Appledashery

by Just Essay

Back to Gray

On the northeast edge of Ponyville...

Floating loftily above the green fields and babbling brooks...

A cloud home resided, blotting out a patch of stars.

Inside, the rooms were gray, quiet, desolate.

On the far east side, within the confines of a dark bedroom...

Rainbow Dash lay in bed, her traveling things tossed in a loose stream across the floor from the door to where she was reclined.

The mare curled up with her blankets, her head buried in a pillow.

Her muzzle hung twisted between elation and distress.

Applejack's voice rang in one ear, sobbing and ecstatic. Discord's voice lingered in the other, growing distant and fading.

Sunken between the two, Rainbow Dash collapsed...

And she wept.

Sometimes smiling... at other times grimacing...

In all cases growing lighter, fainter, number.

She wept and wept until there was no more shuddering, and then her body glided off into dull gray slumber.

Alone.

Comments

[RoboRed]

...It's gonna be a lot quieter and lonelier without Lancie there...

[Mister Saxon]

Welp.

Now what?

[Gammahoof]

Damnit Dash. This is your own fault. Why can't you just let yourself win when you had all you needed to do just that?

[Sam the Anti-Ninja]

...dammit Dash. Why? At this point, just why? Why can't you just go to her and talk? Why can't you be happy? Why are you doing this to yourself? You have almost literally moved mountains for that mare. SO WHY!?

...why are you alone?

[YoshiFawful64]

6595581
Oh gosh, I didn't even think about that part.

[Khao]

Goddammit, Dash.

I get that you put others above yourself. Fine. You've made a ton of sacrifices to make Applejack's life better. Good. That's just what you do because you're selfless and want to see Applejack happy and whatever.

But how in the fuck was hiding yourself as the pony who got the flower stuff in any way helpful? Heck, wouldn't Applejack want to know where the heck did the stuff come from? What was even the point? What did you or Applejack or anyone have to lose by delivering the thing personally and getting the credit?

This is incredibly frustrating. Like omg, pony, let yourself be happy for once. Applejack won't be harmed if you stop punishing yourself for no reason.

I really hope she gets caught.

I hope she just can't find a convincing excuse about what the heck she was doing and someone calls her out on it. I hope someone figures it out.

This is.

UNGH.

[destinedjagold]

6595585 A new arc. Duh~

[MidnightReflection]

Title name is most appropriate...

[Lightning Bearer]

I'm with Khao.

If I had to guess, someone's gonna figure her out and confront her.

[Phoenix Kitten]

I ask again Dash...
was it worth it?
Is it worth it being alone while she's surrounded by all her friends and family?
You keep telling yourself that it is, was and always will be worth it, as long as she gets to be happy, you don't care what happens to you.
You feel like you don't deserve her because of your disease.

But...you do deserve her. the sheer lengths you've gone through for her, despite your disease is evidence of that.
There is nopony more deserving of her than you.
Nopony at all.

[Phoenix Kitten]

6595640
Well if she did suddenly show up with 3 pots of an extinct flower after being gone for a week, how would she explain it?
Let alone to just one pony, but everypony there? She couldn't.
As long as just Scoots knows, that's fine, if AJ figures it out on her own and calls her on it alone, even better, she can tell AJ the truth then. That'll make the best damn confession of love ever.
There's no lie that she could tell to everyone present about how she got those flowers that would please them all.

[michaelb958]

I was wondering why I thought of this song. Then I consciously read the chapter name

[Lone Gazebo]

Awwwwwwww.... She misses him! Wooo! It's the dawn of a brand new day! Kinda.

[Leftover of Saikano]

I hope Sunset Shimmer doesn't respect Dash's choice to shut her mouth.

[PropMaster]

6595589
6595613
6595640
6595686

Here's how I see it.

Rainbow Dash wants Applejack to love her, but she doesn't just want to be given that. She wants to earn it by being herself. She wants Applejack to love her for who she is, not what she's done. It's not about using saving Apple Bloom to win Applejack's heart. That would almost be like playing dirty to Rainbow Dash. If she revealed to AJ that she had saved Apple Bloom, and then AJ fell in love with her, Rainbow Dash could never know if AJ did that out of a sense of obligation.

Rainbow Dash wants to get the girl, but she wants it to be real and for the right reasons.

All that said, it's incredibly frustrating.

[zaponator]

Losing Lancie is almost more painful than failing to tell Applejack.
She always fails to tell Applejack. That's kinda lost its punch just by virtue of being the status quo. But I was not prepared to lose him.

[Jern]

Poor Dash... I think we're overdue for a Scoots intervention.

It speaks to Rainbow's character though that she's more upset about losing Lancie as a friend than she is at him deceiving her.

[Mares-a-Mares]

6596146
And yet, an honorable kind of love that only the finest of loyalty would want. Underneath the bravado, Rainbow Dash is just happy seeing Applejack and the rest of her friends happy.

Discord's frustrations is that he wanted to see her try to make herself happy at least once, and is taken aback over the fact that she always puts EVERYTHING before herself. She even put Sunset Shimmer who was against her before herself.

Overall, loyalty can make or break you,

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

6595622 That would work.
I'm sure he wouldn't open it an take a peek.
At least, I hope that he wouldn't, anyway.

I guess we'll find out sooner or later, what happened to it.

I hope.

And if AJ does end up with it, I just hope that he won't have a negative reaction to what it Dash said in it.

[Appledash_Gurl]

STOP HURTING, RAINBOW, WHEN U HURT I HURT!
Man this story is good.

Woah woah woah, anyone eles remember the letter. Where is the gosh darn letter!?
~ADG

[Autumn Rush]

UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

The sadness. The depression...