Tantabus, Chapter 7 (Applejack) · 8:04am Jan 9th, 2016
Tantabus
7 - Applejack
4:00 pm
Right after I finished writing that last entry, Pinkie Pie and Rarity showed up, telling me that Rainbow Dash wanted to see me before visiting hours ended. I was supposed to pick up the girls from the party but well, Rarity was right there and a quick phone call cleared things for Scootaloo, so I called Twist’s mother and after I got her permission for them to stay for a couple of hours max, I talked to Bloom and got her blessing as well. She didn’t seem to mind—those three girls haven’t been able to get together so much since starting their Freshman year together, so with everything cleared I was free to make the trip to the detention center. I was a bit surprised that Pinkie and Rarity didn’t come along, but Pinkie shouted over to me that Rainbow wanted to see me alone.
I’m not above admitting that news made me a mite bit nervous.
Well, I showed up, got metal-detected, and was shown to the visiting room. It’s not quite like they show jail visiting rooms in the movies, but it wasn’t too far off, either. There were guards on both sides watching everything we did.
“You, uh, wanted to see me?” I asked, working the brim of my hat in my hands.
“Yeah,” she said, and let that word just spread out through the air between us. She sounded different, not at all like the captain of so many sports teams playing in the stadium before a crowd of hundreds or the proud athlete striding through the halls, cheered on by everyone she met. “Why are you sticking your neck out for me?” she asked. “You don’t owe me anything.”
“Rarity and Pinkie Pie told you what I was doing?”
“They said you hired somebody to dig up the truth, with your own money,” Rainbow replied. “They said you’re running for Fall Princess to distract Sunset until it’s too late. Do you know what Sunset did to Rarity when she tried to run? It wasn’t just the smear campaign and getting her off the school paper, Applejack. Sunset broke into her house and cut off her hair while she slept!”
“What?!” I said. “But her hair...”
“That was a wig. Rarity made it in less than a day.”
“A wig? But I couldn’t tell!”
“Nobody could. Rarity’s that good. Anyway, despite it being obvious that Sunset did it, the police refused to do anything, closing the case the moment her name was mentioned! Rarity was also banned from all extra-curricular activities for a year, just because Sunset whispered something in Luna’s ear. Did you know any of this?”
“No,” I said all quiet-like.
“So are you going to drop out?”
“Hay no!” I exclaimed. “That just makes me even more convinced that I made the right choice.”
“But you can’t take her!” Rainbow insisted. “She’s superhuman! At least in the brains department.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” I said with a smile. “I’ve got an ace in the hole.”
“So you’re just doing this for Sunset,” Rainbow concluded.
“That, and to apologize for how I’ve treated you all these years.”
This really confused Rainbow. “Yeah, about that...why are you defending me after all the times you’ve let me down? I mean, I’ve said some pretty mean things to you in retaliation. I would think you’d want me punished just as much as Sunset Shimmer.”
“Wait just a cotton-picking second! I’ve let you down? Begging your pardon, but I believe it was you that started this little feud of ours by lying to me on several occasions. I didn’t even have the chance to ‘let you down’, not that I would have.”
Rainbow glared death daggers at me for a few seconds, and I did the same to her. The guards got ready to pull us apart, when Rainbow Dash suddenly settled down in her chair.
“Dates and times,” she said calmly. “I can prove everything you did to me, if I only had my phone on me.”
“Ditto!” I said, “only I wasn’t allowed to bring my phone in, either.”
“Well, then I guess you’ve got a homework assignment,” Rainbow said, leaning cockily back in her chair. “Write out the details of every time you think I lied to you on a piece of paper tonight, and we can go over it together after school. I guarantee you that I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You have yourself a deal,” I said with a cocky grin of my own.
8:45 pm
I’m afraid I lost my temper with poor Bloom, but I think I made it right with her.
When I showed up, Twist was busy cleaning up the party, while her parents were busy sitting on the couch, criticizing her for leaving some crumbs behind. Rather typical for that family, I’m afraid.
