It turns out a lot of things could go wrong. Dale learned this the hard way when he found himself laying face down in the dirt for the fourth time that hour. Rainbow Dash had been the cause of almost all of these faceplants. She was constantly either trying to attempt a new trick or just plain fly too fast, which would cause her to lose control and fly full force directly into Dale. Dale began to growl to himself as he gripped a fistful of dirt, he used the cold earth as a stress ball.

"Rainbow Dash!" Matt called out to her, "You got a little too close to the ground that time and knocked Dale over again!" Dale could tell that Matt was holding back his laughter.

"My bad!" Rainbow's shrill voice called back.

Dale scrambled up and ran towards Matt before the insane pegasus could try any more of her 'stunts'

"How much longer is this going to go on for?" Dale asked Matt while throwing his clump of dirt to the ground.

"I dunno," Matt placed his hands into his pockets while he eyed Rainbow Dash, "Give her about... four, maybe five hours top"

"That's not happening," Dale said bluntly. He took a few steps away from Matt before shouting up to Rainbow Dash, "Hey! We've wasted enough time on your lame tricks! Come down here and hold up your end of the deal!"

"Uh oh..." Matt said with slight fear in his voice. Dale looked over his shoulder, his eyebrow raised. He didn't know what he did wrong.

"Oh come on, did you even see her? She makes a better bullet than a stunt flyer." Dale smirked at his own remark. Before he could think of anything else to say, his arm brace beeped twice. Dale looked at it in confusion. He knew that the arm brace would only go off like that when there was an encounter, but there was nothing dangerous around him. Or so he thought.

The ground behind Dale shook violently and a blast of wind hit Dale's back with a lot of force. Dale quickly spun around, fear welling up inside of him. He had no idea what he just did, but Dale would learn to never say what he said ever again. Rainbow Dash stood behind Dale, her wings flared out and she was breathing heavily. You could swear that you could see smoke coming from her nose every time she exhaled, almost like a raging bull. It didn't help that Rainbow's eyes were a crimson red of rage.

"What did you just say about my flying?" Rainbow huffed out, her voice sounded like it could stab someone like a knife. Dale couldn't respond, he was overwhelmed with the pressure she was putting off. It was even stronger than the feeling he felt when he fought Twilight. No matter how hard Dale tried, he couldn't spit out any coherent words. He just stood there, stammering out random gibberish to the flaming Rainbow Dash.

"S-something about a bul-" Before Dale could finish his words, Rainbow skillfully did a spinning roundhouse kick to Dale's face. He didn't even see it coming at all, it came in a blur. She managed to hover and do the attack in what felt like less than a second.

Dale quickly scrambled to his feet after almost falling over. Before he could say anything to Rainbow, she continued her barrage of hits. The way she fought was almost like a human. She'd use her forehooves as fists, and her hind legs as kicks. Each blow caused Dale to stumble back one step, he didn't even get to see how much HP he was losing before he was struck again. Dale had enough of getting smacked around. He grit his teeth, clenched his fist, and threw a punch forward without even looking. Rainbow Dash flew back before the blow could even connect, she then flew high into the sky.

"Hey, Dale! How's this for a bullet!" Rainbow yelled down to the bruised and beaten man. Dale braced himself for what would come next.

Rainbow Dash did a quick flip in the air before diving straight towards the ground. Her speed and carelessness of being injured stuck out to Dale. Before she could collide with the ground, she pulled up just a bit to be flying at the level it would take to hit Dale's chest. Rainbow Dash stuck both of her forehooves out while she approached Dale at a pace that was unreal to him. Dale barely had any time to think before he found himself jumping to his side and landing flat on his stomach. Rainbow Dash past right over Dale, missing her mark; a huge gust of wind following shortly after.

