//------------------------------// // Calming Down (Maybe) // Story: Oh... // by Arbiter Balemead //------------------------------// The rainbow-maned filly looked up from the crusts on her plate at the mares who were standing in the door. Twilight was with them, putting a hoof to her face, while the rest of them gawked at her. She knew it! She knew there was something wrong! These four new mares looked familiar though, which had to be impossible, because she couldn't remember anything before waking up in this building only a few hours ago. The one with the yellow coat was the most familiar. She felt like she'd grown up with the mare... Was she Rainbow's mom? "Don't let on that there's anything wrong, girls." Twilight whispered too quietly for the filly to hear. They nodded their understanding, but this time she wasn't sure she should believe them. She turned to face Rainbow , whom was staring at the other mares, Fluttershy in particular. "Rainbow? These are Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy. They're all friends of ours." She introduced them, gesturing to each one respectively. The little filly started flapping her wings and hovered over to Fluttershy. "I know you..." She said, her voice betraying her own confusion. "Y-yes, you do. We grew up together." Fluttershy glanced at Twilight, who merely looked on silently. "But you're way older than me! How did we-" "Oh dear! You didn't finish your sandwich!" Fluttershy exclaimed, cleverly changing the subject. She hovered over to the plate and started trying to coax Rainbow into eating her crusts. It didn't work very well. Twilight pulled the other three into a huddle while Rainbow was distracted. "She doesn't remember anything." She whispered, "And I mean anything. She even asked if I was her mom. She's definitely out of it..." She glanced over at Rainbow and Fluttershy to make sure the filly was still distracted. "Ya di'n't mention that she's a filly." Applejack noted. "I didn't know how to put it without you girls freaking out and asking a bunch of unnecessary questions..." Rarity and Applejack glared at her while Pinkie simply gave a blank stare. "Okay, so maybe I could've explained a little bit more before showing you, but I'm still a little shocked at what happened, okay?" "Darling... what happened?" Rarity asked. "I-...I'll explain later. After I explain to Rainbow. She needs to know more than you do." Twilight quickly stepped out of the huddle to avoid further questions, as well as suspicion from Rainbow, who had finally finished eating her crust. "So, Rainbow, you've met Fluttershy..." She turned to gesture towards the other three as she introduced them. "...and these are Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity-" "You already did that. Wh-..." Rainbow hesitated a moment, not quite sure if she should ask this question. She decided to ask, whether it was smart or not. "Where are my parents?" Twilight gave a sideways glance to the other girls. "Uhm... probably in Cloudsdale..." "Where's that? And where are we?" Rainbow asked. "This is Ponyville. Cloudsdale is... not very close." "Why are my parents there when I'm here?" "Okay, listen Rainbow. I need to explain something. Girls, can you give us a moment?" They all agreed quietly and walked out of the room, leaving Twilight to explain her grievous error to its only victim. Well... only apparent victim... She sat Rainbow down on the bed and sat on the floor in front of her. She looked the filly over quietly, taking note of the fact that she still had her cutie mark. She also made mental note that Rainbow was a very adorable filly. "Okay, Rainbow. I need to tell you something..." She trailed off hesitantly. "What is it? There's something wrong with me isn't there?" The filly asked pleadingly. "Y-yes. And it's my fault. Don't worry, you're fine... sorta..." "Whatya mean? What's wrong?" Twilight took a deep breath before continuing. "Okay, Rainbow. You're twenty-one. We both are. Or at least we're both supposed to be. The problem is that you're not anymore." Rainbow was looking more confused than concerned. "What?" "Well, you came by earlier today, like you usually do, but you tried something new on your way in -you always fly here and you usually crash- and... this time you hurt your leg-" "But I feel fine..." "Yeah... I was trying a new spell I'd found. It was supposed to 'renew' you, but I guess I did a bit too well..." Twilight kicked at the ground nervously. "What do you mean? How did you do it 'too well'?" "I guess I put too much effort into the spell or something...but the big thing is that you're a filly now, and you don't remember anything." Twilight gave a faint smile, trying to look more confident than she was-that is to say, not at all. "I have a spell that can fix the memory thing, and I'm sure if there is a spell that turned you into a filly, I can find one to reverse it." "O-okay..." Rainbow said, sounding none too confident herself. