Chapter 10
Chapter 10
My room was still dark when I woke up. Waking up in Twilight’s house was always a little bit of a shock; her rooms were so much darker than mine, since I barely ever closed my blinds. I was used to waking up to the sunrise.
I got up since I didn’t feel well and I didn’t want to fall back asleep. It was quiet in Twilight’s house— still a little dark too since it was dawn— and I didn’t think anyone else was awake yet. I decided to make some coffee to help myself wake up.
I sat down on the couch to drink my coffee and saw Fluttershy closing her bedroom door quietly behind her. I waved to her silently and smiled. She returned the gesture, her head slightly dipped like it always is.
“I made some coffee if you’d like some,” I said when she approached me.
“Oh, that sounds great, thanks,” she said and made herself a cup.
She sat down beside me on the couch and for a couple moments we drank our coffee together in silence. I looked out a window, letting thoughts run through my head. I shifted a bit.
“You ever wonder…?” I started off, staring into the distance. Fluttershy turned her head towards me, expecting me to finish. I looked down.
“Nah, never mind,” I sighed.
I could see her fiddle with her fingers from the corner of my eye.
“Do you think Rainbow Dash is alright?” she asked.
I clenched my jaw, my eyes squinted slightly as a result. Can’t we just stop talking about Rainbow Dash for one second?
“She’s fine,” I snapped.
“It’s okay to feel worried, Applejack,” she said. “I know it’s—“
“I said she’s fine!” I yelled, whipping my head around.
Fluttershy flinched and my stomach dropped from the look on her face. Surprised, mainly, with fear, and… pity. Oh, no. Please don’t pity me, I thought hopelessly. She thought I was worried more than anyone about Rainbow Dash, that’s why I snapped at her. But she was wrong. I wasn’t worried…
“Aw, jeez, Fluttershy. I’m sorry,” I said, feeling terrible for yelling at her. “I guess I just… Can we just…?”
I couldn’t finish my sentence; I didn’t even know what I wanted. Apathy, maybe. I just wanted to forget about all the drama, maybe live my life like I used to be able to. This mess was all because of that stupid girl with that stupid rainbow hair.
I felt Fluttershy’s hand touch mine and I looked up to see her blurry face. I hadn’t even realized that I’d started crying.
“I’m just gonna go,” I breathed. “I think I just need some exercise and fresh air.”
Fluttershy made eye contact with me and held her gaze for a couple moments. Her look was intense, like she was trying to figure me out. She squeezed my hand and then hugged me briefly.
“Take care of yourself, Applejack. We care about you, you know. I care about you,” she said sincerely.
I looked at her for a moment and then nodded. “I care about you too, Fluttershy. You know that.”
She smiled. “I’ll tell everyone else that you went back to the farm to take care of some things.”
I smiled back. “Thanks, Fluttershy. I’ll… I’ll see you later.”
I got up to leave and she took both our mugs back to the kitchen to put them in the sink. I felt bad for leaving now, but it was probably best that I got out. The walk home would help clear my head, and maybe a calm day at the farm was the best thing for me.
I left shortly after that, saying a quick goodbye to Fluttershy. I didn’t think about much during the walk home, I just sort of stared at the ground. But it did help me to feel a little bit better and by the time I got home I was glad to see the familiar scene. My brother was outside working, although Caramel wasn’t here for some reason. Maybe it was his day off.
Big Mac was a ways off and I don’t think he saw me before I went into the house to get myself some proper breakfast. I just helped myself to some cereal, not in the mood for actually making something. The house was quiet. I wondered where Apple Bloom was.
After breakfast, I made my way outside and found Big Mac. He waved when I approached.
“Hey, do you know where Apple Bloom’s at?” I asked.
“She went to a sleepover last night too after you left. I reckon she’s still over there,” he said.
I nodded and he went back to his work. For a while, I just stood near the fence, looking out into the orchard. It didn’t really occur to me to do some work on the farm. It’s not that I forgot about it, I just didn’t really feel like it. Huh. That’s something new.