"You know what? Fuck this!" Dale thought to himself. He quickly stood to his own feet and glared at Rainbow Dash. She was quickly trying to set up another stunt like that one. Rainbow Dash once again dove towards the ground, but this time, Dale had a plan of his own. Dale took his stance and looked much like a matador glaring down its opponent. Instead of using a muleta, he'd use one of the few magic spells that he had available to him in this situation.

Rainbow Dash didn't take notice of Dale as he pulled his arm back and preparing his attack. Time felt like it slowed down for him and he could hear his own heart beat faster and faster. Dale narrowed his eyes, completely shutting off the world from around him and only focusing on his target.

"Zio!" Dale shouted as he thrust his hand forward. The violent crackling of the Zio spell could be heard throughout the entire field the group was standing in. The lightning travelled through the air and towards Rainbow Dash. Her eyes widened and she quickly pulled up; trying to escape the magic. She managed to avoid the spell, but just barely as her hindlegs grazed her. Rainbow Dash had to fly up high to regain her composure, her breathing increased as she took in what just happened.

"Hey, that's enough you two!" Matt called out. Both Dale and Rainbow Dash were caught off guard by this, they forgot that Matt was even there, "Training is fine and all, Dale. But you could have seriously hurt her!"

"You've got to be shitting me, she started it!" Dale protested. Rainbow landed gracefully on the ground, she was much calmer than she was only a minute ago.

"Don't worry about me Matt, he couldn't hit me even if I let him," She winked at Matt, "And besides, as an up incoming wonderbolt, I need to prepare myself for any dangerous stunt that I will have to do," There was a lot of pride in her voice, either that or stupidity.

"I know. I have no doubts that you'll be able to make it too!" Matt gave her a thumbs up. Dale knew for a fact that Matt was using his knowledge of this world to butter these girls up. The only thing Dale didn't know was the reason behind it and maybe it would be for the best that he didn't find out, "What do you say that we go on a short break, you both must be exhausted."

Rainbow and Dale nodded their heads at the statement. Dale quickly looked at his arm brace to check his HP.

Name: Dale Stevens

Level: 6

HP: 20/55

MP: 30/35

3 stat points available!

"The bitch took out half of my hp..." Dale thought to himself as he closed his menu. He's been holding those stat points for a while now, but he didn't know what to spend them on. He thought that he should just hold onto the points until later tonight or when he was in the mood to think about those things.

It didn't take the trio long to decide what they wanted to get for lunch. Matt and Rainbow Dash did all the work on that front and they decided on apple cider from a place Dale never heard of called "Sweet Apple Acres" Matt was very excited because he wanted to try the apple cider really badly and Rainbow Dash was hyping him up for it. Dale was just happy to have some sort of break from the action for once. He barely remembers the last time he was able to just rest.

the three were walking along a path that leads slightly outside of town, Rainbow said that just following the white picket fence was the easiest way to find Sweet Apple Acres. The trees were beginning to become more populated with bright red juicy apples. They looked almost fake in a way; kind of like how a product would be presented in an advertisement.

"C'mon you two! We're almost there!" Rainbow Dash took off from the ground and began to fly ahead of the two men. Dale and Matt looked at each other before running after her.

"You have no idea how many people back home would kill to try some of this stuff!" Matt turned his head to Dale and grinned.

"Sorry, I'm not interested," Dale responded coldly.

Matt groaned in response before speaking again, "Jesus, man. Can you just at least try to enjoy yourself for once?"

Deep down, Dale knew Matt was right. Dale would never admit that to his face though. He thought about taking it slow for the time they had to just relax for once. Dale began to pick up his pace; overtaking Matt slightly.

"Alright, fine! I'll try to at least save some cider for you!" Dale looked back at Matt and winked. Matt smirked and began to race Dale towards the barn.

By the time the two men made it to the barn, Rainbow Dash had already begun talking to one of the workers there. The way the two spoke to each other gave off the impression that they are friends. The mare Rainbow was talking to didn't have anything special looking to her other than the obvious Equestria pony staples. One thing that did stick out was her dusty looking cowboy hat that she wore with pride atop of her blonde mane.

