Ferment
"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!" Dash slammed her mug onto the table, the fruit bowl—nothing but apples in it, of course—jumping and rattling. "Everything! All wrong!"
"Uhhh..." AJ blinked, the kitchen behind her shadowy in the not-quite-midnight darkness. "Weren't you just spouting off 'bout how good the cider is this year?"
Now it was Dash's turn to blink. "What? Yeah! I mean, of course! Your cider's always the best!" Leaping into a hover, she grabbed the jug beside the fruit bowl and refilled her mug. "It's everything else that's wrong!"
AJ's arched eyebrow said more than any words ever could, but Dash pretended she didn't hear it.
See it.
Hear it.
Whatever. She just rammed a hoof through the mug's handle and took a double snootful of pure liquid gold.
"Ev'rything?" Apparently AJ hadn't been paying attention to her eyebrow either.
"Fine." Dash set the mug down. "Not everything everything." Her mind drifted back to the ceremony yesterday at Wonderbolt HQ, the big public party that followed, the after party with her friends and teammates, the after-after party with just the girls in one of the little party rooms or whatever they were at Canterlot Tower, and now, back home again, the after-after-after party, her and AJ here in this kitchen at this table with these mugs the way they'd done for so many years.
Warmth spread through her, and not just from the cider. "Being number two on the squad'll be pretty sweet, and having all of you there when Twilight pinned the badge on me?" Just a sip this time: no need to get carried away. "She's really making a great princess, y'know?"
"Eyup." AJ took a swig from her own mug. "So Twilight being in charge. That's another thing that ain't wrong?"
"What?" Almost waving her hooves in the air, Dash stopped when the weight reminded her that she was still holding her mug. "Of course that's not wrong! That's, like, the whole point! We're the awesomest ponies in the world, so now we're running the place! Nothing wrong with that!"
"Okay." Sitting up straighter, AJ didn't look nearly as relaxed as Dash thought she should—or wished she would. "So us being on the Council and helping Twilight rule Equestria also ain't wrong. Mebbe you don't like just being a guest lecturer now at the school? Or mebbe you don't think Starlight shoulda been made headmare?"
Her stomach tightening, Dash rolled her eyes like she didn't care. "The school was great, and it's still great! Better'n great, and I don't care what anypony else says! So give it a rest, huh?" She tried to sound all tough and resolute, but it came out all whiny and sulking in her ears. "Why're you asking so many weird questions all of a sudden?"
AJ leaned forward, something both fierce and tender in her face. "Mebbe 'cause the best gal in the whole wide world just told me ev'rything's wrong." She tapped the tip of a hoof against the table. "And I intend to make it right for her."
More emotions sloshed back and forth through Dash than she'd ever suspected she actually had in her. I was just kidding, she wanted to say. Or make her voice all bored and say, How 'bout we talk about something else? Or she could give a laugh, clink her mug against AJ's, and say, You're being way too serious, buckaroo.
Or maybe she should jump across this table, bury her face in the gorgeous fall of AJ's golden hair, snuggle close to that broad chest, and tell her in whispered and delicious detail the exact ways she could make everything right.
But instead of any of that, she raised her mug and tipped it over her mouth so she wouldn't have to say anything. And when she swallowed, she could almost hear the cider splashing down through the aching chasm inside her chest, her whole body feeling hollow and heavy at the same time. Which was totally impossible! If a pony was heavy, she couldn't be hollow, and if she was hollow, how could she be heavy? It didn't make any sense!
That didn't stop it from happening, though...
"It's okay," she said, not sure she was even saying it out loud. "Really. It's...it's just the cider talking."
"Not my cider, it ain't." AJ reached out a hoof and rested it on the one Dash wasn't busy using to keep a death grip around her cider stein. "Lemme take a guess and ask if it might be all the marrying that's been going on 'round here lately that's got'cha in a tizzy."
Dash's heart gave a few too many beats, but she forced her lips to purse. "'Tizzy'? Really?"
AJ's eyebrow did its thing again.
Squirming under the pressure of it, Dash shrugged. "Cheese and Pinkie'll be great together: you just look at 'em and you see that. And yeah, thinking about Discord and Fluttershy rolling around or whatever back at her place might get me a little queasy." She managed to twitch her lips into something that felt like a smile. "But hey, I always knew Shy had the biggest freak flag of any of us, and it's great seeing it fly, y'know?"
To judge from AJ's face, though, whatever Dash was doing didn't look much like a smile. "All righty, then." AJ leaned forward even further, set her other forehoof so she was holding Dash's between both of hers. "Starting to sound like there's nothing left could possibly be wrong. We're all just ticking along pretty much same as always. Ain't we?"
This wasn't how this was supposed to go, not with her and AJ. Talking? Touching hooves? Gentle moonlight drifting through the window and all over the kitchen counters? Her and AJ should just happen like ice breaking up or leaves budding or—
Or any of those other things that ponies caused out in the world. Things that wouldn't happen if ponies didn't stretch their wings and flex their legs and get to work doing them.
"It's just—" Dash found herself staring at the fruit bowl. "Sometimes you see an apple sitting out in the orchard and it looks all big and juicy and you reach for it thinking you're totally the luckiest pony ever. And as soon as you touch it, it...it mooshes, all brown and stinky inside." She didn't want to look at the apples anymore, didn't want to smell the cider she'd splashed on the table getting warm and sour anymore, didn't want to feel AJ's hooves pressing against her in case they broke through and showed how hollow and awful Dash was. "How do we know everything isn't that?" she whispered.
