The refreshing scent of apple nectar filled your lungs as the warm sun shone down on you. It had felt like eons since you last bucked a tree, when in reality it had only been a few days.

Getting to work at Sweet Apple Acres was a breeze today thanks to Rainbow’s lessons in flight. You didn’t have to get up as early, and if you did at least you’d have more time to converse with Twilight and Spike.

Despite how the two of you had gotten off to a rocky start during your first flight lesson, you were happy that you were now pretty good friends with her. Despite this, however, your dream returned.

This time, though, the voice was not of Rainbow Dash. It was nothing.

The voice had once again returned to it's muffled state. It was if your own mind was waiting for something that it could torment you with.

Looking to your side, you noticed Applejack approaching you, breaking your thoughts. You haven’t talked to her since you arrived, and since then you had bucked almost a whole field’s worth of trees.

“Howdy, Sugarcube! How’s it goin’?” Applejack asked, looking at the many baskets of apples you had created.

Apple Cider season started tomorrow, so the Apple Family needed all the apples they could get.

“Pretty good!” you replied with a sigh of exhaustion. You didn’t quite realise how many trees you had bucked clean.

“Hoowee! With this many apples ah recon we could last until next year!” Applejack joked, lifting up one of the baskets with her two front legs.

Somehow, Applejack seemed to have mastered the art of walking on her hind legs. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t recreate that talent. Even with human origin, it was still incredibly difficult.

“Do you need more?” you asked, silently hoping for a no.

No was not the answer you received, however.

“Sure do! The more the merrier ah always say!” she answered as she carried the big basket away towards the house.

You let out a slight grunt with the idea of doing more work, but you knew what you were working for. You were working for the chance to get a taste of the world famous Sweet Apple Cider.

With new courage, you continued bucking the trees to your heart’s content.

Between bucks, you saw Big Mac and Applejack happily carrying away the filled baskets you had been creating in your wake. You were certainly creating work for them, even if it involved making work for yourself.

Finally, you had completely cleared one field. Satisfied with yourself, you turned around to head back towards the house, only to see another huge field blossoming with Apple trees.

“Oh... Sweet... Merciful...” you muttered under your breath as you stared upon the vast amount of trees. Your jaw hung wide as you thought about your already burning hind legs. You could almost hear them talking to you.

No, please. No more bucking, you could hear them beg. Maybe you were going insane from the sheer amount of work you had been doing.

You shook off the feeling of laziness and fatigue, thinking back to the ungodly amounts of Sweet Apple Cider that would be at your disposal if you cleared this entire field.

“Challenge accepted.” you said to yourself with a competitive smirk, slowly picking up speed towards the field.

Quickly, you darted from tree to tree, hitting each one with your hind legs as you went. Each tree had already been lined with baskets, causing the red fruits to pile up like mountains.

At one point, you were bucking the trees so fast you were practically bouncing off them.

Upon contact with one tree, you pushed yourself off it and launched your hooves into the next. Maintaining that momentum, you had over half the field cleared in 15 minutes. That must’ve been a new record.

Gradually, you began losing your momentum, and began clearing the trees more casually. You didn’t feel any more tired than you did previously, but you just wanted to take it slow for a while.

You slowly bucked each tree you came across, to a point where it was almost calming.

All you could hear was your own thoughts, and the birds. As well as Applejack and Big Mac’s occasional conversation about Apple Cider in the distance, but you paid no mind to them.

You continuing going about your work as you listened to that peaceful sound of nature, as if in a trance.

Or, that was, until you came across a tree that had no apples growing on it. The green leaves of the silent tree had no apples in sight.

“What the?” you said out loud as you studied the tree.

Just beyond the leaves you could barely make something out. It looked fluffy, like a long brush.

Moving the leaves aside, you could begin to see colour appearing as the sun found its way into its surface. It was multicoloured, like a rain-

“BOO!“ Rainbow Dash screamed as she emerged suddenly from the foliage. Her sudden jump scare caused you to step back quickly, almost causing you to fall over. A rainboo wasn’t exactly what you had in mind, but it was close enough.

“Bahaha! You shoulda seen the look on your face!” She said between laughter. She wiped some tears from her eye with a hoof as you finally regained your composure.

“Rainbow! What’re you doing?” you asked, slightly annoyed by her ‘joke’, but also quite confused as to why she was in a tree.

"I came by to help! It's Apple Cider season tomorrow!" she explained as she flew out of the tree, and began hovering above you.

"You want to help with work?" you asked, slightly surprised by this.

Usually Rainbow Dash didn't like to help out with work. She rarely got up to do her weather pony duties on time.

"Yep! I even cleared the skies earlier than usual so I could come down here!" she said, pointing at the sky.

Sure enough, there wasn't a cloud in sight. You did notice that it was unusually sunny for the current time of day.

