Little Redd: the Lost Concept of Peace

Chapter Three

Woah Nelly

“NOW!”

Applejack got off of Derpy, standing on her hind legs.

“WHARE THA HELL IS MY CIDER!?”

She was continuously blowing plumes of smoke from her muzzle, her mane crazily waving about her face and her Stetson doing the same thing.  She had her lasso looped around her shoulder and under one arm.  Rainbow Dash jerked awake.

"I didn't take it!  Flutterhulk did it!"

She leapt to her hooves only for her weight to fall back from under her.  She yelped, and glanced down at her still-bleeding flank.  Fluttershy was taken aback.

"Well, now we know who the scape-pony is!" she said in her feeble whisper-tone.

Fluttershy, of course, had had her own fair share of cider, her bright coat failing to hide her flushed cheeks.

"Henry, take me home, please." she said, her nose in the air.

The bear grunted, carefully cradled the pony in his arms, and started back towards Ponyville.

"I'l see you when my hangover's passed, Rainbow Dash"

"...Geez, the venom..."

"HENRY!"

The entire gathering, including Henry, turned to Applejack, who hadn't lost a step in her fury.

"Keep her safe.  Get outta here."

The bear turned and went on his way.

"Derpy."

Immediately Derpy saluted AJ.

"Yes-ma'am-your-highness-ma'am-Applejack?"

Applejack glared at the four ponies before her.

"Round 'em up.  Be careful with Rainbow, Pinkie... just leave Pinkie be.  Get Twilight to the library; she needs some one-on-one time with a book or two.  Find Rarity and restrain her.  You know how she gets when she's drunk."

AJ handed Derpy her lasso.

"Why do I have to do so much?" she whined.

"Fer one, if Ah touch any of 'em, they won't live ta see tomorrow.  Two, ya don't."

The Pegasi of the mail team strode up behind Applejack on the roof, taking Derpy by surprise.

"Ah organized fer more than you, Ah jest didn't think one o' them would be able ta carry me up here.  You cooperate, Ah'll have Granny Smith make ya a traditional Apple family muffin."

Derpy gasped, nice and long, before hyperventilating.  One of the rarest things happened then.  Derpy's eyes straightened out, fixed on her targets, and commanded her squad with a seriousness.

"Secure the hostiles!"

The mail team leapt off the building in synchronicity, swooping down like dark blue eagles.  Just as a white Pegasus was about to snatch her from the ground, Rainbow Dash smiled.

"Excuse me."

And darted to the side.

He kept going, unable to slow down, until he smashed into the stone brick wall of another building across the street.

"I refuse to lose my dignity to you."

She turned to Applejack.

"Hey, AJ!  You mad at me alone, or somepony else too?"

"...Honestly?"

"You know it."

"Just you."

And, in a split-second, Dash was next to her, forelegs crossed, drifting to the roof.

"Then hit me."

A second passed.  Two.  Three.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because if Ah do, it'll be with a buck, not a cloppin'.  And if Ah buck you, those purdy magenta eyes o' yers won't be quite so purdy anymore."

RD laughed.

"You like my eyes?"

"Not anymore."

________________________________________

"She hasn't left for days.  I don't know why, I guess she was there when the fight occurred."

Lyra and Bon Bon gasped.

"Wow.  That's deep."

Applejack sat in room 211, on a stool beside Dash's bed.  The farmer had fallen asleep, once again, and was beginning to become too thin for it to be healthy.  She jerked awake as her friend stirred,  rubbing her head.

"...Hey...AJ."

"Mm?"

"You shoulda been there.  I have the worst hangover right now... it had to've been awesome."

"...RD, that headache probably isn't from the cider."

"I know Applejack.  Just trying to act like it never happened."  AJ's eyes fell.

"...Oh..."

The silence extended for at least ten minutes before Dash broke it again.

"Why?"

AJ frowned.

"Pardon?"

"Why're the Apples so possessive over their cider?"

Her eyes fell again.

"...Ah don't rightly know, sugarcube.  Ah've never... Ah've never been that angry before.  I don't get it.  It's just a drink, why'd I get so mad?"

Rainbow stared at her.

"I just asked you that question, Applejack."

"And Ah said Ah don't know!"

"Ahem."

They both jumped at the disturbance.  Little Redd shyly shuffled into the room, taking a seat at the second stool on Rainbow's other side.

"How're you feeling?"

"Like I've been bucked by an apple farmer.  How 'bout you?"

Redd cringed, at the subject of herself or a kick to the head, they couldn't tell.

"F-fine."

She turned to Applejack.

"Are you doing well?"

AJ avoided her eyes.

"No."

"Oh?  What's wrong?"

The farmer hesitated.

"...Ah- Ah've been gettin' angry flashes.  All day yesterday, and the day before, ever since Ah bucked Rainbow a good one."