Those warm hooves started stroking Dash's fetlocks. "'Cause we don't let it be that." The quiet strength of AJ's voice raised Dash's head, and the light of her eyes held Dash's gaze. "We keep sharp, grab all the apples we can, and insteada letting 'em rot the way nature wants, we make 'em rot the way we want. With sugar and yeast and a little squeezing, we turn 'em into cider." Her smile said way more than any eyebrow ever could. "And we's both had a spoonful too mucha that tonight, ain't we?"
Dash found herself nodding but kept focused on AJ, didn't want to focus on anything else the rest of her life.
"So." AJ leaned back. "Since you ain't fit to fly, we'll pour you into a guest room and call it a night. Unless—" Something about her wavered like a candle uncertain under a gust of wind. "Unless you don't wanna be alone tonight?"
"I don't." Her throat dry, Dash shoved the words out anyway. "Maybe...I could stay in your room...with you?"
"Well, now." Her smile spreading slow, AJ reached up and pushed her hat back. "Reckon that'd make ev'rything all right, Sugar cube?"
No words left, Dash just nodded again.
Standing, AJ swayed a little, walked around the table—
And her smile touching Dash's tasted sweet as cider.
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How in the heck did you manage to get my literal heart to smile?
Yeah I've just never got into the whole appledash ship. I just don't see it. Different strokes for different folks
Why are there so many downvotes? Do people really hate AppleDash THAT much, or what?
EDIT: In the time since I first posted this comment, it seems the ratio's improved by a lot. Neat!
9936779
I'm personally not an AppleDash fan either, but just out of curiosity: which ship(s) are you into?
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)
I've been a sucker for TwiSpike (I know it's weird since their siblings in the show but not in my fic universe
RariSpike
DashSoarin
ApplejackSoarin
DashMac
FlutterCord
FlutterMac
Quite a few really. Just the top of my head.
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I don't judge ships preferences (except sometimes if they're blood related, but it's not not that often really). Personally, I'm not really interested in ships (I have a few). I'd say I only have one ship that i really love (in the mlp fandom that is) and it would be TwiDash. Every ship can be canon in the world of fanfiction after all
9937005
Amen
I loved it! Appledash is my favorite ship, and you captured the two of them well. I dont understand the downvotes. I have an appledash fic too, and every chapter I post I get like 1-2 downvotes. (But also a couple upvotes too, so we’re not alone!) Again, very well done.
This is a sweet story.
Yeah, don’t let the downvotes get you down, it doesn’t necessarly mean your story is bad. I had a few of them on my latest story (and I didn’t really understand why), but when I read the few feedbacks I had, it looked like it was really good (from their perspective at least). I don’t ship AppleDash, but I hope you continue writing in a good mood!
You know, I was worried that the "Last Problem" would have all sort of unwanted new canon, and piss people off no end (like the Harry Potter epilogue, but worse) but then I saw it, and it was ...ok, with what ships they had fairly popular ones (I'm Fluttercord myself), and thought to myself that there wouldn't be too much anger.
Judging from the number of downvotes on this canon-positive story, I may have been wrong.
I just love this ship so much.
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Thanks, folks:
I think 9937319 has the right of it. My previous story, "Perfectly Imperfect," also set after the last episode, has Rarity and Twilight getting together after they help Discord propose to Fluttershy, and it's got almost the same ratio of down thumbs to up thumbs...
Mike
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That doesn't make sense to me. I've seen several post-finale FlutterCord fics (their relationship heavily implied or outright confirmed) enjoy quite a bit of success, and that's even after a decent-sized chunk of the fandom turned on the ship after what Discord pulled in the finale. And it shouldn't really matter now anyway, seeing as these two ships have been sailing for years regardless. I don't think "people dislike the ship" is the right explanation; or, at least, it's not the only part of it.
Really wish one of the people who disliked the fic would speak up. Feedback is important, y'know!
:)
I do like this story, I think its sweet, but...why the hell is Applejack saying "Mebbe" instead of "Maybe"? It doesn't sound anything like how Applejack actually says that word in the show and also just looks plain weird. A minor nitpick, I know, but things like that are really distracting.
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Mebbe thats why there's so many dislikes.
My only issue is I don't think in the Epoluge Dash was anywhere near retirement age, so yes when Dash faces retirement she's have this issue, I just think your chosen time frame was too soon. This is clearly before Little Cheese was born, I think he'd be at least a teen when Auntie Dash retired.
Nice. Love the final line.
Lovely stuff, especially how ponies needing to tend to nature got Dash to come out and say... well, something close to her true feelings.
This is one of the benefits of shipping agnosticism; I can enjoy all the cute pairings! And this is most certainly one of them. Thank you for it.
Ehh! Fluttercord cuteness!
The whole fic is adorable (I love AppleDash) but the tiny inclusion of Fluttercord made it all the better.
10006787
Thanks!
"Flapjacks" is a larger AppleDash story I wrote a while ago if you might be interested, and while "Perfectly Imperfect" is mostly a RariTwi story, it does have a scene where Discord proposes to Fluttershy and a later scene that takes place during their wedding reception.
Mike
This was a nice story.
D'aaaw. Those two are just... precious!
Sweet as sugar.
Thank you!
9936906
Maybe.I don't everyone has there own opinion on it.
As both a Soarindash/Appledash shipper it a sweet story.