Sneak Peek Of Divided Rainbow: Chapter 35! · 2:18pm Feb 3rd, 2015
To all my dear readers,
On one hand, it'll probably be a while yet before the whole of Chapter 35's ready to be read, and I'm sorry for that. On the other… you guys have waited long enough for an update. So now… a proud reappearance by somepony you probably weren't expecting! 
To cheer herself up, Sweetie Belle tried to think of worse places she could be standing in front of.
School? Well… on one hoof, it was the place where she was forced to be classmates with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and homework could sometimes be a drag. But Sweetie’s fellow Crusaders also went there, and many other cool foals her age too, and she’d never been the sort of filly who hated learning, especially with such a nice teacher as Cheerilee.
The Everfree Forest? Well, she’d had a few scary experiences there, once or twice, but nothing so bad that it’d stop her from going back to those woods if Apple Bloom thought up a way it might get them their cutie marks. There was always something new and exciting adventure in the Everfree! The thrills were what made it so great to go back to.
The dentist’s? The drilling wasn’t pleasant at all, and Sweetie hated being told she had cavities, but at least she only had to go see her dentist twice a year.
Tartarus?
...Okay, she had a winner. Sweetie Belle could definitely say that returning to the Carousel Boutique would be better than Tartarus. But as her mother knocked on the boutique’s door, Sweetie found herself having second thoughts about even that. She only knew of Tartarus by reputation, after all. Maybe it wasn’t as bad in reality as most ponies made it out to be. And maybe, just maybe, Applejack would NOT be inside her stupid boutique… please, Celestia, let Applejack not be here…
Spike the dragon was the one who opened the door. “Pearl! Magnum!”
He and Sweetie’s parents greeted each other like family; her mom hugging the dragon at once in one of her most affectionate squeezes.
“Spike!” Mom was saying, “It’s so good to see ya!”
“It’s really great to see you too, Pearl!” Spike told her, hugging her back tenderly, like they were nephew and aunt. “Though it’s not like we haven’t seen each other in a while.”
This was true. It was only last night, in fact, that Spike and Applejack had stopped by to help move Sweetie’s things out of her bedroom and pack Mom and Dad’s luggage for them, all while assuring them both, once again, that Sweetie would be okay at the Boutique this time.
“Well, it’s GONNA be awhile ‘til we see each other again, Spike-o!” Sweetie’s dad laughed, noogie-ing the dragon as though that was a ruffly mane on top of the dragon’s head instead of that… whatever-you-called-it. “So we might as well get our goodbyes out of the way.”
“Well, I’m happy for you and Pearl!” Spike told him. “You two have earned yourselves a little R-and-R...”
Sweetie Belle had to bite her tongue upon hearing Spike say ‘earned.’
“... just be sure to take lots of pictures when you’re down in Domineighca!”
“Actually, it’s Mareuba we’re headin’ ta, Spike-o,” said Magnum. “Domineighca’s three months from now. But, yeah, we’ll be takin’ all sorts o’ pictures! The sunsets and waterfalls down there are said to be like no other!”
Another vacation. ANOTHER vacation. Mom and Dad were treating themselves to ANOTHER trip, another tropical tourist trap for two… and leave your daughters at home! Applejack had once said that when she’d been Sweetie’s own age, Dad and Mom had really struggled trying to run a sporting goods store, and they’d been been really parental parents with AJ. It had always been hard for Sweetie to imagine that last bit.
“And it’s GOOD to see you too, Sweetie Belle!” said Spike, noticing her last of all, like the receptionist at some pet hotel finally smiling down at the puppy. Sweetie stiffened coldly, when the scaly little brown-noser came up and hugged her around the shoulders. “We’re very glad to have you back over.”
She and Spike were the same age! Where’d he get off treating her like some kinda dopey little kid? Just because he cleaned way more messes than he made! Just because he once saved the Crystal Empire from an evil king! Just because he could watch over all of Rainbow Dash’s animals and sort all the books in Twilight Sparkle’s library, and he'd filed all of AJ’s taxes for her last week!
