• Published 4th Dec 2013
  • 16,658 Views, 16,177 Comments

Appledashery - Just Essay



Rainbow Dash lives an exciting life and is swiftly becoming the most daring, awesome pegasus in all of Equestria. She would gladly give it all up, though, just to confess her love to Applejack.

  • ...
106
 16,177
 16,658

PreviousChapters Next
Leaves and Let Die

"Say, uh..." Sharp Quill blinked at the skies over the dead trees of north Everfree. "You suppose that's really a good idea?"

"Huh?" muttered another pegasus beside him.

Sharp Quill pointed at two cyclones spinning in the distance, powered by dozens of winged ponies. "We've never had two tornado teams practicing at the same time before."

The other pegasus shrugged. "So maybe the Cloudsdale Commission wishes to save time." He continued doing wing push-ups alongside several other volunteer fliers in the afternoon sunlight. "We'd be doing the same if only our team leader wasn't super tardy."

"Yeah, just where is Rainbow Dash, anyways?"

"Beats me."

"That's not like her." Sharp Quill looked up into the sky above them. "Say! Stu!"

Sweating, panting, Stu continued kicking clouds together, then bursting them into evaporated mists with his hooves.

"Hey!" Sharp Quill waved. "You talked to Rainbow Dash lately? Do you have any idea why she's super late to today's drill? It's kind of an important meet, y'know."

Wheezing, Stu swiped his brow and muttered, "If it's all the same to you, Sharp." A gulp. "I... uh... really gotta get these skies clear."

"Don't you think it's weird that she wouldn't show up on the afternoon we needed her the most?"

Stu clenched his jaw tight. He continued kicking clouds with a nervous jitter.

"Yeesh..." Sharp Quill deflated to the arid earth. "What's in the water today?"

"Certainly not the rain you've been making," muttered another teammate.

Sharp Quill glared aside. "Now that's a low blow."

"Heeheehee..."

Fwooooosh! Just then, the air shook as a certain mare made a thunderous entrance. With glaring eyes, Rainbow Dash skimmed the two cyclones and approached the air above her team.

"Oh hey!" Sharp Quill brightened. "There she is! Hey Rainbow Dash!" He waved. "Better late than never, huh?"

"Not now, Sharp Quill." Rainbow made like a bullet for Stu.

"But the other two teams are already practicing and we're just sitting here—"

"Muzzle. Shut. Now." Rainbow flew directly over him.

"Meep." Ears drooping, Sharp Quill sat in place. Several other pegasi squirmed nervously.

"Stu!" Rainbow swept through the sky and approached the stallion in question. "Stu Leaves!"

"I'm busy, Rainbow Dash," he muttered, bucking another cloud. "Gotta clear the sky for—"

POW! Rainbow obliterated the clouds in a blink. She hovered in front of him with a monstrous glare. "You need to go back to Sweet Apple Acres."

Stu's eyes twitched, looking at her.

"Fix things with Applejack," Rainbow growled. "Now."

Stu fumed. He pivoted away from her and made for another cloud. "It's too late for that now."

"My butt, it's too late!" Rainbow's voice cracked as she flew alongside him. "You need to get your sorry flank back to her, tell her you're sorry, and fix the mess that you've made while you still can—"

"There's nothing to fix!" Stu said through clenched teeth. He wheezed despite himself, then bucked another cloud. "I don't know who you've been talking to, or who put you to this, but all I can do is make things worse—"

"No... no! You and only you can put this back together!"

"I don't see why—"

"Because Applejack loves you, ya bucking idiot!" Rainbow Dash flew into his face, hissing. "Although Celestia knows why! You're a wuss and a coward and... and... stupid!"

"Do you honestly think anypony knows that more than me?!"

"Applejack does! And for whatever reason, she was willing to look past that! She made a sacrifice!" Rainbow's eyes burned. "Is it really asking so much for you to do the same?!"

"Yes, Rainbow. It is." Stu seethed, though he trembled. "It's asking too much of Applejack."

"The buck is that supposed to mean?!" she barked.

"It means that she's better off without me." Stu shuddered. His eyes moistened as he glanced aside. "Either I let her go now, or... or..."

