Chapter 4
“So this here, that’s yer new plan, girl?” Mr. Burner asked in his tell-tale gravelly voice. His flame flickered with obvious skepticism.
“Yeppers!” Pinkie replied, sketching a salute. “This is my plan, gas-can!”
“Deceit and grand theft is a legitimate plan now? Times sure have changed, hmph.”
Pinkie bit a hold of some rope that was lying about in the bottom of the basket, tossing it overboard with a flick of her head. With precious little else left to do, she began pacing. Given that the basket of the hot air balloon wasn’t really all that big, it amounted to little more than hopping in place.
“Are you absolutely positively one-hundred-and-forty-four-percent sure we can’t go any faster?” Pinkie asked.
“Like I told you ten minutes ago, I’m giving’er all I’ve got,” Mr. Burner retorted, sputtering indignantly. “Besides, I’m telling you, this is a terrible idea.”
“Hey!” Pinkie protested, sitting down and crossing her forelegs. “I’ve had just about enough of your attitude. I need to get to Cloudsdale, pronto. I got something really important to do, and I don’t need you being such a sour-waffle, okay? If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
“Right,” the surly burner unit grumbled, rolling his lack of eyes. “So, forgetting the acts of piracy, I’m still sayin’ you could do better if your goal is to look for your beau in Cloudsdale.”
Pinkie pouted. “What do you know, anyway?”
“I know that talking to stuff what don’t usually talk probably means you’re suffering from altitude illness. You haven’t really checked outside th’ basket for a while, have you?”
“Altitude illness?” Pinkie asked, getting up on the tips of her hooves to peer over the rim of the basket. How long had it been since she’d flown off in Twilight’s balloon anyway? She wasn’t quite sure how far Cloudsdale was by balloon, but-
“Oh wow, is Equestria supposed to be this tiny?” Pinkie asked, her mouth forming a little ‘O’. Far below, she could see a mass of clouds, white, silver and gold blending in glorious symphony. Cloudsdale looked very small, very far below, the cloud-city growing ever more distant by the second. The world below that again was but a blur of greens.
“Oh yeah. S’called hypobaropathy. I had a book about that thrown at me once!” Pinkie exclaimed triumphantly as she suddenly remembered. For some reason, her voice was oddly deep. In hindsight, she had sounded a little bit like Mr. Burner. Not wanting to be accused of aping his mannerisms in case he was sensitive about his voice, she turned to apologize.
The hot air balloon’s burner unit reflected a glimmer of sunlight, but otherwise remained mute.
“I guess that means I can’t really ask you for help in getting down, can I?” Pinkie asked, frowning. It was just as well, really. Sometimes, things became so confusing, complicated or scary that thinking only made it worse. It usually worked out if you just hoped hard enough, anyway.
“Well, send me a postcard from the moon, Mr. Burner!” she called, bouncing over the rim of the basket.
Pinkie gave a loud squeal and a giggle as she fell towards the city below. The curls of her mane and tail were immediate casualties to the speed, pointing straight back up to the sky and giving her a dark pink contrail. For a moment, she wondered if she’d done the right thing in throwing her parachute overboard in her earlier haste to gain speed. Still, the cloud-walking spell Twilight had cast on her earlier would last for almost a full day, so she wouldn’t miss Cloudsdale. She might become a Pinkie-pancake, but that was okay. She happened to like pancakes.
Just as she was deliberating whether or not the moment called for a song, Pinkie spotted a streak of gold and white rushing up towards her far faster than the rest of the city. Somepony was rising to meet her. Seconds later, the small shape became a not-so-small shape; a brilliant white pegasus in immaculate golden armor reversed her ascent and folded her wings, falling alongside Pinkie Pie with expert precision and control.
“Sergeant Straight Edge, ma’am,” the newcomer called over the rush of wind. The city below was getting steadily larger, and Pinkie could make out individual buildings now. Of course, that was no excuse for being rude! She extended a hoof.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” she chirped. It was so nice to have somepony to fall with, especially when it was a somepony who didn’t scream and flail and all that stuff most other ponies wasted lovely falling-time on.
The pegasus squinted at the proffered hoof, pursing her lips. “I cannot accept your greeting just yet, ma’am. I need to ascertain your intent as protocol demands as per regulations nineteen through twenty-three. Are you approaching Cloudsdale with intent to invade?”
Pinkie tilted her head and failed to hold back a little giggle. “Invade? Um, I don’t think so! I’m just looking for my friend, Rainbow Dash. Maybe you’ve seen her?”
“I know of her, but no, sorry. Not invading? Are you sure?” Edge asked again, one brow cocked. She looked almost disappointed.
