//------------------------------// // Epiphany Dash // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// “Good night, everypony,” the bartender droned from the open door to The Navel as he flipped the sign around to “closed.” “Have a safe trip home. Don’t wander too close to Everfree.” “We’re alcoholics, Sam,” Lyra threw over her shoulder with a smirk. “Not mules.” “Whatever.” He shut the door, locked it, and was gone. The neon lights flickered off, and a quiet hush fell over the streets as all five ponies trotted in various directions. “Well, so long, everypony,” Caramel said with a wave. “Same time next week?” “You know I don’t go anywhere else to get wasted,” Vinyl said as she shuffled her papers into her saddlebag and smiled. “Except for when I’m being creative, that is.” “See ya, Caramel!” Lyra belched as she sauntered her way home in a serpentine fashion. “I’d walk a lady home, but, let’s face it, your folks scare me.” “Grrrrrrrrr…” Caramel trotted off, his head hanging. Bon Bon giggled. She turned towards Rainbow Dash. “You think you might drop by and hang out with us again sometime? It was nice getting to see you again for a change.” “Pffft. What’s so nice about it?” Rainbow hovered limply before her and a streetlamp. “All I did was suck on lemonade and ramble about all of my troubles.” Bon Bon suppressed another high-pitched laugh and merely smiled. “It’s refreshing to know that a pony like you needs help from time to time. It gives us less-awesome mares something to hope for.” “Ha!” Rainbow grinned wickedly. “As if! I don’t need help, I need air! And lots of it!” “Don’t you have it already?” Bon Bon asked with a blink. “The whole skies are yours, Rainbow Dash. What’s holding you down?” “I’m not being held down, Bonnie! I just… got stuff to do here in Ponyville still!” Rainbow folded her forelimbs and stuck her nose up. “That’s all!” Bon Bon looked around. The two mares were now alone beneath the buzz of the street lamp. She leaned forward and whispered, “Is it wing cancer?” “No!” Rainbow barked, her voice echoing off the distant building faces and causing a dog to bark somewhere. “I most certainly don’t have wing cancer! Stop reaching!” “I can’t help it!” Bon Bon said with a smile. “There’s just… something different about you…” Rainbow blinked. “Different?” “And I don’t know whether to be concerned or scared.” “How about neither?” Rainbow gave a weak smile. “I’m fine, Bon Bon. You shouldn’t have to worry about me.” She slicked her mane back. “Nopony should have to worry about me. Sure, I’ve gotten myself in bad places every once in a while, but nothing I can’t handle. For real. I’m okay.” Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. Rainbow’s nostrils fumed. “Look, I’m just like any other mare. And like any other mare… I’m entitled to… erhm… have stuff on my mind!” “Uh huh…” “Stuff that I like to think about a lot!” “Uh huh… ….” “Stuff that…” Rainbow’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “...th-that makes me feel better when I’m lying in bed all by myself… and yet kind of makes me feel cruddy in the daylight.” She sighed heavily as her wings drooped a little. “Stuff that is stupid… stuff that I shouldn’t have anything to do with… stuff that… that is awesome, in its own way. But… I can never really have it. It would be nice… but it wouldn’t be right. And though I know I can live without… er… that stuff, I really just would like--if even for one day…” Her lips curved slightly. “...to hold that stuff close and not be ashamed of it.” She gulped dryly. “And screw all consequences, y’know?” Bon Bon’s jaw dropped. Rainbow Dash squinted at her. “What’s your problem?” “You’re in love, aren’t you?” Bon Bon breathily exclaimed. Rainbow Dash jerked as if she was slammed in the skull with a titanium pendulum. “Pfff-What?! Ohhhhhh please, Bon Bon! I am not--” Just then, her ruby pupils shrank. A pale expression wafted over her features, and she plopped down her petite rump right in front of the earth pony. Her lips quivered a bit, and then the truth flew out of her like the ghost. “I’m in love. I am in love.” Bon Bon was silent. So was Rainbow Dash, until a ridiculously girlish titter flew out of her muzzle. She folded her wings around her body, hugging herself as she leaned liquidly against the lamppost behind her. “Heeheehee… I’m in love!” Her dimples were briefly rosy, but all too soon lost their color with a final twitch to her eyes. Her ears drooped, and the next breath came in a guttural groan. “I’m in love.” She sighed and stared down at her hooves. “Horseapples…” After an awkward pause… “Well, that’s a good thing, r-right?” Bon Bon gave a nervous smile. “I mean… r-right?” Rainbow Dash only bit her lip harder. Bon Bon squatted until she was down to the pegasus’ level. “Does she know?” Rainbow’s eyes darted to her. Bon Bon smiled back. “I mean…” She shifted slightly. “We both know it is a she, right?” Rainbow looked off towards the starry horizon. “She… she doesn’t know.” Her voice was dry as a bone. On wobbly legs, she stood back up, using her outstretched wings as fragile balance. “And… it’s best that it stay that way.” “Awwwwww…” Bon Bon pouted. “But why? Who wouldn’t want to be with a pony as awesome with you?” “Awesomeness has nothing to do with it, B-squared.” Rainbow smiled bitterly and drew her hoof across the air. “It all comes down to lines that can’t be crossed, and all of them straight.” “Oh Rainbow--” “I know what you’re thinking,” Rainbow grumbled. “‘Why do you do this to yourself?’” “I wasn’t about to say that!” “It doesn’t matter, really.” Rainbow sighed again and cast a limp glance aside. “She simply can’t find out.” “And why’s that?” The starlight glossed in Rainbow’s eye, then twinkled again after a brave blink. “Because I don’t want to st-stop loving her,” she murmured.