Appledashery Vol. Two

by Just Essay

Loyalty Lends

Applejack was a sweaty earth pony... but that didn't mean she couldn't master the fine art of hoofwriting. Or—perhaps in this case—mouthwriting. She stood with the clipboard lying atop the kitchen counter, and she spent an extraordinary amount of time writing her name in exquisite cursive.

More often than not, throughout her life, her short summer with the Oranges in Manehattan worked wonders...

She was doing just fine until the damned adorable sky horse next to her cracked her voice: "Wowsers, Applejack. Who knew you could get all fancy with your letters?"

"Mrmmfy mffr mffr... Nnngh..." Applejack finished the signature and spat her pen out. "Ptooie! Hardy har har, Rainbow. Just because I buck apples all day doesn't make me any less educated or refined than the next pony."

"I didn't mean anything nasty by it!" Rainbow exclaimed, she picked up the clipboard and fidgeted in place awkwardly.

Applejack didn't give her a chance to cover for herself. "Well, good. Cuz I can't imagine them folks yer workin' for payin' ya to sass the clients!"

"Jeez, what's with you and that 's' word, anyways?" Rainbow slid the clipboard into her yellow apron. "Take the first letter off, and you've got what you sound like each time you use it."

"I'm just pullin' yer tail feathers, sugarcube."

"I don't have tail feathers, AJ," Rainbow grunted.

"Ya know what I mean." Applejack squinted at her. "If ya don't mind me askin', just why are ya doin' the whole apron-fly-by thang anyways?"

"What?" Rainbow Dash blinked. "Don't act like you haven't seen me in the delivery business before."

"Sure, but that was—what—two years ago? A year and a half? Seems to me that—once we all settled into Twilight's delightful little posse and all—you gave up all the borin' stuff and just started chasing your dreams."

"Yeah, well, let's just say I had to wake up," Rainbow said. A shrug. "Just a little."

"Yeah..." Applejack murmured under her breath. Her eyes fell to the floor, observing... admiring her clueless friend's tiny, tiny hooves. "Ya doin' alright for yerself, sugarcube?" Applejack she asked, immediately regretting it. "Ya ain't starvin' for bits, are ya?"

"Hah! Who, me?" Rainbow Dash smirked as devilishly as ever. Applejack felt dismayed and relieved all at once. "I'm the last pony you should ever be worried about, Anxiousjack!"

Applejack blinked, and once again she imagined the pale statue shards. The dark alleyway. Pursed lips and delicate breaths. "Didn't say nothin' about being worried, darlin'—"

"I'm just savin' up for something gnarly, that's all!" Rainbow breathed steadily. "Yup. Got my eyes set on something radical and I figured getting a second job to cover things would be pretty smexical."

Applejack felt like snorting. "Pretty what?"

"Smexical! Pfft. I don't blame you for not knowing what it means. I just made it up!" Rainbow tossed her mane in extra-adorable fashion. "That's how confident about how awesome things are going!"

Applejack felt like giggling. She stifled it—however—beneath a sisterly breath. "Oh! Well... erm... I'm... plum glad that you're in such a good spot!"

"Dang straight! It's a good time to be alive!" Rainbow Dash looked at her. "Yeah... so... very good... and alive..."

Applejack stared back.

She bit her lip.

She tried not to tremble.

What if there was more?

What if all of Rainbow's nonchalance over the past week and a half had been an act...?

Rainbow crushed all of that with a perky exclamation: "Whelp! Best be going!" She turned tail and made for the nearest window.

Applejack honestly didn't want her to leave, and she almost hated herself for having a legitimate excuse to prevent it: "Rainbow... you forgettin' something, sugarcube?"

"Huh?" Rainbow stopped, gazing about in a silly stupor. At long last, she realized she was still holding the undelivered package. With an inward groan, she placed the box down and chuckled. "Eheheheh... I guess you kinda/sorta did sign for this, didn't ya?"

Applejack smiled. "No sense in gettin' you fired on your first week back to doing the age-old rounds, eh?"

"Nope. Thanks, AJ."

"Heh, don't mention it."

"Must be a whole lot easier... y'know..." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Working for yourself all the time."

Applejack opened her muzzle to reply... but nothing came out. The weight of the hat—or more appropriately the treasure hidden inside the hat—was threatening to shatter her spine now. And yet, in spite of that, she kept looking for excuses to make Rainbow stay longer. She hated herself for it. However, thankfully, she couldn't come up with a legitimate thing to say. After all—at that point—it simply wouldn't be honest.

And if Applejack was anything...

"You are..." Rainbow broke the silence, leaning forward. "...doing okay for yourself, aren't you?"

Applejack didn't even bother to think that Rainbow Dash may have been inferring that from her silence. She instantly remembered all of the emotional, melancholic confessions concerning the farm that she had given on the weekend of the Gala. She sighed with a hopeful smile aimed in Rainbow's direction... or at least a smile that she deemed "hopeful."

"We've had better apple buck seasons, Rainbow, to be perfectly honest," she said. "But don't you fret none. Me and Macky and Granny are gonna pull on through."

Rainbow blew out the side of her muzzle. "Hey! Wh-who's worried? After all, you're used to pulling yourself back up by your horseshoe-straps, right?"

"And, odds are, these are just that," Applejack said, tapping the box.

"What, silly analogies?"

