Rainbow hovered at the stove, stirring a pot of vegetable stew while Scootaloo set the table.

“Hurry, Scoots, it’s almost sunset so she’ll be home soon. I have to get this done or she’ll be mad all night.”

“Okay, Rainbow Dash, almost done. Just gotta get the spoons and cups and juice and-”

“I get it, I’m almost done,” Rainbow said hurriedly as she lowered and opened the oven. A wave of hot air washed over her as she reached in and grabbed the loaf of bread, shouting and dropping it onto the floor as she blew on her hooves.

“Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?” Rainbow nodded as she kicked the oven closed, flew to the sink, and turned on the cold water. “Rainbow, use the mitts next time,” Scootaloo said, annoying, knowingly, as she gathered the spoons.

“Thanks, Scoots, I’ll remember that for next, OH NO, the bread,” she turned quickly and picked up the bread, yelping as it burned again, less enough so she could toss it to the table, breaking Applejack’s plate. “Nightmare darnit,” she cursed loudly as she flew from the room to get the dustpan and broom.

“Um, I think I’ll just leave her to finish,” Scootaloo smirked as she heard Rainbow grumbling in the utility closet under the stairs. She placed the spoons on the table in a pile and left the room quickly.

Rainbow returned and didn’t notice Scootaloo had left as she placed the broom on the table and swept clumsily, sending the spoons to the floor as well as some of the plate shards.

“Nightmare damn it,” she grumbled.

Scootaloo listened and giggled as she trotted through the living room to her little cushion in the corner to rest and listen.

The sound of clattering and glass breaking almost made Scootaloo want to help, but she know Rainbow Dash was in complete control.

“NIGHTMARE DAMN IT!” Rainbow’s voice shook the house as she shouted at the stew as it boiled over and filled the kitchen with the stench of burnt food. Smoke billowed across the ceiling as she flapped the smoke, trying to blow it away before she realized the window was closed.

She opened it as quickly as she could then looked down to the sink below the window.

“NIGHTMARE DAMN IT TO TARTARUS!”

The drain had been plugged and was overflowing, cold water was running across the counter and starting to run onto the floor. Rainbow flew out of the kitchen, upstairs, and to the bathroom. She returned, holding her breath, through the black smoke that was steaming from the boiling over pot to the sink.

Dropping all their towels into the sink she turned back to the stove in a panic and flapped hard, sending the pot off the stove onto the floor and clearing most of the burning bits from the stovetop.

She growled like a carnivore protecting its young at the mess as the front door closed and galloping approached.

“Rainbow Dash, are ya o- …”

Applejack looked around the kitchen in shock, her eyes landing on Rainbow, panting and trembling from anger and anxiety. It was a mere second before Applejack burst into laughter and fell to her side.

“Applejack? What happened? What’s so…” Scootaloo looked at Rainbow who was still hovering. The food on the floor. The sink overflowing with towels in it. The broken plates on the floor with a broom lying between them.

“Wow, Rainbow Dash… You’re more clumsy that Derpy.”

Applejack lost it.

---

“Well, sugarplum, Ah’ll be honest that Ah was a bit upset ta have my harvest held up a few hours, but a little mud work ain’t stoppin’ an Apple from doin’ their chores. Ah appreciate the effort you put inta makin’ it up with a supper Ah’ll never forget, but it wasn’t needed, darlin.”

Rainbow landed on the couch with a defeated huff and a sad look. “I just wanted to make dinner, one of those I’m sorry I made it rain on your harvest things, and I messed it all up.”

“Not really,” Scootaloo said hopping onto the couch, “it was going perfect until you burnt your hoof pads on the bread pan.”

“Ya burnt yer hooves? Lemme see,” Applejack said firmly.

“Ah’m fine, Apple Tart,” Rainbow said moving her forelegs behind her back.

“Rotten apples you are, now lemme see.” Rainbow sighed and held her hooves out, looking away. “Rainbow, it doesn’t look to bad, but ya shouldn’t be walkin’ for the rest of the night, ‘kay?”

Rainbow leaned forward and winked.

“None ‘a that either, sorry.”

“What?! I have to be on bottom?”

Applejack shushed Rainbow, glancing at Scootaloo to her side. “No, we’re takin’ a break. We’ll talk about it later, when filly ears ain’t listenin’.

“D’aww, I was hoping to listen to you two fight. I heard it was epic!” Scootaloo said hopping and flapping her wings. “One time, Applebloom said you were screaming and yelling at each other in the barn so loud it sounded like you were going to tear the whole thing down,” she finished rearing tall before falling back.

