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It’s a Friday night, and Applejack is over at Rainbow’s place for once. This is only possible ‘cuz Rainbow’s parents are out on a date(yuck) and won’t be home ‘til way later. They’ve got the place to themselves, and they’re making the most of it; they’re sharing a bowl of two different flavours of microwave popcorn, watching a dumbass game show from the mid-2000s, and basking in the warmth of the weighted blanket Fluttershy bought for Dash’s last birthday.
Only, since they’re both sharing said blanket, and doing so on the same bed, they end up pretty freaking close together. Not that Rainbow minds, of course. Being friends with Pinkie Pie means being used to plenty of physical contact. Heck, her and AJ are no strangers to touching one another, with all the roughhousing they get up to.
Just that…roughhousing is a little different than lying next to another person under a fluffy blanket. A little less— how should she put this…? Soft .
“Ooh, that’s gonna bruise,” believe it or not, Applejack is super invested in the stupidity playing out on screen.
Rainbow refocuses on the TV, catching the replay of a guy slamming face-first into a padded wall. “No way he’s coming back from that,”
“Ah dunno how they get away with building them shoddy sets,” AJ jostles the bowl of mixed popcorn. “That right there coulda been a concussion if’n he were any less lucky,”
“The shoddy sets are half the fun, dude,” Rainbow affects the tone of an expert. “If everyone was safe, this thing would be a total snooze fest,”
“Spoken like a true psychopath,”
“Wh— hey!” Rainbow turns to face her. “Ok, you can’t tell me you disagree. Like, imagine if no one ever knocked their heads on shit. Would you still be watching?”
A smile tugs at Applejack’s lips. “Reckon you’re missin’ the point here,”
Rainbow scoffs. “See, this is why game shows are lame now. Can’t even give people concussions to spice things up anymore,”
“Ah oughta start recording the stuff you say, Dash. Get Twilight to study it, or somethin’.”
“Uhh, I’ll have you know that Twi’s already tried to study me, and failed,” Rainbow sounds absurdly proud about this. Applejack breaks into chuckles, and Rainbow holds out for a good 3 seconds before she joins her.
It’s hard not to. After all; “you’ve got a nice laugh,”
It only occurs to her after she’s let the words go that they might’ve been the slightest bit weird. And suddenly, she’s all the more aware of the blanket laid on top of them, and the minimal distance between them.
But maybe the weirdness is worth it, ‘cuz Applejack always blushes when someone complements her outright. “Oh, uh— thanks? Where’d that come from?”
“Hearing you laugh, duh,” Rainbow feels a little warm in the face too. “What, no one ever tell you that before?
Applejack’s fighting a smile, if the twitching corners of her lips are anything to go by. “It ain’t the sorta thing Ah expect from you, sugar,”
“Is that like…a sneak diss?”
“You gonna take it as one?”
“Well, yeah! ‘Cuz it sorta sounds like you think I don’t compliment you!”
“Now, Ah’m just throwing out ideas here…but that’s prolly cuz you don’t.”
Rainbow doesn’t know why that irks her, but it does, and she scrambles to defend herself. “Have too! I’ve given you so *many* compliments it’s hard to count!”
“Oh yeah?” Applejack hikes up a brow. “Name one.”
“Easy! Just yesterday, I said your eyes looked less baggy than usual,”
If you looked up bemusement in the dictionary right now, you’d find a candid shot of AJ’s face. “Less baggy,”
“Uh-huh,”
“…Dash, yer a new type of stupid.”
“Woah woah woah, how?! That’s a compliment! It means you look less like you stayed up ‘til 5 milking pigs or whatever,”
“You don’t milk pigs!”
“That’s beside the point!”
Applejack facepalms. The perfect facepalm, in fact. She’s been getting good at them lately, with all the shenanigans their group’s got going on.
“Y’know, you’re being a total hippo right now,”
Applejack lowers her hand immediately. “A what ?”
“Hypocrite, duh. You keep going on about how I apparently don’t compliment you, but you never compliment me ,”
“That’s ’cuz if ya got any more praise, yer head would explode.”
Rainbow shrugs. “Sounds awesome,”
“Wh— no, not awesome!” Realizing she’s getting nowhere fast, Applejack takes another route. “Ya got pretty eyes.”
Oh, there’s that warmth in her face again. “H-huh?”
“Yer hair’s real swanky, yer smile’s nice,” Applejack starts firing compliments off like their shotgun rounds. “Ya got a real knack for gettin’ outta awkward situations,”
Rainbow’s head is gonna explode, but not for the reasons AJ thinks. “What’re you…quit doing that!”
“Doin’ what?” Applejack dons an incredibly smug smirk. “Complimentin’ mah best friend?”
“You— I— ugh,” Rainbow shakes her head to get her thoughts in order. “Why does anyone think you’re the nice one?!”
Applejack bursts into laughter all over again. She really needs to do something about that pretty face before Rainbow’s heart gets any stupid ideas.
“You suck,”
“Love ya too, Dash.”