Mythic Rule 63

It was his fourth round.

Fifth?

Maybe sixth?

He couldn't remember, but he didn't plan on stopping anytime soon. It was just him and his best friend, Rainbow Blitz. Here in this place: a small bar in Ponyville (more of a tavern really; sawdust covered the floor and cigarette smoke rose to the ceiling).

It was new. What was it called?

The Tallyho Tavern?

He couldn't remember much right now, and he was trying to remember less and less as the night went on.

Blitz had much less than he had, over the course of the evening, but that didn't bother him any. It was pretty normal. Blitz had always been more a cheap beer and fruity mixers kind of guy (even if he would not admit to the latter).

Applejack liked beer, too, but only homebrew. He hated the cheap, shitty stuff they produced en masse at the Equestria breweries. He always guessed that was on account that he was redneck. Born and raised.

He always tried to do everything himself, with no help from nopony. That's how he did it. Hell, he would even make his own whiskey if it didn't have to age for so damned long to be drinkable. He could even make his own smokes, but not tonight.

He was smoking a pack of something he bought from a corner store, tonight.

And speaking of smokes, this one was about done for.

AJ crushed his cigarette out in an ashtray and knocked back what was left of his whiskey. The stout lowball glass hit the rough wooden surface of the table with resounding bang, and the cowboy held his head back. He took off his brown stetson hat and set it down next to his ashtray; his long blonde hair hung back over the chair, tied up at the end into a ponytail.

Rainbow Blitz was busy scoping the room for mares. He sighed in defeat and looked at his friend when the glass banged on the table. Blitz swished his beer around in its bottle. This was awkward. Sometimes, going out with AJ to these places was.

"What's up, AJ," he asked. His voice was deep and rough, forceful. Blitz had always liked it; it sounded distinct.

AJ didn't lean back up to look at him. He simply, said, in his country accent, "Nothing much, Blitz."

Blitz sighed. To be the element of honesty, AJ sure wasn't honest all the time. Or maybe he was just a stubborn bastard. Regardless, it was going to be a long night, he could feel.

He said, "No, really. What's up? You seem off, tonight."

AJ finally leaned up, sitting upright in his chair. He put his hat back on his head, leaning the brim over his eyes a little.

"Ain't nothing wrong. Just had a long day at work, is all," he said.

Bullshit as usual. Blitz shook his head and sighed. He said, "Really? So bucking apples today was worse than bucking apples yesterday?"

Applejack narrowed his eyes and frowned, looking at his friend. He tipped his hat down and leaned back in his chair, propping his hooves on the table.

"Asshole," he said.

Blitz huffed and rolled his eyes, saying, "Yeah. An asshole. That's me. Excuse me for caring, shitface."

Applejack lifted his hat over his eyes and said, to his friend, "Sorry, Rainbow. I'm just a might bit cranky, is all."

Rainbow Blitz shook his head; this guy. He finished his beer and put a hoof up into the air, signaling for the waitress to come back over. AJ would probably need a little more Buck Daniels before his lips were loose enough to talk about what was on his mind.

And Rainbow would need another beer to have the patience to listen to it all.

Blitz said, "C'mon, AJ. Tell me what's going on. I know you like to keep to yourself and not be bothered by anypony, but you seem really...I don't know. Pissy."

Applejack just sat in his chair. Wordless.

Rainbow slammed both of his hooves on the table and said, "Seriously, you're just going to sit in your chair and skulk? Just like that?"

Finally, after having enough harassment, AJ set his chair back down flat on the ground. Then, he lifted his hat up out of his face and set it square on his head.

Staring his friend straight in the eyes, he said seriously, "The Hell do you want, Rainbow Blitz?"

Blitz was flabbergasted. Dumbfounded. Was this guy serious?

"Are you deaf," he asked, "What do you mean, 'the Hell do I want?' I want to know what's bothering you..." Then, with a smile on his lips, he said, "...Jackass."

AJ froze for a moment, upon hearing the name. His eyes locked on his friend’s. Then, no matter how hard he tried to fight it, a small smile began to spread on his lips. He couldn't hide it.

Jackass. It was a nickname from when he was a colt in school.

He'd always liked the name. He'd always been a bit of a rabble-rouser in school (Hell, he hadn't the only one) and that had been the name that all the other boys had given him in class. They didn't say it in front of the teacher, of course, but whenever the teacher's back was turned...

