//------------------------------// // An hour to midnight // Story: Amicitia // by Impurity //------------------------------// "It's better to have been delayed than to be forgotten and scrapped completely." "Ah. Finally! No more clouds left." Rainbow remarked. The sun had tipped over the horizon nearly an hour ago and the moon had slowly replaced the evening warmth with a cool and soothing wind. The moon was nearing it's peak signifying how close it was to the next day, a mere hour would be all it took to shift the day. Today was a busy day for the young pegasus Rainbow Dash. Nearly the entire day had been a clear without any clouds or obstructions. But nearing the end of her shift, many rogue clouds had arrived from the Everfree. If they were regular clouds she could ignore them, but these clouds were extremely dangerous and volatile. If left unattended they could easily destroy a few homes and possible kill a pony. All Rainbow wanted to do after that was go home and rest, usually she would not be this tired but she hadn't taken much rest the past few nights, add that the clouds from the Everfree were much stronger and difficult to take care of. Everything was finally starting to take a toll on her body. As she got to her cloud home her wings suddenly gave way a little faster than what she would have liked and she plopped onto the cloud. She ignored the slight ache in her wings and went straight into her mansion of a home. Immediately she trotted to her room and dropped her stuff by the door. She leapt into her bed and stared at the time. It read 11:13. She looked towards her calendar and she saw all the X's of the dates that have already passed. She noticed the current date was circled rather largely. Was there something important today? Curious of this she stood up once more. She rarely circled anything unless it was of utmost importance such as a wonderbolt tryout or a wonderbolt show. Nearing it she could make out the date. June, 22nd 1002 AN Why was today so important? She got closer and closer until she read the words. Her jaw dropped. "Oh Celestia!" Rainbow Dash yelled, running out of her room and down the flight of stairs, bursting through the front door. "Crap! Crap! How did I forget!" Rainbow mentally beat herself. She was tired out from her day of work but she could never do something as forgot about her. She flew as fast as she could to the cakes home and knocked on Pinkie's window, rather harshly but not enough to damage them. "Pinkie!" She whispered loudly. There was no answer. "PINKIE!" She whispered once more but with more force. The window slowly opened to a sleepy pink mare whom's eyes were still half closed. "Hiya Dashie." She yawned. "What are you doing here." She spoke slowly, half asleep. "Pinkie it's the 22nd today!" "Yeah it sure is." She turned around to look at her own calendar. Her mane suddenly turned straight and fell down from its regular poofiness when she noticed the date. "Twilight." She whispered. "Twilight! Oh how could I forget her birthday!" "It's not too late Pinkie. If you can quickly bake a cake meet us at the library. I'm going to get the girls." "Okie dokie Loki. I'll make the best cake A S A P." Pinkie's mane poofed back to normal, saluting the cyan mare with a smile. Rainbow left Pinkie to her duties and flew off towards Sweet Apple Acres in hopes of getting her 'friend' to follow her. She used the same technique with Applejack as to not wake up the other Apples. "Applejack!" She whispered, tapping her window. Luckily the orange mare hadn't been asleep as of yet. "Yeah Rainbow?" "Hurry up we gotta go now!" Still using her hushed voice. "Go where? It's almost midnight, can't it wait?" "Applejack it's Twilight's birthday! Come on we have to go now!" Applejack's face suddenly dropped. "Oh horse apples." She swore under her breath. "Come on we need to hurry, meet us at the library I need to get Fluttershy. Can you go get Rarity?" "O' course I can and RD?" "Yeah?" She halted. "Thanks for remindin' me. Don't know what came over me." She chuckled nervously. "No problem just don't be late." Rainbow flew off into the direction of Fluttershy's house. Within a few short minutes Rainbow had made it across town near the edge of the Everfree forest where her best friend lived. She wanted to make sure not to startle Fluttershy by knocking on the window so she snuck into the house as stealthily as possible. The door opened slowly without making much of a squeak. She walked in slowly as to not wake up any of the animals. She had made quite a far distance from the door and made her way upstairs. However she didn't account a certain obstacle around the corner. The cyan mare continued walking as if nothing happened until something grabbed her from behind. Rainbow shrieked like never before, feeling a furry body latch on to hers. "Get off me! Get off me!" She yelled but the mysterious thing would not let go of her. She kicked furiously in all directions and started to panic. Rainbow wasn't used to being confined, especially by somepony or thing whom she doesn't even know. She didn't notice the door in front of her slowly opening. "W-who's there?" Fluttershy whispered. "HELP!" Rainbow yelled once more, not noticing the yellow mare around the corner, only crying out for anypony within the vicinity. "Rainbow? Is that you?" She said out loud this time. This time Rainbow noticed her. "Fluttershy!" Rainbow yelled. "Help me!" "Oh my! Mr.bear can you let my friend go?" She soothed. On cue the furry arms slowly retracted from Rainbow's body. Immediately when Rainbow could move she bolted across the hallway behind Fluttershy. "Y-your lucky I didn't hurt you or nothing." Rainbow said shaking furiously. She hated when ponies or anything for that matter caught her by surprise. Even worse she had a bad experience not to long ago that involved furry animals. "Okay mr.bear you can go to sleep again." She said calmly, just like a mother. The bear yawned and curled up into a ball, snoring lightly. "Rainbow, what are you doing here?" Fluttershy questioned. She was still shaking furiously until she noticed Fluttershy staring at her. "What?" She asked, calming down slightly. "I asked what are you doing here? It's really late." She asked once more still as calm as ever. Rainbow's expression suddenly lifted. "Fluttershy we have to go now! We don't have much time left!" She replied quickly, pulling the yellow mare downstairs. "Oh okay... Can you tell me where? If you don't mind me asking of course." Still innocent to the problem. "Twilight's" "Why would we..." Just like the others her face turned into shock and then tears. "H-how- "Fluttershy we can still make it. Let's go now!" Rainbow urged. They both ran downstairs and flew off towards the library. Fluttershy was actually a good flyer, unlike what everyone says about her. She can maintain a decent 8.8 wing power when she feels safe from any type of harm. So it only took them a few minutes to get to the library. When they arrived they noticed Pinkie, Applejack and an obviously distraught Rarity pacing back and forth right outside the library. When they landed they immediately rushed over to them. "Are we all set?" Rainbow asked. "Yup I got the cake!" Pinkie smiled. "And she's not asleep yet so that's a plus." Applejack gave a half-hearted smile. "Oh I do hope she isn't too mad at us." Rarity frowned. "We didn't miss her birthday and that's what counts. So come on!" The door was luckily unlocked, but weird. Twilight would never leave the door unlocked. They crept in slowly as not to make any noise. Once they were all in they closed it and made their way upstairs. On the way they heard her talking out loud. "Friends, what a waste of time." Twilight spoke, unknown about those hearing her.