Letting Go | Appledash

Chapter Sixteen: Sorry

A/N: happy new year! I hope 2022 treats you well and brings you lots of joy and wonderful times with your loved ones. Here's a little chapter to start it off :)

Chapter Sixteen: Sorry

"So? What did she say?" Twilight asked immediately after picking up the phone.

Rarity shook her head, despite knowing her friend couldn't see it. "She said she's fine, per usual. Only this time it was even less convincing."

Twilight let out a sigh on the other end. "That bad?"

"Unfortunately," Rarity answered. She plopped down on her bed. "I suppose it's safe to say they're both hurting equally as much."

"Yeah. But we can't do much more now," Twilight said.

Rarity hummed. "Let's just hope Rainbow Dash doesn't take too long. They'll only suffer more if that's the case."

"You're right," Twilight replied along with another sigh. "Let's check on her tomorrow," she said, which Rarity quickly agreed to.

—

Rainbow Dash
[8:42 PM] hey, you awake?

Rainbow Dash wanted to hurl the phone across the room the second she'd pressed the send button. It felt like every fiber of her being was telling her to go to sleep, to just procrastinate the problem for a little longer, but she knew better than to obey. The message had already been sent anyway, so it was too late to back down. She had already committed. The least she could do now was put the phone screen out of sight while she waited, and she decided to do just that.

A minute passed. Then two. Then five. And then ten. Dash was growing tired of laying in bed and staring at nothingness, waiting for a notification to pop up. She unlocked the screen and checked the chat only to immediately freak out and leave it again when catching the other typing.

The notification tone reached her ears and she waited for a minute or two before carefully taking a peek at the message.

Applejack
[8:53 PM] Yes

Okay, now she could breathe again. She lay silently for a while – not opening the message because obviously she can't be too fast or that's weird – and thought of what to do next. She knew she needed to talk to the girl, but did she know what to say? Not at all. She thought she'd thought this through but in the end, she was still unprepared. But then a phrase she'd heard earlier that day rang in her head.

It's just Applejack.

That's right. It's just Applejack, the most honest soul she knows and the closest friend she's ever had; her best friend. She grabbed the phone.

Rainbow Dash
[8:56 PM] can I call?

Applejack
[8:57 PM] Right now?

Rainbow Dash
[8:57 PM] nope tomorrow
[8:57 PM] yes obviously right now

Dash regretted letting her sarcasm take over because suddenly, Applejack was taking long to answer again, and by every passing minute, RD lost more and more confidence.

Applejack
[9:04 PM] Okay

By the time that answer came, Rainbow Dash's nerves were skyrocketing once more. She'd asked to call because she figured it would be easier to properly express herself, but now she was regretting it because she didn't even know what she wanted to express, to begin with.

Well, too bad. It was too late to back down.

Rainbow Dash
[9:05 PM] one sec

That second turned into a few minutes of pacing back and forth in her room before finally settling back onto her bed and – after giving herself a long pep talk – clicking the call button.

Applejack took longer to pick up than she had anticipated. At some point, she thought the girl wasn't going to answer at all. But she did.

"Hey," she said simply.

"Hi," Rainbow answered nervously. "What's up?" she asked, purely out of habit.

"Havin' dinner," AJ replied. Dash heard the faint noise of a glass being put down. "What about you?"

"Not much. How come you're eating so late?" Rainbow Dash asked, genuinely curious.

"Slept through dinner," the other answered.

"Oh..." Rainbow said.

Applejack hummed. A silence followed. Rainbow wanted to bang her head against the wall for being the one to call but not know what the hell to say.

"Er- uh... Did you get home safely yesterday?" she asked. She had never asked anyone this before, she felt like a stranger to herself.

There was a shuffle on the other end before the answer came. "Yeah. Did you?"

"Yeah. I left pretty soon after you did, actually," Dash told her.

"Is that so..." was the other's soft reply. Her voice seemed to be wavering a tiny bit, but RD couldn't blame her when she wasn't much better herself.

"Sorry if I was the reason you left," she said. She didn't even know why she felt the need to apologize for it.

Applejack was silent for a while before eventually saying, "It's alright."

Rainbow Dash gulped. She cleared her throat."And sorry that I- er, you know... Did that," she continued hesitantly, voice low and uncertain. "I... I really wasn't thinking clearly," she added. She cursed her stutter for betraying her display of composure.

"I know," was the only thing AJ said, and Dash felt an intense guilt clasp at her heart.

"I'm sorry," she said, loud and clear this time. She had to practically jam the next part out of her mouth. "Can we just... Forget and move past it?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the question lingered in the air, and an unbearably long silence followed. Rainbow Dash didn't dare to speak and Applejack seemed to have turned completely mute.

"Please...?" Dash heard herself say once she couldn't put up with the quiet no more. She wasn't one to beg, like, ever, but this situation made her say things she'd hardly ever heard herself say before. "I still want to be your best friend, AJ," she added honestly, voice pitiful.

"...Alright," Applejack retorted finally. She let out a deep breath. "Forget and move past," she repeated.

Rainbow felt like a million weights had been lifted off her shoulders. She nodded. "Forget and move past," she confirmed.

"Yeah," the blonde said. The sound of a tray being moved was heard. "I need to go now."

"Oh, yeah. I mean okay, that's cool," Rainbow replied awkwardly. She was about to say something to play it off but her plan was cut short when the other, seemingly unphased by her mindless blabbering, added a quick 'good night' and hung up.

The polychromatic girl stared blankly at her phone for a minute before sighing and tossing it away. She felt... Numb. Sure, it was a whole lot better than the way she had felt before, but still far from close to being alright.

She turned her gaze to the side. The moonlight shone through the blinds and reflected perfectly on her cyan skin. It was so warming, almost comforting, and Dash made the familiar decision to sleep away all of her bad thoughts.