Eventually, boredom got to me and I found myself searching through the contacts in my phone. Before I really knew what I was looking for, I found myself looking at Rainbow Dash’s name. I wondered how she was doing… Maybe I should check up on her, I thought, see if she needed me.
No, I thought sternly. She’s not my girlfriend, I shouldn’t keep acting like she is.
I scrolled up on my phone and found Jack’s name instead. He was my boyfriend for Pete’s sake, I should be spending more time with him! I pushed Rainbow Dash out of my head and decided to text Jack.
-Are you doing anything today?
It didn’t take long for him to reply.
-Nope. Want to do something? :)
-Definitely :) Wanna come over to my house?
-Sounds great! I’m on my way.
I waited for him by the fence, but I wasn’t feeling any better than before. I sighed and tried resting my head on my crossed arms while I waited. Before long, I heard Jack’s car coming down our dirt road and pretty soon it came into sight. I straightened up and smiled, waving at him. He parked near our truck and got out.
“Hey!” he called out, walking over to me.
I greeted him with a kiss which he was more than happy to return. The way he looked into my eyes, I wanted Rainbow Dash to look at me like that.
Mentally, I slapped myself. Why can’t I just be happy with what I have? Here was this guy, completely happy to be around me, and I’m still here thinking about someone I can’t even have. It wasn’t fair to Jack.
I shoved her out of my thoughts and grabbed his hand, leading him towards my house.
“I was thinking we could just hang out at my place,” I suggested. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I didn’t feel like going anywhere.
“Sounds great,” he said happily.
Inside, Granny Smith was taking a nap on her favorite rocking chair. I put my finger in front of my mouth to tell Jack to be quiet and I led him upstairs. I didn’t want to wake Granny. She was still recovering a bit from her heart attack and I thought she could use the rest still.
I took Jack into my room and closed the door behind me. It wasn’t until we were in there until I realized that there really wasn’t much to do in my room. I jumped up on my bed and sat crisscross, then patted in front of me to let Jack know it was okay to join me.
He sat down next to me, letting his legs hang from the side of the bed. I poked his chest and glared at him playfully.
“Don’t think that because we’re on my bed means we’re gonna be doing anything,” I warned.
He laughed and held up his hands in defense. “I was thinking no such thoughts!”
I smiled and fiddled around with the covers a bit. “So, how has your day been so far?”
“Better now that I’m with you,” he said.
I looked up and he smiled at me. My heart melted slightly. He really was very sweet…
I think I blushed. “Thanks. My day’s gotten a lot better too, now that you’re here.”
I thought about bringing up what had happened last night, but I knew he wouldn’t want to hear about it and I didn’t really want to bring it up anyway.
“Hey, I see you put that snow globe next to your window. I think it suits it nicely,” Jack said.
I looked over at the small trinket and smiled. “Yeah, it does.”
Remembering the day he got it for me, I admired it for a small moment before looking back over at Jack, meeting his eyes and smiling softly. He returned the look, and the look in his eyes was heartwarming. Magenta eyes replaced his faded purple eyes.
No, I thought firmly, blinking once to get her eyes out my vision.
I bit my lip and put my arm around Jack’s neck. I leaned in and closed my eyes and he met me halfway, kissing me softly. I had no intention of pulling back, and neither did he. I wasn’t entirely sure how long we kissed for, but eventually I’d gotten into a lying position to get more comfortable.
It’s funny, though. All throughout that time, I didn’t feel… much of anything, really. It’s not like he was a bad kisser, but I guess… I guess I was just doing it to forget about her. Hoping that maybe if Jack’s lips could numb my own then maybe he could also numb my heart.
It made me sick from guilt thinking about it and I had to stop. I pulled away from Jack, not meeting him in the eyes.
I’m a horrible person… I’m basically just using him. One of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met and I’m just using him, I scolded myself mentally, overwrought with guilt.
I looked up in Jack’s eyes and he was watching me closely. He probably realized something was wrong and looked like he was about to ask me about it. Suddenly, my door creaked open.
“AJ, are you in here? I was—“
Big Mac stopped short, eyes wide, when he saw me and Jack on the bed. We both looked over at him, equally as horrified. Oh, jeez. Why couldn’t I have remembered to lock the door?