Redd tensed.  Applejack didn't catch it, but Rainbow's attentiveness wouldn't let her miss it.

____________________________________________________________

"Just for the record, I'm fine."

Applejack wouldn't stop mentally kicking herself for bucking Rainbow Dash over the edge of a building, and Dash just kept saying that she was unscathed.  Her swollen eye was still in a pretty nasty state in contrast to the beautiful East Orchard behind her, but the hospital had let her out anyway the day before.  AJ simply sighed.

"Have you seen Redd around recently?"

"Pardon?"

Rainbow turned to face her friend, cocking her good brow.

"You know, Little Redd?  Have you seen her around?"

Applejack mirrored Dash's brow.

"No, is there somethin' you need me ta tell her?"

RD kept walking.

"Not really, just wondering if you'd seen her.  She's a little... weird, ya know?  Silent."

Applejack looked down, taking a sudden interest in her hooves.

"Yeah.  Ah know what ya mean.  She probably just has a history.  A dark past."

Rainbow Dash sighed, her wings fluttering uncomfortably.

"I guess.  Maybe."

______________________________________________

The mare in question was walking silently through the Everfree along the edge of the West Orchard, nosing through the thin path towards the top of a hill.  She had brought saddlebags and a cloth-covered wicker basket.  Sliding out from between the underbrush, she hopped the low fence and kept going into Apple property.  Reaching the crest of the hill, her stark white mane shone orange when seen by the morning horizon.  Her eyes, too, were stained a bright orange against the sun.  Her hooves were picking up high, cooperating with her unusual attitude, and she leaned back on her haunches under a large apple tree.  The saddlebags slipped off, the wicker basket with them, and gently touched the soft grass as she turned around, and set up her tablecloth.  She picked out a tin tray, four ceramic teacups and a steaming pitcher, organizing them in a simple pattern on the platter.  Then she took out a dandelion sandwich, her favorite.  Pouring her lone cup of tea, she took a bite of the sandwich and leaned her shoulder against the tree, for once at peace.

_________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash looked up.

"Maybe she's an orphan?  That would mess me up."

Applejack glared at her, still walking.

"It didn't mess me up, did it?"

Rainbow flinched.

"You know I didn't mean it like that, AJ."

Applejack looked ahead again.

"Ah know.  It still hurts though."

For a split-second, something reflected the sun's rays in her eyes a long ways off, but she couldn't really see anything through her apple trees.  She shrugged it off.

They were almost out of the East Orchard when they heard a scream in the direction of the farmhouse.

__________________________________________________

Redd sat leaned against the tree, eyeing the horizon without making a sound.  She had drank her fill of tea, eaten her fill of dandelions, and watched her fill of sunrise as she began to drift off to sleep.  Suddenly pain flashed through her left hindleg, and in an instant she was awake again.  A timber wolf had her hoof in it's jaw, thrashing it back and forth violently.  She screamed, kicked the beast in the head with her good leg, and rolled down the hill towards the sun.  Snapping back to her hooves, she gasped as her weight landed on the bleeding ankle.  She collapsed, and aimed her horn at the oncoming timber wolf, a weak beam knocking it back with a yelp into a tree.  She got back up, and limped towards the Everfree at an unforgiving pace.  She heard a growl as something pulled her tail out from under her, overbalancing her and making her fall on her side.  The timber wolf was smoking at the chest, and the smell of a fire filled the air around it.  It released her tail, and leapt at her neck.  She blocked the bite with her left hoof and beat it with her right.  More blood was pouring out of her foreleg by the time she shot the wolf in the head, and it still wouldn't let go despite the embers creeping along its cheek.

It swiped her cheek, and she felt the blood flow again.  She shot it again, blowing the right side of it's head into the fields.  It tore into her foreleg again with the few teeth it had left in its mouth, opening the wounds wider, before the remainder of the head was suddenly scattered across the field with a blur.

Rainbow Dash ran up to her, worry tracing her swollen features.

"Are you okay?"

"It's coming back!"

Redd screamed, attempting to get back on her hooves.  She groaned, buckled, and stayed on the ground.  She couldn't see around the bright blue Pegasus.

"The timber wolf is dead."

Despite Rainbow's statement, Redd could hear it rebuilding itself.

"No, it isn't!"

"Give her a minute.  Can you walk?"

"Her?  Who?"

A lasso shot out from behind Rainbow Dash, hauling a small dead sapling out of the ground before shooting back out of sight.  Redd could hear the weight smashing into the wolf, sending various sticks and twigs flying out from behind Rainbow Dash.  After a minute, a fire lit and Applejack trotted over, hardly winded.  She asked the same question.

"Redd!  Can ya walk?"

"I don't think so."

Rainbow Dash laid down.

"Help her on me, AJ."

Redd pulled her load onto Rainbow's back, Applejack nosing her the whole way.