And SPEAKING of which… here came the great clotheshorse, herself, right behind Spike!
“H--hh---howdy,” Applejack grinned, but her ears were pulled back. Her hoof-steps were practically as soft as Spike’s scaly little feet. Even her tail was tucked like a dog’s. “Everythang okay?”
“Perfectly fine,” Mom said. “Couldn’t be peachier.”
“How ya been, Jackie?” Dad asked. “Holding up good?”
“Yup!” said AJ. “Every day’s better’n the day before.”
Sweetie supposed she ought to say something, if she didn’t want to be scolded for being ‘rude and ungrateful,’ but boy, was it tough fighting her anger down.
“Hi, AJ.”
“It’s real, real, wonderful havin’ ya back at the boo-teek, Sweetie.” AJ actually took that dopey cowgirl hat off her head and held it tenderly over her heart while she said this. “Really wonderful.”
“I’ll bet,” Sweetie said.
AJ looked back up at their parents. “Ya’ll wanna step inside and have yerselves some cookies and a cuppa joe ‘fore ya head out? Ah’ve got Bitalian Roast, fresh as can be, ‘n’ them lemon-vanilla wafers things ya love so much, Ma.”
“Sweet of you to offer, but no thanks, AJ. I’m on this new diet, and I don’t want to be tempted with cookies,” said Mom.
“Besides, it’ll only be three hours before the cruise ship sets out,” said Dad. “No sense running late. So...”
First Dad, then Mom bent and kissed Sweetie Belle on the nose. Then they each turned and gave hugs and kisses to AJ as well.
“You girls be good to each other, you hear?” said Dad.
“Ma… Pa… Ah love ya both so very, very much,” AJ whispered.
It was so weird… nowadays, whenever the moment called for Applejack to trade hugs with Mom and Dad, it was never just a social courtesy, anymore. Applejack embraced each of them with all her heart, as though they were war heroes brought back from the dead. The first few times, it had surprised them both; but these days, they just happily took it in stride.
“Awww… Jackie, you lil’ cuddle bug,” crooned Dad. Then he turned to Spike. “Keep up the good work, Spike-o!”
Sweetie watched her Mom and Dad climb back into their carriage and take off for the docks, wishing she could go back in a time machine and let all her grandparents know they were making a mistake, naming these two work-dodging workaphobes as the beneficiaries in their will.
“So, um… would you like to come inside?” asked Spike. “They’re really good cookies.”
No, she didn’t. She didn’t want to be in this place. And she frankly wasn’t feeling too keen about Spike, himself, the guy was responsible for talking her parents into giving Applejack another chance. If not for him, they’d have cancelled this vacation of theirs altogether!
“Got any ice cream to go with those cookies?” she sighed, still looking at the tracks her parents’ carriage had left.
“Oh yes!” piped Spike. “Five flavors, in fact: amaretto, dulce de leche, mojito sorbet, cherry cosmopolitan, and brownie batter.”
“Brownie batter?” repeated Sweetie.
When Spike said ‘yes,’ a tiny speck of Sweetie’s resentment died. Brownie batter ice cream was one of her all-time favorites.
“Let’s go,” she said, turning into the boutique with Spike.
First was the showroom, the all-important showroom. Spotless as ever. Every ponyquin just-so. The dresses on the ponyquins….
...they weren’t weird. No terrycloth raincoats. No army camouflage-patterned gymslips. Not so much as a single pink-and-silver duffle coat. The selection still wasn’t pretty, but it was a regular, everyday kind of not-pretty. Fashion designed by somepony who was at least attempting to eventually fit into the fashion world.
“What do you think?” asked Spike, seeing her taking in the sights. A little further ahead, AJ had also paused, looking behind her shoulder to see what her little sister would say.
“I swear I passed out those flyers to everypony at my school!” Sweetie Belle yelled.
