It's A Lonely Cause

by FamousLastWords

Rebel Girl

Flitter stood in front of the Apple Family wagon, the sun shining bright in the midday sky. Ponyville was bustling as usual on a Friday afternoon, but she was on a mission and would not be deterred. She needed apples. She needed them now.

“Alright, Flitter,” Applejack said with her usual bright smile. “What can I do ya’ for?”

“Hmm,” Flitter rubbed her chin. “I need three jazz apples, two pink ladies, a couple granny smiths, and… a red not-so-delicious for my sister. She’s been getting on my nerves recently.”

Applejack shrugged. “Alrighty then.” She peered over her various barrels and plucked out the requested fruits. She put them all in a bag and held it out for Flitter to take. “These look good to ya?”

Flitter briefly inspected all the apples meant for herself but took special care with the one for Cloudchaser. She took it out and eyeballed it briefly before throwing it back to Applejack. “This red delicious is too… good looking. Don’t you have one with some mushy spots or a dent or two?”

Applejack blinked a few times. “Well, I ‘spose I could find something like that. The customer’s always right and all… I guess.” Applejack sold her soul and sifted through her baskets of apples before finding one at the bottom that seemed to fit the bill. “This one doesn’t have any dents, but I did have to pry it from a cobweb. Will that work for ya?”

Flitter took one look at the brown spot adorning it’s side and the traces of cobweb still stuck to the stem. “Perfect! She’ll hate—I mean, she’ll absolutely love it!”

Applejack raised a brow. “Alrighty then, that’ll be ten bits.”

Flitter tossed the requested coinage to Applejack and happily took her bag of apples. “Thank you so much, Applejack. I can’t wait to devour these later. They make the perfect ‘not sure if I’m hungry or just depressed’ meal!”

Applejack moved her hat aside to scratch her head. “Well, can’t say I disagree with you, but you and your sis’ must be having one doozy of a spat to request an apple like that. It’s quite literally the bottom of the barrel.”

“Yeah, well,” Flitter kicked at the ground. “She’s just been extra annoying recently. It’s like we’ve argued about every little thing this past week.”

Applejack waved a hoof. “Say no more, I’ve got a sister, too. Been there and done that plenty of times. Sometimes it seems Apple Bloom pounces on my last nerve just for the fun of it.”

“You can say that again.” Flitter quickly tied the bag of apples to her saddle. “Well, I’ll be seeing ya’ Applejack. I’ve gotta get home and—”

“Whoa! Flitter, watch out!”

“Huh—ack!”

Flitter dodged the swooping pegasus above her, but almost bit into that not-so-delicious apple she had purchased for her sister. Thankfully, her teeth just grazed it, but it was enough to know that it certainly wasn’t so delicious.

She pawed at her mouth, trying to get the abomination that was on her tongue off of it, only for the now two ponies beside her to speak up. “Ahem.”

Flitter looked up to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash, their heads tilted at her.

Rainbow spoke up first. “Hey Flitter… you alright? I didn’t mean to almost run into you.”

“I’m… fine,” she replied, dusting the dirt from Rainbow’s near-crash landing off of her. “Let’s just say that apple you picked for my sister is going to make her love me.” She looked over at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow? What are you doing here? You’re usually on your second nap by this time of early afternoon.”

“Psh, whatever. It’s only my first nap time of the day. Besides, I really needed to see the only pony that can beat me in a hoof-wrestling contest,” Rainbow Dash said, smirking. “But that’s the only thing she can beat me at— oof!”

Applejack walloped her marefriend in the back of the head. “Gotta stop ya before you say too much and get yourself in a world of trouble.” She giggled when she saw Rainbow Dash rubbing the back of her head. “Besides, I’m able to keep up with ya in one other thing, but I don’t think she’d be interested in hearing that.”

Flitter felt her ears burn up. “Didn’t think I’d be getting apples and a life-altering mental image today.”

Dash waved a hoof at Flitter. “AJ wasn’t even trying with that one.” She gave the innocent pegasus a smirk. “But whatever. She knows she loves me.” Rainbow gave her marefriend a quick peck on the check before turning back to Flitter.

