After a few minutes of flying, both you and Rainbow Dash arrived at Sweet Apple Acres. It didn't take that long to get there now, thanks to your speed whilst flying.

You just hoped that Applejack wouldn't be mad at you for being late after you missed the entirety of last week.

Looking down at the farm, you couldn't see Applejack or Big Macintosh outside working. The whole farm was silent, aside from the occasional chirping of birds.

Shifting your attention to the farm house, you saw Applejack and Big Mac stood outside, staring into the air with disbelief.

"What're they staring at?" Rainbow asked, looking down at them. You responded with a simple shrug, before beginning to land beside them.

Applejacks gaze into the sky was broken as she noticed you and Rainbow landing besides her.

"Did you do that, Rainbow Dash?" she asked, looking at her with anticipation, "And why were all the colours so strange?"

Assuming she was talking about the sonic rainboom, or in your case, the sonic surge you had just pulled off, you weren't surprised by her questioning.
There had never been a sonic rainboom that wasn't rainbow coloured before.

"Um... Did what?" you asked, trying to play dumb for the time being.

"Ya know, that yellow rainboom thing?" she replied, still seeming a little shocked by it.

"Nope! That was all Storm!" Rainbow answered, giving you a little nudge. For some reason, you felt a little nervous being one of the only two ponies that could do such a thing.

Applejack looked at you with a blank expression, which quickly turned into a smile.

"So you can do a sonic rainboom, to, huh?" she said, slyly. She was probably just happy that Rainbow seemed to have some competition now, "Maybe you'll be a good rival to Rainbow Dash!"

"Eeyup!" Big Mac interrupted, giving his own opinion.

While you knew for a fact that you could fly fast enough to pull of a rainboom, you weren't sure whether you would be able to do it as consistently as Rainbow Dash.
Despite this, you did remember the race that the two of you had planned when you had first met. It was obviously called off because of your inability to fly, but now that you could fly, maybe a challenge like that would be a good opportunity.

"No way! Nopony's as awesome as me!" Rainbow retorted, seeming confident that you wouldn't be able to act as her rival. Quite frankly, you weren't sure whether to take that as an insult, or just her defending her pride.

"But ya gotta admit, that was quite a spectacle!" Applejack replied, attempting to subtly change the subject before Rainbow's ego got out of control.

"Heck yeah, it was!" Rainbow said, making you realise that maybe she wasn't insulting you after all.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac added, with his signature catchphrase.

You rubbed the back of your head, not knowing how to respond to all of this. You didn't like attention as much as Rainbow did, since it made you feel pressured, but nevertheless, it was nice.

"Thanks." was all you could say. Seeming to notice your uncomfortableness, Applejack once again went to change the subject.

"Anyway, ah got some pretty interesting work for ya, sugarcube!" she said to you, with a smile on her face.

"What could be more interesting in bucking trees?" you joked. Truthfully, you were expecting to just be bucking more trees. Although, it would be significantly more fun with Rainbow Dash doing it with you.

"Your gonna be makin' your very own apple cider!" Applejack exclaimed, causing both yours and Rainbow's ears to perk up instantly.

Well that was unexpected. Once upon a time, you thought you were never even going to taste sweet apple cider, yet here you were about to make it.

"Hey, I wanna do that too!" Rainbow interrupted. This wasn't much of a surprise, as you knew how much she loved the stuff.

"Sure ya can, Rainbow!" Applejack replied with a smile.

"But why not just make me buck some more trees?" you asked, confused as to why you were suddenly being entrusted with the duty of making apple cider.
This was usually a task left up to the Apple Family themselves, as they knew exactly how to make the best cider.

"Well, ya see..." Applejack began, looking over to a field of what would normally be filled with apple trees, "Ya kinda bucked all of our trees, and now we've got more than enough apples to last the season!"

You knew that you had bucked a lot of trees, seeing as how the cider never ran dry at the ceremony as it usually does, but you didn't think that there was still enough apples to last the entire season.

"So you're letting us try making some cider?" you asked, double checking just in case you somehow hallucinated it.

"Ah sure am! Got any idea how to make it?" she asked. While the farm had more than enough apples to allow wasting some, the more cider that was made, the better.

Thankfully, you had a vague idea of how to make apple cider. You recall the few processes that there were from an episode where the Apple Family had a cider making contest with the Flim Flam Brothers.

"I think so." you said, reassuring Applejack that you at least had a grasp of what you were doing.

