Appledashery

by Just Essay

Opportunities

"And, thus, the game started. A very exciting game... but a risky one. After all, I had put my many broken selves on the line... tossed them all in like chips on a card table. And I just didn't know how to deal. After all, this brand new spark... this inside-out avatar of loyalty was the greatest wildcard of all. Could I read her face? Or would this be an endless gauntlet of bluffing?

"But I knew what the prize was. Oh boy did I know it. And thus, the rules of the game began... to see what would happen if I took a mare who—in another world—had everything beloved taken from her... and suddenly gave her a chance to receive everything she ever wanted.

"And I do mean everything. In the blink of an eye, if need be. All of it... given to her on a table to nibble on or engulf or do whatever the fuzz she wanted to with.

"And just what did that prize turn out to be? It didn't matter, for I was out to prove a point... if not to myself, then to the cosmic powers that belched this beautiful madness into existence.

"What would a mortal do... with immortal rewards? Would she become a bastion of harmony? Or a purveyor of chaos? Just where would her will take her? Where would unfettered selfishness and pure id lead?

"To nowhere, that's what.

"Imagine my shock when week after week... offering after offering... she refused... she outright denied the gifts that I had to give to her. Scoffed at it. Barked at it! Tossed the party cable over and stomped her way through the cake frosting. And to go where? Back into the fuzzy pocket that was her own, tender, loving heart? It was so empty there! I knew it! I felt it! I saw it... or at least—in another world—the painful burden of carrying it... of feeding off it.

"And it's not like I wanted to do this for the sake of being kind! No! I had a point to make! And that point is that mortals crave chaos! They do what they desire and they desire what they do! Nothing more! Plain and simple! It takes a great deal of pointless, useless courage and sympathy to be harmonic... to give up everything you could ever gain just to be yet another table leg holding up this artifice of a civilized world. And—hoo hoo boy—sister, did you choose to be harmonious.

"Or did you...?

"What's so 'harmonious' about a lonely life, spent day after day, trapped by the shadows of your own bedroom, where only a cold pint of cider or an afternoon spent weeping in the shower could rid you of even a modicum of your tears? What's so structured about letting the walls close in, so that there's no way out, even though the only thing you've ever wanted to do was let somepony... to let one pony in?

"No... this was something putrid. Something rancid. Something far filthier and way more pathetic than harmony! This was loyalty cubed... a prison with no windows... where you can't even get a chuckle out of the cracks in the fourth wall! GAG How I wanted to strangle you at times! There were moments when I thought you were just trying to taunt me! That you had figured out the game and masterfully reversed it! But that can't be possible! You're just a pony! A mere mortal with the brain of an earthworm and a cuddle gland the size of Mount Neighverest! Why did you keep turning me down?! Why?!

"Is it that you're punishing yourself?! Heaven forbid! You're only the most egostistical, narcissistic, pegasisteriffic braggart in the whole galloping herd of Equestria! I thought I had landed myself the biggest fish in the pond! But instead, I got a winged cherub with the squeaky-trilling grace of a feline guppy! How could somepony so brash on the outside be so tiny on the inside?! And it's not like you're ignorant of it! You know what you want! You see what you want! Every day... every damned day you brush by her... you hear her! You smell her! And with a single snap of my claws I could have given you her! And more! Alllll the more plus mega-more and the inside out of the most!

"But you didn't give in...

"You... y-you just didn't!

"Every time! Every adventure! Every near-death date with disaster!

"You had an opportunity and you threw it back onto the pedestal! The same pedestal that she's on in your mind! What for?! Do you have anything to go on? Are you so deluded that you make the one pony you wish to touch absolutely untouchable?! What is it that lies curled up inside her?! Beneath all those freckles and all that twang and all those... grnnnghh... insufferable y'all's is the key to what makes you tick, and I've ridden on all angles of your flankitude and still I can't figure it out! What is it, Sparky, Rainbow Dash?! What is it that makes you weep... makes you laugh... makes you give up the ghost for the mare you love the most and yet you can't even be bothered to trot up and tell her those... six... damned... words?!"

Comments

[viofriedsevey]

This is so far passed my expectations it's ridiculous, and I had some high fuckin expectations.

[RoboRed]

...Jeeezus.

[MidnightReflection]

Precisely! What are those six words, dammit!?

[destinedjagold]

Mount Neighverest

According to the newly-updated Equestria Map, it's called Mount Everhoof.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6581936 I also want to know what's underneath AJ's hat. :3

[Jern]

this inside-out avatar of loyalty was the greatest wildcard of all

Somewhere, a goggled griffon is pouting after that line.

[Leftover of Saikano]

And still Dash hasn't said anything. It would be something if she had actually left long ago, to deliver the plant and Discord didn't notice and kept talking.

[zaponator]

Discord, no. You're making yourself sound worse than I believe you are.

[Autumn Rush]

Well, dang. I'd be kinda depressed for awhile if someone told me all of this...

[BabySkittleMonster]

I am actually sobbing into my pillow right now. That's the effect these past few chapters are having on me. I'm curled up in my bed, hugging my pillow and I'm bawling.

[DrEggnog]

I think all of us have wanted to say SOME of these things to her.

And yet all of this is what makes her incredible.

[Boop-Happy Lass]

This is deep...

[arancaytar]

A mere mortal with the brain of an earthworm and a cuddle gland the size of Mount Neighverest! 

I love "cuddle gland", and also I love everything about this story.

How could somepony so brash on the outside be so tiny on the inside?! 

In fairness, Dashie is also tiny on the outside.

What is it, Sparky, Rainbow Dash?! What is it that makes you weep... makes you laugh... makes you give up the ghost for the mare you love the most and yet you can't even be bothered to trot up and tell her those... six... damned... words?!

Discord is so totally tired of not seeing his favorite OTP going anywhere. I empathize.