“EVERYPONY?!” sneered her sister. “Well, it’s jest as well ya ain’t getting yer cutie mark in mail service, cuz Ah ain’t seen NOPONY come by! Now here’s a fresh stack, Ah expect yew ta put one o’ these in every mailbox in Ponyville. Don’t even bother coming back ‘til yew do!”
“It’s nicer,” Sweetie admitted, doing her best not to shiver at her memory. “Are you getting any more business these days?”
“Let’s go into the kitchen!” said Spike, as Applejack turned back forward, so Sweetie could only see the back of her head.
Sunlight brightened the clean hallways. There had been so much dust the last time Sweetie had walked down them. Back then, Applejack had kept all the windows shut and the drapes firmly drawn, so nopony could see inside. The door to the bathroom was partially opened…
“AJ, I… I was crusading with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, and I fell from a tree… please help me… where are all the bandages? Where’s all the gauze?!”
“Ah wove them all together ta make a hat! Jest wait right there, and Ah’ll show it to ya…” Then Applejack left the bathroom, only to step back into give her sister a second look. “Yew really oughta have a doctor look at all those cuts, Sweetie Belle…”
The kitchen was a picture of hominess. No dishes in the sink. No garbage in the garbage cans. Opal was curled up on her cushion, batting a toy mouse around. Everything scrubbed clean. Sweetie Belle actually felt choked up inside: for the first time, she was overtaken by the sense that she really had come home.
The table had been set up in preparation not just for Sweetie, herself, but her parents as well. A fresh, teapot and coffeepot sat steaming out on a silver tray, along with the extra tea bags and the sugar bowl and such. Applejack hadn’t overdone it by setting out the really fine china; but it was still one of her nicest cup sets. It was almost enough to make Sweetie regret that she prefered juice and soda pop.
And of course, there were the cookies! As promised, there were the lemon-vanilla wafer ones that their Mom loved best, (Mom could eat through a whole packet of them within two days, tops... you had to be quick to get any!) But there were also other types: little shortbread ones, square sandwich ones and jam-filled ones, even little gingerbread ponies, too!
Apart from the wafer ones, none of these yummy-looking cookies were the types sold in stores. Not Sugar Cube Corner, nor any of the boxed brands they sold out on the marketplace. And she knew AJ’s cooking well enough to say they hadn’t been made by AJ, either. So where…?
“Go ahead, please have one!” said Spike. When Sweetie sat at the table,the dragon took the chair next to her, watching as she helped herself to one of the jam-filled ones, topped with a small little slice of cherry. The fact that it wasn’t stale made it taste so much better. Then Sweetie realized something.
“You made these, didn’t you, Spike?”
With a proud little chuckle, Spike finally bit down on one of his own cookies. “You pick up a few things when you work for Twilight like I do!”
Sweetie glanced over at Applejack, who was standing off to the side, watching them both with that anxious, silent smile. It almost felt as though AJ were hoping that Spike could charm Sweetie into liking the Carousel Boutique and herself again all on his own.
“Uh… did ya want that ice cream ta go with them cookies, SB?”
Sweetie could see into Applejack’s fridge when AJ opened it up. She saw oranges, lettuce, a carton of milk, pears, peaches, bread… it was fully stocked…
“Why isn’t there any food in this place, AJ?!” Sweetie exclaimed. The fridge was barren. BARREN. Even that one old red-green stain on the second shelf seemed to have been licked off.
“Money’s tight, ya pampered lil’ princess! Learn to tighten the belt!” growled Applejack, feeding another piece of gold lamé into that sewing machine of hers.
Sweetie Belle ate the ice cream Applejack served her quietly. Not even bad memories could make brownie batter not delicious. AJ, herself, scooped herself some of that cherry cosmopolitan stuff. And when they’d all eaten their fill, Sweetie left her chair and said, “I’m just gonna head up to my room, I think.”
