Chapter 5: Flaring Emotions

Flying through the rain Rainbow looked around for Scootaloo on the ground, seeing no signs of the small orange filly. Rainbow felt like she had died a little inside, having watched her number one fan run away from her like she did, all because she had snapped at Big Mac. She made a mental note to really make it up to Mac for that, but first came Scootaloo. She saw Rainbow as an older sister of sorts, if she couldn't fix their relationship then how was she going to be able to get along with him?

"Dammit Scootaloo why do you have to be so fast?!" Rainbow shouted as she slowly descended, the rain starting to make it hard for her to fly at a constant speed. As Rainbow landed she heard a bush rustle next to her, making her turn fast enough to see a purple tail disappear into it.

"Scootaloo wait!" Rainbow said quickly, trying to grab the tail with her hoof, but missed and slipped to the ground. She grunted as she got up, taking after Scootaloo into the bush, which happened to be on the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres, but Rainbow didn't notice, or care for that matter. All she cared about was finding Scootaloo now.

After what seemed like hours Rainbow stumbled upon the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse, which would have been empty on every other day like today, but not this time. Inside Scootaloo was crying silently as she looked at all of her Rainbow Dash memorabilia. Knowing that she had to quick Rainbow opened the door, making Scootaloo scream loudly.

"What are you doing here?!" Scootaloo screamed, surprised to see a completely soaked Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway.

"I'm here to say..." Rainbow choked on her words "...sorry" Scootaloo looked at Rainbow as she tried to avoid eye contact.

"What are you sorry for?" Scootaloo asked bitterly, "I'm the one who ran away when you started shouting"

"I didn't mean to shout, I'm just..." Rainbow tried to find the right words for her current situation, "Under a lot of stress right now"

"Enough to yell at Big Mac?" Scootaloo asked quietly, making Rainbow's guilt coming back to her in full force. Rainbow looked down at the ground sadly as she thought about leaving Big Mac out in the rain like she did. Giving one more look at Scootaloo she turned away, deciding to go look for Mac first. If she could fix things with him, then Scootaloo would like her again, or so she thought. As she headed down the ramp to the clubhouse she thought about where Mac would be at a time like this, but the sound of somepony bucking trees in the mud gave her a good idea.

"Big Mac, I-" Rainbow said as she turned around a tree, thinking that she would find Big Mac, but instead found Applejack, bucking with her hat held low on her face.

"Hey there Rainbow" Applejack said with a grunt as she bucked the tree again, a bunch of the apples from the tree falling into the basket below the tree. One apple landed on the edge of the barrel and rolled out into the mud near Rainbow, which Applejack picked up slowly, pausing to look up at Rainbow.

"Uh, hey AJ" Rainbow said slowly, sensing the awkward atmosphere that was hanging around them. Applejack moved to the tree behind Rainbow, bucking it harder than normal so that every apple fell down, even the rotten ones. One of the rotten ones fell on Rainbow's horn, splashing down her face and making her scrunch up her face. Shaking her head quickly Rainbow was able to toss the apple off, but the smell stuck around.

"What's your problem AJ?" Rainbow asked angrily, wiping the rest of the apple off her face as she walked up to Applejack.

"My problem is you shouting at my brother and leaving him in the rain!" Applejack snapped, pushing her face up against Rainbow's. Rather than backing away Rainbow pushed forward as well, the two of them now perfectly face to face, with Applejack's hat hanging off Rainbow's new horn. They pushed against each other until Applejack backed up.

"I wasn't trying to do that, I just snapped ok?!" Rainbow said angrily, looking away so she didn't have to see Applejack's angry face, but when she did she saw the red stallion a few yards away, bucking angrily at trees so hard that the bark cracked. Rainbow froze as he looked at her, the next tree he bucked actually uprooting itself.

"I can understand snapping after something really bad happened, but you did it for no good reason" Applejack said bitterly as she went to buck another tree, "Not to mention you left him in the rain in the middle of a bunch of people"

"I didn't mean to do it!" Rainbow shouted as her horn started to glow a deep blue while her wings flared. Applejack backed up in surprise, but quickly resumed her offensive stance.

"Then why did you do it?!" Applejack shouted back, tipping Rainbow over the edge.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Rainbow cried as her magic came shooting out of her horn, hitting a nearby tree causing it to change color, become weightless, and come out of the ground to float away, not to mention that all of the apples became oranges. Applejack watched with wide eyes as the colorful orange tree floated away, breaking a hole in the rain clouds that was just big enough to stop the rain just above them. A few yards away Big Mac looked around confusedly, but when he looked up to see the hole in the clouds, and then seeing Applejack cowering next to angry Rainbow Dash.

"What's going on?!" Big Mac asked angrily, jumping in between Rainbow and Applejack.

"I'm just angry!" Rainbow shouted back. Big Mac shied away from Rainbow with Applejack, making her calm down immediately.

"I'm sorry, I just..." Rainbow tried to apologize before taking off for the hole in the clouds, wanting to be alone for a while now. Once she broke above the cloud layer Rainbow levelled out, looking for a place to land so she could think about everything that had happened. After blowing up twice with Big Mac around there was no way they would he would still want to be with her, let alone even be her friend. How was Applejack going to act towards her now as well? What about the rest of her friends? How was Scootaloo going to react now that Rainbow has pushed away all of her friends...

"What have I done...?" Rainbow cried as she put her head in her hooves, adding her own tears to the rain that was falling from the sky.