“Uh… I’ll just… come back… later…” he said slowly, closing the door behind him.
I smacked my forehead and groaned. “Of course that would happen!”
Jack looked back at me and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. Maybe it’s best if I get going? I think in probably about two minutes your brother is going to come in here and tear me to pieces.” He gave a nervous laugh.
I looked at him, still feeling guilty from earlier and wondering if I should tell him the truth.
No, not today. I’ll give it some time, maybe I can figure out my feelings first, I thought.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Sorry about this. And don’t worry, Big Mac may be my big brother but he trusts me and he respects me enough to give me my space. I promise he won’t hunt you down.”
I smiled and Jack returned it, seemingly reassured. We got up and headed outside, back towards his car. Big Mac was working a ways off with his back towards us. I think he knew we were out there but wouldn’t dare turn to look at us— he was just as embarrassed as we were, after all.
“See you later,” I said as Jack got in the car. He smiled and waved goodbye. I watched him go, guilt forming in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t keep doing this to him. The best thing I could do for him was to break up with him. He didn’t deserve this.
I sighed and pulled out my phone. I couldn’t just keep ignoring my feelings and trying to pretend they’re not there. I wanted to be with Rainbow. That much was a fact. Now, who knew if that would ever become a possibility but I still needed to try. She was broken up with Clad now. I’ll wait for her to get over it, and then I’ll confess to her. Even if it meant rejection.
-Hey. How are you doing?
I sent the message to Rainbow Dash. It took a couple moments for her to respond.
-Better than last night, I guess.
-How about you and I do something? I think you’ll feel better if you got out.
-I guess..
-Come on, I guarantee you’ll feel better once you get out a bit.
-Okay.. Pick me up in thirty?
-Alright. :) See you in a bit.
I slipped my phone back in my pocket. I turned around, looking at Big Mac working a ways down. I walked up to him, scratching the back of my head sheepishly as I approached. He noticed me approaching and looked down, clearly embarrassed still. He cleared his throat.
“Hey,” I said with a small laugh. “Uh, about earlier…”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck.
“It’s fine,” I said, waving it off. “I guess it’s kinda my fault I didn’t tell you he was coming over here.”
“He go home?” he asked.
I nodded. “I’m gonna spend a bit of time with Rainbow Dash in a bit. She… had a rough night.”
Mac raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He knew all of my friends well and I knew he cared about them all too.
“I’ll help on the farm when I get back. I feel bad that I’ve been working less than you,” I said.
“It’s not your fault. You have school, after all, and you’ve still been doing everything you need to do,” Mac said. He smiled reassuringly.
“How’s Caramel? He working hard?”
“Eeyup!”
I chuckled. “He always does. He’s a hard worker, and I know he loves working here with you.”
Big Mac smiled with amusement. “If you ask me, I think he works here so much so he can see you.”
“What? You think he likes me?” I laughed. I wasn’t going to say it to Big Mac, but I didn’t exactly think Caramel was into girls... Heck, if Big Mac’s barn door swung that way, they might actually make a cute couple.
I kept my eyes on the time and hung around my brother until I decided it was time to leave.
“Alright, I’m headed out. You won’t need the truck for anything, will ya?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“Perfect. See ya later, Mac,” I said and hopped in the truck.
I got to RD’s house within about ten minutes— I might have sped a little— and knocked on her front door when I got there. After a couple minutes I got impatient and rung her doorbell a couple of times.
“I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” I heard her say from inside and she opened the door within the next couple of seconds. She was messing with her hair when she let me inside.
“My hair’s being a little bitch today,” she growled.
“It looks fine,” I chuckled and ruffled it affectionately.
She flicked her hair, messing with a couple strands.
“Okay, whatever. It’s not like you care what I look like anyway,” she said.
I smiled crookedly. “Beautiful as always, love.”
She smiled to that and headed out the door with me, locking it behind her.
“So, whatd’ya wanna do?” she asked casually.
I shrugged. “Do you want to head up to the city? I haven’t been there in a while and I’m getting bored of all the little shops here.”
“Sounds fine with me,” she shrugged.
