Rainbow Dash lives an exciting life and is swiftly becoming the most daring, awesome pegasus in all of Equestria. She would gladly give it all up, though, just to confess her love to Applejack.
"Mmmmmmmmm...!" Apple Jewell squealed, eyes clenched shut as she curled up into a frightened, orange ball. After several prolonged seconds, she gasped for breath, then blinked at her surroundings.
"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash stared at her dully from where she perched on the edge of a random skyscraper's lofty balcony.
Muzzle agape, Apple Jewell exhaled, then straightened her golden bangs. "My stars and garters! I thought that would never end! Have we arrived?"
"No," Rainbow droned.
"No?"
"We're about halfway there," Rainbow said.
"Why d-did you stop flying?"
"So you could stop screaming." Rainbow frowned. "For real. You were like a friggin' sissy siren the whole way here."
"Yes, well..." Apple Jewell sat up, prim and proper, smoothing out the folds of her gown. "The advent of certain peril does leave one feelin' noticeably excited-like."
"Don't you even hear yourself?" Rainbow murmured, her prismatic bangs blowing in the nightly wind of the canyon. "Even when you try to sound fancy, you've still got... got..."
"Poise?"
"Hardly!" Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "It's like someone shoved a whole bunch of country twang straight into one of those sappy romance novels that Rarity keeps lying around the Boutique!" She instantly grimaced, fidgeting. "Erm... n-not that I've ever... glanced through any of them, or nothin'..."
"You are not quite what I expected, Blue Jay," Apple Jewell said. "There's a certain chivalry about you, but it's off-set by a brutish demeanor. Why, I'd say if you weren't quite so adorably tiny, I'd be in much more fear for my—"
"I'm not gonna hurt you!" Rainbow snarled, making the Cider Princess flinch. Her eyes rolled. "Celestia on a bike, girl! That's not how this game is played, so stop using that lame card, will ya?" She stared off, nostrils flaring. About five seconds later, she bit her lip, glancing sideways at Apple Jewell with a tiny blush. "You... y-you really think it's adorable?"
"Ermmm..."
"Guhhh..." Rainbow Dash deflated, groaning into her forelimbs as her fake wings dangled at her side. "What's the use? This whole situation is bucked... at least until I get Epcot to look at you."
"And who is this Epcot, pray tell? Some sort of roguish thief like yourself?"
Rainbow stole a lethargic peek at the elegant mare. "You really... really don't have any of AJ in there, do you?"
Apple Jewell slowly shook her head. "My deepest apologies, darlin'. I'm afraid I ain't got no recollection of this... this—"
"Applejack."
The Cider Princess gulped. "Right. Is she a friend of yers?"
"Hmmmmmm..." Rainbow exhaled, staring at the hovering cityscape with melancholic eyes. "...that's one way of putting it."
"A sister?"
"HAH!" Rainbow grinned wide, her ears twitching as he rolled her eyes again. "Haaaaah hah hah hah hah! Ohhhhhhhhhhh noooooo. No no no no no... not a sister." She slicked her bangs back. "Whew..."
"Well, I can't imagine what would ever have gotten you t'think that we're one in the same, sugarcube," Apple Jewell said. "I ain't got much to go on, and somethin' tells me you dun either."
"Pfft! Don't be crazy! I—!" Rainbow turned towards her, blinking.
Apple Jewell stared back, gracefully silent.
Rainbow gulped. "It doesn't matter. I would... do anything to get her back." She took a deep breath. "And whether you believe it or not, you're my ticket to doing just that."
"Sounds like yer the one who wants to use me, not Shindig, darlin'."
"Mrmmff... yeah, well..." Rainbow pawed at the balcony's edge. "I'm sorry that you feel that way."
"Just what is this 'Applejack' like?"
Rainbow jerked her a blank glance.
Apple Jewell gently shrugged. "Well, if I'm to help you in retrievin' her somehow, than I reckon I ought to know why."
Rainbow stared at the mare. She opened her lips, hesitated, then waited until a gust of wind had finished blowing before she finally spoke.
"Applejack is... by far... the best pony I have ever known," Rainbow Dash said. "Her honesty makes me honored to be her friend. Her courage gives me a challenge to improve myself everyday. Her... loyalty puts me to shame... but also makes me feel super crazy blessed to be her friend. I... I'm an awesome pony, and I love to win. But my life is... well... it's pretty messed up in places. And... erm..."
Apple Jewell cocked her head to the side, listening calmly.
Rainbow Dash bit her lip. She looked off, her voice low and breathy. "...sometimes, winning hasn't felt all that it's cracked up to be, because if I'm still the same pony with the same life at the end of the race, then no matter how awesomely I've managed to get there, it just doesn't seem any less lame." She shook her head. "Not without her. Cuz... there's nothing higher... nothing and nopony higher worth winning. And... and even as senseless as it sounds... I just can't not believe in that." She gulped. "With every fiber in my being."
If it was silent after Rainbow's rambling speech, she couldn't tell. Her pulse was beating too loudly against her eardrums. About three breaths later, her body had calmed in time to hear Apple Jewell speak.
"It's a shame yer friend ain't around to hear ya say that, darlin'."
"I know," Rainbow muttered, eyes dull and dead. "It's why I said it."
Apple Jewell smiled. "But, for what it's worth, I do hope you find Applejack."
Rainbow looked up. "Yeah..." Her voice wavered sightly, and she sniffled. "I hope I find her too."
