Going Home

by Baal Bunny

One

"AJ?"

"No, Dash." Just keep walking, AJ told herself.

"But are you looking at it?"

"Can't hardly miss it." The booth stood right at the end of the midway, after all, its sign twice the size of any other at the Ponyville Fun and Frolic Festival.

"Then how can you say—?"

"No, Dash."

"Gah!" The sunny afternoon sky went all shadowy, Dash splaying herself across it, her wings flapping fast as a hummingbird's and her legs waving every which-a-way. "You said it again!"

"Eeyup." AJ tried to keep her steps firm and resolute, her gaze focused on the roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, and Tilt-a-Whirls filling the field past the row of games. Not that it was gonna do her a speck of good, she knew. Nothing in the wide, wide world of Equestria was cuter than Dash when she really wanted something, her eyes all wide and pleading, her ears all perked and quivering.

Imagining the picture, AJ couldn't help but sneak a glance—

And Dash's lower lip, stuck out and trembling, pretty much did her in. She came to a halt in front of the booth, and it took a fair amount of willpower to stop her from scooping Dash right outta the sky and peppering her all over with kisses.

But still, her last tiny sliver of self-preservation prodded AJ to ask, "Maybe it's you don't see the sign, RD?"

"You bet I do!" Dash flipped around till she was hovering with her back hooves pointed at the ground and her front hoofs gesturing to the booth. "'A unique competitive opportunity!'" she said, reading the largest and to AJ's mind the least-important words. "'Pit yourself against a friend in the most magical and mysterious maze known to Ponykind! Race through the terrain of a completely unknown alien world without ever leaving the confines of this booth! Like nothing you've ever experienced before!'"

AJ waited for her to keep going, but Dash just spun back, her face all teeth and sparkling eyes. "You and me! Racing through a place where no pony's gone before! And it's only twenty bits for the two of us!"

"Uh-huh." AJ made her own gesture toward the booth. "And the part there where it says 'Flimflam Brothers, Proprietors'?"

Dash blew air through her lips. "You've really gotta learn to let stuff go, AJ."

It took a few seconds for AJ to find her tongue. "Let stuff go? Y'mean stuff like the way them consarn Flimflams are trying to cheat either me or some other innocent ponies every single time I meet 'em?"

"Oh, now, friend Applejack!" sang out an all-too-familiar baritone.

It was followed immediately by a slightly higher pitched, "We're legitimate businessponies! Ask any of our satisfied customers!"

The two of them had popped up on either side of the little arched doorway under the sign, and past them, AJ noticed for the first time a black box as big as two ponies sitting in the center of the booth, colored lights flashing from different places all over the box. "Resort owners par excellence!" Flam announced, his mustache curling upward with his grin.

"Entertainers without peer!" Flim added.

"Purveyors of games of skill and chance to all and sundry!"

"Saturdry, too!" Flim stuck a front hoof toward his brother.

Flam clacked his own hoof against it. "Which just happens to be today!"

"Your lucky day!"

"A day that, I daresay, neither you nor Captain Dash will forget for as long as you both might live!"

Dash was absolutely vibrating in place, the breeze from her wings plenty strong enough to bat AJ's bangs around. "Captain Dash?" AJ asked, aiming her words like pebbles at Dash's fool head. "You mean the brand-spanking-new leader of the Wonderbolts who oughtta be setting a good example for all the little fillies and colts by not falling for some hucksters' slick line of patter? That Captain Dash?"

"Hey!" Dash settled to the ground with a stomp of all four hooves and shoved her snout against AJ's. "Maybe the example I'm setting has to do with not backing away from challenges! Maybe it has to do with facing down the unknown!"

"Unknown?" Try as she might, AJ couldn't keep from raising her voice. "Ain't a single thing unknown here!" She did stop herself from stomping, though, by waving at the brothers again. "They're gonna try to cheat us! That's as sure as Twilight setting the sun tonight!"

"Then perhaps," Flam said, sliding out of the booth like he had butter on his hooves, "as a show of good faith, we can make you a no-strings-attached offer?"

Flim slid right beside him. "For the price of merely ten thin bits, we will send the two of you racing through adventure courtesy of the Portal Popper XTE!"

Flam tapped a hoof against their sign. "Half our regular price!"

"And," Flim went on, "when you've experienced the undeniable thrills of this game like no other and you find yourself agreeing that it has indeed been a unique competitive opportunity, then and only then will we ask you to furnish us with the other ten bits."

"After all!" Flam's grin seemed to have more teeth in it than a pony's really ought to. "An individual such as yourself, friend Applejack, world-renowned for her honesty and integrity, would surely be willing to pay the advertised price for a service should that service turn out to be worth her time."

"Which it is." Flim had sidled up to Dash. "Even knowing the life you two have led and the mighty deeds you've done—"

"This—" Sidling up to Dash's other side, Flam dropped his voice to nearly a whisper but still emphasized each word. "This is like nothing you have ever experienced."

If Dash had been vibrating before, she was now practically a blur. "AJ?" she more squeaked than said.

With a sigh, AJ reached into her kerchief for her coin purse.

Comments

[Lurks-no-More]

Yup, no way you can keep Dash away from that. I share AJ's suspicions, but let's see what happens!

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Interesting start.