She yelps again, wing expanding on instinct - the bandage unravels, pushed out of position by the unfurling feathers, and falls daintily to the floor once more. "Gahhh! What are you doing?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The bandage begins to glow a beautiful shade of blue and lifts itself up off the floor, levitating towards the furrowed brows of a mildly frustrated white unicorn. "As I told you already, Rainbow, I am decidedly not a doctor - and quite frankly, I don't know why you aren't seeing one right now."
"It's just a teensy bit of fabric, isn't it? That's, like, your whole thing! I figured I'd save him the trouble…" She gingerly retracts her aching wing, and fights the impulse to unfold it as her friend begins wrapping it again.
"The trouble of devoting seven years of his life to medical school, you mean?" Rarity mutters.
Rainbow grunts dismissively. "Look, you can send me packing if it's really that much of a hassle, but if you're not kicking me out, could you please just set the ohhh sweet Celestia not there!"
Rarity only rolls her eyes, and adjusts the position of the wrapping. "What in Equestria did you do to it anyway? It wasn't this bad last time I saw you…" She squints, gives an accusatory hum. "You haven't been flying again, have you?"
There's a pause. Rarity's magic quietly twinkles away in the room. Two ponies walk past outside, their muted conversation tracing their progress past the Boutique's front door. Then-- "It wasn't my fault, alright?" (Rarity scoffs under her breath.) "It's that Dizzy Twister! I mean, I was just casually walking through the marketplace, and I can't help but notice there's this huuuge storm-cloud hanging right over the Sweet Apple stand! Smack bang in the middle of Dizzy's side of town! This thing looks set to burst any minute, and y'know, AJ's trying to lasso it down or whatever, but it's just out of reach..." She raises her foreleg above her head for emphasis. "And Dizzy's gone completely missing in action, who knows where she wandered off to, the cloud-brain... so I figured I'd just-- well." She gives a weak little laugh. "Old habits, eh?"
The gauze hovers still for a moment, as Rarity sighs deeply. "I only wonder if that crash didn't damage that brain of yours as well! Remember, Rainbow, our good doctor told you to keep off that wing for at lea--"
"At least a week, yeah yeah, I heard him," Rainbow finishes, her voice tinged with resignation. "Luna above, what am I going to do for all that time? What do you ponies even do down here?"
"Oh, we've managed to invent a few ways to pass time besides flapping about the place," Rarity deadpans. "Life is tough for us grounded ponies, but we persevere." She resumes wrapping the wounded wing.
"I don't know how you do it! It's been two days, two freaking days, and I'm already bored out of my mind!"
"How about you, oh, I don't know… haven't you got some Daring Do you can read?" she offers hopefully.
Rainbow smirks. "What, for a week straight? Please, Rare. You must have me confused for Twilight."
Rarity's eyes light up at that. "Ah! Well, speaking of - Applejack and I are heading over to Twilight's tomorrow night for a little slumber party. It's something of a tradition for us girls, but I'm sure I could convince those two to let you join us." She lets out an excited little squeal. "Oh, it's an absolute blast, let me tell you! We stay up all hours playing parlour games and swapping our best stories and doing each others' manes and--"
Rainbow cries out in pain, a sharp, sudden moan that startles Rarity into dropping the bandage from her telekinetic grip. "Oh! Did I press too hard again?"
"No, it's just…" Rainbow can barely suppress her wicked smile. "That sounds terrible."
Rarity rolls her eyes, picking the trail of gauze up with her magical grip. "Oh, really now, Rainbow Dash…"
One minute, everything's fine. Everything's perfect. The scenery is beautiful out here at the fringe of the forest - it's really not such a scary place in the daytime. The weather is warm and gorgeous. The sandwiches are delicious. The conversation's gradually tapering off, but not in an awkward way; it feels like it's easing off naturally, like the day is just winding down, giving them time to lie back and soak it all up - to notice every softly shaking frond above them, feel every ripple of wind in the air, smell each and every flower around them.
It's just the two of them and all that perfection.
And then, suddenly, there's a head resting on her chest.
Her breath catches. This is…
Well. Starting with the basics. Surprisingly light. Soft. Warm. Kinda nice, really. Her heart starts beating faster. She tries to slow it back down with a long, drawn-out exhale, but when her body moves as she breathes out, a purple mane brushes gently across her wings. It tickles a little, and the fluttering inside only intensifies.
The other mare smiles, eyes closed, looking the very definition of content.
This is…
This is just what friends do. Right? Totally right. Y'know, like how Pinkie's giving everypony hugs all the time. This is just like that. A nice, friendly gesture, between friends, which is what they are, of course. Friends. That's all we are. That's all we could possibly be. Juuuust--
Twilight yawns, and rolls over slightly, resting her cheek on Dash's chest and pointing her angelic face straight at Dash's own.
A tiny choking sound escapes Rainbow's lips.
