The Vacant Hall
6. The Vacant Hall
"Rainbow, hey," I had my arms crossed between the horizontal wooden bars that kept her safe from falling off the top bunk, just watching her peaceful expression for a moment. It was a rare sight, surely, "Rainbow Dash, wake up ya bum."
I reached out and touched her shoulder, letting my hand move gingerly to her hair, which I brushed off of her face delicately. It was very soft, and I resisted the urge to run my fingers through it all to see it her whole head bore such silky strands. I rocked back and forth a bit in my boots on the bottom mattress of the bunk bed, keeping myself standing at her height.
"Honey, it's time to get up already." I must have touched her face or something, because something startled her to jolt awake. Her eyes opened suddenly, the deep pink hue tantalizing me to keep up there. But not for long.
Her scream shook me right to the core, and I couldn't much help reacting in the same way: with a scream of my own that sent me tumbling off the bunk bed and to the floor. I was not quite too lucky though, as falling back so far got me real close to the other bunk, and as I hit the floor with my rear I met the opposite bunk with my skull. I heard myself groan out loud as I reached up and touched my aching cranium, feeling the tender spot carefully. I had almost forgotten that Twilight had been in the room, and she immediately came over to my aid. She touched my arm as she tried to get a look at it, but I pushed her away and insisted that I was just fine and dandy.
"Ah, it's just a bump, I'll be fine," I said with a scratchy voice, looking back up to the top bunk across from me to see the startled face of my new acquaintance.
"Oh shit, did I do that?" she asked in a guilty and surprised voice, and I vacantly smiled a bit before pulling myself up and dusting myself off. "You okay A.J.?"
"What'd you call me?" I narrowed my eyes at the name, which surely I had told them all to call me but I hadn't expected to be spoken by Rainbow Dash again. No, she chose a nickname much more... colourful.
"Whatever, what are you doing in my room anyway? See, I told you she wasn't to be trusted, Twilight!" She leaned over the bunk and spoke to her friend, who nervously laughed and avoided the subject and my questioning gaze.
"Well excuse me." I put my hands on my hips and bent one leg behind the other, the straps of my loose overalls hanging crooked, "Here I was just coming to check up on you. You almost missed breakfast, sugar cube."
"Breakfast! Twilight how could you let me sleep?" she shouted as she hurriedly climbed down the ladder to get out of last night's clothes.
"You're blaming me?" she inquired as she gave her friend a less than amused expression, watching her rush about to find remnants of ensembles to assemble.
"I'm so hungry, I don't even care what it—" She stopped suddenly as she was half way adorning a sweater and gathering pants. Putting her hand to her mouth, she bolted out the door in a blink. "Bathroom!" we heard from down the hall as her ridiculously fast feet carried her away.
"Well, better she gets sick now than after breakfast." I shrugged as I went to take my leave, but found Twilight looking at me still. "Can I get cha somethin'?"
"No, I'm fine thanks. Guess I'll see you later." She let me leave, but continued to give me this weird look. This look was like, like she knew something I didn't, or was trying to figure something out. I sure as heck didn't know what she thought she saw, but I wasn't about to stick around and ask.
Breakfast was usually a buffet sort of deal, Granny and I cooked up as many flap jacks, scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon as we had. This being a farm, we had a lot of that stuff. By the time we finished cooking it all, it had been eaten up already. Big Mac already went and took the lot of them out to the dairy cows, today he was showing them how to take care of and milk them. I just knew someone would be squirting milk around, that's why I never directed that part of the tour. Come to think about it, I never directed much of the tour for that same reason.
I was taking a wheelbarrow full of soil over to the vegetable garden now, which took me right through the middle of the farm. I could hear the lot of them laughing while they were doing the milking, of course, and looked out there. Most of them were inside the pen already, but one of the guests was not. My guess was that she still fell too uneasy to go watching milk splatter around, but there she was just leaning on the outer post of the cattle pens, staring at me. I stopped walking for a second as she did, wondering if she was going to call out to me or something, but she didn't. She stared at me real intently for a moment before making some scowl and turning around to go back into the pens. I guess it must not have been important, so I picked up the wheelbarrow again and kept on.
