The Farmhouse Attic

by Rune Soldier Dan

Regrets and Rainbows

A cool night, but the house was muggy. Applejack laid atop her sheets in boxers and bra, palms sweating and eyes on the trap door. Heat in November was another farmhouse routine – the old furnace always took a few chilly days to realize full blast was too much.

Her lips moved without noise, grasping for the right words. Hard to have a conversation with the girl upstairs after all that happened between them.

A voice came from above, putting a grin on Applejack’s face. In hindsight, it was silly to fret starting a talk when Rainbow Dash was involved.

“Okay, I admit it.” Rainbow’s nasal voice leaped cheerfully from the dark. “I was a little leery of this attic guestroom thing at first, but it’s really cool. I can see for miles from this window. And then there’s the rope ladder to get up, and right opposite me is this freaky little doorway straight out of a horror movie.”

Applejack called upwards in mock concern. “You scared?”

“Nah,” came the predictable reply. “It’s just the sort of thing that like, gremlins, or button-eyed clones climb out of. Or in those family movies, where the door leads to a world of magic and fun.”

A pause. Then, “Do you think…?”

Applejack gave a chortle. “I’m pretty sure there’s no portal to Equestria in my house.”

“I’m gonna check.” Two thumps from above marked Rainbow’s descent from her bed. Low creaks matched each footstep, then a different squeal came as she opened the two-foot door.

“Holy crap, A.J., it’s got me! You got to run! It’s coming for you next! Argh, bleaugh, bluh...”

Applejack silently thanked Rainbow for keeping the ‘shouting’ low enough to not wake the house. She never moved, and a few seconds later more creaks traced Rainbow’s return to the bed.

“Yeah, there’s nothing there.”

“Told’ja.”

Bed-springs groaned as Rainbow fell to her sheets. “Kind of funny, though, it looks like it goes into the back of that big walk-in closet. You know, with all the old-timey clothes?”

“Yep.” Applejack’s grin remained firm. “What were we… nine? You grabbed the army uniform, I grabbed the Zoot Suit, and we played soldiers and gangsters. We thought Granny was going to kill us when she saw, but she just said to hang ‘em back up when we were done.”

Rainbow groaned. “After giving us a history lesson. Though it was kind of cool hearing your grandpa jumped out of airplanes.”

The conversation lapsed into a thoughtful silence, which for Rainbow meant a fifteen second wait. “Nine, huh? And I think I was eleven the last time I was here. So… five to six years since we’ve done this? Sound about right?”

“Eeyup.”

“Wow.”

Another pause came, less comfortable than the first. Applejack waited, hands behind her head.

Rainbow wore it like face paint when something was on her mind. The old attic bed played a grinding symphony as the physical girl rolled back and forth, using muscles to propel her thoughts.

No sense speaking first. Rainbow would just clam up.

Applejack counted fourteen rolls before the talk began. “Why’d you stop inviting me over? Even before Sunset forged those texts, it’s like we were already drifting.”

“Got scared,” Applejack said, shrugging into her pillow. “You never said a bad word when I told you how queer I was. I didn’t want to risk what we had, and a gay girl inviting her best friend over seemed a mighty good way to send the wrong message.”

The attic creaked, a little differently this time as Rainbow leaned from her bed. Applejack saw the shadowy head come into view, and then the glint of teeth.

“You had a crush on me, didn’t you?”

A mistake Applejack had long made peace with. She grinned back upwards, unashamed. “Sure did.”

“Thought so.” The smug voice followed as Rainbow retracted her head. “Who could resist, right? I’m that awesome.”

Applejack’s grin remained. She turned to the side, sighing as her cheek fell to a cooler part of the pillow. The heat wasn’t so bad. If she just stayed uncovered and pushed her always-chilly feet together, sleep would come easily en–

“Hey.”

The voice had no smile this time. Applejack cracked open a green eye and gazed upwards. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry. I really am.”

A gentle laugh led Applejack’s response. “Sugar, I ain’t never once apologized for liking girls, so don’t you apologize for liking guys.”

“Fair,” Rainbow said. But there was more. “I’ve been thinking about back then. You know, when we had our big fight. All five of us were friends, but these two-girl sleepovers made you and I best friends. We shared everything. I can’t help but think it opened the way for Sunset’s shit when they stopped.”

A hard, angry snort from above. “And I don’t even know if that’s just an excuse. What the hell happened, Applejack? If we had sat our dumb asses down and talked it out, Sunset’s scheme would have been Sun-sunk. Doesn’t it say something really shitty about us that three forged texts blew up our friendship?”

“Water under the bridge, Dash.” Applejack returned to her back. There would be time to sleep later.

