//------------------------------//
// Interlude: Sitting In A Tree 
// Story: That Sunlit Glow 
// by Tiger|Pony 
//------------------------------//

If the sun had risen behind the clouds, then they had thickened in reply. Ponyville beneath the midday sun was no brighter than it had been when it first rose, and gliding along languorously beneath the threatening sky, Rainbow Dash flew towards the Everfree Forest without even thinking about it. It was ingrained now, like one of her tricks; simply something her body did while her mind worked on things that required concentration.

Right now, that mind was focusing hard on what Twilight Sparkle had said. She was divided, and she knew it, and it annoyed her. Half of her said: Of course I'm trying to change her. She's got a problem and I'm the only pony close enough to help. The other half, much to her annoyance, replied: Then how can I get annoyed if she's trying to change me? Other voices, other opinions echoed around her head, all of them on one side or another. Either she loved a pony for who she was, or she tried to help a pony who needed it. Why couldn't she do both?

Only as she cleared the tree-line and almost landed in Fluttershy's own garden did she realise what she'd done. Her heart leapt into her mouth. Flinging out her wings in a panic, she stopped herself on the spot, before leaping back into the sky and dashing away. She was still too hurt, and still too angry with herself and Fluttershy and everypony else, to have that conversation right now. She had to find a spot where nopony would bother her. Especially not her marefriend.

The streets and houses of Ponyville went unnoticed beneath her as she headed for nowhere-in-particular, as long as it was private.

She made it over to Sweet Apple Acres before the fear wore off. Hovering for a moment, she saw none of the signs of farming work going on, and surmised that her friend and her family must be elsewhere. That was alright. She could settle, then.

Rainbow Dash fanned her wings to bring herself to a halt somewhere over the south field, and dropped down into the upper branches of a suitable tree on the edge of a small clearing. And once she'd settled, she folded her wings in, closed her eyes, and remembered.

"Why do you need to make a big deal of us, Rainbow?" It was the same question that Fluttershy had been asking for months. Now, it almost sounded like she was tired of asking it.

"Because you're...sweet! and awesome! and helpful, and supportive, and everything a mare should be! And I want everypony to know I'm the one who got you!" And every word of it true. She was everything a mare should be, except confident enough to show it off. She should be happy. But-

"You sound like you think I'm a trophy." -she wasn't.

"WHAT? I wanna show you off, sure, but I wanna get you bright and confident so the whole world can know how cool you are!" How could she not see this? How could she be so... weak?

"But I don't want the whole world to know all about me. I want to spend time with you, and care for you, and make you happy."

This was her stock answer. And Dash was sick of it. Her first thought, then, had been to lash out. And she didn't have time for second thoughts. "Care for me? I'm not one of your animals, Fluttershy."

"No. They're happy to be who they are." The reply was sharp-edged. She'd never heard Fluttershy talk like that before.

"How can you stand to be so wonderful and not be known for it?" A change of direction, after a brief pause. It was the same question, phrased differently. That endless frustration, that sense that she wanted to scream until her throat bled, was always over this.

"My friends know me." No they don't! No they don't-

"No they don't, Fluttershy! They don't know you as long as they don't know this! They think you're one thing and you're something else all the time. They think you're straight. They think you're too shy to find a special somepony for yourself. They think you don't have anypony to hold when you're feeling down. They think you're lonely!" Fluttershy had flinched visibly. This much was true; that her choice to keep her relationship secret often involved seeming to be something she wasn't. And that hurt her every time she did it. Rainbow Dash knew how that hurt, and how it was probably the only angle she had to get her to come out at all.

"I wouldn't lie to our friends." Fluttershy had whispered at last, in nothing short of bad faith.

"No, you just make me do it for you."

Sitting up her tree, Dash winced at the memory. That was the moment when it had all gone wrong.

If it had felt disloyal to Fluttershy to tell some of their friends what was going on between the two of them, then surely this was nothing next to the year-and-a-half's betrayal of the other ponies' friendships she was already responsible for. How the hay was a pony meant to be the living form of loyalty when she couldn't even keep her story straight to the ponies she loved the most?

