"So, Big Mac. . .would that be okay? . ."
I froze in anticipation as AJ waited for her brother's reply.
"Really! I appreciate it Mac, I really mean it! I'll be sure to cover my losses as soon as I get back!" AJ says with a beaming smile as she motions a thumbs up in mine and Flutters' direction.
"Yes!" I say a little too loudly in response, as it was meant with a non-verbal 'shush' by AJ.
"Alright then, I'll speak to you later Mac! Say hi to Applebloom and Granny Smith for me!" AJ lastly says before she hangs up the phone. "Looks like I'll be staying then! Are you sure it's not asking too much of you and Sunset, Dash?"
"Are you kidding? Don't be silly AJ, I'm so happy you're staying!" My voice was still slightly raised in excitement. Maybe a little too raised, as yet another groan was heard by the three of us, this time coming from the couch.
"What time is it?" A sleepy Sunset slurs, sprawled out on the sofa, mid-yawn. (sibilance for those doing English lit exams 😌)
All 3 of our heads turn to the couch. "Morning Sunset," I say while Sunset slowly raises herself from her slumped position, yawning once more, she notices a hungover Fluttershy standing next to me.
"Hey Fluttershy. I'm glad to see you're ok." Sunset says as she gets up from the sofa, whipping the throw that was over her onto the floor.
"I am! Thanks for last night!" Fluttershy leans in closer to my ear and says in a whisper, "Do I look as bad as she does?" I let out a snigger, and so did AJ as she must have heard Fluttershy's comment.
"No, you look fine," I whispered back as Sunset walked over to the three of us, heading for the fridge.
"Yeah, last night was a blast. Thanks for helping us get home and everything Applejack, I owe you one." Sunset says giving AJ a playful nudge.
"Ah, don't mention it. I'm surprised you remember, you were pretty beat."
"Oh, she'll have remembered everything, trust me. Sunset always does." I note to AJ knowing of Sunset's way with memory. I have no clue why, but she never seems to forget anything or anyone, she's been like that as long as I've known her. Even drunk, she'd remember everything. I think it overwhelms her slightly, causing her to do less with her time to balance out her busy brain. She reaches for an egg from the side of the fridge.
"God, should I be worried?" Fluttershy jokes with Sunset.
"Hey Sunset, we were all thinking of going to grab something to eat, wanna come with?" I ask as Sunset cracks the raw egg into one of the empty glasses on the island, her usual hangover cure that seems to work every time.
"Sure. Where were you thinking?"
"What in tarnation are you doing Sunset?" AJ says, laughing while looking at Sunset cracking the egg into the glass and drinking it raw.
"Getting myself back to normal," Sunset says swallowing her mixture.
AJ shoots me a look of weirded-out concern, smiling as she does so. I give her an amused look back that says 'Just go with it', me being used to Sunset's somewhat solipsistic stance on life. (this is getting ridiculous isn't it. . .)
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Applejack's POV
We arrived at the brunch place. It looked more like a diner to me, but Rainbow chose it so I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to go somewhere that had more of a sporty feel to it. Rarity and Pinkie were already sitting down on the sofa side of the table, Pinkie waving us over excitedly.
All 4 of us took our seats as we arrived at the table, Flutters sitting next to Rarity on the sofa, Sunset choosing to sit opposite the three girls on one of the three chairs while Rainbow and I took the other two. I adopted my usual backwards sitting position where my chest was pulled to the front of the (now backwards) chair while my legs lay at the sides. Dash on the other hand, sat in her chair with her feet propped up at the edge of the table, causing the chair to lean back, a mark of her coolness and carelessness that I found somewhat attractive.
At that moment, I realised how glad I am that Big Mac let me stay in Canterlot for a little longer. I'm so happy that I get to spend time with my old friends. . .I'm really excited to spend time with Rainbow too.
We caught up for a bit, telling Pinkie and Rarity of our morning antics regarding the hungover Flutters and Sunset, the weird eggy remedy that I recalled, and of course, the call with Big Mac, allowing me to stay in Canterlot.
"OMG REALLY! THAT'S FUNTASTIC!" Pinkie said with enthusiasm.
"Yeah, I know! Mac said he can handle things on the farm for a while without me since the harvest seasons over."
"The gangs back together again! I knew my plan would work. . ." Pinkie replies sneakily. Everyone chuckles simultaneously, except Sunset who sports a frown.
