//------------------------------// // A Full Roasted Day // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// Thud! Rainbow Dash slammed the door shut to her lofty apartment home. Outside, the night sky hung off lazy beams of starlight. Rainbow teetered left and right, her feathers twitching from the long distance flight. Bruises and splotches of singed fur blemished her body in random spots, and her mane smelled of sulfur and brimstone. "Mmmmmnghuuuu..." Rainbow tried to shuffle forward, only to trip and stumble a few trotting steps. It wasn't that her hooves tingled, but the sheer exhaustion of the day was wearing every blue ounce of her thin. With a grumbling tone, she wove a serpentine path from the front of the house to her bedroom. She passed portraits, tables, even the bathroom. Her steps quickened by the time she reached her destination. With yanking motions, she stripped of her saddlebag, flapped her wings once, and practically launched herself onto the fluffy mattress of her cloud bed. Fwommmp! "Hmmmmffffhhh-yeahhhhhhh..." Rainbow smiled, nuzzling the bedsheets with a fuzzy cheek. "So... achey..." Her muzzle scrunched as she sputtered, "Smell like dragon turds. Gotta wash off. Gotta take a shower." She stirred... stirred again... and only sank deeper into the mattress. "Hrmmmmmm... tomorrow morning..." She yawned. "Or maybe after I'm dead." She yawned again. "Heehee... such sweet, comfy death..." She spun over, wrapping the blankets along with her until she was cocooned tightly in the duvet. With her forelimbs curled to her chest, she droned tiredly to the walls in a breathy murmur. "Just... s-so glad... that all of the horribad crap is behind me..." That said, she drifted off to sleep, her petite body rising and falling in quiet motions. Several feet away, covered in shadow, Rainbow's saddlebag lingered. All was silent, until something shifted--more like jumped--across the inside of the satchel. A pouch popped open, and something silver slid out. With an errant rattle, a granite horn settled to a stop along the floor, and then stood eerily still. The night rolled on in dead silence.