Quirks of a Feather
Days later...
"Rnnngh!" Stu Leaves kicked a tree. Apples neatly fell from the branches and filled a basket below. Wiping his brow, he turned to look at the farm mare. "I'm not making it up! I... uh... read it in a magazine somewhere!"
"Pffft! Yeah, what publication?" Applejack snorted, pushing a wagon wheel into place beside a row of trees. "Grand Idiots Anonymous?"
"No, it was... uhm... some kind of health journal!" Stu smiled crookedly. "Supposedly, you earth ponies have denser bones and muscles than the rest of us!"
"Let's make one thang clear..." Applejack's muzzle hung between a smirk and a fround. "'Us earth ponies' dun rely on physicality as much as we rely on family and a hard-workin' spirit. Unlike y'all pegasi who rely on... on..."
"Actually..." Stu smiled. "The journal said we've got more 'fast-twitch muscle fibers'."
"Pffft! What a load of hooey! I've known some pegasi in my day who are lumps of laziness who refuse to move."
"Hah! Now who's generalizing?"
"Oh go shut yer cloud-trap." Applejack's muzzle scrunched as she faced her wagon. "Shucks... shucks a'plenty..."
"What's the matter? Run out of insults?"
"Quiet, you."
"Heheheh..."
Applejack tilted her hat back. "I dun have enough baskets for today's work. Reckon I should go fetch some more."
"Oh! I'll go!" Stu's wingtips fluttered. "I know where you keep them, AJ! It'll just be a second—"
"Naw..." Applejack pointed as she trotted down the hill. "You stick around here and keep practicing the apple buckin'."
"You sure? I mean... from the looks of it... heheheh... I think I just about have it down pat!"
"Keep on dreamin', ya varmint. Ya still need practice."
"Rnnngh!" Stu Leaves kicked another tree, causing fruit to fall. "At this rate... I can own an apple farm on my own in no time!"
"Uh huh..." Applejack droned, approaching the center of the farmstead.
Granny Smith sat on a rocking chair, sipping from a glass of lemonade. "You doin' okay, AJ?" she asked casually.
"Eeeyup." Applejack opened the barn door and stuck half-her body in to fetch a stack of empty baskets. "Gettin' an early start on the next harvest."
Granny Smith bore a wrinkled smile. "Is he doin' okay, AJ?"
"Eh... he's still light as a feather..." Applejack heaved the baskets over her flank and stepped out of the barn. "Both inside and outside."
"Still, he seems to be showin' up on the farm an awful lot."
"You noticed that too, huh?" Applejack gave Granny a passing smile. "Nice to see you restin' up, Granny. You deserve it."
"Well, with all the work that's been gettin' done around here, reckon I can afford it now."
"Darn tootin'."
Granny Smith swirled her lemonade glass with a knowing grin. "Not gonna lie... I wouldn't mind affordin' it for even longer."
Applejack scuffled to a stop in her tracks. Huffing a sigh, she glared tiredly in Granny's direction. "I'm just showin' him the ropes, Granny."
"Mmmm... I bet."
"He's a friend, nothin' else." Applejack smirked wryly. "Really... would I even pretend to embarrass myself by gettin' attached to the likes of him?"
"I dunno..." Granny took another sip and pointed at a blue shade that had descended on the hilltop. "...looks like there's plenty of embarrassment to go around."
"Huh?" Applejack turned around, squinting. Her eyes reflected a prismatic plume of mane hair. "Awwwwwwwwwww shucks..."
"What's the matter, AJ?" Granny Smith tried in futility to contain a cantankerous cackling. "Nothin' should be plum awkward between friends! Hyeh hyeh hyeh hyeh!"
"We need ya to go join a red-hat-club or somethin'," Applejack muttered, carrying the stack of baskets uphill. "At this point, yer gettin' worse than Big Mac when he used to yap on and on!"
"Why dun ya offer them both lemonade while it's still cold?!"
"Gotta test how tepid the other waters are first!" Applejack hollered back. Sweating, she approached the hilltop just as Stu Leaves was rambling before Rainbow Dash.
"Pffft... come on, silly!” He chuckled. “We met not long ago! At the Saddlehay Soiree, remember?”
“Sisterhooves social,” Applejack corrected, marching up and dropping the baskets beside the wagon. “Honestly, can't ya ever get it right, one time, Stu?”
“Eugh...” He rolled his eyes, chuckling. “So help me! I'm new around here!”
Applejack smiled at him. “Thankfully you're useful for yer wings, not so much as yer head.”
“Hardy har har.”
Applejack turned and gazed up at her friend. Her friend. There was no awkward breaths—not even the slightest flutter or tickle beneath her empty hat. It was remarkably refreshing—better than Granny's lemonade. “Howdy, Rainbow!" She smiled. "What brings you around these parts on such a warm, sunny day!”
Rainbow Dash hovered in mid-air, looking peculiarly nervous... short on sleep. "I... just... I felt like—”
“Oh AJ!” Granny's voice called from the farmstead. “Don't forget to drop off the irrigation equipment y'all borrowed from them Harvest ponies up the road! It was right neighborly of them to lend us the tools, and wouldn't be proper to hold 'em any longer! Ya hear?!”