The mares looked at each other and blushed. “Rainbow, we’re gonna have a good talk about that stuff later.”

With a nod, Rainbow agreed before leaning closer and nipping Applejack’s ear. “Later then, Sugarcube,” she said softly, “until then, I’m not cooking anymore.”

Applejack laughed. “Fair enough, Ah’m the better cook anyway.”

“Well, I didn’t say you were better. Let’s say you stick to dinner and I’ll do lunch.”

“I can cook breakfast,” Scootaloo added, breaking the mares from their discussion.

“That sounds as fair as any idea I’ve heard all day, and I think we otta head to town. We ain’t cooking in that kitchen tonight.”

“The bread is still good,” Rainbow said as she fell back into the couch.

“Uh, I tried it, Rainbow Dash, and it’s not that good. It tastes like wood.”

“Well, I used apple treebark.”

“What? Why’d ya go and do somethin like that?”

“Rough apple bread, you said you loved it.”

Applejack grinned. “I said when Ah’m roughin’ it, I like bread, silly filly,” she said bopping Rainbow on the nose.

“You two are way more sappy than I thought you’d be, why’re you so, sappy?” Scootaloo asked trying to find the words.

“Well, how we are out there,” Rainbow pointed to the door, “is always different than how we are in here. Everypony knows there’s the public and private life.”

“Oh, I haven’t noticed. I’m not really an inside pony,” Scootaloo said looking around.

“Well, now that you’re living with us you’re going to be,” Rainbow said as she and Applejack pounced Scootaloo into a group hug.

“Gah, stop it! You’re gonna smother me,” Scootaloo giggled.

“With love, sugardrop.”

“And then with soap, whew. Scoots,” Rainbow recoiled with a smile, “you stink! Go take a shower, little filly, right now.”

“Aww, but mom… I mean Rainbow,” she retorted over herself as the mares’ eyes widened at the proclamiation, “I took a bath yesterday.”

“And now it’s today, Sport. Head on up and I’ll be there in a minute to join you.”

With a nervous smile Scootaloo smiled and jumped from the couch, quickly going upstairs as the mares looked to each other.

“She just called me mom, Applejack.”

“Ah, Ah know. That’s a problem.”

“What? Why?” Rainbow asked raising an eyebrow.

“I was thinkin’ I’d be mom… Guess it’s mama fer me.”

Rainbow pulled Applejack close and into a hug against her chest. “You’re mama, alright, and ya better join us for the first family bath, or I’ll show ya what ‘mom’ can do when ‘mama’s’ naughty.”

“Rainbow Dash, if that’s how it’s gonna be, ya can’t call me mama no more, only the foals and Scoots.”

“Well, it might slip out once in a while, besides, now we have to get a good bathtub if we’re gonna be a family.”

“Why ya reckon?” Applejack asked as she pulled back and began to trot to the stairs, Rainbow hovering by her side.

“Well, family baths are an earth pony thing too, right?”

“Sometimes, but I won’t mind it once in awhile, if yer insistin’.”

“Ah am, Apple Tart. A perfect way to end a day is takin’ a hot bath with the ones you love, right?”

“Rainbow Dash, that was the sappiest thing Ah’ve ever heard ya say, and I think I like it,” she said nearing the stairs, “firstonetothebathroomwins!” she shouted scrambling up the steps as Rainbow blinked.

“Hey! No fair, I’m flying there, see ya.”

---

Scootaloo stood in the shower and looked up. She hadn’t showered or bathed in the past few days. Usually as swim in the lake would clean her up enough until she could spend the night with Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle, but now she had to really get clean. And with Rainbow Dash.

“Okay, how do I turn on this water, thing? Apple Bloom always did it when I stayed over, I think this one is cold,” she mumbled to herself as she turned the knob. She yelped as the water rained upon her; icy cold. “Okay, this one’s warm then,” she said turning off the cold and twisting the hot water.

She shrieked just before Rainbow and Applejack burst in the room, hot water raining down upon the filly as she scrambled around the room, flapping her wings, and panting.

“Scootaloo?! What happened? Are you okay?” Rainbow asked as she stopped in the center of the room, literally.

“No, the water was super hot, Rainbow Dash, why don’t you have a warm water, like at the farm?” Scootaloo replied shaking the excess water from her coat as Applejack hurriedly turned off the water.

“Well ain’t that just somethin’, ya never had a shower before?”

