrowed as her once passive stance straightened out. “I’m sorry I forgot about it, but we can make up for it later.”

“When? You’ve been saying that for over a month now. Every time we try to do something resembling a date it’s always ‘tomorrow’ or ‘next week’ or ‘another time.’” Despite an earlier desire to leave, now Soarin’ was glad he was barred from leaving. Just like their dates, a chance to talk had also been relegated to the realms of ‘another time.’ “I know this job is important to you; it’s important to all of us. But you rarely come home anymore; you practically live in your office now; you’ve barricaded yourself behind books and meetings; and the only time I get a chance to see you is during practice. What happened to us?”

Spitfire grit her teeth as she glared at the insolent pegasus before her. “I’m doing this for the Wonderbolts,” she declared with pride, “and I’m done with this conversation. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to get back to.”

There went Soarin’s hope for forcing a dialogue. “Breathe Soarin’...just breathe,” he repeated with each deep inhalation. His whole body so tense at this point he could’ve crushed a walnut between his teeth. Here he was being brushed aside for the hundredth time in less than a month. How could she just ignore him like that? Did he not matter to her anymore?

“No,” he said in defiance.

“I beg your pardon?” Spitfire looked unamused but equally unconcerned as she took her seat behind her desk once more. “I said this conversation is over.”

“Well I’m not ready to end this conversation.” It wasn’t the first time the two of them had an argument, but the stress of work and life were starting to take their toll. He felt tense and angry, and he kept pacing back and forth in front of the desk like a predator stalking its prey. “Look at yourself Spitfire - you’ve been pouring over books and manuals and flight routines for months now.”

“Have you read the latest standings?” Spitfire retorted. Somewhere in her pile of books was a newspaper, but like finding the time she was hopeless in this endeavor. “Well, there’s a sports section in here somewhere that shows that we’re five points from the bottom.”

“I know, Spitfire. Pulling my unconscious flank across the sky by ropes doesn’t exactly win many points in style and form.”

“Not my fault you OD’d on cough medicine.” A brief, half-second chuckle, more of a humorous scoff than anything else, eased the tension. “But seriously, this team is in major need of an overhaul and I’m the pony to do it. I just...I need to figure out the right formula. It’s somewhere in here, Soarin’, I just have to keep looking until I find the right combination.”

“Spitfire, the books don’t care how tenacious or passionate you are. If you don’t take time to relax, you’ll burn yourself out. This doesn’t have to be the total extent of your life.”

“Well maybe I want it to be,” Spitfire growled as she slammed her hooves against the desk. “Now I’m ordering you to leave.”

“You can’t just order me out like some junior flyboy. You’re my girlfriend, not my captain, in this conversation.” Soarin’ once again scoffed at her attempt to throw her authority around.

“Could you try, for one minute, to think about the team rather than yourself? Actually, I have a better idea - how about I go to being only one of those things? That way, it’s real easy for you to know where you stand.”

“So that’s how you’re going to play this?” Soarin’ said. He remained defiant despite a flair of panic rising up at the reality of the threat. Spitfire was never one to make idle threats, but if he showed weakness now then he would be relegated to living under her hoof forever. “Eight years together and you’re going to throw it away for the Captain’s position?”

“Eight years in which we’ve both worked hard to get to this opportunity,” the Captain retorted as she rose from her seat. “I am not going to squander this chance to make the Wonderbolts into something that everypony across Equestria can be proud of. Not for you; not for anybody!” With a final slam of her hooves, which knocked over one of the piles of books remaining, the fight ground to a halt. Both pegasus just stared each other in the eyes as though trying to size up if the other was going to back down.

“Fine then.” Soarin’ conceded with great reluctance and a tired sigh. “There’s more to life than just flying and air shows,” he continued as he reached under his wing to procure a small item. “For what it’s worth, I’m sure you’ll be the best captain this team has ever had, but the saying goes ‘it’s lonely at the top.’ When you realize that, don’t bother coming to me.” He took a brief moment to stare at the small velvet-covered box he held in his hoof and then tossed it onto Spitfire’s desk. “I’ll see you at practice...Captain.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, AJ? I’m fine!”

“No you ain’t. Now please put the darn mask on like the doctor’s told ya to.”

Despite being confined to a hospital bed and anchored with multiple IV lines, Rainbow Dash put up a staunch defense against her friend’s attempts to fit the oxygen mask back into place. Were she not so busy struggling against the pegasus, Applejack might have expressed some relief to see such strength and vigor so soon after a harrowing ordeal. Those feelings would have to wait until she could get the stubborn pegasus to follow the doctor’s orders. Applejack was already on the bed, attempting to pin Rainbow down with her hind legs while her fore legs were trying to hold the defiant mare’s head still.

“I don’t need it!” Rainbow insisted. In an amusing twist, were she not struggling so hard against her friend, she wouldn’t have been breathing so hard. That, in turn, made the pain in her chest worse and made it harder to breath. So despite her insistence to the contrary, Applejack could see the pegasus already getting winded.

“Okay, you asked for this.” An ornery pegasus was no different than dealing with a stubborn bull or mule, both of which Applejack has had plenty of experience with. Shifting her position, Applejack grabbed her friend by the wing and in one swift motion she flung the pegasus onto her stomach. Then using her own weight to keep the pegasus pinned, Applejack slipped the oxygen mask into position, and, as an added bonus, grabbed a nearby roll of tape and secured it in place. “Done. Now was that so hard?”

“You could have just said please,” Rainbow insisted after conceding defeat. The fresh oxygen did alleviate the pain in her chest, however, so it was hard for her to begrudge her friend. Once Applejack got off the bed, Rainbow made herself comfortable again, or at least as comfortable as she could get.

Since having awoken in the Manehattan hospital, neither pony had been given any information as to what happened with Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts. Rainbow should’ve been thankful that she managed to make it out of the ordeal with only some minor burns and smoke inhalation, but that didn’t shake the constant worry. And it was the same worry that plagued Applejack. Her friend put on a brave face but every so often the farmer would look to the door in hopes of seeing somebody familiar coming through. The staff wouldn’t let Applejack near Spitfire or the others so she was stuck staying with Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was glad to have the company, but she saw the wistful gaze in her friend’s eyes, and heard the longing sigh that occurred whenever a doctor or nurse walked by the door but didn’t come in.

“I’m sure Spitfire is okay,” Rainbow spoke up after a brief silence.

“All Ah keep seeing is those medics when they carried her off on a stretcher.” The sullen mare folded her hooves on the side of the bed and rested her head upon them. “Ah wish there was something, anything, Ah could do right now.”

Rainbow Dash knew what it felt like to be standing on the sidelines; powerless to do anything to stop or change what was happening before her eyes. It hit even harder for ponies who were used to taking charge and controlling their own destinies. The pegasus wished she could say something to alleviate her friend’s worries, but everything that came to mind felt like hollow platitudes.

“Just...be there for her when she needs you.” Hollow or not, the platitudes were all that Rainbow Dash had available. It was better than staying silent.

Without warning, Applejack threw her hooves around Rainbow and hugged her tightly. Even though her face was buried into the pegasus’ chest, Dash could hear the farmer’s faint sobs. Warmth and the biting chill of sorrow conflicted inside Rainbow as she closed her hooves around her friend.

“It’ll be okay, AJ,” she whispered into her friend’s ear. More empty platitudes. They were beginning to sicken Rainbow by their mere utterance.

“Am I interrupting something?” a familiar stallion spoke up from the door.

“Soarin’!” Applejack might not have been able to fly but she came close to rocketing across the room to hug the Wonderbolt. It wasn’t Spitfire but at the very least she might finally get some answers. “Please tell me you have good news.”

Soarin’ didn’t say anything at first as he instead opted to gently push Applejack out of the embrace. When she looked to his face, she saw only a tired, but warm smile. That was enough for her to know that she could put her worst fears away. Dash could breath a little easier now too, both in the literal and metaphorical sense.

“Spitfire will be fine,” Soarin’ explained. “Docs say she’s got a kind of resistance to the flames she’s able to conjure up so it was mostly the impact itself that did harm, and hitting Fleet Foot took most of the edge off that.” The mentioning of the other Wonderbolt caused a small grimace to sour Soarin’s reassuring visage. Naturally, inquiries about the other Wonderbolts followed suit. “Most of us are fine, but Fleet Foot got pretty banged up when Spitfire crashed into her. A few torn ligaments in the wing and maybe a mild concussion too. Rapid Fire got a bit singed as well in the blast. The docs are still looking him over.”

“Are the Wonderbolts still able to compete?” Rainbow’s question might not have sounded all that considerate given the circumstances, but it was an understandable concern to the fellow pegasus. Crash or not, the competitions were going to continue, and as the defending champions, the honour of the Wonderbolt’s was at stake. Nobody on the team would risk further injury just to compete, but if there was any chance to continue then they would take it.

“It’s...too early to tell,” Soarin’ regretfully reported. “Fleet Foot is out for certain, and Rapid Fire is still a fifty-fifty; his wings took the worst of the flames so its a question of how many feathers he’s lost. Including myself, three of us are good to fly, and I doubt Spitfire will be willing to give up. I’ve already spoken with a few of the officials and they’ll let us fly the team event with just five members.”

“Ah’m sensing a ‘but’ coming though,” Applejack remarked when she noted the way that Soarin’ trailed off at the end.

“The paired flights are next. Each team puts forwards two pairs. Problem is, Fleet Foot and Rapid Fire are part of our two pairs.” It was enough cause for concern. Paired routines are rehearsed extensively so a last-second shuffling of team members meant going in unprepared. Were they any other team, Rainbow Dash would have counted them out of the competition, but if any team could manage such a disaster, it would be the Wonderbolts. “I can fly with Misty, and if Rapid Fire is not ready to fly in time then Spitfire can take his place. The big concern is whether Rapid Fire can fly in time for the team events, which is the day after the paired events.”

“Don’t y’all have other members you to call in?”

“I’ve already sent a messenger, but they’re all over in Los Pegasus doing a charity event,” Soarin’ said. “Even flying non-stop it’d take them nearly a day to get here, so I’m not holding my breath for a miracle from them.” Soarin’ didn’t want to pull out of the competitions, but his primary concern was the safety of his teammates. There would always be other competitions so letting go of this one was not going to cause him to lose any sleep; how that would affect the captain, however, was another concern to add to the growing list.

Applejack’s concerns were far more immediate. “Can I see her now?”

“Of course you can. I’ll take you to her,” Soarin’ replied with a reassuring nod. He then glanced over to Rainbow Dash. “You want to come too? I’m sure she’ll want to thank you for pulling her hindquarter out of the fire.”

“Oh no, she needs her rest,” Applejack insisted.

Soarin’ thought otherwise, which was made clear when he strolled past the farmer. “I’m sure your friend will be fine,” he said dismissively. “Just gotta get this silly oxygen mask off.”

“That’s what I keep telling her,” Rainbow agreed. “Now just be careful when taking off the taAGGHHHHHHHH!”

Between the head trauma and the cocktail of medications being pumped into her body, Spitfire’s mind felt about as foggy as the Vanhoover harbor on an autumn morning. She tried to bring her memories into focus, but all she could bring up were brief flashes. She remembered flying through the air; a sense of liberation was washing over her. The wind in her mane and the roaring crowds in her ear - she had been performing. She remembered free-falling; it must have been her Rising Phoenix if she had been performing. But what happened after that?

“Is she awake?” She could hear voices in the distance like echoes through an empty corridor. It sounded familiar, but it left her feeling a warm afterglow. More was being said but she couldn’t make out the words. She tried to focus. “Ah thought you said she was fine!”

“Applejack?”

What was Applejack doing here? Confusion dogged the Wonderbolt’s mind until more memories began to creep back to her. She remembered seeing Applejack. Was she cheering from the crowds? No, that wasn’t right. Applejack had a private box, she would have been sitting alone. So why does Spitfire see images of Applejack close to somepony else?

“Doctors had to sedate her a little while ago. Apparently she was being combative and insisting on getting back to the arena.”

Doctors? Sedation? She didn’t recall being injured or needing a doctor, but then again if she had suffered from a crash it would explain the gap in her memories. Spitfire focused on the gaps in her memory once again. She remembered seeing Applejack next to somepony. She was resting her head against the pony’s shoulder and...smiling. And then a sudden, pervasive sense of panic and dread. Applejack was supposed to be alone. Spitfire realized that it must have thrown off her concentration, but why? Who was Applejack with and why would that bother her so much?

After that the memories became even harder to focus on. There was intense heat and pain. Did she crash? She had to have crashed. It was the only logical conclusion. She must’ve hit the ground or a tree or something, at which point the flaming contrail would have overtaken her and set the ground ablaze. Another flash of memory - it was Fleet Foot. Oh sweet mercy, did she hit Fleet Foot? Suffering for her own mistakes was one thing, but it was unforgivable for another to suffer because of them.

“But I don’t make mistakes. How could this have happened?”

“Helloooooo? Anypony home?”

That voice! That boisterous, self-aggrandizing shrill! She knew that voice. And with the blade of Occam's Razor, the fog in her mind was cut open revealing what she had been searching for.

“That’s not helping Rainbow!”

Following the trail of that familiar voice, her memories and vision began to fall back into focus. She could see the unkempt rainbow-hued mane and those lingering magenta-tinted eyes. She could see that pony in her memories cradling up against her Applejack, and she could see the same pony now hovering over her at the bedside.

“I think she’s waking up!” Rainbow exclaimed.

The sight of that pegasus looming over her, grinning as though she stood triumphant over her beaten remains, ignited a burning hate inside Spitfire. Common sense and rationality vaporized in an instant. Her anger exploded outwards, driving her hoof straight in Rainbow’s face. The Wonderbolt’s erstwhile rescuer dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes whilst the other ponies in the room stared on in horrified silence.

Rainbow was the first to break the silence with the understandably upset, “What the hay was that for?”

“Don’t you ‘what the hay’ me,” Spitfire growled despite her drowsy state. “I saw what you were doing...you...backstabbing, girlfriend-stealing, two-bit harlot!”

The shock that had left Applejack’s mind in a state of temporary paralysis was swept away when she witnessed her best friend being subjected to such a vicious verbal assault. “Hold your horses there, Spitfire!” Applejack stepped in between the two pegasus, not just to protect Rainbow Dash but also to prevent any potential retaliation. “What in the name of Aunt Brown Betty’s biscuits has gotten into you?”

“You told me Rainbow Dash couldn’t attend,” Spitfire said, her anger still simmering but notably calmer now that Applejack was addressing her. “So imagine my surprise when I see you two getting all cozy up in the private box. Did you think I wouldn’t notice when I flew by?”

“Now you’re just talking crazy.” Applejack would have gone with paranoid but she didn’t want to sound too insulting. “Rainbow flew in and surprised me. We’re friends, and I’m allowed to get ‘cozy’ with mah friends!”

“Friend? Ha!” Spitfire said with a mocking scoff. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you - eyeing you up when your back is turned. She’s even doing it right now!”

Now Rainbow Dash had no idea what Spitfire was going on about with the ‘eyeing her up’ remarks. As far as Rainbow was aware, she was just staring at her friend in a mixture of surprise and confusion mixed with perhaps a bit of admiration and gratitude that Applejack was defending her. If there was any ogling involved, it was beyond Rainbow’s own perception. Unfortunately for her, when Applejack glanced back to her as though to investigate this accusation, being put on the spot in such a fashion made the pegasus feel as though a very powerful spotlight had just centered upon her. Whether Spitfire’s accusations held any truth to it or not, the sudden sense of awkwardness and undesired attention triggered a sheepish grin and a rising fluster, which only painted her in a guilty shade of red.

“I...I don’t believe that,” Applejack replied.

Rainbow felt her confidence in Applejack’s support begin to waver. Could Spitfire have figured Rainbow Dash’s motives out? It was a possibility as Spitfire was as perceptive in the real world as she was on the flight circuit. There wasn’t much difference between noticing a flight formation out of place and noticing a pony’s sideways glance when they thought nobody was looking. On top of that, Applejack had likely told her girlfriend about how Rainbow Dash lured her out to the auction block. From that it went to the logical conclusion that Rainbow Dash had never intended Spitfire and Applejack to get together. There were more than enough pieces for Spitfire to have put the puzzle together, and it became apparent that the argument was tumbling in a direction that Rainbow did not want it to go. To run would only confirm anything that Spitfire accused her of, but to stay meant risking a confrontation with the truth that she was not prepared for. Stepping up to her own defense was just as dangerous as it could provoke even more uncomfortable truths from Spitfire.

“She’s probably been trying to steal you away from the beginning.”

“That’s just nonsense - she set the date up in the first place.”

“You actually believe that? You want to know the truth, Applejack? The truth is-”

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash could see this disaster ready to explode in her face. Not matter what happened, the next few moments were going to be ugly and they were going to be messy. But if Applejack was going to hear the truth, then she was going to hear it from the pony responsible for it - she deserved at least that much. Rainbow Dash could feel her heart pounding out of control in her chest as though it were trying to make a break for freedom, which was a sentiment that she shared. However, as everypony began to stare at her, Rainbow felt her confidence take a nose-dive in the shallow end. Her body tensed; her words became a train-wreck in her throat.

But just when Rainbow thought fear had tightened its noose around her, Applejack gave her a gentle nudge upon the shoulder. “What is it, Rainbow?” she whispered.

“She’s right.” Rainbow managed to eek out. “I...I arranged the whole auction thing cause...because I wanted to go on a date with you. I thought if I could just wow you from the start, it would help make sure that you’d say yes.” Her gaze, once glued to a discoloured tile on the ground between her hooves, slowly lifted up to meet Applejack’s. “But then Spitfire showed up and my plan all came apart. I never thought for a second that she would see the same wonderful and amazing pony that I do. I was so certain it’d be a one-time thing. . That’s why I gave you that advice before the first date, and why I didn’t tell you about Rarity’s offer, and why I made it rain on your farm, and why I didn’t want to come with you to Manehattan!”

“Rainbow...” Applejack murmured as she tried to keep eye contact with the pegasus. “Ah...Ah thought you were mah friend. How...how could you do all that behind mah back?”

“Because...because...” Her confidence was wavering again and Rainbow was forced to fixate her gaze on that discoloured tile again just to keep from cracking. “Because I’m crazy about you Applejack. I feel alive when I’m with you...I miss you when you’re not around. I look forward to every second that I can spend with you. I even sleep in the orchard just so its easy for you to find me when you need to. I just...I just can’t get you outta my head.”

When Applejack tried to reach out for the pegasus, she backed away. Applejack deserved better than her, she told herself, and she didn’t deserved to be called a friend. Friends weren’t supposed to hurt each other so much, but that is all that Rainbow Dash has caused.

“But...but I didn’t come here to ‘steal’ anything,” she insisted despite her faltering courage making her voice sound weak. She could feel her eyes beginning to tear, which meant she had to finish what she wanted to say while her lungs could still give voice to them. “I came because I realized that...this is Applejack’s choice...and she chose Spitfire, and I had to accept just being her friend. But...but even that’s just hurt ponies more...so I’ll...I’ll just leave...before I make things worse.” And with that, the last of her resolve disappeared, leaving behind only an overwhelming urge to run away. She bolted for the door and didn’t look back.

Applejack prepared to give chase, but stopped short of the door when Spitfire called out to her.

“Where the hay are you going?”

“After mah friend,” Applejack snapped as she shot back a harsh glare. “Who, for your information, risked her life to save yours!”

As the farmer pony raced out the door in hopes of catching up to her friend, Spitfire was left in a jaw-hanging, confused silence. All she could think was how in the world did that situation just get thrown back into her face like that?

“Open your mouth wider, and you might be able to fit all your hooves,” Soarin’, who had remained silent during the entire ordeal, spoke up at long last. Normally such a verbal jab would have gone ignored, but the angered inflection that carried it brought a sense of dread to the Wonderbolt Captain. “Forgive my rudeness for asking this but what in the flapping feathers is wrong with you?”

The sheer volume and ferocity was almost unheard of from her longtime friend. The Wonderbolt Captain even recoiled in shock and surprise. At first, she didn’t know what had set off her friend like that, but it didn’t take very long for the realization of her own grievous sins to sink in. Once that happened, Spitfire knew that she was in for it.

“What’s the first rule of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire?”

It was a rhetorical question; she wrote the rules to begin with. But even though she knew the answer, she couldn’t bring herself to speak up.

“First rule, Spitfire! What is it?” Soarin’ was bordering on furious now. She had never seen him so angry before. It was almost frightening.

“L-leave personal baggage at the gate,” she stammered.

“Exactly! And what did you do?” More rhetorical questions, but if Soarin’ was hoping for an actual answer, the Wonderbolt Captain was too frightened to speak up. That didn’t matter to him, however, as he was more than happy to carry on. “Ten minutes, Spitfire...all I wanted, all we needed, was for you to focus on your flight for ten measly little minutes, but you couldn’t even do that. You couldn’t keep your head in the game for ten measly minutes! No! You were watching your girlfriend when you should have been watching where you were going!”

“I...I...I’m s-sorry. I didn’t th-think...”

“Of course you didn’t think! If you were thinking straight, you wouldn’t have crashed head-first into Fleet Foot.” Soarin’ was pacing around the bed now with a penetrating gaze that never once broke away from the Wonderbolt Captain. “And now Fleet Foot won’t be able to fly for at least a week. If we’re lucky, Rapid Fire will be well enough for the team event...assuming you can pull your head out of your own hindquarter long enough to think about the team rather than yourself for a moment!”

Spitfire fell deathly silent. He was right, and there was nothing she could use to argue against him. Were their positions reversed, she would be saying the exact same thing except probably a few decibels louder. In Spitfire’s mind, Soarin’ was justified in his anger and every right to bludgeon her into submission with the cold, harsh truth of reality. The Wonderbolt Captain, if she felt right calling herself that anymore, shrunk into her bed, almost as if cowering behind her sheets.

Seeing the impact his tirade had on his fellow Wonderbolt, Soarin’ decided for both of them to have some space. “The Wonderbolts are not about the individual, it’s about the team,” Soarin’ reminded his friend as he headed for the exit. “And the Captain is supposed to exemplify that quality. If you can’t get your head on straight and do your job...then the Wonderbolts will have to find somepony who can.”

Soarin’ could still feel the after-effects of his angry tirade as he stepped out into the Manehattan streets. His hooves still trembled and his heart was still pacing from the adrenaline rush. He felt awful. He didn’t regret anything that he said, but that didn’t change the fact that he hated himself for having to be the one to say it. If he were still conscious, Soarin’ would have been more than happy to let Rapid Fire tear into the Captain, but that wasn’t an option. Besides, as the number two on the team and Spitfire’s closest friend, it was his responsibility and his duty. A part of him blamed himself - he should have seen this coming or could have done something to keep it from blowing out of proportions as it had. All he could hope now was to be able to pick up the pieces and still have a Wonderbolts remaining when the dust settled.

It was already morning and he had yet to get any real sleep since the accident. Some rest was in order if he was going to get the rest of the team organized tomorrow, or technically later that day since it was likely past midnight by that point. However, on the way out of the hospital, he noticed a familiar pony sitting on a bench next to the road.

“Hey Applejack. I thought you were chasing after your friend,” Soarin’ commented as he approached the bench.

“Ah was,” she answered with a wistful sigh. “But she flew off.” Her attention was drawn away from the cloudy sky when the bench creaked under a new load. “Ah thought you’d be with Spitfire.”

“I kinda blew a fuse at her,” Soarin’, now sitting next to Applejack, said. “What a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, eh?”

“Amen to that,” Applejack said with a slow nod. “Ah can’t help but feel a bit responsible for all this.”

“Hey, none of this is your fault.” Soarin’ wasn’t used to reassuring ponies that weren’t part of the team or, at the very least, a pegasus, but he tried what he could. He didn’t know much about Applejack other than the delicious pies she made, but he did know Spitfire. “You can’t control what a pony feels for you or how they’ll react to those feelings.”

“Ah know, Ah know.” The pegasus’ reassurance did little to console Applejack. It didn’t change the fact that she was at the centre of his mess.

“I know this isn’t necessarily my business but...I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t look or sound too surprised when Rainbow told you how she felt.”

“W-what? Yes Ah was! Shock of mah life, it was. And Ah don’t like what yer trying to imply!”

Soarin’ chuckled at the earth pony’s reaction. The adage of ‘she doth protest too much’ came to mind. She appeared to be more surprised by his remark than she had been in the aforementioned situation.

“Spitfire’s not the only pegasus with keen eyes,” Soarin’ said while keeping his tone calm and polite. “Can you really look me in the eyes and tell me you that you had absolutely no idea what your friend felt?”