The garden was in mighty good repair, as it was one of our main attractions of course. Anyone who wanted to come in for a few eggs ended up grabbing a couple carrots or snow peas or what have you, they just looked so mighty fine it was difficult to resist them. Even our guests at the ranch, they just loved being able to walk outside and pick their own vegetables for a change, wash them off and eat them fresh as they come. I already had my gardening gloves on from when I shovelled the soil into the barrow, so I just reached into the pile and grabbed a couple handfuls to sprinkle around. Rains and winds often brushed away the topsoil, so it was important to the vegetables and to the general aesthetics to keep it a glorious dark brown in colour. A bark and playful growl caught my attention, and without question I knew it was just my dog Winona, but she wasn't alone. I heard some small, quick steps rushing about in the gravel, and I would know those scampering skips anywhere. I rested my hands on my knees and called out to the girl.
"Hey, Apple Bloom," I said to my sister loudly enough for her to hear me over her zealous steps. "You finish puttin' up them flyers for the apple picking?"
"Uh..." She stood still and played around with her hair as she kicked the gravel anxiously, while Winona tried to get her attention back by circling around her. "Yea'."
"Apple Bloom," I repeated her name and she shrank a bit under my gaze. I smiled though, missing the days when I myself could act a little empty in the head and be given a little slack. "Come on over here, sis. Put a little dirt 'round the edges and grab a bucket of water from the well to water 'em and we'll call it even, sound good?"
"Yes ma'am." She nodded and hurried over to me, taking my dirty gloves without an issue.
"Rest of them are still milking the dairy cows, ain't they?" I stood up and brushed the dirt off my sleeves and overalls.
"Yea', my guess is they'll be out there fer a while, you can hear em makin' a mess all across the farm." Apple Bloom giggled as she all but threw the soil around randomly. I let her be though, going back to the ranch house to pick up the flyers right where I left them for her to pin up.
We had these cork boards down the hall in the guest loggings, where we'd tack up lots of activities for people to participate in. That's what I was doing any who, I had this little stack of flyers and was putting them up down the hall. I always left thumb tacks on the boards so I didn't lose them or have to buy new ones all the time, so I'd grab a tack and press it through the paper, holding the rest in the crook of my elbow as I did it. I didn't much mind if they were straight or not, people would get the idea any way. I put one up by the front entrance and a couple around in the common room before I went down to where the girls were staying. They had a board of their own down there, and I went to grab another flyer and pin it up, when I heard that familiar old creaking of the screen door. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that same old messy head of multi-coloured hair. I gave her a questioning look, wondering what had brought her back her so soon.
"Ain't you supposed to be at the dairy pens?" I asked her as she let the door fall closed hard against the door frame behind her. She didn't even bother to silence it as it shook and shivered around, she just looked up at me, and I could feel her rough mood rubbing up against me.
"Oh, you're here," Rainbow murmured, though her tone was not as agitated as I imagined from her expression.
"Yea', I won't be long," I told her certainly as I pushed a little harder against the tack.
"What do you want from me, anyway? Why is it you're just like, always hanging around me?" she asked in a rude tone, and I didn't really know what to say to such a thing, something she always seemed so keen on wondering.
"Uh, I work here sugar, remember?" I sort of smiled as I finished taking up the flyer, but she was in no mood to return one. I tilted my head to the side and spoke again, "Something wrong?"
"No, it's just..." She shook her head suddenly to try and keep whatever it was inside, despite her clearly troubled expression. She groaned a bit and then got angry again, "Yes, actually, something is. A.J., ever since I got here something about you just has me really, really peeved."
"I'm sorry?" I tried, though I didn't really know what she meant. She didn't want any apology, either, she just approached me until she was hardly a foot away.
