Above All Else

by 8686

Epilogue: A Bajillion Apples

The warm morning found Applejack walking tentatively behind Winona among the rows of trees in the East Orchard, the unkempt grass of the fields tickling her hooves.

It had been a little over two weeks since the plateau, and Applejack hadn't seen much of Rainbow Dash since. She'd been busy. Though, three days afterwards she'd noticed a crumpled envelope had been shoved hastily through her letterbox, and when she'd opened it... she'd found it contained five bits.

Curiously, this morning—the morning of her first free day since then—Winona was acting very strangely. She had begun by bounding into her bedroom, demanding playtime as usual. But when Applejack had taken her outside, instead of playing she had led her straight to the East Field, and into it.

Winona walked slowly, nose in the grass, but stopping every so often to snuffle for something. And it took Applejack a little while to realise just what was going on.

She was eating biscuits.

Somepony had laid a trail of biscuits through the orchard for Winona to follow. And once Applejack realised what was happening, a little involuntary grin touched her lips.

Winona led her to a particularly tall apple tree—one the Apple family colloquially knew as 'Grandfather'—its knarled branches thick with fresh, spring leaves and concealing anything that might be hidden up there. Her smile grew.

“Winona? Reckon I'm gonna be a mite busy for a bit. Why don’t ya go find Big Mac or Apple Bloom to play with fer a while?” she said.

Winona’s ears perked, her tongue panted, her tail wagged, and she was away like a shot, eager to obey—especially if it meant more playtime and biscuits!

Applejack approached the tree and, raising a forehoof, she knocked three times on the trunk, as though she were at the door to a house. “Come out. I know yer up there.”

A rustling in the branches above attracted her attention and, sure enough, in short order a familiar cyan pony peered down from high in the boughs. She stood on a thick branch two thirds of the way up, poised with perfect balance. Rainbow Dash looked down with her usual grin. Smug, and cocky... and happy. Then, with a little mischievous glint in her eye she said,

“Prove it.”

It took Applejack a moment to work out what she meant. Then, when it hit her, she gave her own grin, determined and confident.

Applejack reared up onto her hindlegs and jumped, wrapping her forehooves around a low branch above her. Then, swinging the rest of her body upwards she managed to get a hindleg onto it and pulled herself up. With a balance and skill that could only come from practice, she stood on the thin branch and poised herself perfectly. Then she repeated the process again, rearing and jumping and reaching a higher branch. Then again. And again. Until she was finally stood confidently on the same branch as Rainbow Dash, her breathing a little heavy.

It had been a while. Way too long, in fact. She’d forgotten how exhilarating it was to just climb. She firmly met Dash’s gaze. “Ha! Told ya! I can climb trees with the best of ‘em!”

Dash returned a warm, simple smile. No trace of smugness anymore, though she gave no other sign that she was impressed. She settled herself, leaning back against the tree-trunk, and then Applejack lay down, her belly on the branch, her hindlegs dangling either side, and her forelegs under her chin.

“I’ve got something for you,” said Rainbow. Then she craned her neck to fish something out from beneath her wing, and returned with a scrap of parchment grasped in her teeth.

Applejack raised an eyebrow but took the paper and unfolded it.

Written on the parchment, in what was unmistakably Dash’s hoofwriting;

I.O.U.
One bajillion apples
-R.D.

Applejack chuckled and looked back at Dash. Then, using her teeth, she tore the paper in half and tossed it away.

“What are you doing?!” cried Rainbow Dash. “That’s good for a bajillion apples! Do you even know how many a bajillion is?!”

“Yeah, it’s almost a plethora,” Applejack replied. Then she smiled kindly and met Dash’s gaze. “Dash. I told ya. You’re family. Family can have all the apples they want.”

“Well... that’s cool, I guess,” said Rainbow. “But I’ve kinda already got the Apple I really want.” She looked at Applejack with that warm smile again.

Applejack made a show of rolling her eyes, but in truth she couldn’t help but be a little touched. Then Dash’s smirk reappeared and normal service resumed.

“So?” asked Applejack, “What crazy, suicidal, fool-pony thing are we doin’ today to prove who’s boss?”

Dash’s smirk grew and her eyes sparkled with bravado. “Funny you should ask. Because I pretty much know where the tallest tree in all of Equestria lives, and I’m thinking we have a race to the top. The pony who gets the highest wins. Whaddya say?”

Applejack looked back with her own, confident grin. She could just imagine the view from the top of such a tree... and could imagine seeing it with one of the best friends she’d ever had.

“You know what, Rainbow? You’re on.”

Comments

[Maxxarcade]

Loved this story!

[Mane 6 Pets]

I love how in your stories the Mane 6 never seem out of character. You're a lot better at writing the ponies in character then most FIMfiction writers in my opinion. You are number 3 out of my top 5 favorite FIMfiction writers along with Viking ZX, Pen Stroke, Sagebrush, & Arad

[Stereoturbot]

Maybe I should write an insightful comment, but I'm not very good at that. So I'll just stick with squeeing over how awesome this story was, and how you are one of my favourite authors

[KwirkyJ]

This was a delightful piece of friendshipping. I remain quite impressed at the fluidity, accessibility and apparent ease of your writing a slice-of-life feel in every scene. Your characterizations are completely believable, and the story arc was quite enjoyable.