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while. Twilight kept glancing around the room, but her eyes kept drifting back to the little filly. Rainbow, for her part, just looked like she was thinking very hard. After a moment, Twilight noticed something was there: a feeling. A very familiar feeling... Attraction. The cyan-coated, rainbow-maned, magenta-eyed pony sitting on the bed in front of her was still Rainbow Dash, but just a very frightened, very young version of her. It scared Twilight that she could still feel something for Rainbow, despite the fact that now, not only was she the same gender as Twilight but she was also a minor. A minor by far. Well buck. It was about ten minutes since they'd gone downstairs to wait before they finally heard the door to Twilight's room creak open slowly. They looked up quietly, to see Rainbow descending the stairs slowly, followed none-too-nearly by Twilight. Rainbow looked a little shocked while Twilight looked a little worried. The first one to react was Fluttershy, her caring instincts kicking in immediately, and she sat down Rainbow on the couch gently, cooing softly that she was going to be just fine. All the while, Twilight was explaining in very few details how Rainbow had come to be ten years younger than she had been that morning. Pinkie reacted with little surprise, and much enthusiasm, as well as an astounding level of optimism. She simply seemed to be under the firm belief that, whatever did happen, it would end well. Similarly to her, Fluttershy also seemed somewhat optimistic, although she didn't voice it in nearly as many syllables as Pinkie Pie did, and she also seemed to be a bit unsure, despite her own optimism. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Rarity, who seemed to believe that the effects of the failed spell would be permanent, as an aging spell would be impractical and likely not exist. Lastly, sitting smack in the middle of the spectrum, was Applejack, who simply wanted to reserve her honest opinion for when there were more details and possibilities to go on, but for now simply said she hoped this would end well. All of these opinions left Twilight shaking with a fake smile. She knew this was her fault, and all of them but Pinkie seemed either unsure or sure that it would end badly. She knew there were only a few things she could do to fix this: Find spell to reverse this failed one, restore Rainbow's memories, and lastly, take care of Rainbow while she grew up again. Yeah, that last one probably would be the oddest to work out, especially since she had the romantic feelings to work around until she could fix this, but that didn't mean she couldn't at least take care of the little filly to make up for her mistake. Of course, anypony could see that it would be more sensible to have Fluttershy or maybe Applejack take care of the filly, but Twilight didn't care about sensible right now. When Rainbow was distracted by Pinkie's inane attempts to make her feel better (working, by the way), Twilight pulled Fluttershy aside and pitched her case. "I want to take care of her." She said quickly. "Wh-what?" "She's a filly right?" Fluttershy nodded. "Somepony is gonna need to take care of her. I want to do it." "Twilight... I think I would be a be-" "I know, I know but..." She glanced over to see if the other girls were listening. They all looked quite distracted by Pinkie's... wow that's impressive...How does she- Twilight shook her head and brought herself back to the present conversation. "But I wanted to make up for my mistake and-" "Twilight. Y-you don't need to make up for anything. I-it was an accident; you couldn't help that." Twilight nodded, hanging her head a little bit as she tried to work up the courage to say what she was about to say. "I uhm... I kinda- I li-..." A deep breath. "I-I-I-..." Another one. "I uhhh...." "Twilight?" She looked up at Fluttershy. "I-I think I get it..." "Y-you do?" Oh what a relief! If Fluttershy understood the situation then she wouldn't have to say it out loud. Maybe she could just have Fluttershy tell the other girls, then leave it up to Twilight to tell Rainbow! This was s- "Yes. You want her close by so you can study her and try to find a way to reverse it...right?" Fluttershy asked, losing confidence as Twilight's face went more and more towards the 'I hadn't even thought of that' face. "Eh, well that contributes I guess..." Twilight mumbled. She looked over at- How does Pinkie do that?- the other girls. They were still distracted by... rather Pinkie things... She turned back to Fluttershy. "Okay, the truth is...Well I uh...I like... Rainbow..." For a moment, she thought she should repeat herself louder because she had gotten pretty quiet, but Fluttershy seemed to hear quite clearly. Twilight supposed that it came from being so quiet herself. "Oh..." She looked only a little surprised. "W-well I uhm... I guess you can take care of her..." A realization seemed to suddenly flash into her eyes. "B-but she's just a filly, Twilight!" She whispered quietly. "A-are you sure you shoul-" "Don't worry about that. I'm sure I can restrain myself from... base things like that." She said it a little sarcastically to show Fluttershy a little more confidence than what she actually had. "O-okay... If you think so." Fluttershy said weakly. Twilight smiled bravely and led the way back to the group of girls. Luckily, Pinkie had stopped...doing her thing, and was now sitting, none too distractingly, on the couch. Rainbow was smiling and it looked like Pinkie's 'thing' had cheered her up quite a bit. "Okay, Rainbow, we've decided that you're going to stay with me and Spike. Okay?" "Okay!" Rainbow grinned, seeming really excited. "Do I need anything?" "Uh, no. I think I have it covered." "Okay." Twilight took a deep breath. Okay, so that's one of her hardest things on her mental to do list down. That leaves 'Fix Rainbow', 'Confess feelings to Rainbow', and 'Get Spike to stop making fun of me about Rainbow' on the list. Two of those seemed possible... Twilight just wasn't sure which...