"Well just look at you, it's like you just—you don't even know!" She slammed her hand into the wall beside me, almost causing me to flinch. I looked down at myself as if I might suddenly spot what she was going on about, but all I saw were my old work overalls. She stepped forwards again and nearly pushed me right up against the wall, like she was going to try and intimidate me. "You're so... you, you know? And It's cool, and I like it, I really do. But the worst part is, around you I get just get so, so..." Angry, I imagine. I sure do my best to go pushing people's buttons, that's what I've been told. "Confused!"
"Pardon?" I raised my eyebrow in question, but she was not interested in answering anything I might have had to say, so I just shut my mouth and let her vent.
"It gets me so mad when those guys say things about you too, you maybe don't hear them but they all do it, and I just..." She chewed on the words again as if they were some tough piece of meat.
That made sense, somehow she must have felt like we were becoming friends, too. And friends look out for each other, that's what I did for her, that's what Twilight does for her, I can guess she does that for Twilight too. Being so interested in managing clubs and reading books don't make many friends, surely.
"I can't even talk!" she shouted through a growl.
"Look, I know that you ain't much for small talk. All that stuff in the barn, water under the bridge, sugar cube." I tried to calm her down and show her that I understood. "You were in a bad place and wanted to pick all those fights just to let off some steam, that's all. And you got carried away with the drinkin', we've all been there."
"No, that's not it." She shook her head and avoided my gaze, though I chased it around with a serious look. Her eyes finally snapped up to mine, and it actually frightened me stiff. There was some intense determination in them, but not to seek revenge or anything. No, this looked like something more passionate than that. "I have to be honest with you, Applejack."
"Uh, yeah, okay?" I muttered with a few slow nods, waiting on her words.
Her breath pulled in slowly, but finally, she came out with it, "I think I'm getting feelings for you."
"What'd you say?!" I nearly shouted, pinning my darn self to the wall that time. No one—not a man nor a woman— had ever said that to me, not once before. I was not the type to get close to people, I was always too busy with work and the farm and my family. "Yer screwin' with me, right?!"
"Shut up, will you?" She hushed me, but her eyes were still crying out, and it almost felt like it was working. I swallowed uneasily under those cursedly magnetic eyes, too entranced to even hope to try and slink away. With a pained moan, she conceded to her urges, murmuring, "Damn it, Freckles."
I was already flushing like crazy in the heat of the confrontation, but her warm body pushed even closer than that. I felt her hand stroke my cheek and take hold behind my head, and she leaned in. My eyes grew wider than two turkey serving saucers as I felt her lips press against mine, the softness and delicacy of them out-shouted by the rough indulgent movement of her will against mine. I couldn't even breathe, feeling her body come right up to mine and capture it entirely. My heart was tight in my chest, feeling like Rainbow reached right in and grabbed it— beating and all. That right there was my first kiss. Backed up against the wall with a stack of flyers in my hand, lockin' lips with some girl I hardly knew. The girl part, that was the biggest surprise for me. I never even considered that I might enjoy it, but that was what terrified me most of all. It felt really damn good.
She pulled away, and not even in my wildest dreams could I have said something that even resembled a word. I just stood there utterly dumbfounded, completely uselessly gawking at the crazy-haired girl front of me. My eyes darted between her own, and with my shoulders all up and tense I thought it would be clear how terrified she made me. Her own eyebrows fell a bit and her face got all serious as she noticed the way I looked, like I was about to pass right on out.
Her head slowly shook a bit back and forth as she pulled away. Her eyes fell down onto my lips, which were still humming and quivering something fierce, made even more tender as her cool breath danced across what moisture she had left on them. It almost made me feel bad, seeing her standing there just as confused as I was. She released the hand she had used to grab me and instead touched her own lips, managing somehow to speak while I just watched on like a loon.
"I-I, I'm so sorry," she stuttered before she turned and abruptly sprinted off, leaving me entirely alone at last.
I still just stood there against the wall, and boy was I glad it was there, else I would've fallen right off my feet. My breath came back to me as I heard the screen door slam again and felt the vacant air around me. My shaking hands finally let go of the stack of flyers, and they fell out around me all a strew. My knees gave way and I slid down to the floor, feeling awful small all alone in the hall, in the whole farm. If I didn't think I'd look pathetic as a snivelling wreck I think I might have just started crying, but there was no need for that. After all, it wasn't like it was a big deal or anything, it didn't change who I was, but still I could not quite get my grip back.
