"Rise and shine, Rainbow!" Came the call early in the morning, accompanied by several loud knocks at the door.
Rainbow Dash gave a little groan but began to roll out of the bed, despite feeling that it was far too early in the morning to be waking up. The fact that after a few years of sleeping on a cloud, using the bed felt about the same as trying to sleep on a rock didn't help much either. She had tossed and turned for a good while after laying down to get some sleep, trying to find a comfortable spot and generally failing at it.
She gave a little yawn as she stretched out her legs and wings, wincing softly at the fresh aches from her muscles. She was feeling more sore that morning than she had been for the last few, though it wasn't much worse than some of the times when she'd had to make a fairly hard landing after one of her tricks went bad. Nothing she couldn't handle, the pegasus thought.
"Alright, alright, I'm up!" She called out as the knocking started again, grumbling to herself as she made her way to the door.
Opening it up, she saw Applejack standing there and looking far too cheerful for such an early wake up. The earth pony gave a little grin as she spotted her sleepy looking friend.
"Good ta see yer awake, Rainbow. Now come on, we've got a lot'a work ahead. It's just gonna be three of us today cause Caramel's helpin' out Carrot Top with her garden."
"Ugh, alright... give me a second to get ready then and I'll be right out."
As she stepped back into her room, Rainbow Dash briefly considered hopping back into bed again but decided against it. That would just tick off Applejack and the last thing she needed right now was for her friend to be mad at her. She was already starting to regret not having dinner the night before, especially since it looked like they'd be passing on breakfast as well.
"Hmm... maybe I should let AJ know that I really could use some food." The pegasus mused quietly to herself as she did on occasion. "Nah, I can't do that. That'd make me look weak, and I'm definitely not a weakling. I'll just eat a big lunch to make up for it."
Giving a little nod to herself at this decision, she finished up getting ready for the day, which didn't take long at all, and was soon following her friend back out toward the fields. Along the way, Applejack went over how they would be dividing up the work to both her and Big Macintosh who had joined them on the way out the door.
"Now, since there's only the three of us and three fields, we're each gonna have ta take one. That's gonna make things mighty slow, but we'll manage. Big Macintosh, ya'll know when ta come in fer lunch. Same fer you, Rainbow, but Ah can call you when it's time, if you'd like."
The large red pony gave a nod at her words and began to head on towards his assigned field. Dash on the other hand, blinked for a second before turning to face her friend.
"Wha... oh! Yeah, sure, that's fine with me." She said, stifling a little yawn before giving a wide grin.
Applejack raised an eyebrow at her response before replying. "Ya'll sure you can do this? Ah don't mind splittin' the fields fifty-fifty again."
"Nah, it's cool. I'm still just a bit drowsy, but I'll be just fine once I get started."
"If you say so, sugarcube... well, once you finish up, that's it fer the day and yer free to head back to the house or do whatever else you want until night falls. Ah'd better get goin' now. See ya later fer lunch!"
The earth pony gave a little wave before walking off towards her field. Rainbow returned it, waiting until her friend was out of sight before drooping a bit. As her stomach grumbled in protest, she gave a little grimace but shook it off.
"Ugh, I haven't even started yet and I'm already beat. Today's going to be a long, long day..." She sighed before heading to her own field.
The first row or two went by without too much trouble. Before too long though, the pegasus was already straining to keep going. The constant tilting of her head to water the seeds, along with the slow walk from one part to the next was putting a constant strain on her already aching muscles, and having to walk back and forth from the well every few minutes wasn't helping much either. In addition to that, she had nopony there to talk with and nothing to occupy her and help stave off boredom.
Only about a quarter of the way in, Dash actually had to take a short break to keep from collapsing. She sat down beside the well for a few minutes, glaring down at her watering can as if this whole thing was somehow its fault. As she rested up for a moment though, an idea slowly began to come together in her mind of how she could make this far easier and quicker. In fact, she had to laugh at the fact that it had taken her this long to figure it out.