"Here they are now," Rainbow Dash said as Dale and Matt arrived on the scene. The unknown mare trotted up to the boys as they stood around to catch their breath.

"Howdy there! So you're the new critters that I heard so much about for the past few days. My names Applejack, but you can call me AJ for short," Applejack introduced herself with a tip of her hat and a wink of her green eye.

"Nice to meet you Applejack, my name is Matthew and this is Dale," Matt grabbed her extended forehoof and the two began to shake hands rather roughly, but Matt held through.

"Uhh, hey," Dale said with a small wave of his hand.

"Soooo AJ," Rainbow began, "You still have any of the apple cider left over?" The Rainbow Dash said her words implied that she already knew the answer and was just trying to goat Applejack into saying it herself.

Applejack chuckled, "You're right about that. Last cider season we managed to make it out with a few spare jars, and by the way you're drooling, it looks like you want some," Rainbow nodded very fast, causing AJ to laugh, "Well, come along you three."

The three followed Applejack inside of her house that was close to one of the stables. It was a nice little house, one with multiple rooms and a second floor. Dale just assumed that the second floor was for personal living space and didn't want to intrude on the Apple family's privacy. It didn't take long for everyone to be seated in chairs around the kitchen table, each with a cup of slightly aged cider. The drink was pretty strong for something that is primarily made with apple. It tasted pretty good, but if you were to ask Dale, he'd say it was overrated.

As he drank the cider, Dale began to feel a bit better. Dale quickly checked his arm brace to find out that his HP is increasing back to normal with each sip of the drink. In some backwards way, apple cider works as some sort of healing potion in this world. Applejack quickly finished chugging down her drink, slamming the mug down on the wooden table.

"How are ya two liking it in our small town of Ponyville? It ain't much, but it's home," Applejack asked.

"It's great!" Matt began, "Back home kind of sucked, I just feel like I belong here, y'know? I won't bore you with the details though," Matt finished by taking a drink out of his cup. Dale took notice about how Matt talked about home. Even though Dale barely knew anything about Matt, it seemed like he was holding something back about his old life, "The pony's here are great, and I've already made a few good friends after only being here for a few days. Dale, on the other hand, is leaving in a few days."

"Yeah," Dale said, "I've got some important business to take care of. It's pretty far away so I need to prepare for the trip. I just need to get some money together while I prepare," Dale left out where he was going, the last thing he needed was another freakout like what happened a few days ago. Plus, he thought it didn't matter to them where he was going. Matt took slight notice to this but didn't say anything.

Applejack placed a hoof under her chin, "Well, we could always use some help around the barn if you really need to make some bits."

"You being for real?" Dale asked.

"Of course I'm bein serious. It's gonna get real busy soon because apple season will be start'n up and we'll need as many hooves as we can get." Applejack was very passionate about her farm life and that was obvious to Dale, "I can show you around after yer done drink'n"

Dale nodded his head before taking another sip of his drink.

The next five days went like a blur for Dale. He was placed in a routine of going into the Everfree forest with Matt in the morning to fight some random encounters with his new summon. In the afternoons, Dale and Matt would be doing a group workout session with Rainbow Dash while she also practised some of her stunt work. Over the course of the days, Dale would notice when Rainbow Dash would begin to crash during a trick and began to react faster to it. He was able to avoid hits easier, as well as dodge when Rainbow would fly into him. Working at the Apple family farm in the evenings until the dead of night was a pretty gruelling task since he was already exhausted from the day. The more he worked with on the farm, the more he saw the passion the Apple family had for what they do. The family had this synergy that Dale had never seen anywhere else in his life. The pay for working at the farm was a lot bigger than he thought it was going to be, but Dale was praying that he would have enough money to pack for the journey.

Dale thought that leaving town on the day he set was going to be easy. But as it turned out, it would be one of the most difficult days of his life.