"Well, I kinda already finished my work." you told her, sadly, gesturing to the large field of cleared apple trees.

Rainbow didn't seem to bothered. She simply looked at the field of apple-less trees with slight disbelief.

"Eh. Less work for me!" she said, happily, with a shrug of her shoulders, "So, now that you've finished your work, wanna hang out?"

"Didn't we hang out yesterday?" you asked, slightly suspicious. As much as you wanted to hang out with her, you felt slightly guilty about leaving the farm on such short notice.

"Well, yeah, but it was fun, right?" she asked, smiling confidently.

"Alright, fine. But I've gotta tell Applejack where I've gone first." you answered, giving in. Rainbow's smile changed from confidence to happiness as you turned to find Applejack.

Before long, you found Applejack carrying away the piles of apples you had creating. Big Mac was also doing the same thing, but he was covering the other side of the field.

They had quite an effective system, clearing it from one side to the next until they both met in the middle.

"Howdy, Storm! And Rainbow Dash too!" she greeted the two of you.

"Hey, Applejack!" Rainbow greeted the orange earth pony, "Me and Storm were just gonna head out."

"Is that so? How much work yah done, Storm?" she asked, her tone suddenly shifting to that of a serious one.

"Well..." you begun, slightly startled by her sudden serious demeanour, "I cleared that whole field over there."

You pointed over at the field behind the house where you had found Rainbow. Applejack's jaw dropped as she looked upon the cleared field.

"Two whole fields in 3 hours? Hoowee, Storm! You deserve a payrise!" Applejack joked as she handed you a bag of bits.

"You bet he does! So how much are we thinking? 30%? 50%? 100%?" Rainbow interrupted, causing you to feel quite embarrassed.

"Actually..." you said, pushing the bag of bits back towards her, "Instead of paying me, could I just have some of that Apple Cider tomorrow for free?"

You didn't know whether that was greedy or selfish, but considering you turned down your pay, and helped collect the apples, you felt it was fair. Rainbow Dash seemed to agree with you too, as at the mention of Apple Cider her mouth almost began to water.

"Sure, Storm! Help yourself! Ya did help make it, after all!" Applejack answered, making both you and Rainbow Dash incredibly happy. Finally you could get a taste of the world famous Sweet Apple Cider.

"Well, you two have fun!" Applejack shouted as she began making her way back towards the farmhouse.

You turned back to Rainbow Dash, who had been hovering beside you the whole time. You had a large smile on your face, glad that your hard work had paid off.

"So, what do you have in mind?" you asked, curious as to what hang out plans she had. Quite frankly, you were still quite new to Equestria and had no idea where to go. Despite seeing it all on the show, you didn't know how to navigate around to each location.

Rainbow placed a hoof up to her head, as if thinking, and looked up to the sky.

"Well..."

————————————————————————

"Here we are! The most awesome place to hang out!" Rainbow exclaimed happily as she swung open her front door. She would think that though, considering it was her own house.

Flying up there was no problem, too your surprise. Flight came quite easily now, and you were relatively fast too.
Rainbow still had to slow down for you, but you were faster than the average Pegasus.

Last time you were here, you didn't get a proper look at her Cloudominium. It seemed to be inspired by Roman architecture back on Earth, but wether the Romans existed in Equestria was beyond you. Beautiful rainbow coloured waterfalls leaked from the cloudy surface around the house, as well as one giant rainbow that shot out from the roof of the tower-like structure.

"Woah... It's even better up close." you muttered with disbelief.

"Pretty cool, right?" Rainbow smirked with confidence as you stepped through the doorway.

"It's amazing!" you almost shouted as you looked around at the furniture. All of it was made from clouds.

Rainbow flew into the air and landed on her fluffy cloud couch. Next to the couch was a table with a Daring Do book on it, and next to that was a cloudy bookshelf with about a dozen more of the same book.

That must be why there were none in the library, you thought.

"Before you ask about the books..." Rainbow said, defensively. She paused trying to come up with a reason as to why she had so many, but she couldn't find one, "They're just cool ok."

She looked a little defeated, possibly worried that the image she had been trying to maintain would no longer have any effect on you now that you were aware for her love of books.

"I'm not judging. I like reading too!" you replied, taking a seat on the cloud couch next to her. Upon making contact, you felt yourself bounce off its cushiony surface.

"Ever read a Daring Do book?" Rainbow asked, lifting the book that was placed on the table and showing it to you.

"I can't say that I have." you answered, "I was gonna read one of them but somepony took them all from the library."

Rainbow glanced at the bookshelf that was stacked to the brim with Daring Do books, before chuckling nervously.

"How could anypony be so inconsiderate?" she joked, still laughing nervously, "But now that you're here, do you wanna read one?"

