Appledashery

by Just Essay

Whoopsicle

"What... k-kind of fix?" Fluttershy asked, her eyes narrowing.

Rainbow licked at her half-melted ice cream and turned to smile at the pegasus seated next to her on the park bench. "A pretty nifty one, all things considered."

"And Zecora came up with this just like that?"

"Well, kinda sorta." Rainbow took another lick, then smirked at her friend. "We had to fetch some ingredients for it. So we spent the day walking all across town, scrounging the stuff up, chatting with one another. Really bonding, y'know."

"I see..."

"Once you get used to the constant rhyming, you start to realize that she's just as sociable as you, me, Pinkie Pie, Stephen Magnet. The works!" Rainbow Dash took another lick. "I think Zecora doesn't know how to ask other ponies if they wanna hang out. I know she's a shaman, but shamans can get lonely too. Stripes or no stripes."

"She... didn't issue any sort of caution about this brew she's given you?" Fluttershy asked.

"Pffft. What's to be freaked out about?" Rainbow Dash flexed a forelimb. "I've taken only one and a half mugs of the stuff and it's lasted me all week! I probably won't even have to go see her for another sample until four or five days from now! I'm telling you, Fluttershy, things are solid." She took another lick, lingered, then murmured, "So what if... well..."

"What?"

Rainbow shrugged. "...therecouldbesomeresidualmentalsideeffects."

Fluttershy did a double-take, her eyes bright and wide. "Mental side effects?!"

"But hey! Nothing I can't handle!" Rainbow smirked. "I only had one bizarre dream the whole time. Oh, and twenty minutes ago, in the burger place, I could have sworn I saw Applejack standing against a starry night sky."

"Rainbow!" Fluttershy gasped. "That's terrible!"

"Mmmf... tell me about it!" Rainbow licked and licked at her ice cream. "Whenever I daydream about Applejack and I, we're usually up in her barn loft."

"No, I mean, this isn't what I would call a solution!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "And it doesn't make any sense to me why Zecora would pretend that it is—"

"Oh, she's not pretending anything."

"Huh?"

Rainbow smiled at her. "It's just a better temporary fix for the atrophy than the pills I was taking!"

"And just when are you going to finally do something about the cause itself?" Fluttershy asked with a dainty frown.

"Just chillax, Flutters. I've got it covered! I'm raking in the bits as of late! Sooner than later, they'll event a way awesomer operation that won't cost me my wingpower, and by then I'll be able to afford it!"

"That's an incredibly shallow presumption and you know it." Fluttershy sighed. "I thought you had changed from the impulsive young mare who dropped out of flight camp."

"Well, maybe you don't know me half as much as you think you do." Rainbow Dash scarfed the remaining globule of ice cream. Her eyes instantly crossed. "Unnnnngh!" She dropped the cone and clamped her hooves around her throbbing skull. "Okay... okay... so maybe I'm just a tad bit impulsive still."

"Rainbow Dash, to be perfectly honest, I'm starting to feel like I don't know you that much lately..."

"Nnnngh..." Rainbow rubbed her forehead while casting the pegasus a weary smile. "Don't sweat it, Fluttershy. I was being Face Sea Tush."

"Facetious," Fluttershy corrected. "But I mean it, Rainbow." She stared down at her squirming hooves with a sad, worried expression. "You're always flying off to Celestia-knows where, and suddenly you have all of these bits for some mysterious reason..."

"Hey, if I gave my secrets out to everypony, the economy would do a swan dive into the concrete!" Rainbow winked. "Dont'cha think?"

"I don't know what to think anymore." Fluttershy shook her head. "All I know is that I miss my best friend."

"Hey..." Rainbow shrugged and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm right here!"

"Are you?" Fluttershy bit her lip with folded ears. "Are you really? I... I'm scared for you, Rainbow Dash."

"Fluttershy..."

Her eyes watered slightly. "Please, whatever you're doing, promise me that you're not going to destroy yourself in the process."

"Come onnnnn..." Rainbow leaned in and wrapped her forelimb tightly around the Fluttershy, pulling the mare in for a close nuzzle. "I'm too cool of a pony to do leave you hanging!"

Fluttershy sniffed and bore a weak smile. "Really...?"

"I Pinkie Pie swear..." Rainbow Dash crossed her heart and raised her other hoof to her eye. "I am never going to leave you high and dry on Celestia's Green Earth, so help me—" She looked over and stood up with a gasp. "Applejack!"

"Whoah!" Thwump! Fluttershy fell behind Rainbow Dash. She blinked upwards, lying sprawled out on the bench with curled forelimbs.

"Yeesh!" Applejack winced at Fluttershy, then glanced up at Rainbow. "Don't tell me y'all are practicin' hoof wrasslin' too!"

"Er... uhhh..." Rainbow Dash fidgeted, glancing back at Fluttershy with a red face. "Eh heh heh. We were just... uhm..."

"Cooling off with our ice cream," Fluttershy muttered.

"Yeah. Thanks for that, sugarcube," Applejack said with a smile. "My, you've been awful generous to us gals as of late. At this rate, yer gonna beat Rarity to the punch!"

Fluttershy stood up, flexing her wings. "I think she's already won in that department," she said with a tiny frown.

"Hah hah hah hah!" Rainbow Dash laughed through a plastic grin. "Fluttershy, you're killing me, girl! Are you... I mean... did you want to—?"

"Sorry." Fluttershy flapped her wings and drifted firmly towards the far end of town. "But I must get home and... feed Angel."

"Yeah... you go and uhm..." Rainbow Dash looked after her, sweating slightly. "...feed Angel."

"Hey, uhm, Rainbow...?"

Rainbow flinched, feeling her body awash in a taller, fuller, sweatier mare's shadow. Gulping, she turned about and pretended not to be nearly fainting. "Yes... Applejack...?"

Comments

[Tchernobog]

Uh oh.

Confrontation?!

[schmitthappens21]

Gasp! What's gonna happen? Why do I get the feeing it's gonna be something not worth getting so exited about.
But still this story is so good!

[Aatxe360]

Sooner than later, they'll event a way awesomer operation

invent

[Lightning Bearer]

It would be hell to disappoint Fluttershy. Like a sucking vortex of disapproval.

"Whenever I daydream about Applejack and I, we're usually up in her barn loft."

Playing canasta, I bet.

[DerRotSpassvogel]

4112424 Canasta, is that what the kids are calling it these days? >;3

[zaponator]

Yay! Time for another conversation where both participants move a lot of air around without actually saying anything!

[Revan]

I can't spare as much uninterrupted time as I'd like (aka 6 hours or so per day, preferably), so my reading of Appledashery is going at a slower rate than my run through the first 6 books of Austraeoh did. This is how far I'd gotten by the end of yesterday. The day before that, I had gotten to chapter 83. At the time I read the first six Austraeoh books, I also wasn't reading anything else simultaneously. Currently, I'm reading through other stories as well as Appledashery, hence the slower pace.

[arancaytar]

"I Pinkie Pie swear..." Rainbow Dash crossed her heart and raised her other hoof to her eye. "I am never going to leave you high and dry on Celestia's Green Earth, so help me—" She looked over and stood up with a gasp. "Applejack!"

So help me Applejack.

[AppleTank]

AppleDash? In AppleDashery?

....nah.