//------------------------------//
// Simply Appetizers 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

	"I... uh..."  Rainbow Dash placed a fork down and fidgeted in her seat.  "I don't think I can finish my potatoes."

"Well, of course."  Applejack rolled her eyes.  "That's what ya get for stuffin' yerself so much with them breadsticks!"

Rainbow avoided Applejack's gaze.  She leaned back, rubbing a hoof over her blue belly as she blushed.  "But they were really... really good breadsticks."

"Heheheh.  Yes.  We know."

"Seriously, you guys—"

"I'd offer dessert," Stu Leaves said.  "But I'm not sure if there's much of a point."

"Oh, I'm up for a bite," Applejack remarked.  "Even if Rainbow Dash is fuller than a mosquito in July."

"For real?"  Stu Leaves glanced at the dessert menu on the table.  "I mean... Applejack... all they serve here is—"

"Apple fritters and cobblers, I know."  She raised an eyebrow over a sly smirk.  "Look, reckon I know more than anypony that Sweet Apple Acres bakes the best apple products anywhere.  But that dun change the fact that I gotta sample bits and pieces out of the competition from time to time."

"Competition?  Pfft."  Stu Leaves smirked.  "You really think you're gonna be giving Atlantrot cuisine a run for the money?  I mean, not like you couldn't wipe the floor with them, but it's so far away from Ponyville!"

"It's between home and Orlandoats, ain't it?"

"Wuh oh!"  Stu Leaves leaned back, chuckling.  "And so it begins!  The Rise of the Apple Empire!"

"Awwwww shoot.  Now yer just bein' silly on purpose."

"No, for real!"  Stu winked.  "You're already counting the coins that Shindig hasn't hoofed over to you yet!  I can see it in the sparkle of your eyes!"  He spread his wings and swept a hoof over the table top.  "Sweet Apple Empire!  'The Sun Never Sets On the Golden Delicious Trees!'"

Applejack rolled her eyes.  "As if it'll ever come to that."

"... ... ..."  Rainbow Dash smirked.  "I approve of this idea."

"You?"

"Heck yeah!"  Rainbow grinned devilishly.  "You could—like—set up your own apple militia!"

"Ohhhh come on now..."

"No, for real!  They'd march from town to town, hanging mugshots of ponies foolish enough to have maligned your Malus Regime!"

"Awwwww shucks..."

"If anypony's caught peddling oranges within inches of the empire?"  Rainbow winked.  "They get thrown in the stockades!"

Applejack burst out laughing.  Stu's chuckles joined her.

"Heck, I could even be your top military official!"  Rainbow beat her wings, hovering above the table.  "I'd go house to house, giving subjects the royal shake down."  She beat one hoof against the other.  "Hey!  You!  Eat Apple Family Fruit or Die in Tartarus!  So Sayeth the Cider Princess!""

"The Cider Princess... oh lawd."

"Hehehehehe—"  Rainbow's eyes bulged as she suddenly plopped straight down in her chair.  "Owch!"  She winced, then smiled awkwardly.  "Eheheh... too many breadsticks."

The other two chuckled even harder.