And if she failed as Loyalty, it wasn't even just Fluttershy she let down. It was the rest of her friends, who she'd fought with. It was Cloudsdale and Ponyville, which she'd fought for. It was the Princesses - one in whose name she had fought, one whom she'd rescued from the nightmare of her own corruption.

If she failed as Loyalty, she failed everypony.

And she was failing pretty hard, in her own estimation.

It was around this time, with the grey world around her showing no signs of colour, that something bright and cheerful forced its way into her awareness. "Hey, Rainbow Dash," it drawled, "Whatcha doin' up that tree?"

Applebloom. Wherever they were farming, they were doing it without her. "Uh... hi, Applebloom," she said uncertainly.

The filly looked up at her with big eyes. "Are ya lookin' for Applejack?"

"Uh..." What was she doing up a tree, anyway? Thinking.

But there was no way she could tell Applebloom what about. She was too young, too carefree and innocent. A pony learned about the sublime wonders of true love when she was ready to, not from the jarring experiences of a failed friend and marefriend who'd learned none of her lessons at all. Bravado, then. It wasn't out of character.

"You never seen a pegasus up a tree before, Applebloom?" she forced a grin. "It's what all the cool colts up in Cloudsdale are doing right now."

Applebloom took this in. "But you ain't a colt," she said slowly.

The pegasus blinked once. Of all the things- "It's just a saying, Applebloom. Don't read too much into stuff. You don't wanna get like Lyra, do you?"

"Oh," Applebloom said, realising her mistake. Slowly, though, her frown returned. "But ain't Cloudsdale made o' clouds? Are there trees in Cloudsdale? Are there apple trees in Cloudsdale?"

Uh-oh. "Well..." Make it good. "Y'know how pegasus ponies can make anything outta clouds?" She said it slowly, and held her breath to see if it stuck.

"What're y'all feedin' mah lil' sister this time, Rainbow?" Applejack's amused voice rang across the clearing beneath her. "And why're y'all sittin' up a tree?"

"All the cool pegasuses are doing it!" said Applebloom, "Mostly colts, I think, but I guess mares are allowed if they're cool enough." She was absolutely sincere, and sounded so proud to have been inducted into this secret of another species. Just wait till she tells Scootaloo-

A short bark of laughter caught Rainbow Dash off-guard. Applejack threw her a dirty look, which did it again.

And that was it. She had the giggles.

The two earth ponies gave each other a look of utter bemusement, which, for some reason, she just couldn't stop giggling at. It just seemed so funny. So much explaining she'd already had to do today, so much lying to make up for, so much sorrow in hers and others' hearts, and so much yet to come - and she'd just lied for the right reasons, and it seemed so absurd that she'd now have to explain this funny little fib to a filly just the same as all the big, scary, damaging lies. She laughed, and it felt like flying high. For now, all the lies were fibs to fillies, so like anypony would, she laughed.

"Don' listen to 'er, Applebloom," Applejack said sagely. "Anypony spends as long in the clouds as she does gets some strange fancies." She rolled her eyes, and Dash tipped alarmingly off her branch in uncontrollable hilarity. She flung out a wing to steady herself, failed, and flapped unsteadily to the ground, where she collapsed on her knees, still helpless with the escape of emotion.

Applebloom, with a worried look, ran to her sister's side. The older pony's eyes widened, and she lifted the brim of her hat with a hoof. "Dash? You okay there?"

"I... I'm fine..." she giggled through the tears streaming down her face. "I... gimme a minute..."

Applejack felt something wrong. Even Pinkie only laughed for the right reasons, most of the time. Dash's sense of humour might be simplistic, but it wasn't dumb, and ever since the whole fight at the Epic Meal Time debacle the two of them had been close enough to at least hug. She walked slowly across the clearing to try to help her friend stand up.

After a minute or so, the laughter subsided, but the tears didn't. Rainbow Dash had cried with frustration earlier in the day, and anger, and lots of other things she didn't like admitting to, but she'd not yet cried the tears of regret and sorrow she needed to if she were ever to think straight. She felt the warmth of a tight embrace and the movement of a meaningful nod, heard a filly's hooves scampering away, smelled the sweat and hay of her friend helping her to her hooves.

"C... can we talk?" she managed to stammer, between sobs. Applejack nodded at her, eyes wide and full of sincere compassion, and led her off down the path back to the farm.