Rainbow Dash's straightforward glide had deteriorated into a drunken weave. She zig-zagged over the Palace gardens at this point. Applejack wasn't certain what bothered her about it the most: how close Rainbow Dash came to sailing into various structures or how blatantly casual the half-conscious pegasus went about it all.
"Rainbow...?!"
Applejack hissed into the air.
"Rainbow?!?!"
She frowned and hissed again.
Rainbow Dash sailed on. To Applejack's chagrin, the petite pony somehow still had a mug in her hoof... and was occasionally attempting to sip from its emptying contents.
"Oh for Celestia's sake...!" Applejack gnashed her teeth. She darted briskly between patches of squarely-trimmed hedge and marble benches. The mountain air here was cool and crisp. Rainbow Dash was just a leap and a mouth-grab away, but Applejack was too scared of the guards' surrounding sight to attempt something too brash. "Rainbow, ya dang varmint! Dun ya drink and fly! You could hurt youself, y'know!"
None of these words landed concretely in Rainbow's ears. Or—if they did—they barely made any sense to the feathered floozie. Soon she was bobbing and weaving over the statues and the nearby courtyard. Applejack's heart stopped with every dip the pegasus took.
"Guh!" At one point, Applejack squatted low behind a fountain and covered her eyes. "This is crazy. I'm an honest pony... breakin' and enterin' into the Royal Palace... and we're never gonna live this down!"
She gnashed her teeth, summoning a burning flame of anger from deep inside.
But none could be found. Instead, all Applejack felt was the cold sweat of worry... and something else in her core... something no less warm and beating and desperate.
"Rainbow..." She looked up, teeth chattering between her freckles. A gulp. "Rainbow, sugarcube..." Her voice whimpered beneath the failed attempt at a stern tone. "Please... y'all must come down now!"
That must have done something, for suddenly Rainbow Dash was turning over in mid-flight like a foal might stir in her sleep. There was a sleepy smile on her cider-stained muzzle.
"Just... one cuddle... AJ..." She purred, dropping the mug soundlessly to the bushes below. She descended, hiccuping sloppily. "Between friends, mmmmmkay?"
Applejack froze in place, peering confusedly outward from behind the fountain. "What the...?"
""I don't c-care how—HIC—bad things are..." It wasn't clear whether Rainbow Dash was giggling or sobbing at this point. Her eyes rolled back under fluttering lids, and Applejack watched—stunned—as the mare plummeted into the royal mess. "Just... want to be with you..." Somepony sniffled. "Just... want to sh-show you..."
Applejack sat petrified... but for reasons unexplained.
"... ... ...Rainbow Dash?" she breathed. Her eyes lost themselves in the starlit emptiness between worried thoughts, and it was then that something violently jolted her out of the unnameable moment... something loud. Like a crash.
CRACK!
"!!!" Applejack shot back up. She craned her neck just in time to see that Rainbow Dash had collided with a statue... a statue that was careening towards the ground. In the moonlight, there was the scarcely descernible flash of claws, paws, fangs, and goat hair. And then—
SMASH!
Rainbow Dash settled into place, halo'd by a rattling sea of granite bits.
And Applejack swallowed hard. "Whoah nelly..."
Well this all but confirms my theories. Applejack's been aware of Rainbow Dash's feelings since the beginning of the story, but her own internal struggles have kept her from acting upon her feelings.
Poor Rainbow Dash. the emotional and physical backflips that she's gone through to avoid letting on to Applejack have been Herculean in effort, and it seems they were all for naught from the vary beginning
Rainbow just broke Discord's statue at the end there, didn't she?
AND (drunk or not) just managed to blurt out her feelings for AJ in said mare's hearing.
Welp..........
8434955 Yep.
And Dash thinks she's the sneaky one.
You know, considering the way Rainbow was acting in Vol. 1, it would've been pretty ridiculous if Applejack hadn't been aware of her feelings. Then again, Skirts does ridiculous on a somewhat regular basis, so you can never know.
Well dang, I wasn't expecting two major story elements to be dropped in such a short chapter.
Considering that the drunken pegasus flying through the gardens isn't raising any alarms, Applejack probably doesn't have anything to worry about.
Such a silly pony.
LOL...that moment when you get drunk and then blurt out something awkward to your best friend....and then crash and destroy government property
So... is this how AJ got the feather in her hat?
She snagged it from the debris Dash left in the palace?
...also holy shit, Rarity spreading the rumour that Dash had a coltfriend must have hurt AJ really bad.
Dash got so plastered she hit in Discord, and either the guards are toally incompetant, or given its before Crystal Empire, and Shining Armour should be in charge, theyre not around because he has them keeping tabs, or out of the way of his little sisters freinds etc, if only to reduce their public humiliation?
8435196
I have to say, I didn't used to enjoy stealth in games, until 7th gen and Arkham City, Far Cry 3, and especially The Last of Us.
Though I did enjoy the stealth in MGS2.
8435214
Wasn't it shortly after that Stu Leaves entered the picture? Because that would explain some things.
8435417
iirc, Dash came back, told Rarity she dumped the stallion, Rarity tried to set her up with Sharp Quill.
She came back from Dredgemane and Stu was helping on SAA.
Yeah, because the next arc was cider space, then dragon lands, which Stu was already around for.
So not shortly after, but within two months or so.
Aaaaaaand there it finally is.
Also, holy crap. AJ must've known throughout part one for quite some time.
8435465
I never played the game they were talking about, I hate Harry Potter tbh.
I was just speaking generally.
Having said that, I don't mind stealth sections, because a successful stealth leaves you feeling extremely accomplished.
Though I much prefer Panther style stealth as opposed to Ghost.
8435465
I played a bit of the PC version. The main thing I remember is that it was much more challenging than Sorcerer's Stone on PC, which I remember much more of.
Sorry you didn't like the console version. It was one of my favorite games growing up. Running around the grounds impressed me in a way I imagine other kids were impressed by Hyrule Fields in Ocarina of Time, and the music's glorious.
8435507
*gasp* Someone who doesn't love Harry Potter! You poor lost soul. I will light a special candle for you tonight.
8435508
Tell ya what, when you have about 12 people all trying to foist the books and movies on you when you've said you weren't interested in them for 3 years straight, then you can call me a poor lost soul.
I was quite happy with my Halo novels.
8435631
those books are bucking awesome!!
I don't think it's quite as simple as AJ "knowing" that Rainbow has feelings for her. It doesn't take much to plant a seed of doubt. Rainbow was drunk, she said between friends, she just felt bad for AJ. Etc.
Applejack is emotionally insecure enough that any one of those excuses could be enough to convince herself that it was nothing.
Oh those nights when you drunkenly plunge into a petrified deity-class eldritch abomination of chaos and disorder, accidentally liberating it from it's stony prison.
Don't you just hate it when that happens.