• Member Since 4th May, 2013
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Estee


On the Sliding Scale Of Cynicism Vs. Idealism, I like to think of myself as being idyllically cynical. (Patreon, Ko-Fi.)

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The Acres set it up every year as Nightmare Night approaches: an old-fashioned haycart taking a Moon-lit tour of the property, with fillies and colts shrieking at the traditional fake horrors. And Rainbow? Thinks that's boring. It's the same stuff every time. None of it would ever scare her. Nothing Applejack could come up with is even capable of getting a reaction.

Applejack decides to treat that as a challenge.

And then cider gets involved.


(A stand-alone, no prior-reading-necessary part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits are welcome. )

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 67 )

Hoo boy, another Estee fic...

Oh, boy, that was one heck of a hayride. Lots of Mood Whiplash in there, especially towards the end.

Author's Very Public Notes:

* This is one of those cases where the story didn't entirely go where I'd initially believed it would when the base idea was created. The characters trot (and fly) where they will, and sometimes I feel as if I'm just following in their wake.

* Did you know that most of the really good haycart pictures are stock photos which have 'stock photo' all over the picture, plus the name of the company and the price ($20 or so) they're asking to let you use it without the previous? Story composition took several hours. But before I started writing anything outside the Create New Story page, I wanted to find a cover image, and it was stock after stock after please-drive-up-the-price-of-our-stock...

I do like the one I wound up with, though. Ponyville's always had a touch of European village in much of its design, which makes it easy to live with the background building.

This is just like watching Scrubs: Everything is hilarious, and then near the end you start crying.

Damn, this really did get away from the funny premise. It feels better for it though. AJ's little jabs at Rainbow were well-done, and I loved when AJ told her she actually saved her a barrel after all. It was really sweet, made better for them both realizing that they crossed a line with the other and willing to admit that and apologize.

This is a weird story in that all of the characters are, well, in-character, and the events are logical, plus it ultimately ends in a heartwarming spot...
Yet I'm not sure if I can favorite it for pretty much the exact same reasons.

That was superb, and a wonderful look into a little bit of Applejack's family. Thanks for another excellent tale!

The question is, if Rainbow did forfeit, was it before she got to something that might have been unforgivable? With Applejack pushing her buttons like that, one wonders what might have been in the next clearing...

If their friendships fracture, do the Elements break alongside them?

Was it Rainbow's wounded pride, or Loyalty salvaging what she could?

Either way, fantastic story.

7982503 Applejack, the Element of Brutal Honesty. And vengeance. :pinkiehappy:

I'm not sure I would've spoken to Applejack again if she'd pulled that on me.

Woo hoo, another Estee fic!
And hoo boy, was this one a good one.

Heart strings and smirk lines both pulled.

I'll admit, I hadn't even considered the parental aspect of Rainbow Dash disrespecting the hayride.
And another thought I've had; since we know that Rainbow didn't reach the end of the ride, we know that there were even more vignettes that Rainbow never ended up seeing.

Just what else could there have been?

7982408
You know, even with those additions, I'm not sure what to think. Especially at the end there when Applejack more or less called Rainbow stupid. One saving grace would be that it hurt Applejack to be doing this as well, cause it should.

Even so, I still find myself... a little disgusted with Applejack, to be honest.

Welp, I guess Applejack realising how much she was intentionally(!) hurting her friend and obviously feeling like a rotten apple core for it ultimately pushed it in the right direction.

After all, she was doing this because Rainbow insulted her daddy (without meaning to), but the bigger insult to his legacy was how Applejack repaid her for it. Her stuttering so much while talking about him is probably a sign that she's painfully aware of what a disservice she did him.

Yeah, this really went into a different direction than the set-up suggested. (The tags tell the truth, though!)

This was a good one, Estee. :rainbowdetermined2: :ajsmug:

I have to ask, what were the other stations remaining on the hayride? We had the cloud station, the bed station, the jar station, the C&C station, And the printing station. I imagined one of them would be someone pouring a barrel of cider (or something that looks like it) into the ground. What else could you have?

That was sweet, Rainbow's style of introspection is always a pleasure when you right her.

I'm curious: do Rainbow's complaints about the hay and the bugs imply that, for all her insistence that hayrides are boring, she has never actually been on one before? Or does it imply that Applejack brought out the bad hay for added effect?

Anyway, that was a very nice piece of croissant fluff :moustache: Nicely done.

"So Ah did the splash test. Ain't no pattern in the dirt on the other side of your legs from cider going through the holes. You ain't a changeling."

I would just like to say that this is my favourite changeling test ever. Is it a joke, or Triptych canon? (I'm hoping for the latter :twistnerd:)

This was a good story.

7983319 it's Triptych canon. Most amusingly, or heartwarmingly used in Multi Factor Authentication.

