Clear

by Drizzle Quill

Three: Her Gemstones

By knowledge, Rarity was normally an easy unicorn to impress; give her a few gemstones with a note and some flowers and she'd be sold. But Applejack knew that she wanted to take a different route. If she wanted to dazzle Rarity, she had to really dazzle her. Make a big bedazzling show of it. Shoot something out of the party cannon, maybe. Herself?

It also had to be big because it had to break the connection between her and Spike. Now, AJ liked Spike a whole lot - he was a cute little guy and all, and real helpful to Twilight - but he was a baby dragon, after all, and Rarity had probably latched on to his crush as a way to avoid answering the earth pony's questions.

That irritated Applejack a whole lot, but she wasn't going to show it.

No, she had to find a way to snap the romantic impulses between Rarity and Spike and impress Rarity at the same time.

AJ put a hoof to her temple and groaned. "How in the hoof am Ah supposed to do that?"

She was currently sitting on a park bench outside of Carousel Boutique, taking in the nice morning breeze and the creatures hopping, flitting, or walking about. Ponies passed by but didn't give her a second glance, which was good. Applejack needed a bit of time to think.

Slowly she removed her hat from her head and began to play with it, hooves twisting the folds and feeling the roughness of the material. Somehow this soothed her, calming her nerves and helping her mind to concentrate. It always had, and she reckoned it always would, even when she was an old timer like Granny Smith.

Her friends were nowhere in sight - Twilight was back at the library, she guessed, while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were preparing their big trip. Rarity was out walking with Spike somewhere, if Magnum could be trusted to tell the truth - this made Applejack bite her lip, but she continued thinking, trying not to linger on it for too long - so that was everypony except...

"Hi, Applejack!"

Suddenly she was hit from behind by a force like a cow, slamming her off of the bench and landing her deep in the mud. It squelched against her face, causing her to scowl and groan. "Pinkie Pie," she muttered, as a way of answering her thought.

"Oh my gosh!" The weight suddenly lifted, and pink flashes began to spin around AJ's head. "How did you know it was me? That's so crazy! It totally wasn't because of my voice or anything, was it, Applejack? Was it, was it, was it?"

Green eyes spinning almost hypnotically, the pony in the mud pushed one hoof up after another, eventually coming into a wobbly standing position, and groaned. "It wasn't that hard," she muttered, as true to her element as she'd ever be.

Finally, finally, Pinkie came to a halt, and Applejack could finally see her clearly from her wobbly, muddy position. Pinkie, despite just having knocked another pony into the mud, seemed perfectly clean and shiny, pink mane poofy as always and blue eyes sparkling with crystal clear excitement. "Aww," she said, not really looking too upset about it. "Guess I'll have to be even sneakier next time!"

AJ's heart sank. "N-Next time?" she asked weakly.

"Well, actually...I guess that won't be for a while," Pinkie admitted, blinking and staring slightly above Applejack's head as if she wasn't even there. "Since, you know, we're going on that adventure, for like, a few days!"

Applejack's jaw legitimately dropped. "Say what?"

"Applejack, darling, I'm so sorry this is of such short notice, but I do hope you'll understand that we simply must have you and Pinkie accompany us," Rarity said, blue eyes quite clearly pleading. "We can't navigate the Appleloosan Mountains without you, and Pinkie has promised to provide the food and snack supplies...so please, puh-lease will you come?"

They were now standing in the Ponyville Garden. It truly was a very beautiful day outside, especially in the garden, where the sun shone with an elegant radiance and the birdsong was light and airy. But a certain farmpony wasn't taking any of this in. Today had been a chaotic day, and it had just gotten much, much stranger.

Head still spinning, Applejack held up one hoof as a meaning of saying 'hold everything.' Once again she repeated the words she had repeated at least three times already. "You want us to go and find you some gemstones? On a three day trip?"

"Oh, but not just any gemstones, darling," Rarity yelped, seemingly quite shocked by this assumption.

"Topaz shells," Spike piped up from his spot next to Rarity. The dragon looked so overjoyed that AJ almost went over there and smacked his smug little face. But she was too nice to do that, and Spike had never done anything to her. Except for this, but she doubted he even knew what he was doing.

“Topaz shells! Are they rare, Rarity? Are they, are they, are they?” Pinkie squealed, hopping up and down in excitement.
“The prettiest,” Rarity agreed, tipping her head ever so slightly so that her violet curls bounced just in front of her face in a way that made Applejack's heart leap.

Not as pretty as you, Rare.

Applejack was snapped out of her thoughts when Rarity giggled a little bit with excitement. “I just can’t believe I got a request to make dresses for the Crystal Ponies! The Crystal Ponies, Applejack, can you believe that? I knew I needed Topaz shells right away because they are truly excellent for reflecting the precise amount of beauty in crystals.”

Pinkie giggled too. "I can't wait to go! I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!" She hopped up and down in one place so much Applejack was surprised that her brain didn't just bounce on right out of her noggin. Rarity said something to her, and then Spike spoke, and slowly the conversation drowned out, replaced by AJ’s own thoughts that were now flocking to her head like one of Fluttershy’s boring butterfly migrations. Wait a hoof-lickin’ minute here…

“We’ll have the best of times,” Rarity agreed, ruffling Spike on the head as she did so and smiling with an awfully excited look in her sapphire blue eyes.

If Ah can maybe get ‘lost’ on this trip and go by mahself to find those fancy-shmancy shells…

“Bummer the others have to miss out on it,” Spike noted, green eyes flickering downwards at the realization that he wouldn’t be able to travel with his other friends, most notably his sister figure, Twilight.

She’ll be real impressed. Reeeaaal impressed.

“Don’t worry, Spikey-Wikey,” the unicorn said to him, patting him gently on his soft purple scales. “It will only be for a few days, and soon you’ll be able to sleep in the library again.”

And she’ll realize…

“You always know just what to say, Rarity,” Spike murmured, placing one claw over her shoulder and grinning with a moony look glazed over those green eyes. Pinkie made a small ‘aww’ noise in the back of her throat, causing both the unicorn and dragon to flush red.

That the one that’s perfect for her…

“We-e-ll, I try my best,” Rarity murmured, blushing furiously at the unexpected compliment; looking up at the rest of the group, she remarked, “Pinkie, Applejack, you ought to go start packing now…”

Is me!

“We leave tomorrow morning.”