What's the Worst He Can Say?

by Revenant Wings

Chapter 2 - Explanation

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The next afternoon, there was nothing to suggest that a certain farm pony had been drunk the previous night. Bubble Berry was spending the time cleaning up Sugarcube Corner, but that in itself was pretty much standard. The skies were clear and the sun was shining bright, and it put Rainbow Blitz in a decent mood as he flew across Ponyville back home to Cloudsdale.

As he passed over Sweet Apple Acres, he saw the shade of the trees and thought to himself how good it would be to take a nap in the shade of the branches, almost completely hidden and cool. As he flew down for a closer look, he saw apples in reds and greens and golds, and he thought of how good it might be to take a bite out of one and just let the juice sink in to his teeth and hear the crunch of the crisp flesh.

And as he flew down with thoughts of picking one, he saw Applejack.

The stallion was bucking apples like he usually did, kicking with only one foot lest the tree be split in half. Despite the seemingly powerful kick with the hind leg, Applejack was rather gentle with the tree, barely tapping it enough so that the ripe apples would fall down and into the wooden buckets placed carefully at the base of the tree. Over all the acres were hundreds of similar trees, some with the buckets full and a young red mare picking them up and putting them in a cart, while others were still empty.

Blitz came in and gently landed near to Applejack. “Hey there, AJ,” he called as he came closer. “How’s the applebucking going?”

Applejack shook his head before turning to Rainbow Blitz. He still seemed tired, the bags under his eyes were more pronounced and there was some red in his eyes, but he looked alert and wasn’t slurring anymore. “Hey there, Rainbow. I’ve been doin’ better since this mornin’. Woke up with a mightly powerful headache and had to take myself a bit of Grandpa Smith’s old home remedy. Worked like a charm. I’ll probably hit the hay early tonight, though.”

“Good. Um… do you remember anything about last night?”

“Why are you askin’ me that? Course I do!” Applejack tapped a tree with a hoof. “I was workin’ all day to help Bubble Berry with that danged party for Butterscotch and my sister Red Gala. That night I stayed at the party, had a few drinks, then headed home.”

Rainbow Blitz nodded. “Do you remember anything between the drinks and heading home?”

“I remember you came over and talked to me for a bit. I remember Dusk Shine speakin’ with my sister. And I remember… hmm… well, to be honest with you, I don’t remember much else.”

Applejack walked over to the next tree. Blitz followed him. “Yeah, well, I should admit to something myself.”

“Hm? And what might that be?” Applejack positioned his hoof ready to kick the next tree.

“I might have gotten you drunk, and I might have learned a thing or two from you.”

Applejack’s hoof slammed backwards so hard and fast that the tree nearly uprooted. “What in the hay are you meanin’ to tell me, Rainbow Blitz!?”

“I tried to figure out why you were drinking… by getting you to drink more so that your tongue would loosen.”

Once again, Rainbow Blitz found himself on the receiving end of a death glare from Applejack. The eyes sunk in and turned red again, shining out from under the shade of the farmer’s Stetson. “What the hay did I tell you about, and you better not have told anypony about it or I’ll be buckin’ you so hard you’d fly through the clouds at Cloudsdale!”

“You actually made me Berry Promise not to before you told me,” Blitz said. “And, just so we’re clear on this, I’ve kept that part.”

“Alright,” Appejack said, his glare lessening. “You look like you’re tellin’ the truth. So, why don’t you keep on doin’ so?”

Rainbow Blitz gulped. “You were telling me you were in a contest with Butterscotch to see who could ask their crush about going out on a date first. Butterscotch won by asking out Red Gala before you could ask out, of all the ponies in this town – notably including the females – Dusk Shine.”

It was Applejack’s turn to be worried. “Please tell me Dusk Shine didn’t hear any of it.”

“I passed by him to let him know the weather report for today. He said it’d be good for the science experiment he was planning on doing. He said thank you for the report and asked if I’d been able to speak with Butterscotch this morning. I told him no and we went our separate ways.”

Applejack sighed. “Good. I was afraid I might have been too loud.”

