//------------------------------// // My Old Apple Acre Home Part 9 // Story: My Old Apple Acre Home // by Sith_Dreamer //------------------------------// As Rainbow Dash chased Applejack out into the darkness, the voice in her head began to run rampant, insulting her, reminding her of how horrible she was, and telling her that the truth had to come out. It told her how it was sure it would crush Applejack’s already broken heart, and laughed at the pain it was sure to cause both ponies. Despite this, Dash continued on, reserving herself to the idea that if she was crazy, it wouldn’t bother her in the least as long as she could try to sort things out with Applejack. She had no idea what she would say to her, but Dash hoped that AJ still believed that there was love for her in Dash’s heart. She also hated to admit, but the voice pounding at the walls of her mind was right, and it was time everything came out. Dash took to the air, knowing that Applejack had the ability to outrun her on foot. The darkness of late-night Ponyville also failed to help matters. No sooner had Dash gotten a good vantage point than she had lost sight of the orange pony. She tried to follow each path with her eyes, illuminated by the moonlight, but nopony seemed present on any one of them. Dash next swooped low, scanning the trees and bushes that Applejack could have chosen to hide in. After several tries, she could still find no sign of the mare she was still so sure she loved. She decided there was nothing she could do in the darkness under Luna’s moon. Dash fluttered back to the library, head hung low as she walked through the door. Twilight stared down at her from the door, tears still streaming down her face. Dash didn’t even glance once at her. The cyan Pegasus kept her slow stride all the way to the bed. The voice in her head had subsided, but left her with one of the worst headaches of her life. She climbed into the lonely bed, and laid on her side for a while, staring blankly at the wall. Dash closed her eyes and turned over for a moment, briefly hoping that maybe it had all been a dream, that maybe she hadn’t messed everything so badly and been so stupid as to indulge her fantasies like a young school filly. She had hoped that when she opened them, Applejack would be there, sleeping soundly, unaware that the Pegasus she loved was ready to break down over a horrible nightmare. Sadly, Dash found the spot empty, just as it had been minutes before. The brown hat Applejack always wore still sat by itself on the bedroom table. Dash reached for and pulled it close to her chest, and sobbed long into the night. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning came to Ponyville as usual, and most everypony went about their business as usual. Nopony seemed to pay any attention to Rainbow Dash, who’d been up since Celestia’s sun first rose over the horizon. She darted back and forth across the clouds, searching for any sign of Applejack. She searched high and low, but continued to come up with nothing. Soon, she realized, her friends would be gathering for another day of work at Sweet Apple Acres, and she decided that would be the most likely place to check. When she arrived, Pinkie Pie and Caramel were carrying water pails in their mouths and watering their seeded areas. Rarity was stretched out her couch, which was sat upon a large blanket scattered with designs. Fluttershy and Big Macintosh were talking near the forest, evidently waiting on the others. Dash saw no sign of Twilight Sparkle, although she wasn’t surprised. Dash decided to ask Pinkie first. “Uh, hey Pinkie Pie,” Dash glided down and landed near her, trying not to act differently from her usual demeanor, “Have uh, you seen Applejack anywhere around today?” “Mmmph ammmumph, ahumhumm, mmmmumphph,” Pinkie tried to ramble out, the watering can still clutched in her mouth. “So…no?” Dash said, confused. Pinkie Pie nodded, then dropped the can from her mouth and said, “Gosh Rainbow Dash, something didn’t happen did it? Cause that’d be super awful, then it’d be really hard to invite everypony to my parties because everypony doesn’t like each other anymore.” “N-no, Pinkie, its nothing,” Dash told her and forced the hardest smile of her life. By that point, rarity was trotting over to see what the topic of conversation was. “Good morning, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said properly, “I’ve got several designs ready for the approval of you and…where is Applejack?” “Well, that’s what I was asking Pinkie Pie about. I haven’t seen her this morning.” “You haven’t? But I saw her last night. She seemed fine.” Rarity waited a moment, then suddenly, “What did you do to her, Rainbow Dash!?” “Whoa,” Dash said surprised, “N-nothing. I just haven’t seen her this morning.” “Well, I’d hope you didn’t! After everything that’s happened to that pony, I’d hope you had enough sense to not break her heart too,” and with that Rarity went back to her couch, plopping down