“Don’t ya’ll have ta be heading to school at some point?” asked AJ, as she and Spike followed Sweetie up the stairs.
“Today’s Sunday,” Sweetie replied.
“It is?” Applejack said. “Oh, well, heh heh… didn’t know. The days tend ta blur inta one another after a while…”
Sweetie peeked into her room. Spike and Applejack had done a great job moving everything back in. Some of the furniture had been rearranged, so it wasn’t exactly as it had been the last time she’d been here; but everything was still there. All the stuffed animals on her bed, her special desk with all its arts and crafts supplies, the wardrobe with all the dresses her sister had made for her…
“No!” Sweetie howled. “Applejack! Stop! Please let go of me! I don’t WANNA wear a prairie skirt with that many octopuses on it! You CAN’T MAKE ME!”
“Oh, yer gonna WEAR it, alright!” AJ vowed, with that awful twitch near her eyes again. “This here skirt’s the wave of the future! Ya’ll WEAR it, and yer little school friends’ll git JEALOUS, and ya’ll tell ‘em it’s me that makes ‘em… and then Ah’ll FINALLY be bringing some dough in!”
“Octopuses aren’t even green!”
When Sweetie Belle turned away from her room to look at Applejack, she saw her older sister looking fidgety. AJ’s eyes kept darting impatiently, hungrily, to her own bedroom. To the sewing machine that sat by her bed, its needle still lodged in some half-finished frock. Nothing had changed. Nothing had really changed.
“Well, I think I’ll just… settle back into the old place on my own,” Sweetie Belle said, deciding on a polite smile. “I’ve... taken up enough of your time.”
“H-huh?” Applejack tried to shake herself out of it, almost turning away from her sewing machine. “Naw, c’mon, Sweetie Belle, Ah’ve set aside so much time ta be with yew…”
“No, no, You’re a busy, working girl, AJ, and you’ve got a lot to sew. Told me so yourself many times.” Sweetie replied sweetly. “I wouldn’t want to be a distraction to you.”
And she ducked behind her bedroom door and shut it. Applejack didn’t try to follow her in. She trotted over to her bed and sank upon it. Not crying, and certainly not falling asleep, but just feeling miserable about herself all over again.
This was all Spike’s fault. Later on, she’d have to find time to go and corner Spike and finally ask him: what it the name of Celestia’s golden sun did he SEE in Applejack? Really, what did he see? Yeah, AJ was a pretty mare, but Sweetie, herself, was no swamp toad! And it was just weird and creepy that he’d be fawning over a mare old enough to be his mom since the day he first set eyes on her!
Not that Sweetie had any interest whatsoever in making the dragon her coltfriend. No, sir, none at all! One fine day, Applejack would work up the nerve to stop ‘sparing his feelings,’ and let Spike know that it just would never work out between them. Maybe THEN he’d start looking at Sweetie with the same goo-goo eyes he looked at AJ with. But if he ever asked, Sweetie Belle intended to flat-out tell Spike to find some other filly; she wasn’t anypony’s consolation prize. Especially not one of her big sister’s cast-offs!
Applejack! She was such a… such a…!
Not for the first time, Sweetie Belle thought back to that one Sisterhooves Social. For one all-too-short afternoon, she’d had a good older sister, one worth being related to! She should’ve been born an Apple. A farmer’s life wouldn’t’ve been bad at all! No pony in her right mind would WANT Applejack as part of her family. It was a shame Sweetie couldn’t swap AJ out for Pinkie Pie. Pinkie would never, ever…
"...Called me a screwup, said Ah was worse’n ten gadflies, and that the only thang Ah was good fer was runnin’ ‘round town with yew and Scootaloo, bein’ giant nuisances ta everypony, and findin’ fifty new ways ta NOT find mah cutie marks each ‘n’ every day!"
Apple Bloom had been so heartbroken back when she’d told her and Scootaloo all this. The memory was like water splashed in Sweetie’s face, and lifted her head off her pillow. She got off the bed entirely when she heard knocking.
