//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Be Watchful // Story: Crusader Ponies (Romance of the Six Counties) // by swirlstar //------------------------------// Be Watchful “So, Pinkie, why do you want us here?” Rainbow Dash said, shooting a dirty look at Applejack. For her part, the orange mare was barely concealing her own disgust. “Well!” Pinkie Pie was cheerful as ever. “I thought that it would be such a bad thing if my friends were going to argue and not be friends anymore! That would make me really, really sad! So- ” Leaning over, the pink pony grabbed both of her guests and pulled them towards each other. “I decided to do something to make you two friends again!” Applejack snorted. “Uh huh. Not goin’ to happen; not with that mare.” “Look who’s talking!” the cyan pegasus scowled, before her head suddenly snapped forward. “Ow!” “Ouch!” Applejack's head followed suit. Pinkie Pie behind her, wielding a big rolling pin, tut-tutted at her bickering friends. “Now now, all of you! This is not the correct behavior in Madame Pinkie’s place! You will all be nice, or else you will get the stick!” “Hmph,” Applejack crossed her forelegs and refused to look at the pegasus. “Only if Rainbow D-ow!” “No, no, no!” Pinkie Pie said, readying her rolling pin for another smack. “That is not how friends act! Say sorry, Applejack!” “But- ow!” “Say sorry!” “Okay, okay!” Applejack mumbled, silently cursing the strong forelegs of Pinkie Pie. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” “Who are you sorry to?” Pinkie Pie demanded. The orange mare sighed. “Sorry, Rainbow Dash,” she said disinterestedly, finally deigning to look at the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash responded with a smug, self-confident smile. I won. Applejack’s eyes narrowed in response, cheeks rapidly flushing red. “Alright, Dashie, Applejack’s said sorry, what do you say?” Pinkie Pie appeared behind Rainbow Dash, brandishing her pin like an executioner’s ax. “Ehh… sorry, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash said, clearly more interested in the pin than in the apology. The pink mare broke out into a smile. “See? It’s not that hard! Now, are we friends again?” “Friends? With Applejack- ow, alright, yes, we’re friends, we’re friends!” Rainbow Dash faked a cheesy grin towards Applejack. “Yeah, I’m ‘friends’ with Rainbow Dash too,” the orange mare added hastily. “Real good friends.” “Good, good!” the pink earth pony beamed. “So now that we’re all friends, what do friends do?” Her eyes turned gazed expectantly at the farm pony. “Not take over other people’s lands,” Rainbow Dash mouthed at Applejack. The farm pony twitched. “Applejack! What. Do. Friends. Do?” Pinkie Pie asked again, bringing the rolling pin back into the orange mare’s view. “Uhh… they play games, I guess,” the orange mare responded uneasily. “Wrong!” Pinkie Pie yelled. Then she reconsidered. “Well, okay, maybe they do play games. Sometimes. But no! This is not what we are going to do! No, we are going to bake cupcakes!” “Cupcakes?” Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “Pinkie, I don’t know how- ” “Don’t worry, Dashie! It’s all in the process!” Pinkie Pie interjected happily. “It’s about reconciliation and rapprochement and other complicated words! Oh, we are so going to be the best of friends after this!” Defeated, the cyan pegasus could only glare impotently at Applejack’s smug grin. “Prepare to be dashed,” the farm pony mouthed. * “I even took a day off from ruling for this, so you’d better appreciate!” Pinkie Pie said, her head poking up in between Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “Mmm, don’t you just love the smell of flour?” “Pinkie, I thought you said you didn’t do anythin’,” Applejack replied. “Yes! And now I’m doing something! Duh!” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, before zipping away again. “You’re such an idiot,” Rainbow Dash whispered to her totally-not-ex-friend, as she re-read the recipe for the fifth time. “You keep your hooves off my things,” came the reply. The orange mare was beating the cupcake mixture hard, making sure that grey sludge flew out of the bowl and hit Rainbow Dash’s recipe book, or, for an added bonus, the pegasus herself. “Oh hey!” Pinkie Pie stuck her head in between the two ponies again, surveying the situation. “Wow, Applejack, that’s pretty messy of you!” “Long trip from up north, what can I say,” Applejack said nonchalantly. The pink pony was satisfied enough with that answer, and turned her attentions towards the pegasus. “Uh, Rainbow Dash, you do know you have to mix the butter and the sugar, right?” “Uh, really?” Applejack sniggered. “Dumb as- ow!” “No, Applejack! Alright, Rainbow Dash, you cream butter like this… ” Applejack rubbed her head and silently continued working on the mixture, though with a little less vigor than was previously the case. “… and just keep on doing it… yes, that’s pretty good! Alright, now I think we can put in the eggs!” Applejack began to scoop out the mixture, taking great pains to put them into their neat little paper cases, which were, of course, apple-shaped. “No, you have to crack the eggs!” Applejack put the completed tray into the oven and started fiddling with the dials. “You have to mix the eggs with the mixture, silly!” Applejack finished dyeing all the frosting a leafy green. “Uh… well… I guess we could still bake these!” Pinkie Pie sure is giving Rainbow a lot of attention, Applejack couldn't help but think to herself, in between whiffs of recently-baked cupcakes. And of course, they were always the best of friends… “Hey, Pinkie, how ‘bout you come lookin’ at my