“Nopey-dopey! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie affirmed. The city wasn’t just a collection of little toy houses on little fluffy toy clouds any more. The sprawling metropolis was sprawlier by the second.
She looked over at her new-found friend. The other mare had procured parchment, quill and ink. It was quite impressive how she managed to mouth-write in free fall, inkwell held upside-down. When she saw Pinkie was seeking her attention, the pegasus nestled the quill under a wing.
“Form 3-C. I swear, none of the other ponies in the Cloudguard care even the slightest bit about proper procedure,” she explained. “3-C is the abortive invasion response form. I haven’t had the pleasure of filing one in- well, ever.” Indeed, she looked like she was enjoying herself perhaps a little too much.
“Oh, I’m really happy to have helped!” Pinkie beamed. “I’m actually kind of falling, though, and I’m not a pegasus except during costume parties, sometimes, though I usually go for something more fun, like a jar of butter or a chicken. Anyways! Do you think you could maybe give me a hoof?”
The guardpony stared, blinked, and shook her head briskly. “Sorry?”
“Falling,” she repeated. “Not a pegasus, no wings. Could you be a pal and give a gal some help?” she asked with her most hopeful of smiles. There was really rather more cloud-city than there was anything else below, now. She wished she had packed those extra balloons, or indeed, the non-extra balloons. Anything at all, even.
“Ah, aerial rescue request?” the guardpegasus asked, her face lighting up in understanding.
“Sure!” Pinkie agreed. “I think most ponies would call it oh my gosh I’m falling, heeelp!” she screamed, ending in a fit of giggles.
“Nope,” Straight Edge said, gingerly putting the lid back on her inkwell. “That’d be form 73-D, leisure-related aerial rescue during on-duty time. I don’t have one with me. Sorry. I have no desire to have to reprimand myself for breaking regulations.”
“Oh,” Pinkie said, shrugging and smiling. “Well, thanks anyway! You’ve been really nice. And really shiny, too! Maybe I’ll see you around-”
In one massive poof, everything became white, shortly followed by a resounding crash and a scream. The world was soft and wonderfully colorful all of a sudden. Pinkie Pie surfaced from Cloudsdale Clothes’ bargain bin wearing a pair of socks on her ears. The guardpony peered back down at her from the hole in the roof that Pinkie’s entry had provided.
“Are you entirely sure it’s not an invasion? You’re starting to fill some of the criteria, and I doubt I’ll ever get another chance to fill out that form. It’s not like we have a procedure for what to do in case of invasion anyway,” she said, putting on a cautious smile. It was almost sad to have to disappoint her.
“Sorry!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing out of the bin to stand next to the prone form of the fainted proprietor-pegasus. “I really just need to find Rainbow Dash. Um. Where’s the weather place?”
“The weather place,” Straight Edge echoed.
“Yeah! Where Rainbow Dash would go!” Pinkie replied.
“The weather factory? The weather consortium? Weather control? The weather command? Ma’am, I could go on for hours,” Edge said, flying down from her perch to alight on the ground floor of the shop.
“Um, yes?” Pinkie tried. “She makes all sorts of weather for us in Ponyville. Rain, clear skies, all kinds of stuff! Once, she even made me my very own rain cloud that I could keep on a leash. I miss Puffy so much.”
“Right. Probably the central weather office, then,” Edge said, leaning forwards to poke at the near-forgotten proprietor pony. “It's next to the weather factory, before you hit the weather council, can’t miss it. I’d give you a lift, but I need to wake the owner of this establishment up and get her to fill out a form or two.”
Pinkie nearly missed the weather office. Bouncing through what little Cloudsdale offered by way of streets was hard enough; excepting the main thoroughfares and commercial districts where the city was solid, it seemed that the clouds that led from one place to another were there by chance more than courtesy. This wasn’t about to stop Pinkie, though. It was amazing how far you could get with a hop, skip and a jump. No, the real obstacle was the fact that the city was full of ponies.
If the pegasi of Cloudsdale were amused to see an earth pony traipsing along amidst their arches and columns, Pinkie was twice as happy for it. Every time she looked around, there was a new pony to meet and greet. The majority of them even seemed pleased to make her acquaintance, but it wasn’t all fun, games and smiles.
With every such encounter, the sun’s light faltered and changed. The bright orb slowly and inexorably sunk below the cloud-line, its rays filtering through the city. The resulting ethereal light was unlike anything Pinkie had ever seen before; the cloudstuff of the city itself glimmered and came to life in a blaze of fiery golden hues so vivid, even the residents of Cloudsdale paused to watch.