The drive to the city was mainly composed of me doing the talking— RD was quieter than normal, as was to be expected. At least she seemed alright, which was good. Her and Clad had only been dating a month so I figured the breakup didn’t hit her very hard— I think she was more upset about what Clad did, or rather, what he tried to do.
Rainbow Dash and I went to the mall for a while. The mall there was huge so we had no problem finding things to do. We mainly went to clothing stores, but we didn’t buy anything. We even went into the pet store to look at the puppies that were there. There were definitely some cute ones, but I was pretty content with Winona.
Rainbow Dash seemed to enjoy looking at the puppies, but I don’t think she’d ever want one. I think dogs annoyed her, for the most part. Although she did use to love playing with Winona whenever she came over. But that’s probably because Winona’s the best dog ever— I mean, come on, who could hate her?
We got a couple smoothies when we were done shopping and sat at a table, slightly bored.
“Hey,” I said with a crooked smile. “Remember when we used to come out here and go to the apartment complexes and see if we could get into the pools?”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “More like, see how long we could swim in the pools before they came and chased us out.”
I laughed. “Come on, we should do that again! Let’s see if the security guards there still remember us.”
She agreed to it and pretty soon we were back in the car and headed to one of the many apartment complexes here. We got out and headed towards the pool area. The place was fenced off, as usual, with a medium sized pool and a hot tub off to the side. Lawn chairs lined the pool area and one random umbrella was in the corner.
“Damn, that hot tub looks nice,” Rainbow Dash said. “I kinda wish I had brought my suit.”
She looked around before quickly hopping the fence. We used to do these kinds of things a ton when we were in junior high
and it was always hilarious. It was always something that only Rainbow Dash and I did together, so it felt a bit more special to me.
I hopped the fence too, jumping down next to Rainbow Dash. The main building was accessible from the pool area. The doors were locked from the outside, but from the inside— where we were now— the doors didn’t require a card to get inside.
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing. “Remember that gross banana that was in the pool that one time?”
Likewise, I also burst into laughter. “Oh my God, that was hilarious. Or how we used to swim underwater making stupid dolphin noises to communicate?”
Dash laughed again. “Man, those were great times. I miss this.”
I smiled, looking at her. “Same. But hey, that’s why we’re here again.”
She looked at me and smiled and the two of us headed toward the building. Neither of us had swim suits so we decided to skip the swim. Inside there was usually always a security guard but the place was seemingly empty when we got there. We headed up the stairs where there was a large pool room and several smaller conference rooms.
“Ah, the pool room. Best room in this place,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile, gesturing to the three different pool tables in front of her. Four TV’s were attached to the walls, two playing the news and two playing a golf tournament.
Rainbow Dash picked up a cue stick and pretended to be hitting a ball, even though all the balls were in the table pockets. Memories flashed back of us playing pool in this room, cold and still wet from swimming just before.
“Come on, let’s go to the conference room,” Dash said with excitement, lazily throwing the cue stick back onto the rack.
We went to the conference room, which was only a couple feet away, and shut the door behind us. All the room had was a conference table with chairs and a whiteboard on the wall, but RD and I had all kinds of fun with whiteboards. We’d been to this particular apartment complex twice before so this place was not unfamiliar to us. Of course, this was also the apartment complex that we’d been kicked out of twice, so there was a chance of a security guard recognizing us— all part of the fun.
Rainbow Dash grabbed a green whiteboard marker and I picked up the red one, taking off the cap with a satisfying click. Rainbow Dash didn’t draw anything in particular, she just kind of drew a squiggly line over the entirety of the board. I laughed and wrote “RD and AJ were here,” on the left side of the board. It was custom for us to write our initials on the board— how else would the security guards know who did it? I wondered if they would even remember our initials.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash drew crudely drawn obscenities on the right side, to which I rolled my eyes and laughed at.
“We’re such children,” I laughed.
“Hey, being a kid is fun. Why would you ever want to grow up?” Dash said.
“Tell me how not growing up works out for you, Peter Pan,” I joked.
