Journey to the Center of the Rainbow
Chapter 4: Yellow
With every place she was taken, Rainbow was beginning to notice a pattern. Each place, with the exception of the aquarium in Manehattan, had kept her and Twilight secluded from other ponies. This was especially evident now, as they walked down an empty dirt road somewhere in Equestria she had never been to before.
Rainbow didn’t mind being alone with Twilight, in fact, she found the extended amount of time with the unicorn to be fun and rewarding. Outside of the library, Rainbow kept forgetting just how much of a character Twilight was, and that her entire existence didn’t revolve around reading and her studies.
What initially surprised her was how personal and open Twilight was becoming as each day passed. Rainbow made a mental note to ask the others about this, but she was certain that Twilight had never really opened up this much to anypony else before. The fact that she was made Rainbow wonder what the unicorn saw in their relationship.
She already considered Twilight to be a close friend, but it seemed like Twilight was thinking deeper into that than ever before. Rainbow could see her in a best friend sort of light, and assumed this is what the unicorn was thinking of.
Could it be more than this?
Rainbow never thought much about romantic relationships. It wasn’t expected of her to be a mare who would think and daydream of a coltfriend or marefriend, so in order to hold up her persona, she never did.
Yet, here she was with Twilight, contemplating the idea of potentially being her marefriend. She didn’t know how her thoughts got to this position, or why. In the end however, Rainbow somehow got herself into wondering how it would be like to take that big of a step forward in their relationship. To go from friends, to their special somepony could be considered more of a jump than a hop and a skip in Pinkie’s terms.
Rainbow shook her head a couple of times to rid her mind of the thought. She would address the issue later on. Doing so now would only work to make the rest of their vacation incredibly awkward and unenjoyable.
She watched as Twilight fumbled with a rather large map.“You seem to be having trouble with that. Need a bit of help?”
Twilight didn’t respond, too focused on studying the map before her to hear anypony or anything around her.
Rainbow had to admit, the unicorn’s ability to block out her surroundings when she wished was a useful talent. She wished she had the ability herself, it would make naps much easier.
She didn’t ask a second time, letting Twilight sort out the issue herself before delving in again.
“It doesn’t make sense, where we should be going should be right up ahead!” A frustrated Twilight groaned as she fiddled with the now partially wrinkled map of the area.
“Can I help in any sort of way?”
“No,” Twilight replied instantaneously. “Sorry if I’m getting flustered over this, but this was a birthday gift for you. The only thing I need you to do is enjoy it,” she explained, smiling at the last sentence.
“Well what if I said that I would enjoy this gift more if you’d let me help you?”
“You’re just saying that,” Twilight said, calling out Rainbow’s bluff. “Do you really want to help me or do you just want to prove a point?”
Rainbow knew that Twilight was only acting how she was because of her annoyance at her navigational errors. Nevertheless, the comment still acted like a thorn in Rainbow’s side, and the pegasus was somewhat peeved. “If you know me well enough, you could answer the question yourself.”
Twilight glared at Rainbow, but only for a few seconds before her expression softened into an apologetic smile, although it could have been a frown, as Twilight wasn’t exactly sure. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. Here,” she gestured for Rainbow to come over a hold a side of the map,” we’ll look together.
“Apology accepted. Really Twi, do you think I’d be angry at you?”
“Well, you do tend to get more angry than most of us,” Twilight retorted. “Rarity might be the exception of that, but you have a temper sometimes.”
Rainbow turned to look at Twilight, leaning in so close to the point where the tips of their noses were touching. She glared menacingly, watching as Twilight suddenly shrunk in composure. “Maybe I do. But I like you too much to be mad at you,” she replied in a deeper more serious tone. Out of the blue, she poked Twilight in the forehead. Rainbow grinned and watched as Twilight could do nothing roll her eyes and smile back.
“I guess that’s good to know?” Twilight knew she blushed hard the second their noses touched, and that there were beads of sweat sliding down the back of her neck. She hoped to Celestia Rainbow didn’t notice any of it.
“Now where on this map are we looking for?” Rainbow watched diligently as Twilight pointed out the location in which she was trying to find.
“There. The Playa De La Arena Dorada.” Twilight wasn’t surprised to see a look of pure confusion on her friend’s face as she read out the place name. Surely she could have expected Rainbow not to know any Spanish.
“Um… how about translating that out for me?”
“It means Beach of the Yellow Sand.” Twilight gasped, immediately put a hoof over her mouth.
“Well,” Rainbow began, “I’m going to guess that yellow is the next color?”