Setting aside the watering can, she wouldn't need it for this, Dash spread her wings out wide and took to the skies. Looking around for a moment, she spotted what she needed and grinned, flying over to gather it up. Before too long, she had a fairly nice looking cloud at her hooves, ripe with rain and ready for the task ahead.
"Heh, I can't wait to see the look on AJ's face when she hears I've finished the entire field before lunch. And this is so much easier than trying to use that old tin can." She said with a little chuckle, looking over her handiwork.
With that, she pushed her cloud into place above the row she was working on and gave it a light tap. Rain began to pour out from the fluffy white object and she slowly pushed it along to water the entire row of plants. This wasn't nearly as hard, and it used a different set of muscles which meant that the pain she'd been feeling all morning had nearly vanished, or at least wasn't getting any worse.
Some time later, Dash was still grinning widely, well over half the field watered just as well as if she'd been using the watering can. She couldn't help but feel fairly proud of her idea and how well it was working. She'd managed to come up with a way to not only speed things up, but allow herself to keep going beyond what she probably would have been able to. With her sore muscles and an empty stomach, she was fairly certain that she wouldn't have been able to last much longer doing things the old way.
A loud shout rang out over the farm, coming from a familiar sounding voice. It was so sudden and loud that Rainbow Dash nearly fell out of the air in surprise. Looking down, she spotted Applejack glaring back up at her with a furious look on her face.
"Rainbow Dash, what the hay do you think yer doin'?"
"Wha? A-AJ, I... I just thought..." Dash sputtered, taken completely by surprise by her friend's anger.
"You thought? Ah'll bet ya'll just wanted ta take tha lazy way out. That ain't how we do things here on mah farm! Hay, if Ah'd wanted a rainstorm, Ah'd have asked you fer one. What if ya'll had overwatered the plants? Or if ya'll lost control of it and wound up with a big storm right over tha crops? What would'a happened then, Rainbow?"
Rainbow Dash was devastated by this outburst from the earth pony. In a few short seconds, all the thoughts she'd had about this being a clever idea were torn to pieces. While it was true that she had done this to make the job easier and finish up faster, the fact of the matter was that it turned out to be the best way for her to do it. Hungry and sore, she couldn't have gone on with the watering can and this had been a solution to that problem. Still, that wasn't enough for Applejack it seemed.
"I...I..." Rainbow Dash began, struggling to find the words to say as she felt her heart plummeting.
Nothing came to her, no way to respond to the accusing glare of the earth pony. Turning her face aside, she left the cloud behind, a faint rainbow trail briefly hanging in the air as she dashed back toward the farmhouse.
Applejack was still furious even as she watched her friend fly off from her ranting. She barely even noticed as her brother approached to stand at her side. After a few moments though, she began to calm down, an almost worried look coming over her as she realized what she'd said and done.
"D-do ya think Ah might have been a bit harsh on Dash there, Big Mac? Ah mean, maybe she really meant well and was just tryin' ta help..." She said uncertainly, turning to glance at the red pony.
"Eeyup." He replied simply, giving a nod.
"Aw horseapples, what was Ah thinkin'..." She said with a sigh, mentally giving herself a few good bucks. "Rainbow Dash's mah friend and... Ah had no right ta go explodin' on her like that. Ah reckon Ah'd better go talk to her 'n apologize..."
"Eeyup." Big Macintosh repeated, ever a pony of few words.
With that, Applejack began to slowly traipse her way back toward the farmhouse after her friend, thinking all the while on what she was going to say. She still felt that she was in the right about this, but simply shouting at the pegasus probably hadn't been the best way to go about it. Lost in her thoughts, it wasn't long before she was standing in front of the door to Rainbow Dash's room. Taking a deep breath, she gave a sturdy knock.
"Rainbow Dash? You in there?"