She smiled crookedly, drawing more squiggly lines and random shapes on the board. As if to add her final touch, she poked the board with her marker, adding a single random dot in the middle of the board.
“There! It’s perfect!” she exclaimed.
I laughed. “Come on, let’s go before someone discovers us and we lose our anonymity!”
“Ooh, such big words,” she teased me.
I pushed her playfully. “Shut up.”
“Don’t you become Twilight Sparkle on me,” she said as we left the room. “I might just go crazy if we had another one.”
I burst out laughing. We were kind of mean to Twilight, talking about her behind her back or teasing her. We loved her all the same, though, and I doubt Twilight cared much.
“It’d be fun if we brought Pinkie with us sometime,” Dash said suddenly.
“Jeez, she’d wreak havoc on the place. Can you imagine how much trouble we’d get in?” I said.
“If we got caught,” she laughed.
We went downstairs and this time the guard was there, walking around casually. Rainbow Dash waved to him.
“Hey, Nel,” she said with a mischievous smile. The guy’s full name was Sentinel, and yes, we had definitely seen him before. And by that I mean he was the one that caught us hopping the fence last time we’d come here and proceeded to come chasing after us.
He looked at us with confusion at first, trying to figure out who we were. The look on his face when he figured it out was priceless but by then we were already heading out the door. We took off running when we got outside, laughing hysterically.
“Oh my God, did you see his face?” Rainbow said, laughing, when we slowed down to a walk.
“Yes! Priceless,” I said. “God, I miss coming here. I forgot how fun it is even just being in a place that we shouldn’t be.”
Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “Plus, it’s totally awesome when you break the rules, since it’s something you don’t normally do.”
I chuckled. “You’re a bad influence on me.”
She smirked. “Who, moi? Never!”
I smiled and shook my head. “You wanna head back? It’s four thirty,” I said.
“Why don’t we invite the others to dinner?” Rainbow Dash suggested. “Maybe all go get pizza or something.”
“Alright, I can do that,” I said. I pulled out my phone and sent a group text message to the others.
-Hey, ya’ll want to go to dinner somewhere with me and RD? We were thinking pizza or something.
By the time we made it back to my truck, everyone had replied back.
“Alright, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie said they’d like to join us for dinner but Twilight and Rarity are busy,” I told Rainbow Dash.
“Alright, sounds good,” she said.
“Wanna go to Dough’s?” I asked. Dough’s was the name of a pizza shop back in town, and personally I thought was much better than all the big pizza chains. They were a bit more expensive, but I figured we’d all just be sharing one pizza anyway and we’d all pitch in.
“Fine with me,” she said.
I told Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie to meet us at Dough’s in half an hour since it would take me and RD a little while to get back. When we got there, we parked outside of the restaurant and headed in; Pinkie Pie waved at us from a booth and we headed on over. She was sitting next to Fluttershy so Rainbow Dash and I sat next to each other on the other side of the booth.
“Hey, have you been waiting here long?” I asked.
“Nope! Only about five minutes,” Pinkie answered. “Applejack, I ordered you an iced tea and Rainbow Dash I got you a Sprite!”
Rainbow Dash and I exchanged impressed looks. Of course Pinkie would be bold enough to order our drinks for us, and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that she knew what we liked too.
“I was thinking we could all share one pizza,” I suggested. “Then we could all pool in and it’d be cheaper.”
“Sounds great! What do you guys want to order?” Pinkie asked. She bounced around in her seat a little. Fluttershy looked nervous, but she kind of always did so I wasn’t too worried about her.
“How ‘bout we do a half ‘n’ half kinda thing? So maybe we could get sausage and mushrooms on one half, and vegetarian on the other,” I suggested. I was mainly accommodating for Fluttershy’s being a vegetarian. Thankfully she was fine with us eating meat, and I knew she didn’t mind doing the pizzas like this since we’d done it before.
I waved my arms a little bit. “I mean, we don’t have to do exactly that combination but, you know, something like that.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Sausage and mushrooms and a vegetarian sounds awesome to me.”
“Yeah, me too! Nice choice, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie smiled.
Fluttershy smiled a bit and nodded. “Thanks, Applejack.” I assumed she was referring to me remembering that she was a vegetarian— not like I’d forget about that anyway.
