//------------------------------// // Prompt #74: Rainbow Dash and the Temple of No-Doom-At-All // Story: Twinkle/TOCP's Thirty Minute Ponies Stories // by Twinkletail //------------------------------// The prompt: Pinkie Pie’s peculiar proposal. “RAINBOW! Ya gotta come quick!” Rainbow Dash woke up from her mid-afternoon nap, yawning. She hung her head groggily over the side of today’s napping cloud, staring down at the trio of Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. She found it a bit odd that they would wake her up; they knew quite well how much she valued her naps. Even though they were some of her best friends, the only pony who was allowed to wake her up from any nap, let alone the mid-afternoon one (Usually her favorite), was Pinkie Pie. Then again, Pinkie Pie could do pretty much anything to her without making her mad, but that was besides the point. “Ugh…what’s the problem, girls?” Dash asked, lazily shifting so that a little more of her was hanging off of the cloud. “You know I don’t like being woken up.” “Pinkie Pie’s in trouble!” Rarity shouted. Dash snapped right out of her daze at the sound of these words. “What?!” Dash shouted, jumping to her hooves. She’d just seen Pinkie a few hours ago, when they were reading the latest Daring Do book together. “What happened? Where is she?!” Dash zoomed down off of the cloud as quickly as she could, landing with a thump in front of the three ponies. “Oh my…she was just leaving my cottage, and she was snatched up by a…*gulp*…monster!” Fluttershy said, shaking. “A MONSTER?!” Dash shouted, causing Fluttershy to cower. “We chased it all the way ta…” AJ started, before stopping midway. “…To Sweet Apple Acres!” Rarity chimed in. “It brought her into some strange, well-decorated lair just off of her property!” “Let’s go!!” Dash shouted, and took off as fast as she could. “…Did she go?” Fluttershy asked. The other two ponies nodded. “Thanks fer coverin’ fer me, Rare,” AJ said, wiping sweat from her brow. “Ah couldn’t finish that.” ——— Rainbow Dash burst into the lair, flying as quickly as she could through its labyrinthian layout. She didn’t remember ever seeing something like this near Sweet Apple Acres, and figured the monster must have been quite the handipony to have built it so quickly. She didn’t really have a ton of time to pay attention to it, but she did notice in passing that the place was quite nicely decorated, just like Rarity had said. She tilted her head, wondering for a moment just how Rarity knew about the lair’s decor, but she had no time to dwell on it, as she was forced to stop short as a set of spikes shot up out of the ground. She took a deep breath; that was a close one. She began to fly over the spikes, but then took a closer look at them. They weren’t anywhere near as sharp as she had expected them to be. In fact, upon very close inspection, they appeared to be made of foam. “What the hay kinda lair is this?” Dash asked nopony in particular. She then took off again, dodging her way around more foam spikes, arrows and darts made of the same foam, and falling styrofoam rocks. The entire thing seemed like a bizarre, family-friendly Daring Do novel. Still, she couldn’t dwell on it too long. Pinkie Pie was somewhere in this lair, and she had to find her. Dash turned the next corner and quickly ducked. A swarm of bats was heading right towards her, and unlike the other things she’d encountered, these certainly were not fake. She glanced up as the swarm passed right over her, and was confused by what she saw. Each of the bats had a small yellow ribbon tied around one leg. Fluttershy always did this to her bats so they were easy to find in the dark and easily recognizable as her own. Things were just getting weirder and weirder. Rainbow sighed a sigh of relief as she approached a large red door that looked strangely like the door that Applejack had just recently removed from one of her barns. On the door, three words were written: MONSTER IN HERE. Dash stopped to wonder why in Equestria this monster would write such a thing on the door to its chambers. She decided that time spent wondering about that was time that Pinkie could be in danger, and she burst through the door, skidding to a halt as she landed in the final chamber. “LET PINKIE GO NOW!” Dash shouted, snorting. Then she stopped and got a good look at the scene in front of her. There was Twilight, in a ridiculous monster outfit that looked like she’d gotten it from the bargain bin in the Nightmare Night store. “…Twilight?” Dash asked, more confused than ever. “You shall not defeat me!” Twilight said, in the most evil voice she could muster (Which was not very evil at all). “And you will never save Pinkie Pie! Mwahahahaha!” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Where’s Pinkie?” Dash asked. “You will only find out if you defeat me!” Twilight said. “And you will never do that! Unless you step on my tail! But don’t do that!!” Dash sighed an exasperated sigh and decided to play along. She casually strolled around Twilight and stepped on the tail of her costume. “Bwaaah! I am defeated!” Twilight cried. “You may now save Pinkie, who is right in the next room!” “…Right,” Dash said. She trotted past Twilight and to the far door, opening it. There, in the next room, was Pinkie, sitting on a metal disc. “Oh! Hi Dashie! You saved me!” Pinkie said, smiling. “I was supposed to be in a cage but we didn’t have a cage so we made the bars out of big candy canes, but then I got hungry waiting for you so I ate them!” “What is this all about, Pinkie?” Dash asked, stepping closer. “You saved the princess, Dashie!!” Pinkie said cheerfully. “And you know what happens at the end of adventure stories when the hero saves the princess, right?” “Of course I do,” Dash said. “They get ma…” She froze in place as she noticed the small box that Pinkie was now holding in front of her. Hoof shaking, she reached forward and opened the box to see a golden necklace. Dash was at a loss for words as Pinkie smiled the big, goofy grin that she was so used to seeing from her. “P…Pink…” was all Dash could manage to say. “You can answer whenever you’re ready, Dashie~” Pinkie said, beaming. Dash didn’t have to say a word. She grabbed Pinkie and kissed her deeply, uncharacteristic tears beginning to fall from her eyes. “Is that a yes?” Pinkie asked as the kiss ended. Dash nodded wordlessly. This was probably the silliest proposal she’d ever heard of…but she’d expect nothing less from her Pinkie.