How did it come to this? How did they get here? Her eyes dart around, scanning the glade for-- for what, exactly? Somepony else, just happening to wander by, to come and defuse the situation? Some wild beast of the forest to come rampaging out of the trees and eat them both alive, and spare her the torture of that soft silken hair and those incredible--
Gahhhh! What the hell is this?! her mind screams - rhetorically, of course, because she knows what this is. She just hasn't admitted it to herself yet.
"Rainbow?" The voice comes softly, a mix of concern and… something. She snaps back to the present moment, and realises just how quickly she's breathing. "What's the matter?"
"N-nothing!" she replies, way too quickly. She twists her head away, breaking eye contact, focusing instead on a - ah! - a small fruit hanging from a nearby tree, staring it down with determination and willing any other thoughts to come. It's not long before she realises how absolutely ridiculous she's being, and she turns back to her companion. That entrancing mouth is ever so slightly turned down. Those sparkling eyes repeat the question. "Well, I-- I mean. It's just. You're…" What? Too close? Not close enough?
Twilight sits up then. "I'm sorry… should I not…?"
"No! I don't-- didn't mean-- gahhhh!" She groans in sheer exasperation, and it transforms itself into a laugh, a catharsis of frustration. She throws her forelegs up in mock exasperation and tilts her head back. The Everfree canopy usurps her view of her clear blue sky. "This is just insane! I'm sorry, Twi. I don't know what's wrong with me… All of a sudden, I'm all nervous and jittery, and I keep thinking these--"
She cuts herself off, blinks a few times. Her legs drop back to her sides, careful not to hit a certain mare on their way down. When she continues, her voice is quieter, more measured. "I mean, what am I nervous about? We aren't…. we're not even doing anything."
She turns her head to look back at Twilight, who's sitting closer to her than she thought. She's looking right at Dash, with this expression on her face… It's intense, her eyes firmly locked on to Dash's, eyebrows arched ever so slightly; her mouth pursed at its edges in hesitation, or deliberation, with maybe just a hint of a smile showing beneath that. She doesn't respond for a while, but she doesn't divert her gaze once in that time, keeping the moment in place, just taking in everything there is about that brilliant blue mare to take in…
She was born from the clouds themselves, the story goes. The legend, she grins, remembering the way her father would tell it to her on rainy nights - voice as loud as the storm beneath them, hooves gesturing so dramatically he quite often flung himself off his chair. He fancied himself as quite the bard, inventing countless stories of adventure and deadly danger faced head-on and conquered by the fearless Rainbow Dash - and in her awe-rapt youth, she had easily believed that the tales he spun were something more than bedtime stories. They were the lore of a future hero; they were little pieces of destiny, revealed early to her to encourage her and guide her path. One day, she really would fight off vicious sky-pirates in pursuit of precious artefacts; one day, she alone would vanquish the dark army of an ancient evil. One fine day, she'd save Equestria.
Look at me now, Dad.
"The night you came into this world," he'd begun so many years ago, "a most peculiar storm was brewing over Cloudsdale… Now, it's not uncommon for wild rainclouds to drift away from the Everfree. Most often they only cause a little grievance to an earth pony farmer before being promptly tidied away by the weather patrol. It's not even unheard of for one of them to wander all the way up and over to a pegasus city like our own. But it's definitely not normal for such a cloud to park itself right over one particular house and refuse to budge!
"Of course, we hadn't noticed its arrival - it must've sneaked in at some point in the late evening - but, just as I lie my weary head down to sleep, and your mother looks over at me with those big bright eyes of hers and whispers to me, darling, I think the baby's coming - just as she says it! Pit… pit… pit… we hear on the window pane. Now I don't pay it too much mind in the moment, because heavens above, our little girl is on the way!" (He ruffled her already unruly mane, and she grinned sheepishly.)
"But as I'm bounding out the door and down to the hospital, I can't help but notice it's gotten even louder. I look up…" (he pauses for dramatic effect) "… and there I see it. A massive storm cloud as big as our whole house, and no bigger! It was like the thing was moulded into the very shape of our little home, so that it rained down on us alone - and it had turned from a drizzle into a proper rain now. And oh, this thing was darker than dark. Blacker than black. It was like looking at nothing at all. It almost hurt your eyes, staring up there too long… Lucky me, then, being in a hurry and all!
"So, off I go, galloping down the streets, so flustered I can't even remember I've got perfectly good wings I could use - barge in through the hospital doors, shouting like a madman… I'm lucky I wasn't arrested. No, I find our good doctor, Helping Hooves, and he chases after me all the way back home, all his fancy medical equipment clutched tightly to his sides. And that cloud is still there to greet us! It's bucketing down now, and I can see tiny little flickers of electricity inside it, dotting that great darkness. I say, our doctor remarks, what in Equestria have we here?, he's just as mystified by the darn thing as I am. Thinking about it, I remember that it's been dead calm all day, so I start to wonder how in the world it got all the way up here... Now that Mr Hooves is around, I feel a little less frantic, so I fly on up to the big ol' thing, and I give it the biggest push I can muster. Look here, I'm not a little pony, I take care of myself; but this thing just will not move an inch! And the way that lightning keeps crackling about inside, it sounds like… well, it almost sounds like the cloud is laughing at me.