As demonstrated many a time both in and out of this universe, harmonious Honesty has no issues with lies of omission.

Applejack's father sounds like a great stallion, even taking into account the primary source's bias. His absence is sorely felt, especially by those who think of how he might have reined in his youngest.

In all, an excellent tale of going too far, making up afterwards, and siblings with entirely different parents. Thank you for it.

7983115
Given the time period, definitely someone bad-mouthing tortoises. And another disparaging Daring Do. (Heck, given the right sequence of highly improbable events, this might have been the Continuum introduction of Quibble Pants.)

7982622 well the key thing to remember about Estee's Applejack is the she's a jerk and deserves her head bucked in

7983295 I'd be willing to bet Dash hangs around during the hayride flying just overhead

Maybe it's because I was expecting to get spooked, or at least existentialed, and had that sort of ambient music in the background, but the hayride itself felt as serious as cancer.
So... I'm glad they somehow mended their relationship at the end.

7982318 "Looks like I'm not getting any sleep for a while..."

7982503 If they do, do they then take into account chaos magic manipulation (Return of Harmony) and stay intact in those cases?

7982622 That hit for me back in Triptych itself, personally; at times, she didn't feel like post-Twilight's-ascension Applejack, or even like Season 1 Applejack. She felt like pre-Equestrian Applejack.

This reminds me a bit of a better 28 pranks later, though Applejack maybe went a bit far, but that reserved barrel and later explanation makes up for it mostly. Probably would have been nicer for AJ to explain how RD just insulted her father, but RD's ego is annoying. If cider wasn't so precious (and cider day wasn't until later), I was expecting one (or most) of the horrors to be cider-involved (ponies drinking cider with RD stuck to her seat, cider being thrown away, cider contaminated by tree sap because of CMC, etc.). I kind of wonder what the original scary ride was like, rather than this skewering of RD's ego- AJ probably got lots of eager volunteers for this version.

Good story, too bad it took RD so long to realize she was already basically part of the family. Glad this was standalone, rather than digging to deep into AJ's other issues in Triptych (RD and Scootaloo could probably almost count for family with how close they are to AJ and AB).

Thought I'd give this a try since it was getting so much attention, but eesh, I'm in the "what the hell is wrong with AJ in this" camp. Is there some reason AJ couldn't have just, oh I dunno, told Rainbow the comments bothered her because she felt like it was disrespecting her dad? Maybe some of the more sensitive or detail-oriented characters like Fluttershy and Rarity could have picked up on there being an issue, but even they would have still had to worm it out of AJ after that, the way she was acting. I think even Twilight would've "screwed up" and put her foot in it like we're supposed to believe Rainbow did, and honestly I don't think she did. The exchange reads like AJ is reacting to a challenge to her ability to put on a show, not sure how we were expected to believe Rainbow was supposed to glean the truth from any of that. The only thing she was doing wrong was her self-centred fixation on getting at the cider -- and that's not even the behaviour she supposedly needs to apologize for in the end.

A few folks are comparing this to eps like Mare-do-well and 28 Pranks Later (which get a lot of legit criticism for the "humiliate your friend into learning a lesson instead of talking to them" angle), but I don't actually agree this is like them. AJ sets out to deliberately hurt and upset Rainbow in retaliation for her own bruised feelings -- and she makes a point of using knowledge of RD learned through being a close friend to do it. It's not a misguided attempt at giving a friend a lesson, it's straight up revenge/retaliation. It's malicious and cruel and honestly a form of betrayal, in my opinion. I have no idea what lesson RD was meant to learn from this (don't trust AJ, she'll throw your secrets and dreams and feelings right back in your face the moment she feels insulted? Learn how to mind-read, because she won't bother to even attempt to explain her issue to you until well after all the damage is done?) and the fact that we're told she did learn a lesson doesn't help as the "lesson" is so weakly connected to AJ's actual actions that it feels like a forced attempt at justifying AJ's nastiness and just isn't believable.

The story is well written style-wise, but it's unfortunately just not enjoyable to me.

I was expecting laughs, not for you to rip my heart out of my chest and turn it into strawberry jam.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

So dissin' her daddy is Applejack's Neighagra Falls? :pinkiehappy:

7984972
Very well-put. Especially when you mentioned the show episodes.

That's what I felt too, but wasn't sure whether to put here or not. This actually is what people accuse Mysterious Mare-Do-Well of being. Applejack spent a week to put together as many things she could to hurt her "friend" with, all on purpose.

I like to think, after all this is over, Pinkie takes Applejack aside to tell her how much what she did sucked.

Interesting but a bit hard to follow at times. I wasn't clear if the initial pony performance during the hayride was meant to be an apparition or not.

She finally rinsed down after an attempt to nose over change had the coin stick to her snout.

Hehe ^

It's a story about what it means to be family.