Applejack couldn’t even do the first part. A sudden burden of shame dragged her gaze to the ground where she watched her hooves fidget against the bench wood. “Ah...Ah had a bit of an inkling,” she admitted after a prolonged silence. “Ah mean...Ah thought she might’ve, but Ah always just kept telling mahself that she’d never be interested in a borin’ old farmer. When Ah thought she had set up this fancy date with Spitfire, Ah forgot all about it; figured Ah was just imagining things.” Perhaps if she had said something to Rainbow sooner or pressed her friend harder for the truth, she could have resolved this problem before it exploded like it had. “Ah wanted to talk to her about it, but Ah was scared what might happen if Ah was wrong and just made a fool of mahself...or worse, if Ah was right.”

“And so you just kept quiet and hoped things didn’t change,” Soarin’ added. It was a rhetorical statement but that didn’t stop Applejack from nodding in affirmation. “Well can’t really blame you for that. Everypony finds comfort in the familiar. Change scares a lot of pony, especially when it could potentially change something that you’ve learned to rely upon for so long. You....me...even Spitfire, we all just reach for things that remind us when of times passed and the comfort those memories bring.”

Both ponies fell silent for a while, reflecting on the words spoken while watching the world pass them by. Everypony else seemed so carefree and relaxed. Both would have done anything for a chance to gain just a small piece of that sense of tranquility, if even for a moment.

“What should Ah do?” Applejack said.

“I’m not sure I’m the pony you should be asking that,” Soarin’ replied even though he was almost certain that it had been a rhetorical question. “When I was forced to choose between the unknown and the familiar, I chickened out and stayed where I was comfortable.”

“What happened between you and Spitfire?”

“Oh, you should just talk to Spitfire if you want that story,” Soarin’ deflected. “She’s better at telling it than I am.”

“Ah have, but Ah wanna hear it from you.” Spitfire had talked about stress and difficulty from other teammates but Applejack was willing to bet that the stallion had a much different perspective of the events. She didn’t expect Spitfire’s story to be a lie, but perhaps it had been shaded by the rose-tinted glasses of hindsight and perspective.

“We were, um...” Soarin’ tried to explain it as best he could, but realized that the short version would be inadequate. “The thing about Spitfire you have to understand is that she has one goal in mind: to be the best, to the exclusion of all else. To her, everything is a challenge that she aims to be the best at. Doesn’t matter what it is - best flier, best captain, best coordinator, best girlfriend, best lover.” The last few examples brought a warm fluster to both ponies as vivid memories came to mind.

“She definitely is passionate,” she agreed with a slow nod.

“Especially that thing she does with her tongue and your ear.”

“Eeyup.”

There was a brief lull as both ponies were dragged into the gentle embrace of nostalgia. Memories were like a warm blanket that comforted you from the cold, harshness of reality. It was easy for both ponies to get lost in their memories, particular the stallion and the vast repository of memories he had. However, he hadn’t finished answering Applejack’s question and he was soon drawn back to the real world.

“Anyways, as I was saying, Spitfire is a born achiever. You know what happened after your friend Rainbow Dash won the Best Young Flyer Competition? Spitfire went to the library and grabbed every book she could find on flight rescue. She then spent the next week writing out a hundred page manual on pegasus mid-air flight protocols.”

“That’s a bit excessive,” Applejack commented with a raised brow. She remembered the flight competition vividly, especially Rainbow Dash’s spectacular rescue of their friend and the Wonderbolts. She also remembered the endless days of practice that Rainbow Dash put in so that she could win that competition. It was hard to get Rainbow Dash committed to anything resembling work, but there were few ponies that Applejack would rather tackle a job with than the loyal pegasus.

The laugh that Soarin’ gave in response confirmed that she wasn’t the only pony who thought that. “A ‘bit’ excessive? See, that’s the thing with Spitfire - everything she does will be in excess. The Wonderbolts don’t even handle rescue operations, but she didn’t care. All that mattered to her was that she came across something that she couldn’t do so she went and mastered it. Then she made us master it. She would throw herself off a cloud at random just to keep us on our hooves.”

Most ponies would complain about being subjected to such unnecessary hardship, but Applejack noticed that Soarin’ was speaking praise of the Wonderbolt Captain rather than criticism. He must have been drawn to the same passion and dedication that drew Applejack to the fiery pegasus.

“When Spitfire became Captain, it was a dream come true for her,” Soarin’ continued as his tone took a more mournful turn. He slouched forward in his seat as his eyes lingered to the cityscape in the distance. “The Wonderbolts became her life to the exclusion of anything and everyone else. Eventually we were left with a choice - she could be my Captain, or my girlfriend, and she didn’t hesitate to choose Captain.”

“You two seem to be pretty good friends now, though.” That fact alone brought some comfort to Applejack. Things between her and Rainbow Dash might get tense, but it didn’t have to mean the end of their friendship. Maybe things could go back to the way they were before. It was a small hope, but it was all that Applejack had at the moment.

“Comfort in the familiar, remember?” Soarin’ reminded her followed by a heavy sigh. “Things were cold between us for a while, but we gradually began to miss the stuff that had made us friends in the first place. Time heals all wounds, they say, though we never do talk much about those days anymore. Not much point in it, I guess.”

Most ponies would have been left bitter or resentful about such a break-up. She had to admire the fact that Soarin’ sounded as though neither sentiment had taken root. Perhaps like her, he couldn’t fault Spitfire for picking her career over romance. If Applejack were forced to choose between the farm and her heart, it was unlikely she would ever give up the farm. Sweet Apple Acres was her life just as much as the Wonderbolts was Spitfire’s. Soarin’s dedication to the team and their friendship reminded Applejack a great deal of Rainbow Dash’s loyalty.

“Do you still love her?” Applejack asked out of the blue as a thought crossed her mind.

Soarin’ just stared at her for a moment before getting up from his seat. “You should probably go talk to Spitfire. She’ll need some support,” he suggested.

He flew off without another word, leaving Applejack alone with her thoughts and feeling more uncertain than ever.

Ch. 15 - Anagnorisis

Alone and miles away from home was the worst place to be stuck with an emotional crisis. There were only about five ponies in the city that she knew; two were related to her, two just flew off, and one was sitting in a hospital. Soarin’ did have a point about talking to Spitfire and not just because it was the only course of action she had other than running off as well, which she could not do in good conscience. It would be an understatement to say that Applejack was upset with Spitfire for the pegasus’ conduct. The history of violent outbursts was known to the farmer, but she never imagined that it would be directed towards one of her friends. At the same time, she was still worried about the Wonderbolt Captain. Physically, Spitfire would be okay but her mental state was anypony’s guess. She couldn't, in good conscience, ignore a friend in need regardless of her current attitude towards them.

Applejack didn’t rush back to Spitfire, however. The contemplating pony took a slow route back to the Wonderbolt’s room and even stopped by the cafeteria to get something to eat. It gave her time to think and, more importantly, to cool down so that her first words to Spitfire weren’t yelled. Her conversation with Soarin’ was replaying in her mind. It shed some interesting perspectives on her relationship with the Wonderbolt Captain. It also resulted sowing some seeds of doubt in her mind; doubts that the farmer tried her best to ignore. It would be a lie to say that Applejack didn’t have her concerns about the relationship in the long-term, but until recently they had never been important enough to warrant bringing them up in conversation.

However, now was not the best time to bring those questions to light. Spitfire had enough on her plate and it had already been demonstrated what can happen when Spitfire flies distracted. Maybe after the competition, she could sit down with Spitfire and have a proper conversation about the future.

But was the future even worth discussing? Their relationship was barely out of its infancy. It was a time to be enjoying the time together rather than worrying about long-term viability...wasn’t it? She was still only getting a general idea of the kind of pony that Spitfire was - passionate, dedicated, quick-tempered, modest, and a perfectionist. They were all admirable traits to possess and they were what she wanted in a partner, but was that enough?

Sadly, by the time that Applejack left the cafeteria, she was still no closer to answers. No longer having to cope with hunger pains, she felt more assured that returning to Spitfire wouldn’t result in more flaring tempers. The disappointment she had felt earlier had been gradually overridden by worry - her girlfriend was in the hospital, battered and bruised both physically and emotionally. A part of her was even beginning to think that stopping to eat was a selfish act. Thankfully, having hooves acting quicker than her brain meant that she arrived at Spitfire’s room before she had much time to linger on the hypothetical transgression.

Applejack knocked a couple times before opening the door to poke her head in. The lights were on but there was no sign of the pegasus. Some of the monitoring equipment was still on and an IV line was dripping water on the floor. That kind of a mess wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by hospital staff for long so the errant pegasus should still be close by.

“Now where would she go...” Applejack pondered as she wandered back into the hallways. The first idea that came to mind was just to ponder where she would gone in Spitfire’s situation. That idea burnt out quickly when Applejack realized that she would have just stayed put. She then wondered what would Rainbow Dash do? Rainbow wouldn’t have stayed put; she would have gone to her friends to make sure they were okay.

Putting that theory to the test, Applejack made her way to where the other Wonderbolts were resting. A walk past Rapid Fire’s room revealed that he was still being tended to by the doctors. Most pegasi in Rapid Fire’s condition would have just had the feathers removed and the injuries treated, but the doctors were hoping to treat the injuries without compromising his ability to fly.

Applejack had more luck on her second try. When she arrived at Fleet Foot’s room, she saw the door had been left open. Keeping silent, she peered through the opening and saw Spitfire sitting next to her fellow Wonderbolt. They appeared to be talking but their voices were too low for Applejack to make out any words, and since she didn’t want to eavesdrop, she kept her distance. Judging from Spitfire’s sullen expression, it wasn’t a pep-talk. The Wonderbolt Captain rarely made eye contact with Fleet Foot; instead, her gaze wandered from the floor to the ceiling to the walls and everything in between. Fleet Foot, however, never once looked away from her Captain. There was a gentle smile on the bedridden pegasus, which in turn coaxed the faint traces of one out of Spitfire. When the conversation ended, it was Fleet Foot who reached out and gave the other a weak pat on the shoulder.

Since she didn’t want to give the impression that she had been spying on her girlfriend, Applejack knocked on the doorframe to get the occupants’ attention. Both pegasi were surprised at first, but for a brief moment Spitfire looked almost disappointed. Applejack wasn’t sure of what she saw because it lasted for less than a second and was covered up with an almost forced smile. This reaction confused the farmer. Was Spitfire not happy to see her? Or had she been hoping for someone else?

“Don’t worry about me, Fleet. Just focus on getting better, okay?” Spitfire said before she bid farewell to her teammate.

“Only if you hold up your end of the bargain,” Fleet replied with a quiet chuckle.

Applejack remained patient by the door, waiting until Spitfire had closed it after exiting before speaking up. “How is she?”

“She isn’t even angry.” Spitfire’s response was a bit confusing to Applejack at first since she had been inquiring about the Wonderbolt’s condition and not her mood. It took a few moments of staring at the Captain’s guilt-ridden eyes to realize what had transpired during the conversation. “I told her everything. I was...expecting to get yelled at too. I was hoping for it. But all she asked was how I was holding up. She should be mad. She has every right to be mad. I...I don’t get it...”

Applejack couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of someone wanting people to angry at her. Any sane pony would be relieved to see their bonds of camaraderie remain intact after an incident such as last night’s.

“Because that’s what being friends is about - forgiving and caring about one another,” Applejack tried to explain. Why Spitfire would need something so obvious pointed out to her was a mystery.

“I’m beginning to wonder if I deserve to be called their friend,” Spitfire said with a mournful sigh. “Things would be so much easier if they were all just angry at me.”

“This is the part where you explain how what yer saying makes a lick of sense.”

“If everyone was angry with me then it’d be easy to know what to do next,” Spitfire explained as she started trotting back towards her room.

Her movements were sluggish and lacked the methodical precision that Applejack was used to seeing. She figured the medication was probably just catching up on the pegasus.

“Whenever I’ve screwed up, it was always just a matter of identifying the root of the problem and fixing it, either by strengthening what was weak or eliminating vulnerabilities,” the weary Wonderbolt continued upon reaching her room. “Whenever we performed poorly in a competition, I would spend hours combing over footage and reports to find out what went wrong.”

One could consider this an admirable act, one worthy of applause, were it not for the sense of foreboding that accompanied the Wonderbolt’s words. Applejack didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but she didn’t like where the line of conversation was going. Still, she held her tongue while she helped Spitfire climb back into bed. The pegasus must have been more tired than either of them expected. Spitfire laid her head down and stared aimlessly at the wall. The fiery passion that once burned in her gaze seemed all but extinguished at this point.

“You’ll find a way past this, Spitfire,” Applejack reassured. She reached and gently ran a hoof through the other mare’s mane. It managed to elicit a faint flicker of a smile back.

“But...I’m not sure if I can this time,” Spitfire murmured as she crossed her hooves under her chin. “I went to Ponyville because I was tired of how every Hearts and Hooves Day ends for me. I was tired of always getting my hopes up...only to watch them go down in a blaze of fire and rage. I went to Ponyville to put my love life to pasture, so to speak.” The pegasus then rolled onto her back with a slight wince as the shift in position put pressure on one of her injuries. “Then I saw you up on that stage and I thought to myself, ‘there’s a pony who’s not afraid to take the risk.’”

Applejack wasn’t sure how anypony could have been given that impression considering her ‘frozen in the spotlight’ stare during the auction..

“I was certain that it was going to be another disaster like every other year but...I had to try, if only just once more,” Spitfire continued, still staring at the ceiling fan that spun overhead. “I was so wrong. Being with you reminded me what it was like to love again...to live again. I had forgotten what it was like to be crazy about somepony; to have them infecting your every thought and desire. But...it’s like flying too high in the sky - you get light-headed and you stop seeing things clearly.” The pegasus let out a frustrated groan as she pressed both hooves into her face. “I don’t know...I don’t know if I can do both. The Wonderbolts are everything to me - they’re my life. I can’t leave them any more than you could leave the farm. I want to be Spitfire, the greatest Wonderbolt that’s ever been.” Exhausted both mentally and physically, Spitfire let out a tired sigh and allowed both hooves to simply fall to her sides. “But I don’t want to lose you too. I don’t want to wind up alone with just memories and regrets again...”

It would have been easy to tell Spitfire that everything would be okay if she just hung in there, but Applejack had to concede to the grains of truth within the pegasus’ ramblings. The farmer knew that their divergent lifestyles would come into conflict sooner or later, but she had hoped for a less traumatic time to bring it up. Sweet Apple Acres was her home, like the Wonderbolt said, and there was no way that she could leave it for anypony. As she laid her head on the bed next to Spitfire, she wondered if it would be better if they stopped being together. She could see what a distraction she could be to the pegasus, and the consequences of said distractions. Spitfire was lucky to be able to walk away from this accident without major injury, but how many more crashes would it be before Spitfire wound up like her mother - a crippled, broken shell of a pegasus.

“Spitfire, dear,” Applejack began as she reached out for the pegasus’ hoof, “Ah can’t tell you what to do with yer life, but Ah want you to know that Ah will respect whatever decision you make. Just please promise me that you’ll do what’s right for you. Not for me; not for the Wonderbolts; not for anypony but yourself.”

Gradually, the pegasus’ head flopped over to look at Applejack once more with the same flicker of a smile returning to her lips. “This sounds really cliched but...I just want you to know - it’s not you, it’s me.”

It was refreshing to see that the situation hadn’t robbed the pegasus of her sense of humour. The two shared a quiet laugh. “So...you thinking of going back to finish the competition?”

“Of course,” Spitfire replied. The cocky grin she had lasted for a moment before the weight of last night’s events dragged her lips down. “I...don’t know how much good it’ll do but...I can’t give up now. I can’t abandon my team.”

“Ah wouldn’t expect any less from ya,” Applejack said. If anything, she was hoping that Spitfire wouldn’t let this setback destroy her entire confidence. That tenacity and determination was one of her best qualities.

“I just hope Soarin’ isn’t still angry with me when I get there,” the Wonderbolt sighed. “He’s always been there for me, you know? I’m not sure if I can do this without him.”

“He’ll be there - you’re still his Captain, after all.” Applejack leaned over and planted a small kiss on the pegasus’ forehead. “Best you rest up now. You’ll need your strength for tonight.”

“You’ll be there, right?”

“Ah promise...”

By the time that Applejack stumbled back to the hotel, she had gone almost twenty-four hours straight without a wink of sleep. Even though her mind was still plagued by worries and concerns, they were no match for the power of a soft pillow and a warm comforter. Faster than one could say ‘lights out’, the earth pony was out cold. A part of her didn’t want to go to sleep and would have rather resumed her search for her missing friend. But even the stubborn workhorse had to surrender to the demands of fatigue, lest she wander around the busy Manehattan streets in a sleep-deprived stupor.

Alas, sleep offered little refuge from her worries. All she could think about were the two pegasi that mattered so much to her now. Applejack loathed the idea of being stuck on the sidelines and waiting to see how events unfolded. The uncertainty combined with the waiting was stressing her out. Would she be able to build a long-lasting relationship with Spitfire given the Wonderbolt’s self-proclaimed difficulties in balancing life and work? Applejack’s own sense of work ethics deemed that the relationship was still young enough to be sacrificed without too much hardship upon either parties, but her sense of work ethics was also what led to her giving food poisoning to a quarter of Ponyville. She wanted what was best for Spitfire, but was afraid that the best choice might not include her.

And what of Rainbow Dash? There was no way that things weren’t going to be awkward between them. At the same time, Applejack knew if she didn’t do something then Rainbow was liable to avoid her altogether, or at least as much as possible. It would put a huge strain not only on their friendship but also their other friendships, too, as Twilight and the others could get dragged into the ordeal. What if the others blamed her for driving Rainbow away? It was bad enough having the prospect of losing her best friend, but the others too?

Applejack was stirred from her not-so-restful slumber by a loud knocking at the door. More used to ponies just knocking and barging in, it took Applejack a few moments to realize that she needed to get up to let the pony at the door in.

“Who in tarnation could that be?” she wondered as she stumbled out of bed. A quick glance at the clock revealed that it was late in the afternoon so at the very least she could say that this interruption served as a well-timed wake-up call. Only a few ponies knew where Applejack was staying while in Manehattan, and for a brief moment, the farmer allowed hope to flourish. Maybe Rainbow had come to her senses and returned?

Sadly, when she opened the door she was greeted by two unicorns.

“Twilight! Rarity! What are you two doing here?” Applejack’s confusion was not to be mistaken for ingratitude; she just didn’t expect to see any of her other friends so soon.

“We came as soon as we heard about the accident,” Twilight explained. She was the first to take the farmer into a tight embrace, which Applejack did not realize how much she needed until that moment. “Is Spitfire okay? Is anybody hurt?”

At the very least, she didn’t have to worry about being alone.

“Nothing too serious, thank goodness,” Applejack replied before stepping aside to allow her friends into the hotel room. “Spitfire is planning to stay in the competition, but a few of her teammates probably won’t be able to.”

“She’s going to keep flying after that big of a crash?” Twilight didn’t know much about the Wonderbolts beyond what she had picked up in the occasional sports almanac (which she had browsed on occasion in order to better understand some of Rainbow Dash’s conversations), but she got the impression that flying injured was not something to be taken lightly. An injured pegasus could further stress their injuries or risk an even worse crash. Twilight would have insisted that Spitfire sit out the competition, but if the Wonderbolt was even half as stubborn as another high-flying pegasus she knew, it would have been pointless to even try. Speaking of which...

“Where is Rainbow Dash?” Rarity chimed in when she noted the peculiar absence of the aforementioned pegasus.

“It’s...complicated,” Applejack explained as her head dropped to below her shoulders. It wasn’t a subject she wanted to get Twilight and Rarity involved with, but it was unavoidable. It was better that Applejack got her side of the story in first. Both unicorns could see the gravity of the situation in their friend’s posture, and gave Applejack their undivided attention as she explained what happened during the competition and afterwards in the hospital. Both were left speechless by the account; their uncertainty and confusion were evident as their expressions flickered between confusion, disappointment, surprise, and amazement. Twilight lingered more on surprise and confusion, while Rarity looked far more disappointed and began to fidget uncomfortably. At the end of the explanation, a tense silence swept through the room as the three ponies looked to each other for words of comfort or reassurance.

Twilight was the first to speak up. “I...can’t believe Rainbow Dash would do that. I mean, know she can be impulsives at time...but that seemed a bit extreme even for her.”

“I can’t imagine what she was thinking.” Rarity was quick to agree with her friend’s comment.

“She probably wasn’t,” Twilight said. She was still just trying to wrap her head around the whole idea of bachelor auctions and date sabotaging. “Just seems so strange that Rainbow would have kept this from Applejack...from all of us even. We could’ve helped her.”

The last remark caused Rarity to freeze on the spot, which, sadly, did not go unnoticed by her two friends. Her heart began to race as two penetrating gazes set upon her that felt as though they were piercing into the very essence of her being. They were staring...scrutinizing her...judging her...

“Um...Rarity?”

“Okay, I confess! I knew all along!” Rarity’s outburst caught Twilight, who had merely been curious as to why her friend looked as though a bee had just landed on her back, by surprise.

“You knew what Rainbow was up to?” Applejack was less surprised by nonetheless distraught that more of her friends played a potential part in the entire ordeal.

“I stumbled across Rainbow Dash when she was at the auction,” Rarity explained. She decided it was easier to explain her part in the fiasco from the very start so that Applejack understood why she did what she did. “At the time, all I saw was her making a bid for you, so I tried to help her win the auction. It wasn’t until after Spitfire won the auction that Rainbow explained herself. I told her that the right thing to do was to be supportive and happy for you...but I suppose it was a bit foolish of me to think that Rainhow would have left well enough alone.”

Nopony, including Applejack, could blame Rarity for what happened.

“So that’s why you insisted on taking the extra ticket to Rainbow,” Applejack commented. At the time, it had struck the farmer as odd that Rarity was so certain that she could clear up Rainbow Dash’s ‘scheduling issues.’ It was likely less of a rescheduling and more of a stern lecturing.

“I’m sorry...I should’ve done more,” Rarity apologized nonetheless. “If I had known Rainbow Dash was going to act so foolish, I would have come to you sooner.”

“Don’t blame yourself Rarity,” Twilight offered her reassurances. She knew from experience the kind of trouble keeping secrets could result in, but at the same time keeping the trust of your friends was often just as important. “I’m sure you did everything you could.”

“I tried to help Rainbow, I really did,” the other unicorn insisted. “I figured it was just a passing infatuation...that she would get over it eventually.”

“Y’ain’t the only one who thought that,” Applejack sighed in resignation. She trotted over to the nearby window, resting her chin on the ledge as she gazed to the cloudy skies. “And now she’s out there...all alone and heartbroken...” Rarity and Twilight were quick to move to flank the earth pony, offering a hug of support to their friend. Neither of them wanted Applejack to hold herself responsible to any degree for what happened.

“Then you shouldn’t be sitting around here,” Twilight insisted as she tried to lead the other mare away from the window. “You should be out there - looking for her! And we’ll help you search, too. We’ll scour the whole city if we have to.”

However, much to the unicorn’s surprise, Applejack broke away from the guiding hoof and stepped back from the door. “Ah can’t,” she said. “Spitfire needs me. Ah promised her that Ah would be at the competitions tonight.” A part of her regretted making that promise even though it was the right thing to do at the time. How could doing the right thing still make a pony feel so miserable? Was it even the right thing to do?

“But...Rainbow Dash is your friend. How coul-” Twilight’s words were interrupted by the white hoof shoved over her mouth by her fellow unicorn.

“It’s okay, Applejack,” Rarity reassured her, much to everyone else’s surprise. “It was Rainbow Dash’s decisions that put you into this position...you do not owe her anything by giving chase.” As callous as it sounded, the truth of Rarity’s words rang through. “You go to Spitfire...Twilight and I will go look for Rainbow Dash and...try to convince her to speak to you.”

“Y’all would do that for me?” For a brief moment, the farmer found herself feeling a bit hopeful for the future. When her friends nodded in response, Applejack threw her hooves around them both and hugged them tightly. “Ah can’t thank you two enough.”

“It’s the least we could do,” Twilight replied as she returned the embrace in kind.

“This is as much for Rainbow Dash as it is for you. This mess has gone on long enough. It needs to be addressed for everyone’s sake,” Rarity added. “And I, for one, don’t want to see Rainbow Dash carrying this guilt on her shoulders, regretting her mistakes for the rest of her life, and making wild, desperate attempts to cling to something or someone that reminds her of what she missed.”

“But I don’t want to lose you too. I don’t want to wind up alone with just memories and regrets again...”

Rarity’s sentiments triggered a few choice words to flash through Applejack’s mind. There was nothing like regret to make a pony do crazy things.