Not that I’m going to judge, Diary. You know I don’t do that.
The girls were out back, being entertained by Miss “High and Mighty” herself—Trixie. Twist’s mother told me that she tried to get Trixie to leave, as she didn’t even show up until the party was over, but she insisted on putting on a show for anybody who wanted to see it, despite not getting paid.
Well I should of expected it sooner or later, but I heard Trixie scream, and I made for the patio door, along with Twist—her parents were too lazy to even bother getting up from the couch.
Trixie was gone, but the fence door was swinging back and forth, so obviously she finally burnt herself on one of her fireworks and fled. I spent a few moments looking around, but I guess she high-tailed it out of there.
I asked the girls if Trixie hurt any of them, and they gave me the biggest cock-and-bull story you can imagine, even more impossible than anything that Twilight Sparkle character tried to convince me of earlier that afternoon. According to them, Trixie suddenly turned into some sort of Hoofdini, which can’t possibly be true.
I would have forgiven them for maybe being fooled by that Trixie’s web of lies, but then Bloom had the nerve to swear on Momma’s grave, and well...I snapped.
Bloom don’t remember Momma the way I do, so I should have been gentler with her. As it was, I had all three of them bawling the whole trip home.
Bloom locked herself in her room, which at the time was fine by me, as I had taken away her supper privileges.
After a while I cooled down and I felt sorry, but I knew how stubborn we Apples can get, so I decided to wait some more, for her to cool down.
She came downstairs a lot sooner than I expected, but she hadn’t come down because of our fight. Instead, it was because she had called Sweetie Belle to complain about her treatment—you see, I had got so mad I had forgotten to confiscate her phone—and that’s how she found out what I did regarding Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer.
“But Applejack,” she asked me, “why are you defending Rainbow Dash? I thought you hated her.”
I looked into those innocent little eyes, and I suddenly felt a whole heap of guilt over how I had been treating Rainbow. Like she told me with that “homework assignment”: I had never tried to get the truth out of her, in three whole years, just letting her texts speak for her, when I know full well how easily it is to read those all wrong.
So I told Bloom about my mistake, and how easy it is to do bad things in anger...or sadness. And I apologized for blowing up at her in front of her friends. And I promised to make things right with them tomorrow.
After that we talked about my plans against Sunset, and the risks. I warned her that that she-demon would probably try to hurt me any way she could, and I expressed my regret that she and Mac—who was in the room listening to the whole conversation—might get dragged into the crossfire, but that I just had to do it, as it was the right thing to do. And both Bloom and Mac told me I was doing the right thing, and Bloom even told me she was proud of me.
I told Bloom that she could have a late dinner if she wanted, but she just yawned and said that “all the cake” had made her powerful tired, and she went up to bed.
So I hope things between us got squared.
Although she never did admit to lying about what Trixie supposedly did.
Suuuuure. Just keep telling yourself that, Applejack. :-P
Oh ho. Whatever happened to Trixie was clearly not pleasant. I just hope she survived.
Also, hooray for the girls exposing Sunset's web of lies! Though the delay makes me concerned that some unfortunate circumstance may put the kibosh on this before it gets wholly resolved.
3674301 I wonder if she might have been turned into her pony counterpart by the stray magic floating about??
3674319
...In retrospect, you were so close.
3707773 still not quite sure what happened... She was killed by the Tantabus?!
3708131
No, Trixie was sucked into the dream dimension. Applebloom's the one that was turned into a pony.
3709524 But according to Applejack's entry the girls said Trixie was turned into something no?
3709606
You mean this? That's a poor pony-ization of Harry Houdini, the most-famous magician who ever lived. Applejack was just saying that she became really good at magic, not that she transformed into anything.
3710949 OOOOOOOH!
3711065
!!!
I knew there was a better pony version of Houdini out there, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember it. The chapter's been changed accordingly. Hopefully, that will mean nobody in the future will have the same problems you had.
3715669
Glad I could help!