Appledashery Vol. Two

by Just Essay


CRASH

Rainbow Dash's straightforward glide had deteriorated into a drunken weave. She zig-zagged over the Palace gardens at this point. Applejack wasn't certain what bothered her about it the most: how close Rainbow Dash came to sailing into various structures or how blatantly casual the half-conscious pegasus went about it all.

"Rainbow...?!"

Applejack hissed into the air.

"Rainbow?!?!"

She frowned and hissed again.

Rainbow Dash sailed on. To Applejack's chagrin, the petite pony somehow still had a mug in her hoof... and was occasionally attempting to sip from its emptying contents.

"Oh for Celestia's sake...!" Applejack gnashed her teeth. She darted briskly between patches of squarely-trimmed hedge and marble benches. The mountain air here was cool and crisp. Rainbow Dash was just a leap and a mouth-grab away, but Applejack was too scared of the guards' surrounding sight to attempt something too brash. "Rainbow, ya dang varmint! Dun ya drink and fly! You could hurt youself, y'know!"

None of these words landed concretely in Rainbow's ears. Or—if they did—they barely made any sense to the feathered floozie. Soon she was bobbing and weaving over the statues and the nearby courtyard. Applejack's heart stopped with every dip the pegasus took.

"Guh!" At one point, Applejack squatted low behind a fountain and covered her eyes. "This is crazy. I'm an honest pony... breakin' and enterin' into the Royal Palace... and we're never gonna live this down!"

She gnashed her teeth, summoning a burning flame of anger from deep inside.

But none could be found. Instead, all Applejack felt was the cold sweat of worry... and something else in her core... something no less warm and beating and desperate.

"Rainbow..." She looked up, teeth chattering between her freckles. A gulp. "Rainbow, sugarcube..." Her voice whimpered beneath the failed attempt at a stern tone. "Please... y'all must come down now!"

That must have done something, for suddenly Rainbow Dash was turning over in mid-flight like a foal might stir in her sleep. There was a sleepy smile on her cider-stained muzzle.

"Just... one cuddle... AJ..." She purred, dropping the mug soundlessly to the bushes below. She descended, hiccuping sloppily. "Between friends, mmmmmkay?"

Applejack froze in place, peering confusedly outward from behind the fountain. "What the...?"

""I don't c-care how—HIC—bad things are..." It wasn't clear whether Rainbow Dash was giggling or sobbing at this point. Her eyes rolled back under fluttering lids, and Applejack watched—stunned—as the mare plummeted into the royal mess. "Just... want to be with you..." Somepony sniffled. "Just... want to sh-show you..."

Applejack sat petrified... but for reasons unexplained.

"... ... ...Rainbow Dash?" she breathed. Her eyes lost themselves in the starlit emptiness between worried thoughts, and it was then that something violently jolted her out of the unnameable moment... something loud. Like a crash.

CRACK!

"!!!" Applejack shot back up. She craned her neck just in time to see that Rainbow Dash had collided with a statue... a statue that was careening towards the ground. In the moonlight, there was the scarcely descernible flash of claws, paws, fangs, and goat hair. And then—

SMASH!

Rainbow Dash settled into place, halo'd by a rattling sea of granite bits.

And Applejack swallowed hard. "Whoah nelly..."