“Hey, Sweetie?”
It was Spike. She went over and answered the door.
“I, um, was wondering if you’d be interested in playing a card game with me.” Sweetie could see Spike was holding a deck of playing cards. “We could play crazy eights or war, or… do you know baccarat? That’s actually a personal favorite of mine.”
Although Spike was smiling, he didn’t truly seem hopeful that she’d say yes.
“Sure,” she told him, “War sounds good.”
They both sat down in the middle of the room.
“Hey, Spike?” Sweetie asked while Spike shuffled the deck.
“Yeah, Sweetie?” He was dealing cards back and forth; one for him, one for her, another for him, another for her.
“When you think about it… there’s been a lot of, uh… ponies-losing-touch-with-their-talents going around, hasn’t there? My sister. Apple Bloom’s sister. Rainbow Dash. Rarity. Fluttershy, too, I think.”
“Don’t forget Twilight,” said Spike.
“Twilight?”
Both of them now had twenty-six cards each. If only Sweetie Belle’s magic was stronger, she’d have been able to levitate her cards like a proper unicorn. But since her horn could barely give small, fizzling sparks, even after great strain, Sweetie had to play war the earth pony way. Meaning she had to flip the card off the top of her deck with her nose.
Spike waited so they could both flip their cards over at the same time. Three of diamonds for Spike and… dang it! Two of spades for herself. Spike took both their cards, and added it to his deck.
“Yeah, Twilight,” said Spike. “Shut herself up in her library for a while. Wouldn’t stop reading. Wouldn’t come out at all for anything at all.”
It took Sweetie a few seconds to even remember her cards. Spike had been going through this same thing, himself? Spike’s older sister had also become a shut-in, like Applejack?
“So this has affected Twilight too…” she said softly, turning over the eight of hearts, and thus winning that hand.
It was starting to feel like pieces were coming together in her head.
“What’s affected Twilight?” Spike asked, giving her an uncertain sort of look.
“This… talent-loss thing!” Sweetie told him. “When you think about it… it all started going wrong for everypony around the same time. Right after that one vandal broke my sister’s door.”
“Uh… vandal?”
Sweetie Belle was about to remind Spike about the late-night vandal who’d kicked a hole into the Carousel Boutique’s door a few months ago... when Spike seemed to remember on his own.
“Oh yeah! That vandal.” His ten of clubs lost to her queen of clubs. “Did they ever catch whoever did it?”
Sweetie shook her head. “Everypony lost interest in the case pretty quickly, since nothing really came of it, and there were never any repeat vandalisms.”
“Could’ve been somepony just felt… angry one night, and just needed to let out some steam, and your sister’s door just happened to be there.”
“Maybe.” The next win was hers as well: her jack of clubs over his four of spades. “But I remember the policemare saying that whoever did it was somepony with powerful legs.”
Sweetie shuddered a bit at that. They were all super-lucky this troublemaker just left it at the door, rather than coming in and stealing her sister’s stuff… or worse!
“...And the fact that all that talent-loss happened the very next day…!”
But Spike gave her a teasing smile. “So… a pony kicks a hole in a door one night, and as a direct result, Applejack and her friends are cursed to become hapless ninnies.”
The laughter that burst out of Sweetie was refreshing. “When you put it THAT way, Spike, it does sound pretty silly!”
They continued playing their card game in silence for a while, until...
“Hey, Sweetie? Won’t you at least try to give AJ a second chance? Please?”
Sweetie looked up from her cards. “Why do you care so much?”
He scratched the back of his head. “Well… y’know…”
“No. I don’t know,” Sweetie told the dragon, sitting up straighter. “Listen, Spike, I’m really trying to see where you’re coming from on this. You’ve got Applejack entirely to yourself. Just you and her, alone in this boutique."
Spike gave out a little cry, as though some well-kept secret had been revealed. Sweetie just pressed on.
