Applejack nudged open the lid of the guitar case with her snout. It tilted backwards, hitting the bed with a soft thump. She grabbed the guitar tenderly with her mouth and dragged it from its resting place. They were originally designed for unicorn ponies, but Applejack didn’t care. She finally wrenched it from the case, propping it up against the bed as she retrieved the custom guitar pick wrist strap Rarity had crafted for her. After some fidgeting, she managed to get it secured around her hoof.

She sat with her back against the bed, her legs splayed out awkwardly in front of her. She gathered up the guitar once more, trying to get it into a position where she could actually play it properly. This took quite a lot of fidgeting, but she eventually managed to do it. She could only hope it was properly tuned - it was a massive chore to tune a guitar without magic.

Applejack gave the strings a quick strum, allowing the chord a moment to resonate throughout the cabin. She took a deep breath, almost as if she were trying to inhale the sound of the music. She placed a hoof on the neck of the guitar, pressing one of the strings down. She gave the strings another quick pluck with the pick, producing a not all-together different sound. Applejack shut her eyes in contentment.

As Applejack lazily strummed the guitar, not paying a great deal of attention to any particular rhythm, Rainbow Dash smacked open the door to the cabin with an outstretched hoof, taking a quick glance around the room. Dash shook herself off in the manner of a dog, flinging snow all about the cabin. Applejack didn’t seem to notice, still lazily strumming the guitar as though in a trance. Dash cocked an eyebrow, trotting over to the bed.

"Hey, um, AJ?” Dash said as she dumped her saddlebags on the bed. Applejack didn’t look up. Her hat seemed to be sliding itself over her eyes. Dash chuckled quietly; it was kinda cute, really, when she thought about it. She gently nudged Applejack with her snout, trying to get her attention. Applejack jumped, nearly dropping the guitar. Her hat fell forward off of her head, exposing her bright blonde mane. Dash took a step backward, suppressing a giggle.

“Just what in tarnation do YOU want, Rainbow?” Applejack snapped testily.

“Oh, heh, nothin’. I was just wonderin’ if you were gonna come sled, is all!” Rainbow retorted.

Applejack grabbed the guitar by the neck and set it carefully down on the bed behind her, turning to face Rainbow Dash with a stern expression. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you to knock, Rainbow?”

“Why’s that, were you doing something... weird?” A sly grin spread across Dash’s face.

Applejack shook her head quite violently. “No, I wasn’t... I was just... um...”

Dash leaned in a little closer. “Yeeess..?”

“...I was practicin’.”

Dash snorted, finding it much harder to contain her laughter. “Well.. I think you need to practice a little more!” She burst into laughter, holding up a hoof to point at Applejack. “You’re terrible, AJ!”

Applejack lowered her ears, turning her head away with a frown. “I thought it was pretty good...” she said quietly, almost to herself. Dash couldn’t hear her over the sound of her own laughter, and Applejack turned back and shot a glare at her friend. “Rainbow... there ain’t no need to be rude!” she said angrily.

“Well jeez, if you wanted to play guitar badly why couldn’t you just do it at home where nopony has to hear it?”

“Rainbow... that’s my pappy’s guitar. I... I’m just takin’ care of it, is all.” Applejack moved the guitar into its case with a bit of a loving gesture, although she slammed the lid down rather rudely.

Dash tilted her head. She had no idea what a pappy was, but she could tell from AJ’s voice that it obviously meant a lot to her. “Doesn’t mean you have to play it...” Dash muttered, but there was some weakness in her voice.

Applejack turned her nose up, stomping towards the door of the cabin in a huff. She attempted to nudge open the door of the cabin, but it slammed shut in a flurry of snow. Wind roared throughout the cabin, causing Applejack to take a few steps back.

“What’s the matter?” Dash said with a smug grin. “Can’t handle a little bit of snow?” She turned towards the door, trotting over to the window to peer outside. In fact, it was quite the blizzard. It was hard to see more than a foot outside the window, and the snow was piling up at an alarming rate.

“Aw, horseapples,” Applejack said. “There wasn’t supposed to be a blizzard scheduled this week!”

“Relax, Apples, they probably just missed one over here, is all,” said Dash, ruffling Applejack’s mane.

“Hey, now, watch it, Rainbow!” Applejack tried to flail Dash’s hoof away. “And don’t you call me ‘Apples!’”

Dash ignored Applejack’s protests and continued on. “Why, by morning, I’m sure it’ll have blown over, and we’ll all go sledding together!” She said excitedly, running over to the bed and leaping on top of it. The guitar jumped slightly.

Applejack trotted over the window to look for herself. Snow was beginning to creep up over the bottom of the window, and Applejack could swear she could see it visibly rising. “Whatever you say, Rainbow... I guess you ARE the Pegasus pony.”

Applejack could only hope things wouldn’t get too out of hand. Next Chapter: Chapter 2 Estimated time remaining: 7 Minutes