stuff? Looks nice, right?” “Oh, no need, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie laughed and casually waved a hoof around. “I always know your cupcakes taste as great as the greatest things in the world! Now, Dashie, the knobs on the oven work like this… ” What the-?! Applejack’s mind instinctively jumped towards its desired conclusion. * Now it was time to begin searching for evidence. “Hey, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie grinned. “These cupcakes taste good! I sure hope they are baked goods this time around!” Baked goods - baked bads - humiliation. * “Pinkie, how about I sell you Mane Street and you give me Mustang Avenue and the Fillydelphia Railroad?” Rainbow Dash offered, looking over the deed card. “Deal!” Within ten minutes, Applejack’s counter would land on a well-built Mustang Avenue. Houses were sold, deeds were mortgaged, and the farm pony had to hand over all she had to a sneering Rainbow Dash. They planned this humiliation. * “I don’t want to watch frou-frou Les Misakis!” Applejack asserted stubbornly. Rainbow Dash gave the orange mare a look that signaled a similar desire, had only Applejack not been around. “Oh, come on, Applejack! You might like it!” Pinkie Pie insisted, waving the disc in the orange mare’s face. “No!” “Oh, please, Applejack! I wanna watch it!” Pinkie Pie said, looking at Applejack with pleading eyes. "Applejack, I wanna watch it too!" Rainbow Dash tactically interjected. “I-… oh, alright,” the orange mare huffed, Rainbow Dash’s stifled sniggers ringing in her ears. Total humiliation. * Applejack tossed and turned in her bed. It was too warm for any kind of sleep. She would bring the quilt over her body, but within minutes the temperature became unbearable. She would then toss the quilt away, only to hastily retrieve it as the cold draught made it similarly intolerable. The orange mare finally decided to expose only one side to the cold and alternate every minute or so. But such an operation required a conscious mind. And, with a conscious mind, came other things. Humiliation. The word repeated itself again and again in the farm pony’s mind, each reiteration generating a new pulse of heat racing across her sweating body. The way Pinkie Pie ignored her during cupcake baking, the way Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow Dash the properties needed to bankrupt her. The way Pinkie Pie made her change her own mind - she’s in it. She’s in on it. She did this on purpose. She did this, on purpose, to me... Applejack groaned and shifted sides, the cold wind doing nothing to stem her rising body heat. Pinkie Pie. Now, it was the turn of Pinkie Pie. “Great job, girls,” Twilight said, Fluttershy’s desperate hooves receding into the distance… “I was thinking,” Rainbow Dash said earnestly, “that if we’re going to save Fluttershy from herself, we should really take over the land from her. You and me, just divide it, just like that. Twilight’ll understand… ” “Yes!” Rainbow Dash leapt into the air, as Twilight awarded Fluttershy’s county to her… Applejack’s heart felt like it had suddenly turned to lead. My friends. Rainbow Dash was not the only bad seed. It was everypony. All her closest friends - her friends, whom she had helped, whom she had stuck with thick and thin, whom she had even bled for - all this time, they had been using her, playing her for an absolute fool. Applejack felt hot tears streaking down her cheeks. “But… but… the power of… friendship… ” she stammered, conscience rearing its unwelcome head. Evidence, just any evidence, just anythin' to say this ain't true! “Oh, no need, Applejack!... alright, Dashie-” Pinkie Pie casually dismissed the orange mare. Dashie. Applejack’s mind ran rampant with the new word. Pinkie Pie didn’t have a nickname for Applejack. She had one for Rainbow Dash. Dashie. Of course she would have done this for Rainbow Dash: humiliated Applejack for Rainbow Dash’s sake. For Dashie’s sake. Of course, Twilight had a nickname for Applejack. Rainbow Dash had a nickname for Applejack. AJ. The two worst betrayers had a nickname for Applejack. AJ, the dumb, gullible klutz. “Nrrgh!” Applejack forced her head into the pillow. Her tears were no longer flowing for her ‘friends’. How could she have been so stupid? Every time her ‘friends’ had suggested something, the farm pony had gone along with it. And every single time, she alone had paid the price. She knew expecting Fluttershy to do anything was wrong. She knew Rainbow Dash’s plan was wrong. She knew Twilight’s judgment was wrong. And yet she still acquiesced meekly, like a lamb to the slaughter... “No. Longer.” It was all Applejack could do to mumble those decisive words. Heat drained out of her body as the farm pony faced up to months and months of abject failure. She had discovered the way out. It's all them. Those other ponies. They did it. They could rely on somepony else to foot the bill. No longer. Applejack was ready to find her own destiny. Free from the shackles of their ‘friendship’. Free from concern about their feelings, or their welfare. All the others - especially Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle - they will forever regret this day. The day they let Applejack go free. The tears no longer flowed down the orange mare's cheeks. Applejack's body no longer shook with confusion and failure. The farm pony shuffled back under the covers. She sighed and smiled contentedly, her first time in months. “It’s gonna be a new day tomorrow,” she mumbled. Applejack drifted off into dreamland as the rays of Luna’s Moon sadly caressed her. History, even after a thousand years, continues to repeat itself.