Twilight kicked a stone upside down, and merely nodded. “That was supposed to be a surprise until we get there. Well, I guess we can still go there, even though I ruined the surprise and all.”
Rainbow could easily sense the disappointment in the mare’s voice. Of course she would love to go to the beach, but it wouldn’t be much of an enjoyable experience with Twilight in her current upset form. An idea suddenly popped into her mind as handed the map back so Twilight was holding it on her own.
“Here’s what we’ll do. Take around 30 minutes or so, and find someplace that better represents the color yellow on that map. While you do that, I’ll take a little nap.”
Twilight smiled, liking the idea, as well as the thought behind it. “Wait, we’re in the middle of a huge grassland? Where are you going to take a nap?”
Before her very eyes, she saw a blur of rainbow and cyan across the sky gather small clouds out of a relatively clear sunny day. Eventually it was about the size of a small bed, good for any pegasus, but perfectly sized for Rainbow Dash. She hopped up on her fluffy creation, sighing at the instant comfort it gave her.
“That answers my question,” Twilight said, chuckling a bit. “Alright, I’ll give you a wakeup call in half an hour.”
Rainbow nodded happily and closed her eyes, shuffling herself a couple of times before finding the perfect spot. It didn’t take but a couple of minutes before she was snoring and heading away into dreamland.
I was greeted with blinding sunlight.
…That might have been the quickest 30 minute nap I had ever taken in my life.
Slowly I sat up, stretching out my arms and legs as I worked the drowsiness out of my system. I unfurled my wings and gave them a good stretch as well, enjoying the feeling.
“So Twi, did you find someplace else for us to go?” I said. Surprisingly, I received no answer.
“Twilight?” Again, the air remained unnaturally calm and quiet. The only thing I could make out was a light breeze that drifted through my mane.
Once fully awake, I went to fly down to the ground, when I realized that there wasn’t one to fly to. I looked down to see an endless sky, both above me and below me. Thankfully I wasn’t falling, and had the ability to stand on clouds and fly, or this would be a much more frightening experience.
What I did notice was that all the clouds that were around me seemed to be forming themselves into a line. As they floated into place, it's almost as if they were telling me to follow their path. I decided to follow, as it beat sitting here all alone.
I couldn’t comprehend at the moment whether I was in some other world or dimension. That wasn’t my main focus right now.
I had to find Twilight.
Panic began to set in and I started running along the clouds, their pace mirroring mine as they quickened their own movements. I thought about flying, but for some reason abandoned the idea.
“Rainbow Dash…”
My hooves skidded to a stop as I heard the faint whisper of a voice that sounded incredibly close to Twi’s.
“Rainbow Dash…”
I ran as fast as my legs could possibly take me, hoping some sort of violet color would appear upon the horizon.
“Rainbow Dash…”
It was getting louder, I knew it was. It was the only thing keeping me from slowing down. The path of clouds ballooned to a point where it looked less like clouds, and more like a white floor.
It was also at this very point where I noticed that the voice had stopped altogether. At this point, there was no reason to turn around and head the other way. So I continued to run forward.
The smallest dot possible appeared on the horizon, so faint that under normal circumstance, I probably would have missed it. But on a white surface, it stuck out like a sore thumb.
A single dot of violet.
By now my legs were screaming to slow down, and my lungs felt like they were on fire from breathing so hard.
But the farther I went the larger that dot became.
“Twilight!”
She was sitting down, the cloud below her colored similar to that of her mane. She looked… happy?
“There you are. I’ve been waiting your arrival.”
I watched as she rose, turning her head from side to side as her mane flowed around her next. She began to walk towards me in a slow methodical manner, each step used to accent her body in some way. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her, and could feel the air around me begin to warm up and humidify.
She placed her front hooves around my neck, gracefully sliding them down till they reached my back. I watched as she came back up, using my own body to hold herself up as she buried her face into my mane and inhaled deeply. Her head became tangled among the colors as I felt her warm breath tickle the side of my neck, making every single nerve ending dance with pleasure. Finally coming up for air, she lifted her head off me, her eyes scanning my mane as she played with it in her hooves. She treated each strand as if she were admiring a rare treasure, hooves running through each singular color as her eyes nearly twitched with delight.
“Did I ever tell you how amazing your scent is?”
Her voice wasn’t that of the Twilight I was used to. There was an element of huskiness to it now, a positively playful tone I had never heard in my life. As I finally into her eyes, the differences were shockingly evident.
I kept on telling myself that I shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as I was. Besides, Twilight was my best friend, somepony I could go to for anything. Right now though, every move she made was causing me to rethink just how I saw her. But the way she was strutting around and every calculated move she made was effectively making my patience all the more harder to keep. I cannot explain how much I wanted her.