"So do I!" Rainbow added. While you weren't really expecting her to know how to make apple cider, it also didn't come as a surprise thanks to her love of it.

"Well, in that case, ah'll leave you both too it!" Applejack said, turning back around to head back in to the farm house, "All the stuff ya'll need is in the barn!"

"Thanks Applejack! You too Big Mac!" you and Rainbow both said, thankfully. You never once thought that you would have the opportunity to make your very own apple cider.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac replied, before also turning back towards the house.

Now it was time to make the cider. Or, at least attempt too. As far as you knew, neither you or Rainbow Dash had ever attempted to make apple cider before.
Both you and Rainbow looked at each other, smiling, before beginning to fly over to the barn.

"Hey, um..." Rainbow said, unexpectedly as you flew slowly towards the barn, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" you replied. You couldn't think of what she did wrong, but If she felt the need to apologise, it must've been important.

"For getting mad at you earlier." she explained, feeling a little guilty. She didn't make eye contact, and instead looked down at the ground, only getting quick glances at you out of the corner of her eye.

"Hey, it's ok! I know you get snappy in the morning anyway!" you joked, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Rainbow laughed a little, but didn't directly respond to you. She must've been feeling pretty guilty, considering you had ended up doing a sonic surge anyway.

"So... you're not mad at me?" she asked. You couldn't think of any reason to be mad at her, so the answer to that was no.

"Nope. Not at all," you said, causing her to finally make eye contact. She gave you an encouraging smile, showing that you had succeeded in making her feel a bit better, "Now how about we make some cider?"

Already set out in the barn was a wooden table with a pile of a hundred or so apples stacked on top of it. Next to that was a few wooden mugs, quite clearly what the finished result would end up in.
Besides the table, there was a large grind stone with what looked like a treadmill next to it. You knew exactly what that was for.

"So..." Rainbow said, looking at the equipment cluelessly, "Any idea what we do?"

Looking at all that had been layed out before you, you had a pretty good idea of what to do.

"Yep!" you said, as you picked up a mug and placed it under the tap at one end of the grind stone. If you were correct, any apples that were crushed beneath the grindstone would end up coming out of said tap in the form of fresh cider.

Now picking up a single apple, you placed it in the grindstone. At first, nothing happened, but you knew exactly what to do now.

"I got this!" Rainbow said, before leaping onto the treadmill next to the grindstone. She began galloping as fast as she could, and just like that, the large stone wheel began to spin, crushing the apple like a shredder.

Surely enough, moments later the juice from the previously crushed apple came pouring out of the grindstone, and into the wooden mug. It wasn't enough to fill it, though. It was gonna take a few more apples to do the job.

Quickly, you tossed a few more apples into the grindstone, forming a queue of fruits that were about to be crushed. Having an agile pony like Rainbow Dash working the grindstone seemed to be quite efficient, as in less than 30 seconds, every apple you had thrown had been grinded into a liquid and added to the mug.

That was enough to fill the first cup, but you had plenty more apples to work with.

"Wanna try it?" you asked as you picked up the filled mug.

"Sure!" Rainbow replied, taking the cup out of your hooves. In no time at all, she had somehow already downed the entire mug, "We need to make more of that stuff!"

Wasting no time, Rainbow jumped back on to the treadmill and began grinding down the apples that you had already thrown into the grindstone. There wasn't a cup placed under the tap yet, so you had to act fast before all that cider went to waste.

Picking up one of the cups, you threw it across the barn. Miraculously, it landed directly under the tap moments before the cider began to flow. Needless to say, it was incredibly satisfying.

Mug after mug filled with cider, but still you weren't running low on apples. You could definitely understand what Applejack meant when she said they had more than enough of them.

Now starting to grow a little bored, you had begun walking over to the grindstone and placing the apples in it, rather than throwing them. Even Rainbow seemed to be getting bored, as her pace was beginning to slow.
You already had dozens of mugs of cider prepared, so you didn't really blame her for wanting to slow it down a bit.

Once again walking over to the grindstone, some of the barn's ground clutter caught one of your hoofs. The barn wasn't exactly a good working environment.

The apples that you were holding went flying into the air as you reached out your hooves to stop yourself. They continued to fly through the air until they finally stopped and hit something. They hit Rainbow.

"Hey! Watch it, Storm!" she exclaimed, rubbing her head where the apple had hit her.