“You were loud,” Blitz replied, “but most of it was directed at my ear, and not at Dusk Shine.”

“Almost fair enough punishment, then, blowin’ out your eardrum.”

“Almost,” Rainbow Blitz agreed. “Matter of fact, that’s one of the reasons I stopped while I was passing over. I wanted to apologize and say that if you needed me to help you with work in exchange for getting you drunk I would.”

Applejack nodded. “I’ll think of somethin’. But first, I guess I’d better tell you the whole thing.”

“You don’t have to,” Blitz started.

“No, no. It’ll actually play a part in how I plan to get back at you. Come on; we’ll head back to the farm house. Grandpa Smith’s usually asleep in his chair and Applebuck’s at school, so we have the time.”

“What about Red Gala?” Blitz said, taking to the air and flapping alongside Applejack.

“She’s the only one that knows. The whole crush on Dusk Shine thing’s been a secret. You, Butterscotch, and Red Gala are the only ones that know about it, but only Red Gala knows what I’m about to show you.”

Applejack led Rainbow Blitz back to the farmhouse, passing a clothesline that had a sheet and a blanket on it. Blitz paid no attention as Applejack led him into the farmhouse and up the stairs before heading down a short hallway to a door at the end of the corridor. Applejack opened up the door on the far right and had Blitz enter before shutting and locking the door behind them.

“Looks like a fairly normal bedroom to me,” Blitz commented.

“It’s supposed to,” Applejack said.

The cowpony threw the hat on the stark bed, which Rainbow Blitz noticed had nothing on it except for a single pillow and the mattress, and walked over to the nightstand on the opposite side. Applejack opened the top drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a worn picture frame. Blitz took it to see a picture of Applejack and Dusk Shine standing out in the orchard. Dusk Shine had his hoof around Applejack’s shoulders.

“That’s the moment it first hit me,” Applejack said. “The moment I felt that Dusk Shine really cared for me. Remember when I got so tired from buckin’ the orchard on my own that I started messin’ up stuff around Ponyville? Well, Dusk Shine was the one who cared enough to help me out of that whole mess, the one who kept trying to tell me I needed help.”

“Elusive could have told you about getting your beauty sleep,” Blitz shrugged. “Heck, he still tells me that every time I go over to his shop.”

“But that’s not the whole thing. Dusk Shine actually referred Prince Artemis to me when the prince came to Ponyville on Nightmare Night, saying that I was one of the kindest ponies around. He stuck up for me when those crooked sisters came to town with their weird cider machine, saying that he was honorary family member. And not to mention it was his idea to come and get me when I thought about runnin’ away from home.”

“Hey!” Blitz indignantly exclaimed, stomping a hoof on the floor. “I was part of that idea, too!”

“Yeah, Rainbow, but let’s face it, we fight more often than not. Dusk Shine, though…” Applejack sighed.

Blitz kicked a free hoof absentmindedly at the wood floor. “So, what exactly is it about Dusk Shine that attracted you to him?”

“Well,” Applejack said, fidgeting as he sat himself down on the stark bed. “He’s smart but doesn’t parade it around. He knows a lot more than anypony here, but still appreciates the value of hard work. He’s come around to help with the orchard a few times, ya know; bucked you out of a tree one day, if I remember correctly. He’s reliable, too. Magic or no, it always seems like he has a solution when somethin’ is goin’ wrong.”

“Fair point. Now, you mentioned something about his… well, his butt.”

Applejack’s face went bright red and he grabbed and fiddled with his Stetson, carefully maneuvering it over his hips. “Oh dear… I hope I didn’t embarrass you.”

“Not too much,” Blitz said. “But go on.”

Applejack nodded. “Well, I find myself often starin’ at his flank whenever he’s around. Admit it: the first time you saw that, it looked like it could have belonged to a mare.”

“I think you’re getting confused,” Blitz said. “Dusk’s not exactly a delicate stallion, shall we say.”

“No, I don’t mean it like that. I mean I saw that thing and I don’t know where my mind went. It was just like I couldn’t tear my eyes off it. The way the violet accentuated it, the way his tail kept swayin’ back and forth…”

“You did that with a rope that one time that fake magician came into town.”

