Appledashery Vol. Two

by Just Essay


Whoah...

"So... uh..." Rainbow Dash spoke between nibbling down apple bits. Her ruby eyes wandered across the farmstead and the surrounding orchards. "You've been here a long time or...?"

Applejack inhaled, feeling a warmth of pride wash over her. All it took was two blinks, and the lethargy from the previous evening caught up. "All my life," she nevertheless produced, lying back with a lazy slant to her well-toned figure. "Been born to apple buck, live to applebuck, and I'm pretty sure I'll die apple buckin'." She winked at her porch guest. "Figured that was more than obvious by now."

Rainbow looked at the partially devoured apple in her petite hooves. "Well, I guessed that earth ponies were all about farmwork and all, but I didn't wanna... y'know... stereotype." She gulped. "But at least that explains how these apples are so Celestia dang good."

"Heh heh heh..." Applejack nodded. "I was about to say! Usually it leaves ponies speechless!"

"Oh, don't get me wrong." Rainbow looked at her. "They're the best apples I've ever tasted! Just... I... uh... I'm kind of used to the taste of apples."

"They ship a bunch of them to Cloudsdale?"

Rainbow's smile was a stale thing. "Oh, I guess I meant... erm... in bottle form."

Applejack looked the mare over. A pony that small—the stuff had to go straight to her brain and back again. "Well, fancy that." Applejack nevertheless rambled on. "Cuz we here at Sweet Apple Acres brew some of the finest apple cider in these parts."

"You..." Rainbow's voice fluttered with undeniable interest. "...you brew cider from these?"

Applejack was amused, to say the least. The mare had a healthy, athletic look to her limbs. Applejack assumed she didn't allow her life to be ruled by the drink. "You betcha."

Then Rainbow Dash said: "That... that seems criminal."

Applejack blinked. An awkward chuckle: "Heh... well, we put lurve and care into each drop we make. That's how we make enough business to float year after year. That and the zapapples—"

"Wait..." Rainbow's body noticeably jolted. "You guys make zapapple jam?!"

"Once a year!" Applejack nodded. "Only place in Ponyville that's got 'em!"

"But..." Rainbow's forehead adorably furrowed in deep thought. "...but I thought Barnyard Bargains—"

"—gets them from us! Nowhere else!" Applejack grinned. "Whew-wee... boy, if Filthy Rich ever looked elsewhere, I dun rightly know what we'd do."

"That's crazy." Rainbow's voice cracked. With each passing minute, she sounded more and more like a foal struggling to catch up to an adult's body. It was obvious that she was letting her guard down. "I thought this was a nowhere town?"

And again... that venomous, abrasive bluntness.

Applecjak cleared her throat. "Yeah, well, we dun aim to brag... too much." She slowly stood up on the porch, stretching her muscles. "We just look after the farm and we look after each other. The rest—like Harmony—just sorta fills in the grooves, ya reckon?"

A droning voice replied. "Yeah, well, I didn't come here for Harmony. But if produces apples like these..." A smirk... then a bite. "Mrmmmfff... I ain't complainin'... mmmfff..."

Applejack found herself staring at Rainbow's tiny, apple-filled cheeks a little too long. She coughed out of her stupor and chuckled. "Heheheh... well, can't say all of them are for free, but I'm sure we can make an arrangement. If ya think you can find it in yer heart to spare us some extra rain clouds for the plantin' season, then I'll see about setting a bushel or two to the side for you and you alone."

Rainbow swallowed and flung Applejack a bright blue jubilant expression. "Wow..." Glinting teeth in the sunlight. "You'd really do that?"

"Dun see why not, partner." Applejack's tongue lingered, and she finally finished: "We're all in this Ponyville groove together, ain't we?"

"Sweet!" Rainbow grinned. Her tail flicked, filling the air of the porch with delicious color. "This place ain't half bad!"

Applejack felt that warmth yet again, but she tempered it with a sly grin. "If ya dun mind me sayin' so... sounds like you didn't set the bar too dang high."

"Well... I mean... earth pony farming town..."

"Yuh huh." Applejack droned. "What was all that earlier 'bout stereotypin'?"

"Look, let's not pretend," Rainbow grumbled. "This isn't exactly Speedy Pegasus Central. I mean, sure, I followed my friend Fluttershy here... but she doesn't count. Heck, you'd have a greater chance of flying the southern birds home than she would."

"Then just why didja come here?" Applejack narrowed her eyes. "You needed the weather flyin' job that badly?"

"Ehhhh..." Rainbow squirmed where she sat. "That's just a stepping stone."

"To what?"

"Pffft! To honing my skills so I can get noticed by the Wonderbolts, of course!"

"Beg yer pardon?"

The mostly-eaten apple fell to the ground. It shook Applejack out of the moment, and she found herself paling at the ghastly expression melting off of Rainbow's shocked face.

"You..." Rainbow stammered like a heartbroken foal on Hearth's Warming Eve. "...you don't know who the Wonderbolts are?"

Applejack gulped, then squirmed where she sat. She wanted to shrink into her own hat. "Is that a crime?"