Apple Jewell stood up, wobbing slightly in her crystalline heels. Then, after gathering a breath, she stood up straight with her nose upturned. "Okay. I do believe I have properly collected myself for the rest of this here abduction."
"Hrmmmf..." Rainbow Dash smirked, getting up and cracking her joints. "There you go again."
"Oh?"
With a sigh, the mare grasped the Princess with her forelimbs. "Just try not to scream the rest of the way, alright?"
"Ermmm..." Apple Jewell's powdered freckles went rosy. "No promises, darlin'."
"That makes the two of us." Then, holding her breath, Rainbow kicked the two of them off the balcony and glided for the clock tower in the distance.
Page generated in 0.071 seconds
Total duration
913 users online
1,731,920 hits today, 2,732,798 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I would love it if Applejack ends up actually hearing all of that in her subconscious or something.
5754853 Better yet, if AJ remembers what happened when she wakes up
You know, that whole abduction went so well, I'm almost worried that some horrible twist is gonna screw Rainbow over and throw everything into a violent tailspin.
Not that such a thing would ever happen in this story.
Also, am I the only one who thought of the 10th Doctor and Donna Noble with this 'sisters' thing?
5754853 5754879 I totally agree with you both.
(Well, it would solve a lot of Dash's romantic conundrums, at least.)
'Cause, no matter what her prissy alter-ego here says, I do believe that our (and Rainbow's, of course) Applejack is in there somewhere, just kickin' and screamin' to get out!
And ohhhhhh, won't "Her Majesty" Shindig and Sons be in for an absolutely awful shock when she does!
5754880 *baps the Zap* Don't. Jinx. It.
So I'm wondering, how can this arc be dragged out even longer? And here's what I've come up with.
Applejack's brainwashing is too thorough. There seems not a trace of her in there. Yet she seems to be actively helping our heroes through the doppelgängers of the ponies she cares about.
I propose AJ's soul has been severed from her body. Apple Jewel has her form, but not her soul. This form will be given to Philanthropy, possibly by throwing it through that strange door. The soul is still part of the dream, trying to help RD. This will be revealed when Epcot examines Apple Jewel a dozen or two chapters from now.
5754853 exacly what I was thinking!
5754992 You're on to something and author, if you're reading this. Please don't change the story because of a guesstimate, it's no good that way.
5754853
5754879
Yessss, please, and author, don't change it for the worse.
5754954 He already did.
Whaaaaaaat the Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!!!! Who in the FUCK keeps disliking this masterpiece?
A bit of appledashery occurred.
Now to wait 40 or so chapters for the next bit.
This story is turning into fuzzy pony DBZ.
Q: How many Appledashery characters does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It just takes one petite blue pegasus. But she has to fly East, subdue a dragon, save a clock maker, defeat a giant clock golem, have some character time, go over Neighagra Falls in a barrel, deliver some packages for the Diamond Dogs and then speak to an oracle in a crystal cave to get directions to the hermit who has a map to the Neighrobi village Rainbow Dash needs to visit to learn about the quest she must embark upon to find the light bulb.
Enough Appledashery to keep to readers going?
5754954
Remember what I said about jinxes?
Anything?
How would Lancie respond to that?
Do we know that Epcot and Gustav actually escaped? I'll keep my fingers crossed that they're actually at the clock tower and not captured again. Or that Epcot didn't get distracted and start singing to all the figment-children, or random passerby.
5755104 Oh, I hope not!
If you talking about what Zaponator said, I mean.
5755324 Someone with absolutely no sense or taste?
That's my guess.
5756052 Yep.
And I don't even want to think about that!
That's one of those things someone says right before they sell their soul to the devil.
So I hope that rescuing AJ and getting her back to normal doesn't require something like that.
5756068 Actually, no.
And we won't know til probably the next chapter (or two).
And as am I, on both those counts.
I suppose we'll find out either when this next chapter posts (which will probably be sometime today, and likely later this evening), or in the next ones after that.
So we just gotta wait and see.
5756068
I'm imagining Epcot singing to figment children now and it is nothing short of adorable.
5755969
Yep. I can almost bet that the moment there is actual reciprocated AppleDashery in this that half of us will be entering cardiac arrest. I mean, let's face it. The author is an absolute [insert favourite swear here] when it comes to his readers. That's what makes Nim's brilliant. In an evil way.
Now, who bets AJ heard all of that? Okay, let's rephrase. Who is desperately hoping that she did. *Everyone puts up hands*
5754880
... I hate you so much right now. I swear if we see absolute horror next chapter, I am so. Blaming. YOU.
I started laughing so hard, here. Something about this line just struck me as hilarious!
I took a lengthy break from Live Long and Dash Apples: The Series because this arc was just so gosh darned long and I remember not being into it. Everything felt kinda pointless cause it's all in a dream, and I know Applejack won't die because "it ends with them cuddling".
This chapter reminded me why I read 500,000 words of this thing in the first place though. The love story at the core infuses this bizarre story with so much life. I've really never read anything like it. Even Austraeoh, for it's similarities, is its own thing. I really respect how Skirts is able to keep these stories going day after day, and with such consistency too.
That's "my starrrs and garrrters", Kepler.
Of course not, Dashie. Reading is for egg-heads after all.
... I'm so, so hoping AJ's subconscious will let something slip.
Oooooh. Please tell me AJ is going to remember what Dashie says next.