Appledashery

by Just Essay

Shipaway Camp

"I... uh... did I do this right?" Stu Leaves fussed and fumbled with his sleeping bag. "I mean... it looks right. Doesn't it?"

"It's a sleeping bag, Stu," Applejack droned from across the campfire. "Ain't nothin' more to it than that."

"Ah. Okay..." Stu chuckled nervously. "I've never really camped before."

"Heh..." Applejack rolled her eyes and smirked. She was opening a casket and dipping a cantene into it. "Ya dun say."

"For real!" The stallion squatted down on his bag and glanced across the flame. "In Cloudsdale, when you felt like sleeping out in the open, you just... plucked a few wispy beds out from the main cloud and plopped yourself down on it overnight!" He smirked aside. "Rainbow Dash knows what I'm talking about, I bet. Don't you, Rainbow?"

"Meh..." Rainbow laid on her belly, gazing dully into the crackling embers of the pyre. "Can't remember the last time I slept Cloudsdale style."

"For real?"

She rubbed her fuzzy muzzle and sighed. "I've been living in a piece of Equestrian sky estate on the east end of town." She glanced up. "No doubt you've seen it."

"Ah. Yeah!" He grinned. "Those are some comfy clouds they sculpt! Almost as good as the ones back home!"

"Stu, Cloudsdale hasn't been my 'home' in ages. I'm Ponyville flesh through-and-through these days."

"Heh. No doubt about that, Rainbow. Everypony talks about how loyal and dependable you are."

"Is that a fact...?"

"Yeah! And with how scarce you've been as of late, it's almost as if you've become a legend!"

"I..." Rainbow winced slightly. "I'm not that much of a mystery." She gulped. "Am I?"

"Dun be silly." Applejack wandered over. "We all live busy lives. It's just that yers has been a great bit... busier lately." She held the cantene down towards the mare. "Here ya go, Rainbow."

"Uhhhh..." Rainbow Dash gingerly took the container in her blue hooves. "What the hay is this?"

"Just my way of thankin' ya for carryin' the load most of the day." Applejack winked.

Rainbow squinted. Curiously, she brought the cantene to her lips and took a little sip. Her insides immediately caught on fire with rainbows and pixie dust. She tried speaking, though she was afraid her tongue would ring with the sound of angel bells.

"It's cider!" her voice ultimately cracked.

"Eeyup."

"But... but..." Rainbow fought to keep her wings coiled to her sides. "This... this stuff is for Shindig, isn't it?"

"I packed an extra canister," Applejack said proudly. "Figured it wouldn't hurt to cure our spirits during the long, exhaustin' trip."

"Whew. Heheh... Applejack..." Rainbow Dash felt her body warming three times than the flame ahead of her. "Thanks. This is great. And I mean really great. But... uhm..." She winced slightly. "I dunno if you remember or not, but... uhhhh... I-I don't really do so well with bottles of cider..."

"I know, sugarcube," Applejack said in a suddenly soft tone. "But it's only one cup. Enjoy it. You've earned it."

Rainbow's petite hooves squeezed around the edges of the cantene. She smiled with rosy cheeks. "Thanks..."

"Dun mention it."

"But... like... what if I gotta pull the wagon in the morning?"

"Oh, you won't be." Applejack trotted across the flickering camp. "Besides, that's somepony else's job." She gave Stu a gentle buck with an errant hoof. "Ain't that right, smart stuff?!"

"D'uhm! Gaaah..." Stu Leaves jolted from where he had fallen half asleep. "Right! Of course!" He blinked into the firelight. "...what were we talking about?"

Rainbow giggled.

"Heheh..." Stu smirked tiredly. "Now there is a cute laugh."

"Oh stuff it." And Rainbow Dash dove her muzzle into the cantene. She took a very... very liberal sip of the cider, almost emptying the cup of ambrosia in one gulp. She closed her eyes, smiling blissfully as she allowed the sweet fermented juices to do their toll on her insides. As the minutes wore on, toasting by the open flame, she felt a different sort of numbness in her system, lulling her extremities to the soothing land of slumber. A century and a lasting sip of cider later, she thought she heard angels singing.

It was just Applejack's voice.

"...it's one of the earliest memories I have, come to think of it," she rambled, her words punctuated by the crackling of firewood and the occasional hoot of a distant owl. "We were campin' out along the edge of Everfree. All four of us... well... four and a half I suppose. Eheheh... Ma was pregnant with Apple Bloom at the time." She slumped back on her sleeping bag, lazily tilting her hat over her smiling face. "That night, Pa took Big Mac and I to the edge of the woods. There, we caught a whole heap'o'lightning bugs in a jar. I never knew that livin' thangs could produce glowy light like that. When we came back and zipped ourselves up all nice and cozy in our tent, Pa let the lantern bugs go. Big Mac and I laid on our backs, watchin' the lil fellers flick back and forth across the tent's ceiling, like our very own shootin' stars. We fell asleep doin' that. Lookin' back on it now, I can't rightly remember when the sleepin' ended and the dreamin' began. I suppose foalhood's like that in a lot of ways."