Scootaloo glanced at Applejack. “Yeah, I have. Only, the other girls were the ones to start the water while I got my stuff ready, since it was their homes.”

“And pegasi don’t have hot and cold water, it’s always air temperature,” Rainbow added, unless there’s magic, of course.”

“Like the gems Twi gave us,” Applejack added as she turned the cold water back on, gesturing for Scootaloo to watch, “first ya start cold, then ya add hot a little atta time, and it makes warm.”

“Ohhh,” Scootaloo said, “I never knew that, thanks, Miss Dash.”

Applejack hiccupped as Rainbow snorted.

“What was that? Why would she be miss me?”

“Well, you’re more sire-like so I figured…”

“Darlin,” Applejack said looking at the filly intently as she took her stetson off and tossed it to Rainbow who then tossed it out of the room, “ain’t none of us stallions or sires. Ya just call us by our names and, if’n yer want’n to, I’m mama, she’s mom. None of this ‘Miss’ nonsense; ya save that for the teachers.”

“Yes ma’am, um, Applejack.”

“Okay, now that we know I’m the sire,” Rainbow laughed as she landed and went under the water, “I say we get clean.”

Applejack winked at Scootaloo before she reached and turned the hot water off.

---

“Well, that was a great shower, mom, um, I mean, Rainbow Dash.”

“Scoots, call me whatever. Just nothing silly, like sire or Miss Jack,” she replied as she flew into the master bedroom and landed by the bedside. She looked to make sure the chest at the foot of the bed was closed before she let Scootaloo dismount.

“Scoots, c’mon over and let me help you preen.”

“Preen? You mean fix my feathers?”

“Yeah, it’s an intrecal part of flying; keeping feathers clean and in line, c’mon, let’s get ‘em ready for flight practice in the morning.”

Scootaloo hesitated. “Um, no pony’s really ever helped me with my wings since I, um, left home.”

“Wait,” Rainbow said laying on the floor and curling slightly, opening her wing subconsciously to encourage Scootaloo to come over, “you mean you’ve been self preening without practice for all this time? No wonder you have so many problems flying, it’s a team effort to fly.

“It takes more than a feather to keep the flock flying. Did your mothers ever tell you that?”

“No, they didn’t really say anything to me,” Scootaloo said as she entered Rainbow’s soft embrace, “usually it was more encouraging me to be better faster.”

Rainbow wrapped her wing over Scootaloo and leaned down, firmly biting Scootaloo’s first primary feather and stretching her right wing open.

“Wow, lookit these things, when was the last time you even tried to preen?”

“Um, I dunno, a while ago,” she said blushing and trying to close her wing.

“Nuh-uh, we’re starting now,” Rainbow said as she swallowed let the feather go and nibbled Scootaloo’s wing just on the underside, sending it open with a gasp from Scootaloo. “Sorry, but there’s no other way to open a stubborn wing. Just, watch.”

Rainbow swallowed two more times before she leaned down and licked across Scootaloo’s wing-arm.

She began nibbling and tugging softly across every few feathers, pulling the weak ones free and straightening the crooked ones. She repeated this process six times before she looked at her work and smiled.

“Well, that was a lotta work for such a little wing, but it’s in better shape than it was… Scootaloo, are you sleeping?”

“...”

“Fine, I’ll just do the other and we’ll talk about this in the morning… before I have to go back to work storming the whole region. At least,” she grumbled as she turned Scootaloo, so she’d be able to start the other wing, “we took care of the city first.”

Applejack watched as Rainbow meticulously preened Scootaloo, from the doorway, before deciding going to get supper and bringing it home would be a nice surprise.

She returned an hour later and looked around the livingroom. She listened intently but didn’t hear the regular hustle of the pegasi.

Must’ve gone out for a late night fly. That Rainbow ain’t letting a shower keep her clean, Applejack snickered to herself as she went to the kitchen and put the small box of food in the ice box.

“Well, house’s in shape, might as well turn in and get ready for another early mornin’.”

She ascended the stairs and stopped as she entered her room.

Rainbow was wrapped around Scootaloo, her wing covering the small pegasus like a winged blanket; both asleep contently.

Applejack couldn’t help but whimper at the cute sight before her as she slowly went to the bed, pulled one of the quilts from the bottom and gently dragged it onto the floor next to them.

She took her hat off and lay it on the bed before curling up on the floor next to Rainbow and Scootaloo for the warmest night they’d had in their new home, so far.

Next Chapter: The Decision Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 54 Minutes