For Pinkie’s part, all the beauty did was remind her why she was here, and that she was running out of time. As pretty as the light-show was, it was just one color, and she was a pony chasing a rainbow. When she finally spotted the silver-wreathed sign that marked a huge and ostentatious building as “Central Weather Office”, a pegasus was already locking the front door, glasses perched on his nose and a stack of ledgers on his back. Pinkie nearly barrelled down the poor stallion in her haste.
“No no no, you can’t lock it!” Pinkie protested, placing herself in front of the door. The bright red pegasus paused, key in his mouth.
“Mpfh?” he asked, frowning and shifting the weight of the books on his back.
“Rainbow Dash is in there!” Pinkie said, bumping her snout against his. “Or maybe not, but she has to be somewhere, and this is really the only place I can think of, so she has to be here! It’s logic. You can’t argue against logic, that’s what Twilight says, and she usually says stuff that makes sense at least to her!”
The short-maned pegasus stallion took a measured step back, gingerly tucked the key under a wing and gave her a blank look. “There’s no Rainbow Dash here today, miss...?”
“Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie muttered, ears drooping. “But you can just call me Miss Terrible Friend. I should have known she was awake. Nopony can eat just half a muffin while asleep. It was a dead give-away. If she’s not here, she could be anywhere,” she said, reaching out to grab her tail. The bushy pink thing was listless and utterly unresponsive.
“Um, if she’s associated with us, I could-”
Pinkie pouted and glared at her tail. “Why can’t you wobble? Wobble once for ‘Rainbow Dash is okay and is waiting by the pond’, twice for ‘Rainbow Dash is extra okay and is right above you, look up, Pinkie’?” Unable to help herself, Pinkie Pie peered skywards. Plenty of pegasi were about but none of them had rainbow-colored manes, and none of them had Dash’s shade of blue. None of them would help her pass the time while she left dough to rest. No Rainbow Dash.
“Miss,” the stallion broke in, a little louder now. He was peering at her over the rim of a huge ledger carefully balanced on a hoof. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but have you tried her registered home address here in Cloudsdale?”
“Stop fidgeting,” Pinkie Pie whispered to herself, praying to the Sun, the Moon, and to the sugar stores back in Sugarcube Corner that she’d listen. After she knocked again, her treacherous hooves went right back to drumming the ground heedless of her plea.
The house really was something else. There were a lot of things in Equestria that were different. In fact, most things were different from most other things, but the entire neighbourhood of the large puffy cloudy mansion qualified as something very else. Straight, clean-yet-soft walls stood two, three or even four stories tall in places, and to either side of the walkway were neatly kept cloud gardens. Clouds of all sizes and types adorned the area, cut and molded into ponies, animals and other things besides.
Pinkie had no idea why Rainbow Dash had a place like this. She also had no idea why Dash had never told anypony about it. She had even less of a clue as to what she would say when she saw her.
“I’m sorry?” Pinkie quietly asked, practicing. It sounded odd. Insufficient. “I’m really sorry?” she tried instead, a little louder. It was very odd to apologize when you didn’t even know what you were sorry about. Even so, she knew she meant it.
Light hoof-steps on the other side of the door made Pinkie’s ears perk up. She bounced on the spot with raw excitement and wonder as the ornate door slid open, and when she glimpsed a rainbow-colored mane, all she had learned during her rigorous fifteen-second training session went out the window. The missile that was Pinkie Pie impacted and clung to the pegasus mare with all her might.
As she wracked her brain for something to say that didn’t involve balloons or parties or all that, Pinkie couldn’t help but wonder at how much softer Dash felt. She was bigger, a little less bony, and the mane that Pinkie had buried her head in was decidedly longer. Pinkie experimentally moved her hooves around a little poking at Dash’s side and back.
“An earth pony? Is this a new salesmare trick?” the pony who was decidedly not Rainbow Dash asked. She sounded amused, her voice a little raspy but decidedly upbeat. “I’m flattered, but, uh, what are you selling again?”
Pinkie held on for a second longer before letting go. A hug was a hug, after all, but she was beginning to feel very tired in a way she hadn’t felt in a very long time. It was as if she was a balloon that had been forgotten under a table for a week, deflating and shrinking even if nopony could tell how or why. Well, Twilight might know. She would have to ask Twilight about balloons sometime later. For now, she was stuck being a balloon.
“You’re not Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie declared, sitting back on her rump and giving the strange mare a look. Once she’d said it, she doubted her own words just a little. The pegasus in front of her was a slightly deeper blue than Dash, and her eyes were a bright red, but the mane was unmistakably the same rainbow of colors.