7984972 I was trying to figure out legitimate reasons for why I couldn't favorite it. I mean, I knew something felt off about it, but I couldn't put my finger on what that actually was.
But, this comment is exactly what I was looking for.

7985902 You know what?
I personally think that this NEEDS a sequel where the rest of the mane 6 chew out AJ for her actions here.

You know, this feels weird given comments I've given on another author's stories, but I really don't hate Applejack in this one. I've been severely bugged by many things in other stories but this one...not really. Rainbow was being a callous dick, Applejack responded and went too far, and then they reconciled and understand each other and maybe themselves a bit better.

...I don't hate Rainbow in this either, by the way. She was hitting all the wrong nerves in the worst way, but it was fully unintentional, even if she is a bit thick on not picking up on it. She eventually understood exactly she did and how bad it hurt her friend, and she did what she had to in order to make up for it. And then Applejack did the same, clearly regretting how far she went.

I really like this story. It got unpleasant sometimes (in a good way), but it left my heart warmed by the end.

7988469
I'm not really a fan of fix/accusation fics. And I doubt it would even be enough to create much of a satisfying story around. One scene does not a story make.

I had to read this twice before everything finally sunk in, but it did.

Thanks.

Hoho, but the reactions to this story are just like Mare-Do-Well, eh?

Was Rainbow callousness great enough that her ego deserved a kick in the teeth, that is the question. Yes, or no?

And how great was the ego kick, really? Was it, "You took my hopes and dreams and threw them in my face," or was it "Rainbow Dash is an oversensitive, egotistical nitwit and needs to fucking grew up if this is what bothers her so much." Where do you stand on that issue?

Fascinating, fascinating.

I can't help but notice that the actual reason rd made the bet was because she said the hayride was boring and not scary, neither of which was actually disproved or even adressed by the show put on

I like how your protagonists have actual flaws, not just cutesey zany things like pinkies randomness or rarities poshness but actual character flaws that create conflict and cause problems. Its rare for a writer to make characters like that

That said i have no idea why dash apologized or how she figured out apple jack decided her father was insulted, it just came out of nowhere

That dragged on a lot. It was alright as a story. Not sure if I agree on the characterizations. Certainly convenient to end with putting things back together nearly. If ponies were real I don't think it would have ended that neatly or that quickly, even if they might have come around eventually. Of course I'm no RBD and I probably would've strangled AJ first over that last one before even bothering the 'news ponies' not to mentioned that the whole thing would probably the end of any friendship we'd had. I'm of the opinion that AJ went way overboard pushing all Rainbow's buttons like that

It just seems like the hurt inflicted here is not the kind that's easily washed away and while I can sort of see Applejack coming around that she went too far and Dash having a better appreciation of labor I just don't see that 'hayride' plus doing most of the work at the cider stall leading to a happy resolution. It seems like the sort of thing where Dash would just leave abruptly afterwards and throw herself into her work at her actual job and just shun everybody for a while. Similarly AJ might feel guilty but she'd still feel it was justified. I think it would take a while for things to be back too a good state. Especially since it seems like the others sided with AJ.

7992321
I agree with that first sentiment even of the technicality of that bet was satisfied.

In the same way the apology does feel sort of wrong. Rainbow's complaint is that the hayride is boring and it's origin does't change that and Applejack made it into 'piss off the captive Rainbow Dash because she insulted my daddy'.

Comment posted by StormyVenture deleted Mar 7th, 2017

7988469
I don't know about chewing out, but what she chose to do is not exactly the action of a friend. Not sure how I'd present it but I feel like Fluttershy might give her a talking to, Rarity would admonish her for such a calculated attack (very not generous) and she's have to ask Twilight and Pinkie Pie herself. The former would probably give book answers about Psychology and Pinkie would probably make some kind of analogy.

8002632 That is exactly what they'd do.

7992321

I assume it was this part:

For the first time, her head turned, and Rainbow saw the stars glittering on the moisture which coated green eyes.

"Y'shouldn't have insulted mah Daddy," Applejack whispered.

She turned back. The cart rolled on.

Rainbow is a little too oblivious, but she's not that oblivious.

Hm.

Well, a very strong story. It feels like Applejack went too far, without even trying to talk things through with Rainbow. But flaws and conflict makes for better characters, so it perhaps does Rainbow well to learn which buttons not to press in the future.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. RD is unitentional thoughtless (though when this become evident to her, she attempts reparations to the best of her ability) and AJ lets her pride and stubborness fuel her into going too far; and she knows it (and clearly feels bad about it), but can't quite bring herself to actually stop, before she is met part-way.

(Interestingly, I think AJ (at least how she is often used, both within the show and out of it) is one of the few instances that stubborness is not always shown as a virtue (e.g. Naruto etc), but a detriment,)

I didn't really expect this story to go the direction it did, and was pleasantly surprised.

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