She held her nose against mine, and flashed me a grin that made my mouth water. I watched as she licked her lips, almost painfully slow, not breaking eye contact with me. In an instant, she pushed me down so that I was sprawled out on my back. I watched as she straddled my waist, before bringing her head down to my own yet again.
Her hooves felt like the softest velvet as she stroked my face, brushing my mane away from my forehead.
My eyes closed as her lips descended onto mine…
As Rainbow slept, Twilight’s mind was in a flurry as she thought of every single yellow object she could imagine. Her thoughts constantly dragged her back to the sun for some reason, but while it was a nice idea, what could they do with the sun? She thought about sunbathing but tossed the idea away, knowing Rainbow wouldn’t enjoy laying in the sun all day.
She got up from the small boulder she was seated on and wandered around, hoping something could catch her eye and potentially conjure up an idea. Her eyes centered upon a singular purple flower gently shifting in the breeze, and at that very moment in hit her.
“That’s it!”
Twilight picked up the map she had folded and placed next to the boulder and quickly opened it up. It only took her a couple of minutes before she found what she was after. About 10 miles to the east was the exact place she was looking for.
She thought about if 10 miles would be too far a trek, but assumed that Rainbow would offer to fly the two of them over there. Her heart did a backflip at the very thought, and she wondered how she could possibly maintain herself in such a situation. She remembered the entire plan at hand, and knew that it wasn't the right time yet. She would worry about it when it came.
Twilight guessed it had been around 30 minutes so she decided to wake up Rainbow Dash. She strolled back over to the cloud to find the sleeping pegasus, who oddly seemed to be having hot flashes of some kind. This confused Twilight, as the overall temperature wasn’t really hot at all.
“Rainbow,” she nudged her gently, “Time to wake up.”
She squirmed a bit before shooting straight up, her eyes bolting open out of nowhere. Breathing heavily, she took a quick scan of her surroundings before sighing in relief.
“Rainbow, are you alright?” Twilight looked at her, puzzled on what she could be thinking about.
“I’m alright… just had a really odd dream just now,” she replied, wiping the sweat off her face, her breath now calming down.
“Do you want to talk about it? You look really flustered.”
Rainbow appreciated the concern Twilight gave, but wouldn’t dare tell her about the dream she just had. “I just need a few minutes.” She smiled, trying to reassure her friend. “Trust me, I’m okay.”
Twilight nodded and left to retrieve the map she had left by the boulder. She could sense that there was something really throwing Rainbow off, but decided against trying to coax it out.
“Where did that dream come from?” Rainbow thought, trying to process it all. She remembered talking to Fluttershy about dreams some time ago. She had mentioned that sometimes dreams can be predictors of how one really can feel. “Is this really how I view Twilight?” Just less than a week ago she viewed the mare as just a best friend. She wondered how things could possibly change so quickly. “Come on Rainbow, play it cool, don’t make it awkward between you and her.”
A few minutes later Twilight saw Rainbow strolling towards her, looking much more relaxed than she was beforehand.
“So then, which way are we headed captain?” Rainbow stood with her body completely aligned, mimicking a navy pony.
Twilight giggled in response. “Well my loyal crewmate, we are heading due East for 10 miles. However, may a favor be requested?”
“Do tell.”
“Since 10 miles is a long walk, I thought you could fly us over there instead. It would give you an opportunity to give your wings some use, since we haven’t done much flying since day one,” Twilight explained, watching as Rainbow’s eyes lighted up to the mention of flying.
“Asking me to fly is more of a gift than a request you know,” Rainbow mentioned, extending her wings from her sides.
“So I’m taking that as a yes.”
Rainbow merely nodded.
Twilight watched as Rainbow continued doing a couple of basic stretches. Even though it was a short flight in terms of distance, Rainbow had mentioned to her multiple times about keeping herself in top condition, which meant stretching before flying. She also mentioned that the stretching routine was crucial if she took a passenger with her.
“You know the deal right? Just hop on and hold your arms around my neck. Don’t choke me though, don’t feel like losing oxygen,” Rainbow teased.
Twilight got into position, blushing madly as she was doing so. She was thankful Rainbow didn’t notice, and was surprised that she was able to keep all of this under her nose. “Ready when you are!”
“Hold on tight!”
With a couple of sprints Rainbow took off into the skies, a place she felt like was her home away from home. She savored the way the wind blew through her mane, feeling at peace as she watched the blur of the landscape down below.