“I’m not. Sorry kid,” she chuckled. “Close, though.”
Pinkie’s eyes widened. There was only one thing that could explain a pegasus that looked almost like Rainbow Dash and lived in a house that she’d listed at her job office.
“Twilight messed up a spell and you’re Rainbow Dash from the future, but the spell messed up your head too, so you don’t remember me!” Pinkie said, feeling panic build up inside of her.
“Yeah, no,” the enigma replied. “I’m-”
Pinkie bounced up on all fours and pointed an accusing hoof coupled with a smile. “You’re Rainbow Dash’s sister!”
That got a soft laugh out of the strange mare. “Flattering, cutie. I’m her mother.”
“Oh. That was gonna be my next guess,” Pinkie retorted. “I’m Pinkie Pie! Hi!” she said. Even she herself could notice her voice sounded a little worn. It really had been a long day.
“Yeah, I figured. I’m Hurricane Flare. Why don’t you come in?” the older pegasus suggested. Rather than offer a hoof for a hoofshake, she simply flew deeper into the house. Perhaps she felt hugs doubled as hoofshakes? Pinkie shrugged and bounced after her.
Clouds were amazing. Pinkie had always known this, of course, and it became twice as true after she started hanging out with Rainbow Dash. All the same, the best part about clouds became apparent as she followed the trailing rainbow tail of Rainbow Dash’s mom through the mansion.
The best part was everything. Apparently, a crafty pegasus could do just about anything with clouds, and nopony had ever told Pinkie you could dye clouds. Rather than carpets, the floors had colorful patterns where they weren’t overlaid with tiles. The walls had well-defined shelves and closets that were half cloud, half wood or stone.
There was so much to look at, and matters were certainly not helped by other pony in the house. When they came to a stop in a large and open room populated by a smattering of sofas and tables, Pinkie had to give her eyes a little rub just to make sure it wasn’t Rainbow Dash herself who sailed over to take a seat. If she just had a shorter mane or tail, was a little lighter, had a different eye color-
Pinkie shook her head. It really was the mane. She bounced over to take a seat right next to her. If Hurricane Flare minded the proximity, she made no comment. Even so, Pinkie decided not to press for a second hug.
“Thanks for letting me in, Mrs. Rainbow Dash’s mom!” Pinkie chirped, offering her a smile. “Um, how did you know who I was? I mean, other than me telling you? I think you said something like, ‘I know’, or ‘I remember you’ or ‘I have been told of your coming’, I can’t really remember which.”
“It’s Hurricane- ah, never mind. Just call me Flare, okay?” Flare suggested.
“Aw, okie-dokie,” Pinkie agreed.
“Anyway, yeah, Dashie told me about you. And, um. You’re very pink,” she gave Pinkie a warm grin. Pinkie stared down at her belly-fuzz and poked it.
“I guess I am kinda pink,” Pinkie started to giggle, but she stopped mid-mirth, eyes growing wide. “Wait- wait a minute, hold your ponies!” she squeaked. “Dash talks about me? Dash talks to you? You call Dash ‘Dashie’ too? But wait, if she talks to you about me, why doesn’t she talk to me about you? I didn’t even know she had a mom!”
Flare laughed, a clear and loud laughter unlike that of any other older ponies Pinkie had ever known. “Oh she wouldn’t. I don’t know if she’s embarrassed of her old mom or if she’s afraid that people will realize I’m just cooler than her,” she said. Pinkie giggled at that.
“She still doesn’t dare challenge me to a race you know, but don’t tell her I said that,” Flare whispered conspiratorially as she smirked. Pinkie mimed zipping her mouth shut, nodding grimly.
“No, she writes home once in a while,” Flare continued, her smile becoming wan. “Usually when she’s got some trouble, some problem, something that worries her. If you’re one of her friends, you know that’s hardly often. She’s strong.”
Pinkie nodded again, twice as earnest. There was an unmistakable note of pride in Flare’s voice, but she said no more, gaze distant.
“I, um, is she here?” Pinkie asked tentatively. “If she doesn’t want to see me I understand, or well, I don’t understand, but that’s the point-”
“She’s not,” Flare interjected. Pinkie felt the balloon inside of her deflate further, but Dash’s mom held up a hoof. “She’s not here, but she was.”
“Where? Where is she?” Pinkie asked, standing up so fast she nearly bounced straight off the couch. “I need to talk to her! Ohmygosh you have to tell me!”
To her dismay, all Flare did was lean back. She crossed her forelegs and lay back against the puffy armrest of the couch they shared, pursing her lips. Pinkie tilted her head in confusion.
