Of Rainbows and Dreams, and Some Apples it Seems (Private with livingbylies)

[TnT]

Applebucking season was here once more, and what perfect timing! Ponyville had been selected to host a very special event to which a very humble earth pony would cater! Which event could this be, exactly? Heck if Applejack knew! All the farm pony was told was that she was to gather up and prepare as many tasty apple treats as she could to provide food for the celebration, whatever it may be. Apparently, Princess Celestia was coming down herself to visit, as well as the Wonderbolts. It had to be something special, so Applejack wasted no time preparing.

"Hyuck!" the orange pony yelped, kicking a tree with enough force to shake its contents out. The apples fell eagerly into the baskets she had set beneath the branches. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she stared up into the sky. "Woo-wee! Ah don't think Ah've worked this hard since the time Ah tried harvestin' the entire orchard mahself!" The young mare stretched her hind legs a bit, breathing slowly to reduce her physical strain. Tipping the front of her hat up after it had slid down, Applejack glanced back up to the sky. "Consarn it, where the heck did that Rainbow Dash get to this time?" she asked herself.

[PeculiarChangeling]

"Woo-hoo!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she dived down, pulling up just in time and landing a couple feet away from Applejack. "Sorry I'm late, Applejack, I had to fly over to Cloudsdale to put in a double order of rainbows and thunderclouds. We have a lot of prep work to do for the whatever it is. So what do you need me to do?" She asked, trotting over to a tree. "Knock down apples? That doesn't seem to hard." Rearing her hind legs, she kicked... Knocking down a single apple.
"Maybe I should just carry the apples back to the barn..." She said with an embarrassed smile. So maybe Applejack was a bit stronger than she was.

[TnT]

Applejack chuckled, stepping over to her friend. "Ah'm sure that'll help me a ton, it would. Thank ya kindly," she said, giving a little bow toward her rainbow friend. Her ears perked up. "Oh," she said standing back up straight, "they didn't tell y'all 'bout the celebration neither?" she asked, wondering why it seemed to be such a secret. She was sure other ponies knew; perhaps it was just a simple gathering of Equestrians held every year? Why weren't they simply told? Although it annoyed Applejack, she supposed it wouldn't matter in the end if she simply fulfilled her duties.

Looking back to Rainbow Dash and navigating her way out of her own thoughts, the farm pony tried to think of a quicker way to harvest. "Y'know..." she started, "Ah'd bet that if you flew through the orchard with enough speed, these apples'll slip right off them branches faster than Ah could buck 'em mahself," she suggested, sure of her statement but unsure as to how it would turn out for the apples. She typically didn't like rushing these things, but time was short and she had a lot of orders to fill. "Perhaps testin' it out in a smaller area of trees..." she added.

[PeculiarChangeling]

Rainbow grinned, devilishly. "Speed? I can do speed," she said, unfurling and stretching her wings. Finally, some fun. A chance to help Applejack AND practice the Zig-zag Rainboom she'd been trying to perfect. If she got that done she would be flying circles around the Wunderbolts, they'd have to let her in!
"Stand back, this is gonna be awesome," she said, backing up and narrating her own actions as she prepared to take off. "Wait, who's that? That's right, the one, the only, Rainbow Dash!" Sprinting forward she took off, building up speed in a looptey loop fashion. "She spins! She dives! Look at her go!" Streaking down to earth once again, she dived straight at the ground, pulling up and leveling out at the last second. "Look at her go!" And then, the boom. "She's approaching speed... Can she do it; the crowd holds their breath..." KABOOM! The nearby trees practically exploded, apples and leaves flying everywhere as a blast of color went off, sending Rainbow careening through thetrees. "She did it! It's amazing, look at her fly! She zips! She dodges! She..." Crashes. Into a tree. Hard.

[TnT]

Applejack watched her friend zip around and gain speed. Perhaps . . . too much speed. The rainbow pegasus had that glint in her eye before taking off. "Uh oh..." Applejack uttered. She watched in horror as the speeding cyan pegasus moved too fast for her to react. Before she could blink, Rainbow had successfully pulled off a sonic rainboom. The problem however, was that it was ground level.

"Gah!" Applejack yelled, shielding her eyes and face with a foreleg as an immense amount of energy radiated from the blast point. The trees at that point had all but disintegrated in a rainbow ash, and the ones that were spared had their apples knocked clean out of Equestia as far as Applejack knew. As the brightness died, the orange earth pony attempted to find Rainbow flying amongst the trees. She found her, just in time to see her crash into a spared tree.

Applejack gasped, ignoring everything else and galloping to her friend. "Rainbow! Are y'all okay?!" she asked in a panic as she approached her friend's fallen location. Before doing anything drastic, she had to physically check her first.

[PeculiarChangeling]

Rainbow groaned. Her head hurt, her legs hurt, her wings hurt, and... Well, actually, everything hurt. Her left hind leg felt broken, she had apparently flipped back when she crashed and landed sideways, tumbling several feet before banging her head.
"Did it work? Was it awesome?" She asked, pulling herself out of the pile of apples, leaves, and debris. Even then, apples that had shot in the sky rained down on them, with thousands of apples scattering across an area a mile wide. She ended up getting pelted by several, adding insults to injury.
"I'm fine," she told Applejack, trying to stand up, her hind legs buckling. "Ow! I just need a minute, really! You go do your kicking trees thing, I'll start gathering the apples I knocked down."

[TnT]

"Now hol' on there, li'l daredevil," Applejack said, her face becoming one of intensified worry. She knelt down to catch her friend from falling and hurting herself more. "Y'all look downright broken from here clear to the edge of the farm. Lemme see if Ah can get Big Mac to come up with sumthin' to fix this here mess, but we need ta get you to a doctor stat," she told her, trying to give her friend leverage using her own body.

[PeculiarChangeling]

Rainbow tried to protest, but was too worn out and injured to fight, and soon found herself being made to walk along, having to rely on her wings and Applejacks support to limp along. "No, really, I'm - ow! - fine," she protested, wincing with every step. She didn't try and stop, thought, the complaint more of a front to maintain dignity than anything else. "Okay, maybe I'm a little hurt, but I don't need the doctor. Give me a day and I'll be fine." A doctor, she knew, would tell her not to fly and that she couldn't have, she needed the practice to impress the wobderbolts.

[TnT]

Applejack frowned at her friend. "You c'n barely walk, lookit you!" she argued. "If no doctor, then who? Ah doubt Ah could house you and fix you up faster than a doctor could!" The two limped up upon a V in the road, one path leading to the barn and the other leading to Ponyville.

[PeculiarChangeling]

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, I'm sure you'll do fine, AJ. Just a couple bandages and a quick break and I'll be back on my feet and flying again by tomorrow." She smiled, trying to convincing herself as much as Applejack. She tried to steer them to the barn, thought she certainly wasn't strong enough to actually push Applejack or direct them even the tiniest bit if Applejack decided to take her to the hospital.