Flitter gagged a bit at the display of affection. It wasn’t that she had anything personal against their relationship, she was just getting tired of being reminded about her own relationship woes. AKA the fact that she didn’t have one.

Rainbow picked up on her distaste. “No worries, Flitter. You’ll understand when you finally find somepony special. It’ll happen someday I’m sure.”

Flitter felt her face heat up. Hopefully someday soon.

Applejack whacked Rainbow upside the head. “You really need to learn to control your mouth around other ponies.”

Flitter groaned as the two of them broke into a couple-ish argument about herself. They were just having a fun time, at her expense of course. Although, to be honest, it was pretty funny… until Rainbow Dash said she’d find someone. In fact, she has had somepony on her mind over the past year. He was tall, dark, handsome, had great hair and was downright dripping with sexyness.

And sexyness His name was Poptart!

It was as if the universe had opened its arms to her with love and adoration the day they met. Well, she was mostly drunk at a concert, but hey, life just works out that way sometimes. She and her sister were attending a local concert in a dingy bar in Manehattan to see a death metal band called CelestiaShallBurn when it happened. He was the lead vocalist of the band, and she was a nervous, shy pegasus. She still is that, since she normally wouldn’t have had the courage to talk to somepony of such moderate popularity, but when he tried to do a stage-dive during the final song only to accidentally land on her, bringing them both to the floor, she knew it must’ve been true love. There were no two-ways about it. It was meant to be.

“I know I will, Rainbow Dash,” Flitter said confidently, puffing her chest out, and her wings snapping to attention.

Rainbow Dash smiled. “Atta girl, Flitter! It’s a shame you don’t have somepony now. If you did you’d be able to join Ponyville’s Hearts and Hooves Day Scavenger Hunt!”

“The what-a-what now?” Flitter rose both of her eyebrows.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “The Scavenger Hunt that Princess Cadence is hosting here in Ponyville for Hearts and Hooves Day! Ponies all around town can’t stop talking about it!”

Flitter raised her brows for the second time. How come she hadn’t heard of it then? She’s been out for most of the day! “Really? But wait a second… Hearts and Hooves Day was like a month ago.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a belated celebration,” Applejack piped up. “Cadance got wrapped up with Flurry Heart learning destruction spells the actual day of or it would’ve been on the actual day. But yes ma’am, it’s a couples only scavenger hunt where the goal is to solve riddles spread all throughout town and see who can finish first. I’ve been having ponies in town mosey on up to me all week asking if I was goin’ with Rainbow Dash. Not that I’d have a choice.” She gently nuzzled Rainbow’s cheek. “I ‘spose I could do worse.”

Flitter watched as Rainbow Dash returned the favor, nudging her marefriend in the shoulder. The cowpony winced a bit, only to smirk back at Dash with a bit of glint in her eye, something that Flitter knew was not something she should be seeing.

“Anyway…” Flitter said, only for her voice to trail off. The couple stepped away from each other and shared an awkward chuckle.

“Sorry there, Flitter. We got a bit carried away.”

Flitter shook her head. “It wasn’t too much, Rainbow Dash,” —It was totally too much, but she didn’t want to make them mad— “Thank you for your help, Applejack. And… uh, Rainbow Dash, when is this scavenger hunt happening?”

Rainbow Dash smirked and hoofed her a flier. “Tomorrow! Lucky for you, I got another flier just in case I ran into somepony who was interested!”

Hesitantly, Flitter took it, looking it over briefly. The ‘Belated Hearts and Hooves Day Scavenger Hunt’ was taking place in front of Twilight’s old castle. It says to ‘bring someone you love from the bottom of your heart’, as each couple will be finding clues to help bring them ‘closer together’. Flitter found herself heating up at the thought of being with Poptart, alone in the forest, leaning on him for support and asking for him to protect her through thick and thin… Oh! It was making her want to find him! After all, he’s only in town for the next few days!

Flitter looked at Rainbow Dash and grinned. “This is really cool! Thank you, Rainbow Dash!”

“You’re welcome! Now all you need to do is get yourself a special sompo— oof!”

“Ignore her, sugarcube,” Applejack stated. “Don’t feel the need to rush anything. There’ll be plenty of these things in the future.”

“Y-Yeah,” Flitter stuttered out. “Thanks again!”