"Or what?!"

Stu gnashed his teeth. "...it d-doesn't matter. Like I said, what's done is done." He wandered to another cloud. "B-best to just... just accept things and m-move on with our lives."

"Oh no you don't!" Rainbow Dash flew into him, wrestling him away from the clouds.

"Guh! Augh!" Stu shook and rattled in her grasp. "What the—Agh! Rainbow?!" He finally shook free from her forelimbs. "The heck's gotten into you?!"

"The heck's gotten into me?!" Rainbow spat. "Applejack's in tears! Sobbing and bawling in tears over you!"

Stu blinked at her, shivering.

"And I've never seen her so... so..." Rainbow's muzzle contorted painfully. She clenched her eyes shut, inhaling through her teeth. "Stu, you don't just enter a pony's life, make a home, then abandon it. Everything collapses. And even the strongest... most courageous ponies... without a foundation..."

Stu bit his lip.

Rainbow opened her teary eyes, frowning at him. "All my life, I've had to suffer from a mother who was never there." She gulped hard. "And an awesome father who was there for too little... only to kick the bucket." She sniffed. "Applejack's dealt with the same, if not worse. And she's been fine with it. She's been strong and steady and sane... until today..." She snapped. "Until you!"

With a gulp, the stallion looked aside.

"So friggin' go back to her and fix it! Or this whole damn thing is on your head!" Rainbow Dash blinked, hear ears folding back. "Just what's the big friggin' deal?! You had it so perfect! The both of you! Or was perfect not awesome enough?!"

Stu was trembling at this point. He rubbed his forelimbs together.

"For crying out loud, Stu! You bought her a friggin' expensive crystal piece of crap with your own earnings!" Rainbow flailed her forelimbs. "What's gotten into you?!"

"Applejack, she..." Stu clenched his teeth to keep from clattering. "She showed me her family's graves." He stifled a whimper. "She invited me into the most tender... most sacred sanctum of her life..."

"Yeah, and?!"

"And..." Stu swallowed a lump down his throat. "...that's when I realized that this... all of this... it... it has a future. It all ends up someplace that... that I'm not good enough for."

Rainbow merely blinked.

"Applejack is so amazing. She... she makes me happy. She makes me feel complete. And... and I love..." He bit his own tongue, wincing. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, but he fought them back. After a gulp, he muttered, "I left Cloudsdale for a reason, Rainbow Dash. All I've ever done in life is mess up. And since foalhood, all the pegasi I've ever known have done their best to remind me of that... every single day." He sniffed. "I can be a hard worker... I can be a good friend. But... but can I run a farm? Can I actually expect myself to make Applejack happy all her life? To... to sire her children?" He growled, shaking his head. "I don't deserve to be planted in that holy ground someday... to have my name marked on her land. I'll only mess things up... make her and her family miserable with my lameness."

"Is that what this is all about?!" Rainbow Dash sputtered. "You're just some lame-o who's afraid to commit?!"

"It's not about commitment!" Stu frowned. "It's about failure! I can't compare to Applejack, Rainbow! Nopony can! You know this!" He shuddered, then flew slowly past her. "Best that I end it now before I make things even worse by weighing her down. Maybe... just m-maybe another stallion... a stronger stallion will brush paths with her. But she deserves better—"

"She's not waiting for another stallion, ya jackass!" Rainbow spun him around, forcing the two to look eye-to-eye. "She's waiting for you!" She hollered, causing the ponies alone to stir nervously. "Applejack never even tickled the idea of having a special somepony until she met you!"

"Well she's mistaken—"

"Honest Applejack?!" Rainbow Dash glared. "Face it, chump. She's got her priorities straight! You're the one who's bucking things up here! So you gotta set things straight on your end or else nothing's ever gonna be fixed!"

"How?!"

"Are you deaf?! Go back to her and fix this before the hole's dug too deep!"

"She's not going to give me another chance!"

"Rrrrgh!" Rainbow shoved him. "You're not going to know that until you try!"

"Not everypony's as daring and courageous as you, Rainbow!"