“What...did you just say?” Applejack asked.

“I was just saying that Rainbow Dash needs closure as much as you will,” Rarity explained herself as she pulled back from the prior embrace. “Regret is a terrible thing to carry with you.”

“Do you still love her?”

“You should probably go talk to Spitfire. She’ll need some support.”

Regret...it seemed like everyone was carrying a bit of that with them, and were coping with it in different ways. However, at that moment the lights flicked on in Applejack’s mind. “Regret...of course. Why didn’t Ah realize that sooner?” the farmed muttered to herself.

“Um...realize what sooner?” an understandably confused Twilight said.

“The truth,” Applejack said with a cryptic answer that did little to alleviate the confusion.

Bewilderment turned to concern when Applejack started towards the door. “Where are you going?” Twilight called out.

“To fix this since nopony else seems willing to do so!” Alas, if Twilight was hoping for a more definitive answer then she was going to be disappointed as the farmer galloped out of the room without another word.

Spitfire was still feeling uncertain of herself, both as a flier and a leader, when she arrived in the locker rooms. The Wonderbolt was still nursing her bruised ego and her exhaustion had resulted in her sleeping longer than she had intended. When she arrived at the arena, she estimated she had under an hour to get ready before the competitions began. For the first time in her career, she was tempted to just leave and let her team forfeit their participation. However, not only was such an act against every moral fibre in her being, it would also sign the death warrant of her reign as Captain of the Wonderbolts.

“Captain! You made it!” High Winds was the first to spot their arriving Captain.

Spitfire was surprised that her teammate sounded more relieved to see her rather than the scornful contempt she had been expecting. Maybe Applejack was right...maybe her teammates were more forgiving of her than she had given them credit for. However, that counted for little if the Captain couldn’t forgive herself, or, just as importantly, if Soarin’ hadn’t either.

"We were so worried that you weren't going to show up," Misty, another member of the team, added after being drawn over by the noise.

"Yes...well, the reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," Spitfire offered a joke as reassurance. There was still no sign of Soarin', which worried the Captain. Numbers aside, Spitfire couldn't shake the mental image of her best friend yelling at her. She needed to make things right with him before the competitions started or it would be another thing distracting her. She couldn't risk flying distracted again and, if anything, this was troubling her even worse than her prior paranoia. "So...High Winds, you all set? I know we haven't flown together much but I doubt I can fly my fastest in this state so you shouldn't have trouble keeping pace."

The two Wonderbolt underlings began to eye each other with uncertainty and apprehension. Spitfire could tell something was up that the other two weren't certain about whether to tell the Captain or not. Had Rapid Fire made enough of a recovery to fly? And if so, did that mean Soarin' had her cut from the lineup for the upcoming event? Cut from the line-up by her own assistant captain! It was like mutiny only that she had to live with the shame of it for the rest of her professional career. It would be the first step towards Soarin' replacing her as team Captain.

“Spitfire!” Never before had the Wonderbolt Captain been so relieved and yet so terrified to hear her friend's voice. Soarin' didn't sound angry but it was firm and he possessed the restraint to keep his temper in check in front of the rest of the team. “We need to talk,” he said, nay, demanded, as he motioned for her to follow him.

The Wonderbolt Captain felt like a filly that had just been summoned by their parents for summary grounding. But in front of her fellow Wonderbolts,she knew she couldn't allow her fear to show. Straightening her posture, the proceeded after her cohort.

“How are you feeling?” Soarin's question sounded like genuine concern but Spitfire knew that he was just putting her at ease. He was just trying to lull her into a fall sense of security before he delivered the coup d'etat.

“I'm feeling much better now,” Spitfire replied with an intentionally terse answer. She didn't want him to get a sense of how she was actually feeling. She knew she was doomed if he got a sense of her worry or insecurity.

“Good...good,” Soarin' said as though preoccupied with other thoughts. Spitfire knew he was just biding his time. He was waiting for the right time to strike like a cat stalking its prey. Whatever he had planned, he was going to be delivering it soon, and Spitfire was not going to be caught unprepared. If he thought he could brush her aside then he was going to have to pry that title from her cold, dead hooves. "We should fly together."

“Like hay I'm just going to-wait...what did you just say?”

Spitfire's premature retaliation had not caught the other Wonderbolt unprepared, who continued undaunted, “You heard me. Last night's disaster has put our team behind by a lot so we need to step it up if we're going to have any chance of getting a podium finish.”

"But...we haven't flown together in years," Spitfire replied as she tried to understand her teammate's reasoning. "I mean, we stopped because we agreed that it just wasn't working for us...the sky dance, I mean."

“Well things have changed between us since then,” Soarin' said. He could see that his Captain was still having trouble meeting his gaze, which meant she was hesitant to the idea. “Listen Spitfire, I know you feel bad about yesterday, but it's in the past now. We have to focus on what we can change now, and that means the Wonderbolts have to perform better than ever. And let's be honest, we were great together...flying, that is.”

“Yeah, we were,” Spitfire answered in a barely audible mumble. There was a grain of truth to Soarin's words. In paired sky dances, they were unbeatable and that was what was going to be needed if the Wonderbolts were to have any hope of getting back onto the leaderboard. “But it's been so long...”

“Come on, Spitfire, just think of it as another challenge,” Soarin' said as he outstretched a hoof to her. “Another insane, outrageous, and one-in-a-million chance to work plan, just the way you like them. Unless you'd rather go back to your hotel room and sleep...Dirtnap.”

The Wonderbolt Captain was caught off-guard by the sudden usage of her foalhood nickname. She could see what Soarin’ was doing - he was trying to goad her agreeing to this insane plan bringing up their old rivalry and insulting her pride. Despite seeing through his little scheme, it nonetheless worked like a charm.

“Let’s light up the sky!”

“Fillies and gentlecolts, it is my great honour to introduce to you, flying as a pair for the first time in over five years, Spitfire and Soarin’ of the Wonderbolts!”

By the time the announcer finished his introduction, the cheering from the stadium had all but drowned out his voice. Thousands of hooves stomping together, united in purpose and action, blending into one spectacular roar that shook both Wonderbolts to their bones. As the pair trotted onto the field, Spitfire’s gaze drifted over to the charred patches of grass that had yet to be cleaned up. A part of her couldn’t help but feel nervous. A paired sky dance, especially theirs, was all about precision and timing; two souls flying together as one. Did she still have it in her? Did he? If there had been a moment to back out, Spitfire had walked passed it a long time ago.

“You all set, Captain?” Even though he was yelling, Soarin’s voice was barely a whisper in her ear like the nagging doubts that lingered in her mind.

“I don’t know,” she admitted in a rare moment of showtime humility. “If I said ‘no,’ could I leave?”

“And stand me up in front of everypony? I don’t think my heart could take that kind of embarrassment.” Leave it to Soarin’ to stop taking things seriously when it mattered the most. However, the small laugh that his joke brought forth was enough to keep the Captain’s nerves from flaring up. “Just...trust your instincts.”

“It’s not my instincts I’m worried about,” Spitfire mused as she broke into a gallop across the field. “It’s yours. Now catch me if you can!”

In the old days, Spitfire would always remind herself of the words her former captain told her when he made the bold decision to field two rookie Wonderbolts in a do-or-die moment of the tournament. He told them to fly liked they loved each and then make the whole world believe in that love. As she glanced over her shoulder, seeing her partner giving chase, she wondered if there was still enough power left in those old memories to see her through. There was only one way to find out and thus the Wonderbolt Captain took to the air.

Thankfully, wind rushing through one’s mane had a way of helping to clear the mind. Her worries began to fade as she focused on her routine, twisting and diving through the sky in an intricate series of displays. The early part of their routine was almost like a solo routine except with the two of them taking turns in the spotlight. Their motions were bold, intentionally exaggerated, and flamboyant. Like two birds in courtship, the pegasi danced through the sky in a celebration of love and desire.

“What’s the matter Soarin’? Losing your touch?” Spitfire teased. “Or are you just enjoying the view a little too much?”

“A little of column A...a little of column B,” he laughed in response. Falling behind was a part of the routine, of course. As Soarin’s ‘interest’ waned, the Captain doubled back, sweeping past and around her partner so tightly that her feathers brushed through his mane. With the mare’s graceful allure tugging at his heart, the stallion surged forward with renewed vigor.

Spitfire was almost thrown off-course as her partner rushed past her with all the fury of a shooting star. Most of their flights together were done with the rest of the team, which meant tight formations and controlled motions. The paired routine offered Soarin’ a chance to stretch his wings, as it were, and show Spitfire the kind of stallion he was. He spiralled through the air, showboating like the headstrong braggart that she knew him to be. Though the loop-de-loops and flourished dives were meant to captivate the crowd, they had a similar effect on her. The Wonderbolt Captain was soon twirling through the sky alongside her partner.

“Come on, Cap’n, let’s show these ponyfolk what flying is really about,” a jubilant Soarin’ jived as he took his partner in hoof.

The pair went into a Falling Helix, diving in a corkscrew pattern towards the ponies in the stands. They pulled up into a spiral so tight the two ponies were back-to-back as they rushed overhead of the crowds. While it seemed like coordination was key at this moment, it was, in truth, compromise. The two did not spiral together so much as Spitfire pushed her partner along. Traveling at such speeds it was impossible for the crowds to tell that he merely followed her lead. And after a few moments, they switched roles and it was Soarin’ who guided his partner along. Like any good partnership, give and take was required.

Spitfire had worried that lack of practice would have taken a toll on both of them, but flying together appeared to be like slipping on an old flightsuit. It may have not been as pretty or as fanciful as the new ones, as evident when the two pegasi nearly bumped heads when they broke from their formation, but the familiar comfort and the memories made it seem as though it had only been yesterday since they had taken to the sky as partners.

“Race ya to the center!” Spitfire called out as the two ponies split in opposite directions. Unleashing their trademark storm cloud contrail, the two pegasi began to fly in loops above the center of the arena. They began to spiral inwards and their contrail soon coalesced into a billowing storm cloud. There was no need to spur her teammate on, but the banter gave her a sense of control and aided her focus.

A thunderclap silenced the entire arena. Like the static building in the air, the crowd could sense the growing tension. Neither pegasi slowed down as they closed in. The arena drew in a collective gasp when they collided. It was a mock collision, of course, but given the events of the prior night even a staged one held a hint of real danger.

Passion and teamwork turned into mock calamity as the two pegasi began to spiral towards the earth. At first, their hooked hooves kept them falling together, but Spitfire soon slipped free and began a terrifying flat spin. It was a bad situation for any pegasus to be in, even when it was part of a performance. Trust was the only thing that kept the Wonderbolt Captain from correcting her tumble.

“Any time now...”

Any other pegasus might have considered such a stunt to be far too dangerous; that to risk a free-fall even for the sake of a performance was beyond sensibility. Even if she did try to recover, there was a chance she wouldn’t regain control in time to avoid another crash. But that was the point of the manoeuvre; to place all her trust in her partner. Yet even that trust had its limits and for a brief instant, Spitfire wondered if she was going to be waking up in a hospital room again.

That concern, however, proved to be fleeting. Just as the pegasus neared the point of no return, her fellow Wonderbolt came swooping from below. Powerful, sturdy hooves wrapped around Spitfire’s frame as the pair rocketed back into the sky.

“Sorry I was a teensy bit late,” Soarin’ said.

“I wasn’t worried for a second.” It was two seconds. She closed her eyes and spread her hooves out, clearing her mind until all that registered was the wind rushing past her and the cheering crowd below. These were the moments that she trained and sacrificed so much for.

The symphony below began to fade from her ears as the pair climbed higher and higher. They pierced through the storm cloud and were soon alone in the moonlit sky above the arena. All she could hear was the calm, steady breaths of the stallion behind her.

“They’re beautiful...aren’t they?” Spitfire said as she gazed to the star-filled sky. Up high above the city, there was nothing but serenity. Surrounded by clear skies in all direction with not even gravity forcing her in a direction; nothing but her own will could move her. This was absolute freedom. The only thing that ruined that perfect moment was the realization that it was a moment she could never share with Applejack. She would never be able to experience this moment as Spitfire did. Could she ever understand the passion that burned in her heart and pushed her to the sky?

“Come on, Captain...show’s not over yet.”

Spitfire almost felt disheartened to turn back now, but she did have a job to finish and teammates in the hospital counting on her.

Hooking her forehoof around her partner’s, Spitfire flashed him a quick wink, “Ready when you are.”

The pair fell into a dive once more, hurtling towards the cloud at high velocity. Just moments before hitting the stormcloud, the two straightened their wings and shifted their position, shaping the displaced air around them.

The chorus of stomping hooves and joyous cheers erupted from the stands when the pair punched through the storm cloud. The once shadow-shrouded arena was once more illuminated by the moonlight, which now shone through the heart-shaped hole left by the pair.

With their dance concluded, the two now weary Wonderbolts touched down on the field.

“Just...just like old times,” Soarin’ said between heavy breaths. The two pulled off their goggles and took notice of the static that had built up in their manes. Their normally wind-swept manes were a jagged, disheveled mess as though their entire head of hair was in revolt. Both ponies just had a laugh at their own expense. But the laughter came to a halt as they cast their eyes up to the scoreboard and awaited the final tabulation from the judges.

“Come on...come on...” Spitfire muttered under her breath. With the adrenaline still pumping through her arteries, Spitfire found herself tensing up tighter than the ropes on a yoke. In her nervousness, she turned to the only source of security and comfort nearby, and she was soon clasping around the frame of her flight partner. If Soarin’ noticed, he did not appear to mind, nor did he react as the mare’s grip tightened with each score appearing on the board. it wasn’t until the fifth and final score appeared did both Wonderbolts breath a collective sigh of relief.

A final forty-eight point seven out of fifty.

It wasn’t the flawless score they had when they first flew a paired sky dance but it was enough to keep the Wonderbolts alive in the competition.

“We did it!” Spitfire exclaimed as her clasped hooves became a joyful embrace. Swept up in her emotions, the Wonderbolt Captain planted an elated kiss right on her partner’s lips.

Now she most assuredly had the stallion’s attention. But as the two exchanged shocked and flustered stares, Spitfire felt only one thing in her heart. It was the same burning joy that she remembered from all the years through her life. It was the flames that spurred her to make a crazy, daredevil bet in flight camp; it was the heat that kept her spirit warm during the cold nights when defeat had sapped her strength; it was the torch that kept guiding her to push further and harder than the day before. The burning desire of her soul was visible through her eyes. There was only one thing her heart desired, and she was looking at him. With another thought, Spitfire ensnared his lips in another kiss.

She held onto the embrace until approaching hoofsteps and an ‘ahem’ from a familiar source snapped her attention back to reality.

“A-Applejack!” Spitfire gasped, jerking away from her partner when she saw the farmer standing on the field. Rocked by a surge of anxiety, Spitfire tried to put the metaphorical fire out before it burned away everything. “I can explain! I-it’s not what it looks like!”

However, rather than yelling or stomping or raging at the glaringly obvious infidelity, Applejack only smiled as she shot a quick glance over to Soarin’.

“Really? Cause Ah was hoping it was exactly what it looked like,” Applejack said.

For the second time that night, Spitfire was left in a momentary silence when her expectation of a fight was met with the exact opposite. As the shock wore off, she began to notice how neither Soarin’ nor Applejack seemed too surprised. Then the realization hit her...

“You put him up to this, didn’t you?” Spitfire exclaimed.

“Well it wasn’t that hard,” Applejack replied with her usual modesty. “Soarin’ already had the idea of asking you to fly with him, but he was worried you wouldn’t be up for it. Ah just helped convince him that it was the best chance for the Wonderbolts.”

“You set me up?” Though sorrow and anger were competing at this act of apparent betrayal, anger was the only emotion that Spitfire would allow to surface. “You...tricked me!”

“Ah did what Ah had to do!” Applejack quickly snapped back. Though the farmer wasn’t being aggressive, she responded to the pegasus’ anger with a firm, resolute tone. “Now if y’all hadn’t noticed, Ah’ve been having to deal with nothing but lies and deceit for a while now. The two ponies Ah care most about couldn’t tell me the truth because they were too scared of what might come if it were known. Well Ah have had enough!” Whether it was the pegasus’ exhaustion or Applejack’s resolve, or a combination of both, when the farmer stomped her hoof down, the Wonderbolt Captain fell silent. “The truth will always set you free. That starts here and now with you two.”

“Y-you can’t be serious,” Spitfire stammered in her bewilderment. “You mean you wanted me to kiss Soarin’?”

“What Ah wanted was the truth,” Applejack reiterated as she stepped towards the two pegasi. “Ah’ve seen the way the two of you look to each other for support and guidance. Ah’ve listened to you both talk about the other with remorse and admiration. And Ah can only guess how stubborn the two of you can be. Ah didn’t know what it all meant so that’s why Ah encouraged Soarin’ to go through with his idea. What we all saw tonight was the kind of flying that few others could ever even dream of - of two ponies flying as one. The only ponies who couldn’t see how much love and commitment went into that performance are the ones standing in front of me.”

The confusion in her heart only grew worse as Applejack spoke. Spitfire looked between the two ponies with her. Was it really as simple as the plain-speaking countrypony made it seem?

“It’s high time the two of you stopped hiding from the truth,” Applejack encouraged as her tone softened to its former self. “Now Ah ain’t letting either of you leave until you start being one hundred percent honest with each other. And Ah will break out the rope if need be.”

Thankfully, it was a threat that Applejack would not need to carry out as the two Wonderbolts turned to face each other. Both looked as though they still had their own apprehensions, but all it took was one pony to make the first step.

“Spitfire, I-”

“Wait! Please...let me go first.” She may have been hesitant to admit the truth but she wasn’t going to let her best friend expose himself to pain and embarrassment. If there was going to be a risk of heartache, she was going to be the one to take it. Despite the growing tightness in her throat, the pegasus pressed on. “When we broke up, I was so angry at you. I made it my mission to prove you wrong; to show you that I could find happiness and glory without you. Even as the years passed, I refused to admit defeat. I kept telling myself that the next time would be different” She had hoped it would get easier the more she said, but her eyes started to feel weighed down and her gaze fell to the grass between her hooves. “I never realized that all that glory and all that happiness wasn’t because of what I had accomplished. It was because I shared those moments with you. My victories were your victories; and your victories were mine.” She regretted taking her goggles off as they made her tear-filled eyes plain to see. Keeping her gaze averted seemed like the easiest solution, even though she knew that that Soarin’ would see right through it. “I took you for granted and then threw you out when I thought I didn’t need you anymore. Letting you go was the worst mistake of my life. But...you deserve so much better than me...and I certainly don’t deserve forgiveness...”

The whole situation would have felt a lot less awkward if she weren’t confessing her feelings in front of several thousand ponies. While what she said could not be heard beyond a few feet, her body language broadcasted the message of the conversation to everyone with an unobstructed view of the pair. But she wasn’t scared of the crowds knowing what she felt. The only thing that frightened her was the silence that followed her confessions. She didn’t want to look up just in case the sight turned out to be Soarin’s departing backside, but she was forced to when a hoof under her chin lifted her eyes back up.

“Love isn’t about who deserves what,” Soarin’ said. “It’s about choice...and commitment. You weren’t the only pony that wanted to prove they could make it on their own. I was so sure that I was right and that you would knock on my door in the middle of the night begging for forgiveness. But when that never happened, I thought maybe that I was wrong...and that you really didn’t need me anymore. But being the fool I am, I couldn’t let you go...so I stayed with the team and rebuilt our friendship. I never stopped loving you Spitfire...but I had convinced myself that I had burned the bridge behind me.” Soarin’ might not have been on the verge of tears like Spitfire had been during her confession, but the weight of his guilt was evident in his tone and heavy sighs. “I never gave up on you but...I was always too scared to try again, to fail again...”

“Can you ever forgive me?”

Soarin’ only smiled as he embraced his fellow pegasus, wrapping his hooves around her and drawing her in. Her head rested against his chest just below his chin where she could feel his warmth and hear the beating of his heart. “I already have,” he whispered before kissing the top of her head. “I’ll never give up on your, Spitfire. I always have and always will be by your side.”

As tempting as it was to give into the emotional tide and embrace the stallion in another kiss, Spitfire could not forget the other pony present. After breaking from Soarin’s embrace, she turned to Applejack. She worried that the farmer would be heartbroken, but instead she found a smiling, tearful pony.

“Applejack I’m...sorry but-”

“Don’t be,” Applejack insisted. “You said yourself you didn’t want to be stuck with regrets. How could I be happy knowing I wound up being the one keeping you from the one pony you wanted most of all? How could I stand in the way of that kind of love, hm?”

“Heh...so I guess that means you’re breaking up with me,” Spitfire said with a half-choked chuckle.

“Ah’m setting you free.”

“I can’t thank you enough.” It felt like a fleeting gesture, but nonetheless the pegasus threw her hooves around her erstwhile girlfriend and squeezed as hard as she could. She knew the sturdy workpony could withstand far more than anything she could inflict. “You have got to be the best...and the worst girlfriend a pony could ask for!”

“Well Ah ain’t ever claim to be good at this relationship stuff,” Applejack said as she tried to hide the red tinting her cheeks.

“Oh, I could kiss you right now!”

“Hey...if, um...you two want to, I totally have no objections.”

“Way to kill the moment, Soarin’,” Spitfire deadpanned.

Though Applejack had a little laugh, she didn’t indulge in the stallion’s request. It was tempting but she didn’t want to make a spectacle in front of so many ponies. “Ah don’t suppose Ah could ask the two of you for a small favour. There’s a certain wayward pegasus that Ah need to find...”

Ch. 16 - The Good, the Bad, and the Daring

"Hey Daring, pass me the wire cutters will ya?"

"You sure you're okay handling explosives, doc?" Daring replied as she fetched the desired tool from her belt. The archaeologist and town doctor were still hard at work setting up the bundles of TNT that Daring had procured from the general store. Tenderhoof was high above the ground in the scaffolding of the town's water tower while Daring had been serving as the go-between for tools and supplies. Normally Daring would have handled the laying of high explosives herself but with so many ambush points needing to be set, she had to keep over-watch of her small army of volunteers.

Thanks to said volunteers and Daring’s experience with controlled explosives, they were able to wire up a substantial portion of the town in relatively short order.

"Trust me, Miss Do, when you can pluck porcupine quills from the backside of a quaking filly, wiring up explosives is a stroll down easy street." The jovial laugh that followed helped to put Daring's mind at ease, at least with regards to the bombs. They were wiring up the water tower as a precaution as Daring figured that the large volume of water stored within could be used as a screen should they need to make a hasty retreat. It was a last resort, however, since she didn't want to leave the town without access to fresh water. "You mind if I ask you a quick question about you and yer friend?"

"Uh...s-sure, what did you want to ask?" If anything, Daring wanted him to ask nothing. It wasn't a topic she felt was appropriate given the situation and she didn't want to afford the distraction. However, with everything that Tenderhoof had done for her, it would have been rude to turn him away. She didn't even want to guess how much of her and Blondie's...intimacy had made it through the walls. Now Daring was no prude but Tenderhoof was old enough to be her father so sex was not a subject she wanted to approach.

"Well I couldn't help but notice that you and Lucky, er...I mean Blondie, had gotten quite...close." That was a nice way to put it and one that Daring was grateful for. It sounded far more polite than 'riding the midnight bronco' or 'doing the horizontal hoe-down.'

"Is this the part where I get a 'watch yourself, she's a lone wolf and liable to break your heart'?"

"I reckon you got plenty of that from your pa," Tenderhoof chuckled in response. He was half-right; she did have a wild streak in her younger years, and bad ponies did have their allure, but even her father knew that danger was the last thing that could scare Daring away. "In truth, I was hoping you'd stick with her even if she tries to buck you off. I think it would do her some good."

"What do you mean?" Daring got the impression that the 'good' that Tenderhoof was referring to did not involve bedroom antics or an extra set of hooves in a fight. Blondie seemed like the type to get what she wanted from something or someone and then head on her way, which Daring was more than willing to go along with. Despite an overwhelming physical attraction, she got the feeling that a gunslinger like Blondie would just get bored hanging around a posh Canterlot university library, and Daring just about had her fill of sand-coated saloons where 'bath' was just a four-letter word. They were from two different worlds and while their union would keep her warm for years to come, she had trouble seeing anything long-term resulting from it.

"In case you hadn't noticed, life out here ain't exactly easy," Tenderhoof explained. The pegasus refrained from any sarcastic rebuttals despite the temptation. “Everypony comes out west for a reason, but they eventually find something out here worth struggling for. Be it a job or a patch of land or money...or somepony.”

“And what about Blondie?” she inquired with a growing sense of where the conversation was going.