"I reckon that can't be helped then, and anyway, our house is a sturdy old thing and I know it can take a spot of bad weather, so I duck back inside to check on how you were coming along. The good doctor asks us, while there's still time left - you're sure you wouldn't rather carry this out in the hospital? I know home birthing has a certain quaint charm to it all, but as your doctor…
"No, your mother interrupts him. Here. There's something kind of… off about the way she says it. It must be here. It doesn't feel like the words are coming from within her, more like-- like they're coming from all around her. It's hard to describe, and well, maybe I just imagined it, because then she cries out in pain and tells me to shut the front door already for Celestia's sake, and it seems all normal again. It's been a very odd night so far, but I know I'm flustered and panicking, and that things will probably make more sense once I get a good night's sleep. Not that I ever managed to get one after you joined us, you little trouble-maker," he remarked, arching an eyebrow at her.
"The night goes on, the rain keeps coming down, harder and harder now, it's so loud we have to raise our voices to be heard over it - not to mention your mother's not in the happiest place, and she's making a fair bit of noise herself! Of course, the whole ordeal's attracted some attention from our neighbours, and most of them have come knocking wondering just what in Equestria is going on. So now your mother's in the bedroom getting ready to bring you into the world, Mr Cirrus and his wife and the Whitewing family and Daydream from the cottage across the way are gathered and gossiping in the kitchen, Helping Hooves is yelling that he can't keep working without a cup of tea, I'm flitting between rooms trying to tell everyone what's what, and still this bloody great cloud is trying its very hardest to drown us all! Let it never be said that we don't make a fuss over you, little one.
"I'm lucky I was there when the moment came, busy bee that I was. I'd staggered into the bedroom at the stroke of midnight, just about dead on my feet, a cup of tea balanced on each wing, and your mother gives out one almighty cry - then, BOOOOOM!" (Here's where he mimes an explosion of such magnitude that he almost always topples his chair over, but it does nothing to halt his speech.) "All that lightning that must've been building up inside that great storm all night comes down in one enormous bolt that shakes the whole house and evaporates the tea into a puff of steam and blinds me for a second with a searing whiteness. I feel all the hairs on my body stand up on end! And then… when I can see again, before my very eyes, I see you, little Dashie. Just you, curled up at the foot of that bed, wailing softly at nothing in particular. I didn't realise it until after the good doctor had cleaned you up, and I'd sent him and the neighbours packing for the night, but that was when the rain stopped, too; and sure enough, when I walked our Dr Hooves to the door, I looked up and I could see the sky again, clear as crystal. The stars have never been as beautiful as they were in that moment."
Maybe it's childish - maybe it's a bit crazy - but she can't quite bring herself to dismiss it all as a fable. What would she know? After all, she wasn't there for most of it. Many years after its first telling, when she finally worked up the guts to ask him if any of it was true, he only gave her a sly little smile, and coolly replied, "I don't see why not."
Why not? Rainbow Dash wonders as she swoops through the sky, ducking and weaving through the very stuff she may have come from. There's all kinds of magic in this land. Is it really so crazy to think there's a bit of it in me?
She feels a sudden tug - another hoof wrapping itself around hers and yanking her firmly, though not painfully, through the swing doors and into the kitchen. There's barely even time for her to yelp in surprise. She spins with the sudden movement, the world blurring momentarily before her eyes, until it sharply resolves into the image of a blue mare that she knows all too well, with a vivid rainbow mane and a huge dumb grin on her face.
"You know how long I've been trying to catch you alone?" she asks, then darts forward before a response can come, coming at her fast like an uncoiling spring and cutting off any verbalisations with a deep, desperate kiss. The song changes in the next room.
Dash breaks away at last, beaming even brighter now. She points a hoof at the double doors just off to their side. "Some party, by the way. I mean, as usual, of course…" The thought trails off. Pinkie's looking down at her hooves absently. She's smiling - but this is far from a Pinkie Pie smile. It's faint and flickering and it doesn't suit her at all. Dash's own dampens. "Pinkie…? Are you alright?"
"I'm--" A pause. "I'm not, Dashie." She still won't return Rainbow's gaze, turning instead towards the doorway, and the party concealed behind it. "I'm tired of this."
Rainbow freezes, her eyes widening, locking in place. She tries to quell the shot of panic running rampant through her body. "Wh… You mean… of us?"
It's Pinkie's turn to look worried, jerking her head around and meeting Rainbow's look with one almost as fearful. "Of course not! Dash, you know I love you - you know that's not gonna change any time soon, right?" She sighs, waves a hoof in a vague gesture. "I'm tired of all the sneaking around, the secrecy. What are we doing here, Dashie? Why the heck are we kissing behind closed doors, or in the alley, or the stairwell, like it's some kind of crime to be seen together?"
