//------------------------------// // Ne'er-do-wells (Appleshy sort of) (1930s Swing AU) // Story: Rabbit Tracks // by Krickis //------------------------------// “So do you think you’re going to see her again?” Fluttershy smiled and shook her head as she finished bandaging Rainbow Dash’s arm. “Well, I’m sure I’ll see her around. But honestly, Dash, it isn’t anything like that. We just went out for coffee.” Rainbow snickered. “It sure sounds like you want it to be something like that, though.” Fluttershy preoccupied herself with putting her supplies away, which conveniently required that she turn away from her childhood friend. “Don’t be ridiculous. Besides, I’m sure Applejack isn’t even like that.” “Come on, Doc. She just happened to invite you for coffee when you were… what was it? Grocery shopping?” At least Rainbow couldn’t see her blush while Fluttershy’s head was tucked away in a cabinet. “You make it sound like it’s the craziest thing in the world, but that sort of thing happens. We shop at the same store a lot, and we just happened to start talking one day. There’s really nothing more going on.” “Uh huh.” Rainbow gingerly stretched her arm. “Then why are you still talking about her?” Fluttershy turned around and frowned. “Because you are! Now, since we’re finished here, could you please get off my table? I might have an important client come in.” “Yeah? What, you got a hamster scheduled to come in or something?” Rainbow asked skeptically, although she obeyed. “At least the hamster’s owners would pay me.” As soon as she said it, Fluttershy regretted the words. Rainbow’s cocky grin was gone in an instant, and she turned to look at her shoes instead of facing Fluttershy directly. “Look, Shy…” “No, don’t. I’m sorry, I only meant it as a joke.” It didn’t seem to cheer Rainbow up. “I’m working on something. I’ve got some dough coming in, I’m sure of it this time.” Immediately, Fluttershy pursed her lips into a tight frown. “Something with Sunset?” Rainbow winced. They’d had this argument before. “Yeah, but –” “Where’s the money coming from, Rainbow?” Rainbow hesitated, and it was all the answer Fluttershy needed. “Well, it –” “Save it. And you can keep the money, I don’t want anything to do with it.” Rainbow threw out her arms and took a step closer to Fluttershy. “What? No way! Come on, this is good news!” “Nothing with her is ever –” Fluttershy stopped abruptly as the door opened up. ‘Speak of the devil…’ Sunset Shimmer was wearing a serious expression that Fluttershy rarely saw on her. “Get yourselves looking presentable, we’ve got company.” “Hey, Doc! It’s your hamster appointment!” Even if the nickname always irked Fluttershy – it was Sunset that started using it first, after all – at least it meant that Rainbow was back to a joking mood. “Who is it?” Fluttershy asked. “It ain’t no hamster,” Sunset said, scowling. “We’ve got a john snooping around?” “Son of a…” Rainbow folded her arms. “Well, what’s he want?” “She wants to speak with the owner. Told her I’d come get you.” “You told her what!?” Rainbow shook her head in disbelief. “Sunset, we agreed to keep Fluttershy out of all this!” Sunset crossed the room quickly. “Keep your damn voice down if you don’t her to hear you. And what was I supposed to say? ‘Yeah, she’s out right now but my friend and I are just loitering around her shop’? That’d go over real fucking well.” “Dammit.” Rainbow turned back to Fluttershy. “Look, Shy, we’ll take care of it, just –” “You two have done more than enough, thank you.” Fluttershy pointedly looked away from both of them. As she walked across the room to the door, Sunset moved out of her way without a word. While she walked to the reception hall, Fluttershy tried her best to think of reasonable things to tell the police officer. Of course, that would be a lot easier if she knew what she wanted. How did she even get involved in… in whatever this was? All Fluttershy wanted to do was run her veterinarian clinic. Sure, people all too often refused to take a woman seriously as a professional, and she was barely scraping by on the few customers she did have, but she was happy with her lot in life. But then Sunset came along. She didn’t know how Sunset and Rainbow had met, but it wasn’t too long afterwards that Rainbow just up and quit her job. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she knew whom she was doing it with. And one day it just sort of happened. Rainbow and Sunset showed up, and they were hurt. Nothing serious, but bad enough that they went to see her about it. Although she hated the idea of Rainbow fighting, Fluttershy assumed that was all it was. They didn’t have the money for a proper doctor, so they came to her. But then they kept coming, and eventually, Fluttershy found that she just couldn’t keep lying to herself about it. One more moment to brace herself, then Fluttershy walked into the reception hall. She may have been poorly prepared to face an officer, but she wasn’t at all prepared for what she found. “Sorry to interrupt, but – Fluttershy?” “Applejack?” They both simply stared at one another for a moment, before Applejack shifted to a warm smiled and Fluttershy began laughing. “I’m sorry, it’s just… well, Sunset said it was a cop.” Applejack chuckled. “Well, not exactly. I’m a private investigator. Didn’t I say that before?” Fluttershy froze in place, doing her best to maintain her smile. “No, uhm, you didn’t mention that.” Applejack didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong. She grinned sheepishly and adjusted her hat. “Well, ‘fraid it’s true. So, got any ne’er-do-wells hangin’ about?” Fluttershy was quite certain that her heart was going to beat itself to death against her chest. “No, I… why do you think that?” “Aww, I’m just joking with ya! I know you’d never get caught up with anythin’ like that.” “Oh, uh, right. Of course not.” Applejack sighed and looked around the room. “Kinda a shame, though. I had a lead that a couple of suspicious characters were known to hang around this place. I had high hopes that this would be a break in a bootlegging case I’m workin’.” “I certainly haven’t seen any, uhm, bootleggers.” “Oh, I’ve got no doubts there. Heh, besides, a nice gal like you probably wouldn’t even recognize a bootlegger if ya did meet one!” Fluttershy chuckled nervously. “Well, I, uhm, I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help to you.” “Don’t worry about it.” Applejack reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a notepad. She scribbled something down, ripped out the page, and handed it to Fluttershy. “Here, just in case. It’s my number. You can call me if you ever dohear anything about somethin’ like that. Or if you have any other creeps givin’ ya a hard time.” She dropped her voice a bit and looked off to the side bashfully. “Or, you know, if ya ever just want to go grab a cup of joe again.” Fluttershy looked down at the number, certain she’d never be calling it. “Right. Uhm, thank you.” Applejack paused for a moment, looking like she was gonna say something, but then tipped her hat instead. “Alright then. I’ll see you around.” “Yeah. Uhm, goodbye then.” As soon as Applejack was out the door, Fluttershy collapsed into a chair. Barely a second later, Rainbow and Sunset were running up to her. “Did I hear you say that was Applejack?” Rainbow asked. “That was… strange,” Sunset said. “I’m gonna be sick…” Fluttershy murmured. “Well… hey! Nothing bad happened!” Rainbow said. “And she gave you her number. See, she’s totally into you.” “Rainbow!” Sunset snapped. “That’s not a good thing. Fluttershy doesn’t need to be involved with a copper.” “Come on, she seems as dumb as a bag of bricks. And she’s totally blinded by love on top of it. Pretty sure Shy’s safe on this one.” Sunset sighed. “Look, Doc, just take it from me, you don’t want to go messing with people like her.” “And who should I be messing with?” Fluttershy snapped. Sunset blushed. “I… I dunno. Just not her, alright?” Fluttershy shook her head. She didn’t see why Sunset should care about her love life. “Forget it. But I think it’s time the three of us had a talk. Bootleggers?” Rainbow and Sunset exchanged panicked looks. “Shy, I told you, you shouldn’t worry about us.” “Zip it, Rainbow. Because if the next words out of your mouth aren’t the full story about exactly what you two are up to, then I swear I’m going to call Applejack and tell her I found a few ne’er-do-wells after all.”