I should have been angry with her, stealing my first kiss away and shoving so many bad thoughts in my head, but I wasn't. The only reason I must have liked it was because it was just so taboo, surely. Folks out on the farm here never even spoke of such things, and sure I liked the girl but I don't imagine I had feelings for her like she seemed to for me, surely not. Surely not. I put my hands up to my head and closed my eyes, letting it all sink in. She had gone and kissed me, and not only had I let her, the more I thought about it the more I led myself to believe I had wanted to kiss her back. The more I wanted her to run on back in here and do it again. I was losing it.
I pulled myself to my feet suddenly, knowing that I was stronger than that. I went and picked up all the loose flyers and strode right out of the hall like nothing was wrong. Nothing could fix me back up like some good old fashion hard work, that was always the truth. I took the time to do those projects I had been putting off for so long: the squeaky front door, the rusty tractor sprockets, the busted water shoot, anything I could get my hands on. I even went so far as to narrate every move in my head, so my thoughts could not even dream of drifting from the problems I could actually get my hands on and fix. Whatever it took, I had to get my head on straight, time would heal everything else.
I should have known that Big McIntosh would have noticed, he wasn't quite as slow as people sometimes thought him to be. He came up to me while I was shovelling out some of the pens, and he picked up a scoop of his own. For a while, neither of us said anything, between siblings close as us not a word needed to be spoken to know something just wasn't right.
"Somethin' on yer mind, sis?" he finally asked, his deep voice rocking against the rafters like thunder.
"Just lettin' off some steam, that's all," I lied, and I hated the feeling of doing it. But I couldn't tell him, shoot I couldn't tell anyone, and it was eating me alive. I did however want to talk, and maybe I could bring it out without confessing anything. "Hey Mac, you date, don't cha?"
"Eeyup." He nodded, scooping a big chunk and hoisting it into the wheelbarrow we had for that kind of stuff.
"Do you date often?" I kept on, because really I had never seen him with a girl. I was sure he had been out before, but he never talked about it, same as me.
"Nah, not too much. Got lots to do 'round here, y'know?" he reminded me, and I nodded slowly in agreement, digging right under this old mess in the corner. I looked back at him and saw that he was still around, hanging close like he knew there was more to the conversation. I bit at my lip to find the words to mouth right.
"What do you like about girls, any who?" I sheepishly let slip, avoiding making eye contact in case he could sniff out my agenda.
"I dunno." I leaned on his shovel a bit as he chewed it over. "I just like em, I guess. They're pretty, they smell good." I could tell this wasn't easy for him, but he kept on, "They're awful perceptive too, and it's cute the way they say one thing but mean another. Keeps me thinkin', I guess. I can't really explain it, y'know, I ain't too good with words." I knew that, but it was nice that he tried. "When I'm with em, my heart just feels real good. I smile a lot, 'specially when they smile at me."
"I think you're better with words than ya think," I said to him with a smile. "Maybe that's why you're so popular with the ladies." I guess I understood all of that, but still I wanted to know more. I tried to speak up again, but hesitated. Instead I just brushed my forehead with my sleeve, getting up the courage before, "Ever thought about likin' boys?" It slipped out.
"What?" He perked up and looked at me, and I just shrugged innocently like I was joking or something. "Can't say I ever did. They just don't make me feel that way, y'know?"
"But, well I mean hypothetically, what if one did? What if you found yourself, I don't know, likin' some guy?" I babbled out like it didn't concern me, but I did really want to hear the answer.
"Well, I'd hope you didn't think any less of me, I guess." I paused and looked at him seriously as he spoke. Did my opinion mean that much to him? Or did he catch on, and was trying to tell me something? "If I met someone who gave me that feelin', someone who made me smile, well that'd be that. It don't really matter much 'bout nothin' else, don't cha think?"
"You sure do have one big heart, Mac." I shook my head as he finished, liking the way he put it so simply.
