Appledashery Vol. Two

by Just Essay

The Apple Side

Rainbow stared and stared and stared and—"Oh!" She blinked. "Uh... yeah!" A nervous smile. "Blue as the sky! That means awesome!" As if to prove this, she shoved the doughnut into her muzzle and scarfed a savage canyon through its pastry goodnes. "Mmmmf—shee? Aweshommeffff!"

Applejack chuckled. Rainbow always had a foalish flavor to her dialogue, her actions, her habits—her everything.

Just then, Spike waddled up from the front counter. “I still can’t believe the dude ran out of sprinkles,” he muttered.

“Spiiiike…” Twilight Sparkle merely smiled. “We should be glad he’s staying open as late as he is.”

Fluttershy looked guilty. “You mean, he’s doing it just for us?”

“Mmmm…” Rarity balanced a mug of coffee, smiling towards the "bar." “What a fine, fine gentlecolt,” she said.

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Oh come now, Rarity! The very night royalty itself gives you the burn, your heart flutters towards the next dag-blame’d stallion that crosses your eyes!”

“So help me if I can recognize true chivalry when I see it!” Rarity took a dainty sip. “Especially after a night as disastrous as this one, a lady can be forgiven for wanting to seek solace.” She took a moment to savor the taste of her mug's contents. “Hmmm… Could use some more marshmallows.”

Applejack stuck her tongue out. “How ‘bout you dunk yer sassy head?”

“Grrrrr…”

Giggles cascaded around them. Even Spike was smiling.

Eventually, Rainbow's voice cracked, stealing Applejack's attention again: “Say, where did Princess Celestia head off to?”

Twilight explained: “She had some royal duties to take care of at the Castle. Even on the Night of the Grand Galloping Gala, she doesn’t run out of stuff to do.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie had returned, her voice filling the gaps between the echo of a flushing toilet in the distance. “Like sweeping up the mess of the most awesome party everrrr!”

Fluttershy gave her a double-take. "Pinkie Pie? How could you call that a party? All we did was make a terrible, terrible mess of things.”

“You heard the Princess, though!” Pinkie grinned ecstatically. “The Gala is awful every year! This is the first year it was made not-awful! And it was thanks to us! We’re the nicest, funnest, friendliest, most not-awfulest bunch of party-goers in the world!”

“Well…” Twilight smiled. “At least one of us got to have their dream come true tonight. I think.”

“Eh, I think Pinkie’s dreaming every day,” Spike muttered.

“In truth, it wasn’t all that ghastly terrible,” Rarity. “This little after-soiree soiree of ours here is turning out to be truly delightful.”

“Yeah!” Twilight nodded. “And once we go back to my parent’s apartment, we’ll have the whole weekend to ourselves!”

“Oh, Twilight!” Fluttershy beamed, her voice taking on a happy tone that tickled Applejack's heart. "That sounds delightful!”

Applejack smiled. She looked over at Rainbow Dash.

The petite pegasus stared into her half-eaten doughnut. She looked so quiet... so small... so curiously melancholic—

“We’re all gonna have so much fun!” Pinkie Pie chirped. “Fun fun fun fun fun!" Her cheerful motions rocked the table, shaking Applejack out of the moment.

“Pinkie!” Applejack fought the urge to snarl. “Knock it off, will ya!”

“Yes, darling. Share the mirth with all of us.” Rarity wagged her eyebrows. “I have the most outrageously hilarious image in my mind of Prince Blueblood covered in apple sauce. I daresay, I think I’m the only pony in contemporary times to have seen the uncouth side of a two-faced monarch.”

“Oooh! Oooh!” Pinkie leaned across the table. “Spill the beans! Spill ‘em!”

“Well… Before the Gala turned into unmitigated bedlam..."

Rarity proceeded to roll forth a sinfully boring anecdote about Prince Blueblood and a few precious secrets that the fashionista had learned in a small amount of time. Long story short, Applejack had stopped paying attention about the second sentence in. Instead, she glanced across the table once more... gazing upon the limp blue figure in her tattered gown of matching prismatic colors. It had been a heavy, eventful evening—to say the least—but so much of it was hanging off of Rainbow's figure for some reason.

Applejack's eyes narrowed, and she felt a strange tickle in the back of her throat... growing sour.

The table around her erupted in laughter, and Applejack realized that Rarity must have reached the end of her anecdote. So she rolled her eyes and tried a non-sequitur... leaning in to nudge the shoulder of the quiet pegasus in their midst.

“Unnngh… If I’d known that this would have been nothin’ but fussy gabbin’, I would have just trotted on to Twilight’s folks’ house on my lonesome and called it a night.” She gave Rainbow's shoulder a shake, slightly alarmed by how much it jostled the petite pony. "Good thing you’n I are a lot alike, partner, or otherwise I’d feel like I was plum alone here.”

“Uhhh…” Rainbow Dash gulped and rubbed the spot where Applejack had made contact, almost as if it had been bruised. “Yeahhh,” her voice squeaked, again foalishly. “I’d never leave ya hangin’, AJ.”

“Heh..." Applejack tried to hide a hint of concern in her throat. Her eyebrow raised with each syllable she pronounced. "I know ya wouldn’t, sugarcube...”

Rainbow smiled crookedly.

The lump in Applejack's throat sank to somewhere in her chest. She fought it back up by blurting: "Cuz yer the Element of Loyalty, after all.”

Rainbow's ears drooped slightly, followed by her wings.

Applejack was holding her breath at this point. All traces of exhaustion from the 'best night ever' swiftly vanished, replaced by a gnawing worry. "Y’all alright, Rainbow? Is there somethin’ on yer mind?”

“Huh? What? Me?” Rainbow Dash practically hyperventilated. “Eheheheheheh! Nawwwww… I’m… I’m f-f-f-fine, Applejaaaaack.” She cleared her throat.

Applejack stared at her.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip and said, "I… I-I can never hide anything from you, can I, AJ?”

That was the strangest thing said at the table yet. Applejack fought the discomfort by lifting up another doughtnut between them.

“Reckon ya can’t, darlin’.” She smiled. “Come on.” She tossed the treat ceilingward, caught in her maw like a dog, and scarfed it in one bite. “Mmmmf… Out with it.”

Rainbow Dash struggled...

Comments

[DrEggnog]

Oooh, are these places that we're going to? Or are these places we already went in the first book and I forgot? It's all a jumble.

[zaponator]

It's cool and/or painful to see Applejack suffering similarly to Rainbow Dash through all of this.

[Lamplighter]

8353517
I'm pretty sure this is all still recapping the start of book one. We're just getting to see that ether AJ can hide her emotions like a master, or more likely, Rainbow was so afraid that Applejack would see what she was feeling, that she completely missed the signs the other mare was giving off.

[Sir Mediocre]

8354969
S-s-shuddering suffer-dash!

[Snowdrifter]

8354969
The struggle is real.
Almost typoed there and typed 'snuggle' but it's way too soon for that.

[arancaytar]

Come to the Apple Side! We have doughnuts!

[berrytone]

This is neat seeing Applejack's side in all this. But, after already reading a million words of this story, I'm ready for the story to pick up where Vol. 1 left off. I think I'm starting to fade, but I'll keep chugging along. I'm holding out for those cuddles.