Chapter Text
“Dashie! Rainbow Dash! Wake up!”
The cyan pegasus dragged a hoof over her tired eyes and rolled over, glancing at her alarm clock. 7:00.
Like a shot, she leapt from her bed. Darn! She'd overslept! They were going to run out of the new cider! She’d been looking forward to this for weeks, ever since hearing the announcement of the drink.
In a panic, she flew down the stairs and almost fell out her front door, tripping over her own hooves in an effort to make it to Applejack's place in time to taste the drink.
When she finally emerged from her Cloudsdale home, Pinkie Pie was waiting for her, just as eager for a taste of golden cider, only she'd got up ages ago and had been waiting for Rainbow for a while.
Talking a mile-a-minute, Rainbow Dash shot past the bubbly pink mare and yelled “Come on! They won’t have any left!”
Pinkie raced after her friend and jumped into the hot air balloon she'd taken to reach Rainbow's house, following after Rainbows Dash as she sped toward Sweet Apple Acres. Top bolt indeed, she thought to herself, allowing a little smile to grace her lips.
As she landed the balloon, she jumped out and ran after her friend, trying to catch her up. When she finally reached the Apple farm, she found Rainbow sitting dejectedly on her haunches and sulking.
She noticed the long queue that had formed at the entrance, winding up the road and round the corner. She didn't want to admit it, but it looked like they weren't going to reach the front of the line in time to taste the limited-edition cider. She knew how much Rainbow had been looking forward to this and thought about how sad she must be to have potentially missed her chance.
“Cheer up, Dashie, I'm sure there will be plenty to go around! We just… might have to wait for a while.” She cast a worried glance up ahead of them at the line that seemed like it went on forever, then shifted her gaze to the still-sulking Rainbow Dash.
The line of ponies had been slowly getting smaller as they had been talking, but to Rainbow, it still looked as long as it had been when she had arrived. Pinkie laid a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder and smiled comfortingly.
Maybe they would make it in time, she thought, but even as she thought this, she wasn’t entirely convinced herself. The line, much as she hated to admit it, seemed longer than the number of hours left in the day, and she began to worry whether they would even get to the front at all.
Glancing over at her pegasus friend, she tried not to let her apprehensiveness show on her face as she was sure that it would upset Rainbow even more than she already was. “Why don’t we go and join the line anyway? I know it’s long, but if we don’t join, we definitely won’t get any.”
Rainbow nodded sullenly and slowly got to her feet. “Yeah, I guess…”
She got up and shuffled forwards as the line moved the tiniest bit, glancing up at the sun as it crawled slowly across the sky, unable to stop the disappointed look from leaving her face.
The pony at the counter of the little stand that had been set up to sell the cider smiled apologetically as Rainbow and Pinkie approached.
“I'm sorry,” she said, “but we're closed now. I do apologise if you weren't able to make it in time, but the cider was in high demand.”
Rainbow’s face fell.
Pinkie noticed the downtrodden expression on her friend’s face and smiled encouragingly. “Don’t worry, Dashie, we can always come back when-”
“I apologise,” interrupted the sales pony, “but the rest of the barrels we have are for shipment to other locations around Equestria.”
Rainbow slumped to the ground and her face fell even further.
Disappointed as she was, Pinkie kept the smile on her face as she led her friend away from the stand; she thought it best to get her away from the source of her misery so that she didn’t get any worse.
“It’s OK, Dashie,” she said, allowing a small smile to grace her lips in an effort to cheer up her sullen pegasus friend, “we can get some another time.”
“How?”
Pinkie’s smile widened. “I have a plan.”