No answer came back, so she knocked again and called out a bit louder this time. "C'mon Rainbow, we need ta talk."
"Go away... Don't want to talk..." A voice called back this time, though the door remained shut.
Applejack gave a little sigh of relief, having started to worry that Rainbow Dash had flown back to her home. If that had happened, there would be no way for her to get a chance to speak with the pegasus. Not for a while at least.
"Look, sugarcube... Ah shouldn't have shouted at you like that, and Ah'm sorry. Now, please, let me come in so Ah can talk with you about it."
For a few seconds, she heard no reply. About the time that she had started worrying that her friend was simply going to remain silent, Dash spoke up again.
"O-okay... If you really want to so bad, you can come in..."
With another little sigh of relief, though she was still somewhat dreading what might happen next, the orange pony carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside. Once she was able to see inside the room, she noticed the pegasus sitting down on the bed, head held low. As she stepped a bit nearer, Applejack could see that her eyes looked awfully shiny.
"Thanks, Rainbow. Have... have ya'll been cryin'?"
"Of... of course not." The pegasus replied, quickly turning her head away from her friend. "I don't cry. Especially not over something as small as this."
The earth pony winced a bit at hearing this blatant lie before letting out a soft sigh and trotting over to the bed. "Rainbow Dash... Ah'm sorry fer what happened. Ah shouldn't have snapped at you. Not without at least hearin' ya out first. It's just that, well... Ah assumed ya'll were bein' lazy and jus' doin' it ta get out of the work. And... there are other reasons Ah got so mad, but you couldn't have known..."
Rainbow Dash gave a barely audible sniff before turning back to face Applejack, her eyes dry though she still seemed to lack her usual confidence. "I wasn't doing it to try and skip out on the work. Well, I started because it seemed faster, but I still actually thought I was helping out and that it was a good idea. I've... been feeling terrible all day so far. You were right, I should have eaten something last night, and I've had to deal with that. Plus, my whole body has been so sore lately, but even more so today. Pushing the cloud around though... I could do that without having to worry about it... ugh, and now I'm complaining about it, to you of all ponies. As if I hadn't messed things up enough for one day..."
"Ah... Ah had no idea, Rainbow. Why didn't ya'll just say somethin' bout it? If Ah'd known ya'll weren't feelin' well, Ah'd have offered ta split the field with you or somethin'." Applejack said, lowering her head to give her friend a gentle nuzzle.
"And ya'll ain't messed nothin' up, sugarcube. Ah jus'... Ah overreacted a mite bit. It's jus' that mah whole family are earth ponies, you know? We ain't got no magic or wings or weather powers, just our own selves and a good feel fer the land. Still, we're some of the best farmers in all of Equestria. Mah pappy always said that this is because we ain't got nothing special. We have ta work hard and we're better for it.
"Now, Ah had a hard enough time jus' lettin' Twi use her magic ta help out last Applebuck season, but Ah was kinda desperate then. This time... well, like Ah said, Ah jumped ta conclusions. There's no way ya'll could have known though, and Ah shouldn't have shouted like that. Ah'm sorry, Rainbow."
Rainbow Dash was silent as she listened to her friend's words. Even after the earth pony had fallen silent, she still said nothing for a moment. Finally, she leaned over to give a short little nuzzle back.
"Apology accepted, AJ. I... guess I haven't really given you much reason to think better of me though, have I. To tell you the truth, the first thing I thought when I had the idea was of going to gloat to you once I had finished up early. Maybe I owe you an apology or something..."
"Nah, ya'll don't owe me nothin', sugarcube. It was mah own stubbornness that caused this whole thing. Ah should've been more acceptin', or at least talked with you first."
The two ponies fell silent for a while, simply sitting there beside each other. The silence was broken by a slight feathery sound as Dash stretched out her wings before starting to get up.