with an angry scowl. Dash figured Rarity must have talked with Applejack about something during the time that she had been gone the day before, given how she’d just acted. It made Dash wonder what had been said, considering it likely meant AJ had been thinking about Dash hurting her before the events that had transpired. No sooner had Rarity left than Big Macintosh and Fluttershy wandered over to see what the fuss was about. “Oh no,” dash said to herself, fearing the wrath of Big Macintosh. “Mornin’ Rainbow Dash,” Big Mac said politely, “Ready to start? Uh, where’s mah sister at this mornin’?” “I’m uh, not sure,” Dash admitted honestly, “She wasn’t home when I woke up. You, uh, haven’t seen her, have you?” “Nope,” he said, and looked down at Fluttershy. “I haven’t seen her either Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said sweetly, “Oh I hope nothing bad has happened to her.” “Naw, Applejack’s too strong for that,” another smile crossed her lips that made them feel like they were going to shatter. “Well, if Applejack isn’t here, maybe we should call it a day off, and pick things up tomorrow,” Caramel spoke up, his water pail at his hooves. “I wouldn’t mind a rest day after these past couple.” He glanced nervously at Pinkie Pie, who grinned ear to ear back at him. “That’s just fine,” Dash said quickly, “Everypony’s been working so hard to help us. You guys are at least 20…no 40% cooler than I thought you were before!” with every sentence she said, trying to keep her composure, something inside Dash slowly chipped away. With that, Dash took to the air again and left faster than any of the other ponies. Big Macintosh and Fluttershy began to walk back towards her house. “Do you think something seemed strange with Rainbow Dash today?” Fluttershy asked the big red pony. “She seemed like somethin’ was botherin’ her. And mah sister bein’ gone doesn’t help anythin’ either. Ah’ll find out,” he told her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- None of the other ponies knew that Applejack was much closer than they thought she might be. Hiding in the apple cellar that had she had built not so long ago, the one which Twilight Sparkle had fallen into the day she’d learned about Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense. As an in-ground establishment, the cellar had survived and went relatively unnoticed by everypony else. Applejack had sealed herself away inside, allowing herself to cry, free from the watching eyes of any other ponies. She didn’t want to admit to anypony what Rainbow Dash did. Part of her wished she’d just gone back to bed. Another part wished she’d never even gotten out of bed at all. Still, she knew the hurt wouldn’t have been any different had she learned about it much later. Applejack wondered after all the friendship lessons she’d help write, after everything they had been through, how Twilight or Rainbow Dash could do something like that, full well knowing the hurt it would cause. She’d overheard the brief discussion between Fluttershy and Big Macintosh as they headed back. At the moment, she’d really wanted to spill everything out to her big brother, but she didn’t want to get Fluttershy involved in anyone’s problems. Suddenly, an idea came to her. She picked an apple up in her mouth, and climbed the stairs. She pushed open the cellar door and took aim at the red pony walking away from her. She lobbed the apple and watched as it soared toward Big Macintosh, and crashed into his flank. He jumped with surprise, causing Fluttershy to drop out of the air in fear. Big Mac quickly looked back, causing Applejack to slam the door closed, hoping Big Mac would see and get the hint. Applejack waited. Outside, Big Macintosh helped pull Fluttershy off the ground. “Ah’m sorry,” he said, “But uh, go on home. Ah’ll be back soon. Ah gotta check something is all,” he told her. “Um, ok. Take your time,” she blushed a bit, and headed back alone. When he was sure she was gone, Big Macintosh headed back to where the cellar door was. He was surprised he hadn’t taken a look to see if it had survived, but the same thought also made him feel very stupid, as there was obviously no large open hole anywhere around after the remains from the fire had been cleared away. Big Mac knocked, and waited for a few moments. Soon, an orange hoof pushed the door open, and let him come inside. He trotted down the stairs and waited for Applejack to close the door. When she came down behind him, Big Macintosh couldn’t believe how terrible she looked. “What happened?” he asked her, “Ya look awful hun.” “Ah’m…ah’m not sure I want ta talk about it yet,” she choked out. “Well, regardless of what’s goin’ on, ya know Ah’m always here for ya,” he came close to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. Applejack would have smiled if she could have, but Big Mac did manage to make her feel a little better. Big Mac looked away, and simply said, “Rainbow Dash?” “Applejack looked up at him, and replied, “Yeah.” The two sat in silence for a while, Applejack occasionally turning away to keep him from seeing her cry more. As if she were a little filly again, Applejack wanted her brother to only see her as a strong pony, who didn’t let a little thing like…was love a little thing? Nopony seemed to think it was, and it sure didn’t feel little. She wasn’t sure what Big Macintosh thought of love. “If things are a’changin’ AJ, than ya’ll know we might have to leave after all,” Big Mac spoke after a bit. “Will things be changin’?” “Well…” Applejack began, and started to tell everything to her brother. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dash was sure Applejack was far out of Ponyville by the time the afternoon sun had begun to set. She’d looked everywhere in her attempt to find Applejack, but had come up with nothing. Nopony had seen her since they’d left the farm the day before. Now, sitting alone on the bed in her cloud house, she wondered the things she would say to Applejack if she did happen to come across her. “Sorry AJ for everything, and oh, by the way, I may have had something to do with the orchard burning down in the first place.” Dash sighed. In the words of Applejack herself when faced with what seemed like an unsolvable problem, she was completely bucked. Worse, she was sure things could never be the same with Twilight again. Even worse than that, Rainbow Dash wasn’t entirely sure she regretted what had happened with Twilight. Regardless, she knew Applejack was her top priority. She had to make things right, once and for all. Resting her head on her cloud pillow, she managed to pass into a deep sleep. No nightmares came to her, no horrible visions. Later, Dash would guess it was because the worst of things was actually happening in her waking world, so her dreams might actually be her only means of escape. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Applejack opted to stay where she was for a while, despite Big Macintosh offering to give up his bed at Fluttershy’s so she could have a good night’s sleep. He’d said something about being ok to stay the night in Fluttershy’s room, but Applejack had mostly ignored it, and so the large red pony had left her alone once again in the cellar. Seeing the moonlight seeping through the cracks, Applejack decided to head outside for a bit. It was unlikely anypony would find her at this point. She trolled out into the moonlight, and headed for one of the remaining apple trees. She kenw which one she was going to. She called the tree Zev. It wasn’t a name she had decided upon, it’s name actually had come from Applebloom. After reading Applebloom a bedtime story called Requiem for a Pony, Applebloom had decided to carve the main character’s name, Zev, into the tree, and so the name had just stuck. Applejack crashed under the tree, and let herself bathe in the moonlight. The night air felt good as the wind blew gently through her mane. IT made her feel calm, and allowed her to think more easily. She’d given up crying, finding out that a pony can only cry so many tears in a day. She looked up at the stars, wondering where she should go from here. It hurt to admit it, but she couldn’t stop loving rainbow Dash, no matter how hurt she was. But right now, she had no idea what she could say if the cyan Pegasus was to show up in front of her. She began to wonder just what Rainbow might be doing at the moment. The images of her and Twilight flashed back into her mind. Applejack realized that she couldn’t hate Twilight either, as much as she tried. Sometimes she hated just how much she was aware of her honesty. With a sigh, Applejack laid down, hoping to get some rest under the full moon. It would be a short sleep, however. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dash awoke a few hours later. By this point, Luna’s moon was high in the night sky, casting Ponyville in its soft glow. Despite the usual darkness, Dash decided to give one more sweep of Ponyville. She decided maybe luck might be on her side this time, and grabbed Applejack’s hat, that she was surprised to see had stayed afloat on her clouds. She threw the hat onto her head and swooped down towards the town below. Dash flew through the streets, flying over the few ponies who were still attending to certain duties before retiring to their homes for the night. She stopped by Sugarcube Corner as they were closing, with Pinkie having as little information as she had had before. She flew over to the Carousel Boutique, where Rarity was attending to her last two customers of the night. The two were a stallion couple who liked their privacy, and didn’t like to give out their real names. They’d told Dash to call them Squid and Drowning, and she made small talk with the two until Rarity returned with their finished outfits. She still seemed to have some strange anger towards Rainbow Dash, but she tried to hide it as she finished attending to her customers. “There you are gentlecolts,” Rarity