A minor point of contention, it is a curious choice that you took Rainbow Dash's mindset and the accompanying story arc in the manner that you did; until They're Just White Dots, I was fairly certain you were pursuing a different direction, and it took a moment to realign. Related, the denouement felt as though it bore itself a bit longer than was necessary, but I cannot point and say, 'yes, this is where it needed to end,' as all of it served a purpose to your story arc.

Also, as mentioned by others, Winona was fantastic to read. "Look, Applejack, I found Rainbow Dash! Can we play with Rainbow Dash?" Oh, dogs!

(Who am I kidding, everyone here was fun to read. If and when I get back to voice work....)

[8686]

5593739

I was fairly certain you were pursuing a different direction, and it took a moment to realign.

If it's not too much of an imposition, I don't suppose I could ask you to elaborate a little? What were your expectations at the point you modified them? For you, where was the story going when you got to 'that point' and what exactly was the point at which you changed your mind?

One of the things I try to do when I write these kinds of things is to write very straight, and signpost just where a story is going. It's kind of my way of saying to the reader, 'sit back, relax, enjoy the show, no nasty surprises here, everything's okay.' I want them safe in the knowledge that they're going to get a nice story without any sudden plot twists or shifts in tone. Getting halfway through a story only to find it's not the story you thought it was is really jarring. There are times when it's effective, but it's something I personally try to avoid considering the tales I like to write. So if I've got it wrong here, it would be really useful if you could help me pin down why.

It's also interesting that you mention Dash's mindset. Before I posted this, I actually considered writing out the whole story again, (same dialogue, same interactions,) but from Rainbow Dash's perspective, so you can see exactly what she's thinking. It would have been a fun little challenge, and the reader could essentially have picked which character they wanted but still ended up with the same story. In the end I decided not to. The fact that I knew how I'd go about it while making the whole scenario believable from Rainbow's perspective was enough, and I didn't want to overdo anything.

The denouement? Yes, I know what you mean and I agree, but it was intentional. I kind of wanted a tapered end to the story; a sense of them 'going back to normal,' but slowly. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had a heck of a day. Things were said, and friendships were tested. But you know what? When all's said and done, they're still Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and they're still friends like they always were. Getting back to that position without a sudden lurch back into the status quo was what I was trying to accomplish with the last chapter. It could have been shorter, but I wanted the come-down to be a glide, not a plummet. I dunno. Did it work?

Oh, and Winona? Heh. Hollywood has been doing it for years: If you want the audience to get behind a character, the dog has to like them. It's just a fact.
(Seriously, Winona is great. My headcanon is totally filled with Dash, AJ, Winona and Tank all playing together on a sunny afternoon, because why not?)

I hope you enjoyed your time with this piece. Any thoughts are always welcome.

--The Author

[KwirkyJ]

5595796
I don't think it was you doing something wrong so much as it was me holding my proverbial map upside-down. I'll do another, closer read-through and try to message you more precisely before too long, though, drawing from unspecific recollection, I expect my thoughts regarding Dash will be along the lines of "I was interpreting her in an alternate-though-nearly-equally-valid manner given the details presented, up until the mental model no longer held consistent with the story." Though, to repeat, once that readjustment was made to realign with the truth of the narrative, the story continued to flow well as a consistent character-centric piece.

[Jake The Army Guy]

This was a fantastic story. You know, for being gathered around a show based on friendship, there is not nearly enough exploration into the intricacies of the girls relationships. Almost every time you see it, it involves shipping, which is an entirely different kind of relationship.

What you did here is lay out exactly why Rainbow Dash and Applejack are probably the closest of the Mane Six. You know, it's honestly not that hard to see why people like shipping these two so much, but that almost does their relationship a disservice. A close, binding friendship that doesn't end in romance is a special kind of thing that needs to be explored more in depth.

So, yeah, I truly loved this story, author. In every way that matters it was—take it away, Best Doctor!

media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m92q929JTP1rnsfq2.gif

[Lightning Bearer]

Once again, you hit it out of the park. Well-written, well-paced, and very, very well-characterized. And even though I tend to enjoy shipping (with Appledash being one of my favorites), it's nice just seeing them interacting as friends and deepening their relationship in that regard. Thank you for this pleasure of a read.

[Tchernobog]

That was quite excellent. As a consummate shipper, I don't really believe that their closeness is really a 'family' thing, but this does an excellent job at displaying just how close the two are, even amongst the six. It's probably /why/ the romance is so easy to see between the two.

Basically I like it for similar reasons as Jake, but would love to see more XD

[Godiswithus3]

I consider this FIC to be the best story featuring Rainbow Dash and Applejack. As far as I am concerned, it is the only one where the relationship is platonic, which pleases me very well. I enjoyed every last bit of this story and am giving it my David Crespo stamp of approval.

[ThatOneWriter]

i.imgur.com/od0xMCF.png

[TIAS-A1927]

This is a incredible fic and so one of the most underrated I've seen. I can't belive that after reading that good work that was FFFF I doubted for so much time to read this fic. It was amazing, and it even send me to a race to read all your others storys wich are, honestly, some of the best I found in this site (in my opinion), and they seriously deserve much more credit that they are receiving. I'm a huge appledash fan, (in the shipping senses) but I still would consider this as one of the best despiction of the relantionship between Rainbow and Applejack.
I just love it.

[superfun]

This definitely feels like it could actually be an episode of the show.

[Hoofclid]

Thank you for the story, I really enjoyed it. I love how you bring out not just how the ponies feel about each other, but the special way they express it.

[Ghost Mike]

An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!

[Sugar Spoon]

This is one of those fics that feels like a lost script for an episode of the show. Really fun read.