“Well that’s the thing...she ain’t got nothing. She’s been wandering around these parts for the past several years. Sure she comes through here every so often. Heck, some of the townsfolks even look forward to it. But she never stays put and she never really goes in any one direction for very long.” The doctor paused for a moment as he fixed the last few hours into place. Once he was finished, Daring helped carry him back down to earth where he was grateful to have his hooves on the soil again. “She’s a good pony...knows right from wrong and she’s got the courage to do fix something when she sees it broken.”

“What exactly does this have to do with me?”

“She needs direction - something or someone worth fighting for,” Tenderhoof explained as he patted the pegasus upon the shoulder. “Now I don’t know what exactly it is about you, but you’ve probably gotten closer to her than anypony else. There’s a lotta anger and hate in her...it’d do a lot of good if someone helped chase those demons away.”

“Every thought of just hiring her a shrink?” Daring’s joke was met with a cold stare. She quickly backpedaled her remark, “What do you think I should do exactly?”

Her question got only an uncertain shrug. Figured the one part where she could’ve used an answer was the only part he had none to give. “That’s up to you. All I’m saying is she might be the one with all the guns, but she’s the one that needs saving the most.”

Everything was set; the sticks of TNT were strewn through the town and the streets; the spotters were in their hideaways with detonators read; and everypony that had some kind of firearm had taken up their positions on the rooftops. Despite their willingness to help, Blondie and Daring wanted the townsfolk to stay out of the immediate firing lanes and only offer support when it was safe to do so. The only things missing from the showdown now were the star players.

“Blondie? You in here?” Daring called out as she poked her head into the local watering hole. She had searched most of the other likely locations for their infamous gunslinger and had thus far come up empty-hoofed.

“Over here,” a familiar voice echoed back. It sounded heavy and sluggish, however, which worried the archaeologist.

It took a moment after stepping inside for her eyes to adjust to the sudden drop in brightness, but once things refocused she spotted her cohort half-slumped over the bar surrounded by several bottles. “Oh, for the love of-!” Daring zipped over to the half-conscious pony and pulled her face off the countertop. Her eyes were bloodshot and unfocused, eyelids were drooped, and even a small waft of her breath was enough to give Daring a small hangover. The gunslinger smelt of cheap whiskey and despair, neither of which were a good aroma for her given the situation. “What in the hay is wrong with you?” she exclaimed.

“It ain’t my ears to start with,” Blondie snapped back as she shoved the pegasus away. “And can’t a pony have one last drink without somepony getting all sanctimonious!”

“Not when there’s an inbred goat with a borderline obsession of killing you.”

“Pah!” Blondie scoffed as she grabbed the nearest bottle and poured herself another glass. “S’always somepony trying to kill me. Way Ah figured it, if this gonna be mah last day...best enjoy it while Ah can. At least that way when Billy’s done with me, he’ll leave the rest of the town alone.”

Daring wasn’t sure what she was hearing was genuine self-pity or just one too many glasses of whiskey. Either way, she wasn’t buying it for one second. This was the same gun-slinging, minotaur-lighting, explosive-lobbing madpony that chased her and a goat across the desert. Self-sacrifice, while noble in itself, was better off as a last resort, and any hope of both ponies reaching the end of the day alive was slowly being drowned in a shot glass. As the gunslinger brought the glass to her lips, Daring decided to take action and slapped the drink out of her cohort’s hoof.

The echo of the shattering glass was the only sounded that preceded, followed by an overpowering silence.

“Now why’d you have to go and do that?” muttered a surly Blondie.

“I’m not letting you throw your life away.” Somehow, this was comical to the nameless mare. Daring was willing to chalk to the laughter up to more alcohol-fueled antics but it was no less disconcerting.

“You really think what happens here today will make any difference?” she said as she grabbed the nearby whiskey bottle. “Say I make it outta here today...maybe even off Billy while Ah’m at it. Then all the ponies Ah hurt in the process are gonna get all their friends and they’ll get their friends and we’ll start the game all over again.” As she spoke, her voice weary yet almost lyrical at the same time, the gunslinger used the bottle to knock over some of the empty bottles and glasses scattered across the countertop. “Every day it’s just more and more ponies getting pissed at me...wanting to put me in a shallow grave. It’ll eventually catch to me...so what’s the point in running from it anymore?”

Were it not important that Blondie be up and ready to fight, Daring would’ve taken the pony outside and knocked sense into her until she sobered up. The best she could do right now was try to talk sense into the other pony. Sadly, talking sense into a drunken pony had about as much success as trying to hammer nails with your face. Sure, you might eventually succeed, but your face is going to be a mess afterwards.

“Then why not just leave this place? Your enemies aren’t going to chase you around forever!”

“No...but reputations have a way of following you. They cling to you like a bad stink,” Blondie explained as she tried to get back to her feet. She only managed a few steps before needing to put one hoof on the countertop and the other on Daring to keep her balance. After letting out a quiet sigh, the nameless regained her stability and proceeded to take a swig from her bottle. “Besides, what would you have me do, hm? Go back east wit’ you? Be some...nancy no-name pony...always hanging around in the background...barely seen and never heard? Pah! It might not be your hoity-toity university, but at least out here Ah’m somebody important...Ah matter.”

“You’ll be a dead somebody at this rate.” It was some of the flimsiest logic that Daring had come across, but that stubborn mare was making it hard for her to get through.

“Being forgotten is worse than being dead,” the nameless mare remarked grimly. “It’s like you never existed.”

Daring didn’t have time for more self-destructive pitying. She needed to get Blondie out of this apparent rut and back in the game. Getting too aggressive was out of the question since she didn’t want to wear the pony out before Billy arrived. Her best option then was to kill her with kindness. As the nameless mare eyed her whiskey bottle for another round, Daring pulled her head the other direction and trapped her with a tender, loving kiss. There a momentary struggle. Her lips refused to budge at first and she tried to pull away, but the inviting warmth soon compelled the pony to stay. The bottle gradually slipped from the mare’s grip, shattering along with all remaining resistance in the earth pony. Thanks to all the liquor, Daring had no trouble pinning her partner against the bar counter. She could taste the whiskey on the other mare’s breath.

But before she could succumb to carnal temptations, Daring broke the embrace. “You’ll always matter to me,” she whispered. “And the ponies here won’t ever forget what you’ve done for them.”

“And what if Ah’m more trouble than Ah’m worth?”

Daring flashed the nameless pony a coy little smirk. “It’s just a mob of murderous goons...it’s nothing we haven’t had to deal with before.”

Her glib remark had the desired effect and the gunslinging pony was soon caught up whiskey-laced chuckle. Once the laughter died down, the two shared a simple moment of silence gazing into each other’s eyes. Or at least Daring was gazing; the same could not be said of her colleague, however, who had trouble keeping the world from slowly spinning about. Daring wanted to make one last, poignant comment to uplift the other pony’s spirits but a gunshot rang out in the distance, signalling the end of their relative tranquility.

“Welp, time t’face the music,” Blondie said as she pushed her cohort aside. She straightened up her coat and then let out a monstrous, whiskey-tinted belch. “You go get in position whilst I go play the polite host.”

Despite a slight swagger in her steps, the nameless mare made her way out of the saloon and into the dusty town streets. The bright, midday sun played havoc with her eyes, which were already having enough trouble keeping focused. The gunslinger adjusted her stetson to keep shaded as she trotted down the main road. Standing at the far aside were more than a dozen ponies and goats, and at the forefront was none other than Billy the Kid, looking as smug and self-assured as a conquering general.

“Look who decided to crawl her flea-ridden butt out of hiding,” Billy taunted, followed by a chorus of laughs from his gang. “What’s the matter? No bottle you could crawl into and cry for mommy?”

“Ha...booze joke, that’s funny,” Blondie joined in on the laughter. “Gotta say, Ah’m mighty impressed you managed to wrangle up so many new recruits after what Ah did to the last bunch. Hope you paid them up front.”

“Didn’t need to pay ‘em...just had to tell them that you were gimped and cowering in a corner like a little filly.”

Chances were he offered them a considerable sum after she was dead and banked on the odds that she would take out most of them before the day was done. Anypony left over would probably be too tired to put up any fight when Billy short-changed them and ran off. If she just allowed them to gun her down now, the backlash from an angry mob expecting payment would ensure that he was put into a shallow grave right next to her. However, with Daring having talked her out of that plan, she was only left with the one they had originally gambled on.

“Y’all forgot to mention ‘drunk off her saddle.’ Now ah’ll be honest in saying that Ah wasn’t expecting quite so many of you,” Blondie said as her eyes began to pan across the width of the street. “If Ah had known, Ah would’ve brought out a bottle of whiskey to share.” Her expectant, cocksure grin puzzled the numerically superior gang. They were expecting something more from her but she seemed to just be standing and staring. After a moment, the grin faded from her expression and was replaced with veiled concern and darting eyes. “Ah said, ‘Ah would’ve brought out a bottle of whiskey!’” Again, she was met with silence and confused looks. “You got cotton in yer ears or something? Ah said whiskey, dangit!”

Hidden somewhere along the rooftops, a pony was scrambling back to his hooves after momentarily forgetting that ‘whiskey’ was the codeword to start the fireworks. He scurried to the nearby detonator and slammed down the plunger.

The resultant series of explosions occurred about halfway between Blondie and the posse assembled against her. The gunslinger would have preferred if Billy had been standing on top of where the explosives had been buried but in her inebriated state she had misjudged their position. Nonetheless, the cloud of sand made for a brilliant smokescreen. The nameless mare didn’t hang around to see Billy’s reaction. A sharp whistle summoned her air support with Daring swooping in from up high. The pegasus scooped up her partner and carried her off just as a barrage of gunfire tore through the smokescreen.

In a nearby building, a small filly popped open a window and tossed a bundle of lit firecrackers onto the street. While not threatening on its own, the rapid series of loud pops and bangs, combined with the confusion created by the earlier blast and smokescreen, caused further panic in Billy’s ranks. Several of his minions dove or scrambled for cover, and it wasn’t until the smoke settled that they all reasoned that they hadn’t been under any form of fire whatsoever. In fact, not only were there no assailants, there was no sign of Blondie either.

“After her!” Billy screamed in his fury. The explosions had startled several of his goons, but the irate bandit was able to rally them back into action. The gang of goats and ponies surged down the street but paused at the crossroad beneath the water tower.

“There she is!” one of the ponies shouted as he pointed further down to the road to the sight of a duster-wearing pony ducking down an alley.

“No, she’s over there!” another pony insisted, pointing to a similar sight down the opposite street.

“Then who’s that?” a third sounded when he saw another duster-draped pony galloping across the rooftops.

“Get her! Get her! Get her!” Billy continued bellowing as he started shoving and kicking his ponies towards the supposed Blondie sightings. Rage and impatience were a bad combination when leading others, but he wanted Blondie and he didn’t care how many ponies and goats he had to throw at her in order to accomplish this. His cabal of misfits scattered in multiple directions, all of which was under Daring’s watchful eye as she observed from her new position atop the water tower.

Armed with Blondie’s lever-action rifle, the archaeologist had her apprehensions towards killing these ponies, many of whom she figured were idiotic and headstrong (which was not too unlike Blondie herself). They were getting dragged into a fight that was not their business and death was too extreme a punishment in her opinion. It was a good thing, then, that she had been in charge of organizing the town’s defence. Spotting a small cluster of ponies heading down the northbound street, Daring took aim and fired a precision volley at them.

The first few shots landed just ahead of them, causing them all to screech to an abrupt halt. They were caught out in front of a house that offered no cover. When they tried to turn about to double-back, a few more shots dissuaded them from that direction. A couple more bullets striking the ground at their hooves prompted the entire group to bail into the building for refuge. However, rather than refuge they found a group of townsfolk with shovels and crowbars who were none too happy to see their home invaded. Daring found it hard to refrain from laughing out loud when she saw each and every one of the gang members get tossed back onto the street in an unconscious, battered heap.

“Four down...lots more to go,” Daring chuckled to herself before she loaded what few bullets she had remaining.

Elsewhere, another group of Billy’s posse continued in their chase after what they hoped to be the nameless mare.

“Which way did she go?” one of them grumbled as they galloped down the street. A bullet rattling off a hanging lantern just a few inches from his head answered that question. The shot came from the direction of the general store, where a closing door confirmed that someone had just taken refuge inside. Embolden by their advantage in numbers, they charged after their target.

They barged through the door full of thunder and fury, shouting obscenities as they unloaded their weapons at their stetson-wearing prey. But if they thought they were giving the nameless mare a lead breakfast, they were to be disappointed. Instead of a bullet-riddled pony, they found a bunch of a burlap sacks with a coat and hat draped over them. Furthermore, their flurry of gunfire had kicked up a small cloud of white powder that had been stored inside the sacks. As the fine particulates drifted through the air into their eyes and nostrils, they discovered, in the worst way possible, that the bags had been filled with ground up chili pods. A collective scream echoed from the general store as red, teary-faced ponies burst onto the streets. Chasing gunslingers soon became the last thing on their minds as they raced for the nearest source of water to put out the proverbial fires in their throats.

Another gang of goats had chased their target down the narrow back alleys and managed to keep a few steps behind the leather coattails. After a lengthy chase that left the goats a bit winded, they finally ‘cornered’ their quarry when a wooden fence blocked the alleyway. However, upon catching up to the pony, the goats found someone else entirely.

“You folks look a little lost,” Tenderhoof quipped as he adjusted his duster.

Despite the increasingly angry glares he was getting, the doctor remained steadfast and calm. That might have been because he had been threatened by far more intimidating individuals. Perhaps it was due to his sense of loyalty to Blondie and a willingness to sacrifice whatever it took to save the gunslinger. Or perhaps it was because he knew that the aforementioned gunslinger was standing on the rooftop right above with an empty barrel in hoof.

“Geronimo!” she shouted with unrepentant delight as she descended upon the unlucky goat at the rear.

The barrel almost engulfed the entire goat with a muffled thud. As a bunch of the goats turned about face to see what the commotion was, they were met by the barrel, with goat still inside, being kicked straight into them. All but one of the goats was bowled over by the surprise attack, but the last one standing was unable to act as he was staring down the barrel of Tenderhoof’s shotgun.

“Bit of medical advice, son,” the doctor said with a playful little smirk, “you might want to drop your piece and get out of town.”

“What is wrong with you morons?” Billy screamed upon witnessing several of his underlings running off like scared fillies. “It’s just a couple of wounded ponies and some dirt-poor miners!”

Unfortunately for Billy, it seemed that his words fell upon deaf ears. It would be, however, more accurate to say that they fell upon ears that were too busy cowering as gunfire began to ring out through the town. Another chain of explosions heralded the full-blown retreat of his underlings. They might have been a town of poor miners, but they were now a town armed to the teeth with the weapons dropped by Billy’s erstwhile comrades. It wasn’t long until the entire posse was being chased out of town by shotgun and pistol-wielding townsfolk.

“This...this is impossible! How can this be happening?”

“You know Billy, you always were a scrawny weasel thinking he was a soarin’ eagle,” a smug nameless mare said as she trotted out to the crossroad. “Shame you decided to go with quantity rather than quality.”

“Or maybe they were just the fodder,” the goat outlaw replied as he turned to Blondie.

Blondie, however, noticed something peculiar about the situation almost immediately. She had her revolver drawn on Billy and her friends had run his entire posse out of the town. He should be sweating bullets or pleading for his life at this point. Anger and disbelief was to be expected, but she knew Billy to be a coward. He should’ve been terrified of her, not calm and composed as he was now. He said that they had just been fodder. Did he send that entire posse just to flush Blondie and whatever defences she may have prepared? Billy couldn’t have been that clever, could he?

“And just what exactly do you think you could pull out of your hindquarter that could scare me?” Blondie said. He had to be bluffing perhaps in an attempt to make her pause so he could draw on her. But when the gunslinger saw her opponent’s eyes flick a glance to the distance, she wound up following it to what had been inspiring such confidence in him.

“Brought a friend of yours,” Billy said.

The friend happened to be a certain seven-foot tall minotaur with notable burn scars across his face.Yet, it was more than just the minotaur plodding into the center of the street that unnerved Blondie. A giant, angry minotaur she could handle; she had taken him down twice before without much difficulty. Those past victories, however, counted for nothing except as fuel powering the muscular engine of hate and fury. What unnerved the gunslinger the most was what the minotaur was carrying - a massive, crank-operated, six-barreled gun that was typically carted around on a wagon rather than slung from one’s shoulders. Suffice to say, the minotaur was carrying more firepower than most of the town put together and Blondie could say with absolute certainty that this would be a first for her.

“Well...somebody’s overcompensating.” Jokes aside, Blondie knew a big problem when she saw it, and she was staring down at a least a two tonnes’ worth of problems. Her best chance was to stomp the fire out before it spread. With that in mind, Blondie swung her revolver towards the minotaur and fanned the hammer.

But the minotaur saw the assault coming and hefted his gun up so that the body of the weapon shielded him. Blondie’s barrage made for a nice display of sparks and left behind a few dents but was otherwise totally ineffective. And while Blondie only had six rounds in her revolver, the minotaur had several times as many in his gun, which he leveled in the nameless mare’s direction.

“Ah’m going to need a bigger gun...”

“Rainbow! Come on, Rainbow! I’m not leaving until you say something.”

Despite Dash’s best attempts to ignore her librarian friend’s beckoning, when little pebbles started getting tossed up at her cloud she knew that this problem was not going to go away. With a sigh of resignation, the pegasus closed her book and poked her head over the edge of her cloud.

“Do you mind? I’m trying to read here!” Rainbow exclaimed as she waved her book for her friend to see. If anypony was going to understand the importance of attending to a good book, it would be Twilight, or so she hoped. Despite having wanted to get as far away from Manehattan, and all the bad memories it now entailed, her haste in departing the hospital had left Rainbow tired and drained. Still, she had wanted to avoid being found by her friends but it appeared that camping in a cloud above the city library had not been as foolproof as she had hoped. Another spectacular failure for Rainbow Dash. She was beginning to think she couldn’t plan her way out of a paper bag.

“Could you please just come down?” Twilight pleaded once more. Though she valued reading far more than any other pony she knew, even Twilight could recognize when someone was using a book for a shield rather than entertainment. She also knew that she had to tread carefully with the pegasus. Rainbow Dash was her friend and as much as she wanted to confront her friend over this issue, being too assertive could scare Rainbow away. Poor condition or not, the pegasus could still disappear into the clouds if things got too emotional. “Applejack told me what happened at the hospital. I was wondering if you wanted to talk about it”

“I don’t...” Rainbow began but cut herself off. Twilight was trying to be a good friend and she couldn’t fault her for that. Twilight didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of any ire. “There’s nothing to talk about. I almost ruined my best friend’s relationship, betrayed my best friend, nearly got my idol killed, and ruined my chances to ever get on the Wonderbolts! What more is there to talk about? I...I just want to be alone right now.”

Twilight felt a pang of dejection as she watched her friend disappear behind her cloud cover once more. She had expected her friend’s side of the story to be a bit more dramatic but this was worse than she had feared. Rainbow’s pain couldn’t have been more obvious if she had hung a sign off the cloud, but the one pony that could soothe the wounded pegasus was still at the arena.

“Rainbow, please...I’m your friend. You can talk to me,” Twilight continued even though she was uncertain of how much her friend would listen to.

“I said I want to be alone,” Rainbow snapped back but did not dignify the answer with a visual presence. She opened her book back up and tried to ignore Twilight’s continued pleas.

After several more attempts, all met with absolute silence, Twilight finally gave up on her attempts to talk Rainbow down. More drastic measures were going to be needed but she wasn’t ready to bust out the magic just yet. Again, she didn’t want to come off as being too assertive and force Rainbow to retreat. It had taken Twilight most of the night to track the pegasus down and she was not going to go through that again. At the very least, she could keep an eye on her friend until somebody more persuasive showed up.

And while somepony else did show up, it wasn’t who Twilight expected. A pegasus in the trademark cerulean flightsuit landed on the rooftop nearby. When the pegasus came close enough for her to see who it was, Twilight wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or even more worried.

“Oh, um...hello Ms. Spitfire,” Twilight greeted with a polite nod. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the airshow?”

“Show’s over for the night,” Spitfire answered. “It’s Twilight Sparkle, correct?” Though she hadn’t met the librarian before, Applejack had told her of the other ponies that were out looking for Rainbow. Since it was unusual for a unicorn to be hanging around on a rooftop talking to a cloud, it was a safe assumption that their wayward pegasus was nearby. Spitfire glanced up to the low-hanging cloud with a raised eyebrow. She had expected Rainbow Dash to have flown further off but if this pegasus was as loyal a friend as Applejack made her out to be then it was understandable why Rainbow chose to stay close. “Is she up there?”

“Yeah...and she won’t come down,” Twilight reported. “Did Applejack send you?”

“I’ve got the whole team combing the city from the air,” Spitfire confirmed.

“Does this mean Applejack is looking too?”

The faint murmurs of a conversation in the distance piqued Rainbow Dash’s curiosity. She wondered who Twilight was talking to and when she heard Applejack’s name, she thought for a second that her friend had arrived on the scene. Conflicted between wanting to see her best friend and wanting to fly to safety, Rainbow willed herself to peek over the edge of her cloud to confirm her fears.

“You!” Rainbow exclaimed when she saw who it really was. Of course it had to be the one pony she didn’t want to see. She thought she had already hit rock bottom but it appeared that life wanted to rub salt in her wounds. “What do you want? You’ve already taken my best friend and my dreams! What more could you possibly take from me?”

“Is she usually this melodramatic?” Spitfire whispered to the librarian. The two ponies turned to face away from the cloudborne pegasus in order to keep her from eavesdropping.

“Not to this extreme. I’m really worried about her.”

“All I’ve got left is this book!” Rainbow proclaimed as she held the Daring Do title aloft. “Do you want this as well? Fine! Just take it and go!” She did the unexpected by hurling the book at Spitfire.

Thankfully, quick reflexes and quicker magic on the librarian’s behalf intercepted the lobbed literature. While heated passions were no excuse for mistreating a book, Twilight decided to save that lecture for another day.

“We should get Applejack here quickly,” Twilight continued as she set the Daring Do book aside. “Do you know where she is?”

“She said she was going to check the hotel Rainbow was going to stay at,” Spitfire answered. “I’ll go get her and bring her here.”

“No,” Twilight insisted as she raised a hoof to stop the pegasus from departing. “You stay here and keep an eye on Rainbow Dash. If she tries to leave, I might not be able to stop her. You can at least keep track of her if she does.”

“I...don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Spitfire said with palpable reluctance. There were a dozen different reasons why staying was a bad idea, most of which involved a confrontation that she did not want to have with the fellow pegasus. Rainbow Dash deserved to hear what transpired at the arena from Applejack. If she tried to tell Rainbow, there was a good chance that she might not believe her. Even Spitfire was still having trouble believing what happened just a few short hours ago. Despite her misgivings, however, Twilight did present a valid point and Spitfire didn’t want to be responsible for this search lasting a minute longer than it needed to. “Just hurry up, okay?”

“I’ll be back as soon as I find her,” Twilight acknowledged. Focusing her magic, the unicorn vanished in a violet flash, leaving Spitfire with her unfortunate task to watch over the one pegasus that hated her more than anypony else.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Spitfire mentally sighed. She reassured herself that all she needed to do was keep an eye on Rainbow Dash for a few minutes until Applejack returned and then everything would be fixed. Resigning herself to her new duty, the Wonderbolt turned about to begin her watch...only to find herself standing face-to-face with Rainbow Dash. The two just stared at each other in tense silence; one wrathful gaze meeting a worried. She knew she needed to say something - something poignant and disarming to ease the tensions. Maybe a half-hearted joke or a sarcastic observation. Then the obvious answer dawned upon her. She hadn’t yet apologized to her rescuer for hitting back in the hospital. It had been a rude way to thank the pony who dragged her unconscious flank out of the fire. Saying sorry felt fleeting but it was a start.

Sadly, Spitfire wouldn’t get a chance to apologize as the moment she opened her mouth, she was met with a hoof to the face.

Ch. 17 - Showdown

The stars looked quite extravagant tonight. They twinkled amidst a sea of darkness like lanterns upon the horizon. But while Spitfire wished she could take the time to admire the grandiose view, lounging on one’s backside was not the best choice when an angry, heartbroken pegasus was looming over you. She had to admit that it was a sobering experience to be, for a change, on the receiving end of an unprovoked bout of hot-tempered hostility. The blow had left her mind reeling, and it took several seconds for her to regain her focus. As expected, her own volatile temper was beginning to flare up. The only thing that stayed her hoof was the thought of Applejack’s reaction if she arrived upon the scene to find the two of them brawling like a couple of a schoolyard fillies.

