Rarity's eyes narrowed. While it would have normally been difficult for her dainty frame to have kept up with the athletic farmer, her drunken stumbling made it possible. And so she was only a few paces behind Applejack, and Rarity’s discerning eyes could clearly see the couple across the wide, open space in front of the castle. She didn't see the image of emotional predation Applejack had woven, though.
Rarity saw two consenting adults enjoying one another's intimate company. Perhaps she felt a stab of jealousy, stemming from an admittedly growing, non-platonic fondness for her cotton candy Casahoova. Perhaps it was that feeling that encouraged her to go along with Applejack's erratic behavior. Perhaps self-reflection and recrimination would have to wait for later.
Now was a time for action.
"Rainbow Dash, champ, fetch an apple, tell whichever Apple is there that it's for family," Rarity said definitively, and she was pleased when her champion gave the only briefest frown of hesitation before darting away. "Dearest, you're with me."
Fluttershy nodded. "O-okay."
Rarity's horn lit up as they chased after Applejack, the mare reaching into her saddlebag and pulling out a length of ribbon. She sent the thing flitting through the air like a snake in between Applejack's legs.
"GET YER HOOVES OFF HER, YA DARN, DIRTY SUCCUBUS!"
Maybe in a better state, Applejack would have slipped out of it easy. In the state she was currently in, the ribbon tied around her legs and sent her sprawling face first into the dirt. Her own momentum was used to flip the farm pony on her back and Applejack's four legs were tied together by a beautiful bow, because that's how Rarity do.
"R-rarity!" Applejack stuttered from the sudden betrayal. "What in tarn- mhph!"
Rarity stuffed an apple in Applejack's mouth as a blue blur zipped away from her, circling back around. "Fluttershy, do the thing!"
"Mmph!" Applejack squawked through her fruity gag as Fluttershy grabbed her and pressed the farmer's face against her fluffy chest. Applejack struggled for a moment but Fluttershy rocked her, shushing her sweetly.
"Shhhhh- ch-ch-ch-shhhhhh..."
Tears welled up in Applejack's eyes as something told her spirit that mother was here. Mommy was here and it was gonna be alright. You just let it all out, little filly, it's gonna be alright. Applejack didn't even have the luxury either Twilight or Rainbow Dash might to appreciate the precise mechanics of this power, as pegasus and arion magic operated on such differing principles.
Twilight and Pinkie Pie cantered up to this scene, at last, what with it happening right in front of them. Well, it happened in front of Sun and sky and everypony, but those two were perhaps the most invested out of all the bystanders. "Rarity, girls!" Twilight looked about. Her gaze shifted between the hugging duo on the ground, to Rarity and then maybe Rainbow Dash. "What's going on?"
Rarity looked between her and her date, then back down to the farmer sniffling against her caretaker's chest. "Perhaps it'd be best we go inside and explain."
"Here, drink this."
Applejack tilted her head back as purple magic tilted the cup forward. Just below room temperature water, spiked with herbs, was poured down her throat. The thrones room had been rejected on the basis of comfort, and Twilight’s own library- which had her reading couches- was being occupied instead.
After she finished, Twilight pulled the cup away and set it down, looking over the coffee table, to the other couches and her friends. "Now, anyone wanna tell me what's going on? Pinkie, put your hoof down, you're just as confused as I am."
Rarity spoke, "To be honest, Twilight, I don't know where to begin. I feel rather ashamed being a part of this whole endeavor."
"And that endeavor was?"
Rarity bit her lip for a moment, looking askance to the side. Then she swooned, sweeping her hoof under her horn. "A most vile conspiracy, Twilight!"
"Uh-huh."
"A plan to- a plan to- um... blast, what was it? Applejack, I'm sorry, dear, what were we planning?"
Applejack groaned, leaning her head back and her hat forward. "I dunno... I was just feelin'. Ya know, emotions."
"Okay!" Twilight clapped her forehooves. "How about we concentrate on that? What kind of emotions?"
"JEALOUSY, darling!" Who do you think?
"N-no." Twilight didn't have time for this. "No, Rarity, no."
"I wanted my sweet, sugary pink cupcake all to myself!"
Rainbow Dash looked sidelong at Pinkie. "Oh wow, you're a real lady killer, Pinkie."
Pinkie, however, didn't have anything clever to add to that, and Rainbow Dash followed her gaze across the table. Applejack was leaning back against her seat, frowning at the ceiling with empty eyes. She turned obliquely down and to the side, avoiding Pinkie. She looked towards Twilight and motioned with her hoof.
"Gimme some more of that there leaf water, would ya?" She took it in her own hooves, and tilted it back with loud slurp. Applejack hummed as she let it soothe her tight throat. She sighed in not-quite-contentment. She had everypony's attention now as whatever in the Tartarean Depths Rarity was doing, rolling on her back, sprawled across Twilight's lap like an overdramatic cat.
