Rainbow growled as she angrily stepped outside of the bar. She stomped down the street looking down at the ground. Without knowing, she hit something hard. Looking up, she saw it was Soarin. Blushing she quickly stepped away. “S-Sorry about that,” she mumbled, trying to fix herself.

He smirked. “S’no problem. Why so pissed?” He asked, seeing the distressed look on her face while stuffing his hands in his Wonderbolts team jacket.

Rainbow sighed. “My mom decided to drop back into my life. And as you can see,” She laughed dryly, pointing to the tears in her eyes, “It’s not working out so well.” She wiped the tears away and sighed. She hadn’t wanted to look like this in front of him. She was a mess. Her eyes were red, her face was puffy from crying, and she looked like she was going to start sobbing any moment.

“Family issues huh? Well, we all go through them.” He shrugged. “You got nothing to be embarrassed about. Especially around me. We’re friends, right?”

Rainbow’s eyebrows shot up at the word. Friends? Of course they were friends. Not only have they met on numerous occasions, she’s the one who set Spitfire and the others straight when they tried to con her into replacing him. Her lips dipped down in a frown. She still didn’t want him to know about her problems though.

“Why don’t you go for a jog with me? Maybe that will take your mind off things?” He suggested, a tone of hope in his voice that made Rainbow’s heart leap.

Maybe she should go jogging with him. This would be a good oppertunity to finally tell someone all the skeletons in her closet, and get close to the person she had a crush on. “Sure.” She answered with a nod. “I don’t have anything else to do.” She nearly smacked herself for how bored she must have sounded.

Though Soarin thought nothing of it. “Sweet.” He said with a charming grin. “Let’s head to the park.”

“What do think is taking her so long?” Twilight mused, tapping her finger against her chin as she once again looked at the clock on the wall. It had been nearly an hour and a half since Dash and her mother left. Twilight knew things weren’t going to go as well as she hoped, but she was surprised it would take this long, given Dash’s temper.

“Maybe she got into a fist fight with her mom!” Pinkie suggested, animatedly pounding her fist. “And! And! Solved their problems old western style! Yee-haw!” She yelled, waving an imaginary cowboy hat in the air.

“Ah find that mighty offensive.” Applejack grumbled, punching her over the head. “We country folk don’t turn into brawlin’ idiots every time we drink. ‘Specially not my kin.” She added, folding her arms.

“Aren’t the both of you cousins anyway?” Rarity asked, waving a hand between the both of them as she finished up a braid in Fluttershy’s hair.

“Distant.”

“Twice removed!”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” Fluttershy asked with a tilt of her head. She soon regretted it though when Rarity tugged at her hair, letting her know she needed to keep still in order for her to finish the braid she had just started.

Both girls shrugged.

“When ya get down to the technicality of it, it becomes confusin’. Even for me.” Applejack answered tugging at Pinkie’s ear. “Though that don’t excuse what you said earlier.” She directed towards her with a wry grin.

“If I say sorry, will you let go?” Pinkie whined like a child, kicking to distract herself from the pain.

“Oh for Christ’s sake let the girl go before you stretch out her ear.” Rarity commanded, throwing the comb at Applejack, who easily dodged the flying projectile. “You’re both adults acting like children. Can’t you two at least get along until Rainbow Dash gets back?”

Applejack opened her mouth to say something, but Rarity held up a finger. “I don’t care who started it. One of you has to be mature enough to end it. Understand?”

Applejack closed her mouth and rolled her eyes defiantly. “Yes ma’am.”

Twilight put her book down and sighed. She had tried to pick up something and read, but a feeling was nagging at her. “Speaking of Rainbow, aren’t you guys worried about her? I mean, she hasn’t seen her mom in two years. And then her mom hasn’t changed at all, which means she’s still-”

“Brash?!”

“Overbearing?!”

“Insensitive?”

“Mean?!”

Twilight nodded. “Not the adjectives was was looking for, but yes. And you all know how Rainbow is. She has a short temper. Putting her in a bar with her mother was-”

“Heartless?!”

“Dumb?!”

“Thoughtless?”

“Cruel?!”