“What, is it nap time?” she asked. “You can sleep all you want later, I need to find Dash now!”
Flare shook her head slowly. “I know my Dashie considers you one of her closest friends. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but she shows up at my doorstep this morning, sulks in her room without telling me anything, and then flies off? I want answers, first. I want to know what’s going on with my only daughter.”
Pinkie blinked. “Answers? Oh, I got plenty of answers! Do you want to hear how I found Fluttershy’s missing squirrels using a broken plough handle and Daisy’s new dress? I can answer that!”
“I meant about Rainbow-” Flare tried to interrupt, but Pinkie Pie was all too happy to start at the beginning. In fact, she wasn’t quite sure if it was the right beginning, but it was a beginning.
“-and then you asked me about answers, and I said, ‘Answers? Oh, I got-’” Pinkie continued, frowning in concentration as she tried to get her own voice just right. She was stopped by a noise of protest from Flare who nearly dropped her glass of soda in her haste to interrupt. They’d had to light the firefly globes around the room as the evening dragged on, and at times, Flare had wandered off around the house. She sat down and listened when Pinkie got to the end of last week, though.
Flare made a warding gesture and shook her head, gingerly putting her glass back on the table. “That’s enough, thank you. Let’s not go for round two, okay?” Pinkie thought she heard her mutter something about “Dashie wasn’t kidding.”
“Aw, you don’t want to hear about when I told you about the time I told you about when you asked me about answers?” Pinkie asked.
“No?” Flare asked after a moment’s contemplation. “No, I don’t. I want to hear what you think happened.”
Pinkie sank deeper into the cloud-couch and buried her muzzle in her own chestfluff. She didn’t really want to think about it, but she knew she had to have an answer of sorts. She needed an answer for Dash’s mom. She needed an answer for herself. Perhaps Dash needed answers too? Pinkie sighed, sticking out her bottom lip.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think she’s running away from me, from Pinkie Pie, from her bestest gal-pal, just because I said something silly and stupid.”
Flare leaned over to the table to give her soda a casual sip. “Rarity is one of your mutual friends right? The fashionista?”
Pinkie nodded vigorously, all too happy to leave the subject behind. “She is! She’s super-fantastic, as is Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, Spike, Carrot-”
“That’s okay. That will do. Let’s say Rarity told you that she was in love with you. How would you react?”
Pinkie blinked. “But- she’s not. She’s a super neat friend and all, but-”
“Just pretend,” Flare pressed, shrugging.
“Oh wow, that would be super flattering because she’s one of the prettiest unicorns in Equestria, and she’s really smart and funnier than most think, too, but...” Pinkie’s voice trailed off. It was so hard to imagine, even if she was really good at most games.
“Would you run away from her?”
“No,” Pinkie giggled, shaking her head. “That would be silly, and what if she got sad or worried? Oh my gosh, no, you have to help me,” Pinkie squeaked. “I don’t know what to tell pretend-Rarity!”
“How about telling her you really like her as a friend? That you’re not interested in her like that?” Flare suggested with a smile. Pinkie sighed in relief and wiped her brow with a hoof.
“Sorry Rarity,” Pinkie said to nopony at all. “Um, why are we talking about this again?”
Flare unfurled her wings and resettled them on her back, nursing her cold beverage with a cryptic smile. “No reason, Pinkie Pie. I’m just thinking, too.”
Pinkie nodded, and the thoughts that she didn’t want to think returned almost immediately as the silence settled. Time was wasting. “Okie-dokie-lokie! Can we go see Dash now?”
Flare glanced out the window on the far wall, a faint scowl on her face. “It’s a little late for altitude flying. Too late and too cold for you. You won’t get there on your own. I’ll take you in the morning, okay?”
“But-but-” Pinkie protested. “I need-”
“I need to sleep,” Flare said, her tone final. It was frightening how much she reminded Pinkie of Dash in that one moment, but where Dash would make bold and brash statements left and right, these words carried an infinite weight and authority. “I’m tired, I got work in the morning, and getting lots of sleep is a family tradition.”
“Okay,” Pinkie said, pouting. Truth be told, she was tired too, but she wanted to sleep about as much as she wanted to bake and eat a fresh batch of baked bads. She felt like one of her old wind-up toys; all the joints and gears were worn and threatening to break, but she kept getting wound up time and again to play a little more, to move a little further. She couldn’t stop until she knew Dash didn’t hate her.