Flitter trotted away from the two, her mind racing at the thought of seeing Poptart again. She was going to ask him, and he was going to say yes, and the perfect day would initiate in less than twenty-four hours! She looked at the flier with a bright grin as she walked away from the apple stand.

She so had to go home and rub this in her sister’s face.

---

Flitter walked on the boulevard of her hopefully not broken dreams, ones that will soon become her reality assuming there’s an ounce of good left in the world. Her plan was flawless, her methods were the picture of perfection, and she knew that it would go off without a hitch so long as her sister wasn’t involved… which she wasn’t! All she had to do was get home and give her sister that abomination Applejack called an apple, and she could relish in that sweet pre-victory celebration. She couldn’t wait any longer. She needed to get home now.

Flitter raced around the corner. Her and her sister’s place was just a few hoofsteps away. If she was lucky, there wouldn’t be anypony else to stop her, even if it was the hunk that was standing in front of her, waving at her and—

“Hey, Flitter!”

Suddenly, Flitter’s eyes widened. She skidded promptly to a halt. Her heart began to race as the stallion that was on her mind was walking up to her, that whimsical smile gracing his face. It was Poptart. It was him! What was he doing here?! She wasn’t ready!

“P-Poptart?!”

He gave her a quirky smile. “Yep, that’s my name! Or it was the last time I checked, heh. What’s up? On your way home I take it?”

Flitter took a moment to regain her senses. She had to blink away her stasis so she could finally utter something intelligible. “Y-Yeah, you know. Going home. Where I live. With my sister. It’s you know… where I reside and stuff.”

Poptart cocked an eyebrow at her before slowly nodding. “Gotcha.” He eyeballed the bag attached to her saddle. “I take it you were out shopping this afternoon? Did you get anything good?”

She caught herself staring at him again. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She nodded her head. “Oh yeah! I was just getting some apples, because you know… they're like… good and stuff.” She just couldn’t help herself but to look at him. His hot pink coat, black and pink mane… those silver eyes. He was perfect!

“Apples?” he replied. “I love apples! Jazz, pink lady, granny smith… they’re all so good!”

He even liked the same apples as her! He was such a beautiful specimen of a stallion.

“...but I’ll tell you what,” he continued. “Red Delicious are totally my favorite!”

Okay, so he was almost perfect. She could still work with that.

Before Flitter had a chance to speak, Poptart’s eyes travelled down to the flier sticking out from under her saddle. A smile instantly spread on his face. “Oh, are you participating in the Hearts and Hooves day thing?”

“Huh?” It took Flitter a moment to come back down from her adventures on cloud nine. “Oh! Yeah! Well, I mean, I want to! It seems like a lot of fun!”

“Totally!” Poptart replied. “From what the flier said it seems like it’s going to be a blast!”

An awkward silence built up between them. This was Flitter’s chance. The conversation was set, the scene was built up and all she had to do was take the plunge and ask. She could do this. She was meant to do this. The universe was literally handing her happiness on a silver platter and she just needed to take the first step. It was time to shine and make her dreams come—

“So,” Poptart stated after clearing his throat. “I don’t suppose you have anyone to partner with do you?”

He made the first move. She was not prepared for this. She had to think quickly. Luckily, a lightbulb lit in her head. She had to pull out all the stops and do the one thing guys can’t resist.

Flirt.

“Oh, well, I might…” she said, using her softest sweetest tone. Flitter flittered her eye and fluttered her mane in his direction. “I guess it just depends on how this conversation go— “

“Cool!” he replied, interrupting her golden globe worthy performance. “Well, see you later!”

And just like that, he walked past her. Flitter was left behind, frozen in place in a very flirtatious pose. She couldn’t believe it. She pulled herself together and turned around. He was already a good thirty hoofsteps away.

“Wait! I have to ask you something!” She cried out. “Come back!”

He paid her no mind, most likely unable to hear her. Flitter pouted for a moment before rolling her eyes. That did not go as planned.

She let out a deep sigh and muttered to herself. “Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to ask him later.”

She was fairly close to her home at this point and she still had a good deal of bragging to do to her sister. Sure, she hadn’t officially made it a date with Poptart, but all things in due time. She wasn’t going to let a little awkward conversation get in the way of her enjoyment.