Applejack called back. “Darn tootin', Granny! I'll get right on that!”
Lost for words, Rainbow Dash looked in a daze towards the farmstead. There was a wavering motion to her levitation.
Applejack couldn't help but mention it, among other things: “You look out of sorts, Rainbow!” She said. A pale flicker crossed her mind—of a mischievous fashionista giggling somewhere in some dark chamber. She cleared her throat, powering through it. "Seems like I haven't seen ya in ages! How are ya, darlin'?”
I've been... around," Rainbow muttered. She looked hard at Applejack. "You look really friggin' happy.”
Applejack's breath left her like a gunshot. “Heh!” She guffawed, surprised at herself, even. “And why shouldn't I be? The farm's doin' well and there ain't no cloud in the sky! Couldn't have asked Celestia for a better day even if she were to carve it herself!”
“You can say that again!” Stu Leaves exclaimed.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Now now, Stu, nopony likes an echo.”
“Erm... r-right... Sorry...”
Applejack couldn't stop chuckling. Rainbow Dash was certainly right. "Honestly, Stu, don't ya go all Fluttershy on us. My brother's liable to start chasin' after ya!”
“Hahah... that's funny.” Stu smiled... but eventually fidgeted. “Uhm... you are joking, r-right?”
Rainbow Dash squirmed in mid-hover. “Applejack, who is—?”
“You mean to tell me ya don't recognize Stu Leaves?” Applejack exclaimed, trotting around the wagon. “Ponyville's newest weather flier?”
“I... uh... I-I can't say that I do...”
“I was trying to tell her that we met at the Summerhorse Seminar,” Stu said.
“Sisterhooves Social! Heavens to Betsy!” Applejack threw a wink at Rainbow Dash. “They certainly don't teach much more than flight at flight school, do they, Rainbow?”
“I wouldn't know,” Rainbow droned. “I never finished.”
“Oh, you're a Cloudsdalian alright!” Stu Leaves said enthusiastically. “I can smell it off your feathers!”
“Down, boy,” Rainbow muttered. “Really, though, I've lived in Ponyville for several years.”
“Yeah, but you can never take the clouds out of your mane!” Stu chuckled and sighed. “Hoooo boy, am I finding that out the hard way.”
“Awwww... you've been doing alright in my book, Stu,” Applejack said. “Besides, yer doin' the right thang, what with lendin' a hoof here on the farm—”
“He's been helping out on the farm?!” Rainbow Dash's voice cracked.
“Well, sure!” Applejack smiled with honest pride. “A real helpin' hoof, this here Stu. I'm surprised you two haven't run into each other in the skies!”
“Yeah!” Stu exclaimed. “All week on weather detail, I haven't seen you, Miss Dash!”
“Please," Rainbow exhaled. "Just call me Dash.”
“Dash. Everywhere I go, ponies talk about how awesome and amazing you are! Even above the rooftops of Ponyville with the other pegasi!” Stu Leaves chuckled. “If I hadn't seen you at the...” He looked nervously at Applejack. “...Sisterhooves Social...” He smiled back at Rainbow. “...I would have guessed you were just some crazy legend!”
“Heheheh!” Applejack chuckled as she placed the baskets against the trees. “He's learnin'!”
“I've been... uhm...” Rainbow Dash rubbed her forelimbs together. “Uhhh... how do I put this...”
“Rainbow Dash here has been a super busy pony as of late!” Applejack exclaimed, packing as many baskets of apples into the wagon as possible. “What, with all her deliveries and cross country flights n'all...”
“Oh! A delivery pony!” Stu smiled up at her. “Even more that we have in common! I work part-time at the local post office!”
“Uh huh...” Rainbow's voice wavered up and down like awkward karaoke. “...that's nice...”
“Boy, I tell you what. I never thought a small-town parcel service would be so exciting!" Stu Leaves grinned in Applejack's direction. "Between that hilariously sweet pegasus with bubbles for cutie marks and all the random explosions that happen in this town, I can't get no end of excitement—”
“Welcome to Ponyville, Stu Leaves,” Applejack said in a low tone, giving Rainbow Dash a passing wink as she trotted the line of apple trees. “It only goes downhill from here.”
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Dont forget the Bachelorettes Bahaus.
Wow, East horse meet Noh Spark, and theres no Earth Shattering Kaboom?
Applejack Foreshadowing. Appleshadowery?
Wait, does it count as foreshadowing if it's essentially an alternate perspective recap?
8614530
Kind of, there are events that we never saw play out from Dash's perspective. Sooo. yeah, foreshadowing.
So Dash just got back from Manehatten, next is Dredgemane, after that is the trip to Fillyda and Cider Space.
And so does the OTP.
Granny Smith ya sassy gal. Seems like she knows about both Stu's and Rainbow's... taste for apples.
Gotta love Granny.
Downhill and a half.
8614492
But they're not on Earth, silly!
So how would you know about the Kaboom?
8630839
I know what I am.
Update this story pleeeeeeease
Nothing like the feeling of binge reading and getting REALLY into an epic story, and then seeing it hasn't updated for 3 months. Such is life. At least it was thoroughly enjoyable for the week it lasted.
8815448
Don't worry, it'll live.
Rip this fic