Although she only did this a couple of times previously, Twilight always loved being in the air, especially with Rainbow Dash. She felt herself gazing longingly at her as she flew, but shook the cobwebs out of her mane in order to keep focus on the agenda at hand.
After a few minutes, Twilight began to start searching for the fields of sunflowers, assuming they were not very difficult to locate.
“Do you see them yet?” Twilight asked, since Rainbow had the better view off things.
“No, not… woah.”
Out of nowhere, the once grassland landscape became overrun with sunflowers, thousands upon thousands of them. Both of them were amazed at how vast the fields were, as they seemed to stretch out for many miles in all directions.
"Rainbow Dash, welcome to the Equestrian National Sunflower Fields."
Rainbow slowed down so that she was nearly floating on the breeze alone, and circled over the fields, taking in their beauty. Eventually she found a thinner section of the field and descended, landing gently within the sunflowers.
Twilight hopped off and wandered around, taking in just how huge some of the sunflowers were. A few of them reached over her and Rainbow’s heads. “Rainbow, look at how big some of their inflorescences are!”
“…What?”
“Oh that term means the big yellow flower part of the sunflower. See how all of them point in the angle of the sun?”
Rainbow looked at all of them as a whole, and found Twilight to be correct. She found it amusing that a simple sunflower was something she normally overlooked, but putting thousands of them together made it seem all the more fascinating. “So, yellow huh?”
“Indeed. Would you like to hear more about it?” Twilight asked.
“Actually before that, there is one thing I wanted to ask you about,” Rainbow replied.
“Okay, go ahead.”
“Well,” she began, “when you mentioned about teaching me the about the rainbow and all, I assumed that you were going to go in order of how each color appeared in the rainbow. Why did you mix the order up?”
A genuine look of curiosity appeared on Twilight’s face as a result of the question. “To be honest, I don’t really know. I tried to plan everything out according to time, distance, and other elements of the sort. I felt like going in order would have made things more hectic. Besides, you’re still learning about all seven colors in the end, and that’s all that counts right?”
“I guess so,” Rainbow replied. “I find it funny how interested I’m becoming in this. This might bite me in the backside later on, but this type of learning is actually fun.”
Twilight jumped and clapped, overjoyed with what Rainbow had just said. “You're becoming an egghead just like me!”
Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh.
“Anyway, the color yellow. Yellow is the color of sunshine…” Twilight stopped completely as she saw Rainbow making incredibly dramatic facial expressions as if she had heard the most amazing thing ever. She glared at her, and Rainbow complied, sitting intently.
“So where was I… oh yes the color of sunshine. Yellow is a color of intellect and energy. Out of all the colors, it is a color which stands out bold and bright. Perhaps the most common association of the color is its characteristic of joy and happiness.”
“Which of those qualities do you see most in me?” Rainbow asked.
“I would definitely say happiness. Although you have a serious side to you which can easily be provoked, most of the time you’re an enjoyable presence which helps lift the rest of us up. It explains why you seem to get along with Pinkie Pie better than most of us. The whole idea of playfulness is present in both you and her.”
Rainbow pondered the idea for a second. Never in her life had anypony ever called her playful before. “So even though I can be serious and brash a lot, you still consider me to be playful?” Rainbow asked, a bit confused onto how she could be both.
“Nopony is expected to act in one kind of way. Take myself for instance. Yes, I can be a really introverted pony who would rather read books and do research. On the flip side I love hanging out with all my friends and having adventures, or just having fun. It’s an even mixture of both.”
A look of enlightenment filled Rainbow’s face. “You make a good point there Sparkle. I’m inclined to agree.”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow in response to the use of her last name. “Since when do you call me Sparkle?”
“I felt like it.”
They continued to walk along the fields of sunflowers, admiring their bold yellow color, and how tall and magnificent some of them looked.
Twilight took a step and found the ground to be sinking a couple of inches or so, and looked down expecting mud or water of some kind. Instead, the ground seemed to be shifting under her hooves.
“Hey Rainbow, is the ground moving under your hooves?”
Rainbow looked down herself, and noticed the same thing. “Yeah, its like the ground is alive or something. Weird.”
“Yeah I, Woah… Woah… Woah!!” Twilight felt the ground rumble as the section she was suddenly on vanished, the dirt and sunflowers breaking apart and sliding down into the earth below.
“RAINBOW!!”
Rainbow had fallen off balance and smacked headfirst into a sizeable rock which was hidden among the sunflowers. Dazed, she scrambled to find Twilight, although it proved hard as everything had become blurry. “Twilight! Hang on I’m coming!”
She saw a speck of violet down below in the landslide and dove after it, the land around her continuing to crumble and fall.