“Gee, thanks for the support, girls.” Twilight grumbled sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “I guess what I’m trying to say here is, I’m really worried for her. She’s our friend. And she’s been going through a lot lately. I don’t want to see her hurt herself.”

Applejack put a hand on her shoulder. “Honey, if there’s anything I’m sure about, it’s that Rainbow Dash will most definitely hurt herself.” She saw the confused look on Twilight’s face and continued with, “But that’s apart of life. That’s how she learns, Twi. And today isn’t going to be different from any other day she scrapes her knee.”

“Very profound, Applejack.” Rarity complimented.

Applejack shrugged. “Ah heard my Mama tell my Dad that about me once. Ah guess that’s why me and Dash get along so well. We’re both hard headed and stubborn.” She chuckled.

“Achoo!” Rainbow sneezed, wiping her nose. “Holy shit, is someone talking about me?” She grumbled to herself she ran next to Soarin. She could have sworn someone just was.

“What?” He asked, turning around to give her a confused look.

“Oh, uh, nothing.” She responded rather quickly. She didn’t want him to catch her talking to herself and think she was nuts. “So, whatcha doing in Ponyville still? I thought you would have to get back to the others by now.”

Soarin shrugged. “Spitfire’s not really doing anything specific, and we don’t leave for Cloudsdale till tomorrow. I’d thought I’d come see you before we left though because we’re leaving in the morning.”

“Y-You wanted to see me?” Dash stuttered, blushing despite herself.

He laughed. “Yeah, I mean, I love Spitfire and Fleetfoot, but you’re the only girl who can really keep up with me. I like that about you. You’ve got heart, determination, and you’re not afraid to work towards where you want to be. And,” He added softly, caressing her cheek, “You don’t let your past define you.”

Rainbow could hear her heart in her throat. “Uh, um...I uh...” She tried to form a coherent sentence but couldn’t seem to find the words. Realizing something, she stepped away from him.“Wait, wait, I read in the tabs that you were dating Spitfire. You can’t be touching me like that in public!” As much as she was loving the attention she was getting from him, she couldn’t possibly let herself be labeled as a homewrecker. (Her mother would have a field day. Though, it’s not like she cared what she thought at this point.)

Soarin snorted. “You really believe those things? I’ll let you in on a little secret, Dash. We just tell the mags we’re dating so it creates publicity for the team. Seriously, I love Spitfire and all, but she’s like, 3 years older than me. It’d be too weird.”

Rainbow couldn’t help but let out a laugh at that. “Are you sure?” She asked softly, her eyes looking into his, before shifting to his lips.

He pulled her closer with a devilish smirk. “Positive.” He reassured her, lifting her chin so that her lips were at the level of his. He gave her a short-lived kiss that made her groan in displeasure when he ended it.

Dash looked up at him lustfully, biting her lip. She tugged at his Wonderbolts workout shirt in an attempt to bring him closer to her.

“Down, girl.” He teased with a laugh. “The manager would kill me if I came back to the hotel with hickeys and messed up hair.” He saw her pout and laughed again. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back. Hey, maybe you and the girls can come up to Cloudsdale and watch us run on Monday? I’m sure the team would be happy to see you again!” He suggested brightly.

Rainbow smiled. “Sure. I’ll be there.” she answered coolly, her heart beating a mile a minute as she spoke. She pulled him close for one more quick kiss and patted his chiseled cheek. “See you on Monday.”

Soarin nodded, grinning. “Yeah, Monday.” He responded, before jogging away after a wave goodbye.

Rainbow waited until she couldn’t see him anymore before she started to celebrate. Making girly squealing sounds she would kill anyone for teasing her about, she hopped up and down repeating, “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!”

Author's Notes:

To explain the sneeze thing, In Japanese culture when you sneeze, it's a joke to say that someone must be talking about you. Sneeze once, they're talking about you. Sneeze twice, they hate you, sneeze three times in a row they want to kill you. Or so I've heard. Haha. Hope you guys liked this. It was the fist thing I was able to complete after recovering from my sickness. (I'm always sick, arent i?) anyway Adventures In Babysitting will probably most like be updated next week maybe. I dunno. I think I'm just gonna skip the second to last chapter and just roll with the ending. What do you guys think?