"Yeah, everyone except Twilight," Sunset says, pointing at the fact that, from what I remember Rainbow telling me last night, Twilight and Timber have been off on a research trip in Antarctica for the past year or so. According to Rainbow, Sunset finds a way to mention how much she misses Twilight every single day.
"I'm sorry Sunny, I did ask her but she said she's super duper busy with her research to come. She did say she'll come as soon as she can though!"
"Thanks, Pinkie," Sunset says, slightly cheered up. Fluttershy reaches out her hand for Sunset to hold which she does, smiling sweetly in response to Flutters' kindness. It was real nice to see Flutters, Sunset and Dash on good terms again. Their falling out was never anything majorly personal or anything, and the fact that after just one party they've made up proves my point even more. Or maybe it was just the party itself that rekindled their lost friendship, Pinkie's parties have a special way of making wrong things right.
"Applejack darling, where on earth will you be staying? Hotels are usually quite costly this time of year, how about you stay with me instead?" Rarity offers.
"Well that's awful kind of you Rare but--"
"It's cool, she's staying at our place." Rainbow cuts me off before I can finish my sentence. A habit of hers that I put up with but secretly found quite annoying.
"Oh, how sweet of you and Sunset! Forgive me for asking, Applejack."
"Not at all, it was generous of you to offer." As Rarity and I spoke, I could feel Rainbow's judgement to the side of me.
Even when we were all best friends and all, Rarity and Dash never clicked like the rest of us did. They tolerated each other but I think Rainbow found Rarity a little too prissy while Rarity found Rainbow too full of herself. Saying this, they are probably more similar than they think they are. In the past couple of years, Rarity has gained an impressive amount of fame on Snapgab ever since her first solo collection was shown at Fashion Week in Manehattan. Rainbow herself has become pretty notable in the sports world, being offered a placement on the official Canterlot soccer team not too long ago. I know this as she wouldn't shut up about it last night, bragging to me non-stop about how cool and awesome it was, the funny thing is, she only seemed to be showing off her achievements to me and not anyone else.
"What are we all gonna order? I for one could destroy a veggie burger right now." Rainbow says, changing the subject, confirming my suspicions that she'd had enough of mine and Rarity's chin wagging.
The waiter came round and took everyone's orders: Rainbow had the veggie burger like she said along with a glass of sparkling water, Pinkie had the lemon drizzle pancakes with a banana milkshake, Fluttershy ordered the beetroot salad and a matcha latte, Rarity had the same as Fluttershy but with a cappuccino instead of the latte, Sunset wanted the cheeseburger and fries with a coke float and lastly, I ordered the apple pie with ice cream and espresso. You can take the girl out of the orchard, but you can't take the orchard out of the girl.
"So AJ, what's been going on with you? How's life been for our resident cowgirl?" Rainbow says as she motions a swinging lasso with her arms, looking at me as she does so.
"I ain't a cowgirl Dash," I respond with a smile, pushing her theatrical arms away slightly, causing a smirk to form on Rainbow's face. "Everything's been fine with me! The barns good, the family's good, I won first prize for my apple fritters at the Appleloosa bake sale a few months ago when I went to visit the rest of the Apples."
My comment was met with "Amazing!" and "That's awesome" from the others, filling me with a sense of pride that having my friends around me made it all the more enjoyable. A feeling I'm glad to have back.
"You should've brought us some! I've been wanting to try them again for years!" Sunset says. She used to love my fritters.
"What's been going on with you Sunset? You know, apart from dreaming about eating my apple fritters." I joke.
"Nothing much. Got a part-time as a barista which is going alright. Surfing at RD's at the moment, which is alright." Sunset says in a very chilled tone, a tone common for Sunset.
"Yeah fun, until you almost got me evicted a couple of weeks ago," Rainbow says to Sunset, holding a grudge of some kind.
"Hey! That's not what happened! And that was our fault, not just mine!" Sunset responds, knowing Dash isn't really angry at her, more just them messing around.
"WHAT HAPPENED! WHAT HAPPENED!" Pinkie gushes, looking for a thrilling-sounding story.
DRUG WARNINGGGG
"Well, the landlord came over a few weeks ago to check up on the place, he's looking around and he sees a wooden box on the table in the front room. Before I could tell him not to, he opens it and finds Sunset's weed in there--"
"That's our weed and you know it! We smoked together the evening before, you could've put the box back as much as I could've." Sunset responds, cutting Rainbow off to defend herself. Rainbow playfully rolls her eyes in response.
"Oh my goodness! I don't even know what I would have done if that happened to me!" Fluttershy responds, innocently.