“Oh! But can we add pepperonis too?” Pinkie asked.
“Of course, Pinkie,” I said.
The waitress came around with our drinks and asked us if we were ready to order.
“Yeah, we’re gonna get one large pizza,” I said, “With one half being mushroom, pepperoni, and sausage and then the other half being vegetarian.”
“Alright! Will that be all?” the waitress asked.
I looked over at the others who didn’t seem to want to add anything. I turned back to our waitress.
“That’s it,” I said.
“Alright, I’ll have that made ready for you guys!”
She left and I looked back at the others. Rainbow Dash ripped off a piece of the paper from her straw. She put the straw in her mouth and blew the remaining paper towards Fluttershy. She burst out into laughter when Fluttershy, who wasn’t expecting it, jumped and let out a yelp. After the initial surprise, though, Fluttershy soon began giggling as well.
I smiled and rolled my own straw paper up into a ball, throwing it at Rainbow Dash.
“Hey!” she snorted and threw it back at me, missing terribly.
Pinkie was having fun trying to blow bubbles with her drink. I raised an eyebrow at the pink drink.
“Pinkie, what’s your drink?” I asked.
“Shirley Temple!” she answered. Her bubble-making wasn’t going so well, since the bubbles would just pop right after they were formed.
“Oh, damn. That looks good,” I mumbled, kind of wanting one for myself.
Pinkie gasped sharply and slammed her hands on the table, effectively scaring the shit out of me.
“Did I get your drink wrong?!” she shrieked. “Silly Pinkie, Applejack wanted a Shirley Temple not an iced tea!”
She chastised herself and began pouting.
“Uh, no, no,” I said quickly, waving my hands. “Iced tea is exactly what I wanted! I was just saying yours looked good, that’s all.”
“Oh! Okey dokey lokey then!”
I rolled my eyes. I’ve known her since grade school and I still don’t understand most of the things she does…
While we waited for our pizza, the four of us just talked and joked with one another. It was fun hanging out with them all, and it was nice to see Rainbow laughing and having a good time. I was proud to have been able to make her forget about the previous night completely, and I knew she’d feel better tonight because of it.
She side-glanced at me while drinking, meeting my eyes as I idly stared at her. She smiled softly, I think as a way of saying thanks. At least, that’s how I interpreted it. Either way, I knew she was thankful.
I sighed happily and took another drink as well. Nights like these were always great, and quite frankly it was relieving to me to have a night like this where I could just laugh with my friends and have fun. I needed to have more nights like these and stop worrying about everything. As I took another sip, I made a mental note to try and do just that from now on.
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3990006 You're not the only one. My dose of AppleDash is off. We wantz it. We needz it!
i ask of you to eliminate what keeps you busy because this story is just to fricking awesome to not update often ...
It took a while, but it was worth the wait. This totally took blame by surprise when I saw it on my email. Life is crazy, it's okay to take your time I you have to!
Ohhh email, oh FiM Fiction email, OH MY FAV FIC HAS UPDATED YES YES YES YES! Now I'm sad because I have to wait again.
NEW CHAPTER?!?! YESS! OMIGOSH! You dont understand how long Ive been waiting for this! *SQUEE!*
I know how you feel when finding the time to write. It's constantly hanging in the back of your mind! But I'm sticking with you on this one because I really love this fiction.
I won't lie, I'm a little disappointed because there's still no tension between AJ and RD; it's killing me! However, anything with these two girls in is good enough for me.
Oh, and I do feel so bad for poor Jack. He's so sweet. I think I might cry for him if his heart is broken!
Maaaaaan you take a fuckin' long time to update!
But this chapter was so funny that I forgive ya XD 
BTW Keep with the fukin' great work man, your story is awesome! It's the only fanfic that I read, the only one that really catches me in a way that I still remember even after a month. Can't wait 'till next chapter's release!
Okay i think rd has a crush on her, not sure. I think rds just, shit I dunno. UPDATE DA STORY!!!
Hehe please
Ooh, looks like the unrequited love ain't so unrequited after all!