"Well, I think that's quite enough of this mushy stuff. I guess we should probably get back to work if we want to finish up by tonight." The pegasus said, giving a small laugh as her stomach gave another little rumble. "Although... maybe I should see about getting something to eat first."
Applejack blinked at her friends words before chuckling softly and nodding. "Heh, Ah reckon you're right. Ah'm sure Granny Smith won't mind fixin' you up a little snack fer now, though it might be time fer lunch already. And yer right about that, we're gonna have ta work hard ta finish up today. Though, ya'll sure you don't want ta take tha day off ta get some rest?"
"I'm sure. I'll feel a lot better after lunch. I'm going to have to figure out something for tonight though, cause I don't think that bed's going to work out for me. Maybe pull in a cloud to use or something... er, if you don't mind of course. It's your house after all."
"If ya'll think it'll help, then Ah ain't got a problem with it. It ain't gonna rain in the house or nothin' though, right?"
"Of course not! I'm the captain of the weather team, remember? I think I know the difference between making a rain cloud and a bed cloud." Dash said with a laugh as the two began to walk out of the guest room.
True to Applejack's words, they found that lunch was about ready and decided to hold off until then. A few minutes later, they were seated before quite a nice spread. While not forgotten, both ponies seemed to have gotten over the events of that morning and were once again talking and joking over lunch. Finally, after eating their fill of the delicious food, they headed back out to finish up their work.
"You know what? I think this whole thing has been worth it just for Granny Smith's cooking. That pony can do some amazing things with food." Rainbow Dash said with a wide grin.
"Heh, she sure can." Applejack agreed with a nod before turning to her friend. "Well, do ya'll think yer feelin' good enough ta take on the rest of that field by yerself, or should Ah come over ta help?"
"I'll be fine on my own. What happened this morning was just a fluke. There's no way a little field like that could get the better of me!" Rainbow said before noticing the earth pony's look. "Eh heh... although, if by some chance I start feeling a bit off, I'll be sure to find you and ask for help."
"Good enough fer me, sugarcube. Ah'm off then. See ya'll tonight!"
"Yeah, see you!"
With that, the two of them parted ways and picked up where they had left off. Rainbow Dash still felt the aches and pains from that morning, but without the addition of hunger, it didn't seem nearly as bad anymore. Certainly nothing she couldn't handle at least. It still took her longer than Applejack to finish, but she managed to do it and that night, when she was getting settled in to her newly formed cloud bed, she couldn't help but smile a bit at the fact that she had managed to beat her own weariness.
The cloud bed seemed to have done the trick and, while the work still left her feeling quite tired and sore, Rainbow Dash woke up each morning feeling refreshed and ready to start the day. Well, as much as she could at least, considering that Applejack continued to wake her up far earlier than she was happy with. The fact that her muscles seemed to be adapting to the strains of the job helped out as well, and she was very careful to not go skipping meals again or trying to take an easy way out of the job.
A little over a week had passed since the fields had been planted before the first signs of life began to sprout up. As she looked down at the little green shoots, the pegasus felt a little burst of pride that she normally associated with pulling off a new trick, or putting together a particularly nice piece of weather work. Knowing that she had planted many of these plants that would one day go on to feed the residents of Ponyville left her with a feeling of fulfillment at a job well done and she wondered if this was how Applejack felt all the time.
As for the earth pony, Dash was finding that she truly enjoyed talking with her as they worked. Now that Caramel was back, they had gone back to splitting into teams of two to work the fields, which meant that she was once again having plenty of time to converse with her friend. Still, with spending all of her available time at the farm, she was starting to miss her other friends, and if she didn't have time to practice anymore, she'd never make it into the Wonderbolts! One morning, she had finally brought this up with Applejack, and the orange pony's response had been quite surprising.
"Ya know, ya'll have a good point there, Rainbow. Tell ya what, since you've been doin' such a good job around here, Ah'll let ya have the day off. The three of us can handle things here." The farmer pony said, giving her friend a little smile.