Suddenly, an idea hit her. Her running stopped completely, and she looked blankly at you, before a sly smirk formed on her face.

She picked up an apple from the ground, and then locked her eyes with yours. Not breaking her gaze, you knew that her aim was locked onto you.
Before you knew it, there was a shiny red apple flying towards your face.

The fruit exploded into fruit juice upon contact, causing you to both giggle and groan simultaneously. Before you could have any real reaction, however, Rainbow was way ahead of you.

"Food fight!" she exclaimed, grabbing hoof fulls of apples from the seemingly unlimited pile.

This seemed more like something Pinkie would do, but you weren't complaining. Anything to abbreviate the boredom. You had never expected bucking trees to be more enjoyable than actually making the cider.

Rainbow pelted at least a dozen apples in your direction, like a fruit turret. Darting behind the grindstone for cover, all of them missed you by an inch.

"Wanna give me some time to retaliate?" you joked, still hiding behind a grindstone.

"Nah. I'm gonna win anyway!" she replied, throwing an apple into the air and catching it effortlessly. You could clearly see how comfortable she was, and she quite clearly believe that she had you pinned down in cover.

But what she didn't realise, is that there were a few apples already in the grindstone, waiting to be crushed down into cider.

Stealthy, you reached up and grabbed a few apples, trying your best not to be noticed by Rainbow Dash.

"If that's the case, why don't you let me fight back?" you said, retrieving a few apples and bringing them down into cover with you.

"I don't wanna risk you getting a lucky shot!" Rainbow replied, confidently. You chuckled slightly to yourself, looking down at the apple that was soon to collide with her.

Not wasting any more time, you popped up from cover, and before Rainbow could react, multiple apples were already flying in her direction.

Thankfully, the apples here didn't really hurt upon collision. On Earth, they would have hurt a lot if they hit someone at the force which you were throwing them, but apples in Equestria seemed a lot softer and more delicate than Earth apples.
That must've been why they made such amazing cider.

"Woah!" Rainbow shouted, as the apples all hit her. So far, you were winning the food fight.

"Bahaha!" you laughed, as Rainbow recovered from the barrage of fruits that had hit her. In the midst of your laughter, you failed to notice Rainbow picking up a hoof full of apples.

Before you knew it, 4 apples were flying at you all at once, like a catapult of apples. Every single one of them hit you, causing Rainbow to laugh just as hard as you.

The fight was neck and neck. Both of you had been hit the same amount of times.

"Whoever hits the next one wins!" you announced, preparing to grab for an apple that was laying on the ground.

"You better hope your a quick dodger!" Rainbow replied, giving you a worrying grin.

"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" you asked confidently. You knew that she was up to something, but so were you.

Without giving a response, Rainbow tossed a final apple in your direction. You countered by doing the same, sending an apple in her direction.

Seemingly by chance, both apples hit each other in mid-air, exploding into fruit juice. The tie still stood.

"Ok, that was kinda awesome." Rainbow admitted, after watching the two projectiles collide with each other.

Before you could reply, the sound of hoofsteps filled the barn. Not your hoofsteps, and not Rainbow's either. It was Applejack's.

"Oh, no." you said to yourself, realising the mess you had made. Broken apples couvered the ground of the barn, even covering the grindstone and the many mugs of apple cider you had made.
If Applejack saw this mess, you had a feeling this wasn't gonna end well.

You glanced at Rainbow Dash, who had an equally worried look on her face.

"Let's get out of here." she said, beginning to hover off the ground. You gave a quick nod in response, before following her to an open window higher up in the barn.

The two of you landed on the roof of the barn, preparing to listen for the shouting that was about to ensue.

"What in tarnation?" Applejack screamed, causing both you and Rainbow to burst into fits of laughter. You had a strange feeling you were going to have to clean up the mess you had made tomorrow, but it would be worth it.

"Let's go before she finds us and makes us clean up." you suggested, deciding that you would rather save that chore for another day.

Rainbow, seeming to agree with you, took off into the sky with you following. Wherever the two of you went, trouble seemed to follow.
But with that trouble, came fun.

From angry golems, to food fights in a barn, who knows what else you would end up getting yourself into.

Author's Notes:

A more slice of life orientated chapter this time. Speaking of which, it's almost time for the birthday.

I sure hope you haven't forgotten about the piece of paper that Storm hid with the Wonderbolt's tickets. That's pretty important. I can't say why yet, but just know that.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!