Appledashery

by Just Essay


Berth by Sleep

The bed shook.

Rainbow Dash felt it through the numbness, and her ears twitched.

"Mrmmfff..." She rolled over, tail flicking with brief annoyance. Her muzzle scrunched—nose wriggling—and unscrunched. At last, she was still once more.

... ... ...and then the bed shook again.

"Grffff..." Rainbow tensed once more. Her ears pivoted about like a drowsy cat's. She heard a continuous thrumping noise. At first, she thought it was her heartbeat, but as consciousness came to bleary body, it didn't increase even the slightest.

With a muffled groan, the mare sat up—

WHUMP! She instantly hit her head.

"Aaaugh!" The volume of her shriek surprised even her. A hundred million needles pierced her skull from all sides. Tiny explosions went off in the dull nerves connecting her eyeballs to her brain. It took all her strength just to keep from vomiting. "Grkkkk... what... wh-what?"

At last, after much agony, she forced her eyelids open.

She lay on a mattress sprawled across the floor of a ridiculously claustrophobic space. Her first thought was that she was inside a coffin. However, there was too much light.

Her bloodshot eyes tilted left and right. By now, a consistent hiss of rattling noise found its place in her lucid ears. The thrumping was emanating from all around her. At last, her vision fell upon a sliver of pulsating light to her side. She saw the dangling handle of a set of blinds. Without thinking, she reached out and gave the loop a yank.

Thwpp-Thwpp-Thwppp! The blinds receded in a blink, and the entire compartment was filled with burning bright light.

"Guhhhh! Friggin'... pineapple... on f-fire!" Rainbow covered her face with a pair of fuzzy forelimbs. She swore she was burning; her ears rang as long as the murderous wave of light persisted.

At last, with great reluctance, Rainbow peeked out from behind her forelimbs.

"Uhhhh..."

She saw a green countryside rolling from the left to the right. Every so often, a wooden pole whizzed by. Mountains, forests, and townships dwindled in the distance. A sheet of translucent glass rattled between her and the blurring landscape.

"Uhmmm..."

Rainbow scooted away from the scene. Instead of hitting a wall, her flank shifted through a velvert curtain—then fell, pulling the rest of her body down with her.

"Whoah—!"


WHUMP!

Rainbow fell hard on the floor of a rocking train car.

"Ooomf!" She gnashed her teeth and her eyes teared up from the excrutiating pain rocketing up and down her spine... but mostly lingering in her skull. "Owwwwwww..." Once her foggy vision returned, she squinted up.

Row after row of open berths loomed above the mare. She was in the sleeping quarters, but the only curtains that were drawn had been in front of her mattress.

"But... I..." The mare gazed all around, head throbbing. "How...?!"

Just then, she heard the muffled sounds of conversation.

Her head spun to the left. The junction of an adjacent passenger car lingered just a few steps away. With an iron frown, the mare forced herself to her hooves and stomped across the meager distance.

She opened the door with a schwissh and peered through, squinting.

A veritable serpent's neck of wobbling train car interiors stretched and stretched before her. It must have been fifteen compartments, easily. In between bleary blinks, Rainbow made out the flicker of trotting passengers, suited conductors, and shuffling waiters and waitresses.

Her muzzle hung open. Within seconds, she heard a familiar gaggle of voices to her right. Swiveling, she reached a hoof out and swung a glass door open.

Schlunkkk!

Four ponies sat in a booth by the window.

"...time of year for visiting Las Pegasus," Bon Bon rambled. "After all, I think it's best to avoid Mexicolt or Brayzil until that virus clears out."

"Bon Bon, you're not even pregnant," Vinyl droned.

"Well." Bon Bon shrugged. "It's the thought that counts."

"Ugh... friggin' trains..." Lyra rubbed her skull. "When are they gonna serve alcohol on these damn things?"

"Gotta wait for the legislation," Caramel said. He nevertheless smiled, gesturing towards a plate of saucers. "Still, they have some nice tea!"

"What in tap-dancing Tartarus is going on here?!?!" Rainbow Dash hollered.

"Hey!" Lyra bore a dull smile. "Speaking of alcohol."

"Good morning, Rainbow!" Caramel lifted a cup. "Want some tea?"

"Girl, buck your tea!" Rainbow slapped the thing out of the wincing stallion's hoof. "I want answers! What am I doing on board a speeding train?"

"We're going well below the maximum velocity allotted to this route," Vinyl said, shuffling through music notes. "Technically it's not 'speeding.'"

"You know what I mean!"

Lyra looked at Bon Bon. "Told you she'd be pissed."

"Don't gloat." Bon Bon stuck her tongue out. "You're not right all of the time."

"Oh yeah? Only when it friggin' counts."

"Am I going crazy?!?!" Rainbow pulled at her mane hair. Her voice cracked, "One moment, I was chilling and relaxing in Ponyville... the next thing I know... I'm... I'm..." She flung her forelimbs. "Where is this train even going?!"