Rainbow handed you the book she was just holding, before walking over to the bookshelf and getting her own book to read.

"Um, sure, but you didn't really strike me as the type of pony who would want to sit here reading as a hang out." you said, suspiciously. If Rainbow wanted to hang out with her friends, you figured she would want to do something exciting. But here she was, reading.

"Normally, I'd be outside being awesome and all that," she bragged, causing you to laugh under your breath, "But I've gotta save my energy for the Apple Cider Season Opening Ceremony tomorrow!"

You already knew about the ceremony, due to working at Sweet Apple Acres. You originally planned on saving your bits to buy as much cider as you could, but thanks to Applejack, you now had as much as you wanted for free.

"What exactly do you need energy for?" you asked.

"To drink as much sweet apple cider as I can before other ponies take it all, duh!" she explained, rolling her eyes, "I've been saving my bits for tomorrow so I can get as much as possible."

"That's what I've been doing too." you replied, slightly paranoid as to whether Twilight or Spike had found your secret stash yet. All your savings from the past week were hidden under your bed.

"Well lucky for you, you can get as much as you want for free." she said, happily. Or, she was trying to be happy. In reality, she was quite jealous of that fact.

Little did she know that the whole reason you made that deal with Applejack was for her.

"I promise I won't take that much." you comforted her, using this as a coverup for what you really intended to do.

You planned to use your free apple cider privileges to get Rainbow as much apple cider as she wanted. Of course, you were gonna use it for yourself too, but that's given.

The two of you began reading your Daring Do books, and you had to admit, it was quite interesting. You could definitely see why Rainbow loved them so much.

As you were reading, a thought crossed your mind, breaking your immersion.

"Hey, Rainbow, where's Tank?" you asked, looking around the room. The friendly tortoise hadn't made an appearance the whole day.

"Tank? How do you know about Tank?" Rainbow asked, closing her book and now looking right you. She didn't sound annoyed by your pre-knowledge, but just simply confused.

"Twilight." you said, realising your slip up.

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Tank's ill." Rainbow said, sadly.

The thought of the tiny turtle being ill made you quite upset. Whether it's fatal or not, much like Fluttershy you didn't like animals going through pain.

"What's up with him?" you asked softly. You knew how much Rainbow Dash cared about Tank, due to her breakdown when he went into hibernation.

"I think it's the flu. I've been trying to take care of him, but I think he just has to recover on his own." Rainbow explained. She seemed thankful that it wasn't serious, but still seemed upset nevertheless.

Moving closer, you placed a comforting hoof around Rainbow Dash. You were almost expecting her to react badly, and maybe even hit you or something. But she didn't.

"Why don't you take him to Fluttershy?" you asked.

"I wanted to look after him myself, but Fluttershy does come up every so often to check on him," She seemed less upset now, but you could still see it pained her to talk about this, "I think you should probably go now, Storm."

That came as a surprise to you. Maybe you'd upset her talking about Tank's illness.

"Are you ok? Did I upset you?" you asked, worriedly.

Rainbow Dash was already hovering over to the cloudy staircase when she turned back around.

"Upset me? Nah. I just need to get ready for the Apple Cider Ceremony!" she explained, laughing at your concern, "See ya tomorrow!"

"Oh, ok. Bye, Rainbow." And as you finished that sentence, Rainbow disappeared up the staircase. Feeling it best to leave as quick as possible, you left the house almost immediately. You didn't see what there was to get ready for, but you knew how much she loved Apple Cider.

You approached the edge of the large cloud that Rainbow's house stood on, and took flight quickly. You had been working on your take offs so that it no longer took as much time to build up speed.

It wasn't too late, probably around 4 o'clock based around the sun’s position. You had been at Rainbow's house for almost 2 hours. Time sure goes fast when you're having fun.

Either way, you quickly made your way back to the Golden Oak Library.

You couldn’t wait to tell Twilight and Spike about the amount of trees you bucked at Sweet Apple Acres. You knew the day was gonna go slowly, however, as tomorrow was the day you had been waiting for for a week.

It was the Apple Cider Season Opening Ceremony, and you couldn’t wait for it.

Author's Notes:

Act 2 has begun!

This act will be focused more on Rainbow Dash than the last act. The last 10 chapters were mainly focusing on introducing different characters, with some chapters saved for Rainbow towards the end, but this time around Rainbow will be in almost all of the chapters.

Tank’s illness will come into play in a later chapter in this act, so don’t forget about it. For now though, I’m focusing on the opening ceremony as the ‘large’ chapter of this act, with every one of the Mane 6 appearing at least once in the chapter (Rainbow still being the focus of course). I may not post an update tomorrow, as it may take 2 days to write as I also have a headache right now, but I will get it out as soon as possible.

I hoped you liked the first chapter of this act