"Gaaaaaaaah!" Applejack shot up with a jolt, squeezing a pillow hard to her chest. "Guhhh! Land's sakes! I'm gonna..." Her pupils shrank, wobbling in place.
Morning sunlight poured through Twilight's bedroom windows.
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie sat in the corner, brushing each other's manes. They gazed over at Applejack with sleepiness fading from their eyes.
"... ... ..." Applejack squeaked. "...die?"
"Morning morning—sleepyhead!" Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out and giggled. "Heeheehee! Not such a light sleeper after all!"
"You alright, Applejack?" Fluttershy blinked, eyes flickering with brief worry. "Did you have a bad dream?"
"I had... I-I had..." Applejack hugged the pillow tighter to her chest. It was scarcely enough to mask the pounding of her own little pony heart. "Heavens to betsy..."
An adorable yawning sound.
Applejack looked over, and again her heart skipped a beat.
Rainbow Dash was stumbling out of Twilight's bedroom, her short mane sticking out in every direction. She blinked blearily in Applejack's direction. "I was wondering when you were gonna wake up, AJ."
"Uhhhhhhh..." Applejack's ears twitched.
"Huh... not so easy when you don't have a rooster around, huh?" She flicked her tail, smirked, and trotted briskly out of the room. "I smell french toast! Last sucker to the breakfast table gets the smallest slice!"
"Oooh!" Pinkie Pie leapt over Fluttershy and hopped across the sea of disheveled sleeping bags. "I wanna dig in! Ohhhhhhhh syrup!"
Applejack was still struggling to catch her breath.
Fluttershy paused in trotting past her. "Want me to... tell the other girls you'll be sleeping in?"
"No, I... I-I will be fine." Applejack gulped. "Just... just need to open my eyes, is all."
"Mmmmhmmm." Fluttershy looked at Applejack's forelimbs. She smiled. "You can bring the huggy-pillow with you if you want." A wink, and she followed Pinkie and Rainbow.
Once Applejack was truly alone, she wheezed for breath. She tried letting the pillow go, but somehow... holding onto it felt like... ... ...holding onto something else. There was a warmth there. Something alive and real and wholesome and frightening all at once.
Applejack decided to sit there for a few minutes more.
Oh, FFS. Element of Honesty my ass.
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Sometimes the hardest person to be honest with is yourself.
That and a bad dream ain't really worth getting everyone in a tizzy.
:Luna:My Nightmare sense is tingling.:Luna:
I wouldn't mind if Applejack brought her huggy pillow everywhere.
It's freakin' adorable.
See? We got cuddles! Applejack and her hpbff!
What?
Hug Pillow Best Friend Forever...
Ohhhh...
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You know we had a chapter not to long ago about how Scootaloo met Dash and AJ, told from Scoots perspective.
This whole tale is being recounted by Scoots.
The fact that it's called volume instead of part 2, seems to imply she's writing it out as it's being told to her, with the intermission chapters being her thoughts between retellings.
She has a rainbow dash body pillow
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Applejack wants a dakimakura for Christmas.
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When can we expect fanart of this, please and thank you.
I like the new spin this puts on it.
I spent all of volume one thinking of AJ's feelings as some clear-cut state that is simply unknown to Rainbow. Either AJ likes mares or not; either she likes Rainbow or not. The idea that AJ herself is still figuring it out just didn't occur to Dashie.