The air wrapped warm and perfect around Dash, and she drank it in, lip-smackingly thick with the cinnamon sweetness of apple pies baking. "There anything you don't know how to do, cowgirl?" Wincing at how dorky she sounded, she added, "Seriously!" so AJ would know she wasn't being serious.

Except it didn't seem to work: AJ at the ice box turned that way-too-familiar one-eyebrow-raised look over her shoulder and asked, "What in tarnation's that s'pposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Stupid mouth! Dash was getting tired of it saying things without checking with her first! "It's just—" She waved a hoof at the oven. "Yeah, Pinkie's the queen of baking, but you're, like, the princess, y'know?" Bringing the hoof back, she tapped her own chest. "And I'm totally the Iron Pony Champion of all Champions, but you're always right there behind me!"

AJ laughed around the jug she was setting on the table. "Behind?" she asked. "Or am I gonna hafta reconsider who gets summa this here cider and who don't?"

Dash gave her about half a scowl. "Maybe sometimes we're so close that from a couple angles, it might look like you're out front." She poked the table sharply enough to rattle the jug and the two mugs. "But only sometimes!"

"Fair enough." AJ motioned with her hoof, and Dash couldn't push her mug across the table fast enough. "That'll getcha 'bout a third of a fill-up." And she tipped in barely a splash of cider.

"What?" Leaping into a hover, Dash waved her front legs. "I'm paying you a compliment over here!"

"Well?" AJ's drawl got as thick as the pie scent in the air. "Go on paying it, and we'll see how much more cider it gets you."

Falling back into her seat, Dash raised her scowl level to three-quarters. "That's blackmail!"

With a shrug, AJ tipped the jug over her own mug, the golden elixir tumbling forth in all its splendor to gurgle and churn right up to the metal rim. "You're the one started this, sugar cube." She set the jug back on the table, folded her forehooves over the top of her mug, rested her chin on them, and batted her eyelashes. "So tell me more 'bout li'l ol' wunnerful me."

Gaze locked on the cider, Dash realized her tongue was hanging out; she snapped it back in, shook her head quickly, and wondered how much her dignity was worth.

Pursing her lips, AJ took a noisy sip from her mug, and Dash decided that dignity was way over-rated. "Ev'rypony knows that Twilight's the big brain around here, but the way you've been running this farm with hardly any help for all these years? That takes smarts! And Rarity? Sure, she winks and gets guys to pull carriages or to give her discounts at the market, but that writer she had a total crush on? One look at you, and wham!" She smacked her hooves together. "'Rarity who?' he's saying!"

AJ's grin looked like something Dash'd expect to see on a manticore or a timberwolf. "Quite the fascinating creature, ain't I?" She picked up the jug and aimed the spout at Dash's mug.

"Finally!" Dash couldn't keep from going airborne again.

But the luscious flow stopped about a hoofspan from the rim, and Dash wrenched her eyes up to the phony thoughtful look on her supposed friend's face. "Pinkie, you, Twilight, and Rarity." AJ set the jug back down. "Reckon we got one more to go."

For a moment, Dash considered slamming her own face into the table, but she didn't want to risk spilling the cider. So instead, she shouted, "Fluttershy may be good with animals, but all the cows and sheep and pigs you keep around here, you've gotta be nearly as good!"

"There now!" AJ filled the mug to the brim and slid it toward her. "That weren't so hard, was it?"

With a pounce, Dash grabbed the thing, swigged it back, and let the sweet, crisp liquid wash over her tongue; puffing her cheeks, she filled her mouth near to bursting, closed her eyes, and concentrated her whole being on the flavor, the sloshing, the aroma. And when she finally let herself swallow, she did it slowly, the cool trickle of it smoothing down her neck, through her chest, and into her middle like nothing else ever did.

"Oh, yeah," she murmured with a sigh. "Totally worth it."