"Okay, for one thing..." Vinyl put down her work and counted invisible fingers. "You most certainly weren't 'chilling' OR 'relaxing'."

"Huh?" Rainbow blinked.

"You were spilling out of Bon Bon's horse trough," Lyra grunted. "Marinating in your own piss."

"And for another..." Vinyl breathed. "Consider this an alternate form of some long overdue medicine."

"What are you talking about?"

"Intervention, Rainbow Dash."

"Intervention?!" Rainbow Dash grimaced. She rubbed her head from her own outbrust and moaned, "Is this about all of the drinking?"

"HAH!" Lyra grinned stupidly. "You don't expect us to turn against our own religion, do you? Pffft! Hell naw..." She shook her head. "This is an intervention from misery."

"Buh?"

"Ponyville's been nothing but an abysmal pit of sadface for you over these past few months," Caramel said. "It's high time you got a diversion."

"And for that reason, you guys friggin' abducted me?"

"Don't think of it as an abduction. Think of it as a vacation!" Caramel grinned jubilantly. "Vinyl's got a gig in Las Pegasus, and she's taking us all there! Free of charge! This is your one ticket to live and let loose and completely forget about Applejack!" A beat. His ears drooped. "Whoops."

Rainbow Dash blinked.

Lyra and Bon Bon facehoofed.

"Ahem..." Vinyl reached over to slap Caramel upside his silky head. "...for real. The bill's on me. And when I say 'the bill's on me,' I really mean it's on my record label... who's funding this shindig. So, y'know... get ready to party up... or party down... or whatever the foals are calling it these days."

"You can get hammered in more ways than one." Lyra winked. "I guarantee it."

"Or you can just relax in any way you see fit!" Bon Bon said. "Las Pegasus isn't all gambling and showfillies! Why... they've got the Star Trot Experience at that one hotel!"

"They closed that down, Bon Bon," Lyra droned.

"Oh..." Bon Bon winced. "Did they?"

"It's been a friggin' decade and a half since Scott Buckula last sat his pasty flank on the bridge of the Equestriaprise," Lyra grumbled into her hoof. "Now buy yourselves a goddess-damn remastered edition of Firefilly and get with the freakin' times, girl, I swear to Celestia..."

"So... yeah!" Caramel smiled crookedly. "Intervention vacation! Intervacation! Heheheh... alright?"

"Bullcrap!" Rainbow frowned, pointing at the group. "This is foalnapping! Plain and simple! I mean... h-how?!" She swung her forelimbs wildly. "How am I even going to afford this on my schedule?! I have two jobs to juggle... barely. I'm an Element of Harmony! I just... I-I just can't go skipping off willy-nilly without any warning!"

"You mean like you always do?" Vinyl spoke without looking. "Constantly? Every other week or so for the past half-year?"

Rainbow gawked at her. "...what?"

"Rainbow..." Bon Bon slowly stood up. She stared at Rainbow with a soft, sympathetic expression. "Last night, you... you were the worst we've ever seen you since... well..." She gulped. "...s-since you were going steady with somepony who will not be named."

Rainbow blinked.

"There was a time when we pretended to ignore how bad things were. We had faith in how strong and tenacious you were. In truth, we were cowards."

"Well..." Lyra started.

"We were cowards," Bon Bon said, her voice firmer. "We should have braved a closer look. Maybe then... we could have steered your life on a better path. You wouldn't have butted heads so stupidly with Gilda. And... and you wouldn't be living such a self-destructive lifestyle now."

"Self-destructive?" Rainbow growled. "You four gals drink yourselves into oblivion every other day and you call me self-destructive?!? Ow owwwww..." She rubbed her skull as it throbbed from her last outburst. Seething through her teeth, she glanced back into the booth.

All four stared back at her.

"You're an awesome pony, Rainbow Dash," Caramel said. "Consider this... a reward for doing something brave!" He smiled. "And that brave something is... going back to square one. Rediscovering yourself. So... why not have a little bit of fun in the process?"

Rainbow blinked. At last, a hard frown crossed her muzzle. "Pffft... buck this. I don't need to be patronized."

"Oh Rainbow..." Bon Bon sighed.

"'Oh Rainbow' nothing!" Rainbow's nostrils flared. "I have a life back at Ponyville! A life... a living... and friends."

"You have one thing back there," Lyra grumbled. "Learn to let it go before it kills you."

"Let me be the judge of what kills me or not! I've faced dangerous crud the likes of which none of you can even begin to imagine! I'll know when or if the time comes that I should 'go back to square one'. So stop putting words into my mouth and stop foalnapping me like two-bit thugs! I don't have to go anywhere! So if you're done sniffing your own farts, I'm getting off this train we're on!" And she slammed the glass door shut and marched angrily towards the back of the train.

Silence.

Bon Bon slumped back into her seat with a sigh. She looked lethargically at Lyra.

Caramel bit his lip.

Vinyl exhaled, adjusted her shades, and picked her music sheets back up. "Well, she took that well..."