“You’re so cool,” Rainbow chuckled. “But seriously, what happened?”

Good question. Applejack had an answer. “We were fourteen. Young. Dumb.”

Her frown morphed to a snarl, for just one second. “Proud. That’s the crux, I think, we were too damn proud. I was, at least. I wanted to make up, but you had to make the first move. You didn’t even need to apologize, just invite me somewhere to let me know we were cool with each other. When you didn’t, I… sort of figured we weren’t.”

“Me too, I guess.” Creaking bed-springs from above announced Rainbow’s return to her thought-rolling. “Same with Rarity, I can totally see her doing that. I even caught her badmouthing us at the trend-setter’s table, saying she didn’t miss us at all. I was a jerk, you were a dumb redneck, and so on. I paid her back during dodge-ball, but… looking back, obviously that only made things worse.”

Applejack nodded. “Right. And you know Rarity was just saying those things to convince herself. She didn’t mean them.”

...Probably. Rarity was always the odd one in their little cross-clique gang of friends, and that’s because she wasn’t odd. Applejack never quite learned what the rich, fashionable girl saw in the rest of them. Maybe charity – gracing the misfit losers with her presence. Or maybe she liked being around people she felt superior to.

“You don’t know that,” Applejack growled softly. “She’s fine.”

Rainbow only caught the last part. “Yeah, she’s cool enough. But what about Flutters and Pinkie Pie? They’re not blowhards like the rest of us. In hindsight I guess I’m surprised neither of them tried to reach out.”

“Pinkie’s shy in her own way,” Applejack said. “And Flutters even has it in her name. Once they got it in their minds us three wanted nothing to do with them, they packed in.”

Rainbow gave a wry chuckle. “Give Fluttershy some credit – she can hold a grudge with the best of them. And Pinkie… eh. Didn’t help that I picked a fight every time she opened her mouth. I don’t blame her for staying away; she gets enough of that from her old lady.”

“Oh, wait.” Springs creaked again as Rainbow leaned through the trap door, voice earnest. “Speaking of which, how’s your grandma doing? I saw the wheelchair when I came in.”

Damn.

No room for error, with Rainbow’s eyes upon her. Applejack turned the hitched breath into a yawn, moving her lips into an easy, folksy smile.

“Fine.”

“I heard about the cancer...”

Who the hell told you!?

Rainbow couldn’t hear the thoughts. “Listen A.J., you let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

Folksy smile. Folksy twang. Rainbow might be the Pegasus, but Applejack was the rock. “It ain’t bad at all. Doc made us bring home the wheelchair, but I think Winona’s the only one who used it.”

She nodded, to herself more than the watching Rainbow. Better this way. No sense in sharing.

Rainbow chuckled at the joke, pulling her head from sight. “Good to hear. Sorry if I’m being too real tonight. Been thinking about things… I mean, we’ve been friends since kindergarten. Three forged texts later, and bam. Two years lost we’ll never get back.”

“No sense worrying about it.” Applejack let her eyes fall closed. “Dust in the wind, that’s all.”

“Stick with ‘water under the bridge,’” Rainbow laughed. “The other one’s a little too morbid for you.”

Right. Applejack glanced to the window, smiling at the new moon. No skull tonight. “Sorry, Dash. Just an old countryism.”

“You mean an old Kansas song,” Rainbow ribbed.

A grin in reply. “Same thing, if you ask me.”

Again came the shift in Rainbow’s tone, this time to enthused attention. “Dude. On the subject, I’m going to start playing music again. You in?”

“Resurrecting the old band idea?” Applejack asked. The girls talked about it freshman year, and then Sunset happened.

...Not fair. Sunset was the match, but all their egos gave her plenty of tinder.

No time like the present. “I’m in. Now goodnight, Dash. Some of us have to wake up early to cook breakfast for y’all.”

“Sweet!” Dash squealed, voice cracking as it reached top pitch. “Gonna be so awesome. The five of us banging it out, just like it should be.”

“G’night, Dash.”

“Yeah, yeah, goodnight. But seriously, I have a name picked out for us and everything. And did you ever hear Pinkie on the drums? She did a ten minute solo once and it rocked the house!”

“‘G’night’ means ‘stop talking,’ Dash.”

“Sure, in a second. I have this amazing idea for a logo, and Rarity said it was too ‘busy’ or whatever but she’d try to make it work. And Fluttershy’s in, too. Fluttershy! All five, back together. I even talked Miss Celestia into letting us use the band room for practice. There’s rules and junk we have to follow, but oh man, let me tell you about how I got Miss Luna on board. I had my guitar, see, and she was all...”

Comments

[QueenMoriarty]

...

Did you just... give best old horse cancer?