Rainbow takes a step backwards towards the countertop, her expression easing a little. "I didn't think-- I mean, you didn't seem to mind…"
"Well, I do mind! And I've been minding an awful lot lately. I don't know how it is for you, Dashie - I don't know what it's like in your world… But whenever I'm with anypony else, with Twilight or AJ or Spike or Mrs Cake, and somepony says your name and I start thinking about you, and then I think about you and me, and then I can't stop thinking about you and me and I get this goofy smile on my face and it just grows and grows and I start feeling giddy all over and then Twilight or AJ or Spike or Mrs Cake asks me, Pinkie, what are you thinking about? - what am I supposed to say then?" Her eyes sparkle softly, a dagger into Rainbow's heart. "Because I want to tell them the truth…! I want to let them know how happy you make me; happier than anything else in my life. I want them to understand that I am the way I am because of you, Dashie, but-- but you're just making all this hard for me, and I'm--" She cuts herself off with a quiet sniffle, and looks away again, stares intently at a stove on the other side of the room, pausing to breathe in deeply before continuing. "And I know and I'm sorry you're ashamed of me, Dashie, but--"
"Pinkie--" she starts, feeling the dagger turn.
"No, but that's it, isn't it? That's what you say. 'They won't understand, Pinkie! They'll look at us all different, act different around us! It's better off this way for the both of us!' And I nod my head and say okay and pretend that it is - that I am - if it means we spend another day together. But I know what you really mean. 'They'll look at me all different! Rainbow Dash, in love with that silly baker girl with a bun for a brain - I'll never live it down!' Oh, the awful things they'll say--"
Dash surges forward, throwing her hooves around the teary-eyed mare before her, clutching her tightly to herself. It's like the pink mare bursts at the touch, tears streaming forth from her eyes and down Rainbow's neck and shoulder, while the party music swells a world away. "That's not it, Pinkie, that's not it. Never, never ever. There's nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing, you hear me? There isn't a single thing about you…" In a whisper: "I love you too, you know."
Pinkie's breaths are shallow and inconsistent, and she trembles in Dash's embrace. "Then-- why? Why are you doing this to me? To us?"
Dash exhales deeply, gently letting her marefriend go and taking a small step back, so that they come face to pain-stricken face. She points a hoof at the swing doors once again. "It's not because of them. I need you to know that. I couldn't give two bucks what they think about me - about us. That's their own damn problem, not ours. No, it's…" She brings a hoof up to her face and rubs her eyes. "It's just me. I'm being selfish, I know, but-- well, I-- I just want you to be mine. Only mine."
Pinkie's eyes take on a quizzical look, but she holds her tongue, and Dash continues. "When it's like this, I know that whenever we're together, we're alone - we're really alone. I have you all to myself, and… I'm all yours. There's nothing else, nopony else to think about. We're in this, this little bubble, this perfect place with just us in it that no-one can ever get to. And Celestia, it's amazing - or, I thought it was. I was enjoying myself so much, I guess I just assumed you were too. I wasn't really looking at all, was I…" She winces as she says the words, hit by a faint memory - framed against the front door by late night lamplight, a farewell kiss as she departed into the dark, but just a flash of something across that face, something she couldn't place at the time. How many frowns had she not seen? How many had she seen, and had let herself forget? "I should've realised, and I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, and I just don't ever want to see you like this again, and I…" She fumbles for the perfect assembly of words, a sentence commensurate to her emotions, but those damned things never come to her when she needs them most.
"Oh, Dashie... Any time you want me, I'm yours, yours alone, but-- oh, but you're just too beautiful to keep all to myself!" She pulls herself into Rainbow's embrace again, sniffing back the last of her tears. Their manes brush softly against each others' necks, lightly tickling. Rainbow ditches the idea of speaking her mind; she gives her marefriend a tentative kiss, an apology in shorthand, and when Pinkie kisses her back, it feels like nothing could ever go wrong again.
"So… we tell them?"
Pinkie nods resolutely. "We tell them."
"And… how exactly do we tell them?" She shoots Pinkie an anxious glance.
"Oh, don't worry about that," Twilight's voice answers. The pair spin around in an instant, eyes alighting on the faces of their four best friends peeking over the top of the kitchen doors, each of them grinning ear to ear.
In amongst it all, the flurry of feathers and clucks and caws, the stench of droppings so strong it's practically visible, there she is - cool, calm and collected; the picture of placidity. In her element, Dash thinks. Heh… I guess 'kindness' has a better ring to it than 'critter wrangling.' She chuckles under her breath, the sound masked by the frenzied yelps of the chickens around her. Only, they're not really frenzied; she's seen them go crazy before, last time Opal was over for her check-up, but this is a markedly different mood. They're fawning over their bashful owner, vying for her love and attention, which she lavishes on each in turn, doling out generous hoof-fulls of feed and gentle ruffles of downs.
A fowl waddles underneath the by-standing mare, fluttering its wings as it hurries towards its owner's loving arms and the bucket of grain they carry. She starts with a yelp as its feathers tickle her belly - in turn, the chicken squawks back at her in alarm, flapping its wings with increased urgency and spinning in aimless circles, as if looking for a fight. Flustered, she hops back and forth on her hooves, trying to afford it an exit; but the determined bird won't stand for such an act of insolence, and it gives her a quick sharp peck on her hind leg for her trouble.