Slowly but surely now, she walked up to the front door of her place. She knocked on it a bit, just to let her sister know she was at the door. She could hear a rather obnoxious “It’s open you birdbrain!” from the inside, but she paid it no heed, Flitter just threw the door wide open and moseyed on in. She set her saddlebag on the counter and walked into the living room, finding her sister humming to herself, nonchalantly laying on the couch with her head up against a pillow. Cloudchaser had some gentle rock and roll playing from the nearby stereo in their living room.

“What are you listening to?” Flitter asked.

Cloudchaser stopped her humming session to look over at her sister, smirking. “Nothing in particular… just a bit of A Neigh to Remember’s newest single. They went a bit softer on this track, though, not sure if I like it yet.”

“Their newest single?!”

“Yeah, came out last week. Lots of ponies were talking about it! It’s sad that you missed out on all the hype…”

Flitter tuned out her sister. Her voice was grating her ears. After all, she was more worried about why she saw Poptart just outside their place. Something wasn’t right here. She needed to find out why.

Cloudchaser rolled her eyes and released a large sigh. “...I wish I could’ve gotten to listen to them live, but we had that little mishap with you know who.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Flitter said, grumbling to herself. “I know Spike didn’t mean to, but how he managed to short circuit the entire sound system in the venue with just one burp is beyond me. He needs to never drink alcohol again.” She shuddered at the thought of that night, her Post Traumatic Spike Disorder coming back full strength.

“Definitely! Especially a Fireball Pop with a nine-to-ten alcohol to coke ratio,” Cloudchaser said. She whistled, something that made Flitter wish she could flitter her ears closed.

“Exactly…” Flitter muttered. She tilted her head. “Hey, do you know why Poptart was just outside our place a few minutes ago? I almost ran right into him.”

Cloudchaser waved a hoof dismissively at her sister. “Oh, he was over to talk about the upcoming scavenger hunt that Princess Cadance is hosting!”

Flitter’s eyes widened. “He came all the way over here just to talk to you about it? He’s staying halfway across town.”

“Why are you even surprised?” Cloudchaser said, rolling her eyes. “Everypony knows about it! What, are you just hearing about it today?”

Flitter peeked at the flyer still scrunched beneath her saddle and quickly hid it from view. “Oh, psh, of course not. I’ve known. Just didn’t think to bring it up.”

“Whatever,” Cloudchaser replied. “Besides, why do you care what he’s doing with his time?”

“Because he just got here, that’s why!” Flitter nearly shouted over the gentle guitar riffs that drifted into the room. They nearly caught her enough to bob her head to its sway, but she paused, and shook her head. “And besides, I wanted to talk to him about it. He doesn’t come around much, so I wanted to get his hot take on it.”

“My, my, sounds like somepony is very interested in what Poptart is doing,” Cloudchaser practically sang, her eyes drifting to the stereo. She batted the volume button with her wing, dulling the tunes to a small whirr, almost as if she left the window open on accident and a stray gust of wind came in.

Flitter groaned. “If you say so. Besides, I already have somepony who I’m asking to go with me to the scavenger hunt!” Flitter was a bit hesitant to tell her sister exactly what her plans were since she hadn’t officially asked Poptart yet, but the fact that he came over here just to talk about it meant he was at least interested in participating. That’s a good start!

“And that pony is…?”

Flitter felt like she was about to burst into a pile of anger and feathers. Luckily for her, she was not about to lose her cool over her sister’s rather gentle prodding of the subject. She needed to gain an upper hoof in this sisterly rivalry. How she would do it might be a bit risky.

“None of your business until you tell me who you’re going with,” Flitter said, pointing her hoof at her sister. “You brought it up so you must have had a date already.”

Her sister recoiled, pushing back against the pillow she was laying on. “Can’t believe you tossed this back at me, but no biggie.” She changed that look of disgust to a smirk that Flitter became worried about. “You really want to know who I’m going with? You might not like it one bit, sister.”

Flitter chuckled. “Why do you say that?” It was probably some loser like most of her boyfriends have been. She couldn’t even remember the last time she dated somepony remotely acceptable.