Jackass. It was a great name, but no one called him that, anymore.

Rainbow Blitz smirked when he saw the smile he'd gotten out of his old friend. He knew that would do the trick. Their drinks came, and Rainbow eyeballed the waitress as she walked away, sliding AJ's glass across the table, to him. When he was done, Rainbow took a long swallow of his beer, banging the bottle on the table when he was done, emitting an audible smack with his lips.

Then he leaned forward and said, "No, really, AJ. What's wrong? You can tell me."

Applejack sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead with a hoof.

Then, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I ain't sure, to be honest. I'm just cranky." His hat went back down over his eyes, and he leaned back in his chair again. "You know," he said, "Same ol' shit."

"Same old shit?" echoed his friend.

"Same ol' shit, Rainbow," said AJ, "You know. Every damned day, I wake up before the sun does, and I buck apples. I feed the hogs; I tend to the orchards, to the trees, to the damned everything."

He sighed heavily, scratching his head, and he said, "And I'm just tired of it, you know? Farm life...It's okay. I don't really love it. It's okay; I like it, enough. But I don't love it."

And with that, the cowboy went silent, leaning back in his chair. He tilted his head down and his stetson hat fell back over his eyes.

The air became heavy. Palpable. Something that could be felt.

Applejack absorbed the aire of the bar, taking it in with all his senses.

The crack of pool balls.

The smell of sawdust on the floor.

The haze of the cigarette smoke in the air.

The lights buzzing.

And yet Applejack just stared at his glass. The liquid in it was translucent and brown. It offered the only solace he knew, and he fell into it, lost in its sweet whisperings. Drowning in it.

He was drowning in it.

He picked the glass up. The ice cubes clinked against the side of it. Water droplets formed around it, leaving a ring on the rough wooden table as it was lifted from its resting place.

He put the glass to his lips and drained the entire thing in one long draft.

Then, he just let the glass fall to his side, holding it with his hoof. It hung there, and Applejack simply stared at the ring it had left on the table.

Rainbow's voice cut through the thickness of their silence, penetrating the haze of Applejack's mind, "So do you really hate it that much?"

AJ looked up at him blankly. He just stared at his friend for a few moments, before saying, "My life?"

Rainbow shook his head, saying, "Orchard life."

Applejack shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's just not what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing."

Rainbow arched an eyebrow and said, "Then what did you imagine it being?"

Applejack put his glass on the table, saying, "I don't know. Just not this. It ain't a bad life."

Rainbow said, "It can't be that great if you're like this."

Applejack just said, "It ain't bad."

He tapped his empty glass and stood up, saying, "It just ain't what I want to do. I wanted something more, you know?"

Rainbow shook his head and said, "I don't know. I love my life. I'm always trying to be better than I am. Always trying to improve."

Applejack looked at him and said, "Apples are apples. They get bucked. There ain't no improving. No 'trying to be better.' There's just...nothing. We do the same work all day, every day, every year, and I hate it."

Applejack rubbed his eyes and ran his hoof through his hair, saying, "I hate orchard life. I want more."

He looked at his best friend, in the whole wide world, and said, "Do you understand?"

Rainbow Blitz frowned and said, "Then what else can you do? You don't even know what else to try."

AJ just shrugged and said, "Yeah. Ain't it the damnedest thing?"

Rainbow stood up, too. He fished out some bits for the bill and left it on the table. He figured that he owed his friend that much.

Then he looked to his friend and said, "I'm sorry, AJ, if you're really that unhappy."

The orchard farmer gave a wan smile and just said, "Nah. No problem. It's just something about me."

Then he turned to leave, starting to walk out of the bar.

He turned his head and said, to Rainbow, "Thanks for listening, Blitz. I appreciate it."

Rainbow Blitz smiled and said, "No problem, AJ. I'm always here. Are you okay?"

Applejack laughed for a moment and started to walk out again, saying, "Yeah. I'll be fine. I've just had too much to drink. I'll see you later."

And with that, Applejack walked out of the door of the Tallyho Tavern, as Rainbow went to one of the pool tables to find a good game. When AJ walked outside, the cold night of Autumn hit him, but his whiskey kept him warm. He walked home alone. He needed to get to sleep, soon. He had to wake up early the next morning.

The farm didn't tend itself.