"Gyahhh! Son of a--" Her leg kicks out involuntarily, and the assailant finally scurries off in Fluttershy's direction, leaving Rainbow to inspect her fresh wound. She can't quite bend her leg enough to see it herself, but she can feel the dull, persistent resonance of the initial cut. Eh, I've had worse…
"Oh, Rainbow!" The culprit, having reached his owner at last, is practically bowled over by the yellow mare as she tosses the bucket aside and bounds over to her injured friend. He gives an irate cluck, then sets to work on the abandoned feast. "Are you alright?! Your leg, how did you-- did Mr Stickybeak do this to you? You really can't get in between him and his breakfast, he's-- not that I'm blaming you, of course! I only mean he can get quite-- oh no, it's bleeding! Oh Rainbow I'm so sorry! Does it hurt? How badly? No, quickly! Come with me!"
Rainbow, barely having the time to register what her friend has even said, suddenly finds herself being ushered out of the hen-house, pushed along by an outstretched yellow wing.
Fluttershy dashes in and out of various rooms of the cottage, searching for her first-aid kit with a pained look on her face, mumbling inaudibly with breathless panic. You'd think she was the one with the injury. Not that I'd even call it that, she thinks, barely registering the sting any more. "I'm telling you--" she calls out, but she's cut off immediately by a guilt-laden "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" from somewhere upstairs. With a sigh of resignation, she plants herself on the sofa by the window and waits.
"Mm jrr, mm srr srrrhh," Fluttershy continues as she re-enters the room, mumbling vowellessly from the bundle of cotton swabs held in her mouth. She produces a dark bottle from underneath one wing and a roll of gauze from the other - spitting the swabs on to the floor, she sits down on her hind legs and sets to work cleaning the wound. "I'm so-- oh, and I'm sure Mr Stickybeak is too! He's not always like this, you know, and I'm sure he didn't really mean it. I think he was just hungry, and really there's just no stopping him when he's on an empty stomach… you understand, right?"
"Really, I do. C'mon, I ca--" She winces involuntarily at the first touch of a cotton bud, swabbed with something stinging and foul-smelling, but continues before her friend can apologise again. "I can't really hold a grudge against a dumb chicken."
"Oh now, Rainbow." Fluttershy looks up at the injured mare, pausing her cleansing strokes. "Ponies aren't that much smarter than our feathered friends, you know. We all get a little bit like Mr Stickybeak, if we want something bad enough." She holds Dash's gaze for a short moment, then quickly lowers her head again, grabbing the gauze and beginning to wrap the disinfected cut.
Rainbow offers only a pensive "hm" in response.
Wound successfully dressed, Fluttershy stands up and smiles at her patient. "Alright now, you just stay here and rest that leg of yours, okay? I've really got to finish feeding the chickens, but I'll bring back some eggs from the hen-house and I'll make you a nice big omelette with some of the herbs from my garden - that'll have you feeling better in no time," she beams.
"Sure," Dash replies. Bemused as she is, she can't help but marvel at the strength of the mare's compassion. "So this is how it feels to be one of your little pets, huh?" she chuckles.
For a split second, she sees Fluttershy's face flush a burning red, before her friend spins around and marches silently out of the room.
She dreams that she is the very cloud she sleeps on, drifting in the wind, carrying herself away guiding that self along and above the streets of her hometown - reflected in familiar windows, buffeted by gusts of old conversations - slowly heading out towards the wild unknown, she is called elsewhere and still she drifts long after the pony wakes and leaves her, she drifts timelessly over lakes and plains and mountain ranges, and a lonely ocean that knows her name, and through the wicked forest to her sisters and brothers who console another her in tears and up and up to the cities in the sky and over the tiny little ponies in their tiny little homes, something calls her here and when the moment feels right she bursts and hurls herself in thousands and thousands of liquid shards upon a cottage late into the night, purposeless but passionate, stuttering and stammering on the windows like she cannot say exactly what she means (even here and now in this form, with all the power of the world, ineloquence persists) and the parts drip through the roofing and coalesce on the floor and she forms a new self there, another, a crying blue foal full of life and dreams and so much to say, but
There are far too many times when words completely and utterly fail her. She's not a poet or an author by any means, and she's long since reconciled herself with the fact that she won't be remembered for her words more than her deeds; but there comes a point when the two of them are so close and the moment is so perfect and something special needs to be said, and she just--
You're so beautiful, like a... beautiful thing. Like a… flower. No. No no no. Boring, way too cliché. What's something romantic, damnit? Chocolates. Nope, no, that's food. Inappropriate. The ocean. What? No. Why did I even-- Eugh. Did I ever tell you… Terrible. Start again. Did you know: you are beautiful. It's true! How very informative. This is awful. Delete everything. Blank slate.