"Ohmygosh, really? Thank you so much, AJ! I mean, if you're sure you don't mind me going off today."
"Heh, Ah'm sure. We've been doin' this fer a couple'a years without ya, so Ah think we can handle one more day." The earth pony said with a chuckle. "Besides, it won't be long before the plants are big enough and we'll have a lot more free time. So, go on and have fun, sugarcube."
"Well, if you're sure..." Rainbow Dash began before giving her friend a bright smile. "Thanks, Applejack. I guess I'll see you later then!"
The pegasus waved her goodbyes to Applejack before spreading her wings and taking off, flying out toward Ponyville. After working for the past several days straight, having a day off was sounding like a wonderful idea. The only problem now was how to spend it. Thankfully, that question was partially answered for her when a familiar voice called out her name as she flew over the town.
"Ooh, Rainbow Dash! Down here, down here!"
Looking down for the source of the voice, Dash spotted a bright pink pony with a poofy mane bouncing around and waving to try to get her attention. A grin on her face, she banked and came in for a quick landing beside her friend.
"Hey Pinkie Pie! Geez, it feels like I haven't seen you in forever."
"I know! I've been looking for you everywhere after you just up and vanished. I thought Princess Celestia was good at hide and seek, but she's got nothing on you! Though, you might not want to tell her that, or she might banish you, and then I'd never get to see you again! Oh, that reminds me, pranking's not as fun without my best prankster buddy there with me. That's why I wanted to find you!"
The sudden verbal barrage slammed into the pegasus, but Dash, who was quite used to it by now, simply gave a little chuckle. "Sorry about that, Pinkie Pie. I didn't mean to disappear on you all, it just kinda happened. Though, I shouldn't have been that hard to find. How hard were you looking?"
"Not hard to find? Do you know what I've been through?" The pink pony said, her eyes going wide. "I mean, I've asked everypony in town about it! I went to talk to Fluttershy about it first, but she said she hadn't seen you either. Then I got kind of worried and went to go see Nurse Redheart, because you might have hurt yourself badly or something, but you weren't there either. I kept trying to beg Twilight to cast a super-duper-prank-buddy-finder spell, but she kept saying there was no such thing, which shows how much she knows. Seriously, I thought her talent was magic, and she doesn't even know about those? Anyways..."
The story continued on and Dash began to tune out most of it, as most ponies found themselves doing if they happened to get caught up in one of Pinkie Pie's stories. The words came back to her though as her friend seemed to be wrapping it up.
"...and then I had a big green patch in my coat, but at least I was safe from the mean old hydra. The princess was so happy that I found the lost diamond earring though that she gave me a lotion that would fix it. And what do you know, it worked! So that's why I'm happy to see you today!" She finished up, beaming at Dash in the way that only Pinkie Pie could.
"Wait, what?" The pegasus asked, blinking a bit before shaking her head with a laugh. "I'm glad to see you too, Pinkie Pie. Applejack finally gave me a day off, and I was trying to figure out how I should spend it."
Pinkie Pie tilted her head with a puzzled look for a moment before giving a gasp. "Oh, of course! You were helping out Applejack on her farm, weren't you? Boy, do I feel silly now. That's the last place I would have looked, cause I would have found you there! Anyways, I found you and now we can go have fun, right?"
The excited pink mare managed to pull a goofy looking pair of disguise glasses seemingly from nowhere and put them on. Dash gave a laugh at her friend's antics and shook her head slowly.
"You are so random, Pinkie Pie. That sounds good to me though! Got any good pranks in mind?"
"Hmm... oh, I know the perfect pony to go prank. I think I know just what to do too. Come on, Dashie, let's go!"
"Heh, you aren't even going to tell me who it is first?" The pegasus said, raising an eyebrow but following after her friend anyways.
"Nope! You'll see when we get there!" Pinkie replied in a sing song voice, bouncing along happily as she led the way.