Pinkie spoke, pleadingly, "Applejack."
"Ya know, you wear your hair just right, and you is a shoo in for my ma," Applejack drawled. "Ya know, 'cept more pink." Applejack tilted the cup back again, taking a drag of her drink. "And I'm mighty confused by how that turned me right the Hell on."
Rainbow peeled back with that one. So did, Rarity, mind, but it was Dash who commented, "Oh, wow, there is a lot to unpack there."
Twilight breathe through her teeth. "Applejack, I can't say for sure but- well, some faint Oedipon Complexes-" So named for the infamous lover colt who sought entrance into one of the noble houses by sleeping his way up to the top. Despite a shallow incline in that regard, he made indecent haste, clambering over nearly every single branch of that tree. All that only to find out in the end he was the long lost prince-heir of that already pretty closely related family. All things considered, he’d taken it rather well. "-are supposed to be rather common to a degree. It's said that plenty of ponies pursue partners that remind them of one or more of their parents or parental figures. But I also suspects that you're trying to put this in the worst possible light out of some misplaced guilt or anxiety."
“Mmhm,” Applejack grunted. "So, you may imagine mah- mah- I'mma use a fancy word- mah trepidation- trepidation?"
"Trepidation," Twilight confirmed.
"Not 'drepidation'? Wit' a 'd'?"
Twilight shook her head patiently, like she heard that one a lot. "No, it's with a 't'."
"Aight. -mah trepidation at thinkin' these thoughts. Ah'm feelin' all confused and- and- confused. And angry. And confused. And real lonely. And I'm thinkin' yeah, I'm thinkin', Ah'm gonna grab summa mah name sake, I am, and maybe it'll grease the wheels in mah noggin and Ah'd be able ta think straight, ya hear? Not that that there be how it worked out, ya ken?"
"Your accent is all over the place," Rainbow Dash said. "And also, weren't you mad about Pinkie making Fluttershy pass out?"
"That may have also been a factor in mah behavior, eeyup."
Pinkie blinked. "Hold on, I did what?"
"Uh, yeah, Pinks," Rainbow said, giving her a dubious look. "You seduced Fluttershy into a coma. Don't you remember doing that?"
Fluttershy coughed. "N-not really." For how softly she spoke, she still had everypony's attention, a fact she tried very hard not to acknowledge by staring pointedly at the coffee table. She spoke her next words in a rush, "Pinkie Pie came by and said I was cute and then she left and then I fainted."
"Seriously, Shy, just from that?"
"Yes, Fluttershy, dearest," Rarity said, rising from her lounged position across Twilight and Applejack's laps. "Sometimes, you can be rather brittle in your disposition."
Yes, she either crumbled or, on some occasions, snapped. Fluttershy nodded, humming a little as her hair fell around her face.
Applejack scowled. "Now- hey now, Fluttershy has made plenty o' progress in that regard."
"And I backslide a lot too."
Rainbow Dash frowned unhappily, not least because she may have just started the Fluttershy bashing train that now even Fluttershy was getting involved in. "Don't talk like that, Fluttershy. You're perfect."
Twilight raised a hoof, a distinct lack of assuredness and trepidation in her tone. "I think that-"
"Shut up, Twilight! She's perfect!"
Silence and Twilight slowly levelled against Rainbow Dash a look that was a pale imitation of her teacher's, but by gum- what a thing to imitate, even if it was just a fraction of it.
"I think that we all have flaws we could stand to work on, perhaps with the help of a professional. I know a good one, actually, I sent Starlight to a therapist as part of her parole. She still goes there sometimes."
Applejack tilted her head. "Starlight sees a shrink? Wha's next, she also had to take 'er medicine?"
Twilight didn't answer.
"Oh mah stars."
"Don't talk to her about it, okay?"
"Was she off 'er meds when she brainwashed the rest' us while you was gone?"
"-and as he sank into the molten earth, he thrust one defiant hoof up and said, 'I'll be back, ya hear?' And whadya know-"
"Uh-huh." Starlight nodded with a half-lidded look that made it clear she wasn't there at all.
"-then Hokuto onii-san," 'onii' pronounced with one i, "-he says to me, he says, 'You all a unicone, Apperjack', which was a hallucination he was having on account of his out-of-control gigantism, see? Poor fella had a lot of problems but sweet as all get out."
"Yep." If Starlight had wanted to feel this monotonous and dead, she would have taken her pills that morning!
"-and then that little punk said to me, 'Yer princess is in another castle' and I said to him 'This here's Canterlot! What other castle is there!?' And he said-"
"Mmm."
"I dunno, maybe? She feels a lot better about her current medications, and is a lot better at keeping up with it now."
Applejack, nor anypony else for that matter, said anything for a bit until, "So wus the name of her shrink?"