You're amazing. Huh. Alright... good start. Now, explain why. W-e-ell. Little things. Your mane is soft, and pretty. It's kinda tickling my neck, but I don't mind, really. Is that it? No, I mean. Your eyes. Great eyes. Knock-out. And I mean that thing you're doing with your tongue right now is pretty freaking ama-- nope okay bad bad bad can't say that augh damnit abort abort--
Let's go back to imagery. You almost had something before. Beautiful things. Youuuu. Are. Like. You are like-- a painting. A beautiful painting. Obviously. Why? Square? Inanimate? People stare at you and judge you all the time? Oh, sweet Luna, I don't know. A bookshelf. A window. Now you're just saying whatever you can see. The moon? Jeez. Would you look at that thing! It's so big, and bright. And full. Full. Full of love. That's-- oh!
I am like the moon for you.
Wait, what? I am-- What is that? What the hell is that? What does that mean?! What the ever-loving fu--
"… Rainbow?"
Her whole body stiffens. "Moon?" she blurts out, then clears her throat, catching herself. "Sorry, what?"
"You're not, um. Doing anything."
It's not said in a judgmental way, but Rainbow can't help but immediately smack her forelegs into her face out of embarrassment. "Oh sweet ever-loving Celestia, I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I was just... thinking about you," she explains reluctantly, mumbling into her hooves.
"Oh?" A little grin blooms on Twilight's face, perhaps a bit amused, but quizzical and curious. Rainbow realises she's expected to say something now. This is it, Dash.
"It's just that, you're..." She takes a deep breath, and extends a hoof to gently brush her marefriend's delicate features as she exhales. "You're really beautiful, a-and the moon is really big. Like me."
You absolute idiot.
An excruciating silence - then, an eruption of uncharacteristically loud laughter fills the night air. Rainbow slides further under the covers, pulling the sheets over her head and wishing her companion would just go home and leave her here and never come back. But the howls of derision wind down soon, and the purple mare gently lifts the sheets up to catch a glimpse of a huddled blue and rainbow-streaked ball, and tentatively strokes her frazzled mane.
"Oh, honey... I'm flattered that you tried, really," she giggles.
if you still want me to be there i'd be there in a minute
"Glad you could make it, kid."
"Are you kidding me? I wouldn't have missed this for the world!" Scootaloo steps off her scooter and props it up against the large wooden signpost that, on one side, welcomes all travellers to Ponyville with garish pink paint, and bids them farewell on the other in a more restrained blue. The two ponies are very much alone out here, atop the crest of the hill that demarcates the town's northern limits. Behind and below them, Ponyville carries out another lazy day; before them, rolling plains unfurl languorously, verdant and inviting, little ripples of hills forming further out in prelude to the grand Unicorn Range on the horizon. Their craggy peaks stretch infinitely off to the east, and culminate in the staggering Mount Royal, centrepiece of Equestria, to the west.
Rainbow glances sideways at the filly, and grins devilishly. "You miiight not be so eager once you hear what I've got in store for us…"
"Ooh, ooh, what is it?!" Scootaloo's little wings flutter with enthusiasm, raising her momentarily to stand on the very tips of her hooves.
She gestures towards the mountain range, pointing a hoof at the closest set. Although they're dwarfed by the colossal Mount Royal, with Canterlot Plateau jutting out higher than most mountains on either side, they're still impressive in their own right. "Y'see that mountain there? The taller, darker one, in the middle of that set of three?"
"Mmhmm."
"They call that Nopony's Peak. It's a treacherous, four-mile trek up its jagged, razor-sharp slopes, almost 90 degrees to the ground the whole way up, and home to quarray eels and stone-leopards and who knows what else. You know how it got that name?"
"Nope."
"Because nopony's ever made it to the peak and back in one piece."
"Woah."
"Anyway, we're gonna jump right off it."
The filly whips her head around to face Rainbow Dash, her eyes widening as her whole face tenses. "We what?!"
"Yep," Dash continues instantly, inwardly relishing the pay-off. "Right off the top, and freefall about two-thirds of the way down. The eels will smell us coming, of course, but we should be going just fast enough at that point to slip by 'em. You'd better hope so, anyway. We ride the currents around the base a few times, and then... then we do it again, just to show 'em who's boss."
Scootaloo's gaze drifts slowly back to the horizon. She looks a thousand miles away in thought. She bites her upper lip for a moment, before finally emitting a short, "oh."
"C'mon, hotshot," she teases with her usual bravado, "don't tell me you're scared of a little baby hill like that?" She nudges Scootaloo playfully, but the girl is still staring absently at the distant threat, not saying anything. Dash's mischievous smile falters. Was that… too much? Maybe Flutters was right, maybe that was-- Damnit Rainbow, she's not you, remember? She's a school-kid.
Her demeanour softens, and she allows a bit of concern to come through in her speech. "Because y'know… I wouldn't blame you if it was. Jeez, the way I talked it up, you'd have to be downright insane to--"
"No." The filly's voice cracks a little as she forces the word out of her mouth. She turns and looks up at the older pony with what she probably thinks is a brave face. "No, we'll do it. It's okay." Her eyes dart to the mountain and back for just a second, then - "I trust you." And when she smiles, Rainbow can feel that trust rushing in to fill her heart like ballast, and she can't help but grin back. Of course, the Peak is nowhere near as nightmarish as she made it out to be (heck, nopony's even seen a stone-leopard in decades), and if the kid comes through, she'll figure that out pretty soon. But for now, she's got a whole other life in her charge, and it's more terrifying and more elating than any death-mountain freefall could ever be.
