Appledashery Vol. Two

by Just Essay

Unwinnable

It had to have been midnight... or something close to it.

Applejack could scarcely tell anymore. She could barely even keep her eyes open. Nevertheless, on tried and tested hooves, she pulled a cart overflowing with fruit baskets up a steep hillside and towards the rear of the Apple Family Barn. She sensed Rainbow Dash hovering alongside, a constant and colorful presence. She yawned, and the world briefly vanished on all sides—including her friend.

Rainbow's voice snapped her back to reality: "Uhm... AJ? You sure you don't need help with—?"

"Rnnngh..." Applejack shook her head, voice moving with molasses motion. "I've... got this... Sugarcube..." Coming to a stop was more painful than moving. She nearly stumbled from the apple cart bumping into her rear. It took an extra degree of strength to unhitch herself from the apparatus altogether, stained with sweat and the ache of longterm labor as she was. "Besides, you've done enough today."

"Hey..." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I'm happy to lend a hoof. But, y'know, nothing for you to kill yourself over."

"Nonsense. I just..." Applejack fought the urge to yawn—it would be too painful. Disentangling herself from the rigging of the apple cart, she stood limply beside the barn. "I-I just know all the strengths and weaknesses of this here cart. No sense in you accidentally knocking it apart by hitting a stray rock in the ground or nothin'."

"Jee..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Don't mention it, darlin'." At long last, Applejack lost her balance. She had to lean against the back of the cart to stay upright. Somehow—after an entire evening of apple bucking with Rainbow—she had finally lost all sense of pride. She leaned lazily against the stacks of basketed fruit, bearing a drunken smile. "Whewwww-weeee!" The farm mare rubbed one freckled cheek, then the other. "I haven't bucked anythang that hard in months!"

Rainbow's voice cracked into a bearly intelligible giggle.

Applejack squinted at her in the moonlight. "What's so cotton-pickin' funny?"

"It's nothin'." Rainbow Dash insisted, waving a hoof. "I promise."

"Hmmph." Applejack fought yet another yawn. She was sorely tempted to roll over in the grass and call it a night right then and there. "For a pony who's used to the sky, ya sure do keep yer mind in the gutter an awful lot."

"Oh come on!" Rainbow's voice cracked. "That was an easy one!"

"Hmmm... reckon it was." Applejack closed her eyes, which was her first huge mistake. She leaned like a dead weight against the cart, drifting. "Reckon it was..."

Silence.

Applejack was floating away. Her only anchor was a light stetson. Hidden inside, an even lighter feather. It glinted bright and blue in the moonlight. Applejack jolted awake. As she blinked, she heard Rainbow's voice stammering...

"I wish you luck with the apples. Hope they were worth your while..."

Applejack spoke, if only to free the lump in her throat. "Rainbow, darlin'?"

"Huh?"

Applejack turned around. She slapped the apple cart firmly, and a basket fell loose. Catching it, she slid it across the grass until it stopped right against Rainbow's fetlocks.

"There ya go, sugarcube."

Rainbow Dash merely looked at it.

Applejack's forehead creased. "Didn't ya want some of your own super bad hours ago?"

Rainbow Dash slapped her own forehead. "Friggin' duh! I swear, where's my darn head these days?"

Applejack shrugged. "Beats me." A smile, and she sighed. "But I know where yer heart is."

Rainbow looked strangely at her. An innocent, foalish expression. "You d-do?"

Applejack avoided her gaze. She thought of all the wonderful things Rainbow Dash had done for her—including that evening. She thought of lengths she had gone to protect her friends, the jobs that the petite pegasus had picked up as of late... the multiple loyal commitments that she had thrown herself at, maturely. Dedicatedly.

Rainbow Dash was the epitome of loyalty. To expect anything else from her... to expect anything beyond what Applejack received already... was fantastical at best. For a moment there, Applejack couldn't believe that she was ever foolish enough to have interpeted more... to have imagined more than what she had been graciously given. Such were the sins of weighing too much into the childish murmurs of a close friend briefly clouded by cider one lonesome... lonesome evening.

"Yup." Applejack eventually murmured, leaning back against the cart again. She slumped somewhat, and folded her forelimbs with casual grace. "I just wonder where you got the gumption to build yer own homemade swill."

"Uhhhh... homemade what-now?" Rainbow stammered.

Applejack didn't know whether to blame Rainbow Dash for being adorably stupid, or herself for being too tired to make sense. "Y'know, a swill!" She smirked, yawning and gesturing at the apple basket by Rainbow's hooves. "For mixin' yer own apple cider." There was a bitter flavor to the suggestion, but Applejack assumed Rainbow didn't pick up on it.

Evidently, she was right. "Oh, puh-lease," Rainbow exhaled. "Like I know anything about making my own cider!"

"No shame in admittin' the truth, Rainbow Dash," Applejack murmured, mostly to herself. Her eyes closed and the fuzziness of the night spread all over her, inside and out. "You certainly earned them apples you've got ten times over..."

"Applejack, for crying out loud! The truth is... I miss apple cider really, really bad."

"Hmmm..." Applejack felt herself putting on a wry smirk. "That's what I thought..." She yawned again. Her forelimbs tickled, yearning for a feather to cradle... to carry her away from the sweat and grime and ache.

"...would have been just fine leaving without the apples," somepony said. Somepony adorable. "Just knowing that I did something to help you..."

Applejack had helped a pony before. It was a delightful feeling. A precious feeling.

Still... just a feeling... like the illusion of being cuddled in the dark. Having her blonde mane stroked. Or having somepony to hold... to come home to. To protect... to provide for... to possess.

If Rainbow Dash was anything like Applejack, then she was a mare who understood—deep down inside—what it meant to earn something. She wasn't some helpless foal... some yearning soul that was desperate for the nebulous and unwinnable. There wasn't a dreamly star for her to wish on and make her dreams come true.

And yet, Applejack couldn't help but wonder... perhaps even wish that there was a sliver of her left from that one dark alleyway in the lofty heights of Canterlot...

She couldn't help but wish there was somepony out there, just as precious, just as yearning... desiring to be saved. To be rescued. To be rewarded.

"Wish... wish ya could win it all too..."

Applejack shuddered. It was the first tear that awoke her to the fact that she was the one speaking.

With a gasp, her moist eyes twitched open.

A faint fog hung low over the lawn of Sweet Apple Acres. The grass was soaking with dew, and the dimmest hint of a rising sun kissed the east horizon.

Rainbow Dash was long gone, along with her basket. Applejack had slept against the apple cart all night.

"Mrmmmfff..." Applejack rubbed her freckles dry and stood up on stiff limbs. "Darn... stupid varmint."

She could have been talking about Rainbow Dash, but she knew better.

She pushed the cart into the barn... then limped her exhausted way to the house.

And into a brisk, cold shower.

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

I suppose there are worse places to sleep than on the lawn of your own property, Dash would tell you that much.

[Lamplighter]

Now I'm curious to see what kind of shenanigans Apple.pon gets up to while Rainbow one is out not east-horsing.

[Leftover of Saikano]

If an apple tree sleeptalks in a farm and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

[Booster Spice]

Really throws you off when that happens. At least I managed to actually climb up onto my bed before waking up in the morning still on hands and knees.

[kihutaja]

Vol 1: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/149893/58/appledashery/apples-all-in-a-row

[zaponator]

I do believe this is the part where Rainbow Dash disappears for a bit of an adventure.
It'll be interesting to see what Applejack was up to in those days.