"You don't have to be! You just gotta be honest and have faith!" Rainbow hissed, "Don't you see?! You have an opportunity to be better than what you've always been! To be better than what everypony has labeled you to be!"

"I... I..."

"You've been given a golden opportunity, bucko!" Rainbow waved her hoof southwest. "Back there is your ticket! Your one and only ticket to get past yourself, Stu! And believe me! If Applejack's offering it, then you ain't gonna get a chance that's anywhere close to being even half as good!"

"What are you even doing this for?!" Stu cackled. The wind around them picked up, gustier and gustier. "You don't believe in me, Rainbow! Nopony believes in me! Why work so hard to make me undo what's already been done?!"

"Because I love her!" Rainbow exclaimed.

Stu Leaves blinked.

"Applejack's m-my friend." Rainbow wheezed, wincing. "And I want to see her happy... I need to know that her life is complete. And for some Celestia-damned reason the only key to that is you!" Her mane whipped in the tempestuous air. "Now... are you going to go back to that farm or am I going to have to drag you there in pieces?"

Stu squinted against the wind. He shuddered more than once. "Rainbow Dash... if... if you really feel that—"

A gust of air knocked them off balance. The wind was howling at this point. Both pegasi had to flap their wings extra hard just to stay upright.

Before either of them could say another word, a series of shouts and screams lit up the air from a distance.

"Hold it! Hold it together!"

"It's veering off!"

"Look out! Get them to break off!"

"It's too late!"

"Move!"

Rainbow Dash spun about. Facing north, she dropped her jaw at a ghastly sight.

One of the two conjured tornadoes had veered off-course. As the pegasi flying inside it lost control, the uneven cyclone drifted south, colliding with the other weather anomaly. The air clapped with thunder. Pegasus bodies were launched wildly out of the mess. They regained their flight hundreds of feet away, but both teams couldn't regroup in time. Before everyone—the Cloudsdale Weather Commission included—a doubly large cyclone was birthed, whirling violently in a southward path.

Sharp Quill and several other wingmates hovered up at Rainbow and Stu's side.

"What's... what's the matter?!"

"Did the two tornadoes just collide?!"

"It's headed this way!"

"It's massive!"

"Why aren't they breaking it up?!"

Rainbow Dash gulped. "It's bigger than regulatory size now..." She gritted her teeth. "Nopony can control a tornado of that magnitude."

"OhmygoddessOhmygoddessOhmygoddess..."

"You've gotta be kidding me..."

"It's getting closer! Everypony move—"

"No!" Sharp Quill shouted. "Wait!" He spun around, gazing southeast. He turned back to squint at the incoming cyclone. "Rainbow... on its current course—"

"I know." She nodded gravely. "It's headed straight for Ponyville."

Stu and several other ponies bit their lips, trembling in midair.

"Wh-what..." Sharp Quill paled. "What should we do?!"

"What else?" Rainbow Dash shot forward with a frown. "Team! Form up!"

"But... b-but...!" Stu scampered after her in midair. "But I thought you said that nopony can control it at this point! What are we going to do?!"

"Control it anyway!" Rainbow swung a hoof forward as she flew towards the howling tempest. "Come on, everypony! We're the only pegasi that stand in its way!"

"You've gotta be joking!" Sharp Quill's voice cracked as he nervously followed.

"Wish I was!" Rainbow hollered north towards the helpless teams above the fringes of Everfree. "Somepony! Fly ahead to Ponyville! Tell everyone to evacuate! Now!"

"Get out of there!" A member of the Cloudsdale Commission hollered back. "The winds are too strong for—"

"Evacuate Ponyville!" Rainbow hollered. "Tell 'em we're gonna try our best to break it up!" She looked over her shoulder, spotting the majority of her team following behind. "You guys ready?!?"

"Ready as we'll ever be!" Sharp Quill stammered.

"Rainbow, I don't think that—" Stu began.

"This is it!" Rainbow soared straight into the gusting winds. "Now or never! Arrowhead formation! Cut on through! Then take tier positions!" Rainbow clenched her eyes shut as she pierced the gales. "Go go go—"

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!

PreviousChapters Next