//------------------------------//
// Slumper Poop'd 
// Story: Appledashery Vol. Two 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

"And you know..."  Rarity curled up in her extra-cushioned sleeping bag, fitting a laced mask over her eyes.  Her mane was done up in curlers and she spoke eloquently between each yawning breath.  "...he was every bit a brutish knave.  Ungentlecoltly and rude and downright selfish.  However... the final straw that broke the camel's back was when he compared Applejack's carefully baked treats as mere 'peasant food.'"

"Awwwwwww..."  Applejack smiled, trotting across Twilight's old bedroom.  Glow-in-the-dark stars loomed overhead as she finished drying her mane from a fresh evening shower.  "That's mighty nice to hear..."

"A lady can take so many personal insults and weather them based on the versatility of her own divine character.  But when a ruffian like Blueblood starts insulting my friends?"  Rarity let loose a squeaky "harumph" to end all "harumphs."  "Needless to say, I was finding it very hard to contain my burning ire."

"Well..."  Twilight giggled from where she snuggled in her old bed above the rest of the girls.  "You held out for quite a long time.  I wish I could have composed myself far better when I realized that Celestia wasn't going to have any time to talk exclusively to me during the Gala."

"I was the worst," Fluttershy murmured, snuggling up one space away from Rarity in her own sleeping bag.  "I let my temper get the best of me."  She shivered.  "And it led to a stampede that tore through the palace."

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself, darling!"  Rarity shifted out of her sleeping bag.  Wearing the mask, she reached out and hugged the nearest pony to her.  "There there... you were promised so many things and a delicate soul like yours has every right to be angry over it..."

"I'm not Fluttershyyyyyy!"  Pinkie Pie said, humming against Rarity's embrace.

"Oh!  Pinkie!"  Rarity gasped.

"Heeheehee!"  Pinkie nevertheless hugged Rarity back, then winked over her shoulder at Fluttershy.  "If you ask me, you made my night, Flutters!"

"I did...?"

"Yeah!"  Pinkie stuck a tongue out.  "I was struggling all night to get the ponies out jigging on the dance floor!  And in one fell swoop you got an entire garden full of wildlife to cut a rug!  Woohoo!  Go Flutters!"

"Heheheh..."  Twilight Sparkle smiled into her pillow.  "That's one way of looking at it."

"Uhm..."  Fluttershy blushed, running a hoof through her pink bangs.  "It certainly is."

"I would have totally kicked Blueblood's butt in front of everyone," Rainbow Dash grumbled.

"Whoah there, sugarcube!"  Applejack turned around three times before flopping down onto her saddlebag with a smirk.  "Simmer down a bit, why don'tcha?"

"I mean it!"  Rainbow Dash looked up with a frown.  Her freshly-showered mane made a prismatic sheen from the dim light beside Twilight's bed.  "Nopony insults not one by two of my friends like that and gets away with it!"

"Well, as much as I want a royal pain like that to be showed his place..."  Rarity shuffled back into her sleeping bag and blindly shimmied under the warm material.  "...I'm quite glad you didn't resort to any barbarism at the Gala tonight."

"Rainbow, you knew Blueblood was a jerk before we even left for Doughnut Joe's," Twilight remarked.  "Why do you suddenly want to kick his butt now?"

"Because... b-because..."  Rainbow suddenly clenched her teeth.  She gulped and collapsed back in bed.  "Never mind.  G'night, girls."

"I am..."  Fluttershy teetered, eyelids heavy.  "...quite exhausted..."

"She's right, y'all."  Applejack laid back on her sleeping bag.  "How about we just get some shuteye?  Leave the talkin' for tomorrow morning?"

"Pfft!  But I wanna chit-chat!"  Pinkie Pie grinned.  "Isn't that the funnest thing about slumber parties?  Cuddling up and snuggling up and chatting it up about this and that and eating popcorn and—"  THUD!  She spontaneously collapsed like a fuchsia brick and dozed off.  "Shhhhhnorrrrrrr..."

Rarity purred sleepily into the air:  "The jury has spoken."

"Hmmmmm..."  Twilight reached over and turned her bedside light off.  "Good night, everypony."

"Good night, Twilight.

"Nini."

"See y'all in the morning."

"Mmmmm."

Applejack scrunched into the soft material of her sleeping bag.  She reached over and grasped her hat on the floor... then lingered.

"... ... ..."

She turned and looked across the bedroom.

Rainbow Dash was already still as a stone.  The glow-in-the-dark stars pasted on the ceiling cast a pale-green dimness over her, and through the shadows Applejack could see that the petite pegasus was already curled up in an adorable fetal position.  She twitched slightly in her sleep, and Applejack could have sworn she saw a brief—albeit undeniable—look of discomfort fluttering across Rainbow's fuzzy muzzle.  The fitfulness ended, and the mare was still yet again... sleeping like a foal.

"... ... ..."  Applejack swallowed a curious lump down her throat.  Then—with silent grace—she placed her hat over her face and surrendered to the throes of exhaustion.