She was numbly following Flare as she thought. The pegasus mare had probably asked her to follow, and together they went up a flight of stairs, but Pinkie’s mind was in a different place altogether. She had no idea why she let herself think that Dash hated her, but it was a stupid and resilient thought. It was a little like the time she had upended a box of salt in her waffle batter. She couldn’t get rid of the salty thought. Worse, she couldn’t even start anew.
“Here’s Dashie’s room. You can sleep here. I’ll take you tomorrow before work,” Flare said, leading the way into a room not much larger than Pinkie's own loft. It looked as Rainbow Dash as anything in the world, walls lined with posters of bands, DJ’s and Wonderbolt members. Pinkie’s heart did a little skip as she saw Dash’s saddlebags at the foot of the bed. She’d brought their blanket and everything else besides. Part of her wanted nothing but to leap atop the bed, pull the blanket over her head and pretend that Dash was here with her.
It would just be so terribly wrong if Dash didn’t want her to.
“What’s the hold-up?” Flare asked from the center of the room. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, tons of things!” Pinkie chirped. “The price of sugar these days? Some of the farm-ponies near Clopenhagen are trying to push the prices up, and that’s so silly! I mean, without sugar, there’ll be no cupcakes! And don’t get me started on the part where nopony seems to buy my raspberry delight treats. Ponies have no taste!” Pinkie rolled her eyes.
Flare sighed and pointed at Pinkie’s hooves. “I mean the part where you’re standing frozen outside the door.”
“Oh yeah. Um. That’s probably because it’d be wrong for me to sleep here. I think,” Pinkie suggested, scratching her head. She was still working on the exact reasoning.
“You’re going to have to explain that one,” Flare replied. She sounded tired now indeed.
“I have to ask Dashie first,” Pinkie said, not moving a single smidgemeter.
“And you can’t right now, so you’re going to stand there all night,” the older of the two finished for her, shaking her head. For the longest time, she just regarded Pinkie, unblinking. Pinkie was just about to ask if they were having a staring contest when she spoke up again.
“Right, no. Come with me,” she said, again in that tone that brooked no argument. Pinkie obediently bounced after the wavy tail that led the way down the hall until the two ponies entered what Pinkie could only assume was the master bedroom of the house. Flare flew over to the large collection of fluffy clouds that dominated the centre of the room. It looked a little bit like an all-vanilla ice cream dessert, only without the chocolate sauce.
“Traditional pegasus bed. Nest. Whatever you wanna call it, it’s soft. Husband’s away on a trip anyway. Do you snore?” Flare asked.
Pinkie nodded and beamed. “Yep! Dash doesn’t mind, so I don’t think it’s that loud, but then, I haven’t had the chance to hear my own snoring. Do you think maybe-”
“Good enough”, Flare cut in, stretching before she curled up atop the cloud-mass. “Go to bed. We’ll fly in the morning.”
Pinkie complied at least partway. Picking a particularly fluffy little cloud, she hopped onto the bed and got comfortable. It wasn’t very hard. In fact, it was hard to imagine how anypony could possibly be uncomfortable in a bed like this.
“Wow, this is really soft. I don’t think I’ve ever slept in a bed like this before! Dashie sometimes brings in clouds, but they’re all puffy and airy. I just fall straight through them without Twilight’s help. Well. Dash used to bring clouds in. Back when she was staying in my room, I mean,” Pinkie corrected herself, feeling a little less sugary just for having thought about it. Flare apparently noticed, her head poking out from under a cloud.
“Kid, listen. Stop beating yourself up over this. Have a little, I don’t know, faith or patience or whatever makes you not think about this,” she suggested. “No more about this, okay?”
“Okay,” Pinkie promised, smiling back before burrowing under an errant cloud that looked so soft and cushy, she feared it might fly away if she didn’t hug it close. It entertained her for all of half a minute.
“Hey, Mrs. Rainbow Dash’s mom? Hey, are you awake? Hey!” Pinkie whispered as loudly as she could.
“What?” Flare replied after a moment. She sounded even more tired now, and she didn’t even look at Pinkie Pie.
“What do you do? Do you work with the weather too? Your name is really cool. Do you make hurricanes? Your house is the coolest house I’ve ever seen!” Pinkie declared, staring up at the roof and the beautiful colored patterns woven in the cloud-stuff.
“I’m head of security over at the weather factory,” Flare murmured. “Great fun. Please, go to sleep.”
“Oooh, I bet that’s super neat too. I just thought you’d be flying around all whoosh!” Pinkie said, making a little furrow in the clouds between them. “You look really pretty and fast and everything.”
“Thanks,” the pegasus muttered. “I used to do stunts and stuff, yeah. Still do, a bit. Close your eyes.”