She's yearning for a storm. She could bring one in easily - being in charge of the town's weather has its perks like that - but you can't just go about making a storm whenever you feel like it. You have to keep the townsfolk in mind. Applejack would chew her ear off about water-logging the farm. Fluttershy's critters wouldn't take too kindly to it either.
Then again, misery loves company. When she's miserable, she wants it to be raining; to look around and see other ponies dismayed by the downpour, dragged down to her level; to look up and see only a huge expanse of the bleakest, emptiest shade of grey, spreading across the sky the way this feeling spreads out inside of her, tracing the pathways within, and slowly sucking the energy from her.
When she's miserable, she'll go and find the rain. There are a few locations she's found where - unpredictable though it may be - the Everfree tends to throw up a storm fairly often. It never takes her too long to find one. They're pretty far into the forest; far away from anyone else, even Zecora's little hut. It'd be hard for anypony to follow her there. If she needs to, she'll tell anyone she's doing some research, studying the wild weather patterns - getting to know the enemy.
The clouds always seem greyer over the Everfree, somehow. She pauses on the edge of the storm bank, hovering just below cloud level. Looking straight up affords her a view of a schizophrenic sky, a jarring transition of bright day into dismal rain. Below lie the mysteries of the forest and its inhabitants. Maybe they're miserable too - maybe they'd like some company. Or, she thinks, maybe the weather's putting them in a foul mood, and they won't be accepting any visitors too kindly.
She flutters over and lands atop the tapering edge of the tempest, feeling a mild damp seeping into her hooves. This one's a strong one. Grey-black gradients shift ominously within the storm; the sheer wind enervates her with every gust. It takes a moment for her to gather her strength, muster enough energy from her dwindling reserves, before she stomps violently at the cloud beneath her with all she's got. (Another day, that might make her feel better.) It gives way, a small chunk breaking off from its family. A little piece of chaos, just for her.
The ritual is almost finished. She hops off her newly-made island, grabbing hold of the edge on her way down and pulling it lower towards the ground as she descends, flapping to a halt at canopy level. Here's good, she thinks; by now, just thinking takes considerable effort. With a semblance of finality, she heaves herself on to her soft little sanctum, and collapses, exhausted at last.
The view is perfect. Straight ahead and appearing to continue all the way to the horizon and maybe even beyond, there's nothing but water, bucketing down ceaselessly from a vandalised sky. Just water, and grey, and a noise so deafening that it even drowns out those terrible memories baying at the back of her mind.
The storm drifts away in slow motion like an unanchored boat, and as the sound of the rain eases, it feels like it's taking her sadness in tow. After a long enough time, she feels… empty, but not in a particularly bad way - like a blank canvas, just waiting for a feeling to be painted on. She stands up slowly, ready to seize the opportunity to turn her mood around. She needs to smile now, just once, and it'll all be downhill from there. She knows who to see about that. She'll head back for a trip to Sugarcube Corner, pay a visit to her m--
--and then she remembers exactly why she's here, what made her so miserable in the first place, those words that seeded the storm within; and she feels everything coming back to her now, the smell of something starting to burn, the distant rumble growing louder, the sound of raised voices and desperate pleas filling her up inside until she's about to burst, and she shoves her face into her soggy cloud bed and she cries and cries and cries.
Twilight Sparkle is practicing her transmogrification spells on unsuspecting pieces of fruit,
Spike is eagerly trying out a new recipe for a diamond-encrusted crème brûlée,
Fluttershy is leading a displaced rabbit family, their burrow destroyed by a minor mudslide, through the fringes of the Everfree in search of a new hill to call home,
the Cakes are unveiling a new range of cupcake flavours over at Sugarcube Corner, and Pinkie Pie's hosting a tasting party to celebrate,
Applejack and Big Macintosh are repairing the damage done to the barn by the other night's storm,
and Rarity's taking the Cutie Mark Crusaders down to the lake to supervise them in getting their water-skiing cutie marks…
… but Daring Do is leaping from one stone pillar to the next, the Twin Tigers of Ahman-Tep clenched tightly under her wings, sweat rolling down from her forehead into her eyes, feeling each platform shift under her weight, hearing them crack apart and collapse behind her as she jumps to the next, watching the falling shards plummeting into the body of lava that's surely, steadily rising up to meet her--
"Who needs the real world?" Rainbow Dash squeals excitedly, turning the page and sliding deeper under the covers.
The impact spreads up and out along the branches, and the shaking leaves produce a gentle percussive sound, like a muted round of applause. Good buck, girl! Job well done! Apples fall into the expectant buckets with louder thuds, piling up. Applejack waits for the final fruits to drop, checks for any hangers-on, and, finding none, nods in satisfaction, then moves on to the next tree.
"C'mon, you gotta let me do one…!"
"I 'ppreciate the offer, Rainbow, but really - I can take care of it. Don't you worry yer pretty little head none."