"Horseshoes," Applejack said. "Big Mac's been needing some for the longest time. With a bunch of new ones, he can pull his weight at least twice as fast. Reckon that'll give us the edge that we need. Well, him, anyway."

"But... but I thought..." Rainbow blinked. "Er, I mean, with what we talked about back at Canterlot... about your financial situation and all..."

"Yeah...?"

"I mean, can you really afford to invest in the new shoes?"

Applejack looked aside. "Well..."

"And if so much rides on Big Mac, then why'd you let him run off to Fluttershy's place for the medicine? I'm making good time today. I could zip on over to her cottage and make the delivery myself, y'know!" She smiled. "Totally free of charge—"

Rainbow's loyal suggestions were refreshing. But—in some selfish way—Applejack perceived them painfully. After all, that loyalty wasn't exclusive... or at least not as exclusive as the farm mare was silly enough to think at one point...

"Quite frankly, right at this moment..." Applejack looked plainly at Rainbow. "Big Macintosh could use all the fellowship and enjoyment he can afford." A gulp. "Matter of fact, we all could."

Rainbow looked visibly worried. It reminded Applejack of how Rarity or Fluttershy might likewise react to bad news, and that was a sobering thing. "AJ...? How... just how bad is—"

"You'd best be zippin' along to yer next delivery, Rainbow." Applejack interjected. To keep from coming across as rude, she trotted over and rested a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. She did her best to ignore how close the mare's silk-soft prismatic bangs were to her fetlock. "If it's all the same to you, I'd..." The mother of all winces, but Applejack hid it. Like a mother. "...I'd rather not repeat too much of the conversation we had on the weekend of the Gala. It was a very good gab, and I'm glad you were there for me to lean on, but... well... You remember how much of a blubbering mess I was, don'tcha?"

"Why... yeah!" Rainbow's voice cracked in spite of the subject matter. "Totally! Of... course I do..."

"Life's simple, Rainbow." Applejack leaned back. "I'm strong when I'm at my strongest." She chuckled at that, hoping it wasn't half as stupid to hear as it was to say. "Now git!" She pointed enthusiastically towards the windows. "I've got me some apples to buck, and thank you mighty kindly for deliverin' Big Macintosh's horseshoes all good and proper."

"Hey... uhm..." Rainbow eventually made a fluttering exit. "Don't mention it..."

"I'll be sure to catch you and the girls soon. Just... no time for Sugarcube Corner sessions." Applejack trotted the opposite way, leaving out the kitchen door. "Not this week..."

Rainbow didn't respond. Half-a-minute later, Applejack heard the tell-tail flap of wings. She glanced back in time to see a spectral streak splitting the sky—rocketing towards Ponyville.

In more ways than Applejack could count, the colors of her life were leaving faster and faster. Faster than she could even recognize them.

She swallowed the fear down—along with the lump in her throat—and returned to the orchards before the ennui could set in.

Comments

[The Danish Adonis]

Can someone with a better memory than mine give me a quick chronological recap of the Arcs/main points of the first, Rainbow-centered story?

[Booster Spice]

The farm finally gets some heavy iron in to start getting work done?

[Sam the Anti-Ninja]

Y'know, the crushing loneliness is sad and all, but the saddest part of AJ's perspective in this arc is that we miss the Buffalo. BUFFALO!!

[Phoenix Kitten]

8477890
Let's see...
Dash joins Banner company to earn cash to stop being kicked out of her house.
On a delivery to Filthy Rich in Canterlot she gets sent to Buffalo mountain where she saves them from a basilisk using them as chess pieces against a cyclops, which helps set AJ up financially since Filthy needs her apples to make pies to pay off the buffalo so they can excavate the mountain.
Her boss points her to Noir for some shady but well paying work
Lancie sticks with her after she steals a job from the psycho griffon.
Dash rescues Iron Will and some Deer from a bunch of Diamond Dogs with a tank powered by a fragment of Discord.
Then she heads to Manehatten and spends a week with Photo Finish, curing her disease with her reward for retrieving the fragment of Discord.
After that was Dredgemane, where she went up against Sunset, who was using the fragment to control some giant wheels, then Trixie when she was corrupted by the fragment.
Stu shows up.
Then the road trip with Stu and AJ to Fillyda that lead to the cider space arc against Flim and Flam.
Dash crafts a letter and Applebloom gets bit by a snake.
Dash and Lancie travel to the dragon lands, join forces with the villains briefly, help a group of russian squirrels assault a floating castle, then steal the remaining fragments from a baby dragon while he's being chastised by his mother.
Lancie revives Dash, gives her the flowers needed to make the cure then peaces out.
The Hurricane teams and camping trip happen.
Dash goes on a drunken rampage and is carted off to Las Pegasus by her drinking buddies, where she has a run in with her first ex.
She sells most of her belongings and enters the equestrian marathon after losing her house, gets shitfaced and accidentally concusses Vinyl before being picked up by AJ after spending a good hour or more cratering the ground.

[The Danish Adonis]

8478271
That seems right, thanks

[Giltor]

8478271
As far as I remember:
Buffalo first.
Then delivery for Noir.
Then "Meet Lancie".
And then Diamond Dogs and B-Сube.

[zaponator]

I'm definitely seeing why she tried to make things work with Stu Leaves now. At the same time, seeing why things could never have worked with Stu Leaves.

[Aatxe360]

8481103

Eh, fine.