“Because from how you reacted earlier, you will be yelling at me for the next…” Cloudchaser squinted at the nearby clock on the wall before she continued, “...forty minutes.”

“I bet you I won’t. He’s probably not as good as who I’m planning on asking out. My guy is sweet, handsome, charming, and so caring that he’ll easily carry me across the finish line without you even in sight!”

Flitter finally felt like she one-upped her sister after dishing out her riposte. There was no way Cloudchaser could have a better partner than she would have. That’s like… imagining sleeping without a second pillow. It’s just a scientific impossibility! There was no way she could top—

“Poptart.”

Suddenly, the world that she believed would believe in her betrayed her within an instant. “What?”

“Do you need your ears cleaned again, Flitter?” Cloudchaser said, nudging her little sister with a hoof. “Poptart just came by to ask me to go to it, and I said yes!” She squealed upon saying the word ‘yes’. “I can’t wait to show off to everypony that we’re doing this together! Can you believe he came all the way across town from his motel room just to ask me personally? It was the sweetest thing he could’ve ever done for me!”

While Cloudchaser was chasing cloud nine, Flitter was falling back to the ground again, crashing and burning like she usually did as she entered the stratosphere. She hated when this happened, her sister always getting ahead of her and ruining what little faith she had in the world within seconds. Why did she even think she had a chance when Cloudchaser existed? Not that she would ever think ill beyond completely erasing another pony’s existence off the face of Equestria, but… it certainly was something she could imagine in her dreams. Like, without Poptart, her supposed perfect day would just be… miserable at best.

“Oh, I’m sorry Flitter,” her sister spoke up. “You weren’t planning on asking him out, were you? Because I would just feel so bad if that were the case.” Cloudchaser pretended to wipe a tear from her eye.

Flitter meanwhile scrunched up her face and stuck her nose up in the air. “Oh, of course not. I had somepony else in mind. You can have him all to yourself. I prefer a bit more class in my partners.”

“Oh, I’m so sure,” Cloudchaser replied with a snarky smirk. “While you and your partner are searching for the first clue, Poptart will be carrying me across the finish line like a princess returning to her castle. Oh, can’t you just imagine it!”

Unfortunately, she could. Flitter looked at Cloudchaser’s ear-to-ear grin. It made her hate herself, so much so that she turned away and walked away from it. She would prove her wrong. She didn’t need her. She didn’t need Poptart now… even if she did think he was a hunk.

There had to be somepony else out there. There had to be.

“Flitter, where are you going?”

“Out!”

“Why?”

“Instead of arguing with you over who’s going to win, I’m going to go ask my partner officially. And by the way… we’re going to smother you and Poptart tomorrow! Just wait and see!”

Flitter didn’t even turn around to entertain Cloudchaser’s rebuttal. She just unpacked those apples in her saddlebag and tossed that bag back on her. She eyed the one not-so-delicious apple and smirked.

Her sister called out to her, “Yeah, right! Poptart and I will easily beat you and whoever you con into taking pity on y-oof!”

Flitter watched as the apple knocked Cloudchaser upside the head with enough force to make her keel over. Giggling, she piped up her last reply, “Enjoy that. You’ll need it to beat us!”

As she slammed the door shut, Cloudchaser rubbed the back of her head. She was seeing about three different apples on the floor, yet she only felt like she got hit by one. Once her vision caught up with her thoughts, Cloudchaser picked up the apple and squealed. “Ooooh! Red Delicious, my favorite!” She chomped into it and hummed in pleasure. She turned to the stereo and flicked the volume with her wing.

The sounds of sweet, sweet victory filled the air.

Comments

[Odd_Sarge]

Been waiting for this!

Good to see you writing again; really enjoying it so far.

[Scyphi]

Aww, I was waiting to see Flitter actually proceed to yell at Cloudchaser for the next forty minutes.

[Ice Star]

Rainbow Dash smirked and hoofed her a flier. “Tomorrow! Lucky for you, I got another flier just in case I ran into somepony who was interested!”

This should be 'flyer' unless Rainbow is offering to give Flitter a creature that is capable of flight. (Though, 'flier' might be synonymous with messenger for ponies.)

I really liked the sisterly pettiness here. The everyday humor between characters was spot-on and makes this a really fun setup. You guys are in top form here.