“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie chirped, closing her eyes. It didn’t help all that much, but she figured she’d give her hostess a few minutes’ peace. She counted to a hundred, skipping the numbers between ten and ninety.
“Where’s Mr Mrs. Rainbow Dash? What’s he busy doing? Is he as much fun as you? Is he a security-pony too?” Pinkie asked. When she received no reply, she figured she may as well make a guessing game out of it. “Oh, wait, no, don’t tell me. He’s a baker? A Wonderbolt? A baking Wonderbolt?”
Flare’s head surfaced from the cloudy sea, brow furrowed. Pinkie instantly flattened her ears and shrank back a little. The scary mom-pony didn’t say anything, but those three seconds of silence spoke volumes. Pinkie lay back down and pulled an errant tuft of cloud over her body, once again staring at the ceiling.
The second the silence settled, the thoughts came sneaking back. The darkness of the room hid all the thoughts she kept wanting to not think.
“I just don’t want her to feel bad because of me,” Pinkie muttered. She wasn’t sure if Dashie’s mom was still awake, but she didn’t want those words inside her head anyway.
“I don’t think I’ve ever lost a friend, and I don’t really want to know how that works,” Pinkie whispered, pouting. “If she doesn’t even want to be friends anymore though, she should get to tell me so she can come home to Ponyville. I think.”
“Is that what you came here to do?” Flare asked, her voice startling Pinkie a little. She sounded strangely calm, neither angry nor weary. “An earth pony up in the clouds, chasing after somepony they claim to love, and you’re going through all this just to tell her you take it back? ‘Nevermind’?”
“That’s not at all what I said!” Pinkie protested, standing up and fixing the clouds that hid Flare with a frown that lasted all of a quarter of a second. “I think?”
Flare sat up and stretched, scratching the back of her head in a gesture that seemed so very familiar. “Right. You’re not going to let me sleep until I do my part, are you?”
“I tried!” Pinkie said. “I closed my eyes, too, but that usually never works anyway. Oh yeah, and then there’s the whole falling through the clouds when Twilight’s spell ends thing, too.”
“I did wonder about that,” Flare admitted. “Just look me in the eye and answer one question before I decide whether to kick your flank out of my house or not.”
Pinkie nodded and shuffled around a little until she sat comfortably enough for a marathon of staring contests.
“Do you love my daughter?” she asked. It was a casual and simple question with infinite gravity. She stared at Pinkie Pie as if though her eyes could burn right through her.
“Oh, I have no idea!” Pinkie admitted, giggle-snorting. “I mean, I think so?”
Flare blinked. She looked as if she would object, but Pinkie didn’t really notice. She was floating back to the past three months hence, and further besides.
“She’s fun. Probably the funniest, coolest pony I’ve ever met, and she never really, um,” Pinkie gave a muted little giggle. “She’s the only pony who never tells me to stop, even when I’ve had a few too many cupcakes. Well, she did think my prank with the frosting in the brook was stupid, but that’s okay. She never gives me that look other ponies give me. You know, the ‘Pinkie Pie, you’re being weird again’ look!” Pinkie said, making a face so silly it made even herself laugh.
“Everypony knows Dash loves napping, but most ponies think I always party. Sometimes I want to nap, too. Dashie was there when, um, things got a little weird,” she said, fidgeting with her fore-hooves. “I felt safe and happy when she was around, then, and I still do.”
Pinkie closed her eyes, trying to relive one of those little moments they had shared, just one more time. As recently as last week, Rainbow Dash had come back in from setting up another autumn rain storm, as wet as any pony could ever aspire to be. They had spent the entire evening together trying to get her dry. When they had a mug of cocoa each in front of the crackling flames of the fireplace, all was right. Perfect, even.
“Sometimes, we would even tell our friends that we were going to have a little party, just the two of us, but you know what we did?” Pinkie whispered, smiling. “We just ate pastries, and Dashie would read aloud for me. I think she likes it when I listen to her reading.”
When Pinkie blinked, she realized exactly where and when she was.
“Oh, no no, those were secrets!” Pinkie squeaked. “I mean, I think so, but you can’t tell-”
“I’m her mother,” Flare said, shaking her head. “And you are either a terrible liar, or a very silly pony if you think you have ‘no idea’ how you feel, ha.” she grinned around a snort. “I always told myself that there was no pegasus stallion out there who could keep up with my Dashie. Guess I was right.”
Pinkie tilted her head at what she was sure had been praise, somehow. She sat there watching as Flare gave a few mighty flaps of her wings to sail over to a nearby window. The pegasus crouched down and peered back at her.