"Luckily he's a decent guy and was willing to let it go just this once, but I mean fuck, he could've called the cops on us or something!" Rainbow says, in a playfully pissed-off tone, directed at Sunset.
"Sunset darling, you relapsed?" Rarity says in concern for Sunset regarding her previous ways with drugs.
"No, I just smoke a bit of weed now and again. I thought you guys knew?"
"Nope," Fluttershy responds.
"Beats me. Last I knew, you were high all the time." I add, too knowing of Sunset's old ways. Back in college, Sunset convinced herself that the only way for her to study anymore was to do so while high. She used to take molly, microdose mushrooms and used to steal Rainbow's Adderall all the time. After college, I remember her saying that she wanted to start fresh but I never knew if she did or not, seems as though she did, switching to weed to serve as a stimulant in the meantime.
"Not anymore. Now it's only weed. Mainly when I chill with these two." Sunset points to Rainbow and Pinkie.
"Rainbow, you smoke weed?" Rarity says to Rainbow, surprised. Rarity never really understood that side of the side of the friend group. What Sunset, Rainbow and Pinkie got up to in their spare time was of little interest to her anyway it seemed.
"Only with Sunset. . .and one other time. . ." Rainbow states suspiciously before looking me dead in the eyes. Soon everyone's eyes followed Rainbow's and were now on me too.
"What?" I say, obviously very confused.
Rainbow looks me up and down with a low gaze before turning away, saying a straightforward, "Nothing. . .".
"No, no, no, tell me what it is," I reply, desperate for an explanation.
"No, never mind. Forget I said anything."
"Rainbow!" I'm raising my voice now, my desperation clear to Rainbow as she follows with an answer.
"Fine. I was high. . .the first time we. . .you know. . . had fun. . ."
The whole table simultaneously makes a smiling face of shock, leaning their bodies back into the various chairs they were on, sinking into them almost. Not out of awkwardness, however, but more a preparation for the non-filtered conversation between Rainbow and me that was due to happen.
"You. . .you were high that night?"
"Well, yeah. A little. . ."
I straighten my slightly slouched posture, taking in Rainbow's comment and playing it in my head over my memories of that night with Rainbow all those years ago, slightly hurt from what I was hearing. "Do you even remember any of it?" I continue.
"I must've done seeing as how much you enjoyed all our subsequent hookups." Rainbow states, bravely.
"Rainbow. . ." I say rapidly eyeing the other 4 girls at the table back to Rainbow, a subtle way of telling her to shut the fuck up. She had a cheeky look on her face as if we were the only two at the table and she was telling me something only I would understand. In fact, that's exactly what was happening, except there were actually 4 other people at the table, our friends who to my surprise, now all looked like golden retrievers engaged in a game of fetch. "Why do y'all look so excited like that?" I question, laughing slightly at their silly expressions.
"Oh, you two are just so adorable!" Pinkie squeals in a less excitable tone than usual, this being more of an internal, heartfelt excitement.
"I've missed this you guys!" Rarity states, her hands planted on her chest as if to say her words are coming from her heart.
Before I had time to react, the waiter came over to our group's table impressively holding three trays filled with various food and drinks. "Here you guys are. . ." The waiter says as he dishes out the meals and drinks to their corresponding orderer. The 4 girls were helping the waiter sort out the dishes, infatuated with the food as I think we were all pretty starving from last night. It seems, however, that both mine and Rainbow's minds were elsewhere.
Rainbow and I simply hold a look at each other, a look of teasing whimsical irritation from me, and an exaggerated look from Rainbow. A look that encompassed all of her mischievous, competitive, cocky, brash and boastful traits all in one and, to a certain degree, read to me as being quite flirtatiously motivated. I don't know what Rainbow was trying to do to me, but all I do know is that, as her eyes seemed like they were staring into my soul, her usual gay overconfidence overwhelmed me, causing my mind to flit through other past nights the girl and I spent together and wishing that they could be re-lived.
As if Rainbow could read my mind, she suddenly comes out with, "One day Apples. . ." winking at me as she does so before helping the others sort out whose meal is whose. I stayed in my fixed position in complete and utter surprise.
What on earth was she doing to me. . .
Why was she doing this to me. . .
'Dagnabbit. . .' I thought to myself. 'I think I like Rainbow. . .again. . .'
A/N
Last night I drafted my plans for every chapter up to chapter 16 and I'm planning to do more sooooo I don't think this fic will be stopping anytime soon 😂
Anyways, hope everyone is ok!
Goodnight!