“Oh, would you shut up about that already? I know I’ll easily get blinders put on me, but I don’t sit and stare at ropes all day long. I will, however, sometimes come in here when I’m goin’ to bed, pull out that picture of Dusk and I ya have there in your hoof, and stare at it until suddenly I blink and it’s mornin’ again.”

It was then Blitz noticed something about the texture of the frame. “It’s all sticky…”

Applejack nodded. “For the same reason the sheet and blanket are hanging on the clothesline out there.”

It took a minute for Rainbow to process it. When he did, Blitz had himself backed into a high corner of the room and the picture frame was on the floor of the room in front of Applejack.

“I don’t blame ya,” Applejack said, still keeping his Stetson between his legs as he went down to pick up the frame and place it carefully on the bed next to him. Blitz noted he treated that thing as though it was worth as much as the farm itself. “I ain’t none too proud of it, either. But that’s the reaction I have.”

“You don’t have that reaction in public!” Blitz nearly screamed, looking at a tiny wet spot appearing on the top of the Stetson.

“I keep it under control in public!” Applejack nearly growled back. “It’s called ‘decency’, somethin’ you could stand to have every once in a while.”

Blitz realized he might have overreacted and settled himself back on the floor, though feeling that the wood floor was like walking through a minefield. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that this is a lot of information to process, and...” He waved a hoof over in the direction of the Stetson.

Applejack looked down. “Oh, Solaris be damned… I’ll make it quick. I’ve found out a way you could pay me back for getting’ me drunk last night.”

“What is it?”

“Firstly, I need you to pay Butterscotch my price for the bet. It’s not much; just twenty bits. Tell him I sent you over with it and he’ll take it without arguin’.”

“Alright. But what’s the second part?”

“I want you to hook up me and Dusk Shine.”

Blitz blinked. “You want me to hook you up with Dusk Shine?”

“You saw how much it took for me to tell you!” Applejack exclaimed. “Five drinks and a heck of a lot of persuasion!”

“But you’re the Element of Honesty!” Blitz exclaimed right back. “As soon as you started the sentence, the rest of it would just flow right out of your mouth!”

“It ain’t that easy, Rainbow Blitz,” Applejack said sternly. “I could tell him a white lie, somethin’ that has only a grain of truth in it. I could tell him I liked him, but never that I loved him. I could tell him I was thinkin’ about him recently, when it happens almost all the time. You get what I’m tellin’ you, Blitz?”

“I think so.”

“So I can’t exactly spit it out quite yet. I need more time with him. I need to be able to speak with him in a setting where we could have things be personal and intimate.”

“… ya mean like a date?”

“Exactly!”

Blitz’s mouth turned into a smile. “Oh, that’ll be easy! All you have to do is ask Dusk Shine if he wants to go to a simple restaurant, just as friends. Heck, I’ll even go with you to make things even more like normal. Once we get there, you pop the question of if he wants to take things to the next level, as they say.”

Applejack didn’t look so convinced. “Are you sure it’s that easy?”

“Of course!” Blitz said. “I mean, what’s the worst he can say? ‘No’? Then you just keep low for a while and come back without trying again and you’re back to being friends soon enough. All things are put aside, all things are back in place, and you don’t have to go around showing it to anypony anymore.”

Applejack nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try.” He got up and pulled Blitz closer to him in a hug. “Thank you, Rainbow Blitz.”

Rainbow was not so comfortable. “That better be your Stetson touching me…”

Applejack quickly let go. “Sorry about that. I’ll… I’ll let you go now. Thanks a lot. And remember: Butterscotch is expecting twenty bits.”

“Got it. And, uh… try warm water. It’s supposed to make it easier to clean.”

“Oh, shut up or I’m gonna buck you.”

Blitz snickered as he left.


Author's Note

Yep, I'm definitely not turning this down from Mature now. [sarcasm]Ladies and gentlemen, Revenant Wings has written a mature story. Prepare for the apocalypse, but I'd still like to be able to try and finish this before that happens.[/sarcasm]

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