"That's really sweet, AJ," Stu Leaves said, stifling a yawn. "It must have been really fun growing up as an earth pony."

"Heh... no more or less fun than growin' up as a pegasus, I reckon." Applejack took a deep breath. "It's all a matter of who you spend yer early days with. And Big Mac and I—and Apple Bloom too—we had it the best... even if we didn't have the best for long."

"Well, you deserved nothing less than the best," Stu said. "And I've no doubt that you'll make a great mother someday."

"Heh... sure thang..."

"I mean it. You'll be makin' great foalhood memories for a bunch of little hayseeds who'll grow up to groan in embarrassment whenever you show up to pinch their cheeks."

Applejack chuckled. "I'm not sure I cater to yer imagination, Stu, but I'll buy it for a bit."

"Heh... I feel myself getting rich already..."

"Heheheh..."

All this time, Rainbow Dash stared at Applejack, her eyelids growing heavier... and heavier. Soon enough, the glow of the fireplace broke apart, turning into tiny comets that streaked across Rainbow's mindscape. Through the fog of time, she crawled, until she found a tent where a tiny foalish Applejack shivered all alone. Draping a blanket over the filly, Rainbow Dash cuddled close, holding her protectively until both were as warm as the sight of the tiny light show dazzling them from above. And at some point, the moment where dreams evolved into eons of subconscious nothingness, the filly and the mare switched. Rainbow Dash cooed dreamily in Applejack's arms, and drifted off in the apple scent of her warm, warm fuzz.

Comments

[RoboRed]

D'awwwwwww....

(...Still waiting for the moment when Applejack catches Rainbow sleeptalking...)

[MoonMirror]

Just kiss the girl already

[Sharp Quill]

"I mean it. You'll be makin' great foalhood memories for a bunch of little hayseeds who'll grow up to groan in embarrassment whenever you show up to pinch their cheeks."

So how exactly do ponies pinch cheeks using hooves... just asking.

[Lightning Bearer]

"Well, you deserved nothing less than the best," Stu said. "And I've no doubt that you'll make a great mother someday."

"Heh... sure thang..."

I'm trying not to read too much into those ellipses. It isn't easy.

[Shipmun]

The only way I see AJ giving up on motherhood, thus opening up to RD, is if she can't have foals.

Oh please let there be another way

[BabySkittleMonster]

Great. I've got school to go to now, and everyone's going to be wondering why I'm grinning like an idiot. Ah well, worth it.

[Leftover of Saikano]

And then, Rainbow actually embraces Applejack in her sleep.

5317915 I have this theory that ponies have three digits in each leg, and we don't see them because they are all inside the marshmallowy flesh mittens. Think of whale fins.
ftexploring.com/askdr-images/hand1.gif
This explains how ponies can grab things. They probably diverged from the horse evolutionary line before the number of digits decreased to one. Merychippus seems similar enough to my theory.
isravaldelagrana.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/evolulegs.jpg

Also, I remember that at some point of the Austraeoh saga (I suppose it's a separate universe, but they have things in common), Roarke mentions giving her own culture the middle fetlock, thus hinting us that they have more than one fetlock in their hooves.

[TwilightUCrazy]

It's almost like Stu isn't bothering me right now. He's so cute and insignificant and he doesn't even realize he's a universally-loathed POS...

Then I get pissed off at him again on principle.

[Lord Dragon]

5318513 Magnets.
5317915 Witchcraft.
I know the answers to the questions you seek.

Meep.

[zaponator]

Flippin' Stu. Everything he says is tinged with this slight layer of awkwardness.

[Aatxe360]

5318577

U mad? Think he stands a chance against Rainbow?

[Snowdrifter]

It might not matter as old as this us, buuuuuuut...

Applejack rolled her eyes and smirked. She was opening a casket and dipping a cantene into it.

A casket?!
So they brought a vampony?
I think ths autocorrected from 'cask' since it's cider.

I am less sure of 'cantene', which I thought was spelled 'canteen' and which occurs at least twice. There is a brand name of collapsable canteens where it's spelled Cantene to trademark it. Either would work though.

[arancaytar]

Shipaway Camp

Subtlety thy name is Skirts.

"Heheh..." Stu smirked tiredly. "Now there is a cute laugh."

New theory: Stu really isn't trying to flirt with AJ. He's just friendly.

Second theory: AJ is crushing on RD as hopelessly as vice versa. But she thinks RD is straight and is trying to set her up with Stu just to make her happy. That's why she asked him along.

[arancaytar]

the filly and the mare switched. Rainbow Dash cooed dreamily in Applejack's arms, and drifted off in the apple scent of her warm, warm fuzz.

That's the moment when AJ picked her up and carried the petite blue fuzzball to her sleeping bag, isn't it?

[SnowOriole]

8491679

nice theory. I'm just really hoping AJ shows more signs of reciprocating (may or may not have been yelling about this 52000 chapters back). I don't want Rainbow to confess and then AJ be like oh yeah! me too! cuz it wouldn't be very realistic.