Still, life was never quite so simple as Big Mac liked to think it was. And I still wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, any of it. About men, about women, about Rainbow Dash. My heart said one thing, but it kept getting all mixed up in my head, so I wasn't all too sure. Maybe I had to figure out how I felt about men, firstly, as that was the normal thing. I never really had the need to until now. I wanted to know, I wanted to stop this palm-sweating anxiousness already. I had to.
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2986508
there ya go, hope you like it!
2986707
I did!
1. This story isn't rushed or anything. Well pased and nothing seems out of place. (
2. You did a good job leading up to what Dash did and all but a few things stood out.
1. AJ didn't really do much after it. She kinda thought about it but went back to her work like nothing happened.
2. What happened to Dash after she kissed AJ? I mean she ran off but AJ did nothing. I mean, yeah she talked to Big Mac about it (kinda) but didn't really think to much about it.
Thats all I have to say. Seriously, other then that this story is spot on and pure awesome! Keep up the good work I can't wait for more
2986930
Well to avoid spoiling the ending I had to be vague, but I thought that under such circumstances AJ would try to pretend that it didn't happen. Being raised with a strict upbringing in a culture that otherwise says nothing about this kind of relationship, she's entirely dumbfounded. That's how I imagined it anyway. That's why she just kind of fell apart then acted like nothing was wrong. In the next few chapters it would become clear what Rainbow thought and what AJ is hiding, hopefully. Thanks for the feedback!! I will probably go over the story again when I'm sober (if that ever happens) and notice more of what I did wrong, lol.
2986934
Sober
Yeah that makes more sense. Just thought I should point that out.
2986943
Well I definitely need another opinion besides my own, seeing as how I write this almost entirely alone and wasted.... and by almost, I mean very much entirely.
I like having some feedback to work off of, so thanks again!! I try to make this true to character, but everyone's opinion of character seems to change so that's difficult... Perhaps I shall try harder!! 
2986954
Talk about best drunk writing ever!
SO...
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4zptidtRf1qe48t4o1_500.jpg
2986980
hahaha well shankyaverymuuuch
2987127
I agree with the comment that said that the pacing of this story is great. Can't wait to read Dash's point of view in the next chapter.
And I just realized you're a woman... it's a detail really but on the Internet you tend to assume most people are men...
2987168
... any who, I liked writing big mac as the supportive big brother, he doesn't seem to get enough screen time as such. I think the only time applebloom was in it was at the dinner table in an earlier chapter, she didn't speak too much lol... Im glad you like the pacing, I just pretty much threw it together an idea one night and continually checked the dialogue-text ratio as best I could without rereading it ten thousand times... anyway, glad you like it thus far!!
Yeah fair enough, and I am a woman... if that makes any difference in your opinion of me
Of course it doesn't make any difference of opinion. it was just a comment. My favourite fic of all time was written by a woman (Chocolate Covered Grapes by Callisto).
2987315
It ain't like I would mind if you thought differently of me, so long as it was a positive change. I know when I play video games a lot people think I'd a guy. It doesn't bother me either way, sometimes it's just a fun surprise
Can I even put into words how much I ADORE this?! You have earned a favorite, like AND a watcher
Now... Off to break at work and to read more! *insert wooshing Freakazoid here*
But seriously... I admire your skills
2989356
That makes me so happy to hear!!
smiling the whole time I read that
2989979
Tis the truth
Well... Except for the whole Freakazoid thing. Sadly I couldn't do that in my office or I'd get in trouble
But seriously... i can haz moar?
2990276
lawl yeah the office might not appreciate that... but yes, there should be another chapter up today or tomorrow, I have to go over it one last time for editing and make sure I'm happy, then it will be up no prob. Thanks to your support, I shall get to it right now!
The pacing, I love the pace you have set for the story always leave the reader wanting more, you have a great talent that I admire and love. Keep up the great work
2986934
I liked how you did the scene and the bit between AJ and Mac.
Woa....
It was soooo CUTE!!!
The way you did the Appledash scene Oh My Goodness it was divine!!!