said, handing them each custom suits, “It certainly was a challenge. I don’t make many clothes for stallions.” Squid thanks her first, and turned towards the door, revealing his knife-shaped cutie mark. Drowning followed suit, his spider cutie mark swaying with his flank as he followed Squid out. After a moment the two were alone. “Rarity, have you heard anything since earlier?” Dash asked her. “No, Rainbow Dash, I have not. But I have a good idea of why she might be mad at you. What were you hiding Rainbow Dash?” “I was…uh, well Twilight came to me and….I’m not sure if I want to talk about it right now,” Dash decided to tell her. “I think I’ve gotten quite enough,” Rarity said, and motioned for her to leave the shop. Dash didn’t put up an argument, and left the shop quickly. Now she was outside in the cool breeze of the night, once again without any leads to where she might find her lover. She hoped Applejack still considered herself as such. In the glow of the moonlight, Dash could see the tops of the trees remaining in Sweet Apple Acres. She decided to take one more look around the property, in hopes that she might even find as sign that she had been there. Soon Dash was hovering high above the mostly barren area that had been the orchard. In the back, the small grove of trees with their remaining apples sparkled brightly under the moon. It had been awhile since Dash had relaxed in one of the trees from the orchard, so she decided to fly over to where they were and think for a moment. And then, while getting closer to the grove, she noticed something that seemed out of place. A small orange blob lay under the tree, not moving. Dash was sure she knew what it was. Quickly, she flapped her wings hard and flew down to the ground. She skidded to a hard stop in the dirt. There, before her eyes, was the sleeping form of Applejack. Dash could tell from the dark circles under her eyelids, that she’d likely not slept much until recently. “A-A-Applejack,” Rainbow Dash tried to say, but felt the word ticking in her throat. The sound was enough to make Applejack stir from her sleep. Eyes focusing, Applejack looked up to see the cyan form of Rainbow Dash, her mane beautifully illuminated in the moonlight. “Wha-What the hay are you doin’ here Rainbow Dash?” Applejack stood up and said angrily. “I came to talk to you,” Dash said, “I have a lot that I need to say, and I’m not the best at saying it.” For a moment, Applejack just stared with an angry look at Dash, then said “Talk.” “I messed up AJ, really bad,” she said, trying to gather everything she could, “But it’s not the first time. I feel so horrible for this, but I’ve been hiding some things. Important things.” Applejack raised one of her eyebrows, “What kind of things, Rainbow Dash? Have there been other ponies too? Have Ah just been some pony you liked a little more, one that was just too good ta let go?” “No AJ, there were no others. What you saw…well, it was what you saw, but it had just happened. When you came in last night, from being gone, Twilight had kissed me. Just out of nowhere, she did, and I ekpt thinking about it. I had to talk to her, and one thing led to another and…” Applejack cut her off, “An that was good enough to go and do that to me?!” “No! Applejack, you have no idea how guilty I feel about this, and everything!” Dash knew it was now or never. She really had nothing planned, and she knew blurting it out at random wouldn’t go over well either, ,so she waited for Applejack to respond. “Just what other thin’s are ya trying to apologize for, Rainbow Dash?” It was now or never. The voice in Dash’s head came back for its final performance. It laughed maniacally, telling her that the end of everything was close at hand. Dash no longer had any reason to care for the things the voice said. “I burned down Sweet Apple Acres.” The words stunned Applejack. She stood silent for a moment, letting the words soak into her mind. “C-come again?” Applejack said, stunned. “It was my fault Sweet Apple Acres burned down.” Without letting Applejack speak another word, Dash told her the story. She spoke of Derpy Hooves and the weather team pony who had tried to put her on cloud duty. She told of the jealously she’d had when Applejack had been speaking to the stallion. Everything that Dash had held in for so long came pouring out. The whole time, tears flowed from Dash’s eyes. Soon she finished the story and began to sob more apologies. The voice that had plagued Rainbow Dash’s mind for so long vanished, the product of her guilty conscience finally vanquished. Applejack continued to stand in silence. Dash approached her, trying to get in close to the orange earth pony. Without warning, Applejack raised a hoof and slammed Dash across the face. Before Dash could react, Applejack once again took off into the night. Too stunned to give chase, Dash laid in the dirt, rubbing her cheek as the tears continued to stream down her face and crash into the earth below her.