Hey! It looks like you're new here. You might want to check out the introduction.
Organised by
RogerDodger
Word limit
400–750
Last Day
“Ow!”
“Sorry,” said Applejack. “But these all gotta come out, sugarcube.”
Rainbow Dash scowled at her over her shoulder, flinching as another burr was yanked out of her feathers and tossed onto the sizable pile beside them.
“I know that, but do you have you have to pull so hard?!”
“If you’d listened to what I was tellin’ ya then I wouldn’t have to be pullin’ these in the first place, now would I?”
Dash fell silent, glaring at the dirt and doing her best to fight back the tears as another burr was torn away. She managed to keep all but one down, which slid down her cheek in a desperate bid for freedom. A hoof came up and obliterated the glistening traitor.
“Well, I almost made it. Just didn’t quite thread the needle on that last pass.”
Applejack threw a glance at the crushed bushes behind them, letting her gaze slide up towards the shattered young trees behind those and then the broken, dangling branches of the massive giants behind them. Rainbow Dash scowled a bit harder, but her friend was unmoved, simply returning to the task of tearing her feathers out by the roots.
“Look, Dash,” Applejack said, “I know I’m probably not the one who can tell you how ya should be flyin’, but that was kinda reckless, even for you.”
Dash yelped as Applejack found a particularly stubborn burr, resisting the urge to squirm only through the strong hoof placed on her shoulders as the cowpony gripped it tightly in her teeth. After taking a deep breath and steeling her spine, Dash nodded once, eyes eventually crossing after a few decades passed with Applejack grunting and snarling as she steadily pulled, each second another siren screaming in her brain to make it stop by all that was decent in this world. Somewhere between the fourth and fifth century, the burr was on the pile with its brothers and sisters, a few strands of blue down clutched in its little brown hooks like battle trophies. Rainbow Dash gasped in a bid to find her lost breath.
“Yeah, I know,” she said.
“If you hadn’t missed those big trees and hit them bushes instead, we both know what coulda happened today.”
Dash sighed. “I know.”
“So what in tarnation where you thinking?”
For a moment, it seemed she wouldn’t answer. Dash sat perfectly still, staring at the ground while Applejack set on another burr, this one mercifully loose. It had probably come most of the way out when she’d rolled out of the bush and into the pond. After that was on the heap, it was on to the next one. And then the next one. And then the next one after that. Five more were pulled, then fifteen more, then thirty more. Yet the silence remained unbroken.
“Today’s a big day,” Dash said between numbers fifty and fifty-one.
Applejack paused, teeth clamped down on the little brittle ball of seed-casing and feathery strands still in her mouth. With a tired chuckle, she sat down, spitting it onto the pile and wrapping a hoof around Dash’s shoulders.
“Yeah, I suppose it is. Y’nervous?”
Another silence. This one lasting even longer than the first. Applejack could hear the cicadas singing their last song of the day as the last rays of the sun tried to kiss the ground, warmth slowly giving way to the cool whisper of the evening breeze.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for this Applejack.”
“Of course you’re ready, Dash. That’s why we’re gonna celebrate tonight.”
“Then why was I picked last?”
“What?”
“You all got picked almost three years before I did. Why wasn’t I?”
Applejack’s lips opened but the words stuck to her tongue like old jam, right beside the lingering aftertaste of old, dry bramble-burrs. The crickets had now replaced the cicadas and something in a nearby bush shuffled and snuffled it way amongst the undergrowth. Probably a possum. Only when it was gone did Applejack find herself able to speak again.
“I don’t rightly know, sugarcube,” she said. Her grip tightened, another hoof coming up to ruffle Dash’s mane. “But I do know nothin’s wrong with you. Maybe somepony just thought we weren’t ready for you yet.
As Rainbow Dash tried to put her mane back to its normal chaos Applejack stood, spreading her wings with a smile.