Rainbow Dash gave a sigh but couldn't help but chuckle along with the pink pony as they walked through town. Since her friend didn't seem to have any plans on letting her know, she began to try and guess who it might be that they were going to prank.
"Hmm... Is it Rarity again? No, we just passed her shop. It could be Twilight or Spike, but the library is over there and we're going the wrong way for that. Er... Lyra or Bon Bon maybe?" Dash said hesitantly as they neared the edge of the town, grasping at anything she could come up with.
"Nope! None of the above, Dashie." Pinkie said with a giggle.
"Ugh... can't you just tell me who it is, Pinkie Pie?"
"Aw, but that would spoil the surprise! Besides you'll see soon enough!"
Dash grumbled a bit at that, but it was all in good humor. Before long, the buildings fell away behind them, to be replaced by grass and bushes as they began following an all too familiar path. Indeed, as the barn and farmhouse came into view, along with a sign reading 'Sweet Apple Acres', her suspicions were confirmed.
"Oh... heh, it's Applejack isn't it." The pegasus said with a little grin, turning to look at her friend.
The pink pony simply gave her a wide smile before glancing around surreptitiously and heading toward the barn. "Come on, this way! I'm going to need your help setting this all up in the barn. Oh, try not to let Applejack or anypony see you though. Ooh, this is going to be so good! I just know it will be the best prank ever!"
Not hearing a no, Rainbow Dash assumed that she was right, chuckling softly as she carefully snuck her way into the barn after Pinkie Pie. Eager to see just what her friend had planned, she followed along with the directions she was given. Several minutes later, Pinkie announced that they were finished, leaving Dash to look on in confusion at the bizarre contraption they had put together.
"So... what exactly is this thing supposed to do?"
"Hee hee, you'll see Dashie."
Applejack was still hard at work on the fields when she heard the sound of somepony coming nearer. She looked up to see who it could be and saw her rainbow maned friend running full speed toward her, looking fairly panicked. The pegasus stopped beside her and tried to catch her breath.
"Woah there, what's wrong sugarcube? Ya'll look mighty frightened. Did something happen in town?" She asked, shocked by the sudden appearance of Rainbow Dash.
"N-no. I mean, maybe, but not in town. I asked Dashie to help me out with something in the barn, but now it's gone terribly wrong!" Came a voice that was most definitely not the pegasus'.
"R-rainbow Dash? What happened to you? Ya'll sound just like Pinkie Pie..."
"I am Pinkie Pie! Well, I guess I'm really Rainbow Dash now, but I'm still me too. Huh, that's kind of confusing actually... anyways, we don't have time for this! You need to get to the barn and help us try to fix things before we're stuck like this! Forever!"
"Wait, if ya'll are Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, then that means..." The farmer pony's eyes widen and she gives a quick nod. "Yer right! We need ta get there right away. Ah don't know what Ah can do ta help, but Ah'll do mah best!"
With that, the two ponies galloped off at full speed for the barn. Applejack threw open the doors, looking around for any signs of what had happened. The inside of the barn looked about as it normally did, though there was an odd machine taking up a good chunk of the floor space. She thought it looked kind of like those things she'd seen down in the basement of the Library, what Twilight had called her 'lab'. Standing beside it was a pink pony who's look of shock matched her own.
"Pinkie- Ah mean, Rainbow? Are ya'll alright?"
"No, I'm not alright! I... I didn't know I was going to get stuck like this! How am I supposed to join the Wonderbolts if I don't have wings? Or be captain of the weather team, or fly, or... or anything?"
"D-don't worry, Ah'll try and fix this, sugarcube..." Applejack said before turning back to the pegasus now known as Pinkie Pie. "What happened and how can Ah help?"
"Well... the machine worked the first time, but it broke right after making us each other. So, now I'm stuck as Rainbow Dash and she's stuck as me! Usually when things break though, a good hit can get them working again. Dashie and I need to be in our spots when that happens though, so we need someone to hit the machine."