“Okay, we can say that makes us even,” Spitfire grumbled as she got back to her hooves. On the bright side, she no longer felt a need to apologize to Rainbow Dash for hitting her back in the hospital. But while Spitfire had hoped that the incident at the hospital had settled everything, it appeared as though there were still outstanding issues between the two pegasi.

“That’s just a taste and a warning!” Her body was couched low, wings were stretched high, and limbs tensed like coiled springs.

To Spitfire, Dash looked like a cougar ready to pounce, and one poorly-phrased utterance could turn that analogy into reality. It was tempting for the Wonderbolt Captain to meet aggression with her own, but she couldn’t screw this up. For Applejack’s sake, she had to keep her temper in check.

“You know, I had everything planned out! It was going to be perfect!” Rainbow continued. She accentuated each word with a forward step, which forced Spitfire back towards the ledge. “And then you had to show up with all your money and all your fame. You ruined all my hard work!”

“You make it sound like I swooped in and stole her out of your hooves,” the Wonderbolt fired back. She knew getting into a verbal fight was marginally better than a physical one, but her pride and ego would not permit her to just stand there and take the abuse. “It was an open auction, Rainbow! Anypony could have waltzed in there and won the auction.”

“Yeah...well, they didn’t. You were the only one who had the money to beat me.” Though Rainbow Dash was faltering in the argument, Spitfire did not want to press her advantage. She was just trying to defend herself, not provoke another kick to the face. “That was so unfair! You could have had any other pony in the world. Why do this to me?”

“This isn’t about you, Rainbow Dash! Try thinking about her for a change!” Sadly, what Spitfire wanted to accomplish in this conversation and what was transpiring were diverging to a great degree. Calm, rational confrontations were not her strong suit. Where was Soarin’ when you needed him? Despite his sometimes goofball nature, he had always been the more level-headed of the pair. “Gotta keep calm. This is for Applejack.” Spitfire had to bite down on her tongue before she said something she was going to regret.

“I am thinking about her. It’s all I’ve been doing for the past ten hours,” Rainbow said once she had the Wonderbolt up against the building’s ledge. “Applejack’s been the best friend a pony could ask for. So if you and I are going to be bumping into each other, I’ve got to make one thing clear with you.” The pounce never came; instead, the pegasus relaxed slightly and pointed an accusatory hoof towards the Wonderbolt Captain. “If you do anything to hurt Applejack, I will find you and I will make you regret it!”

Spitfire found herself torn between relief and confusion. Was she really getting the ‘hurt her and I hurt you’ speech from Rainbow Dash? If this had been coming from that big red stallion Applejack called her brother then this conversation would have made more sense. The pegasus’ approach made it seem like she was going to jump her, not give a stern lecture.

“Does this pony do anything in half-measures?” Spitfire wondered as she tried to contain the evident confusion on her face, which involved picking her jaw off the floor. Maybe keeping Rainbow Dash busy was not going to be as arduous a task as she had feared. “I’m fairly confident that Applejack is more than tough enough to handle anything I could possibly do,” she replied.

“You might think that, but I’ve known Applejack way longer than you have,” Rainbow insisted with a firm prod. “She puts on the tough, cowgirl routine, but it’s like a...uh, a hard caramel shell. It’s really sweet, but the more you enjoy it, the more brittle it becomes. And underneath it all is like a, um, soft, chocolate center. That chocolate is delicious too; it’s soft and rich and just melts in your mouth-”

“I think your analogy is getting side-tracked,” Spitfire deadpanned.

Indeed, Rainbow Dash had lost track of her train of thought, and the pony had to shake her head to get her thoughts in line again. “What I mean to say is that she’s got a vulnerable side, too, and you need to be careful with it. It’s like a, um, banana nut muffin - tender and delicious but if you’re not careful you’ll chomp down on a hard nut and accidentally chip a tooth.”

Spitfire quirked an eyebrow. “What’s with the food analogies?”

“I haven’t eaten all day.”

“Anyways, it sounds like you’ve got her pretty figured out,” Spitfire replied after a terse chortle. “You know, at first I thought this was just some little puppy-love infatuation, but you’re really smitten with her, aren’t you?”

Bringing this fact to light did little to help Rainbow’s self-confidence. Unaware of what had transpired at the arena, to Rainbow this seemed only adding insult to injury. “Y-yeah, well what does it matter, hm? You’ve already won. You’ve got the fame, the money, the looks, the moves, and the charm! What does it matter how I feel? What the hay do I have to offer her?”

Once again, Spitfire couldn’t help but stifle another rising chuckle, which only served to irk Rainbow further. More salt to the wound, it seemed. However, Spitfire soon made the source of amusement clear.

“If you want to know the answer to that, you should just ask her yourself,” she said as her eyes drifted to something past the other pegasus.

The implications hit Rainbow like a pebble to the head, and she spun about-face to see Soarin’ lowering Applejack onto the roof. While the urge to take flight rose in her, what power she had left in her wings became disarmed by a single, heartfelt smile from her friend.

“Thanks for the lift.”

“Anytime, AJ,” Soarin’ replied before he swooped over to touch down alongside his captain.

Once bold and confident, Rainbow Dash felt sapped of her usual bravado. She managed only a weary, half-hearted smiling upon seeing her friend. “H-hey, Applejack. How was the show?”

“It was...good,” the earth pony replied. It was strange how she spent so long tracking the wayward pegasus down, but now that she had found Rainbow Dash, she had trouble finding the right words. “Spitfire and Soarin’ flew together. It really knocked the crowd off their hooves. The Wonderbolts actually stand a good chance to make a comeback.”

“They did what?” Rainbow exclaimed as she was taken aback by the news. “Awww! I missed the two greatest fliers of our generation performing a sky dance together? Could my life get any worse?”

“Worse?” Applejack repeated. Her friend’s sorrow struck her as odd until she realized the obvious. “Spitfire didn’t tell you what happened after the show did she?”

“Let me guess, she swept you off your hooves and kissed you before the crowd?” Rainbow replied in bitter sarcasm. “Listen, I know I said that I’m okay with you and Spitfire being together and that I wasn’t going to interfere any further, but that’s not an invitation to start parading it in front of me.”

“Rainbow, we broke up.”

“And also yo-wait, what?” The bewildered pegasus stared in stunned silence at her friend, who was holding back her apparent amusement. “But I...how did...that can’t be possible.”

Applejack dissipated any doubt by directing her friends gaze towards the two Wonderbolts, who were in the middle of an amorous embrace. Their hooves were intertwined around each other’s shoulders with Soarin’ swinging his cherished captain to the side until he held her back just inches above the ground. Applejack wouldn’t have been surprised if the two were intentionally hamming it up for Rainbow Dash’s sake.

“Get a room, you two!” the farmer finally called out.

The Wonderbolts pried their lips from the embrace and flashed an apologetic smile. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” Soarin’ said.

“I don’t get it,” Rainbow Dash mused. Despite the self-evident truth, she had trouble believing this to be true. “You two were so happy together. You gave her cider and fritters and everything!”

“Wait a tick, you saw that?”

“O-only a bit before I left,” Rainbow sheepishly admitted. “But why wouldn’t you want to be with her? She’s rich and famous and gorgeous!”

Rainbow would have gone on but a hoof set upon her lips stopped the train of thought from departing. “Because she ain’t you.” Given that her friend was staring at her slack-jawed as though Celestia herself had dropped in to pay a visit, Applejack used the opportunity to get what she wanted to say off her chest. “Rainbow, you’ve always been there for me when Ah’ve needed you, and Ah care about you more than any other pony Ah know. But Ah always thought you’d be more interested in ponies like Spitfire - y’know, high-flying and daring. Y’always seem so bored when yer helping in the orchard.”

“That’s because it’s apple-bucking,” Rainbow replied. “You kick trees and pick fruit off the ground for, like, four hours straight. That is practically the textbook definition of boring!”

“That’s not helping your case, Dash,” Spitfire commented from the sidelines. She knew it wasn’t the best idea for the peanut gallery to be making comments, but she felt compelled to help her fellow pegasus out. And Spitfire was correct, as evident in Applejack’s souring expression.

“But boring work doesn’t mean I find you boring,” Rainbow Dash quickly added to recover from the verbal tailspin. “I know how much the farm means to you, and that makes me want to help. Seeing you smile after we’ve cleared off the last tree always made the effort worth it. Plus, helping you get your work done faster meant you’d have more time to spend with me.” She hadn’t felt this degree of nervousness since the Best Young Flier’s Competition. Everything counted on expressing how she felt without sounding crazy or desperate. She needed to make Applejack understand how she felt.

Oddly enough, the exact same concerns were running through Applejack’s mind as well. She had an idea of how her friend felt, but she also knew how hurt she was. If the situation were reversed, Applejack might’ve rejected the approach just for the sake of wounded pride. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash didn’t have the same degree of stubbornness as she did. Nonetheless, Applejack didn’t want her friend to think that she was taking pity on her.

“Guess Ah sorta took your help for granted,” Applejack said with humility and shame. “Ah had always told mahself that you were just being a good friend. Ah know Ah should’ve said something but Ah was...scared of making things awkward or, worse, losing yer friendship. When it seemed like you had gone through so much trouble to set me up with Spitfire, Ah was convinced that it was all just in mah head.” She felt like a fool for having kept quiet for so long, but she imagined that Rainbow felt equally foolish for the same reasons.

“That doesn’t excuse what I did, though.” Rainbow Dash hung her head under the weight of her own shame. “I betrayed your trust, and your friendship. I only thought about what I wanted, and not about yours. I’d make a lousy girlfriend. You deserve better than me.”

Compelled to uplift her friend’s spirit, Applejack stepped closer and placed a hoof around her shoulder. “Don’t think like that, Dashie. A relationship ain’t about who deserves what; it’s about choice and commitment. As long as we’re willing to stay committed to each other, there ain’t nothing we can’t fix.” Seeing her friend’s spirits, and gaze, lift back up, Applejack decided to take it a step further. “Besides, who was the pony who taught a workaholic shut-in about the magic of friendship?”

“That was...me,” Rainbow replied. She had known that Applejack hadn’t been the most sociable pony before they met, but she hadn’t imagined that her friendship had that much of an effect on the farmer.

“And who was it that got me dating again after a five year drought?”

“Me.” Despite the date being with the wrong pony, she had succeeded in setting her friend up with someone. That was no minor feat considering Applejack’s prior reluctance towards the subject.

“And who flew all the way to Manehattan to be mah friend even if it made their heart ache?”

“Also me.”

“You see? You have been there for me every step of the way,” Applejack explained as she placed her hoof upon her friend's chest. “Ah was so wrapped up in what Ah thought Ah wanted while all along what Ah really needed was right here.”

Between the heartache, the fatigue, and the hunger pains, Rainbow Dash was almost certain that she was hallucinating or passed out in an alleyway somewhere. This was too good to be real. However, the growing growing tightness in her stomach and the warmth of the pony sitting beside her was enough to convince her that this was as real as the love in her heart.

“You really mean that?” It was a silly question for Rainbow to ask after everything her friend had confessed, but she felt compelled to humour that last lingering vestiges of doubt. It felt as though that last doubt would not let go without hearing those exact words she yearned for.

Applejack leaned over and planted a small kiss on her cheek. “Would Ah ever lie?”

Close enough.

“Awww yeah!” the pegasus cheered without restraint or reservations. Like the joy in her heart, Rainbow rocketed skywards. “Woo-hoo-hoo!” After a few backflips through the air, she finally realized that she might not have been handling the good news in the most mature or sensible of fashions. With an embarrassed grin and a sheepish chuckle, Rainbow set her hooves back on the rooftop. “He-heh, sorry.”

To her relief, Applejack was more amused than anything else and was in the midst of a hearty laugh by the time Rainbow apologized. “Yer one of a kind, Rainbow Dash.”

There was little need for words at this point as both ponies finally knew what lay in the other’s heart. Once the giggles had died down, both mares fell silent as they gazed into each other’s eyes.

“Wow, that was just like the scenes out of my favourite books,” Spitfire whispered to her compatriot while tightening her hooves around him. The longtime romantic had trouble restraining her delight as she watched the two mares partake in a tender embrace. A part of her felt a small twinge of sadness knowing that she would never be on the receiving end of Applejack’s displays of affection, but it took only a quick glance to the stallion beside her to remember the love she had regained that night.

“At least that’s one less thing to worry about tomorrow,” Soarin’ added.

It was a sentiment that Spitfire could agree with as the prospects of tomorrow’s competitions did not look that great for the Wonderbolts. Rapid Fire was still in the ‘maybe’ category for flying tomorrow evening, but even in that scenario he would not be at his best. If only she had a pony she could call in to act as a substitute for the evening. But all her best reservists and alternates were elsewhere doing their own performances. They wouldn’t arrive in time to help. If only they were faster.

“Faster...” The word lingered on Spitfire’s mind as she pondered the issue. When her eyes drifted over the affectionate couple before her, the solution fell upon her like a tonne of bricks. “I’ve got it!”

To no surprise, her exclamation drew confused looks from everyone else.

“Got what?” Soarin’ asked.

“The solution to our problem.”

“You’re finally going to take anger management courses?”

“I meant with the competition,” Spitfire deadpanned. If she had been expecting anyone present to understand what she was implying, she would be disappointed. When all she got were more puzzled stares, she could only grin and motion her head in Rainbow Dash’s direction. Her partner continued the blank, dumbfounded stare, which did not surprise Spitfire at all, but after panning between the Wonderbolt Captain and the rainbow-maned pegasus a few times, the implications finally sunk in.

“That’s crazy.”

“Extra crazy,” Spitfire beamed with such excitement that she was almost bouncing on the spot. “It’s the perfect plan!”

“What’s she going on about?” Applejack interjected upon noticing that the pegasus beside her was now sporting an ear-to-ear grin. It soon became evident that Applejack was the only pony present left in the dark.

Rather than answer the question outright, Spitfire went along with her plan knowing that it would soon become obvious even to the clueless farmer. “So Rainbow Dash, how would-”

“YESYESYESOHSWEETCELESTIAYESPLEASEYESYESOHYESOHYES!”

“Could you at least let me finish?” Spitfire asked in order to calm down the over-enthusiastic Rainbow Dash. After gently pushing the pegasus, who had almost jumped the Wonderbolt Captain in her zeal, Spitfire gave it another shot. “Rainbow Dash, how would you-” This time it was Spitfire who cut herself off. Asking it like a question just seemed silly at this point. “Rainbow, you’ll take Rapid Fire’s position for the competition tomorrow night.”

“I still think this is an insane idea,” Soarin’ voiced his objections once again. “Rainbow’s never flown with us, at least not in a competitive sense. And it’s still too early to say that Rapid Fire won’t be able to fly.”

“Even if Rapid Fire is able to fly, he won’t be at his best,” the Wonderbolt Captain insisted. Her previous enthusiasm had been replaced with the assured assertiveness that came from her position and experience. “A talented, amateur stunt-flier stands a much better chance than a professional missing half his feathers.”

“Don’t forget awesome!” Dash chimed in.

“All we need to do is get the paperwork filled out, make Rainbow a reservist, and do some practise runs tomorrow,” Spitfire continued, ignoring Dash’s comments. “Rules state we need a minimum of five to fly. The Wonderbolts might have to withdraw if we don’t try this. Besides, what have we got to lose?”

“Our dignity?”

“You don’t have any left,” Spitfire quipped. “Remember what happened at the Los Pegasus Air Show? Those little blue pills you thought were for headaches?”

“How can I forget when you never let me?” Soarin’ figured there was no point in further debating with his Captain. She had made up her mind, and nothing short of another fiery crash was going to change it. Plus, she did argue her case well, and of all the random, amateur pegasus to choose from, Rainbow Dash was the most promising.

“You want Rainbow to fly with you?” Applejack questioned as she finally caught up to the conversation. “Is that even allowed? Ah mean, don’t these competitions have rules and such?” She didn’t want to be the wet blanket that dampened everyone’s hopes, especially Rainbow’s, but she knew it couldn’t be as simple as slapping the pegasus into a Wonderbolt uniform and hoping nobody noticed the rainbow-coloured mane.

“There’s a bit of paperwork that’ll need to get filled out,” Spitfire answered as her lips pursed and eyes rolled up in recollection. “Most of the rules are so one team can’t poach high-valued members of non-participating teams. I think so long as Rainbow isn’t part of any professional aerobatics team or an associated minor league team then we’re in the clear.” If Spitfire had been trying to bring in a retired high-flying ace then she would be more worried about what others would say. In this case, however, she was bringing in a pegasus almost unknown to the aerobatics community. She imagined her competition would be daring her to go along with this plan.

“The Captain of the Wonderbolts wants me to fly with them,” Rainbow Dash mused as the gravity of the situation began to sink in. “Best night ever!” In her exuberance, she wrapped her hooves around the pony beside her with an almost vice-like grip. “This is going to be so awesome!”

“Ah’m happy for ya, Rainbow, but you don’t have to squeeze so hard.”

Once again, Rainbow had to tone down her excitement and offer further apologies with a sheepish grin. Before she could say the words proper, though, a low-grumble cut through the air. Applejack noted immediately that the strange noises seemed to emanate from her friend.

“Somepony sounds hungry,” she commented with a small chuckle afterwards.

“Hey Spitfire,” Rainbow said as she turned to the Wonderbolt. “Don’t suppose you know of any place to get some grub that’s still open?”

“Are you kidding?” Spitfire laughed. “This is Manehattan - the city that never sleeps. You can’t throw an apple without hitting a twenty-four hour diner. Come by the arena in the morning and we’ll get started on training. You just be sure to eat and rest up because, come tomorrow, I will run you into the ground if you can’t keep up.”

As to be expected, Rainbow Dash was up for the challenge, or at least so she claimed. “Just be sure not to get too jealous when I steal the show tomorrow.” The rest just took Rainbow Dash’s boisterous response as a sign that she was feeling back to her usual self, which came as a relief to Applejack most of all.

“You know, I’m kind of hungry too,” Soarin’ commented as he turned to his Captain. “Wanna go hit the diners as well? There this one on Mane Street that serves pie all night long.”

“Oh? But I was thinking we could go back to the hotel,” Spitfire replied with a sultry little curl upon her lips. “We could order up some room service and then...” She stepped closer to her partner and whispered the rest of her suggestion into his ear.

Wings and ears perked a second later.

“Oh! That’s much better than pie.”

“Watch out, Blondie!” Daring’s shouts from the top of the water were hardly necessary as the veteran gunslinger knew a bad situation when she saw it. Large numbers of poorly led thugs and ruffians were one thing, but a vengeful minotaur sporting a gatling gun was another altogether. Blondie hated to admit it, but the goat had actually pulled out a trump card.

“Just try and hide from this, pony!” the minotaur bellowed as he readied his weapon. As he turned the handle on the side of the weapon, the bundle of steel barrels began to rotate and unleash their deadly torrent. The precious few seconds between turning the handling and firing was enough for Blondie to get a running start towards a nearby shop. The nameless mare dove headlong through the front window just as bullets began to pepper the wood siding. Even inside, Blondie had to continue scrambling for safety as the bullets pierced through the wood, tearing apart the furniture and shattering the dinnerware.

After what felt like an eternity of listening to wood splinter and glass shatter, there was a lull in the gunfire. The minotaur had run out of bullets. Using the time to march forward, the minotaur kept a steady pace as he reached into the large backpack he was carrying and grabbed a new magazine to load into his weapon’s hopper.

Atop of the water tower, Daring watched helplessly as the minotaur resumed his assault. Blondie had already used the lull in the bulletstorm to sprint for fresh cover. How she managed to make it across the street while bullets kicked up sand and rock was a mystery to the pegasus, but she figured it had something to do with that ‘Lucky’ nickname the nameless mare had also carried.

“Okay, enough spectating,” Daring muttered to herself as she aimed her rifle. She wasn’t sure if a simple lever-action rifle was going to have enough power to even slow down a massive, muscle-bound monstrosity. The first round fell short, kicking up a small cloud of sand at the minotaur’s hoof. The next couple of shots hit the body of the gun, which caused a few sparks but succeeded only in getting the beast’s attention. Spotting the shooter atop the tower, the minotaur changed targets and opened fire. “Oh horse feathers!” Daring yelped as the bullets began to shred the top of the water tower. The wooden planks and tin roofing offered little resistance for the bullets. In her spastic flailing to avoid eating a lead sandwich, Daring lost hold of her rifle, which tumbled over the edge, and almost joined in as well but managed to catch a hold of a loose edge of sheet metal.

“That’ll teach you,” the minotaur self-congratulated before returning to his original quarry. Unfortunately, Blondie had no qualms about using the time Daring had given her to put more distance between her and the minotaur. “Now where are you, Blondie?” he shouted as his eyes scanned across the townscape. “Come on out! I’ll promise I’ll make it quick!”

A flash of movement across one of the rooftops caught his attention. His eyes turned upwards, followed a few moments later by the barrels of his gun, just in time to see a stick of red tumbling through the air. The stick happened to be explosives and when the minotaur opened fire, the mid-air explosion was close enough to cause him to stagger back. Alas, he had been quick enough that the explosions was still far enough way to be no more than a nuisance to him. When a second stick was thrown, the minotaur was ready and shot it out of the air a safe distance away.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” the minotaur taunted. If Blondie was on the rooftop hurling explosives, then there would be a supply of them close by. With this knowledge, and a large supply of bullets available, the minotaur began peppering the offending rooftop. Like the other wooden and tin structures, the small cabin folded faster than a lousy poker hand. And somewhere in the hail of hot lead, a bullet struck the stash of explosives, detonating in a deafening bang that send wood and shrapnel flying across the town. Just seconds before the blast, a pony flung themselves off the rooftop. The blast had given the fleeing pony a small boost, resulting in a nasty face-plant into the sand just a few feet from where the minotaur stood. However, the singed and unconscious pony sprawled across the ground was not Blondie but one of the townsfolk.

Just another distraction.

But the time that the pony bought for Blondie was all the time she needed. A sharp whistle drew the minotaur’s attention up to the second story balcony of the nearby saloon. As the minotaur turned to once again bear multi-barreled mayhem upon the gunslinger, Blondie hurled another explosive towards him. The minotaur’s quick reflexes sent a spray of bullets towards the projectile before he even had a chance to realize what it was. Rather than just a stick of high explosives, the nameless mare’s weapon of choice was a bottle of hard liquor with a lit rag stuffed down the neck. The shattering glass bottle blossomed into a cascading wave of fire that soon enveloped the monster.

Subjected to a liquor-based flame once again, the minotaur roared in his fury but did not succumb to panic like the time before. Driven by his murderous rage, the flaming minotaur continued his assault with another barrage of gunfire. Blondie was caught off-guard by the minotaur’s sudden display of resiliency. She tried to scramble for safety as bullets began to tear apart the balcony around her, but a sudden pain shot up her leg and caused her to collapse the ground. She wasn’t sure if it had been a bullet, or a ricochet, or a splinter of wood, but the surge of pain was intense.

“Rotten, son of a-” Blondie cursed under her breath as she struggled to get back onto her good legs. Her lower profile afforded her better concealment, but her adversary had other plans. Another barrage tore apart the balcony around the nameless mare. It weakened the balcony enough that a single charge into one of the supports caused the entire section to collapse. Spewing another mouthful of un-mare-like profanities, Blondie fell to the earth beneath a heap of broken planks.

With the last simmers of the alcohol flames dying out, the minotaur loomed over the fallen gunslinger. Half-conscious beneath a pile of lumber, he had the pony right where he wanted her. After much insult and humiliation, he was finally going to have his revenge.

Or so he thought until a bullet struck one of his horns, shattering it into tiny fragments. Daring had been aiming for the back of his head, but she was willing to settle with getting his attention. A small tinge of worry overcame the archaeologist when the minotaur took aim against her. Standing below the water tower did not offer her a great deal of protection, or any at all. Maintaining her poise, Daring Do cycled the next round into the chamber and fired again. The next bullet hit the gun, resulting in the same, harmless splash of sparks as all the previous times. How in the world was the going to stop a minotaur when almost every inch of him was either thick muscle or solid steel? But then Daring spotted a vulnerability. Adjusting her aim, she fired a round that pierced through the leather sling that was supporting the gatling gun’s weight.

Without the sling, the enormous heft of the weapon was too much for the minotaur to keep steady. The bullets began to fly wildly in all directions, hitting everything from the ground to the sky while still straying as far as possible from Daring Do. The minotaur was tenacious, she had to give him that, but it would take more than just raw stubbornness to get the best of her. She put the next round into the gatling gun’s front handle. She had been aiming for his hand but the effects were almost the same. The shattered bullet fragments hit his hand, causing him to drop the weapon into the sand with a resonating thump.