“Applejack depends on you now. You’ve got her eating straight out of your hand. So why did you want me back here so badly that you came to my parents’ place over and over and had all those talks with Mom and Dad? Wouldn’t I just be getting in your way? What do YOU get from me being here?”
“...The girl I… care about isn’t helpless or dependant at all,” Spike answered her. “She can stand on her own four hooves. She’s a self-made mare. I want so badly to bring that girl back.”
Sweetie had never heard Spike speak like this.
“She’s been alone for quite a long time now,” he continued, with a backward look at the door. “It’s only recently that I’ve started helping her like this. I… got too wrapped up with what was going on with my family to notice what was happening to AJ. And after you went home with your parents, she was all alone, and no one noticed for weeks. We were all too wrapped up in our own problems. Things got bad around here, worse than even you saw. Both for the Carousel Boutique… and for her. I’ve done a lot to turn things around, but I want to show her that other people care about her besides me. I was hoping you could help with that, Sweetie Belle.”
What impressed Sweetie most was not so much more the sincerity in Spike’s voice, but the resignation and the weariness he was trying to hide. Spike was committed to this. He’d keep coming back and coming back and coming back to her sister’s boutique for as long as AJ kept opening the door for him. They weren’t family or even the same species. And he was doing it all for free.
Sweetie wondered what that said about herself as a pony.
Pinkie ‘n’ Ah were a real dynamite duo against that flork last night! Sweetie suddenly remembered Apple Bloom telling her with great pride. Best sister evah! Ah’m so glad Ah was able ta help her!
Suddenly, Sweetie’s ear perked up, listening intently for a sound. The click-a-clack sound of a sewing machine’s needle. It wasn’t there. Sweetie couldn’t hear it. This whole time she’d been playing this card game with Spike, Applejack hadn’t been running her sewing machine.
“Uh…” said Spike as Sweetie stood up. Abandoning her cards, she walked out of her bedroom and into Applejack’s, to see what was up.
AJ sat at her sewing machine. Her hooves were on a piece of fabric. Muscles around her three-diamond cutie mark seemed to be twitching like absolute mad. But the rest of Applejack’s body seem completely locked up. Muscles seized tight. AJ was staring straightforward at the wall, blinking oddly. Every so often, her shut lips would quivering in downward jerks.
“Hey... Applejack?”
It was as if AJ had gotten a hard pinch. “Sweetie…?”
“Spike and I were starting a card game, but we need a third player. Would you like to join us?”
The smile that spread up Applejack’s face made Sweetie Belle feel ashamed of herself and heartsick. “It’d mean the whole world ta me, Sweetie Belle.”
Seems Spike has done a decent job with AJ thus far.
The feels as always. I like seeing how this is effecting the less prominent members of the cast. I'd have liked see how scoots dealt with this like sweetie and ab did when their sisters weren't at their best. Aside from looking up to lighting dust instead, I mean.
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Well, that's the thing- Scoots basically got off easy. She's not actually related to Dash, and their relationship is basically at its infancy at this point, and so the swap was more than 'happy' to switch her idolization to another pony similar to Dash when weather mare Rarity proved unviable as a target. And even if she did admire Rarity, the worst she'd experience is some disillusionment as her hero suddenly became a screw up. Applebloom and Sweetiebelle on the other hand? They're family, so they had to experience ponies they love essentially having mental breakdowns and lashing out at them.
Take whatever time you need. We aren't going anywhere.
Very interesting, so am I reading that right, Pearl and Magnum inherited the family fortune and promptly decided to blow it all on constant vacations? I was never that impressed with them anyway.
Great to see Spike manning up here, though Sweetie does have a point about the creepiness of his crush given these age ranges, one that has nothing to do with the swap. I do wonder though, given the way Applejack has been acting towards "her" parents, if Sweetie Bell is going to regret rebuilding her relationship with AJ, Applejack may end up smothering her the way she normally would Apple Bloom.