"Ah think Ah can do that. Ya'll sure that's gonna work though?"
"I don't think we have much of a choice! If this doesn't work, then we won't be able to switch back and then I'm going to have to learn to fly and Dashie is going to have to learn to bake."
"Alright then, ya'll both do what you need to and Ah'll do mah part. Jus' let me know when Ah should go for it."
The pegasus gave a nod and headed over toward the machine, the pink pony doing likewise. Each of them stepped into one of the large chambers and turned back to look at Applejack as a little gate closed to keep them inside.
"Okay, do it now!" Came Pinkie's voice.
Applejack didn't need to be told twice. Spinning around, she gave the machine a good, hard buck. Suddenly, there was a loud popping sound and confetti shot everywhere. The orange pony jumped nearly a foot into the air, her eyes wide.
"What the hay..." She began before another sound caught her attention and she looked to see the two ponies in the machine rolling on the ground laughing. "W-what's goin' on you two?"
"Heh, you should have seen the look on your face! It was priceless!" Rainbow Dash said, her voice still coming from the pink pony as she wiped tears of laughter from her face.
"Yeah! Hee hee, that was so much fun." The other pony giggled.
As Applejack watched, the two of them reached up to pull off what she could now see were just wigs, one pink and poofy, the other rainbow colored, and neither of them all that good now that she noticed. In fact, now that she wasn't nearly as panicked, she could see that neither of the ponies even had their proper cutie mark, just crude drawings of them.
"Ah... Ah don't even... what the hay's going on?" She said, her eyes starting to widen as she realized what just happened. "Oh... consarnit you two! This was all just one of yer pranks, weren't it? Well, it ain't funny!"
As the earth pony watched the two of them step out of the machine and begin washing the dye from their coats and realized just how worked up she'd gotten though, she began to chuckle softly.
"Well... alright, maybe it was a mite bit funny. Ya'll two had me right worried though. Ah didn't know what Ah would do if ya'll really were stuck like that."
"Aww, sorry Applejack. I didn't mean to really worry you or anything. Well, maybe just a bit, to make the reveal all the better. Maybe it was a bit much though..." The now freshly pink pony said, turning her head to remove the false wings even as Dash was washing the invisible ink off of her own.
"It's fine, sugarcube. No harm done. Though, mah heart's still goin' so fast." She said with a laugh. "Ah might just have ta take a bit of a rest before headin' back out ta work."
Pinkie Pie brightened up considerably as her friend seemed to be taking the prank quite well. "Okie-dokie-lokie! I proclaim that prank a huge success then. Yay! Although, it does take a whole lot of work to get right... funny, but I think I'll just stick to hoof buzzers. Thanks for being such a good sport, Applejack! I'll get right to work on getting all this cleaned up!"
"Yeah, me too. With the two of us, your barn should be back to normal in no time!" Dash said with a grin.
With that, the two ponies set about pulling down their construction, Applejack lending a hoof as well instead of just watching them. With all three of them working, it didn't take long at all before the barn was right back to the way it should have been. After she had somehow put the last of the materials into her saddlebags, Pinkie began to head out of the barn, waving goodbye to her friends.
"Well, I've got to get going. I've got parties to plan and cakes to bake! See you later, Dashie, Applejack. Try not to work too hard! Remember, all work and no play makes... I don't remember the rest, but it's not good." She said, thinking on it as she walked out. "Was it all work and no play makes for a sad day, or winter stay..."
After giving their own goodbyes to the pink pony, Rainbow Dash and Applejack turned to each other. The pegasus was still chuckling softly as she grinned to the orange pony.
"Heh, hope you didn't mind that too much AJ. I met up with Pinkie Pie in Ponyville, but even I didn't know what we were going to do til we got here. Still, that was great!"