Rainbow flits around at canopy level, restless as ever. She circles around the tall tree as Applejack bucks the apples out of it, and thinks about flying through the falling barrage, dodging the aerial assaults, trying not to let a single one touch her… The leaves encourage her, but the apples thud with disdain for her idea. She frowns, then shakes her head to clear it. Applejack is already on her way over to her next target. She's been hard at it for close to an hour now, working her way through the eastern orchard, with Rainbow trailing behind at a casual distance, watching the master at work. Tree after mighty tree yields its bearings to her, and her alone - much to Rainbow's increasingly verbalised annoyance.
"I'm not worried, I'm bo-o-ored! Let me have this one. C'mon, I can clean it out in--" But the farmer is too efficient to let her finish that sentence. Leaves shake, apples fall. Rainbow sighs. For a moment, she thinks about heading home - but the thought is dismissed as something catches her eye; a single apple stuck in place, attached to one of the highest branches. "Aha!" She sees her opportunity. Zooming straight towards it, Rainbow reaches out with her forehooves and triumphantly grasps--
-- nothing. She looks down to see her quarry, wrapped in a lasso, resting in the hoof of a very amused looking Applejack.
"Oh come on!" she yells petulantly, throwing up her hooves in exasperation. "That was mine and you know it!" She hears how stupid the words are, and she doesn't care, because they're still true. It was her apple. She knows it.
Applejack smirks. "It's property of Sweet Apple Acres, sugarcube."
"That's not what I meant…!" She eases her flapping, slowly beginning her descent.
Applejack inspects the apple with feigned intensity, still wearing that infuriatingly smug expression. "If it were yours, hun, I think you'd be the one holdin' it." She looks up at Rainbow, and her face softens, ever so slightly. "I told you, I can take care of all this."
Rainbow stops mere centimetres from the ground and flutters over to her companion, still fuming. "Then why am I here at all if you won't even let me do anything?!" she yells, landing in front of Applejack indignantly. She shoves her face towards the stealer of apples, locking eyes at a dangerously close range. She's not entirely sure who she's asking, but still she knows the answer she's going to get.
And she wants it. Not just for the satisfaction - not just to quell that infuriating, persistent urge she gets every time she looks at Applejack to fly straight over to her and pull her as close as physically possible and kiss her so hard she feels like either of them might just burst - but because she can't think of a better way to wipe that stupid grin off her marefriend's face.
It works.
"Had you considered," Applejack says softly, breaking away momentarily, "that maybe all I wanted was the pleasure of your company?"
Rainbow pulls her in again, trying to give herself time to think of something clever to say back. After a few moments, she's forgotten what Applejack said in the first place.
smile for me if you can i want to have that in my head
She's pretty sure this is the worst she's ever felt. Worse than sickness, worse than a broken wing; even worse than those rare, fleeting moments of dread, facing down something terrible and powerful that might very well kill her in seconds. She's braved countless monsters, her and her friends. At least she could do something then - buck 'em in the face, show 'em what for, power of harmony and all that. But this… There's nothing to kick, nowhere to fly away to. This is an intangible everything, closing in, wearing her down to a state of near-paralysis, plagued by unbearable memories.
Through it all, she sees that face, everywhere, as burning and inescapable as the twinkling lights of lidded eyes. That face; a look that could only be described by the devastation it signaled. Then a flash, and now it's smiling, now they're lying and laughing together on that morning by the lakeside, and the sun is shining so brightly and beautifully… The contrast is jarring. It drains the moment of pleasantry, and it only makes that haunting face all the more horrifying when it, inevitably, comes back to her.
Occasionally, one of them will come around with an empty offering of food and a gentle prod of, "are you okay?" But okay is an island far, far over the horizon, and she is just drowning in the middle of it all, limbs flailing, mouth gasping for the air to scream.
What a horrible way to die this is.
Through it all, she wonders - what is the lesson here? Just what the hell am I supposed to learn from all of this?
Not to love? No… too cynical.
Not to love her?
…
Maybe sometimes things happen and you don't learn anything from them at all. Things just are, recklessly, without reason.
Am I like that?
What will she learn from me…?
Not to love? I wouldn't put it past her.
Not to love me? … well. What's the love of one mare in the world, in the grander scheme, really?
But that's empty rhetoric and she knows it. Her love is anything, any sign of life in this awful endless ocean, a splintered wooden plank or a bloated corpse to reach out for and grab hold of and hold on to so tightly.
That face appears again before her clenched eyes.
One day, not too many days from now, someone's going to think it's safe enough to ask the question on all their minds... what went wrong? Oh, they didn't mean anything by it!, they'll assure her when she bursts into tears - she knows she will, because she's crying now just thinking about it, and ponies don't ever change all that much. That was the answer, too, she supposed: neither of them ever changed. They stayed true to themselves to the bitter end, each unable to fit the other wholly into their life, trying to cut out some geometric portion of their lover to fit as neatly as possible into the vacant spaces of their heart, and tearing each other apart in the process.
She lies in tiny scraps on the floor, discarded, and tries to glue herself back together.