“Smile for the birdie,” Daring said with a sly grin. Without the hail of bullets to distract her, she could level her rifle one last time with the iron sights square between his eyes. Now she had him where she wanted him.

Click!

“Uh-oh.”

In her haste to aid her fellow adventurer, Daring had forgotten an important caveat of gunfights - keep count of how many bullets you’ve used. She quickly cocked the lever again with the faint hope that she had only suffered from a misfire, but that hope turned out to be as empty as the rifle. Though she may have had spare bullets on her, there was no time to search as the minotaur decided to do what they were most famous for and charged. Thankfully, a rampaging minotaur was all too similar to the innumerable other hazards Daring Do has had to circumvent during her years of travel. If she could avoid a ten-tonne boulder, a volley of arrows, and alligators launched from trebuchets, a single minotaur was barely noteworthy.

“Olé!” she taunted as she dove to the side.

The rampaging beast whisked past the pegasus, carried by his momentum to the far side of the water tower. Daring Do knew that she couldn’t rely upon dodging the minotaur forever. Sooner or later he would get fed up and turn his attention back to Blondie. She needed to put a stop to him, but that would need something big to hit him with. Fortunately for Daring, she knew just what to use.

“What’s the matter? Can’t hit one little pony?” Daring Do flew to a spot under the water tower and proceeded to taunt the minotaur by waving her hindquarter at him.

The tantalizing tail swings proved to be too much for the minotaur’s pride. He roared and stomped in his outrage, vowing to see Daring Do reduced to an unsightly mess beneath his hooves. It was nothing that she hadn’t heard a hundred times before from those who had opposed in her in the past. And as predictable as the rising sun, the minotaur barreled full-tilt towards the pegasus. In case his reflexes had improved since the last attempt, Daring decided to wait a split-second longer before she dove out of the way. She wanted to ensure that the monstrous being ran head-first into the water tower’s support column.

The thick wooden beam took the brunt of the impact, buckling and splintering only slightly from the sheer brute force. However, the shock that traveled up the beam had a far more drastic effect on the dynamite bundles above. While normally safe and stable, poor storage and hot desert weather had caused the dynamite to sweat some of its nitroglycerin content. The impact was enough to agitate the dynamite bundles, resulting in a rapid chain of explosions that took out all of the water tower’s supports. Several hundred pounds of water and wood came crashing to the earth.

Despite dodging the minotaur moments earlier, Daring Do was still caught in the wake of the resulting impact. A torrent of water and broken timbers flew out in all directions and swept the pegasus off her hooves. On the bright side, a bit of water helped to battle the desert heat.

“I make it look easy,” Daring complemented herself as she retrieved her hat. She dumped the excess water out before returning it to its rightful perch. “Now where did that goat get off to?”

Daring did not have to wait long to solve that mystery as the answer hit her soon thereafter. With both horns. The water-logged pegasus barely had time to pull her face out of the dirt before getting hit again, which sent her tumbling across the muddy road.

“Ask a stupid question,” Daring groaned through the pain. She didn’t get a chance to finish her complaint as the goat grabbed her by the shirt collar and dragged her over to a sizable puddle. One didn’t need a doctorate to realize that Billy did not develop a sudden concern for dehydration.

“Hey Blondie! You might wanna show yourself,” Billy called out before pushing the pegasus’ face into the puddle. “I think your little friend might be in a bit of trouble.”

Between the bruised ribs and the face full of water and mud, Daring’s lungs were soon screaming for air. She tried to fight back but her hooves kept slipping in the mud. While Daring had never been one to mull over her preferred method of death, she had envisioned for something more glorious than ‘drowned in a puddle.’ Perhaps something involving sultry ponies with insatiable appetites. But such dreams were irrelevant as Daring struggled in vain to get a breath of fresh air.

Daring Do was given a brief moment of reprieve when Billy pulled her head from the water. However, he only did so in order to bide more time as Blondie had yet to show herself and he didn’t want the bait expiring too soon.

“Hey little missy, got anything to say to your friend?” Billy asked in the hopes that Daring would plead for help.

“Blondie, would you please kick the arse of this son-of-a-mppphhfff!” Her eloquent words came to an abrupt halt after she was shoved back into the muddy depths.

Kicking anybody, however, was a difficult proposition for Blondie. Battered by new wounds to accompany all her previous aches and pains, the nameless mare was still regaining her senses after falling through the balcony. It wasn’t until the second round of the facial cleansing that Blondie heard the commotion.

“Get yer filthy hooves off her!” Blondie shouted, although it came out as more of a pained groan. The nameless mare was still half-buried under lumber, but she soon wormed her way free.

Both Billy and Daring, once her face had been pulled out of the water again, could see the gunslinger was in poor form. Her breathing was laboured, and she was visibly keeping weight off one of her hind legs. To top it all off, a falling piece of timber had reopened the wound on her head, which now trickled blood into her eye.

“Leave her out of this!” Blondie shouted as she took a painstaking step forward. “Yer fight is with me. Let’s end this now - one bullet, one victor!”

Billy gave a triumphant grin as though he had already won. He tossed the gasping Daring Do to the side and stepped towards the gunslinger pony. “About time you came to your senses. We can have an good ol’ fashion Trotsican stand-off!”

Blondie rolled her eyes in disdain but refrained from making any verbal remarks. Why Billy was so keen on something so needlessly dramatic was beyond her. He probably wanted something worth telling to others even though he’d leave out the parts where Blondie was a half-bloodied wreck.

As she was still coughing up muddied water, Daring Do could do nothing but stay on the sidelines and watch. The duelists trotted over to a clearing between the remnants of the water tower and the door to the saloon. With great pain and reluctance, Blondie reared onto her hind legs. Her hoof hovered just inches above her revolver while her eyes fixated on the goat whose actions mirrored hers. She flexed her fetlocks as the tension grew. Their gazes met with each gunslinger scrutinizing the other, looking for an opening. A flinch; a momentary lapse in concentration; even the slightest of hesitation was all one needed. But when a water-logged Daring let out another cough, revolvers flew from their holsters and a single gunshot echoed through the town.

The two gunslingers stood motionless as if frozen in time. Only the gentle breeze against the back of her neck told Daring that time still soldiered on. The gunslingers had drawn with such speed that she couldn’t tell which had fired. Even the gunsmoke could not tell her as the breeze whisked it away before it coalesce into visible contrails. When she finally saw movement, Daring felt her heart tighten in her chest. The silence had become so pervasive that the gentle thump when a revolver fell to the sand echoed like a thunderous roar.

However, Daring could not believe her eyes and wanted to cry out at what she saw. Blondie stood there, empty-hoofed, with one fore leg curled up against her chest as if trying to hold her heart in. As the nameless mare collapsed to the ground, the outlaw goat let out a triumphant laugh.

“Ha! I did it! I finally did it!” The outlaw was so busy trumpeting his own victory that he didn’t notice that the gunslinger was not quite beaten.

Slowly, the nameless mare was pushing herself back onto her hooves. She still had one hoof pressed over her now heaving chest, but her stubbornness refused to yield. But she couldn’t get back onto her hooves before Billy noticed what was going on.

He scoffed with restrained amusement as he watched Blondie’s efforts. “Seems like some ponies just don’t know when to quit,” he said as he brought his revolver up once more.

“No, you don’t!” Unable to tolerate inaction any further, Daring had mustered up what strength she could. She dove at the gunslinger and tackled him to the ground. The two rolled across the muddy road as they struggled for control of the gun. The gun went off near her head, which made her reel from the noise alone. Billy eventually overpowered her and wrested the revolver from her. With a sharp kick, he dislodged the bothersome pegasus.

“That’s enough of you,” Billy growled before he snapped off a quick shot. There was a loud pang as the bullet struck the helmet. Her head snapped back like a candy dispenser, followed by the rest of her body as she thrown to the ground. “Ain’t nobody going to take my victory from me,” he added. With Daring down, he turned back to Blondie, but only to find the gunslinger had managed to limp her way over to the saloon. He only caught a glimpse of her tail disappearing through the door.

Determined not to let his prize slip away, Billy gave chase. He screamed for the gunslinger’s blood as he barreled towards the door. Just when he reached the first step leading to the door, the unexpected occurred. Without warning, the saloon exploded with a thunderous fury so powerful it felt as though the earth itself were splitting open. The entire bottom floor of the building erupted in an expanding sphere of fire and fury, rocketing the outlaw several meters before crashing into the splintered remnants of the water tower. Gallons of hard liquor ignited, setting what remained of the building aflame. Within moments, the weight of the top floor brought it crashing down and bringing about the total annihilation of the entire building. All that remained was a burning pile of timber.

Ch. 18 - Final Draft

“All right, Wonderbolts, fall in!”

On any other given day, Rainbow Dash would have considered the proposition of waking up at the crack of dawn to be an absolute preposterous one. The day, in her opinion, did not start that early, and it would be a cold day in Tartarus before she dragged her butt out of bed at such an early hour. It must have been a very frosty morning down below because by a quarter after six, Rainbow Dash found herself back at the arena. While the previous night had the pegasus bouncing off the walls in her excitement, the early morning hours had drained what enthusiasm she had left. When Spitfire called for her team to assemble on the field, Rainbow Dash couldn’t manage much more than a hoof-dragging pace.

In stark contrast to Rainbow’s fatigue, the Wonderbolt Captain was as lively and vigorous as ever. A breath of fresh air had brought new life to the team’s leader, and her radiating confidence spread to the other Wonderbolts present. Everypony looked eager and ready to get back into the game. To them, their Captain had returned in full splendor, and anything was possible.

“Now listen up,” Spitfire said to the assembled pegasi that stood before her. “I won’t lie to you; the Wonderbolts haven’t performed as well as they should have, and it has been entirely my fault. I’ve let you all down as your Captain, your teammate, and as your friend.” The Captain paused for a moment to take in the reactions from her teammates. As she had hoped, they remained as poised as she had trained them. There were no lingering feelings of animosity or grudges. “Now I could spend the next several minutes spouting apologies, but I know that all of you have got better things to do than listen to me get all mushy. You’re all here to fly, am I right?”

“Hay yes, ma’am!” the Wonderbolts sounded off in unison.

“Just what I wanted to hear,” Spitfire acknowledged before turning her attention to Rainbow Dash. The sight of the half-awake pegasus was disconcerting, to say the least, but she was willing to chalk that up to last night’s emotionally stressful events. “Now in case anybody here has kissed the earth one too many times, the new kid is Rainbow Dash. Tonight’s routine will be done as a five-pony team with her filling in the empty spot. If anybody has a problem with that, they can take it up with the complaint’s department.”

“There’s a complaint’s department?” Rainbow Dash quipped. The first thought that crossed her mind was filing a complaint about the early hours.

However, it was Soarin’ who responded when he leaned in and whispered, “That’s just what she calls her pair of brass horseshoes.” That grounded Rainbow Dash’s hopes of getting the practice hours changed.

“Cut the chatter, you two,” Spitfire cut in as she continued her address. “As I was saying, Rainbow Dash will fly as a substitute. I know it’s extremely unorthodox-”

“And insane.”

“Yes, thank you, Soarin’, for reiterating that point,” the Captain said as she shot her second-in-command an annoyed glare. “We’ve got the next twelve hours to turn this amateur pegasus into Wonderbolt material. I know our standard routine is a light practice on the day of major competitions, but we’ll have to make an exception today. I am going to need one hundred and ten percent from each and every one of you. Can I count on you all?”

There was no verbal response at first. The other Wonderbolts glanced to each other for a brief moment before Soarin’ stepped forward.

“I think I speak for everybody when I say that the Wonderbolts are ready for any challenge, ma’am!” he boldly stated.

“Good, we’ll start with reviewing the fundamentals of our basic formations,” Spitfire said with her confidence in her teammates bolstered.

“Review?” Rainbow Dash protested. “Oh come on! You’ve seen me fly, Spitfire. Why are we starting with namby-pamby basic flight school work?” When she got invited to fly with the Wonderbolts, Rainhow had been expecting something with a bit more excitement. She had envisioned daring dives and soaring sweeps; reviewing flight work was as boring as an afternoon stroll. In her opinion, asking her to do read up on aerobatic theories was like asking Twilight Sparkle to redo magic kindergarten. “We should be rehearsing the flight plan.”

It was tempting to just drop into her work persona and browbeat the truth into Rainbow Dash until she accepted, but the Wonderbolt Captain decided against that. She had to remember that, technically speaking, Rainbow Dash was doing her a favour. Rainbow was under no obligation to stay on board, and to be honest Spitfire would not be surprised if the other pegasus changed her mind. From the stands, being a Wonderbolt looked like a piece of cake. However, every minute in an air show was preceded by hours upon hours of practice and training out of the public’s eye. A lot of Wonderbolt initiates burn out as a result of the intense training regimes. Spitfire didn’t want to play favourites, but she needed to handle Rainbow Dash with a bit of tact and care.

“Rainbow Dash, you are a natural-born flyer,” Spitfire began with a calm and patient tone, which was quite unlike her usual methodology. “But team cohesion is one of the core tenets of aerobatics, and that’s not something that comes naturally to anypony. Even a half-second lag between two pegasi can spell the difference between a gold-medal performance, and an off-the-podium finish.”

“But this is no time for looking over books and charts!” A younger Spitfire would have agreed, but age and experience had taught her the wisdom was patience and diligence. “Just put me in the air and let me show you what I can do!”

“Very well then, shall we skip ahead to formation drills?” the captain replied. “We’ll start it off easy: fly with Soarin’ and stay in tight formation on his eight o’clock. I will stay on the ground and monitor your positioning.”

“Pft! Easy as pie.”

It didn’t surprise the Spitfire that her temporary Wonderbolt was cocksure. If anything, it was Rainbow Dash who was surprised when the Captain’s response was a terse little chuckle.

“We’ll see,” she said with no attempt to conceal of the foreboding undertone. “Soarin’, test this kid’s limits.”

“Aye aye, cap’n,” Soarin’ nodded before motioning for Rainbow to join him.

As much as the whole exercise bothered her, Rainbow Dash decided to yield to Spitfire’s judgment and took to the air alongside the pegasus stallion. She figured after a few minutes, Spitfire would be so impressed by her precision and slick moves that she would skip ahead to rehearsing their flight plan like Rainbow had suggested. It would be a piece of cake, or so she thought. Falling into formation with Soarin’ was easy enough. He led her through a simple series of manoeuvres such as loop-de-loops and corkscrews. Rainbow Dash was able to stick to his eight o’clock position like Pinkie Pie to a Black Forest gateau. But as the drill progressed, Soarin’s flight pattern became more complex and unpredictable. He began leading Rainbow Dash through a series of tight bends and rapid spins, all in an obvious attempt to disorientate the pegasus.

“Come on, Dash, you’re falling behind!” Spitfire shouted as the two fliers soared overhead in a tight corkscrew.

Rainbow Dash didn’t dignify it with a response. It was clear that the Wonderbolts were testing to see how much it would take to make her lose control. She was determined not to give them that satisfaction. It took all of her focus to keep track of Soarin’s movements. Every time she got her bearings straight, the stallion banked hard and everything was thrown for a loop again. As the pair swooped high and low across the arena, Rainbow was finding it harder and harder to keep orientated. The sky and the ground were spinning around her as though she was being thrown through a tornado.

If it had been a quick, brief drill then Rainbow Dash might have not been worried. However, Soarin’ kept flying even after close to an hour of formation drilling. Exhaustion was beginning to set in for Rainbow. The strain of so many hard banks had taken its toll on her wings, which felt like flaps of cardboard.

“Must...keep up!”

Despite the mental reinforcing, Rainbow Dash felt her focus faltering along with her wings. As the wind shear kicked up suddenly, she was knocked from her flight and sent into a catastrophic tailspin. But there would be horrific crash in store for Rainbow Dash, as the rest of the Wonderbolts were quick to respond. Not even five seconds passed before the tumbling pegasus was snatched out of the sky by Misty and Highwinds.

“Not bad, you lasted a bit longer than most,” Spitfire complemented once her new recruit was lowered back to earth.

“You wanted me to almost crash?” Rainbow snapped back. It was a rhetorical question, of course, since she had figured out the point of the exercise already. “What the hay is wrong with you?”

“A little lesson in humility never hurts,” the Wonderbolt Captain answered. “But it’s also important for me to see what your limits are. Your formations needs improvement.”

The idea of being humiliated in front of others as kind of rite of initiation did not sit well with Rainbow Dash. She was under the impression that time was vital and in short supply, which made spending it on such lessons seem like a waste.

“My formations are fine! Now can we stop this nonsense, and get onto the real training?”

“This is real training, Rainbow,” Spitfire said before motioning for the other Wonderbolts to gather around. “I told you yesterday that I was going to run you into the ground if you couldn’t keep up. Now get back into the air! I want you in diamond formation, three o’clock position.”

Rainbow Dash hadn’t even been given enough time to get the numbness out of her wings, but she was forced to take to the skies again. While this time saw her joined by the rest of the Wonderbolts, save for Spitfire, the training drill was the same as before. The three top-tier fliers led Rainbow Dash on one of the most wild flight paths she had ever witnessed. To make matters worse, their formation was so tight that even drifting a few inches out of position resulting in Rainbow getting bumped by one of her teammates. And they weren’t gentle about it either. In fact, Rainbow suspected that they were allowing the collisions in another twisted attempt to upstage her.

“They aren’t going to get the best of Rainbow Dash!”

After almost two hours of flight training, eight crashes, seventeen near-crashes, a dozen spin-outs, and more hard landings than Rainbow would care to keep track of, she was willing to admit that perhaps the Wonderbolts had gotten the best of her. When Spitfire blew the whistle and told her Wonderbolts to take a fifteen minute breather, Rainbow Dash never felt a stronger desire to to rest her wings. It was a most strange and foreign sensation for her to actually be tired of flying. She thought training with the Wonderbolts would be the most fun she’s ever had, but instead it was turning into one of the most gruelling workouts ever faced by ponykind.

The weary and bruised pegasus made her way into one of the locker rooms where she unceremoniously collapsed onto a bench. She wondered if fifteen minutes was going to be enough to get her strength back, physical or mental. A growing part of her wanted to tell Spitfire to take her competition and stuff it. The only thing that kept her in the game was her stubborn pride, or perhaps blind egoism.

When she heard hoofsteps approaching, Rainbow made no motion to address it. If whoever it was had business with her, they could talk to her while she was face-down on the bench. She wasn’t in a very talkative mood.

“Heya Rainbow!”

It was Applejack. In an instant, weariness turned to elation, but while her mind found renewed strength, her body did not. When she tried to spring back to her hooves, Rainbow’s legs only managed to get her halfway up, after which gravity took over and brought her to the floor.

“You okay there, partner?”

“My legs feel like jelly,” Rainbow groaned. Despite a willing spirit, her body refused to leave the floor’s embrace.

“Ah bet they do,” Applejack said with a half-hearted chuckle. At least one of them find something to be amused about the situation. “Ah saw you and the other Wonderbolts flying about when Ah came in. It looked like they were running you harder than an ox with a full wagon.”

“You can say that again.” Hard didn’t even begin to describe what her choice of adjectives would be.

“Spitfire said she’d train you hard. Ah bet yer having a hay of a time out there.”

“Training? You call that training?” Rainbow scoffed. She tried to get back up to her hooves using her frustration for motivation, but only made it halfway again before face-planting the tiled floor. “It was more like airborne pinball with me as the ball!”

Applejack noted the level of discontent that resonated in her friend’s voice and it worried her. Flying and training with the Wonderbolts had always been Rainbow’s dream and it was beginning to sound as though that dream was not turning out to be quite as sweet as once thought.

“Oh come on, Rainbow, it can’t be that bad.” Applejack offered a hoof to help her friend up. The lightweight frame of a pegasus made it easy for her to hoist Rainbow back up. She was about to crack a joke about Rainbow’s laziness, but when her friend became upright, their faces lingered only a few inches apart. Applejack found her words had decided to lodge a protest in her throat. A familiar warmth rose to her face as hot breath teased her cheeks. “A-Ah brought you some food...i-in case you were feeling a might peckish.”

“R-right, of course,” Rainbow replied, noting the other mare’s sudden hesitation. With a bit of effort, she was able to take a seat back on the bench. A few moments later, Applejack produced the aforementioned food from her saddlebags. “Thanks.”

“Ain’t no trouble at all,” Applejack replied before taking a seat of her own.

As the earth pony had fallen oddly silent, Rainbow Dash took the moment to see what Applejack had brought her. A few small boxes sat on the bench wrapped in red handkerchiefs with green apple patterns upon them. Opening one of them up revealed a couple of homemade sandwiches, which struck Rainbow Dash as a bit plain. One bite, however, changed that sentiment immediately.

“Mm! Zap apple jam,” Rainbow commented without even taking a moment to finish her mouthful. It had been a while since the last harvest, which meant Applejack must’ve saved a few jars for special occasions. The rainbow-coloured delicacy helped to lift Rainbow’s spirit, but that sentiment was short-lived when she noticed the pony sitting next to her was still silent. “Is everything okay, AJ?”

“Sort of,” she replied after a brief hesitation. Being an honest pony made even that stretch of truth difficult to pull off. It only took one skeptical glance from the pegasus to shatter Applejack’s resolve. “Have you ever really wanted something, but when you finally got it, you weren’t quite sure what to do with it?”

“I do now,” Rainbow thought but refrained from giving voice to it. “What do you mean?”

“Well it’s just...Ah was pleased as punch to hear that you had, y’know...feelings for me,” Applejack began with the unsteadiness in her voice that accompanied her nervousness. “But Ah spent so long pounding the message that what Ah felt was a one-way road. Now here we are together, and,” Applejack paused as she let out a disappointed sigh, “Ah just ain’t quite sure how to act now. Looking at you, Ah can’t quite separate Rainbow Dash mah friend, and Rainbow Dash the girlfriend. Does that make a lick of sense to you or am Ah just spouting babel?”

“No, no. I think I understand,” Rainbow admitted as she set her food aside. “I mean, I always dreamed of being able to fly under Spitfire’s command. And now here I am living that dream and all I can think about is how much of a pain in the flank she’s being.”

“Grass is always greener on the other side, eh?”

“Wait, you’re not regretting ‘us,’ are you?”

“What? Good gracious, no!” Applejack hastily insisted. The realization that her doubts could have been misinterpreted had Applejack back-pedalling as though she were about to go over the metaphorical cliff. “Ah didn’t mean it like that at all!” The farmer’s head sank with woeful eyes gazing up to the pony beside her. “Ah was just worried about doing something stupid. Celestia knows Ah ain’t the best at relationships, and you mean too much to me to mess things up.”

Rainbow wasn’t sure why the other mare would feel that way. If anypony should’ve been worried about making a mess of things, it was the pegasus whose track record has been abysmal the past few weeks. She was the one with obvious issues of jealousy, jumping to conclusions, and making hasty, irrational decisions.

“Now that’s not true at all,” Rainbow insisted as she threw a supportive hoof around her friend’s shoulder. “After all, you managed to impressed Spitfire, and she probably hangs out with loads of awesome ponies.”

“Yer probably right,” Applejack admitted, albeit with a bit of hesitation. “It’s probably just first day jitters, that’s all. Ah’m still getting used to the idea of us. Normally if Ah had relationship problems, Ah’d just turn to you.”

“You still can.” While Rainbow Dash would have suggested somepony else to be the relationship guru, given the calibre of her recent advice, but that didn’t change the fact that Rainbow just as viable for advice as before. “This is a relationship, after all; we’re in this together. It’s like Soarin’ and Spitfire flying together - it’s all about counting and depending on each other. And there’s no shame in admitting when you’re in trouble, especially when that trouble can bring the other pony down too, and-”

Rainbow’s abrupt stop surprised and confused the other mare. She wasn’t sure whether to be worried about it or not. “Is something wrong?”

“I just realized I’ve been a huge idiot.”

“No, you made a lot of sense just now,” a still-confused Applejack said.

“I meant with Spitfire,” Rainbow explained before hopping off the bench. “I have to go talk with her!”

Given the urgency in the pegasus’ voice, Applejack was willing to let her carry on her way. This day was very important to Rainbow Dash, after all, and she was going to support her in any way she could. “Don’t forget your sandwiches,” she called out before Rainbow could leave.

“Oh, right! Thanks!” Rainbow Dash doubled-back to scoop up her half-eaten meal before departing once more, though not before giving another thanks in the form of a quick peck on the cheek.