"Ah don't mind one bit, Rainbow. Heh, Ah can take a joke as good as the next pony. Though, Ah'm gonna have ta work a bit harder ta catch up after this..."
"Hmm... I know you said I could have day off, but I could help you finish up if you'd like. I mean, it is kinda my fault you're running behind."
"Ah'd be most appreciative of that. Ya'll don't have to if you don't want, but Ah certainly wouldn't say no to some help."
"Sure thing then! I'd be glad to help out."
Applejack gave her friend a wide smile before nodding and starting to head back out toward the field, the pegasus following alongside her.
"Heh, you know the thing that worried me the most when Ah heard the news from Pinkie Pie? That ya'll had lost yer wings, Rainbow. Ah know how important they are to you and Ah didn't know how you would take losin' them. Ah jus' knew it wouldn't be good and that ya'll would need somepony there to help."
"Hmm... I hadn't really thought about something like that before." Dash said, turning her head a bit to look back at her wings. "Yeah, if something happened and I lost them or couldn't fly or something... that'd be pretty devastating. Flying is my life, always has been, and if I lost that... well, I'd need all the help I could get."
They walked on in silence for a moment before the pegasus spoke up again. "I hope something like that never, ever happens to me, or any pegasus. If though... if something did happen, then I would definitely want you there for support, Applejack. Maybe, with a friend like you, I'd be able to pull through it."
"That's mah hope too, Rainbow. Though, like you say, if..." The earth pony trailed off for a moment before taking a breath and continuing. "Ah'd be there for you in a heartbeat, ta do whatever Ah can ta help."
Again, the two fell into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Rainbow gave a little laugh and shook her head.
"Well, now that we're nice and depressed, how bout we go get some work done."
"Heh, sounds good ta me. Race ya there."
"Oh, you're on!"
Though she never did manage to get any flying practice done during her time off, Rainbow Dash had still had quite a bit of fun and considered it a good day. After the excitement of that day though, things fell back into the normal routine around the farm for the next few days. Applejack woke her up early in the morning, they watered the plants, took a break for a big lunch, continued working the fields, and then went to bed shortly after sunset. Under the ponies' care, the plants continued to grow larger day by day. Finally, Applejack declared that they were big enough to not need such careful tending every day, so long as it rained pretty regularly.
Without as much work left to do around the farm, Rainbow Dash found herself with a lot more free time to spend as she pleased. Or she would have, if she didn't have weather team duties to catch up on. Still, that wasn't a particularly difficult job and she still had plenty of time to practice her tricks or just hang out with her friends, though she did insist on being the one to put together the rainclouds over Sweet Apple Acres when they were called for. Applejack continued to wake her up early in the mornings for some reason, though it wasn't quite as hard to do anymore and that did give her extra time to be out and about.
As for the earth pony, Applejack too was taking this time to catch up with her friends, having pretty much vanished from Ponyville for the past two weeks or so. There were still things to do around the farm, mending tools and buildings, checking up on the crops to make sure they were growing well, and even starting to look over the apple orchard since the trees were beginning to leaf out again. She got Rainbow to help out with the tasks that the pegasus could help with, but some things just required more experience than what the blue pony had and she did those herself.
The scenery around Ponyville began to grow green once more as the Spring days passed, the weather growing warmer as life emerged once more from the ground. While perhaps it did not carry the same tranquility as Winter, there was something to be said for these times as well. Ponies began to spend far more time outdoors, tending to their own gardens or simply enjoying the beautiful weather put together by the pegasi and Celestia's sun.
During the occasional times that their friends were busy with their own jobs, Rainbow and Applejack often found themselves hanging out with each other since they both had roughly the same time off. Often it wound up leading to some form of competition and it wasn't uncommon to see the two ponies racing through the apple trees up at the farm or around the outskirts of Ponyville. As the days grew longer, and the beautiful white and pink blossoms began to bloom upon the once bare apple trees, so too did their friendship grow and flourish in the beauty of the Spring.