“Hop on. Let’s go find her.”
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omg! i love this chapter!
Great. Now I have to go get a new heart. The old one blew up.
Much rejoicing was had. Especially from this soul.
I'd like to see what in Equestria Dash is doing though.
Aw. I don't know if there's anyone who could really keep up with Pinkie. You'd have to have such high amounts of patience. But goodness do I want to hug her. Cloudy, my chest is tight. You've really got to stop doing that. (Please don't ever stop doing that)
Great chapter! Hurricane Flare's characterization is well done, fantastic writing!!
Woo! Fimfiction is finally back up! I was reading chapter 3 at uni, click to go to the next one and I suddenly couldn't get on for like 24 hours. It was the worst possible thing!
Man, I am loving this story so much, haha. No one, I reapeat, no one writes PinkieDash quite like you. I love how it is a PinkieDash like Best Plan Ever, but it's exploring a slightly different aspect of their relationship. It really keeps everything fresh and shows a nice range.
Top stuff.
Oh. Mah. Gawd. MRS. DASH'S MOM!
I am in love with Mrs. Dash's Mom (I know she has a name, but Pinkie's name for Flare amuses me). The first thing that Pinkie does is TACKLE the poor pegasus, and Flare lets her in anyway. She is amazingly chill and kind--and very Dash-like. An older, more patient Dash. (I am envisioning some of Flare's possible internal monologue: "THIS? THIS is my potential future daughter-in-law? Are you KIDDING me?")
This part was pure love:
“Do you love my daughter?” she asked. It was a casual and simple question with infinite gravity. She stared at Pinkie Pie as if though her eyes could burn right through her.
“Oh, I have no idea!” Pinkie admitted, giggle-snorting. “I mean, I think so?”
That is brilliant. Oh, Pinkie. PINKIE. Girl ain't got no filter. And then Pinkie keeps barreling on and manages to win over Flare with her honest, heart-felt babbling and, really, probably won over Flare better than if she'd just said something like, "Yes, of course I love her." Well done, little pink pony. Well done.
Also, I find it adorable that, when feeling upset about all of this Pinkie stuff, Dash decided to go see her mommy. Awww.
Awesome story but I can't help but wonder...
X
X
or 
after you're done with this one?
You did
Then
So will we ever see something involving
(In the same universe/timeline/world/whatever)
Man, I was just asking myself, "Why am I reading this again? I don't really go for angsty shipping," and then Pinkie crashed into Cloudsdale. Oh, that's why.
Also, Twilight and Straight Edge totally need to hang out. Only after completing Form 2.401G-5(iii), Request For Consideration As A Paperwork Buddy, of course.
I don't think I'll ever be able to top JUMPING OUT OF A HOT AIR BALLOON AT ALTITUDE and playing it for laughs. Wow.
Dude i loved this chapter. I love when i sit down to read and the story pulls me in. I could see Flare and pinkie talking on the clouds it seemed real. Great job.
471302
But then the new one will blow up, and you'll have exploded twice!
Gentlecolts we have discovered the newest W.M.F. the the Pinkie Bomb....all shall dawww and giggle at its power and become one with the herd.
But in all seriousness and without the most likely very lame late night joking, how in the HAY do you keep doing this.......You keep drawing me into this story so much I can't even get to sleep....It like a bloody black hole of cute, adorableness with a mass of sugar equal to that of the biggest star throw in.
-Briefing
Karalian forces have successfully captured the southeastern sector. Due to Pinkie's rambling scene with Rainbow Dash's mother and basically driving her up the wall with her silly rantings, the Skilla Unit has lost half of its strike power. Also, other units have sustained damage when we ran into yet another one of Donny's Boy's comments.
Pinkie's honesty and her undying silliness have infected our ranks with 'THE CUTE' as it's been called.
We had no idea that Cloudy Skies' armies were capable of using heartilogical weapons.
Also, Edge is a great name for a flier (Ace Combat 5, one of your squadron members is Edge and she a pilot. Coincidence...I think not!)
Anyways, if the Equestrian military is really like that when dealing with invasions, then its no wonder they got steamrolled by the Changelings at the end of season 2.
"THIS? THIS is my potential future daughter-in-law? Are you KIDDING me?" -Donny's Boy
-I thought that was in her head too.
Back on topic, our forces have capturing 62% of the enemy defenses. Victory is at hand. However, judging from the protection that lies in front of us, heavy losses may be necessary to achieve victory.
That is all for now.
-End Transmission
Silver out!
was not expecting rainbow dash's mom hurricane flare
at all to appear