While not moving as fast as she would have preferred, Rainbow made good speed back out to the open air of the arena’s interior. A quick scan of her surroundings led her over to Spitfire’s position in the nearby bleachers. The Wonderbolt Captain was toiling with a small, hoof-held chalkboard. A quick glance over the Captain’s shoulder revealed some preliminary flight plans that were no doubt meant for that night’s performance.

“You’ve still got five minutes,” Spitfire spoke up. Her speech was a bit muffled by the piece of chalk clenched between her teeth, but she did not appear willing to stop her work just to have a conversation. “You should that time to rest because it’s only getting tougher from here on.”

“My formations could use work,” Rainbow stated plainly.

“I believe I told you that a few hours ago,” Spitfire said before taking a brief pause to look over what she has written on her chalkboard. After muttering something about ‘inadequate’ she wiped half of its contents away. “And if I recall correctly, your response to that was ‘go eat a thundercloud.’”

“That was the headache talking.” Face-planting into the dirt had a way of bringing out anypony’s irritable side, and Spitfire’s indifferent shrug suggested that she understood this fact. Rainbow took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. What she was about to say was one of the hardest things she could imagine, and it took all her willpower to force those words out. “I need your help.”

Those choice words finally got the Captain’s attention. At first, it was just her gaze that crept up to meet Rainbow’s, but soon afterwards she set her chalkboard down. “Oh really? What happened to the Miss ‘I’m going to steal the show?’”

“Was this the whole point of all that ‘training?’ To get me to admit that you’re better than me?” While Rainbow would be reluctant to admit it, she has had to learn lessons the hard way in the past, but it struck her as irresponsible to be risking the competition just to hammer some humility to her. She was about to give voice to that thought but Spitfire cut her off.

“If I needed an ego boost, I’d just visit the fan club,” Spitfire replied. “The point is, Dash, I’ve got less than a day to turn you into a Wonderbolt, and I can’t do that if you think you’re already the best. You’re good, but there’s always room for improvement. I can’t make you into the best you can be if you think you’re already there.”

It seemed like a roundabout way to teach Rainbow humility, but she couldn’t deny that she did come into training today thinking that she only needed to learn a flight routine. Did Spitfire really think they had the time to spare though?

“Couldn’t you have just told me this from the start? You didn’t need to set me up for failure.”

“Maybe,” Spitfire said as she picked up her chalkboard once more, “but my mother had a saying, ‘a crash isn’t a failure unless you fail to learn from it.’ Now if you want my help, you’ll need to trust my methods. Is that understood?”

Rainbow’s answer came in the form of a silent nod.

“Okay then,” Spitfire said with a growing smile. With her wing, she patted the seat next to her. “Sit down, please. We’ll need to start with some of the fundamentals. It’s a bit dry, but bear with me.”

The tension in the arena had reached an almost palpable level. The excitement and energy filled every corridor like a raging inferno. For Rainbow Dash, she could feel it bristling through every part of her being, like the static from passing through a thundercloud. It was electrifying...energizing...invigorating. Rainbow was still in the locker room, but she knew that only a few stories above her sat thousands upon thousands of ponies. They were ponies that had come from all across Equestria to witness this moment, which was soon going to be her moment. What was surprising to Rainbow was how calm she was at this point. A few hours ago she was ready to tear her mane out in anxiety. After all, she was about to fly in front of thousands of ponies, and the Wonderbolts were counting on her, an untested rookie, to help hold their performance together so that they might stand a chance of winning the competition. A team was only as strong as its weakest link, and if the day of training had taught her anything, it was that she was said weak link.

Yet even despite the knowledge that if failure was to occur, it would most likely fall upon her, Rainbow felt at peace. Whatever happened out in the arena didn’t matter to her. These moments were going to be hers and hers alone; nopony could take them away. On top of that, everything about this night felt right to her. This was where she belonged: in the sky before adoring fans.

“How does the uniform fit?” Spitfire’s voice called out from the other side of a row of lockers.

“Like I was born to wear it,” Rainbow joked back. The yellow and cerulean flight suit blended well with her natural blue hues, and other than a bit of tightness around the hindquarter, it fit her like a glove. She was born to wear this uniform. It was also fortunate that Rainbow was about Fleetfoot’s size, otherwise she might have been forced to fly au natural, which would have cost the team points for presentation.

“Some ponies are,” the Captain agreed, much to Rainbow’s delight. The lessons in humility from earlier on in the day were over, and the Captain was back to fostering her teammate’s confidence. “But there’s been a small change in the flight plan that I need to go over with you. It’s risky, but it might help squeeze a few more points out of our score. It’s going to ask a lot of you, though.”

“What is it?” The news came as a surprise to Rainbow Dash. Spitfire had gone over the flight plan in extensive detail with the entire team. The Captain even made sure that Rainbow could recite the whole routine from memory. These changes would have to be of great importance to warrant being implemented at the last second.

“The thing is...um, you know how when the Wonderbolts fly we leave a storm cloud contrail?”

“Of course; it’s one of your signature techniques.”

“And remember how I said we don’t have time to teach it to you?”

"Yeah. You said we’d just have to make due without it.”

“Indeed, and that’s going to cause a problem.” That was not something Rainbow needed to hear less than fifteen minutes to showtime. She had her worries about causing problems, but those were about things she had control over. “You’re flying on the far right, which means our flight pattern is going to look asymmetrical, and that’s going to cost us points for presentation.”

“Well what do you expect me to do? Not fly?”

“You’ll fly lead.”

“L-lead?” The word tumbled out from her lips like filly losing her footing. The past few days had been beyond belief, but now it was treading into the realms of the impossible. “Y-you want me to fly at the lead?”

“No, I need you fly lead,” Spitfire corrected her fellow flier. “I don’t want to fly second to anypony, but if you think I’m going to let those featherheads from the Gryphon Kingdom beat us without a fight then you haven’t been paying much attention to me!”

Couldn’t argue with that logic. Spitfire had always been willing to do what it takes, including bringing on an untested rookie. As if there hadn’t been enough pressure on her already, now Rainbow was being put at the front of the formation. The whole team would be following her lead, which meant every manoeuvre depended on her precision and timing. Even the smallest mistake could send the whole team spiralling out of control.

No pressure.

“Can I count on you?” Spitfire asked.

“Yes, ma’am!” Rainbow hastily replied with a quick snap salute.

“Good,” Spitfire nodded in response. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to inform the rest of the team. Soarin’s going to have a heart attack when he hears about this.”

As the Captain headed for the exit, Rainbow felt what little peace and tranquility leave the room with her. Did Spitfire really trust her with the success of the entire performance? It was the Best Young Flier’s Competition all over again, except this time she didn’t have a Sonic Rainboom to bail her out. Being at the tail end of a formation was one thing, but now Rainbow was going to be at the forefront before thousands of impatient, over-analyzing, overly-critical sports fans. However, unlike the competition long ago in Cloudsdale, Rainbow knew how to combat her growing nervousness.

While it was not easy making her way through the arena halls while still in uniform, some cover in the convenient form of a tablecloth provided Rainbow Dash with a suitable cloak to avoid attracting attention. Thankfully, not being a known member of the Wonderbolts meant that anypony who did see glimpses of her uniform thought she was just another over-enthusiastic fan, which wasn’t too far from the truth.

The private box seats were easy to find, and thanks to the weekend pass that she still possessed, she was waved through by the gatekeeper without arousing any suspicions. From what she had been told, the glass she broke had already been replaced so Applejack should be settling in to watch the show. Rainbow Dash made sure to step lightly as she approached the sitting room. Though the lights had been dimmed, there was an unsuspecting pony sitting at the far side of the room. Just thinking of the earth pony’s loving embrace was beginning to ease the tensions from her mind; her powerful, yet tender physique; the sweet aroma of apples and cinnamon that lingered in her mane; and that smile that lit up even the darkest room.

Rainbow snuck up alongside the other mare, slipping onto the cushion while draping a wing around the mare’s lower back. “Hey there good-looking,” she whispered in a sultry tone.

“Gah! What in the-?” the other pony shrieked.

“Twilight?”

It wasn’t until she was up close that Rainbow realized that the pony she had just cozied up to was her studious librarian friend. Both were so startled by the other’s presence that both mares fell out of their seats. In fact, Twilight almost leapt out of it, but clumsy hooves resulted in her taking a tumble instead.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Rainbow demanded as she shot back to her hooves.

“Waiting for the show to start,” Twilight replied as she tried to hide the bright fluster upon her face. “Spitfire talked to the competition’s coordinators and got us some extra so Rarity and I could help cheer you on.”

“Then where’s Applejack?” Rainbow remembered Applejack explicitly stating that she would be watching from the private box. Had something held the pony up? Maybe she had gone down to the locker rooms to surprise Rainbow. She didn’t have time to go running around the arena trying to track down Applejack.

“She’s with Rarity getting her dress in order,” Twilight stated as if this fact should have been known to Rainbow. However, one could understand why the idea of ‘dress’ and ‘Applejack’ together in the same sentence would not be the first thing a pony thought.

“Dress? What dress?”

“The one she was going to surprise you with at the after-party.”

A surprise? As much as Rainbow Dash loved surprises, if Applejack had been planning on surprising her after the show then her presence was putting that plan at risk. The farmer pony would probably be disappointed if the surprise was ruined early.

Alas, the damage had already been done for the second that Rainbow Dash turned about to make a quick exit, she found herself staring at the mare in question. And as Twilight Sparkle had explained, Applejack’s absence was explained by the dress that she now wore. As to be expected from any piece of fashion crafted by Rarity’s keen eyes, it was a dress of grace of eloquence. Flowing lengths of various greens draped across her frame like the petals of a flower, which stopped down her fore legs just beneath the shoulders. It was modest, revealing little save for the fore legs, but the earth pony filled the dress out nicely with the gown hugging every curve of her workpony frame. Rainbow tried not to let her gaze linger too much on the gown, though like many of Rarity’s hoof-sewn dresses, it was hard to stop looking once you started. Its simplistic beauty captured Applejack’s essence, and it wasn’t until Applejack called out her name that Rainbow finally slapped both hooves over her eyes.

“I didn’t see anything!” Rainbow blurted.

“Yes you did,” Applejack insisted with a mixture of annoyance and disappointment. She had wanted to surprise Rainbow Dash, but she could only blame herself for not at least telling the pegasus to keep her distance until after the show. “Ain’t no point trying to pretend at this point.”

With a prolonged sigh, Rainbow let her hooves drop back to the floor. “You look nice.”

“Th-thanks,” Applejack stuttered her reply. While she knew that Spitfire was one to appreciate fine fashion, her tomboyish pegasus friend was less concerned by such aesthetics. Nonetheless, Applejack wanted to look her best in support of her new relationship and for the competition. “You really mean that? Ah feel kinda naked without mah hat.”

“Your hat?” Having been so fixated on the wardrobe, Rainbow hadn’t noticed that the iconic stetson missing from its usual perch. Instead, Applejack’s mane hung loose down her neck with a small apple-shaped pin tucked behind her ear. “I think you look rather cute without your mane like that. You should do it more often.”

“Ah should?” Applejack appeared genuinely confused by the notion. “Ah dunno. It feels like it’s always getting in the way. How in the world Fluttershy manages hers is a mystery to me.”

The growing intimacy in the atmosphere made Twilight realize that her presence was not the most appropriate for the moment. “I think I’m going to check out the concession stands,” she excused herself from the room. Neither of the other ponies paid much attention to Twilight’s departure, but were grateful that their friend was considerate enough to give them some privacy.

“Is everything okay, Rainbow?” Applejack asked. “Shouldn’t you be down in the locker rooms with the other Wonderbolts?”

“Yes, of course! Everything is great. I mean, why wouldn’t it?” Rainbow answered. Her attempt to hide her own nervous only made her words sound hurried and ring empty of truth. “I mean, it’s not like Spitfire just asked me to fly lead pony or anything.”

“She did what?” Applejack exclaimed. Again, her limited knowledge in aerobatics put her at a disadvantage, but it probably had overlap with the lead pony in a work crew. “Boy, Rainbow, you look as nervous as a filly on her first date.”

“Does it show that much?” No point hiding the truth from Applejack. After the Best Young Flier’s Competition, the farmer pony was far more attuned to picking up on the subtle cues that underlined Rainbow’s boisterous nature. “I don’t suppose there’s enough time for a quick nervous breakdown?”

“Would you rather we skip ahead to the part where Ah give you a kiss and tell you it’ll all be just fine before you head on back to the locker rooms with a new spring in yer step”

The two shared in a small chuckle before Rainbow Dash saddled up beside the other mare. She rested her against Applejack’s before sighing contently to herself. Rainbow figured there wasn’t much point in a pep talk since both sides knew the other well enough to know what was going to be said. She would worry about failing in front of thousands of spectators and thus ruining her chances of becoming a Wonderbolt forever, and then Applejack would reassure her that everything would turn out okay. The words didn’t even matter at this point as having Applejack nearby was all the reassurance the pegasus needed. In the end, it didn’t matter what happened during the performance because Rainbow Dash had the one thing she wanted more than the Wonderbolts and nothing was going to change that.

“Could you say it anyways?” she whispered in the Applejack’s ear. “I just want to hear it from you.”

“You are going to do just fine out there, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said as she put a hoof around the pegasus’ shoulder. “In less than an hour, you’re going to fly out into the arena as the lead pony of the Wonderbolts, and you’re going to put on a show so spectacular that it’ll knock the hats off of every hoity-toity head in the building!”

That was a bit more fanfare than Rainbow had expected but it was appreciated nonetheless. It could have seemed like empty platitudes to the casual observer, but Rainbow Dash felt the warmth and truth in every word. A part of her wanted to skip the competition and just spend the night with Applejack. What was one simple competition compared to a night with the amazing pony in the city?

“Now Ah want you to march yer butt back down to that locker room before Spitfire wonders where you ran off to,” Applejack continued. With a hoof upon the cheek, she guided Rainbow’s gaze to meet with hers. “And when you’re out there tonight, Ah want only two things to be on yer mind. The first is to fly like you’ve never flown before. The second is this.”

She pulled the pegasus in, embracing her with a deep, sensual kiss. The warmth of their love melted the pegasus like putty in her hooves, which made Applejack wonder if she might have made a bad move. The last thing Rainbow needed was all the blood being shunted away from her brain when she needed it to focus. Before things got too heated and a spatula would be required to scrap the pegasus off the floor, Applejack broke away from the kiss to Rainbow’s evident disappointment.

“I didn’t quite catch that second part,” Rainbow said with a growing smile. “Could you repeat it?”

“Nuh-uh! Ain’t no encores until you finish that competition,” Applejack chuckled before pushing the other mare towards the exit.

“Oh come on! Just another quick one!” Rainbow’s pleas fell upon deaf ears, however, as the workpony began to shove the pegasus along with more force.

“You heard me, Rainbow,” Applejack reiterated. “Spitfire and the others are waiting on you. Now git!”

A sharp slap to the posterior got the pegasus moving in earnest, and soon Rainbow Dash was galloping back towards the arena with a fresh spring in her step.

Ch. 19 - Final Words

Rainbow Dash felt her heart tighten in her chest; never before had she experienced such a paralyzing mixture of excitement and trepidation. Her eyes remained fixated on the green field before her and the star-studded night sky that lay beyond. The air was crisp and cool with nary a breeze to be felt. It was perfect flying weather; it was the prime ingredient to a perfect flight. The stage was set and the audience was on its hooves in celebration. Rainbow could hear the chanting from where she stood in the tunnel leading out from the locker rooms.

“Wonderbolts! Wonderbolts! Wonderbolts!”

They might not have been echoing her name like the did in her dreams, but the effect was the same nonetheless. Besides, Rainbow Dash knew that somewhere up in the highest echelons of the arena, there were three ponies, three dear friends, cheering her name. It was hard for her not to think about her friends at a moment like this. They had done so much for her when she didn’t deserve special treatment, and she didn’t want to let them down. In fact, she wanted to put on the best show of her life for them, but for Applejack most of all. The simple fact that she had put up with so much of Rainbow’s numbskullery and was still willing to give her a chance was nothing short of a miracle.

Actually, when she thought about it, what was really a miracle was how good Rarity was able to make the farmer pony look. The gala dresses looked amazing, but this time around Applejack just looked wing-fluttering good. Rainbow couldn’t help but continue imaging how the green silken dress hugged every curve upon that pony’s body from across her shoulders, along her back, and down her-

“Rainbow!” The shout from behind her was followed a second later by a painful smack as somebody pulled on the elastics of her goggles and snapped them against the back of her head. While it stung, it had been necessary as Spitfire had been trying to get her attention for a while.

“What is it, ma’am?” Rainbow almost had to shout to get her voice over the chanting that was reverberating through the arena.

“Now would be a good time to lead us out,” she reminded. She directed Rainbow’s attention to a couple of ponies up ahead who were waving them in.

“Oh, right!” Cursing her distracted mind, Rainbow began a steady trot towards the arena grounds that broke into a close-formation flying-V. The cheers erupted into a fevered pitch as the Wonderbolts flew out into the arena with a brilliant contrail of clouds and rainbow.

“So Rainbow is going to be leading the formation?” Twilight asked for clarification. When told that her rainbow-headed friend was going to be in the lead, Twilight didn’t clue in on the precise meaning and its implications.

“Apparently Spitfire wanted her at the front or otherwise they’d lose points for looking all lopsided,” Applejack explained with a bit more clarity before she gave an indifferent shrug. “Or something like that. Ah don’t exactly get how these things are scored.” She remembered something about precision, coordination, and aesthetics, but that conversation happened when she had been feeling distraught over her situation with Rainbow Dash. As a result, her memory was spotty recalling the particulars. She trusted that Spitfire knew what she was doing, and she knew that Rainbow Dash would be up to the challenge.

“I couldn’t help but notice the way that Rainbow Dash left the room,” Twilight said with a sly grin creeping upon her face. “I take it things are going well between you two?”

The way that Twilight was smiling, a kind of knowing, playful smirk, made Applejack wonder just how much privacy had actually been given. She wasn’t embarrassed to be seen with Rainbow Dash, but she considered intimate moments to be something private.

“Things are just fine n’ dandy with Rainbow,” Applejack answered. She kept her answer terse, but only because the show was about to start and her focus was elsewhere. “She just needed a little pep talk, that’s all.”

“Must have been some pep talk,” the librarian giggled. The chanting from the rest of the ponies in attendance was beginning to escalate, which meant that the Wonderbolts were close to starting their show. “I’m happy for you, Applejack,” she added. “For both of you.”

“Well thank you, Twilight. That’s mighty kind of you.” Though she didn’t expect any kind of negative reaction from any of her friends, Applejack still hoped that her new relationship wouldn’t upset her circle of friends.

“You know Pinkie Pie is going to have a field day when she hears about this.” Twilight’s joking remark elicited a few chuckles from her friend who then nodded in agreement. No doubt Pinkie Pie would want to throw some kind of celebratory party in honour of this new romance. Then again, what situation didn’t make Pinkie Pie want to throw a party? Regardless of what their reactions were, Applejack was looking forward to returning home to Ponyville and seeing the rest of her friends again. It felt like she had been away for ages when, in reality, it had only been a few days. “By the way, where’s Rarity? Wasn’t she helping you with your dress?”

“We ran into that Fancypants feller on the way back here,” Applejack explained. ‘Ran into’ was not the most accurate way to describe what happened. It would be more fair to say that Rarity spotted the familiar unicorn and proceeded to steamroll her way through the crowds to reach him. No doubt those two high-society ponies were off in their own private box. “She told me to tell you not to wait up for her, and that she’d meet up with you back at the hotel later.”

“I guess it’s just the two of us then,” Twilight said. “By the way, I had been meaning to ask you something.”

“What is it, Twi?”

“It’s about that shipment of books-”

“Oh, hey! The show’s about to start!” Applejack was saved by the bell, or announcer in this case. Just at that moment, the five-pony aerobatic masters, better known as the Wonderbolts, launched out onto the field.

“Oh my gosh, there she is! Look!”

Applejack didn’t need her friend to point out. She would have needed to be struck blind at that instant to have not seen Rainbow Dash at the lead of the formation. That rainbow-coloured mane and matching contrail of hers made her stand out like a beacon. Applejack couldn’t help but smile at the thought of all the ponies in the audience who were wondering who this magnificent mare was.

“Just you watch, Twilight, this is going to be spectacular!”

“It was just awful!” Highwinds lamented as her head slammed against the tabletop.

“A disaster! A horrible, horrible disaster!” Misty chimed in a moment later.

With the exception of the Captain, the entire Wonderbolt team was huddled with sunken heads around the small, circular bar table. They cradled mugs of cider close as listless eyes gazed into their bubbling brews. Off in their dark, sullen corner of an otherwise lively Manehattan pub, not a single smile adorned any of the Wonderbolts. They exchanged nervous glances with one another, and occasionally one would glance over to the bar in the distance where a surly-looking Spitfire was waiting on the bartender.

“Are we quite done yet?” Rainbow Dash finally spoke up after another minute of silence. Her patience with her teammates superfluous show of solidarity felt more like a mockery of her earlier concerns. She knew being the new girl on the team meant a bit of playful ribbing, but it was getting silly now.

“She’s right,” Soarin’ said with a lighter tone to his voice. “I think we’ve paid enough respects to our fellow fliers. So here’s a toast!” Spirits lifted along with their mugs as the senior Wonderbolt rose from his seat. “Here is to the Starlight Dancers whose most magnificent of mid-air meltdowns allowed the Wonderbolts to leap-frog up the scoreboards!”

“It really was just awful,” Highwinds said while trying to avoid sounding too happy about that fact.

“That routine of theirs was a disaster,” Misty added. “I don’t think I’ve a choke that bad since Highwind almost swallowed a meadowlark just before the Vanhoover airshow.”

“Hey! That bird came at me from outta nowhere! He was out for my blood.” Highwind’s attempts to defend his honour were met with a pantomime of the aforementioned event. Misty proved to be a versatile actress as she feigned a coughing, gagging fit with high-pitched squeaks for help. By the time Soarin’ got the team to settle down again, Highwind was drowning his embarrassment in hard cider.

“As I was saying,” Soarin’ spoke up again, “thanks to the Starlight Dancers gracefully plummeting down the scoreboard, the Wonderbolts were able to sail smoothly into a second-place finish. I know Spitfire will say this all again, but I want to thank you guys for all your hard work. Misty, Highwind, you both flew wonderfully together, and don’t be surprised if we start doing that more often.” The two congratulated Wonderbolts flashed each other self-aggrandizing smiles before exchanging high-five slaps with their wings. Then Soarin’ and the other Wonderbolts turned their attention over to Rainbow Dash. “And of course, a toast to Rainbow Dash for whom without we would not have been in this mess, nor would we have been able to get out of it!”

Rainbow Dash felt a small tinge of embarrassment, but the smiles of approval given by all the other pegasi at the table was a clear indication that no ill will was held. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Rainbow saw nothing but pride and approval from the other Wonderbolts. Were her wings not so tired out from a long day of flight, she would have been liable to rocket through the roof alongside her ego. Soarin’ said something else to conclude his toast but by that point Rainbow was so wrapped up in her own egoism that she wouldn’t have heard a thundercloud atop of her head. Her mind and focus was dragged back down to reality by the clatter of mugs.

“So what is Spifire doing over by the bar?” Rainbow asked. The Wonderbolt Captain had not spent much time with the time since their arrival at the tavern for their post-flight celebration. In fact, Spitfire looked to be the most dour pony in the room.

“Just a little tradition,” Misty explained. “After any of the big competitions, the captain of the second-place team has to buy a drink for the captain of the winning team, and vice-versa.”

Judging by all the smirks across the table, plus the Captain’s lack thereof, Rainbow suspected that there was a bit more to the tradition than just a few simple drinks. “So why does Spitfire look like she’s about to get root canal?”

“That has more to do with the choice of drinks,” Soarin’ elaborated as he motioned for Rainbow to pay particular attention to the bar. “You see, the Captain of the winning team gets a glass of...um, what was it again this year?”

“Glentrot single malt, eighteen years,” Misty stepped in with the answer.

“Oh my goodness, that’s a good one.” Soarin’ sounded envious that he wouldn’t be the recipient of the drink. “And it also costs sixty bits a glass.”

“Sounds nice,” Rainbow commented. She didn’t know much about liquors beyond simple ciders. Granted, when you lived near Sweet Apple Acres there was little need to experiment with other beverages. Rainbow could have lived on nothing but cider and still die a happy pony. “And what does Spitfire drink?”

“A particular concoction that the bartender keeps for such special occasions and degreasing large engines.”