“Alright, Dash, that’s the last of ‘em. Now get up and let’s go. C be late for your own coronation, can we?”
“Sorry,” said Applejack. “But these all gotta come out, sugarcube.”
Rainbow Dash scowled at her over her shoulder, flinching as another burr was yanked out of her feathers and tossed onto the sizable pile beside them.
“I know that, but do you have you have to pull so hard?!”
“If you’d listened to what I was tellin’ ya then I wouldn’t have to be pullin’ these in the first place, now would I?”
Dash fell silent, glaring at the dirt and doing her best to fight back the tears as another burr was torn away. She managed to keep all but one down, which slid down her cheek in a desperate bid for freedom. A hoof came up and obliterated the glistening traitor.
“Well, I almost made it. Just didn’t quite thread the needle on that last pass.”
Applejack threw a glance at the crushed bushes behind them, letting her gaze slide up towards the shattered young trees behind those and then the broken, dangling branches of the massive giants behind them. Rainbow Dash scowled a bit harder, but her friend was unmoved, simply returning to the task of tearing her feathers out by the roots.
“Look, Dash,” Applejack said, “I know I’m probably not the one who can tell you how ya should be flyin’, but that was kinda reckless, even for you.”
Dash yelped as Applejack found a particularly stubborn burr, resisting the urge to squirm only through the strong hoof placed on her shoulders as the cowpony gripped it tightly in her teeth. After taking a deep breath and steeling her spine, Dash nodded once, eyes eventually crossing after a few decades passed with Applejack grunting and snarling as she steadily pulled, each second another siren screaming in her brain to make it stop by all that was decent in this world. Somewhere between the fourth and fifth century, the burr was on the pile with its brothers and sisters, a few strands of blue down clutched in its little brown hooks like battle trophies. Rainbow Dash gasped in a bid to find her lost breath.
“Yeah, I know,” she said.
“If you hadn’t missed those big trees and hit them bushes instead, we both know what coulda happened today.”
Dash sighed. “I know.”
“So what in tarnation where you thinking?”
For a moment, it seemed she wouldn’t answer. Dash sat perfectly still, staring at the ground while Applejack set on another burr, this one mercifully loose. It had probably come most of the way out when she’d rolled out of the bush and into the pond. After that was on the heap, it was on to the next one. And then the next one. And then the next one after that. Five more were pulled, then fifteen more, then thirty more. Yet the silence remained unbroken.
“Today’s a big day,” Dash said between numbers fifty and fifty-one.
Applejack paused, teeth clamped down on the little brittle ball of seed-casing and feathery strands still in her mouth. With a tired chuckle, she sat down, spitting it onto the pile and wrapping a hoof around Dash’s shoulders.
“Yeah, I suppose it is. Y’nervous?”
Another silence. This one lasting even longer than the first. Applejack could hear the cicadas singing their last song of the day as the last rays of the sun tried to kiss the ground, warmth slowly giving way to the cool whisper of the evening breeze.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for this Applejack.”
“Of course you’re ready, Dash. That’s why we’re gonna celebrate tonight.”
“Then why was I picked last?”
“What?”
“You all got picked almost three years before I did. Why wasn’t I?”
Applejack’s lips opened but the words stuck to her tongue like old jam, right beside the lingering aftertaste of old, dry bramble-burrs. The crickets had now replaced the cicadas and something in a nearby bush shuffled and snuffled it way amongst the undergrowth. Probably a possum. Only when it was gone did Applejack find herself able to speak again.
“I don’t rightly know, sugarcube,” she said. Her grip tightened, another hoof coming up to ruffle Dash’s mane. “But I do know nothin’s wrong with you. Maybe somepony just thought we weren’t ready for you yet.
As Rainbow Dash tried to put her mane back to its normal chaos Applejack stood, spreading her wings with a smile.
“Alright, Dash, that’s the last of ‘em. Now get up and let’s go. C be late for your own coronation, can we?”