Soarin’s description had left Rainbow with a sense of morbid curiosity. Thankfully said curiosity did not have to wait long as Spitfire was joined at the bar by a sleek and powerful-looking gryphon. A quick whisper from Soarin’ revealed that it was Harkoni, Captain of the Gryphon Kingdom’s Golden Eagles. His team had beat out the Wonderbolts by a narrow margin and he appeared to be quite pleased with himself. Rainbow suspected that he had been on the receiving end of this tradition on many occasions, and was looking forward to seeing Spitfire swallow her pride, along with a beverage that three out of five doctors would classify as a toxin. As for Spitfire, she looked upon the glass set before her with thinly-veiled trepidation as though she were a filly about to take their first jump off a cloud.

After several tense seconds of starting at the murkey brown liquid, Spitfire shut her eyes tight and slammed the contents of the glass back. At first, the Wonderbolt Captain didn’t react, nor even put the glass down. Then the glass slipped from her hoof as the pony began to clutch at her throat as though flames were spewing forth. Next came the coughing fit, which progressively grew worse and worse until she was flailing about the bar like a pony having a seizure. Her face went several shades of red over the course of her convulsive fit before she let out a rather melodramatic gasp and collapsed to the floor.

Once the Wonderbolts were finished laughing, Soarin’ got up and trotted over to his beleaguered Captain in order to render aid. “Quite finished, dear?” Soarin’ quipped as he nudged her with his hoof.

“I can’t feew ma tong,” Spitfire whimpered.

“That’s just your tastebuds committing suicide,” he reassured her before hoisting her back to her hooves. He kindly offered to act as support as he helped the weak-legged pegasus back to the table. No sooner had he helped her into a chair did Spitfire grab for the nearest mug of cider, which just so happened to be Soarin’s. She threw back almost half of its contents in a fervent rush, as though dousing a fire.

“Thundering nimbus,” Spitfire gasped in relief. She almost planted her face onto the table, but stopped just short by cushioning the landing with her forehoof. “What feather-brained moron thought up of this stupid tradition?”

“That would be you,” Soarin’ said. “You used to do competitions during weeks at training camps. Of course, you had to stop that when Celestia ordered you to stop poisoning your teammates.”

Spitfire only groaned an incoherent response, which was her way of admitting defeat. She felt kind of silly forgetting that little detail, but she was willing to attribute her forgetfulness to the fact that her brain was still reeling from the first drink. It felt like somepony had knocked her brain out with a flaming, lead brick. She did recall setting up those competitions as Soarin’ had described. The point of the horrid drink was to give sufficient motivation to whoever was likely to be runner-up to try harder. Suffice to say, Spitfire felt motivated to do better next time as she was certain her liver couldn’t survive another hit like that.

“I am starting to understand the Princess’ wisdom in that decision,” Spitfire groaned. She wanted to make a proper address to her team in order to congratulate them for all their hard work. Alas, it was hard to focus when it felt as though something had crawled into her throat and died. Mustering all of her willpower, Spitfire shot back up to her hooves, and would’ve fallen right back over had it not been for Soarin’ lending her support. “I just want to thank you all for putting up with my personal drama. You guys really are the best team a pegasus could ask for.”

“Oh come on, Captain, no need to get all mushy on us,” Highwinds joked.

It appeared that Spitfire was the only pony at the table who held her to a higher standard. “I’m serious, you guys!” Despite her insistence, the rest of the Wonderbolts weren’t interested in listening to any further apologies. They laughed off her repeated attempts at a heartfelt apology. As far as they were concerned, there was a much better way to settle matters on the team.

“By the way Captain,” Misty said as she leaned down to grab something that had been stowed under the table, “in honour of this momentous occasion of your first spectacular, flaming face-plant, we have gotten you a little something.”

Spitfire felt a sense of dreading rising up through her given that her whole team looked as though they were on the brink of another fit of laughter. It appeared that ‘forgive and forget’ was off the menu, and her fears were confirmed when Misty set a small pineapple-shaped cake on the table. The words ‘five year dry spell’ were written upon it in bright red icing.

Spitfire gazed at the fruit-shaped confection with a mixture of amusement and horrid realization. Everyone else at the table was snickering while their Captain began to turn several shades of red. “Wh-what is the meaning of this?” she eventually managed to stammer out.

“Well we couldn’t let last night’s occasion go without notice,” Highwind explained. “Especially considering how...vocal the two of you were.”

“V-vocal?” Spitfire murmured.

Misty once again put her skills as an actress to the test as she performed an intricate oral re-enactment of the events that transpired in Spitfire’s hotel room. Her exuberance garnered quite a bit of attention from the other patrons at the bar, which only made the fluster on the Captain’s face intensify. The impromptu one-pony show came to an abrupt halt when the cake was hurled right into Misty’s face, splattering her in a fine layer of icing and pineapple filling.

“Totally worth it,” Misty proclaimed with a vibrant grin.

“You are the last pegasus I thought I’d see a sad face on.”

The sudden voice snapped Rainbow Dash’s focus back to reality. She had been so engrossed in her own thoughts, gazing listlessly into her mug, that she failed to even notice the Wonderbolt Captain approaching until she had dropped onto the neighboring barstool. The party had been going on for a while with well over half of the patrons now in varying stages of inebriation. Even the Wonderbolt Captain was sporting a lasting whiskey blush.

“So what’s eating you, hot shot?” Spitfire inquired. Despite nursing what was her fifth or sixth drink of the night, it was evident that she still had all her wits about her. “Most ponies in your position would be celebrating their achievement until the sun came up.”

“I guess I’m just not feeling it,” Rainbow admitted reluctantly. While most of the other Wonderbolts were scattered throughout the tavern mingling with the other competitors, Rainbow had spent the bulk of her time at the bar. A number of fliers from other teams stopped by briefly for an introduction, but most of the conversations were cut short by other patrons.

“It’s because she’s not here, isn’t it?” Spitfire didn’t even need to see the affirmative nod to know that was right. If she had been in Rainbow’s place, she would probably feel the same way. In fact, she wouldn’t have even bothered staying for long, which begged the question as to why Rainbow was.

“Pretty much,” Rainbow muttered in response. In truth, she wasn’t paying much attention to the pony beside her as she had plunged into deep thought once more. She remembered how she felt hanging out with the Wonderbolts back during the Grand Galloping Gala. Back then, being invited into the VIP section by Spitfire made her feel as giddy as a schoolfilly. At the gala, she had snubbed spending time with her friends in favor of her idols, and while the night ended in a disaster, Rainbow only regretted not doing enough to garner the Wonderbolts’ attention. Now Rainbow found herself at a small, private party with the Wonderbolts and had not just their attention but their gratitude as well. She had everything she wanted back during the gala, and yet all she really wanted was to be with Applejack. Victory didn’t feel quite like it when you couldn’t celebrate with those that you held dear.

“Then why are you still here?” Spitfire asked. Were she in Rainbow’s position, she would have left the party the moment things got dreary. The fact the pony she’d be leaving the party for was Applejack raised even more questions.

“Oh! Well, there was something I had been meaning to talk to you about,” Rainbow Dash began as she fidgeted with her stein. Nervousness was not something that she was comfortable with so she just went ahead before nerves could overwhelm her. “I hung around because I was hoping you’d eventually ask me to stay on the team permanently.”

Spitfire raised a quizzical eyebrow but didn’t appear to be visibly surprised by Rainbow’s confession. Instead, she rested her chin upon a curled hoof and said, “And what makes you think I would?”

“Because you’ve seen what I can do,” Rainbow insisted, “and I know you said that you were only making me a reservist temporarily. But this isn’t like after the Best Young Fliers Competition where we just hung out and flew loops for fun. You said so yourself back in Ponyville that all I needed was more discipline.” While this sudden proclamation didn’t strike the Wonderbolt Captain as surprising, the strength of the young flier’s arguments were. Spitfire could not deny that much had changed since their conversation in the Ponyville library. “You’ve already brought me half-way there! I can do this, Spitfire! You know it, I know it, and even those dolts on the Starlight Dancers know it!”

Spitfire took a moment to contemplate the arguments made. She came to her decision quickly but decided to make it seem like it was a more thoughtful answer than it was. The appearance that she didn’t make the decision in haste would help soften the blow.

“I can’t,” she answered.

The answer came as a considerable shock to Rainbow Dash. The stunning blow to her ego alone left her sitting on the barstool slack-jawed for a brief moment. Despite simplicity, it took Rainbow a second to finally squeak out a response. “What?”

“I can’t make you a part of the team right now.”

“I heard you the first time!” The reaction could have convinced Spitfire of otherwise. “I don’t get it. Everyone else on the team was saying that I should start the initiation training with you guys. I know I can sound a bit full of myself at times but you’d be crazy not to take me!”

“Of course I’d be crazy not to take you!” Spitfire exclaimed as she threw her hooves into the air for added emphasis. it almost knocked her beverage over in the process. “You’re as sloppy as a drunk in a windstorm and you’re still almost as good as me. Just imagine the kind of stuff you could do when you’re skills are honed to a razor’s edge. You’d be absolutely, undeniably unstoppable!” It might have been drunk praise but it was praise nonetheless so Rainbow took it for all that it was worth. It still left the foreboding sense that a giant elephant-sized ‘but’ was about to be dropped on her head. “Every captain and news outlet from here to the Gryphon kingdom is going to call me a fool, but I can’t take you. I can’t do that to her.”

“To her? You mean Applejack?”

Spitfire was relieved to see that Rainbow Dash hadn’t drank so much that she couldn’t follow the conversation to its conclusions. However, Rainbow’s confusion still persisted so Spitfire was forced to make her reasoning more clear.

“Rainbow, do you have any idea how difficult the training period is for a Wonderbolt Initiate?”

Rainbow Dash froze for a brief moment, and Spitfire could pinpoint the exact instant that the coin dropped inside the young pegasus’ mind. The realization had come slowly, but it hit Rainbow with the force of a lightning bolt.

“If you think this morning was tough training, multiply that by a hundred times and you’ll get the general idea,” Spitfire continued in order to make the point as clear as possible. “We’re talking bi-weekly training camps at the academy, participating in every team practice, and travelling with the team to almost every major event of the aerobatic circuit. I am not exaggerating when I say you’ll have at best two or three months worth of free time during the next year and a half.”

That was a lot of time to spend away from not just home, but from Ponyville and all her friends. A few days or maybe a week or two wasn’t as big a deal, but training as a Wonderbolt meant spending almost all of her free time with the team. She had always looked at Spitfire and saw the kind of pegasus that she had wanted to be. But now that she knew the details up close, was that what she wanted? To be a pony who spent almost every waking minute training and studying? A pegasus that sacrificed almost everything outside of her career to be the best? With the exception of Applejack, did Spitfire even have friends beyond the Wonderbolts?

“I won’t lie to you,” Spitfire continued. “The initiation phase of a Wonderbolt is a lot of hard work and a lot of time dedicated to the team. It’ll put a strain on any relationship; even mine, and I was with Soarin’ at the time.” Rainbow Dash could see why Spitfire would be so hesitant to force Applejack into such a situation. After all the deceit and turmoil that had transpired, asking her to put up with Rainbow galavanting across Equestria for the better part of an eighteen-month stretch was beyond unreasonable. It was almost a complete betrayal. That thought alone was enough to plant seeds of doubt within her mind.

“W-well, it’s only a few months, I’m sure we could manage,” Rainbow Dash tried to argue back.

The Wonderbolt Captain looked unconvinced as she shrugged her shoulders and took another sip from her drink. “And what happens afterwards? You’ll be put on the circuit and become a big-time star by the end of the first quarter. You’ll be sought after by every sports journalist in Canterlot and Manehattan, not to mention you’d be buried in invitations. Is that really the kind of environment you want to try and build a relationship in?”

“But you were dating Applejack!”

“I’m also Team Captain,” Spitfire quipped. “I have the luxury of being able to make my own schedule. Plus I don’t seek out the spotlight like a certain young pegasus.”

The accusatory glare was enough to break any desire Rainbow might have had to defend against such a label. Deep down, she knew that Spitfire was right about that. If she did become a Wonderbolt, she would be spending a lot of time showboating and glory-seeking. That would strain an already fragile relationship that had to endure long periods of separation thanks to the initiation training. Could Applejack endure that kind of effort? Could Rainbow Dash even ask that of her?

Seeing that she had succeeded in robbing the young pegasus of any and all joy she might have been feeling that night, Spitfire softened her attitude and gave a supportive pat on the back. “If it’s any consolation, I didn’t like having to tell you no either.” That had the opposite effect, unfortunately, and only made Rainbow’s head sink slower until she was almost face-first into her drink. Maybe reassurances weren’t the right answer. “Five years ago, I made a choice between pursuing my dreams and staying with the pony I loved. I chose my career and spent the next five years being alone and miserable. It was the biggest mistake of my life.”

“Yeah, but in the last five years, you reshaped the Wonderbolts into what they are now,” Rainbow said. She wasn’t trying to make it sound like such a sacrifice had been worth it, but she hoped to help put things in perspective. “You can’t just tell me to give up on my dreams.”

A small, bitter smile curled upon the Captain’s lip for a brief moment. She gazed across the bar to some ponies who were sitting at the far side of the tavern. Amongst the rambunctious pegasus was Soarin’ who was regaling the others with another story of self-deprecating humour. “Dreams are important, Rainbow, but eventually you wake up. It’s just as important to make sure that you wake up to something equally worthwhile.”

Another harsh truth, especially with regards to the Wonderbolt. Aerobatics was a hard sport that was even harder on the wings. Most fliers stayed in the game for maybe a decade before wear and tear began to slow a pegasus down. A great flier like Spitfire could last until a second decade but the later years would be a slow decline from the glory of her prime. Rainbow Dash was still young and if she started now she had the prospect of a long and bright future ahead of her in the game. But Rainbow Dash would eventually wake from that dream too, and then what?

“So you’re saying that I have to choose between Applejack or the Wonderbolts?” a mournful Rainbow Dash spoke up.

Suddenly, Spitfire just let out a terse little giggle. “I just said I can’t do it right now. The training time would be tough on a relationship, but I never said that it meant a relationship was impossible.” Spitfire almost had to laugh at the idea that a Wonderbolt had to choose between the sport and their love life. She wound up making such a choice but only because her own pride had forced herself into such a position. The idea of lots of single, lonely Wonderbolts was slightly amusing, especially considering the ever-growing list of Highwind’s sexual conquests. “Take a year or two and spend it with Applejack. The girl deserves to be given a loving, meaningful relationship and I know you can do that. Later on maybe you’ll find something more worthwhile than the Wonderbolts. If you don’t, however, and you think that your relationship with Applejack is strong enough to weather anything the world can throw at you two then you can come find me. Promise me you won’t join up with anybody else and I’ll keep a slot open for you.”

“You’d be willing to wait that long?” Rainbow said with a bit of surprise. It was a rather eloquent, yet simple, solution to both of their problems. It wasn’t as though the team or the offer was going to disappear the moment Rainbow Dash trotted out the door.

“Like I said, I’d be crazy not to take you,” Spitfire answered, “but a pony like Applejack only comes along once in a lifetime and you’d be crazy not to take her.”

The platform at the train station was particularly crowded that morning. Granted, there had been a lot more traffic coming into town in the days following the shoot-out with Billy and his gang. Supplies, workers, marshalls, and more were all coming into town, and all of it was connected in one way or another to what had transpired just days earlier. Daring Do had spent those few days in town recovering from the injuries she had sustained, as well as helping some of the townsfolk sift through the debris of the old saloon. There was still a big pile of charred and splintered wood when she eventually gave up in her search. There were a few scraps of leather and a burnt-up hat, but no other sign of the nameless mare in the wreckage.

“Are you sure you don’t want any sort of payment?” Doc Tenderhoof asked for the hundredth time since the marshals took Billy away. “It was you and Blondie that did most of the work.”

“I didn’t come here to make money,” Daring Do replied as she checked her watch. Her train back east would be arriving soon, and she was anxious to return home and put this chapter of her life behind her. It felt like a defeat to have worked so hard only to return home with empty hooves, but she carried with her the small hint of satisfaction in knowing that she had done some good. “Besides, we wrecked almost a quarter of the town. The town needs that money a lot more than I do.” The sound of a steam whistle in the distance took Daring’s attention to the approaching train in the distance. It was a most curious feeling to be torn between wanting to leave and wanting to stay. Maybe it was because returning home meant that she was really gone forever, and Daring didn’t want to accept that. “Are you guys going to be okay? Nobody’s going to come seeking revenge?”

“I doubt it,” Tenderhoof said as he glanced back towards the town. It had only been a few days but ponies were already out in force working to rebuild. “With the bounty money from Billy and his friends, we’ve got supplies and new workers coming in, and with that new blood comes new money. Plus with all those thugs gone, ponies might be willing to start travelling out this far again. I think this town is finally going to be all right.”

“That’s good to hear,” Daring said. It was good news, but it still felt bitter to her taste.

As the train pulled into the station, the town doctor turned his attention to the archaeologist who would soon be leaving. “I know you’ve probably heard it a hundred times already, but I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done. We won’t ever forget what you’ve done; you and Blondie have given everyone in this town a second chance.”

“Yeah,” a morose Daring murmured. “I suppose Blondie got what she wanted in the end: a final farewell in a blaze of glory that everypony will remember.”

“I can assure you that nopony here will ever forget Blondie’s sacrifice.” He paused for a moment as the train began came to a halt before them, temporarily drowning out all other noise with its metallic screech. “Some of the townsfolk are thinking of getting a statue built in the center of town to honour her.”

“I bet she’d really like that.” The thought of a stone statue dedicated to the foul-tempered, trigger-happy gunslinger brought a small curl to the pegasus’ lips. No doubt the coming months and years would see Blondie’s story told time and time again by the townsfolk with each retelling becoming more grandiose. She wouldn’t have been surprised if that had been Blondie’s hope from the start.

With the train stewards beginning to make their boarding calls, Tenderhoof and Daring Do made their final farewells and parted ways. Daring was sad to say goodbye to this chaotic little frontier town, but she had a life to return to and a lot of papers to grade. Despite all good reason pointing to leaving, Daring hesitated to take that first step. In all of her travels and adventures, she had always prided herself on never giving up, but returning home felt like exactly that. The amulet was gone, not that she was too concerned about that anymore, and so was Blondie.

The crowds of ponies coming and going reminded Daring that the world was still moving forward regardless of how she felt. It wasn’t until one inconsiderate mare bumped into her hindquarter that she was finally knocked back to her senses.

“Careful!” Daring snapped back almost instinctively. She was about to give that mare a piece of her mind when she heard something clatter at her feet. The impact must have caused the other pony to drop some of her belongings. “Hey! You dropped somethi-” Daring was half-way to scooping up the dropped item when her train of thought completely derailed. What she picked up wasn’t just some loose bobble, but a familiar gold, jeweled amulet. What surprised Daring most was not that it was the Amulet of the Equilla, but the presence of a single lead bullet, twisted and tangled within the otherwise unblemished metalwork. Perhaps there had been some truth in that legend of invulnerability. It took her a few moments of staring at the deformed lead slug before its significance became clear. “The bullet that Billy shot,” Darin murmured under her breath once the realization sank in. If the amulet had stopped that crippling shot then that was not just any inconsiderate mare who bumped into it.

Daring swung about face so fast it almost gave her whiplash. “Blondie?” she called out. Alas, there was no sign of the nameless mare; the crowd was too thick to see. Without the telltale hat or coat, she was looking for an orange pony with a blonde mane, which was a wide net to cast on short notice. She was about to give chase, but a final boarding call from the train’s conductor stopped her from such foolishness.

“I guess this is what she wanted,” Daring muttered to herself as she glanced back to the amulet hanging from her hoof. Daring was glad that she hadn’t given up hope. She had her prize at long last, and she would soon have it safely stored in a museum for the world to see. Daring was still sad to leave, but she reminded herself that some ponies were just born to roam free.

And somewhere out there in the desert of the untamed west was a mare; a mare with no name. In her own way she is, perhaps, the most dangerous pony who ever lived.

“And somewhere out there in the desert of the untamed west was a mare; a mare with no name. In her own way she is, perhaps, the most dangerous pony who ever lived.”

“Now that was a mighty fine ending,” Applejack commented. “And you are one hay of a storyteller.”

A faint blush crept up upon the pegasus’ cheeks as she closed the tome and set it aside. She wasn’t sure why the compliment spurred such a visceral response from her. Perhaps it was because the two mares were curled up alongside one another upon Applejack’s bed back home in Ponyville, or perhaps it was due to the late hour and the setting sun bringing a more tranquil and intimate atmosphere to their time together. Either way, Rainbow Dash liked the way it made her feel.

Applejack let out a quiet yawn before she rested her head against the pegasus’ shoulder. “For what it’s worth, Ah really appreciate that you’re willing to put the Wonderbolts on hold just for me.” That, by no means, meant that Applejack was going to live with the notion that she, for some reason, kept Rainbow Dash from achieving her dreams. If anything, Applejack was going to remember and make sure that she went back to the Wonderbolts once their relationship was strong enough to weather it. It wouldn’t be easy, but the best things in life never were.

“After everything you’ve done for me, it’s the least I could do,” Rainbow Dash said as she draped a wing across her girlfriend’s back. “Besides, how else are you going to know what an awesome girlfriend I can be if you don’t spend time with me?”

Whether it was serious or not, Applejack just laughed in response. “Right you are, sugarcube,” she said between chuckles. “And you can bet your apples that Ah’m looking forward to each and every day of that.” Suffice to say, there would be no shortage of confidence in this relationship. Reaching up, she gently nuzzled her cheek against the other mare. The warmth was gentle and inviting and provided a stark contrast to the cooling evening air. “So what’cha want to do now?”

The half-innocent, half-teasing question elicited a playful little laugh from the pegasus, who curled her wing to tickle at the other mare’s side. “Up for a little game perhaps?” she coyly replied.

The playful tease, however, sparked an unexpected response from Applejack. “Oh, that reminds me actually!” she said as she reached for her bedside table. “Twilight suggested that we ought to take a gander at this book together.”

Rainbow Dash was a bit confused as to what spurred this shift in focus, but she was curious enough to indulge. She wondered as to what sort of book her egghead friend would have recommended for the two of them. What Applejack set down in front of her only spurred more confusion.

“Now why would I want to read a book about types of hay?”

Sneak Peek - Where Would Rainbow Dash

“So Blondie returns in the latest book?” It was a rhetorical question on Applejack’s part given how much Rainbow Dash had been talking about the new book but far be it for her to deny the pegasus a chance to talk about something she loved. Besides, the conversation had been dominating by the fangirl’s gushings about the latest novel so it seemed pointless to try and steer it elsewhere. The farmer pony also suspected that the conversation wouldn’t stop just because they had reached her home at Sweet Apple Acres.

“Well at first they make it seem like a rescue,” Rainbow explained just before the pair stopped at the barn’s front door. “By the later chapters, however, it turns out to be anything but a rescue! I don’t want to spoil the rest but it’s a real page turner.”

Applejack got the impression that the only way to avoid having anything spoiled was to be as far away from the pegasus as possible and that wasn’t an option for tonight. “Come on, let’s get you something to eat,” Applejack said as she led the other mare inside. Within an instant of entering her abode, however, her nose caught a whiff of something. “Is that...apple pie? Who’d be baking at this hour?” Pie baking was usually a late morning or early afternoon activity for the Apple family. Between dinner and the fatigue of a long day, there was rarely any want or need for a fresh pie, or two judging by the strength of the aroma.

Following her nose to the kitchen, Applejack was stunned at who she saw. She had expected perhaps Big Mac to be the culprit—baking a pie for a friend or maybe some lucky mare—but instead her kitchen had been occupied by Spitfire and Soarin’ of Wonderbolts’ fame.

“Oh, hey! Didn’t think you’d be home so soon,” Soarin’ greeted with a jubilant grin. The high-flying stallion appeared to be the one responsible for all the activity in the kitchen as evident by the sauce-stained apron he wore.

“Spitfire! Soarin’! What are you two doing here?” Applejack replied. Seeing the two brought about a mixture of joy and confusion in the farmer pony. Despite her friendship with the pair, the life of a Wonderbolt made it hard to find time for social calls.

“What? Can’t a couple of friends just swoop in unannounced and cook up an anniversary dinner in your kitchen?” Spitfire answered with a playful chuckle. Judging by the discarded apple cores that littered the dining room table, the Wonderbolt Captain and her partner had been waiting for quite some time. “Besides, we technically have the same anniversary, too, so we thought we’d make a special occasion of it. Except somepony apparently couldn’t keep you busy like they said they would.”

“Keep me busy?” It took Applejack a second to realize what Spitfire was referring to. As the farmer swung about to confront Rainbow Dash, she was halted by a well-aimed kiss right on the lips.

“Happy anniversary, Applejack.”